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191 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. xiii (1937)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0191 and id is 1 raw text is: INTRODUCTION

ANY volume which contains in its
title the much used word cooperation
should begin with a definition of the
type of co5peration which is to be dis-
cussed. This volume is devoted pri-
marily to consumers' cooperation, that
is, the conduct of business or other
types of enterprise by consumers organ-
ized on Rochdale principles. Dr. War-
basse's article Basic Principles of Co-
operation gives a discussion of these
principles, so that further comment
here is not necessary. However, it
may be well to point out at this time
certain types of cooperation which are
not comprehended under consumers'
cooperation.
Where a group of persons act to-
gether to obtain a result which would
be difficult or impossible for them to ob-
tain individually, the organization is
often referred to as a cooperative one.
Thus we meet in this country a cooper-
ative farm experiment, which might
otherwise be defined as an experiment
in the relief of sharecroppers; a recent
book refers to the cooperation found
on certain farms in Central America,
which is basically a cooperative work
group technique carried over from
African custom; another recent book
defines cooperation in such a way that
where a group of citizens join together
in an attempt to have a pure food law
enforced, such action is referred to as
cooperation. Other examples could be
cited extensively: some writers define
cooperation in such manner as to in-
clude most non-profit organizations as
cooperative enterprises. In the great
group of miscellaneous cooperative
types of action, which these examples
illustrate, we are not interested here.
An extremely important form of co-
operation which should be singled out
for separate discussion is producers' co-

operation. This usually refers to an
organization of producers the purpose
of which is to market the goods pro-
duced by its members. Such coopera-
tives are often met in agriculture and
are concerned with the marketing of
farm products.
Producers' cooperatives are frequently
associated with consumers' coopera-
tives. One of the reasons for this is
that producers' cooperatives are pri-
marily interested in one aspect of in-
creasing the real income of their mem-
bers: by selling the members' products
at as high a price as possible. Another
method of increasing real income is by
lowering the costs at which members
purchase goods and services for per-
sonal and business use. It is thus logi-
cal that an organized group of farmers
should seek to expand its producers'
cooperative to include consumers' co-
operation. This does not, however,
mean that consumers' cooperation is
part of producers' cooperation or of any
agricultural movement. It simply im-
plies that consumers' cooperation may
be a valuable tool in achieving the ob-
jectives of certain organized groups.
Fundamentally there appears to be
a basic conflict between producers' and
consumers' cooperatives. Producers'
cooperatives wish to sell at the highest
price possible; consumers' cooperatives
wish to buy at the lowest price possible.
This conflict may or may not be of im-
portance; men active in producers'
cooperatives hold opposing views.
Producers' and consumers' coopera-
tives are sometimes associated because
each may contribute to an increase in
the real income of organized agricul-
tural or other groups. The same argu-
ment holds true for labor. Most labor
organizations exist primarily to increase

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