688 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
of Mr. Plunkett, which is carefully described by Mr. Lloyd, is at once romantic and instructive. The poorest part of Ireland has been invaded by cooperation, and while the organization does not approach that adopted by the labor copartnership societies in England, it is in this direction, and with this as a goal. Mr. Lloyd quotes Mr. Plunkett as saying :
The report of the eight years' work was the history of associations com- posed almost exclusively of working farmers engaged in the transaction of the daily business of their members — in improving the conditions of their industry — applying to its development the most modern and complex system of commercial organization, with its federation acting as agencies for the sale and distribution of the produce of Irish farms in the large cities of England, including London, where they have to meet the competition of the world. In eight years these societies of frieze-coated farmers, in spite of their small beginnings, have transacted business amounting to close on a million sterling. And I think it would be easy to demonstrate that they have saved over a quarter of a million of profit for themselves.
Some of the interesting phases of cooperation further described are, first, more or less successful (unfortunately almost invariably less suc- cessful) experiments in cooperation on the land ; the societies in Wool- wich and Glasgow furnish instances of successful cooperative farming in connection with cooperative stores; second, the development of building societies, in connection with cooperative organizations, for the housing of their members ; this is made possible both by the surplus capital owned by the cooperative societies and by the dividends paid by the cooperative societies to their members ; third, the development of cooperative stores, productive societies, and building societies, with their attendant educational and recreative institutions, making some towns predominantly cooperative (Mr. Lloyd's description of Kettering and Leicester furnishes remarkable indications of the possibilities of coop- eration when widely extended); fourth, the extension of cooperation in such a new direction as the provision of the "Scottish Cooperative Convalescent Seaside Home which has been built by the cooperators' money as a place of rest and recreation for their tired and sick work- ing people on the west hills of Killbride, overlooking the sea, in one of the most beautiful spots on the shore of Scotland ;" fifth, the devel- opment of labor copartnership, and the distinction between that and the Rochdale system.
This last subject occupies the bulk of the book, introduces the new cooperative principle, and provides the one controversial subject. Mr.
