ABSTRACT
The more genuine members of the co-operative brotherhood are, it is true, and apt to be critical of those who join their ranks simply because of the personal gain secured, but self-interest has nevertheless been the great underlying motive. The questions of 'labour' and the remuneration of labour are in this connection regarded as matters of secondary importance. At a small centre of distributive dealing there is, indeed, not much room for the recognition of any such wider aims, although the question of the best form of business relationship is involved even in the engagement of a single employee at some little store. As a citizen a co-operator may gain, and it may even be argued that his position as a wage-earner is strengthened, by his increased independence, as a man, for instance, with some reserve of co-operative savings behind him.
