the matter was put off and put off. One day the manager disappeared and
with him two thousand dollars belonging to the cooperative. After a few
months the manager was found, but the money was gone. The loss of the
total sum was more than the cooperative could stand, however, and after
struggling along for a few months, it closed its doors.

A clever organizer two years ago started organizing a cooperative store
in New York. On the society's letter heads he had printed a picture of
the world and across the world the word "BIG." He was going to start a
whole chain of stores. In three months the first and only store was put
into the hands of an assignee and the man left the city. An audit of his
accounts showed that he had collected $3,600. One-fourth of this had
gone for promotion expenses, $2,350 for rental, fixtures, etc., leaving
only $350 for operating expenses. Where the Finns spent three-tenths of
one per cent for promotion he had spent twenty-five per cent. This had
forced the association to start with so small an operating capital that
it was soon badly embarrassed for lack of funds and could do nothing but
close its doors.

It would be possible to go on with many other illustrations. Such
failures as these are not really a test of genuine cooperation. Any
ordinary business with such management would also have failed. But it is
significant that most of the recent cooperative failures have been among
grocery stores. In this particular business the margin of profit is so
small that only the most skillful and economical management can bring
success. A recent survey of all the private grocery stores in one city
showed that the average annual profit was only $400 per grocer.

There is no longer any excuse for cooperatives to follow the blind into
the pit. There are many sources of information and advice available to