ows for the purpose,
he can do a very great deal. Civilization itself is but the effect of
combining. Mr. Mill has said that "almost all the advantages which man
possesses over the inferior animals, arise from his power of acting in
combination with his fellows, and of accomplishing, by the united
efforts of numbers, what could not be accomplished by the detached
efforts of individuals."

The secret of social development is to be found in co-operation; and the
great question of improved economical and social life can only receive a
satisfactory solution through its means. To effect good on a large
scale, men must combine their efforts; and the best social system is
that in which the organization for the common good is rendered the most
complete in all respects.

The middle classes have largely employed the principle of association.
No class has risen so rapidly, or done more by their energy and industry
to advance the power and progress of England. And why? Because the most
active have always been the most ready to associate, to co-operate, and
to combine. They have combined when they were attacked, combined when
they had an abuse to destroy, or a great object to accomplish. They have
associated together to manufacture articles of commerce, to make canals,
to construct railways, to form gas companies, to institute insurance and
banking companies, and to do an immense amount of industrial work. By
combining their small capitals together, they have been able to
accumulate an enormous aggregate capital, and to execute the most
gigantic undertakings.

The middle classes have accomplished more by the principle of
co-operation than the classes who have so much greater need of it. All
the joint stock companies are the result of association. The railways,
the telegraphs, the banks, the mines, the manufactories, have for the
most part been established and are carried on by means of the savings of
the middle classes.

The working classes have only begun to employ the same principle. Yet
how much might they accomplish by its means! They might co-operate in
saving as well as in producing. They might, by putting their saved
earnings together, become, by combination, their own masters. Within a
few years past, many millions sterling have been expended in strikes for
wages. A hundred millions a year are thrown away upon drink and other
unnecessary articles. Here is an enormous capital. Men who expend or
waste such an amount can e