pany of the more fortunate, the
race being once more to the swift, the battle to the strong."[860]
"The ordinary workman can if he likes become a shareholder in the
"co-op." So he may become a shareholder in a railway if he likes; but
this does not make the capitalist domination of our railways less a
fact. In a co-operative store, as elsewhere, the man with _2l._ a week
is worth just twice as much as the man with _1l._ Co-operation as a
factor in social progress has effected nothing, and is absolutely
valueless except to a certain extent as an educational influence."[861]

Some Socialist writers show their hatred of the co-operative societies
and the co-operators by bitter and almost vicious attacks upon them.
One of them complains: "Instances of successful co-operation _in
production_ have, as yet, been very few, and their moral results
disappointing. Their general tendency has been, not to raise the
workers as a class, but to raise a certain number of prudent--I had
almost said selfish--workmen _out_ of their class, and so to
constitute a _Labour Caste_. Such co-operators employ and exploit
other workmen even more mercilessly than the capitalist employers, and
in struggles between Labour and Capital their sympathies have nearly
always been on the side of the capitalists."[862] Another says: "The
Rochdale Pioneers hire and fleece labourers in the usual manner.
Experience teaches, indeed, that such associations are the hardest
taskmasters. Their interest becomes identified with Capital; and if
ever circumstances should make it easier for the smarter labourers to
start companies of the kind successfully, the creation of a _Labour
Caste_ would be the result. In a general dispute between Labour and
Capital these associations, instead of being a vanguard of Labour,
will go over to the side of Capital. The sons of Rochdale Pioneers,
living in luxury, and imitating the airs and fashions of the wealthy
of all times, point the moral. Where, then, is the gain to the
labouring class? No, instead of advising workmen to save and to invest
their savings in such risky enterprises, it would be much better to
advise them to put their savings into their own flesh and bone."[863]

The foregoing extracts, and many similar ones which might be given,
display a regrettable hatred of ability, providence, and
thrift--qualities which, it is true, are not easily reconcilable with
the tenets of Socialism.

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