Personal Development

The automobile owners have grouped themselves into Clubs and Associations. The Printers have their Associations; the plumbers have theirs and the coal dealers have theirs. Co-operation is the object of all these Associations.

The laboring men have their unions and those who supply the working capital and superintend the efforts of laboring men have their alliances, under various names. Nations have their co-operative alliances, although they do not appear to have yet discovered the full meaning of co-operation.

The attempt of the late President Wilson to perfect the League of Nations, followed by the efforts of the late President Harding to perfect the same idea under the name of the World Court, indicates the trend of the times in the direction of co-operation. It is slowly becoming obvious to man that those who most efficiently apply the principle of co-operative effort survive longest, and, that this principle applies from the lowest form of animal life to the highest form of human endeavor.

Mr. Carnegie, and Mr. Rockefeller, and Mr. Ford have taught the business man the value of co-operative effort; that is, they have taught all who cared to observe, the principle through which they accumulated vast fortunes. Co-operation is the very foundation of all successful leadership.

Henry Fords most tangible asset is the well-organized agency force that he has established. This organization not only provides him with an outlet for all the automobiles he can manufacture, but, of greater importance still, it provides him with financial power sufficient to meet any emergency that may arise, a fact which he has already demonstrated on at least one occasion.

As a result of his understanding of the value of the co-operative principle Ford has removed himself from the usual position of dependence upon financial institutions and at the same time provided himself with more commercial power than he can possibly use.

The Federal Reserve Bank System is another example of cooperative effort, which practically insures the United States against a money panic. The chain-store systems constitute another form of commercial cooperation that provides advantage through both the purchasing and the distributing end of the business.