The workers who possess no capital do not enjoy a normal and reasonable degree of independence, self respect, or self confidence. They have not sufficient control over the wage contract and the other conditions of employment, and they have nothing at all to say concerning the goods that they shall produce, or the persons to whom their product shall be sold. They lack the incentive to put forth their best efforts in production. They cannot satisfy adequately the instinct of property, the desire to control some of the determining forms of material possession. They are deprived of that consciousness of power which is generated exclusively by property, and which contributes so powerfully toward the making of a contended and efficient life. They do not possess a normal amount of freedom in politics, nor in those civic and social relations which lie outside the spheres of industry and politics. In a word, the worker without capital has not sufficient power over the ordering of his own life. _The Essence of Co-operative Enterprise_ The most effective means of lessening the volume of interest, and bringing about a wider distribution of capital, is to be found in co-operative enterprise. Co-operation in general denotes the unified action of a group of persons for a common end. A church, a debating club, a joint stock company, exemplifies co-operation in this sense. In the strict and technical sense, it has received various definitions. Professor Taussig declares that it "consists essentially in getting rid of the managing employer"; but this description is applicable only to co-operatives of production. "A combination of individuals to economise by buying in common, or increase their profits by selling in common" (Encyclopedia Britannica) is likewise too narrow, since it fits only distributive and agricultural co-operation. According to C. R. Fay, a co-operative society is "an association for the purpose of joint trading, originating among the weak, and conducted always in an unselfish spirit." If the word, "trading" be stretched to comprehend manufacturing as well as commercial activities, Fay's definition is fairly satisfactory. The distinguishing circumstance, "originating among the weak," is also emphasised by Father Pesch in his statement that the essence, aim, and meaning of co-operation are to be found in "a combination of the economically weak in common efforts for the security and betterment of their condition."[154] In order to give the proper connotation for our purpose, we shall define co-operation as, that joint economic action which seeks to obtain for a relatively weak group all or part of the profits and interest which in the ordinary capitalist enterprise are taken by a smaller and different group. This formula puts in the foreground the important fact that in every form of co-operative effort, some interest or profits, or both, are diverted from those who would have received them under purely capitalistic arrangements, and