Moreover, there may be other than material gains to the foreign-born woman from her contact with a co-operative. If it is one formed by her countrymen, where her mother tongue is spoken, it may be her first and for a long time her only contact with anything outside her home. Natural timidity will readily be overcome if she can go around the corner to a store kept by people who speak her language and understand her wants. As confidence is established she may venture to other neighborhoods or centers of distribution where more advantages can be gained. But unless she gains the confidence which few immigrant women have at first, she is an alien and isolated unit in a vast, strange country. Eventually she may become a member of a co-operative store. If she does this, perhaps the most benefit to the foreign-born woman results. Her incorporation into this country may well be said to have been started when she has become an active member of an institution which is a part of American life. The benefits are those which result to any individual from participation in a going concern. Sharing responsibilities and evolving policies for a joint enterprise have educational implications that no other activity can supply. The question, then, may be raised as to the extent to which a development of the co-operative methods in the United States may be looked to as likely to become an important educational agency in intelligent spending for the foreign housewife, enabling her to develop in her task something of a technique. As to the possibility of developing co-operative societies because the ordinary trade is wasteful, it should be recalled that the retail trade in the United States, while wasteful, is probably not less, but rather more efficient than in other countries. Moreover, in the United States there are often lacking those conditions that give rise to a sense of a permanent division of interest between those who sell and those who buy. In fact, when the foreign-language store exists, there may be a tie between shopkeeper and purchaser. In communities in which there is an apparent division of interest between the foreign born and the native, or between two foreign groups, the national bond may grow into a social bond that for a time at least would serve as the basis for the collective action by one group against the other group. If the dealers then belong to the outside group, or if the dealers of the foreign-born group seem to betray their fellow countrymen, there may develop a movement strong enough to carry over into organization. Among some groups, such as the Finns, the language constitutes a permanent barrier for the adult members of the group, and with a skillful and intelligent leadership the co-operative undertakings may be expected to prosper for a very considerable period of time. The immigrants have probably twice as many successful co-operative stores as the native born.