“When a man enters the Army does he become entitled to the full income of a member in good standing at once?” “He does not. The first year he or she receives only one-third of the income of a member. The second year and all years after he receives as much as anyone. Members are on probation the first year. The three years members are entitled to promotion to higher grades and the members during the first three years are required to do the drudgery of the Association. We have made exceptions to this rule when we have offered inducements to skilled laborers, but otherwise all who enlist, especially from the Department of Education, must pass through the three years course.” “One more question, Mr. Braden, and I will ask no more until I have read some chapters of ‘Co-operative Economy.’ Do not your members regard a new volunteer as an intruder? Do they not consider that he is suddenly admitted to share what they have produced without making an equal contribution? You have, say, three million dollars’ worth of wealth in Idaho. Why should one who never assisted in producing it be admitted to participate in its benefits without paying a large membership fee?” “He does pay a fee of one hundred dollars and he gives the first year’s labor for one-third the income of one member for that time. If he has not one hundred dollars we do not always exclude him. We simply take it out of his income. But you must remember that the Association is a great corporation, in which the shares are not transferable and one member can only own one share. The Association keeps all the machinery and sources of production in its exclusive control. Every person who enters to-day agrees to furnish twenty-five years’ labor. No person can receive the benefit of such a membership unless he so agrees. The Association, therefore, has as many twenty-five-year contracts as there are members of the Industrial Army. Let us suppose that one member has worked for twenty-four years when a new member is admitted. The latter is now to work twenty-five years and the former one. The latter is to give twenty-five years’ work to the former, who one year later must depend upon the labor of the latter to support him. Tell me which of these men is getting the advantage, the man whose twenty-five years of labor in the past has provided the machinery and improved the source of production or the man whose twenty-five years of the future will operate the machine and render the source of production fruitful. Is it not a fair bargain after all? If a man forty-six retires from labor and a man twenty-one takes his place and supports him will the former object?”