There were also in Ireland the peculiar difficulties arising from ceaseless political and agrarian agitation.

It was naturally asked--did Irish farmers possess the qualities out of which co-operators are made?
Had they commercial experience or business education?
Had they business capacity?
Would they display that confidence in each other which is essential to successful association, or indeed that confidence in themselves without which there can be no business enterprise?
Could they ever be induced to form themselves into societies, and to adopt, and loyally adhere to those rules and regulations by which alone equitable distribution of the responsibility and profit among the participants in the joint undertaking can be assured, and harmony and successful working be rendered possible?
Then, our best-informed Irish critics assured us that voluntary association for humdrum business purposes, devoid of some religious or political incentive, was alien to the Celtic temperament and that we should wear ourselves out crying in the wilderness.

We were told that Irishmen can conspire but cannot combine.

Economists assured us that even if we succeeded in getting farmers to embark on the projected enterprises, financial disaster would be the inevitable result of our attempts to substitute in industrial undertakings, ever becoming more technical and requiring more and more commercial knowledge and experience, democratic management for one-man control.
On the other hand there were some favouring conditions, the importance of which our studies of the human problems already discussed will have made my readers realise.

Isolated, the Irish farmer is conservative, sceptical of innovations, a believer in routine and tradition.