To all suggestions of co-operative action they at first opposed a hopeless _non possumus_.

Their objections may be summed up thus:--They had never combined for any business purpose.

How could they trust the Committee they were asked to elect from amongst themselves to expend their money and conduct their business?
It was all very well for the proprietor with his ample capital, free hand, and business experience, to work with complicated machinery and to consign his butter out of the reach of the local butter buyer, and to save the waste and delay of the local butter market.

But they knew nothing of the business and would only make fools of themselves.

The promoters--they were not putting anything into the scheme--how much did they intend to take out ?[38] There was nothing in this attitude of mind which we had not fully anticipated.