In that imaginary unity men were
really separate from each other. Individualism, fanatically centering
itself on its family and family interests, interfered on public boards
to do jobs in the interests of its kith and kin. The co-operative
movement connects with living links the home, the centre of Patrick's
being, to the nation, the circumference of his being. It connects him
with the nation through membership of a national movement, not for the
political purposes which call on him for a vote once every few years,
but for economic purposes which affect him in the course of his daily
occupations. This organization of the most numerous section of the
Irish democracy into co-operative associations, as it develops and
embraces the majority, will tend to make the nation one and indivisible
and conscious of its unity. The individual, however meagre his natural
endowment of altruism, will be led to think of his community as himself;
because his income, his social pleasures even, depend on the success of
the local and national organizations with which he is connected.
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