BASIC NEED OF CO-OPERATION

Elbert Hubbard, the well-known lecturer and editor of the "Fra" and the "Philistine," addressed over 400 members of the Union last evening on the general subject of "Getting Together," and emphasized the necessity of cooperation, reciprocity, and mutuality. "When man is alone," said he, "his reason totters. Men work with and for humanity, and the more they work for others and with others the keener is their intelligence. The badge of sanity is ability to work with other people as a unit." In this connection Mr. Hubbard strongly recommended Maurice Maeterlinck's "The Life of the Bee" as the greatest book of the decade and as particularly applicable to our own affairs. "A bee alone has no intelligence, alone can make no honey or even support itself, but a hive of bees has a great and magnificent intelligence. If a man even fancies himself to be entirely alone his brain reels, his reason totters and he is incapable of thinking or acting in a rational manner. All our activities, whether of the mind or body must, therefore be bound up in others.

He spoke at some length on efficiency and the keen competition of modern times. The men who succeed are the men who can work without supervision, who know what to do without being told, and who, in addition can supervise others.

Reciprocity, co-operation and efficiency are the great watchwords of the modern world and with them we should remember that truth is an asset and a lie is a liability.

In concluding Mr. Hubbard touched upon the European War and said that "as a remedy for commercial jealousy it was idiotic. The world will indeed be conquered but not by the forces of violence--it will be conquered by the forces of production, manufacture, transportation and economics."