66 Success (m {/16 Edge 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     the Co-op. Since plenty of Acadians have been and are, 
     
     members of both, this may, at first, seem puzzling. One 
     
     possible reason which has been suggested is that there 
     
     were more Irish than Acadians with sufficient education 
     
     to manage a business. Another possible reason is that 
     
     many Irish families had a tradition of excelling in 
     
     business; some of the original settlers may have had 
     
     experience of this kind. Yet another possibility is that 
     
     many, perhaps most, of the Acadians were, at that time, 
     
     still too fixed in a subordinate position socially as well as 
     
     with regard to the dominant language - English - to come 
     
     forward and take a leading part in such a venture. The 
     
     fact remains that both the Credit Union and the Co-op 
     
     have always had someone of Irish descent as their 
     
     manager; Tignish Fisheries has had Irish managers too, 
     
     but never an Acadian. 
     
    
   
   
    
     The third interesting point is that Tignish Fisheries, 
     
     which was a co-operative in all but name, did not officially 
     
     become one until 1961. There was, of course, no legislation 
     
     regarding co-ops in the twenties. The first such legislation 
     
     was passed in 1936, and that was for credit unions. When 
     
     Tignish Fisheries became a chartered co-op it was because 
     
     there were practical benefits to doing so, chief of which 
     
     was help with the bookkeeping. This fact illustrates the 
     
     tendency in Tignish to be content with things that are 
     
     working satisfactorily and less focused on the theoretical 
     
     premise upon which the organization is based. 
     
    
   
   
    
     As opposed to the situation in many communities, 
     
     the co-operative movement in Tignish did not slow down 
     
     in the 19405 and die out in the early to mid-fifties. Tignish 
     
     Fisheries, the Credit Union and the Co—operative Association 
     
     continued to grow and flourish. Tignish was not, however, 
     
     the Island’s only successful co-op town. For example, 
     
     Morell, in the eastern part of the Island, had been ”the” 
     
     co-op town of the forties; a documentary, Rising Tides, 
     
     showing how co-ops developed, had been made there. 
     
     However the 19505 were a bad time for the Island c0-