Business enterprises owned by members of an organization and operated for members' benefit and profit. Farmers hoped to avoid reliance on businessmen by forming their own cooperatives, but most of these enterprises failed.
dark horse
A political candidate who is not considered a front runner and whose victory would be surprising to most observers.
laissez faire
The theory that the economy functions best when it is free from governmental interference. In a strict laissez-faire system, the government neither helps nor hinders business, but many American businessmen who professed laissez-faire doctrines were happy to accept government aid in the form of protective tariffs and railroad subsidies.
