CO-OPERATION The source of this uncorrected OCR text may be viewed as a digital facsimile at: http://fax.libs.uga.edu/ PUBLISHED MONTHLY By The Co-operative League of U. S. A. VOLUME X January—December 1924 CO-OPERATIVE LEAGUE OF U. S. A. 167 West 12th Street, New York City 1924 INDEX Accounting and Centralized Bookkeeping............................................ 1C2 " Simplified . . . . . ..................................................... 16 Adamston, W. Va................................................................ 157 Address of Greeting to German Congress.......................................... 115 Administrator, The Technical Expert as....... ................................... 3 Agricultural Co-operation in Denmark.............................................. 211 A. F. of L. Convention Endorses Co-operation............. .......................... 30 Anti-malarial Co-operative Societies in India........................................ 10 Art and Co-operation............................................................. 91 Associated Grange Warehouse Co................................................. 12-16 Auditing and Accounting Service.................................................. 141 Australia, Farmers & Industrialists in............................................. 208 B Bakeries, Co-operative, in TJ. S....................................8, 12, 86, 100, 105, 155 Bank, Labor . . . . .............................................................. 31 " , Savings . . . . . ........................................................... 79 Beardstown, 111, Society.......................................................... 69 Benld, 111. ...................................................................... 48 Bloomington, III . . . ..........................................................15, 67 Bookkeeping, Accounting and .................................................... 162 Book Reviews..................................................35, 53, 89, 107, 194, 211 " Store, Co-operative ..... ................................................. 122 Bread Trust, The................................................................. 196 British Labor Government......................................................... 38 Brookhart, Senator . . . . ........................................................ 128 Brookwood, N. Y. . . . .......................................................... 123 Budget Committee . . . .......................................................... 202 Builders of Co-operation . . . ..................................................... 58 Building, The Co-operative ....................................................... 43 " and Loan Association................................................... 56 Bulgarian Co-operators Persecuted................................................. 104 Business Man and Co-operation................................................... 210 C Call to Co-operative Women...................................................... 174 Canadian Co-operative Anniversary................................................ 180 " Farmers Try Chain Stores.............................................. 15 Cattle Eat and Are Not Fed...................................................... 15 Central States Co-operative Society.............................................. 50, 128 Centrosoyus 25th Anniversary..................................................... 62 Chase, Stuart . . . . ............................................................. 76 Chicago Co-operative Bookstore................................................... 122 Christensen, Chris. L............................................................. 211 Christian Science Monitor Proposal to Conscript Wealth............................. 92 Clarence, Pa. ... ...................................... ........................ 43 Cleaver, P. J. . . ................................................................ 151 Cleveland City Dairy............................................................. 157 Clifton, N. J.................................................................... 48 Cloquet, Minn. .................................................................. 70 INDEX Page Closser, W. H. .................................................................. 43 Coal Distribution at Maynard..................................................... 104 Cohn, Hyman I. . . . ............................................................ 209 College, A Co-operative . . . . ..................................................... 160 Colonies, Single Tax . . . ........................................................ 5 Coming Changes in Distribution.................................................. 147 Commonwealth Mutual Savings Bank.............................................. 79 Conference of Managers, Wisconsin............................................... 97 Congress, The 4th Co-operative....................... .'83, 144, 164, 179, 1S3, 184, 195, 199 Congresses, Two . . . . ........................................................... 106 Consumers Co-operative Services, Inc............................................... 15-6 Coolidge, President, Urges Co-operation............................................ 47 Co-operation Among the Czechoslovaks.............................................. 205 " as a Means of Promoting World Understanding......................... 96 " in Ohio and Illinois.................................................. 139 " in Public Schools.................................................... 127 " on the Screen . . ... ................................................. 8 '' via the Squeeze Process............................................... 77 Co-operative Administration . . . . ................................................ 3 " Business Increases . . . .............................................. 189 " Central Exchange..................................17, 26, 46, 119, 148, 178 " Democracy . . . . .................................................... 129 " Education . . . . . ................................................ 106, 155 " Garage ............................................................ 33 " Gasoline ...................................................... .124, 177 " Housing Exhibit . . . . ............................................... 68 " " in N. Y. . . ............................................... 112 '' Land Purchases . . . . ............................................... 5 '' League Meetings . . . . .............................................. 32 " League's Exhibit at Ghent............................................ ISO " Papers . . . . ....................................................... 120 " Police Department . . . . ............................................. Ill '' Princ:ple Opposed .... .............................................. 193 " Eebates . . . . ....................................................... 6 " Training School . . . . ............................................24, 106 Co-operatives and Labor Legislation............................................... 160 Co-operator, A, in the Cabinet.................................................... 205 Co-operators at Play . . . . ........................................................ 156 " in Washington . . . . ................................................. 12 " Win Seats in Parliament.............................................. 46 Correspondence . . . . ........................................ 18, 35, 54, 72, 89, 126, 162 Costs, Survey of Operating...... .................................................. 158 Credit Union, Consumers, N. Y................................................... 16, 124 " "of Texas .... .................................................... 157 Cresco, Iowa . . . . .............................................................. 177 Crosgrave, L. M. . . . . ........................................................... 133 Czechoslovaks, Co-operation Among the............................................ 205 Dairy As a Unit for Co-operation.............................................. 181, 198 Demands, Our . . . . .............................................................. 3'8 Democratized Capitalism . . . . .................................................... 209 Denmark, Agricultural Co-operation in.............................................. 211 Denver, Colo. Co-operative Milk................................................... 14 Directors and Auditors Elected................................................... 202 Directors' First Duty . . . . ....................................................... 33 INDEX Page Directors' Page ................................16, 33, 52, 106, 125, 141, 161, 192, 210 District Leagues . . . . ......................................................... 89, 125 Doctrine of Scarcity . . . ......................................................... 21 Does America Want to Co-operate?................................................ 210 Dreams Come True, How.......................................................... 148 Duluth, Minn. . . . .............................................................. 122 £ Education, Co-operative . . . . ............................................... 24, 2'6, 32 Election, One Way to Eun an..................................................... 168 Embarrass, Minn. . . . . .....--.......-...........................'................ 70 Englander, Jules . . . . . .......................................................... 141 English C. W. S. Strike.......................................................... 9 Europe's Conflagration . . . . ..................................................... 19 Evolution . . . ................................................................. 209 P Failure an Incentive.............................................................. 211 Failures and Eeasons............................................................. 51 Fake Co-operative Dissolved ... .................................................. 32 Farmer and His Taxes........................................................... 4 Farmers and Industrialists in Australia............................................. 208 '' Association in Minnesota................................................. 70 '' Co-operative Association . . . . ............................................ 51 " Fall for This ... ....................................................... 146 " Make Success of Laundry................................................. 206 " Plan . . . . ...........................................................37, 93 " Store, N. D. . . . ....................................................... 15 " Union, Kansas . . . . ..................................................... 49 Farm'ng'.on, 111. . . . ...................................................... 13, 86, 121 Finnish Association, Brooklyn..................................................... 122 '' , The oth Co-op. Course in................................................. 2-6 Fitchburg, Mass. . . . ............................................................ 105 Forward! . . . . . ................................................................ 199 Franklin Clubs, The.............................................................. 206 " Creamery ... ........................................40, 121, 176, 177, 133 Free Acres Colony . . . . ....................................................... 5, 178 Galesburg, 111. . . . .............................................................. 190 German Congress . . . . .......................................................115, 153 Germany, Eesolution on . . . ...................................................... 13 Gide, Charles . . . . ............................................................... 62 Glen Carbon, 111. ... .................. ........... ............................. 121 Gompers, Mr., For Industrial Democracy........................................... 2 Goss, A. S. . . . .................................................................. 37 Grain Merger . . . . .............................................................. 146 Grange, Washington . , . . ........................................................ 12 Greetings to Members, 1924....................................................... 1 H Hall, Bolton .................................................................... 5 Hamilton, W. P................................................................... 210 Has Co-operation a Future in U. S.?............................................... 76 Health Society . . . . ............................................................ 60 Help Farmers to Spend Money.................................................... 206 Henderson, Sidney . . . . ......................................................... 24 INDEX Page Herron, L. S. . . . ............................................................... 94 Home Owner Becomes a Landlord, How the........................................ 56 Housewives' and Mothers' International........................................... 191 Housing, Co-operative . . . ...................................................... 112 How Dreams Come True......................................................... 148 How to Have Peace.............................................................. 22 India, Anti-malarial Societies in.................................................. 10 " , Co-operation in .... ............ ............. .........................45, 206 Individualism . . . . ......................... .................................... 125 Industrial Democracy in U. S..................................................... 2 Insurance, Co-operative .......... .............................................. 64 International Co-op. Congress..............................................29, 106, 171 " " Exhibit.... .............................................. 136 " Co-operation in 1922 . . .......................... ................. 116 " Wholesale .... .................................................... 103 Women at Ghent . . . 103 Japanese Earthquake Destroys Co-operatives....................................... 85 K Keen, George, of Canada .......................................................... 15 Kincaid, 111. ................................................................ -86, 156 Labor Year Book................................................................ 89 LaFollette Endorses Co-operation.................................................. 50 Laundry, Farmers Make Success of ................................................ 206 League's Exhibit . . . . .............................................••-•••••••••• 180 Lecture Course on Co-operation. ..................-...----.-.--.......•-•••-•....•• 67 Letters from J. P. Warbasse................................... .136, 153, 171, 186, 203 Letter to Co-operative Unions ....................................-...••••••••••••• 84 Lewiston, Idaho . . . ...............................-•-....•••-•--••..•-..-•--•••• Life Insurance, Co-operative. .................................................. -64, «• " Profits . . . . .................................................... " " , The Searchlight on . . .......................................... Lithuanian Co-operators in U. S. . . . .............................................. Long, Cedric . . . ..............................••...-••••••••••••••••••••••-••••• Loyalty, More About . . . . .......................................•••••••••••••••• " , Shall, Be Compulsory? . ............................................... 87 158 74 175 101 20 M Manhattan Health Society . . . Maynard, Mass. . . . .......... Meat Market Needs . . . . ...... Merchandise Stock Control .... Milford, N. H. ............... Milk, Co-operative . . . . ........ Miners' Co-operatives in Ohio... M'tchell, John F. W. . . . ... 60 .50, 176 ... 206 ... 192 ... 101 .14, 40 .... 49 ... 58 Moral Equivalent of Jazz ......................-••••••.••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 94 More Politics . . . . ..............................-...-.........••••••-•-•--••..•• 1?9 Muffin Tin, Out of a ...................•••••••••••-••••-•••••••-•••••••••••••••• xl Mutual Aid Guild . . . . .......................................................... 64 INDEX N Page Nearing, Scott . . . . ............................................................. 129 Newmanstown, Pa. . . . •••••••-.••..•••••........................................ 157 N. Y. State Co-operatives......................................................... 133 Northern States League ..................................................... .155, 190 Norway, Co-operation in . . . . .................................................... 186 Norwood, Mass. . . . . ......................................................... 71, 177 Nurmi, H. V. ................................................................26, 161 0 One Way to Eun an Election...................................................... 168 On the Square . . . - ............................................................. 74 Our Demands ................................................................... 38 " Vote .... . ................................................................ 163 Out of a Muffin Tin . . . . ........................................................ u Pana, HI. . . . 88 Patriotism and Plunder .... ..................................................... 2 Peace Prize Humbug . . . ........................................................ 23 ' ' , How to Have . . . . ....................................................... 22 Poland, Co-operative Unity in. .................................................... 85 Police Department, Swiss Co-operative. ............................................. m Politics, More . . . . ............................................................. 1 79 Presidential Candidates on Co-operation. .................................... 47, 167; 182 Producers' Co-ops Oppose Limited Interest. ........................................ 195 Profiteering Under Present System ... ............................................ 50 R Eadio Fans Co-operate . . . . ..................................................... 88 Rebates . . . . ................................................................... 6 Eochdale Flour Mill . . . . ........................................................ 109 Bonn, Eskel .................................................................... 143 Eosedale, Pa. . . . ............................................................... 177 Eoseland, Chicago . . . •••••••••••••••••••....................................... 123 Eural Co-operatives in N. Y. .......................................... ........... 133 Eussian Co-operation . . . . ............................................ . .5.3, 52 207 " Private Traders Quit . . . . ............................................... 117 " Publications . . . . - ..................................................... 34 S San Diego, Cal. . . . .............................................................. Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. . . . ............................................ ..... .31 School, Co-operative Training .................................................. 155 Schools, Summer Training ......... ......................... ... Seaman 's Bank, A ............................................ ............ . . Shingle Mills ... ........................................ .... Solem, Edward . . . ............................................... isi Sonnichsen, Albert .................................................. .58, 77, 130, Shakespeare, William, Jr. . . . . .............................................. . . Sparta, 111. . . . . .................................................... Spooner, Wis. ............................................ ........ . . 11 Statesmen and Co-operation . . . .................................... Staunton, 111. ... ................................................ " Steel Trust Changed into a Co-operative. ..................... ......... . . ....... Steer By the Compass ............................................................ 14 191 197 73 193 197 211 12i 118 no 37 128 INDEX Page Strike in English C. W. S. . . . ................................................... 9 " , Trade Union and the...................................................... 92 Summer Training School ... ...................................................... 88 Survey of Operating Costs......................................................... 15!8 Sweden, the Land of Steady Progress.............................................. 203 Swiss Co-operative Police Dept. . . . ............................................... Ill T Taylor Springs, 111. . . ........................................................... 47 Taxation Again . . . ............................................................. 205 Taxes, Farmers' . . . . - .......................................................... 4 Telephones, Co-operative . . . . .................................................... SI Thousand Necessary for Meat Market Success....................................... 206 Tovey, 111. . ................................................................. 71 Trade Union and the Strike....................................................... 62 Training School, Co-operative . . . ........................ ...................... 155, 188 Trifles Make Success . . . ........................................................ Ill Trusting Our Own People........................................................ 109 Two Congresses . . . . ..............................-•.........-..••..-•••••-••••• 106 Two Harbors, Minn. . . . ........................................................ 86 U Understanding Ourselves . . . . ................................................... £02 Undertaking, Co-operative, Association ............................................ 30 United States Dept. Agri. Report on Farmers' Organizations.......................... 51 Utica, N. Y. ................................................................... 49 V Victims of Theatre Collapse....................................................... 21 Villa Grove, 111. . . . . ............................................................ 120 Vital Issues ... ........................................ ••!, 19, 37,55,73,91, 109, 127 Vote, Our . . . . ................................................................. W3 W Warbasse, Agnes D. . . . . ......................--•••-.....••••-..•••••••••••••••• 96 Warbasse, J. P. ............................... -22, 81, 115, 136, 153, 171, 186, 195-6, 203 Washington Grange Warehouse.................................................... 56 Wealth, Proposal to Conscript . . . ............................................... 92 Wellman, Iowa, Farmers' Co-op. ... .............................................. 16 What Do You Mean—Loyalty?.................................................... 57 Whitnall, C. B. ..................-.-•....-.-•--•••••..•-•••••-•••••-----•--•-••• 79 Wholesale Overcharging Manager.................................................. 52 Wholesaling and Chain System................................................... 147 '' , Beginning Steps in . . . .............................................. 56 " , Co-operative, in North West.......................................... 151 " f " , " Washington . . . . .................................... 118 Witt, 111. . . . ................................ •••••••.••••••••••••••••••••...••n, 121 Women's International League . . . . .............................................. 96 Woodcock, Leslie E. . . . ...........................••...••..••••••••..••••••••••• 168 Working Class Complex ... ...................................................... 130 " Hours of Co-operative Employees.......................................... 160 World's Statesmen and Co-operation............................................... 110 Z Zellman, A. B. . . ................................••..........••.••.•••..•••••••• 100 ©O'C-'TION A magazine to spread the knowledge of the Co-operative Movement, whereby the people, in vol^ untary association, produce and distribute for their own use the things they need Published monthly by The Co-operative League, 167 West 12th Street, New York City. J. P. Warbasse, Editor. Entered as second class matter, Decem ber 19, 1917, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Price $1.00 a year. Vol. X, No. 1 JANUARY, 1924 10 Gents VITAL ISSUES GREETINGS—1924 At this beginning of the New Year we greet the loyal Co-operators, who have held aloft the banner of our cause, with renewed hopes and strengthened pur pose. The past year has been one of uncer tainties. The old order of things has brought unnecessary suffering and op pression to countless innocent people. Its inefficiency and injustices have caused disorder and wrung with pain the hearts of multitudes. Europe is suffering from a peace, brought upon it by diplomats, statesmen, and warriors, more terrible and more devastating than war. The profit-system and the governments which it dominates are tottering and far advanced in decay. In the presence of these conditions, the Co-operative Movement goes steadily on, erecting new structures, rescuing fallen communities, restoring the shat tered machinery of distribution, and building its bridges between the hope less past and the hopeful future. It summons to its fellowship all who seek a way of life that is free from in justice and contention. In every country of the woild Co operation has made progress during 1923. Where financial crises exist and where unemployment is rife it has pro tected the people from the forces that would prey upon them. And in all lands it has carried on education 'to ?F strengthen the foundations of under standing upon which Co-operation rests. In our own country, the Co-operators are building solidly and laying deep foundations. Educational woik has been promoted as never before. Courses in Co-operation have been given in a large number of schools and colleges, special schools have conducted co-opera tive instruction, and two training schools for the education of co-operative execu tives have conducted signally successful courses ?nd graduated students unusu ally well prepared to administer co operative undertakings. The understanding of Co-operation has been widely extended. Spurious, fraudulent, and fanciful schemes have less chance of securing a foothold than ever before. Throughout the length and breadth of the land there is a markedly better understanding of Co-operation. Most countries have built a Co-operative Movement first, and then co-operative culture. In the United States we are building a culture upon which to found a movement. All of this progress is due to the faith ful, steady, and consistent work of the loyal Co-operators who keep their hands to the task and their eyes upon the goal. Greetings to them and good wishes for the New Year! May courage, strength, and support be theirs. May they be •ever conscious of the significance for good to mankind of the structure they are building1 And may they be gener- 'fOi^J. CO-OPERATION ously contented that those who come after them shall see the great results and reap the full ripened fruit of their labors. The year 1924 we greet with renewed hopes and firm resolves to go on—ever on toward title great victory. PATRIOTISM AND PLUNDER Mr. Frank A. Vanderlip says: "I am getting an obsession against this word patriotism." There are other people also who are beginning to see what forty different patriotisms in Europe are doing to the suffering people. So long as each one says that his country is best and the children are taught the same fiction in the schools, people will grow up with the superstition that the other countries are worse. But it remained for Judge Gary of the Steel Trust to put on the finishing touches in his '' Thanksgiving Proclama tion. '' He said that we should be thank ful because, while the people in other countries were starving and in want, our industries had produced an abund ance—a greater abundance than we could use—and our warehouses are bulging with goods. So long as American patriotism is fed on this sort of sentiment, what hope does America offer for the brotherhood of man? And now comes the Secretary of Agri culture to solve the farmers' problem and to make them more prosperous and to love their country more. He advises the farmers to plant less wheat so as to have a small crop, to cause scarcity of wheat, and thus make the price go up. This proposal is offered by a full-grown man, a churchgoer, and a good citizen, drawing a salary from the U. S. and serving in the President's Cabinet. It is offered in the face of the fact that not only is Europe starving to death but in our own country 20 per cent of the pub lic school children in the industrial centers are underfed. Patriotism and nationalism have brought the world to a bad pass. But one of the worst things that has come out of it are public officials with ethics and economics that would scarcely do credit to a cave dweller, conscious only of his own tribe and the wild beasts, about him. Civilization is perishing for want of an understanding of the simple fact that the problems of the peoples of all nations are the same problems, and that no nation can rise at title expense of an other. The days of successful predatory conquests have passed. He loves his country best who desires that the peo ples of other lands shall be as prosper ous as the people of his land, and who shapes his conduct accordingly. MR. GOMPERS FOR INDUS TRIAL DEMOCRACY President Gompers of the A. F. of L. has issued a statement in which he as serts that this country must either have state socialism or industrial democracy. By industrial democracy he means a gov ernment controlled by thti industries of the country. Mr. Gompers advocates a representative industrial democracy, in which the legislative authority in indus trial matters is vested in an economic congress composed of representatives chosen by industrial groups. If we do not take this course we are headed for state socialism, he declares, in an inter view published in the Washington Star. He says: "Since our form of government was created we have developed a tremendous industrial organization which has revo lutionized society and produced condi tions which the founders of our republic knew nothing about and could not have foreseen. The attempts of our political government to regulate this vast business machine can lead only to state social ism." Mr. Gompers' alternative is represen tative industrial government from which politicians are barred and which shall be administered by the chosen represen tatives of the various groups constituting industry. This is good sound stuff, so far as it goes. But it provides nothing new. As a matter of fact that is the sort of gov ernment we now have. The people who CO-OPERATION control the industries control the gov ernment. Who are the representatives in Congress? They are people chosen almost exclusively by the industries. The so-called politicians are title agents appointed to represent the railroads, coal, steel, banking, lumber, petroleum, agriculture, and other industries. The U. S. Congress represents industry as effectively as though its members were directly appointed by the steel trust, the mine owners, the lumber combine, and the other big industrial organizations. It is perfectly natural that legislative bodies should be so constituted. It is inevitable in the course of events. The thing that we should be inter ested in is not that industry shall dom inate the government but who shall dom inate industry? Organized Labor in the U. S. seems satisfied that industry shall be owned and controlled by interests which carry on industry for their own profit. The privilege of collective bar gaining with these interests will never solve the problems of Labor. Bargain ing inside of an unjust system does not bring justice. A real industrial democ racy is impossible so long as the motive of industry is not service but economic profit for the owners. The "industrial democracy" which Mr. Gompers advocates would give us just about the same results we have now. Neither industrial control nor industrial democracy will be possible until the in dustries are producing commodities for use; and commodities will be produced for use only when the users control the industries. J. P. W. THE HIGH SALARIED TECH NICAL EXPERT AS ADMIN ISTRATOR In the United States we have two theo ries regarding the administration of co operative business; and they differ sharply. Each theory has ardent cham pions among the co-operators themselves. These are the two opposing viewpoints briefly stated: 1. "We are interested in starting a store (or bakery, housing association, milk business, or restaurant) and we in tend to get the best technical expert that the business world has to offer (provided we can pay the price) to administer the enterprise. Co-operative societies who have this common fear of Big Business have repeatedly fallen before the supe rior efficiency of Big Business. Co-opera tion needs the same superlative business management that Private Business has, and we shall not hesitate to take over the latter's best administrators when we can get them.'' 2. "One of the primary functions, probably the primary function of Co operation, is to fit the average run of men and women to administer their own business affairs themselves. If we buy up the superlatively efficient managers of Private Business to do this for us, we have perhaps achieved a smoothly running business machine, good returns (profits), all that the world of private profit calls Success; but we have bar tered away the immediate and vital con trol over our affairs that makes Co operation important in our eyes. We have the body and form of Co-operation and have lost the spirit. We do make many mistakes, we often fail, and it does cost much in time and money to train our own administrators, men and women of our own group. But the joy of life for us is in the mutual effort, the com mon struggle, rather than in the mate rial rewards of effort. We shall leave it to otha-s to secure their experts from the world of private business who shall carry them painlessly to security and comfort; and if they wish, let them call that 'Co-operation'." True, these are the more extreme statements of each position. On occa sions a co-operative has taken over from the profit world the manager of unusual ability and found he had more of the co-operative spirit and understanding than the membership and the Board of Directors. And on other occasions the working people have picked from their own group an administrator of amazing executive ability latent within him. Nevertheless, this disagreement does ex ist between the most sincere and en thusiastic of co-operators in America. And we often hear those of one school condemn harshly those of the other. CO-OPERATION CO-OPERATION Co-operators who lay special emphasis upon administrative efficiency are not numerous yet. We wish there were many more of them. Yet, we ask them, is there not danger of putting too ex clusive an emphasis upon this point? Is there not a good deal to be said for that other theory, after all: that one of the first purposes of Co-operation is to train ordinary men and women to gain a more complete control over their own affairs? And to the ultra "radicals" who con temn everything that savors of Big Busi ness efficiency we respectfully suggest that co-operators should not scoff at pri vate enterprise until co-operative enter prise has shown itself as successful as its enemy. After all, are not co-operatives destroyed oftener by the profit-seekers within the co-operative membership than by the agents of capitalism? And sup pose a co-operative did take over one of these efficiency experts: if the directors were genuine and intelligent co-opera tors wouldn't they still be able to control the policies of the society? C.L. THE FARMER AND HIS TAXES It happened that the report to Presi dent Coolidge by representatives of the War Finance Corporation respecting aid to the wheat farmers appeared on the same day that the program of the Farm Bloc was announced by Senator Capper. It is a striking fact that the two agree 011 the most important point. They agree that the farmers should help them selves by means of Co-operation rather than by government aid. The more ex perience people have and the more they think about these matters the greater is the tendency to recognize the fact that self-help is better than governmental help. The farmers are beginning to realize that whenever the government does something that costs money the farmer- bears a disproportionately large part of the cost. He pays more than his share of the taxes. One reason for this is be cause most of his property is real prop erty and cannot be concealed from the taxing authorities. The middleman, who gambles in the products of the farm, has his property in the form of stocks and bonds, the income from which can be hidden from the tax gatherer. Fur thermore, high taxes and high wages mean high costs of farm production and reduction of the farmer's profits. But high costs to the middleman can easily be passed on to the consumer at a price fixed by the middleman. The farmer does not fix the price of his products. The taxes collected in the United States, local and national, in 1913 amounted to two billion dollars; in 1922 they were seven billion. Taxes in 1913 were $17 per capita; in 1922 they were $64. Twelve per cent of the national income now goes for taxes, and the in dications are that taxes will grow stead ily larger. This is one reason why the farmer's dollar now has a purchasing power of only 65 per cent of what it had ten years ago. The farmers who are thinking about this know that they have got to bear more than their share of the taxation, no matter whether it is for battleships or for farmers' subsidies. For this rea son they should be the class that opposes every sort of "governmental welfare work." Unless the farmers, and every body else for that matter, turn to Co operation as the means of doing things, taxes will grow. The people who bear the chief burden of the taxes will con tinue to be those who perform the useful productive work. Still the fiction that the rich pay the taxes is kept alive; and the workers are everywhere seen chuck ling with glee whenever a big piece of work "for the people" is undertaken by the Government. They would laugh less joyously if they knew that they were paying the bill. Except on the land, there is no such thing as direct taxation; all other tax is indirect, and the man who finally pays is the one who least suspects that fact. But when the taxgatherer knocks at the farmer's door the farmer pays; he pays or quits the farm. J. P. W. CONTRIBUTED ARTICLES CO-OPERATIVE LAND PURCHASES, OR COLONIES? By Bolton Hall Co-operators explain to me that they begin upon the things that people must pay for almost every day, and that are in constant demand—and they therefore usually concentrate on groceries. It would be much more intelligent to con centrate on land than on petty pur chases. Everybody must have that every day and it will keep indefinitely. There are now a whole lot of co-op erative purchases of land. I have been connected with three at Stelton, one at Berkeley Heights, one at Freedom Hill, one at Meyersville and at Chatham, in New Jersey—all successful, but not one of them was conducted in the interest of the Co-operative principle. The forma tion of settlements is the easiest way to introduce co-operation, especially of those that aim at "greater personal and economic freedom than under conven tional forms of government,'' by simple release from the power of the land owner. Civilization is the capacity for co-op eration. Co-operation, of course, begins with the first act of trading among men, which is itself significant, because man has been defined as the trading animal. In the socialist colonies we shall not find much that seems permanent or vital, ex cept for such pioneer enthusiasm as sur vives ; but in the religious settlements we do indeed find some real vigor. This is in line with the facts and the conclusions presented in Hind's "Amer ican Communities," which shows that nearly all, except the single tax settle ments, have been of small vitality, mostly brief in life and of practically no influence upon the thought of the world. Propagandist colonies are en tirely different from mere co-operative purchases of land, though both are spoken of as "colonies." The organization of colonies to exploit any social theory or way of living is al ways a matter of difficulty and doubtful success. A colony is like a gold mine. It depends upon three factors: First, the promoters; second, the executive; and third, the opportunity. These three are about equally important. As in the case of the gold mine, the failures are more often from the promoter or from the executive branch than from the thing in itself. A colony may have an admirable ob ject, a very excellent lot of colonists, and a merely visionary head, or a head with out any vision; or it may be that the only vision there is consists in looking. In either case, the way of the colony is hard. Liberty is opposed to organization, as organization necessarily implies obedi ence in directions where otherwise there would be individual liberty. It is on the rock of law-making and of laying down rules for one another that most of the reform colonies have been wrecked. We think that we have avoided that in our "Free Acres," the Single Tax Vil lage at Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, by condensing our constitution and by laws into "Pay your own rent and mind your own business." In the colony plan the patriarchal government might be used instead of the democratic. It need hardly be said that patriarchal government where it is really inspired by love works very well. Per fect love would bring liberty, but per fect liberty would also bring love. Perhaps the liberty may be more im portant and also the first thing to seek, because love, to work as a perfect world plan, must be universal. It seems that a few persons who are still mainly in the animal stage might derange a govern ment of love almost as much as a gov ernment of non-resistance. Justice can only follow liberty—it can never pre cede her. Respect for the equal rights of others can be impressed upon back ward members of a community until such time as they too come to realize that we are all one, and there are 110 "Others," no separate interests. CO-OPERATION CO-OPERATION CO-OPERATIVE REBATES Recently the leaders in two of the country's large and well-known co operatives have asked The League for a statement on the subject of Dividends or Rebates to Members. This is a highly important subject, and lack of under standing of the fundamentals has been responsible for the difficulties that many societies have encountered. Directors might solve many of their problems of Finance, of Loyalty among the members, of Dividend Policy, if they were straight in their thinking on this subject. One request for the opinion of The League follows: '' I would like to have your opinion 011 a matter of policy in co-operative asso ciations. Not long ago I attended the annual meeting of the stockholders of one of our local co-operative associations which operates an elevator and handles coal, salt, lumber, implements, and quite a list of farm supplies. The association needed more capital and was keeping the earnings, or savings, in the business, in stead of dividing them as patronage dividends. Quite a surplus had already been accumulated in this way. "The question was whether to issue shares of stock to the members to the amount of this surplus, in proportion to their patronage during the time it was accumulated. The articles of incorpora tion set a limit to the amount of stock one person could own, and many of the members already had the limit. These were the very men, in most cases, who would get tlie biggest stock dividend. Of course, the articles of incorporation could be amended, so the real problem, after all, was whether stock should be issued for a surplus that was being used as operating capital, to replace borrowed funds, and not for expansion. "I had to leave before the meeting was over, and have not heard what the decision was. I told them they should leave the surplus as surplus and forget about who it belonged to. They didn't seem to take much stock in what I said. But wasn't that the right advice? If they issue stock for this surplus they must hereafter pay interest on it. And if the association meets losses they will have a deficit, with no surplus to meet it. "Aren't we too meticulous in this country about trying to determine what exact fractional part of a co-operative association belongs to each member f Don't we need a great deal more of the quality you might call social-minded- ness? I fear that some of our associa tions are going to dwindle because of applying capitalistic ideas to co-operative financing. "The whole question of co-operative financing needs to be discussed a great deal more than it has been. If it is not too much of an imposition upon your time, may I have your opinion on the questions raised in this letter? "Very cordially yours, The answer sent by The Co-operative League was this: "Dear ——————.- '' There are two distinct and different approaches to the question that you raise on the use of surplus-savings. This matter should be freely discussed and understood. This is the way we look at it. "1. When a successful co-operative society performs service for a member and he pays his money for the service at the current market rate, he pays more than the service costs. The overcharge is really a loan that he makes to the so ciety. It is customary to return these loans at the end of a fiscal period as savings-returns or 'dividends.' They belong to the member just the same as though he had made any other sort of a loan. From the standpoint of accuracy and strict accounting, this is the correct attitude toward the matter. "2. A co-operative society is a social organization for mutual aid through joint action. The members are in it to get something for themselves, but they are in it also to help the whole member ship. The more each member helps the whole membership the better is it for him and the more does he get out of it. The view may be taken that the surplus- saving is a common fund, made possible not by individual but by common ac tion, and that it belongs to the whole organization. As a matter of fact this is the case because it remains in the com mon treasury until the members decide what disposition to make of it. "Now as to the practical application of these two principles. The first is adapted to associations of people who are not socially minded but are still deeply tinctured with the present prevalent profit-seeking psychology. If Co-opera tion is to be made to appeal to them it must shoAv them results in terms of the god of profits which they worship. No appeal is so strong as that of cash in the hand. "The second principle is for the so cially minded who have caught the vision of the larger possibilities of Co operation and the obligations of Co- operators. "These two classes are quite different. Both are right. The first becomes con verted into the second by the slow proc esses of experience and education. "But in our Co-operative Movement the matter is not as simple as it might seem. Each co-operative society is com posed of people representing both of these principles. And both are more or less represented in each individual. For this reason practice requires an adjust ment of the two. And this is precisely what experience has taught. "The general practice among success ful societies is to return part of the sur plus-savings to the members in the form of cash and to use part of it for social purposes and for the common good. In different situations the proportion be tween these two uses of surplus varies. Associations of "green-horns" in the United States, and in other countries also for that matter, pay back a savings-re turn as soon and as large as possible. Later, when they have established their success and gotten some education, they tend to put their surplus to social uses. In Great Britain the average society just about divides even; one half of the 'profits' is paid back to the members as 'dividends' and the other half is used for the common good of the society. "On the other hand, there are many societies that are accumulating surplusas and that pay no savings-returns to the members. We have a number of such societies in the United States among the Finns. The Belgians have the reputa tion for doing this, but most of their societies pay 'dividends.' However, many Belgian societies use more than half of their surplus for social purposes. "What do we find these socially- minded societies doing with their sur plus? First, they build up reserves for expansion. I have often heard these people say, 'We prefer to belong to a society that has a good big reserve fund, and which we know is strong financially and able at any time or in any emer gency to do big things for the members, than to belong to a society that pays 'dividends' and has no reserve to give it strength and make expansion and so cial service possible at any time.' "The European societies are aiming more and more toward doing social things for their members. Life insur ance; insurance against sickness, acci dent, and unemployment; medical and nursing care; recreations and entertain ment; music; literature; and art— these are some of the things societies are providing for all of their members out of the common savings. "Societies should be in a position to make every possible use of the surplus- savings. The matter should be discussed at the members' meetings. The mem bers should decide whether they want to accumulate reserves for strength and ex pansion, use the funds for common so cial purposes, or take it back as savings- returns. The mere discussion of the matter will do them good. "The issuing of stock to the members instead of giving them cash savings-re turns has not much to recommend it. If the society needs the money, then it had better keep it in its treasury as a common fund without any strings to it. Non-interest-bearing stock (non-divi dend-bearing) is best, if the members insist on having stock. On the other hand, this surplus does belong to the in dividuals who created it, and if the ma jority of the members think that they should have it, that is a good reason why 8 CO-OPERATION they should have it. Only a larger so cial interest in Co-operation can make them think differently. "Of course, the best thing to do with money is to spend it, to buy life in great abundance, but socially administered money can usually be better spent and made to purchase more life than is the case when the individual is turned loose with the cash in his hand. That is the thesis that Co-operation should prove. Our societies should be so well organ ized and so efficiently administered that the individuals will be best served by the largest use of their united capital and man power. "Faithfully yours, LYNN CO-OPERATIVE BAKERY BUYS NEV7 BUILDING By Meyer Goldberg A new home for the Workingmen's Co-operative Bakery of Lynn, Massachu setts, now appears to have become a real ity. Three years' existence has shown the need of a shop and bakery to be owned as well as operated by the co operative. Money can be saved by cut ting rent charges. More space can be provided for ovens and machinery to take care of the increasing demand for co-operative products. Above all, the satisfaction of the yearning for a home for the co-operative pushed the directors of this bakery to this step. At a cost of thirty-eight thousand dol lars, a property containing a block of five stores, several other buildings, and a large plot of land has been acquired. From its present small store and single oven, the bakery expects to occupy two of the five stores in the new block and to build a row of three ovens in the rear. The facilities for baking and delivering are to be so enlarged as to put out products sufficient to supply the entire Jewish population. Architects are now drawing up plans for the alterations. These plans are to call for one of the most up-to-date bak ery establishments to be found in the section. Fixtures and machinery are to be of the latest, with every regard for sanitation and efficiency. Bakery and shop are to be housed in walls of enam eled brick, with tile and concrete floor, germ-proof and dust-proof. Shining white, it will spell the true spirit of the co-operatives. Of even more interest are the plans in regard to the additions to be made when the co-operative has been able to absorb the drain of the initial payments on the purchase. On the foundation of the store block the Lynn people are to raise another story and equip this with audi torium and meeting halls as the center of the fraternal and radical Jewish or ganization activities of the city. To the Co-operative Movement, mod est and unassuming, yet growing more and more powerful and drawing to itself the faith and support of the people, will be due this landmark. With the New Co-operative Bakery will arise the Co operative Center of Lynn. FOREIGN CO-OPERATION ON THE SCREEN! Are Charlie, and Mary, and Duggie invincible on the screen? The answer is not in the affirmative, according to Finnish co-operators. "K. K.", or the New Union in Fin land, has arranged a film to be taken of the "Elanto" Society in Helsingfors, claiming to be the largest distributive society not only in Finland, but also in the whole of Northern Europe, and this film is likely to beat all earlier records on the screen in the Finnish Eepublic. The film which, by the way, was shown to the British and foreign delegates, at tending the Annual Congress of the New Union in June last, pictures the activi ties in Elanto '& various productive es tablishments, showing the interior and exterior of numerous stores, as well as CO-OPERATION the buzzing life in some of the cafes and restaurants, belonging to the society. No less than 23,000 members of the Elanto Society saw the film in Helsing fors alone, where twenty-five perform- ences were given, and the film is just now being shown in Sweden, whilst an other copy of the same film is circulat ing among the Progressive societies in the home country, giving their members an idea as to how the work is carried out by a model society. THE STRIKE IN THE ENGLISH C. ¥7. S. A great deal of comment has appeared in the American press relative to the strike of the workers in the plants of the Co-operative Wholesale Society; and most of this comment has betrayed much prejudice and little 'knowledge of the facts on the part of writers of the ar ticles. As the strike is now settled the facts in the case can be given briefly and with some accuracy. The parties to the dispute were the Directors of the C. W. S. and the of ficials of the National Union of Dis tributive and Allied Workers (N. U. D. A. W., which is the union of employees in co-operative shops and factories). The General Council of the Trade Union Congress (which is just what the name implies) had no direct participation in the dispute, but was appealed to indi rectly several times. The "Trade Board rates" which are so often referred to are the wage rates established by the trades as a whole, i.e., the Trade Board rates for confectionery workers are those set by the entire confectionery industry, most of which is, of course, private profit-making industry. In 1915 a Joint Committee was created to deal with all disputes between eo-operative organizations and their em ployees' unions. This consisted of eight members, four from the Trade Union Congress and four from the Co-opera tive Congress. A set of rules were agreed upon which should determine the functions of this Joint Committee. The trouble started in August and September, 1922. The Union claims that the C. W. S. reduced wages, in creased working hours, and reduced wages for holidays and sickness of em ployees. The Directors of the C. W. S. claim that a number of employees were taken off "Staff Conditions" and placed on "Factory Conditions" and that wage rates were set 10 per cent above Trade Board rates. Conferences followed without ending the deadlock. Finally the employees' organization appealed to the General Council of the Trade Union Congress with the result that the latter met with the Directors of the C. W. S. in conference. The following agreement was reached: "We agree that all future variations in wages, hours and conditions of em ployment shall be negotiated with the Unions concerned and, failing agree ment, to refer the matter to the Joint Committee in accordance with its con stitution. '' On February 23d the Directors of the C. W. S. informed the Joint Committee that they would refer all matters in dis pute to said Committee except matters stated in their "proviso." The Joint Committee insisted that this "proviso" was no part of the January agreement between the General Council and the C. W. S., and therefore could not be con sidered until these two parties had dis cussed it. In March the Employees' Union sent in application to the C. W. S. for a re turn to the old conditions which had been in operation before the change from "Staff Conditions" to "Factory Condi tions" in January. The C. W. S. re plied that due to the severe trade de pression through which they had passed this request could not be met until the outlook in the trade became brighter. On April 12th the Trade Board rates in the confectionery industry were re duced and in consequence the C. W. S. notified its employees in the Silvertown and Pelaw plants that wages would be reduced two shillings. The C. W. S. in sisted that inasmuch as wages were still 10 per cent above Trade Board rates no negotiations with the unions were necessary, especially in view of the "proviso" made to the January agree- 10 CO-OPERATION CO-OPERATION 11 ment. The N. U. D. A. W. insisted that this "proviso" was no part of the of ficial January agreement; and after further futile negotiations, all workers in the factories of the C. W. S. were in structed to go on strike and members of the union working in stores were in structed not to handle goods from the C. W. S. During all these negotiations the Gen eral Council of the Trade Union Con gress adhered to the authority of the Joint Committee in such matters and urged that the entire matter be put in charge of this committee and that the "proviso" of the C. W. S. be withdrawn. As the deadlock continued, however, the Joint Committee finally went ahead and drew up terms which called for resump tion of work in all the establishments of the C. W. S., for a return to the wages prevailing before April 12th in the two factories, and for the submission of the points in dispute to the Joint Commit tee. The "proviso" was also to be ex amined by the Joint Committee. These terms were accepted by the unions and work resumed late in June. The Direc tors of the C. W. S. also accepted them but with a reservation regarding the "proviso." On July 31st the Joint Committee met and adopted a report on the matter of the "proviso," which stated that "Trade Board" rates could not be considered "Standard rates" as the C. W. S. de sired; and expressed the belief that neither side to the recent dispute had acted with a proper appreciation of the point of view of the other. Gratification was expressed that both sides now de sired more harmony in the future, and the suggestion was made that an early meeting be held to discuss ways and means for meeting future disagreements. In September the whole matter was reported to the Trade Union Congress at Plymouth; and upon receipt of a tele gram to the effect that the C. W. S. agreed to refer all labor disputes to arbitration in accordance with the rules of the Joint Committee, the report was accepted. Here the dispute of more than a year's duration ended. HINDUS CO-OPEEATE TO FIGHT DISEASE From far-off India comes the news that many co-operative societies are springing up in Bengal for the purpose of fighting malaria. Under the leadership of Dr. G. C. Chatterjea, Secretary of the Central Co operative Anti-Malarial Society, a study was made of scientific preventive meas ures, as well as of remedial treatment. Already thirty-one anti-malarial socie ties have been organized in various com munities. The members contribute a monthly subscription which enables many of the societies to maintain dis pensaries and physicians. All societies either pay laborers or obtain volunteers to spread kerosene over stagnant water, clearing the jungles and filling up the pools in the rainy season. A thorough survey is made in every town. The area is mapped out, the work is allotted, and thorough systematic work is carried on to stamp out the disease. So far the results have been very gratifying. The Pannibatty Society in duced its members to keep a record of the number and kinds of fever suffered by its members. The latest reports indi cate that there has been a decline in fever by 50 per cent, over the rate last year. The Central Anti-Malarial Society was incorporated in July, 1919, for the purpose of organizing and financing rural societies of this type, to purchase wholesale the drugs and other necessary commodities for them, and to provide advice and supervision. The by-laws of the society limit dividends on shares to not more than 6 per cent. Actually no dividend has been paid, the surplus be ing allotted to a reserve fund to aid the extension of the work. Although the work of the anti-malarial co-operative societies is in its beginnings, much has already been accomplished to stamp out the disease. With the growth of this form of Co-operation, it is hoped to conquer the plague of malaria. NEWS AND COMMENT OUT OF A MUFFIN TIN Spooner, Wisconsin, had a branch store of the ill-famed American Co-op erative Association of Milwaukee. Dur ing the death throes of that organization in 1921, even while the final meetings were being held just before the collapse, a small band of men were circulating within the hall among the members agitating for the formation of a genuine Rochdale co-operative to be owned and controlled by residents of Spooner. Thus was born, out of the death struggle of its unfortunate predecessor, the Spooner Co-operative Association. To begin business the new infant had only $998 and two score members. But the members had had experience and from the experience had acquired wis dom. Instead of trying to support the elaborate store in the center of town and the warehouse down by the railroad tracks, they borrowed $1,800, purchased the warehouse only, screened off one end of it for an improvised store, bought a small supply of merchandise and opened up for business. This little store down on the edge of town and quite out of the line of travel was the laughing stock of all the busi ness men for several months. The manager could not afford so much as a cheap cash register, so he made change from an old muffin tin and locked the tin up at night in his desk. As business increased the tin had to be kept in the drawer constantly and the old drawer and tin together finally wore away from overwork. Then the manager found he could afford a cash register. For the railroad men and the farmers who be longed to this queer organization did support their store, much to the amaze ment of the other grocers in town. The farmer with his cream cans of a morn ing or with his family of a Saturday evening drove right down the main street of the town and out along the railroad tracks to the south to tie up before the dilapidated old warehouse and buy his groceries, flour and feed. Competitors began to shake their heads and grumble. That was in 1921. For about two years the store handled cream for the farmers and occasionally marketed some of their crops. Recently a co-operative creamery has been organized in Spooner and the store has turned the cream busi ness over to them. Such commodities as potatoes are still being marketed occa sionally by the store manager. For more than a year the Spooner Co operative has been handling coal for its members. At first they had trouble getting the coal, for the big companies would not sell to them; but once they got started and established themselves they found all the companies ready and anxious to sell to them. At present they are buying from three different com panies, one of which is the Daleport Coal Corporation which sells the coal mined at the Brotherhood of Locomotive En gineers' mines in West Virginia. They had a very interesting experience with one of the notorious nonunion mines of West Virginia which refused to sell to them because they retailed the coal at a price below that of the private dealers in the town. A letter sent to this com pany informing them that continuation of this boycott would compel the Co-op erative to place the matter in the hands of the Federal Trade Commission got an immediate response in the form of a let ter promising to ship all the coal the Co-op wanted! The Spooner Co-operative Association is now little more than two years old. But it has some rather remarkable figures to present to co-operators in this country. With a membership of less than 100 and monthly sales of something over $6,000, they continue to pay no purchase rebates to members but turn all savings back into the reserve. Build ing is all paid for, the manager is turn ing his stock over 28 times a year, and total wages come to only 3.8 per cent of sales. On an average capital of $3,050 during these two years they have real ized a savings of $3,200 in net profits. The low wage item and high profits are perhaps due to the fine co-operative spirit among the members. When a car of flour and feed comes in or an empty 12 CO-OPERATION car arrives to be loaded with potatoes or others of the farmer-members' prod ucts, the manager has only to get in touch with a few of the men to muster a volunteer force of laborers that do the job in short order. Spooner's Co-operative is one of the members of the Northern States Co-op erative League and one of which that League can be proud. THE CO-OPERATIVE BAKERY IN SYRACUSE The Purity Co-operative Bakery Asso ciation of Syracuse, N. Y., according to a recent letter from one of the members of The League, has moved out of its former dingy quarters into a model building which they built for themselves two years ago, at 918 Orange Street. This building cost them $23,000 and in volved them financially so that they have had some difficulties since that time, but are doing a good business in spite of the handicap. The membership is 300, each member owning at least one $5 share of stock. The baker receives here $8 above the Union wage and has the reputation of producing the best bread in town bear ing the Union label. During the war the Co-operative was prosecuted for us ing too much flour in their bread! The management of this organization is unique in that there is no paid manager, but the administration is cared for by three members of the Executive Board voluntarily. A girl is in charge of the store. The building is beautifully clean; and the bakers are obliged to use the shower baths before going to work each day. Two wagons are kept busy deliv ering the bakery products. The majority of the members are Jew ish, and the By-Laws, modelled upon those of the Purity Bakery of Paterson, are in Yiddish. Eecently several mem bers of the Consumers' League of Syra cuse have become interested in this co operative and are considering the ad visability of throwing much of their support to the bakery. CO-OPERATIVES DOING FINE WORK IN WASHINGTON The Patrons of Husbandry, better known as The Grange, is nowhere more progressive than in the State of Wash ington. For several years they have been subsidizing the co-operative move ment in their own state, and as a result they now have a pretty solid foundation established for a strong movement in the Northwest. At present the Associated Grange Warehouse Company, wholesale for the stores in the state, is doing a business of more than $500,000 annually. On their mailing list are about 90 stores, 65 of which are trading more or less regu larly with the Wholesale and about 80 of which have active accounts on the Wholesale's books. Thirty are regularly affiliated. Last year the pages of CO-OPERATION carried the story of the attempted boy cott of the Co-operative Wholesale by the private manufacturers of soap and the establishment of co-operative brands of soap on the part of the Wholesale. At the present time these two brands, "Pomona" and "Gleaner" (laundry and toilet soaps), are selling at the rate of about 1,000 cases a month. These two brands cover every form of soap needed by the average household, from the finest bath soap to the roughest laundry soap, and the different grades of soap powder. One man who had much to do with the building up of this institution is A. S. Goss, for several years the manager of the Warehouse Company and now the Master of the State Grange. The state organization of the Grange has put $10,000 into co-operative education dur ing these few years. At the recent National Congress of the Grange the co-operators of Washing ton submitted a most thoroughgoing legislative program for presentation to the Congress just about to convene in Washington, D. C. One of the interest ing features included in this program is a provision for "commodity credits," not much different from the commodity currency now being used in Russia, to be issued by the Government and to be based upon the commodities held by the Farmers' Marketing Association of the CO-OPERATION 13 country. To" be sure, such a proposal will be hailed as "extremely radical" by the majority of the legislators at the national capital. To co-operators, how ever, and especially to the producers of the nation's food, it will look like very good economics. On the Directors' Page appears the fine story of centralized bookkeeping as it is carried on by these people. Stores in Oregon and Idaho are now buying goods from this Wholesale. There is no reason why stores three or four times as far away should not use their centralized accounting service. RESOLUTION ON GERMANY Be It Resolved by the Board of Di rectors of the Central States Co-opera tive Wholesale Society, that the commu nication from the Central Union of Ger man Consumers' Co-operative Societies, signed by their Board of Directors, Heinrich Kaufmann, Hugo Bastlein, August Kasch and Paul Hoffmann, be received. That we express our sympa thy with the German Co-operative Move ment in this crisis and strongly indorse their effort to maintain their present form of government as represented by the German Republic now in power; that we are in accord with their declara tion that there should be a readjustment of the reparations question made by competent representatives of the differ ent governments of the civilized nations of the world on the basis of Germany's ability to pay as contemplated in the proposal of Secretary Hughes, repre senting the United States government, and agreed to by Great Britain, Italy, and other enlightened nations, and that we call on all Co-operators in all of the different countries of the world by every honorable means possible to endeavor to influence their governments to bring about this conference to the end that industry in Germany and hi all of the other European countries, and our own as well, may be brought into a normal condition, functioning for the best in terests of the peoples of all these coun tries; and that the awful suffering be remedied at the earliest moment possi ble; and that a friendlier and more helpful attitude and relationship be es tablished permanently between the peo ples of the earth. Be It Further Resolved, that this resolution be given to all the Labor Press of our country and that a copy be sent to the President of the United States, to the Board of Directors of the Central Union of German Consumers' Co-operative Societies, to the Interna tional Co-operative Alliance. CENTRAL STATES CO-OPERATIVE WHOLESALE SOCIETY. John H. Walker, President. Robert D. Kelly, Vice-President. Al. Towers, Secy.-Treas. Directors: L. J. Salch. Chas. Wenschel. Sam'1 Willis. G. L. Kennedy. Wm. Shears. FAEMINGTON BREAKS ITS OWN RECORDS Farmington, Illinois, is a town of only 3,000 population. Yet the co-operative store there, by far the largest in the town, does business every month to the amount of nearly $20,000. The sales for the third quarter of 1923 are as follows: Sales in Grocery Department..... $42,112.88 Sales in Dry Goods Department.. .. 10,700.100 Sales in Butcher Department...... 6,068.15 Total Salea ....$58,881.03 After paying all expenses and mak ing deductions for depreciation, taxes, and interest, the balance remaining to the co-operators was $7,394. This is pretty near the total share capital put into the business by the members ($8,045.06). The members also have loan capital in their society to the amount of $26,291.18. For a town this size, a co-operative store society with total resources of $70,255 must very nearly monopolize the commercial activities of the community. At any rate, Farmington is a good ob ject lesson for those pessimists who still believe that co-operation cannot succeed in the United States in the face of the competition of private business. 14 CO-OPERATION SAN DIEGO CELEBRATES VICTORY The co-operators of San Diego, Cali fornia, celebrated on November 14th a great victory. Not only has the San Diego Co-operative Association succeeded in its legal battle to carry 011 its store independently of the bankrupt Pacific Co-operative League, but its business has been prospering. On June 8th the local co-operators took over their business •which for a time had been taken away from them by the receivership. The first few weeks small losses were incurred. In August the store was "breaking even." September showed a small net gain, and by the end of October the business was steadily increasing. The Jubilee program included talks on the Co-operative Movement and lively music. The keynote of the gathering was stated by the little magazine now published by the San Diego co-operators: "San Diego's Co-operative Movement has been 'tried in the fire' and has stood the test. Our Rochdale store and our local movement is once more on a solid foundation. "Let us all turn our faces ahead, for get the past and face the future in a comradely spirit. Let us all set our eyes upon the Ultimate Goal toward which all humanity is sloAvly moving— The Co-operative Commonwealth and the Brotherhood of Man." MORE CO-OPERATIVE MILK IN PROSPECT Denver, Colorado, has had a situation in the milk business similar to that which caused the formation of co-opera tive creameries in Minneapolis and Cleveland. Within the past few months a group of labor and co-operative lead ers have been busy trying to perfect an organization for the co-operative distri bution of milk in that city. To-day both the producers and the consumers of milk are pretty much at the mercy of one large distributing corporation. Recently one or two of the men who are at the head of this new movement have been corresponding with The League and with the Franklin Creamery officials. They already have the good will of the farmers and believe that these farmers Avill join the consumers' organization. They have an option on a building which can be leased. Stock will probably be sold in two classes, common and preferred, the former only to have voting power. Common stock will cost $25 per share. Co-operators in all parts of the country will watch with interest this new effort in the direction of co operative dairy products. WHERE DO THE MILK USERS GET THE BEST SERVICE? Recently a report has been published of the successful distribution of milk by the organized dairymen of Quincy, 111., to the consumers of Quincy. Eight retail and three wholesale milk routes are being operated and products sold are milk, butter, buttermilk, cream, and cottage cheese. Milk is being sold at 10 cents a quart, and the farmer is getting 61 per cent of the consumer's dollar. The farmer is getting $2.40 for milk that tests 3.5. This is producers' distribution of milk. Recent figures from Minneapolis show what consumers' distribution of milk can do. Milk there is more expen sive, of course, as is always the case in the larger city where the expense of bringing the milk in from the farms is higher. But though milk is selling for 12 cents in Minneapolis, it has been sold by the co-operative there as low as 10 cents also. The farmers selling to the Franklin Creamery are getting 65.4 per cent of the consumer's dollar. Whereas these same farmers received only $2.20 per can from the private dealers in Min neapolis in 1921, they now receive about $2.70. Unfortunately, the Quincy Asso ciation does not give the butterfat tests for all its milk, but we have the Frank lin test as 3.71 for 1921, 3.79 for 1922, and 3.76 for the first half of 1923. Neither does the Quincy Association tell what its bacteria tests are, but we find that Franklin in 1922 reports 16,166 per c.c. The farmers about Quincy are selling to the public at a reasonable price, but CO-OPERATION 15 their first interest is their own income. The Franklin Creamery is interested in pure milk primarily, for it represents the consumers. The Franklin Creamery buys from the organized producers, too, but it sees that the consumers have a chance to express their collective desires for the best products at the lowest price. We will wager that the people of Minne apolis are getting better service all round; and it appears as though the farmers of Minnesota were getting more money under this arrangement, also. 150 PER CENT SAVINGS IN BLOOMINGTON The co-operative society of Blooming- ton, Illinois, has the splendid record of having returned to its membership in co-operative savings $1.50 for every dol lar invested in the society since it was organized. This society started business in January, 1918. At the close of busi ness July 1, 1923, it had saved its mem bers $35,133, or more than $15,000 in excess of its paid-up capital stock. In a little over five years the members have not only received 4 per cent interest on the money invested in their own store, but they have saved $1.50 on their gro cery bills for every dollar they put into their society. Self-help certainly pays in dollars and cents. FARMERS' STORE AT ALEX ANDER, N. D. The Farmers' Co-operative in the lit tle town of Alexander, North Dakota, recently affiliated with The Co-operative League, began business in April, 1922, and already has built up a good trade among the families of the town and out lying country. Although there are yet only 39 members and a paid-in capital of hardly $4,000, the sales for that nine months of 1922 were almost $25,000. Friends in North Dakota report that the law there compels the co-operative society to pay 8 per cent to stockholders. This is a rather burdensome loan to place upon a young co-operative that is trying to get a good start, but even in those first nine months the co-operators of Alexander were able to save $129.61 net surplus. Like other amateurs, they have made their mistakes and learned much thereby. How well they do in the fu ture may depend very much upon the kind of contacts they can establish with other co-operatives in that state of mul titudinous co-operative failures. FOLLY AMONG CANADIAN FARMERS General Secretary George Keen of the Co-operative Union of Canada tells of the disastrous experience that has come to thousands of the farmers of Ontario who insisted on trying the chain store experiment again in the field of co operation. Several years ago a successful operator of chain stores in the Province of On tario sold out his own business and then went throughout the province preaching the gospel of "co-operative chain stores." The farmers, meeting in large numbers, easily swayed by the platform orator with his vast promises, were swept off their feet, in spite of the wiser coun sel given them by the officers of the Canadian Union. Forty-seven stores were organized in as many communities. This year the entire system is in collapse and all the stores, with the exception of a few that have been turned over to local farmers' associations, are closed. Half a million dollars, or two-thirds of the farmers' total investment, has been lost. The great farmers' marketing associa tions of the province now admit in their publications that the scheme was a mis take, but they do not put so much blame on the chain store method of organiza tion as upon Co-operation itself! They say that co-operative stores are generally a failure in America; hence the organ ized farmers of Ontario should not blame their leaders, but should blame Fate or some other impersonal bogey. In the future the organizations are going to confine their activities to cen tralized marketing and to the mail order business. The Canadian Union now has 16 CO-OPERATION to combat this organized propaganda that tells thousands of farmers that con sumers' stores are impracticable. The hopeful element in the situation is the small group of stores which still survive and which are making a living demon stration of the practicability of genuine consumers' co-operation in foods and clothing and the other necessities of rural life. have shown scant interest in the subject. The office of this Union is in the Com munity Church House, 12 Park Ave. CONSUMERS CREDIT UHION GROWING The Consumers Co-operative Credit Union of New York City, although one of the smallest of the 95 that are located in the Metropolitan area, is one of the most progressive. The statement issued by the Treasurer in December shows a paid-up membership of 100, total capital of $2,219, deposits of $529, and loans outstanding of $2.793. For several months now there have been applications for loans that could not be filled and the members are at work getting then- friends to join and increase the working capital. This Credit Union is one of the few co-operative institutions of the kind that has its headquarters in a church other than a Catholic church. Throughout the countries of Europe and in Canada the Catholic priests are frequently the organizers and leaders in the local credit institutions, but Protestant churches WELLMAN, IOWA The Farmers' Co-operative Mercantile Company of Wellman, Iowa, is now five years old and going stronger than ever. The membership is 100, there are nine employees, and the paid-up capital stock amounts to $29,000. The store is hand ling dry goods, groceries, flour, feed, coal, notions, and some of the farmers' produce. This year the sales are up ward of $300,000. The store at Wellman is doing a hand some business, but in the early days bad mistakes were made which have seri ously handicapped the co-operators ever since. The first year a trade dividend of 30 per cent was paid out, and the effects of that error are still being felt. Now the directors are much better informed on the manner of running a co-operative store, the members have had a chance to realize that a co-operative cannot do superhuman stunts for them, and the future looks better. Co-operators who make mistakes and learn thereby are true co-operators. It is those who never learn who are keeping the movement back. Wellman now has the bigger vision and the better training which augurs well for its future. These people have just united with the national move ment by joining The League. THE DIRECTORS' PAGE ACCOUNTING SIMPLIFIED Proper bookkeeping in the local so ciety is one of Co-operation's most dif ficult and pressing problems. Books must be kept and kept right or the so ciety is in constant danger. Eight book keeping means complete double-entry records, and the little group of farmers, railroad men or miners are hard put to it to produce such a volunteer worker; and they can't afford a full time em ployee for that work alone. Until co- operators can solve this common prob lem they cannot pretend to be competing effectively with private business. But co-operative societies acting to gether can do what they cannot do separately, and they can do it even bet ter perhaps than private business does it. At present consumers' societies in three sections of the country are finding the solution for this perplexing problem. The Associated Grange Warehouse Company of Seattle, Washington, is a CO-OPERATION 17 wholesale for about 65 stores, 30 of which are directly affiliated and using the central accounting system of the Seattle office. Managers of the stores throughout the state make out on a single sheet a Daily Report showing Cash Disbursements and Cash Receipts, itemized statements of Checks Drawn and of Invoices and Credit Memoranda. A carbon of this is kept by the manager and the original mailed to the offices in Seattle, accompanied by all invoices and credit memoranda received during the day. The accounting staff at head quarters keeps a set of books for each society and sends a monthly statement to the Board of Directors of each store. This report contains not only the statement of Assets and Liabilities and an itemized statement of purchases classified according to commodities, but a careful analysis of the month's ex penses. This analysis gives the figures for each item of expense, the percentage for each of these, and the corresponding percentage figures for the corresponding month in the previous year, the average for all the stores in the state for the month, and the averages for all the stores for the two- preceding years. Ap pended to the report is a Comparative Report showing in parallel columns the figures for the current month and the three preceding months for Accounts Receivable, Notes Receivable, Accounts Payable, Inventory, Net Purchases, Ex penses and Sales. Incidentally, it is worth noting that the average Expense Percentages for all the stores affiliated with the Grange Warehouse have run as follows: 1921 8.566% 1922 8.250% 1923 (Oct.) 9.390% It is pretty difficult to find any other group of stores that keeps expenses so low as that over a period of years. The local store pays for this service a flat rate of $10 per month plus $1.75 for each $1,000 of sales. The local society thus gets regular accounting service which is much cheaper and much more efficient than that of the local book keeper. But even these are not the greatest advantages gained. At headquarters the accountants regularly compare the invoices from different stores, and they have made two discoveries. First, an occasional man ager, not a co-operator and so accus tomed to getting his private rake-off, makes an agreement with a salesman from a private wholesale house whereby the invoiced charge for goods is raised and the manager and salesman split 50-50 on the graft. The local directors would have no means of checking this dishonesty, but the central accountants can compare invoices from dozens of stores. Second, there are some managers getting special bargains that other co operative managers should know about. One store in the northern part of the state was found to be buying egg-crates at a very low figure. The wholesale transferred its entire egg-crate business to this company and thus saved for most of its stores enough money on egg-crates alone to cover the cost of the central accounting service. The Co-operative Central Exchange, Superior, Wisconsin, has maintained an auditing service for several years. H. V. Nurmi is in charge of this and at busy seasons of the year has as many as four men visiting the local societies. This is essentially an auditing service only, not centralized bookkeeping, but it has saved the life of many a co-opera tive which could not get competent auditing service locally. The Central States Co-operative Wholesale Society has recently estab lished a central accounting bureau some what similar to that in effect in the State of Washington, but this service has just been started and only a few stores are using it yet. Directors must realize that the cen tralized bookkeeping idea will be bit terly opposed by many managers who feel that this kind of thing takes away much of their independence. The co operative manager who gets the larger idea of the movement, however, will be glad to be relieved of this responsibility so that he can give more attention to the problem of buying, selling and adminis tering his store affairs and his staff of employees. The societies in the eastern part of the country have no such central bureau of accounting at present and 18 CO-OPEKATION The Co-operative League hopes in the near future to establish one which will T)e able to handle reports from any state east of the territory now served by the wholesales in Illinois and Wisconsin. Just how soon we can do this and just what the nature of the service will be depends very much upon the sentiment, the demand for it among the societies in the eastern states. THE CORRESPONDENCE FILE WHAT CO-OPERATIVE BANKING DOES FOR FARMERS Explanatory of the difficulties attending the introduction of co-operation in this country compared with its long existence in the dif ferent parts of Europe, we ignore the difference in environment, intercommunication, and transmission of intelligence. This is best illustrated possibly by Raif- feisen's introduction of co-operative rural credit into the infertile Westerwald after a succession of crop failures, when the rapacity of the money-lenders led whole communities to consider emigration en masse. The existence of the co-operative rural credit banks estab lished by Raift'eisen was not known across the Rhine for about twenty years, and then it had transformed the Westerwald into one of the richest and most fertile sections of Germany and its discouraged and intemperate citizens into thrifty, wealthy, and efficient farmers. As soon as the story was known the system overran all Europe. The financial over-lords could not stop it. I do not think the above facts are generally known. They are of record in the report of Taft's commission, appointed by himself and governors of states and sent ab'road to study the Raiffeisen System of Rural Credit; and they appear in the reports to Congress by David Lubin, Myron Herrick, and many others. The book, "David Lubin," by Olivia Rossetti Agresit, Little, Brown and Co., has much bear ing on this subject. His interview in Paris with the committee of bankers sent out to head off co-operative rural credit is especially interesting. Here all sorts of obstacles are put in the way by '' big business,'' and many co-operative forms of business which would succeed with helpful advice of business men are ruthlessly rooted out. J. H. GREENE, St. Paul, Minn. SAN DIEGO KEEPING UP THE MAGNIFICENT FIGHT These last three years are the longest three years I ever spent. But a ray of light is finally peeping through all the topsy-turvy mess here. If we can have some good sound educational work right now and good business advice, it looks as though things were going to come out all right. The situation is this: I saw which way the Pacific League was headed and tried to pull our stores out in time. Finally got enough of a group to control organization meetings, but too late to beat Ames and his crowd in tying up our property. When it was too late, the crowd woke up. We begged enough money to carry our fight for possession through the state and federal courts and won. The San Francisco Board of Trade, as creditor- trustee of the alleged estate of the Pacific Co operative League, have appealed and we are now awaiting the decision of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals which will review the matter next February. There will be a dickens of a lot more legal fighting even if we win that decision. Seeing that this thing would drag along for months and perhaps years, succeeded in get ting through a motion last June to take over our one remaining store from the receiver, posting a bond to secure the receiver and con tracting for a bill of sale, if we lost our ap peal, upon payment of a stipulated sum. This was done and agreed to by the federal judge. From June 8th, 1923, the store has been in our possession. When we took it over there was no business at all—it had been ruined by the receiver. June and July we lost nearly $500, but by August the members saw we really meant business and began slowly to come back and do their trading at the store. Business has been steadily increasing. August we "broke even." September we made a lit tle profit and in October a little more. We are paying an enormous rental, but we have succeeded in subletting parts of the store and have brought our own rent down to a very low rate. The future looks very encouraging so far as the business is concerned. But we are not incorporated. We are act ing simply as an extra legal voluntary associa tion doing business through our Board of Directors as trustees. We must have a real business organization, properly incorporated, and must then prepare to make a campaign for new members. STANLEY M. GUE, San Diego, Calif. Those desiring the Index for CO-OP ERATION for the year 1923 may procure a copy by writing to The Co-operative League. CO-OPERATION PUBLICATIONS of THE CO-OPERATIVE LEAGUE HISTORICAL Per Copy 3 Story of Co-operation ........................................................ J .10 7 British Co-operative Movement ............................................... .10 SS. Co-operative Consumers' Movement in the United States....................... .05 89. Consumers' Co-operative Societies in N. T. State, (Published by Consumers' League). . . . ............................................................. ,.10 10. A Baker and What He Baked (Belgian movement) TECHNICAL 4. How to Start and Eun a Eochdale Co-operative Society....................... .10 6. System of Store Records and Accounts......................................... .BO 6. A Model Constitution and By-Laws for a Co-operative Society................ .05 8. Co-operative Education. Duties of Educational Committee Denned.......... .10 9. How to Start a Co-operative Wholesale....................................... .10 27. Why Co-operative Stores Fail.... ............................................. .02 2. Co-operative Store Management................................................ .10 14. How to Start and Eun a Women's Guild........................................ .05 IB. How to Organize a District Co-operative Jjeagne.............................. .10 29. Credit Union Primer (By Ham and Eobinson)................................ ,.25 MISCELLANEOUS Model Co-op State Law........................................................ .10 Syllabus for Course of Lectures, with Eeferences and Bibliography.......... .25 Producers* Co-operative Industries............................................ .10 Control of Industry by the People through the Co-operative Movement...... ..10 Credit Union and Co-operative Store.......................................... .05 „. Co-operative Movement (Yiddish).............................................. .02 41. Farmer's Co-operation (By Benson Y. Landis)................................ i.lB 42. Co-op Homes for Europe's Homeless.......................................... .10 43. Co-operative Housing:. . . . .................................................... .10 30. " When the Whistle Blew " (Story, by Bruce Calvert)......................... .06 XL Course of Study in Successful Co-operation (by W. C. Lansdon). 10 pamphlets...... $6.00 6.00 4.00 4.00 2.60 1.00 16. 17. 46. 11. 12. 34. 1.78 1.26 1.00 ONE-PAGE LEAFLETS (One cent each; 50 cents per MO; $2.50 per 500; $4 per 1,000) (1) Principles and Aims of The Co-operative League; (18) DO You Know Why You Should Be a Co-operator; (20) Why Loyalty Is Necessary; (21) Cost and Crime of Credit; (22) A Eeal Co-operator; (25) Eesolutions Adopted by A. F. of L.; (26) Factory Workers Co-operate!; (28) Do You Know About Co-operation in Europe?; (40) Have You a Committee on Educa tion and Recreation ?; (44) What Is the Co-operative Movement ?; (45) Schools and Stores; (47) A Man's Eight to a Job; (48) Tips to Co-operators MONTHLY PUBLICATIONS CO-OPEEATION—(In bundle lots, $7.50 per hundred). Subscription, per year..............$1.00 HOME CO-OPEEATOE, 4 pages..........................................................81 per 100 INTEBNATIONAL CO-OPEEATIVE BULLETIN (Pub. by The I. C. A.)..........per year, $1.60 BOOKS The following books are recommended as containing the best discussions of the modern Co-operative Movement. They may be ordered through The League: Bergengren, Eoy F.: Co-operative Banking, A Credit Union Book.......................... S3.00 Bubnoff, J. B.: The Co-operative Movement in Eussia, 1917.................................. 1.25 Faber, Harald: Co-operation in Danish Agriculture, 1918.................................... 2.75 Flanagan, J. A.: Wholesale Co-operation in Scotland, 1920................................... 2.00 Gebhard, Hannes: Co-operation in Finland, 1916....................................... 2 00 Gide, C.: Consumers' Co-operative Societies, 1921............................................. 2.50 Gide, C.: Consumers' Co-operative Societies, American edition and notes, 1922. Cloth, $3.00; paper bound................................................................... ,.90 Harris, Emerson P.: Co-operation, The Hope of the Consumer, 1918. Cloth, $2.00; paper bound. . . . . ............................................................................... .60 Holyoake: Eochdale Pioneers................................................................. 1.00 Howe, Fred C.: Denmark, a Co-operative Commonwealth, 1921............................... 2.00 Madams, J. P.: The Story Eetold............................................................. .50 Nicholson, Isa: Our Story..................................................................... .25 Potter, B.: Co-operative Movement in Great Britain.......................................... 1.00 Eedfern, Percy: The Story of the C. W. S................................................... 2.00 Eedfern, Percy: The Consumers' Place in Society, 1920...................................... 1.00 Smith-Gordon & Staples: Eural Eeconstructlou in Ireland. 1918.............................. 1.50 Smith-Gordon and Staples: Co-operation in Denmark......................................... 1.00 Smith-Gordon: Co-operation in Many Lands, 1820............................................ 1.50 Sonnichsen, Albert. Consumers' Co-operation, 1919. Cloth bound, $1.75; paper hound....... .75 Steen, H.: Co-operative Marketing ............................................................ 2.00 Stollnsky, A.: The Co-operative Movement. In Yiddish....................................... 1.00 Warbasse, James P.: Co-operative Democracy................................................. 3.50 Webb, B. and S.: The Consumers* Co-operative Movement, 1921.............................. 5.00 Webb, Catherine: Industrial Co-operation, 1917............................................. 1.60 Woolf, Leonard: Co-operation and the Future of Industry.................................... 1.60 Woolf, L.: Socialism and Co-operation........................................................ 1.50 "The Co-operative Consumer" and "Co-operation," III (1917), VI (1920), VII (1921), VIII (1922). .... ............................................................................... 1.25 Transactions of Second American Co-operative Congress, 1920.................................. 1.00 Transactions of Third American Co-operative Congress, 1922................................ 1.00 The People's Year Book. 1923. Cloth. .80: paper bound...................................... .60 (Ten cents postage should be added for books which cost more than $2.00, and five cents for the smaller books.) THE CO-OPERATIVE LEAGUE (Member of The International Co-operative Alliance) 167 West 12th Street, New York An educational organization for teaching the history, principles, methods and alms «f the Co-operative Movement and for the promotion of Co-operation in the United States. Join The League and thus help promote the educational work of the Co-operative Movement. Subscribe for the Monthly Magazine and keep in touch with the Movement. Enclosed find $......... for Subscription for CO-OPERATION, $1.00. Membership in The LEAGUE, $1.00. Name... Address. Co-operative Central Exchange Wholesale Grocers and Jobbers, Bakers We supply goods to Co-operative Societies ONLY. We are owned and controlled by Co operative Societies. We are organized to enable Co-operative Societies to do collectively what they cannot do individually. Co-operative Central Exchange Offices, Warehouses and Plant: Winter Street and Ogden Ave., SUPERIOR, WIS. Co-operators' Ltd. Mutual Fire Insurance Co. is now writing insurance in State of Wisconsin THE PRODUCER Issued Monthly • Price 3d. If you want to keep in touch with business, organization, administrative affairs, and problems of the British Co-operative Movement, read THE PRODUCER. Published by Co-operative Wholesale Society, Inc. 1 Balloon Street, Manchester Post free 4 sh. 6d. a year. The Trade and Technical Organ of British Co-operation. The New Secretary's Ledger Just published by the EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT, Central States Co-operative Wholesale Society (203 Converse Ave., E. St. Louis, 111.) is the form for keeping the Membership Ledger of a Co-operative Society which provides ample and proper space for all transactions with a maximum of efficiency and a minimum of time, worry and errors. Send for Samples and Prices. Co-operation in Scotland In no part of the world is Co-operation fur ther developed, or more successfully practiced than in Scotland. If you wish to keep in. formed, read "The Scottish Co-operator" (Published Weekly) Subscription: Tear 12 sh.; half-year, 6 sh. Address, 119 Paisley Road, Glasgow, Scotland The Madras Monthly Bulletin of Co-operation ROYAPETTAH, MADRAS, INDIA The only monthly on Co-operation in India. Special articles on Rural, Con sumers', Agricultural, Credit and Indus trial Co-operation; and Co-operation Abroad. Subscription Rs. 4/12 per annum. The Canadian Co-operator Brantford, Ontario, Canada The organ of the Canadian Co-opera tive Movement, owned by and con ducted under the auspices of The Co-operative Union of Canada. Published monthly 75c per annum THE HOME CO-OPERATOR A four-page magazine for use in co-operative societies. Issued monthly, in bundles, $1 per hundred. Published by The Co-operative League Publishing Office, Willimantic, Conn. Albert Sonnichsen, Managing Editor. OO'C-'TION magazine to spread the knowledge of the Co-operative Movement, whereby the people, in vol- nntary association, produce and distribute for their own use the things they need Published monthly by The Co-operative League, 167 West 12th Street, New York City. J. P. Warbasse, Editor. Entered as second class matter, Decem ber 19, 1917, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Price $1.00 a year. Vol. X, No. 2 FEBRUARY, 1924 10 Gents VITAL ISSUES COOL HEADS IN EUROPE'S CONFLAGRATION The distress of the working people in Germany is desperate. We are con stantly in receipt of communications from the German Co-operators which show the terrible obstacles against which they are keeping alive their movement. Industry is growing stagnant. The members of the societies are working only part time—many but one day a week. The income of the worker is not sufficient to feed the family. Mothers come to the stores to beg credit for a little bread, while the hungry children stand barefooted and cold in the streets hoping for food. A once great nation— the most learned, the most progressive and the most highly developed in science and art—is being purposefully starved to death six years after the great victory to "make the world a better place to live in" While the children, the aged, and the weak are being destroyed by the de liberate acts of the Allied statesmen, a noteworthy tone is to be discovered in all of the German co-operative papers. There is no expression of malice. No resentment. No hatred. The co-opera tive publications calmly and plainly state the dreadful facts and then ad monish the people to be calm, to be patient, and to be courageous. "Cool headed" is the watchword that meets the co-operators at every turn. The co-operators, numbering half of the population of Germany, know the awful truth of the war. They know now that their Kaiser was no better than Lloyd George, Clemanceau or Wilson, He fed them upon the same sort of lies and propaganda that the people of France, England and America swal lowed. And they now witness their country invaded by a powerful army, perpetrating atrocities, sneering at them because they will not fight, resorting to every measure to exasperate and humili ate them. Their children are wasting, their aged are starving, their strong are growing weaker day by day. The babes suck in vain the empty breasts of hungry mothers. The German co-operators know that all of this goes on in a world capable of producing enough food to give every body abundance. Yet unemployment is rife the world over; hands are idle; com merce is growing stagnant. And mean while a million children, born since peace was declared, are dying so that the defunct government of their dead parents can be punished. And the real culprits who made the war and kept it going are feeding themselves fat. In the face of this dreadful blasphemy of justice the German Co-operators are calm and unresentful. They do not hold the French co-operators guilty. They know that behind it all stands the black and ominous figure of French Big Busi ness, hungry for the coal and iron of 20 CO-OPEEATION CO-OPEEATION 21 Germany and greedy to be rid of a com mercial rival. These patient Co-opera tors know that the French Government and its diplomats are but the paid agents of Big Business and that the Govern ment is required to control and stupefy the minds of the French people with propaganda. Perhaps no people in the world are so ignorant of the real nature of the war now being waged by France against Germany as the French people themselves. The one encouraging sign is that the French Co-operators do not support their government in its invasion of help less Germany and in its purpose to ex terminate the German people. They know the futility of such a policy, and the possibility of the economic disaster which may react upon their own coun try. At least they possess a common knowledge with their German comrades that neither French nor German, distant Hindu nor Turk, can count his life secure until the principles of justice for which Co-operation stands become domi nant methods of intercourse among men. J. P. W. SHALL LOYALTY BE COMPULSORY? Co-operators generally will agree that the most potent cause for failure is lack of loyalty within the society. And where disloyalty does not cause actual failure, it does prevent the proper de velopment of the society. Is there any sure cure for this most devastating of all co-operative maladies ? The farmers who are marketing their products collectively say there is a remedy. It is the contract. Under this contract the member of the association is legally bound to deliver all his prod uct (or such major part of it as is speci fied in the contract) to his own associa tion. He can't deal with private business or the co-operative association will sue him for damages. And the co-operatives have always been upheld in these suits by the courts. Here is a solution for the problem of disloyalty; make loyalty compulsory! Can the consumers' co-operative use compulsion on its members? We know of one very prominent leader in the farmers' marketing movement who says it can and should. He would have every member of the consumers' association sign a contract to buy every cent's worth of his groceries from his own store, or pay a fine! A lot of directors and man agers could get rid of countless worries under such a plan. And no need for an educational committee either! "But this theory is in direct conflict with the whole history and theory of the voluntary consumers' co-operative movement", we say. "There is enough compulsion in the world as it is; what we need is more liberty, more intel ligence, more brotherhood. Compulsion destroys all of these." Does it? Is it an unmixed evil? There is a lesson for us in this dis covery that the farmers have made. They have found a method whereby they free the co-operative of all competition from private business interests. We in the consumers' movement cannot always do that. But in certain instances we can do even this. And we can always give more attention to those lines of business where there is the least com petition. In our large cities the competing chain store is a constant invitation to our members to be disloyal. But there is one line of business that we can go into and use the contract just as.the farmers use it in their marketing. That is housing. And the contract is the year's lease. Once we get the member signed up for the apartment or the house, we know we can count on that income to the association for the rest of the year. There is no reason why we can't do the same with coal, which is a single commodity where orders for the season can be placed at one time. We can do it again perhaps with ice. We imagine that sometime a consumers' co operative may attempt to use the con tract for the year's or the half year's supply of milk and cream. There are possibilities for a modified contract method in several commodities that are delivered to the home of the member rather than purchased by the member on his shopping trip around town. To be sure we do not believe that the consumers' co-operative should be too free with the law suit in case members break such contracts. Compulsion of that kind has little place in our volun tary movement. The contract should be considered more in the nature of a promise, an agreement. And yet the association might occasionally find the necessity for enforcing it in an instance where the member broke his pledge not so much through ignorance or indiffer ence as through actual malice, a desire to injure the organization. And though we can scarcely use the contract form of membership in the grocery co-operative or the clothing co operative or the restaurant co-operative, we can choose those lines of business where competition is slight or absent al together. Most workers and farmers cannot get small loans without collateral except from loan sharks. The credit union has almost no competitor. Though it would be folly for the rural groups to organize a co-operative mail order house to compete with the powerful Sears, Eoebuck, or Montgomery Ward, still there may be a real savings to the members through the co-operative gro cery store in a small town where efficient grocery methods have not yet been in troduced and where the advantage of trading in the co-operative store is ap parent to all. The profit interests capi talize the selfishness of men and women. The co-operative can do the same—pro vided it never neglects the more power ful weapon of education. Co-operators must remember that the farmers' commodity organizations do not have a monopoly of this contract form of membership. There are in stances where we can use it, too. And where we can't use it we can at least learn the lesson of the contract, which is to eliminate as many as possible of the temptations offered by competing busi ness. C. L. of the need of scarcity of things in order to keep up prices of goods and to keep down the costs of labor. The following statement is attributed to an eminent college professor in a re cent discussion on housing. The learned man has since disclaimed it. Still, if he did not say it, many professors and most business men are saying it. This is the statement: '' There must always be a surplus of labor to keep wages down, or else wages would be abnormally high. There must always be a number of work ers without employment; and the same thing applies to renting. There must always be a surplus of tenants," This is something more than false economics. It cannot be disposed of on the ground of ignorance of fundamental principles. It is something more. It is rank im morality. Yet this false notion provides the moral power and support to ex ploiters of the people to lay on and do their worst. Whoever makes this statement really means that, if the present profit system is to be kept alive, there must be surplus of labor and scarcity of the things the people need. The unfortunate fact is that people still support an economic theory that has gotten the world into its present mess, that is responsible for slums and poverty, that hurled twenty million men at one another's throats and is preparing to do it again. J. P. W. THE DOCTRINE OP SCARCITY We Co-operators at least know how to carry on business without the need of unemployment and scarcity of homes. Still there is prevalent the ancient idea "NOW THAT THE VICTIMS ARE DEAD AND FORGOTTON" CO-OPERATION for March, 1922, ran an editorial upon the terrible Knicker bocker Theatre collapse at Washington in which 100' people were killed. We quoted the President's pious words about "revolving fates", and suggested that revolving profits had much more to do with the disaster, for the theatre was built not for the safety and happiness of its patrons, but for the profit of mercenary promoters of commercialized recreation. We now come across a newspaper item which declares that the men indicted for criminal negligence at the time, the architect, building inspectors and fore- 22 CO-OPERATION CO-OPERATION 23 men, have been set free by the court which "failed to find evidence that the men were guilty of manslaughter". And the court is quite right. The men are guilty of nothing worse than doing the job they are paid to do; put up a building in the shortest possible time, put into it the cheapest materials which will pass the inspectors, and turn the finished structure over to some amuse ment company at the biggest profit to themselves and their employers. The charge of manslaughter should be brought against the profit system which sets money above human life. But that charge waits for the decision of a h:gher court than the Court of Appeals at Washington, D. C. That decision will be made by the common people of the country when they have acquired an un derstanding of the co-operative move ment. C. L. CONTRIBUTED ARTICLES THE PEACE PKIZE HUMBUG: HOW TO HAVE PEACE By J. P. Warbasse The Bok peace prize is the greatest piece of fraud that has been put over on the American public since the war humbug was perpetrated. It is also an unblushing piece of effrontery to the few thinking people who call the United States their country. A wealthy advocate of The League of Nations offered a prize of $100,000 for the best plan whereby the U. S. might co-operate with other nations to achieve world peace. A jury of seven was ap pointed to make the award, six of whom were already committed to the League of Nations plan. Some 22,165 plans were sent in. But the prize has been awarded to a contestant who merely advocates the same old League of Nations which the voters of the U. S. so overwhelmingly repudiated when they cast out Mr. Wil son and his League of Nations baggage in 1920. During the past four years the world has had ample opportunity to see this iniquitous product of the Versailles treaty in operation—or rather fail to operate. Now, the committee, having made the award, has sent a referendum broadcast over the country to reach every citizen asking for his vote of approval or dis approval of the plan of the prize winner. They have sent out a ballot with a short explanation of the plan. The fifty mil lion citizens who vote on the strength of this summary actually will think that they are voting on the plan for peace, but here again they will be humbugged. They think they are voting for our join ing the World Court, but "the plan" is for our joining the League created by the Versailles Treaty. Nor would they be much better informed if they should read the whole of "the plan" itself, for it is much the same as that which Wilson attempted five years before. Among the other 22,164 plans were undoubtedly some that contained at least a suggestion as to how to have peace. This one does not. It looks as though it might have been writ ten by a fiscal agent of the British Gov ernment. It is nothing more or less than a pretty piece of propaganda to get the American public unwittingly to support the League of Nations. The British Government spent $100,- 000,000 in propaganda to get the U. S. into the war. Our entrance into the war was a calamity for the U. S., for the people of Great Britain, and for Ger many. The world would have been bet ter off if we had stayed out. Now we are to be propagandized into the World Court and the League of Nations. And our entrance will be another calamity for the whole world. Helping to make a bad business succeed is not the way to success. The Great War was a conflict between the profit-making interests of the great countries. It had nothing to do with humanity or the principles of justice. They lied to us who said it had. The League of Nations is a natural product of such a wicked war. It is a league of the victors to preserve the profit-system in their interest. It has no implications of world peace; and it never had any. It has no more purpose "to end war" than had the Great War a purpose "to end war." The same state of mind that was deluded by the one is now de luded by the other. We are aware that a large proportion of the co-operators of Great Britain and of France desire that the U. S. shall enter the League of Nations. They are conscious of the bankruptcy of their governments. The whole European eco nomic fabric is going bad. The U. S., with its great wealth, might stabilize things. And they are right. The U. S. might stabilize things. But the way our money would operate would be to fix the status, quo. If the U. S. "stabil ized" Europe it would be by helping to strengthen the privileged profit-making system and to fix it upon the people. Such a function would do more harm than good. It would only dam back the natural current of events which must sweep away the old economic order be fore Europe can settle down to peace. Our European co-operative comrades are taking too seriously the League of Nations, created by four old men—each one long since discredited. We should turn our backs upon the trappings of the old order and face toward the fu ture. Co-operators know how to prevent wars. We have the magic talisman in our hands. Why should we play the old game with the old gamesters? It avails nothing. The essentials for peace are these: 1. Organize the people of each coun try into voluntary nonpolitical co-opera tive consumers' societies, to supply their own needs and ultimately to create a Co-operative Democracy through which to control and administer for mutual service those useful functions now per formed by profit-business and by the political state. Thus should we substi tute the service-motive for the profit- motive in the economic life. 2. Federate the co-operative associa tions of each country into a national co operative organization. Thirty-eight countries of the world have done this. 3. Federate the national co-operative organizations into an international league of the peoples. This organization already exists in the International Co operative Alliance, which already fed erates over thirty countries. It is the nearest approach to a true League of Nations in existence. 4. Establish an international economic organization for international commerce and exchange. This is going forward in the International Co-operative Whole sale and in the International Co-opera tive Banking and Insurance Societies now in process of development. Out of this should grow international exchange for service and elimination of the inter national profit-seeking causes of war. 5. Free trade, free and unrestricted communication, and free and unham pered intercourse between nations. These are essential for the promotion of inter national friendship and understanding. In the interest of the development of the conditions that make for peace each nation shouid undertake the adoption of the following secondary essentials: 1. No government should declare war against another until the proposition has been submitted to the people by refer endum and until a majority of the men and women over eighteen years of age have voted in favor of the declaration. 2. All who have advocated war should be drafted first upon the declaration of war. 3. The people of each nation should oppose imperialistic conquest of alien peoples by their government. 4. None of the chief commodities and appliances used in warfare should be produced for profit or be a source of profit to anyone. 5. Funds for the maintenance of gov ernments, municipal, state and federal, should be raised by a tax upon the land equal to its rental value, and industry and exchange should be freed from taxation. To undo some of the past injustices of the war and to set the world in a position to go forward, released from the clutch of the dead hand of the past, the following course should be pursued: 1. Cancel all international debts that were created by the war. 2. Release all countries from the pay ment of further indemnities to the victors. 3. Withdraw all troops from foreign soil. 24 CO-OPEEATION CO-OPEEATION 25 4. Permit the peoples in lands and countries which were transferred since the war to determine by free plebiscite to what country they would be attached, or to enjoy autonomous independence. 5. Employ armies and navies for police purposes only. These, I believe, are the essentials for peace. Not one of them is contained in the prize-winning "plan" accepted by the American committee. And had a single one of these essentials been intro duced in a plan it would have been re jected. This is because the backers of war are the backers of the League of Nations. The perpetuation of the preva lent system of privilege, profit-making, and imperialism must have the condi tions that make for war; and the League of Nations is the best machinery to keep alive, for a little while longer, those conditions. The pity is that the deluded people should accept a war-making institution as an instrument of peace. THE CO-OPERATIVE TRAINING SCHOOL By Sidney Henderson {Student at the Co-operative Training School, Minneapolis) The benefits received by the students of the Co-operative Training School at Minneapolis for their five weeks of in tensive training are many and varied. I would be the last to underrate the value of Mr. Alanne's instructions on how to distinguish between real and fake co-operatives; Mr. Clark's and Mr. Nurme's careful teaching of bookkeep ing, which gave many a student the necessary minimum of knowledge to be gin immediately the keeping of store records, or Mr. Long's and Mr. Solem's practical pointers on the actual manage ment of co-operative stores and indus tries. This knowledge is essential. In fact, it forms the necessary basis for the less immediately practical but perhaps ultimately more effective influences of the school. For the school not only sends the stu dents back to their own local co-opera tives as more obliging and efficient clerks, better bookkeepers and man agers, or more effective exponents of co operative principles; it also gives them a clearer idea of the fundamental pur pose of co-operation and of its relation to other working class movements. It gives them a personal attachment to the movement as a whole. And it gives them not merely the solution to certain immediate problems, but an attitude toward co-operative problems in general which will help them to meet new prob lems as they arise. Some of the students came from dis tricts where co-operation is considered to be little more than a purely business venture. Others came from the class- conscious ranks of the Workers Party. Still others belonged to A. F. of L. or ganizations or were interested in the co-operative marketing of farm pro ducts. All were themselves advocates of co-operation, but in the groups which they represented are all shades of indif ference and opposition. Obviously, then, if the students can go back to their organizations and present the funda mental purpose and nature of co-opera tion in such a way as to gain their sup port, the school will have done a valu able service. And I believe the students all came away with the conviction that the co-operative movement is fundamen tally in sympathy with the aims of all these groups. For if there is any one idea gained at the school which will stick above all others it is this: that the Consumers' Co-operative Movement is part and parcel of a great movement of the working people of the world to estab lish a better social and economic order. What will be the effect of an under standing of true co-operative principles among those conservative groups who have previously considered co-operation largely as an instrument for the preven tion of excessive charges on the part of local dealers? It means that they will see, as Alanne showed at the school, the impassable gulf which lies between the equality of control in a co-operative as sociation and the inequality of control in a capitalist institution; between the division of benefits according to actual service and division according to capital invested, and between a co-operative type of organization in which all are welcomed as members and one in which membership is limited to the end that the few may profit at the expense of the many. It means also a realization that the elimination of excessive profits on the part of local merchants is only a be ginning to the many and greater savings which will accrue to the benefit of the consumers when the whole distributive process is organized co-operatively. The students will also be able to show the Trade Unionists and members of Farmers' Marketing Organizations the need for Consumers' Co-operation to (supplement their producers' organiza tions. For the students have learned that exploitation takes place at the point of consumption as well as at the point of production. They see that increased wages or higher prices for farm products mean nothing if the powers that be are allowed to pass this on in the form of higher prices. By organization at both ends of the line the working people can much more rapidly take over the owner ship and control of production and dis tribution. The school stressed the need for hearty co-operation between pro ducers' and consumers' organizations for the attainment of their common aims. The question of where ultimate control should rest, in a fully organized co-ope rative society, must not be allowed to prevent united action now. Members of the Workers Party and other radical students were convinced that Consumers' Co-operation is essen tially radical in its nature and tendency. They realize the advantage of building up within the old order a new mechan ism for production and distribution which can be depended upon to carry on these functions in the interest of the workers when the working classes finally gain control. This was illustrated by the important place the co-operatives hold in such countries as Russia, where the control already rests in the hands of the proletariat. So in all these ways the students, of whatever stripe, have seen that the co operative movement is in line with their own ideals and deserves the full support of their respective groups. Another way in which the Co-operative Training School did itself proud during the five short weeks of its existence was in the development of an emotional loy alty on the part of the students toward the movement as a whole. No mass move ment can get far without this. A deep personal interest in the welfare of the movement is necessary to insure con tinued support through the many dis couragements and failures. When one of the teachers said with evident feeling that he hoped in future years, if the students could not say a good word for the Co-operative Move ment they would at least be neutral, the remark did not fall on deaf ears. These many little intimacies of school life, which the students would hardly get otherwise, help to strengthen the human element in their attitude toward the co operative movement. The personal contact and acquaint ance of people who came from different sections of the country, and who were interested in different phases of the movement, broadened the feeling of loy alty, from loyalty to the local group to loyalty to the movement at large. The students gained the feeling that to be tray any important feature of the move ment would be to betray a friend—not a mere abstract principle. And the stress which was laid on the element of service, coinciding as it does with the ethical ideals of most of the students, developed a kind of religious devotion to the cause. This, it seems to me, is one of the strongholds of the Co operative Movement and the teachers did well to emphasize it. They would even have been disloyal to the true interests of co-operation if they had not empha sized it. For though the Co-operative Movement undoubtedly has many inher ent tendencies toward true democracy, it would nevertheless certainly degen erate into a quarrel between the strong for power and benefits, were it not for the ennobling and guiding influence of this spirit of service. But what has been the effect of the school on the attitude of the students toward the more immediate and practical problems of Co-operation? Will they in sist on the fullest allegiance to co-opera tive principles, forgetting meanwhile to 26 CO-OPERATION CO-OPERATION 27 be efficient in the business details? Or will they be among those to whom noth ing is important which achieves 110 im mediate result? The school greatly helped the students to gain that needed balance between these two extremes. It showed them how both a knowledge of co-operative principles and the applica tion of sound business practice were both equally and absolutely essential for success. The students were left in no doubt about the necessity of sticking close to true Rochdale principles. They saw the need of carrying on a ceaseless educational campaign among the mem bers of their organizations and of having managers who both understand and are loyal to the co-operative ideal. At the same time they understand that it is useless for co-operators to try to sub stitute a new economic machine for the old profit-making one unless the new is more efficient. The stress laid on the importance of accurate accounting, low labor cost, high turnover, cash transac tions, efficient service to customers, etc., etc., will not soon be forgotten. Obviously the school could not equip the students with the knowledge neces sary to meet all the changing problems which will confront them. It could barely make a beginning. It did make this beginning in fine style, however, as all the students will testify. But what is more important, it developed in them the desire, and in a very real sense the ability, to go on studying. It revived the ability to concentrate which with many had long been dormant for lack of use. It gave them a fair knowledge of the sources of information. It gave them an understanding of the nature of the most pressing problems, so that they will be able to pick out important informa tion when they find it. So beside receiving a very consider able volume of practical wisdom which may be applied immediately, and which will produce almost as immediate re sults, the students, and through them the whole Co-operative Movement, have received many other very real though less tangible benefits from the school. Such are an understanding of the aim of Co-operation, which will gain much support from the other workers' move ments ; an emotional loyalty to the move ment ; a fine balance between theory and practice, and the assurance that the stu dents will continue as students of Co operation. Surely the value of these contributions of the school would be difficult to overestimate. THE FIFTH CO-OPERATIVE COURSE IN FINNISH By H. V. Nurmi The Fifth Co-operative Course, pro moted by the Co-operative Central Ex change, was begun at Superior, Wis., on October 15th, for a session of six weeks' duration, including a one-week post graduate course for the co-operative store managers and bookkeepers. Thirty- nine students registered before the course was started, but due to some un accountable reasons only thirty-four were able to attend, average age being 27.9 years. It is certainly pleasing to note that each year the student group is getting noticeably younger, because if our movement is going to expand like it has during the recent years, we must get the younger generation interested in or der to carry 011 the work effectively. The following subjects were taught during the regular course: Co-operative principles, theory, methods, history, and the general labor movement; co-opera tive management and business corre spondence ; co-operative organization, administration, and bookkeeping; total ling 210 class periods of fifty minutes each, or an average of seven hours per day. The main subjects taught the post graduate students were bookkeeping —closing and opening of accounts— and making out reports and statements, and also filling out income tax returns. Besides, a few hours were allowed for demonstration of mechanical devices used in connection with office work and accounting. All the students who were attending the regular course remained for the post graduate course also. Although the student group could not boast of very high preliminary educa tion, their interest in their work seemed to offset this handicap. The writer, who has been teaching these courses since they were first started (1918), has hardly ever seen a more interested class than the recent one. Whatever the students were asked to do, or whatever home work was given to them, they were al ways willing to respond without any complaint. Such interest cannot be de veloped in our bourgeois institutions of learning. All students seemed fully to conceive the idea that they had to learn quite a lot during the short period of five or six weeks, and while they were coming to attend these courses with their hard-earned savings, they could not spend their time for useless frolicking, which is very common among the stu dent bodies of our schools and colleges. The school group also organized a co operative restaurant among themselves, which was operated very successfully, the weekly board not costing more than $4.72 per person. All students took a hand in managing its affairs as well as helping to serve the meals—and even in washing the dishes in order to help the kitchen force. Yet they had time for weekly debating classes, where economic problems con cerning our movement were discussed along with other problems affecting our co-operatives. In addition, the students promoted a social gathering at the local Workers' Hall, the net receipts of which were donated for the advancement of the general labor movement. The co-opera tors in and around Superior were very liberal in their support, as between 250 and 300 persons attended the occasion. They all seemed to be satisfied, inasmuch as the program included a play by the students and a few songs by their mixed choir, and also speeches and recitations. No doubt, by displaying such an energy and friendliness towards the Superior worker co-operators, they made a great hit; the people there will long remem ber this enthusiastic crowd of students who were attending the 1923 co-opera tive course. Let us hope too that it will serve as an inspiration to these friends and fellow co-operators to promote bet ter and bigger co-operative institutions for which Superior is already known. The thirty-three students who were granted diplomas (one not being able to attend the course regularly on account of the job he was holding did not receive a diploma) averaged 83 23/33 per cent in all their studies as a class average; 51.5 per cent of the students made a good individual average, from 85 2/3 per cent to 90 2/3 per cent; 33.3 per cent of the students acquired an average from 80 to 85 per cent, which is very satisfactory; only five students, or 15.2 per cent of all attending, received a fair average, from 72 2/3 per cent to 75 1/3 per cent. As a rule the instructors were very careful in grading the students' work. The marks obtained by the students will in dicate that they were putting all their efforts in their studies. The class aver age is probably higher than it has been at any other previous courses, not taking into consideration the fact that we have had always a small number of "vet erans" who have been actually engaged in the movement for years and have re ceived, therefore, high marks in all sub jects. At least the instructors may say this, that the learning level of the 1923 crew of co-operative "disciples" was more evenly balanced than ever before. We are all living in great hopes that the knowledge which they carry away with them will go to further our Ameri can movement. The graduation exercises held on the afternoon of the close of school were brief. The students invited all the co- operators in Superior to be present. Re freshments were served and the students entertained the gathering with songs and short farewell speeches^ The instructors also expressed in a few words their ap preciation of the hard work done by the students and the results accomplished. Tears were gleaming in the eyes of the students when they parted to their homes. This short acquaintanceship of six weeks had made such good friends of most of them that they felt it very hard to break up that model co-operative family. It is certainly wonderful how the same ideals will bind people to gether—if they are only earnestly work ing toward the same goal. The Cost of the Course The tuition fees collected from the students amounted to $680. Expenses 28 CO-OPERATION CO-OPEEATION 29 will be seen from the following: In structors' fees, $495; supplies, etc., $234.94; mimeographing, $37.01, and hall rent, $75, totalling $841.95. To this must be added five scholarships of $25 each, or $125, making the total cost of the course $966.95. The expenses and scholarships were therefore $286.95 more than the total receipts. This loss will be covered by the Co-operative Central Exchange from their Educational Fund. The Finnish co-operators have learned that all money spent for education in co-operation is more than worth it. They know that if we are going to have a real co-operative movement we must pay for it. If we wish to have it we must edu cate the people to run their own co operative institutions and stand the ex pense while we are going along, which is the safest and cheapest method to follow. On the other hand, if we let the fakers take advantage of the growing demands of people in co-operative lines, these un scrupulous men will roll up a good many more millions in their sleeves, and we will dearly pay for not having CO OPERATION. We need not hesitate in stating that if 5 per cent of the total amount of money lost by our well-believ ing American co-operators were spent for elementary education in co-operation we would have better results to show to day. Instead of that, we have localities where people, by having lost their last savings in these fake enterprises, are to tally disheartened and cold towards our cause. If we are ever going to approach them, it will be only with an educational program which will guarantee the safety of their future investments in the new enterprises. It is our duty to pro mote schools and spread propaganda bearing upon the right methods of or ganizing and conducting the affairs of our co-operatives. The Finnish co-operators are in a posi tion to prove to the public that wherever education has taken its due course the co-operatives have succeeded without question. Among the member societies of the Co-operative Central Exchange there have been hardly any failures— even during the recent years—when great deflation was taking place all over the country, and when a good many of their neighboring societies were doomed for disaster. The management of the Co-operative Central Exchange, which has given its fullest support to these courses, knows that the men and women who have completed their study courses in co-ope ration are the safest ones to run and manage the affairs of the societies. The former students have been also very ar dent supporters of their own wholesale house, the Co-operative Central Ex change. In a few words it can be said that in training over 150 students to serve the co-operatives the Exchange has made a better investment than in any other field. Pertaining to Future Courses In his report to the Board of Directors of the Co-operative Central Exchange the writer, who was in charge of conduct ing the last course, made a few recom mendations as to the length of the courses, etc. We instructors have found from experience that the learning level of these students who are anxious to attend the courses is very uneven. Some grasp all of the lectures and other particular subjects taught, while again a review work is very necessary for others. If we do not wish to deprive these latter ones of their opportunity to learn more about co-operation, it will be almost compulsory to give them a couple of weeks' preliminary "brushing" be fore they can digest the instruction with the others. This will also be in better conformity with the wishes of the in structors to have classes that may pro gress along evenly, and will require less effort on the instructors' part, who are now mostly overburdened with the num ber of hours allotted to them. Therefore a recommendation was made that a two weeks' preparatory course be arranged in subjects needed, and then would fol low the regular four-weeks course in all subjects. After this six weeks' duration a two weeks' "post graduate" or review would be held, all students attending, in addition to the co-operative store man agers and bookkeepers, who may also at tend during these last two weeks. As to the financing of the courses, a recommendation was made that all co operative societies should render their assistance by offering scholarships for the applicants interested. These courses were now conducted to a great extent in the Finnish language. Business correspondence was taught in English and all practical exercises in bookkeeping were also done in English. In the writer's opinion it will be only a matter of a few years before these Fin nish courses can be combined with the other courses of our District League. This can be readily seen from the fact that more than 50 per cent of the stu dents attending the courses this year were educated in this country. Further more, in our Co-operative Moverr ent the races and nationalities are setting no boundaries. We are all working towards the same end, THE CO-OPERATIVE COM MONWEALTH. "WE ALL NEED EDUCA TION!" EDUCATE AND ORGANIZE THE GREAT MASSES UNTIL THEY ABE ABLE TO CONTROL THEIR OWN AFFAIRS! NEWS AND COMMENT DELEGATES TO INTERNA TIONAL CO-OPERATIVE CON GRESS The agenda of the Eleventh Interna tional Co-operative Congress, which meets at Ghent, Belgium, September 1-5, 1924, gives promise of great accomplish ments. Here is the program outlined by the Executive Committee of the Inter national Co-operative Alliance: 1. Eeports upon the work of the Alli ance since the Basle Congress (August, 1921). 2. The relations between different forms of Co-operation. 3. The place of women in the Co-ope rative Movement. 4. The task, extension, and limit of co-operative production by (a) distribu tive societies, (b) wholesale federations. 5. Co-operative banking, national and international. The Co-operative Congress is to be preceded by the International Exhibition on Co-operation and Social Work, which opens at Ghent on June 15, 1924. Co operative Societies all over the world have been invited to prepare exhibits of their work. This Congress of the International Co operative Alliance is held only once every three years. The Co-operative League of the U. S. A. is entitled to two delegates. In addition to the delegates entitled to vote, The League will also au thorize several others from the United States to carry credentials and occupy seats as visitors. The Executive Board already has re ceived word from two or three parts of the country that co-operators intend to go over to Europe next summer and would like to be members of The League delegation. Immediately upon their're turn from Europe, the League bi-ennial Congress for the Co-operators of the United States will be held in some part of this country, soon to be decided upon. Those who go to Europe will have a great deal to bring to the American Congress. The Executive Board of The League must know within a few weeks who the co-operators are from the United States who wish to represent as regular dele gates The Co-operative League of the U. S. A. at this international gathering. Societies or District Leagues who have members planning to be in Europe late next summer, and who would like to see these members represent the authentic American consumers' co-operative move ment at this historic occasion, should send in nominations to The League House before March 1, 1924. Nomina tions made after that date may be too late to be considered by the Directors of The League. The League is not able to finance delegates and visitors to the Ghent Congress, but there may be local societies or District Leagues who will want to assist their representatives in the matter of expenses. 30 CO-OPERATION A. F. OF L. CONVENTION EN- is showing up the exorbitant gains that DORSES CO-OPERATION are being made by the undertakers who ml . , _ ,. „ , . are profiteering at the expense of the _ The Annual Convention of the Amer- workerg of the mini districts of Illi- ican Federation of Labor, recently held noig_ TMs association charges 50 per at Portland, Oregon gave its official ap- cent lesg than the ivate companies and proval to the Rochdale Co-operative stm makes a substantial surplus every Movement The following is the resolu- ter_ Organized in 1921 by the min- tion adopted by the Convention: ^ liyi in fte vidnit of Christopher No one can successfully dispute the the gociet has & net fit of $9 495.44 fact that something is radically wrong and ig ^ preparing to erect its own with our system of distribution In a buildi with its own undertaking par- great many cases it costs more to sell lorg The net fit for the third . the manufactured products and agricul- ter o£ 1923 alone was $118L02. tural products than it does to produce The following is the report Of the them. It LS stated that out of every dol- Treas M_ F_ gchulZ) as taken from lar spent for agricultural products the the mnoig Mner and condensed. farmer receives only 18 cents and the Balance on hand July 2, 1923...... $3,025.55 other 82 cents goes to transportation, Total receipts from all sources..... 3,536.00 holding and selling corporations, specu- ————— lators, profiteers, and merchants. . . . Expenditures: $6,561.55 umi •<. x -..!<., , ^ Rent, light, phone, sup- Tms fact in itself has created a con- plie8_ °_ ............. $411.15 dition in which it costs now, under our Sa'aries............... 773.50 really unscientific system of distribu- Caskets. ....... 979.66 tion, more to sell than it does to manu- j^^ on lot.".''.'. raiSo racture. ihat which should naturally Opening graves ........ 154.00 go to the relief of the great masses in AutomobFle hire, freight, better wages, shorter hours, and lower drayage. . . ......... 200.93 prices for the necessities of life is really £ots- •••••-••••••••••• ™-°° ,.,. ,, TXT -ii-x o Garage. . . ............ 47.55 Utilized by Syndicated capitalists for Funeral of Dobrinch. ... 42.50 their own further enrichment and to Water, insurance, and bolster up and keep going a system that miscellaneous. ...... 61.47 will ultimatelv nnlpw nWkpr! Ipnrl to Funeral notices. ........ 6.50 wui ultimately, umess cnecKea, ieaa to Donations . . . ........ 10.00 destruction. ____ "It lies in the hands of the workers Total expenditure. ......... 3,613.10 and producers, agriculturally and Indus- ————— trially, to save the enormous criminal Balance on hand SePt" 29' 1923---- $2,948.45 waste which is now adding to the cost of PBOFIT AND LOSS STATEMENT living, discomfort, and misery of the Resources: great burden-bearing masses. Inventory, Sept. 30.... .$1,138.51 "Next to our trade union, one of the Fixtures, less deprecia- most simple and effective means we have _ V,"" •••-•-••••••••• 919.19 . •. , s • , s ,-, • , o Rolling stock, less de- in hand or saving much or this waste tor precTation. . ....... 4,iid. 1)9 the consumer as well as the producer is Lot. . . ............... 2*200.00 the Co-operative Movement. Through Bank balance and pro- the simple Rochdale co-operative system . raie& insurance ..... 3,090.70 i -IT o -i n ,1, , c jt Accounts receivable .... d,9o3.69 billions of dollars that now go to further _J_____ enrich the idle few and the enormous Total.. .............. $15,418.18 army that make up the necessary selling Liabilities: power and force would go to the pro- Capital stock ...... $4,388.01 ducers and consumers." ftSJZf±*f!. °^ 588.15 ————— Reserve. . . ............ 7,516.93 REDUCING THE HIGH COST OF DYING The Christopher Co-operative Under- ' ' ' ' ———— taking Association, Christopher, Illinois, Net profits ...................... $1,181.02 CO-OPERATION 31 FURTHER EXPANSION AT SAULT STE. MARIE On the third of December the Soo Co operative Mercantile Association opened a new store on the corner of Swinton and Newton streets—the sixth now in operation. Six years ago, after two years of disastrous experience with a poor manager, the Association found itself deeply in debt, the members dis couraged, and the business reduced to a few hundred dollars a week in one store. To-day there are these six stores, a bakery and a meat department. The employees number more than 40. The bakery is the largest single item in this co-operative enterprise. For two years or more it has been the largest bakery in the city, and for the past year has been running steadily 24 hours each day. Leo LeLievre, the manager, states that the volume of business tlrs year will exceed $360,000, and should run much above that figure next year when the new store gets fully on its feet. The Soo Association is one of the early members of The Co-operative League and W. H. Closser has served on the Board of Directors of the League. A GENUINE 100 PER CENT CO-OPERATIVE BANK Credit Unions have been known to the co-operators of the United States for a number of years. They are genuinely co-operative in structure, but they do not satisfy all the desires of co-operators for their dealings are restricted to mem bers and they do not carry checking accounts. Labor banks, which have come to the front recently, meet these latter require ments, but they are not co-operative in structure. Shares vote, interest on capi tal stock is permitted to run up to 10 per cent (although it is held at that limit), and in almost all cases the ma jority of the stock is owned by labor unions rather than by individual bor rowers and depositors. In 1921 a law was passed in Arkansas permitting the formation of banks on Rochdale principles. The first group to take advantage of this new law was one at Conw^y, in March, 1923. Operating under the supervision of the Office of Mines, Manufacture and Agriculture, the bank now has a paid-in capital of more than $5,000. Each member must own one $25 share of stock and no one may own more than 40 shares. The officers of this institution are: C. M. Wertz, President; W. M. Harper, Vice-President; Rol ert Steel, Cashier. Mr. Wertz reports that although this is the first co-o^ era^ive institution in the country authorized to do a general bank ing business, there are others in the process of formation in Arkansas. LABOR OPENS ANOTHER BANK IN NEW YORK Union workers opened their third bank in New York City just at the close of the old year. The latest venture into the field of labor banking in New York is the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engi neers' Co-operative Trust Company. Not content with the success of their bank in Cleveland, the first genuine labor bank organized in the United States, the Engineers have opened a bank in the very citadel of the financial interests. A million dollars in deposits gave the bank a flying start towards success. Twenty persons waited patiently in line before 8 o'clock in the morning for the honor of being among the first de positors. The first savings account was opened by a woman, Mrs. Lillian Rave, a representative of Division 868 of the • Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. Warren S. Stone, president of the new bank, and Grand Chief of the Engi neers, was on hand to greet depositors and the many visitors. While many small accounts were opened, there were depoists of $1,000, $5,000, and $10,000 by local unions. One deposit of $100,000 was received the first day of business. The new Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers Bank is organized along the lines of its first bank in Cleveland. Stockholders receive a limited return on their shares, while depositors are to share in the savings of the business through co-operative dividends on their deposits. The new bank, like its Predecessor, aims 32 CO-OPERATION CO-OPERATION 33 to make loans available to workers who desire to own their homes, at a fair rate of interest. A special service de partment will be maintained to purchase steamship or railroai transportation for members, to transmit money abroad, to give financial advice, and to render other services. The new bank is located near the Pennsylvania Railroad Station. The third labor bank opened in New York promises to be as successful as that of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers and the Federation of Labor, •which are steadily growing in resources. FAKE "CO-OPERATIVE" DISSOLVED The Consumers' Association of Amer ica, a fake "co-operative" of Philadel phia, has been ordered out of business by the courts. An opinion by the Court of Common Pleas reports the capital of the concern "greatly impaired" and or ders the sale of stock stopped, a receiver appointed, and its assets distributed among creditors and stockholders. This marks the final chapter in the history of an organization characterized by The League as a spurious co-operative. Reports show that the promoters spent 59 per cent of the income of the concern on promotion expenses. Over $130,000 •was subscribed for capital stock in the company by consumers who were prom ised a share in a genuine co-operative. As a matter of fact, the concern was not co-operative in any sense of the word. Members were deprived of their right to vote by means of a voting trust arrange ment which vested all the voting power in the hands of self-appointed directors. This -was contrary to the standard co operative principle of one vote for every member. No financial statements were given the members. The promoters were free to run the business their own way. The first year they lost $7,000 for the company, and the first six months of 1923 over double that amount. Stockholders then filed suit for the dissolution of the company, naming the directors as defendants. This marks the downfall of one of the few remaining fake co-operatives. One by one the promotion concerns exploiting the Co-operative Movement for their own advantage have failed. In the mean while genuine co-operatives organized and controlled by consumers have pros pered. NEV7 YORK MEMBERS- ATTENTION The Co-operative League is planning a series of membership evening meetings to be given at The League House begin ning in February. These will be real "get-togethers" for the Co-operators of Greater New York and vicinity, when members -will have opportunity to share in the evening's discussion and to be come acquainted with each other at the informal receptions which will follow. As a loyal League member, won't you make a special effort to be present at every meeting and to bring at least one friend whom you think you can interest in Co-operation and who will care to be come acquainted with the headquarters of the National Movement ? The tentative program of these meet ings follows: Why the Farmers are for "Co-opera tion." What they are doing at Washington and back home to promote just marketing conditions and con sumers' co-operation. Twenty-two Labor Banks in the Past Two Years. Steady progress of people's banks (called Credit Unions in the United States) as told by leaders in both movements. Why we Advocate Co-operation rather than Political Action. A debate between Albert Sonnich- sen, author of "Consumers' Co operation," and Charles Solomon, formerly Socialist Member of the New York Assembly. Vistas of Adventure. Up to the minute stories of the Co operative Movement in the United States. Recent housing experi ments, laundries, cafeterias, bak eries, stores, etc. Fakes, Frauds and Fancy Schemes. Why Americans are so easily hood winked. What is the best type of co-operative for big cities? Individual notices announcing speak ers and the date and hour will be mailed to each member from The League House. CO-OPERATIVE GARAGE LAUNCHED Finnish Co-operators in Brooklyn, New York, have launched "Sunset Co operative Garage." The organizers have had experience with other forms of Co operation. They are all members of co operative housing societies, they buy their bread from their own co-operative bakery, their meat from their co-opera tive butcher shop, and their groceries from their own grocery store. Now they are preparing to save money by running their own garage. The new company is organized with a capital stock of $20,000. There are twenty-four members, each being re quired to buy fifty shares of stock at $5 each. A private garage will be built on land already bought for the society. A first mortgage and a bond issue will fur nish the additional capital required for building operations. The private cars belonging to the members will be stored in their own garage. A man will be employed to look after the cars and to do repair work. Members expect to make considerable savings on storage and repairs by own ing their own garage. The success of other co-operatives or ganized by these members seems to assure the prosperity of this new and unusual venture for a co-operative society. CO-OPERATIVE JUVENILE CLUBS In Colorado, Vance Monroe, one of the leaders of the Farmers' Union in that state, has initiated some excellent educational work among the young men and women, boys and girls. Recently he has been organizing Juvenile Clubs in the rural districts. These groups of boys and girls form their organization, elect their officers, choose a club song and yell and badge, perhaps a club ban ner. These clubs hold spelling matches, essay-writing contests, debates. They have a correspondence committee to keep them in touch with other clubs and with headquarters of the State Union. They maintain a library for the use of the members, have a committee on athletics, study parliamentary law, edit their own local "newspaper," which the editor reads to the meeting and then sends in to the offices of the Colorado Union Farmer and to the editor of the local town paper so that they may reprint interesting items. These clubs are already doing good work. One of the Juvenile Debating Clubs took the affirmative on the ques tion, "Resolved, that Co-operative Banks would better serve the farmer than Old Line Banks." The adults took the negative. And the adults were de feated. After these clubs have become strong and have learned a great deal about Co-operation, they will be encour aged to start local credit unions. This work should not be confined to the rural districts of one state. Co-ope rators in the cities and towns should promote such work as this among the young people of their communities. THE DIRECTORS' PAGE THE DIRECTORS' FIRST DUTY Recently we dropped into a town to visit the co-operative store. It was a small and dingy industrial community. Going down the hill to the end of town where the store was situated we inquired where the officers lived, and so were able to pick up the President and one of the directors and take them along. When we got to the store and met with the Manager all four of us retired to the back room. No one from The League had ever been to this town before, and we had never been able to get more than one or two answers to letters. We wanted to know how they were getting along, what they knew about Co-opera tion, anything else in the way of infer- 34 CO-OPERATION CO-OPERATION 35 mation we could pick up. The Man ager, President, and the odd Director were more than willing to answer ques tions. No, things were not going as well as they should. Members didn't support the store properly. And the little chain store in the center of town was cutting into their business. Two things they needed badly: more loyalty from the members, and a better place to buy their goods at wholesale prices which would permit them to compete with this chain store. "We smiled. What a familiar story that is; 95 per cent of the co operative managers in the country will tell you the same story, and ask for the same advice. And each one thinks that his story is unique. So we inquired as to more of the details. Here is what we found: Members were called together only once a year. They didn't seem interested, so what was the use of bothering them oftener? Directors met once a month. Manager was pretty efficient and there was scarcely any reason why directors should meet oftener; not enough to ta'k about. Except for the little sign over the door, "H———— CO-OPEHATIVE STOKE, " there was nothing else in sight anj'where to indicate that the store was anything other than a private grocery business. No co operative signs or mottoes anywhere inside the store; the two clerks looked at us frankly when we later asked them what they thought of Co-operation in the grocery business; these clerks were only half interested in the work; the manager talked bargains to the customers instead of quality goods and co-operation. The appear ance of tbe store both inside and outside was very commonplace, a little dilapidated and tired looking in all its joints. The goods carried were sold at a low price and were a low grade of groceries: they found it necessary to compete with chain store prices, they said. Membership was about 100. Paid in capital, $1,800; $3,500 had been subscribed three years previously, but only one-half of it had ever been collected. Directors and manager wished the rest could be procured, for they didn't have enough money to work with. Members received 7 per cent interest on their share capital. Six per cent is the pre vailing rate in this part of the country, but the members wanted some inducement for join ing the Co-operative. Whenever t/iej' made any money in the store they returned 't in divi dends to keep their members loyal; should have twice as much to pay in dividends, so more of their members would trade with them. No, they hadn't been able to establish any reserve fund j'et, nor any educational fund. Manager took some of his discounts from the jobbers, but was pretty haid pressed for cash. After all, these discounts were only 1 or 2 per cent, and he could often save much more than that by buying in large lots and getting one or two cases of goods thrown in free. Members received credit to 75 per cent of their share capital. Of course it was not alwaj's possible to limit credit to just that amount; several of the older members owed much more than the equivalent of share cap ital, but they were gooa for it. When we figured it up we found that total overhead expenses came to about 18 per cent, 11 per cent of which was for wages. Manager admitted that the expenses did sometimes seem high, but offered manv alibis. He had never figured it up in percentages before. That was the result of our brief sur vey of the co-operative in the town of R——. The three men we talked with were really not indifferent. They be lieved stoutly in Co-operation and in their own society, and desired to see it prosper. What was the trouble? Provincialism. Parochialism. They read no co-operative literature; none of them subscribed to any co-operative magazine nor attended any co-operative convention or congress. For them Co operation was an affair which concerned their own town only. They knew noth ing about Co-operation in Europe ex cept the little they heard from a couple of their members who originally came from England. They knew nothing about Co-operation in the United States except the few rumors they received oc casionally from two or three towns up the line which boasted stores like their own. There is no excuse for such provincial ism as this. There is a national maga zine CO-OPEKATION which is published for the express purpose of helping Di rectors and Managers to meet and solve these problems intelligently and to get a vision of the wider aspects of the move ment. This magazine is not a propa ganda organ, not a popular newspaper, not a journal of philosophy and ethics. It is a magazine addressed to practical co-operators and written to show them how others have faced and conquered the very difficulties that bother them. Every Co-operative Society should subscribe for its entire Board. Many are doing this already, but the majority of them are not. Many societies do not have even a single member who sees the rational magazine, except the sample that £ sent him. The Board of Directors which pretends to be sincere and earnest in its efforts, and which still does not trouble to read of Co-operation in other parts of the country, has more Preten sion than Sincerity in its make-up. The physician who never reads his medical journal is pretty much of a fake or quack. The engineer who neglects his engineering journal is not to be trusted with a big job. The co-operative official who doesn't take the Co-operative Mag azine is neither a co-operator nor a com petent official, and the membership which elects him should also insist that he keep his eyes and mind open to what is being done in other parts of the co-operative world. We repeat what we have said many times before: The local co-operative so ciety should send to The League sub scriptions for its entire Board of Directors and its Manager. BOOK REVIEW THE ANIMALS' CO-OP— A BOOK FOR CHILDREN The antics of Oswald and Oliver, a Teddy Bear and an Ostrich, furnish the basis for a series of "funnies" illus trated in color. A short description of the co-operative menagerie stunts accom panies each illustration; their efforts to run a co-op store and satisfy their ani mal customers; a fish department; an optical department with glasses that will suit the hawk as well as the hundred- eyed spider; a delivery system which will serve the submarine members as well as those that live in the trees, and many other impossibly grotesque co-operative enterprises. All of these, like most chil dren's stories, contain a moral—"Stand up for Co-operation." The book is published by the Co-op erative Wholesale Society, London, and can be obtained from The Co-operative League, New York City, for 10 cents. THE CORRESPONDENCE FILE ANOTHER SCHOOL I am glad to send j>ou a few words about our school of co-operative economics. The echool is still in prospect only and will be a verj' modest affair, but we hope that it will become a permanent feature for five or six weeks every winter. We are beginr.ing with a term of one week only, but are requiring of every student enrolled that he read and bs ready to report on at least one book, and that he be prepared to discuss some practical co operative project for the community before the intensive term begins. . . . In this county the Farmers' Union has ef fected a good tj'pe of organization, which has accomplished much in an educational way, but, owing to sparse population and other adverse factors, it has not developed any very effective co-operative economic projects. Taking ad vantage of re surgent good will between coun- trj' and town folks, which was strong enough to take the business and professional men, un der the leadership of the Chamber of Com merce, into the muddy beet fields to help pull beets before the threatened freeze-up, the Farm ers' Union held a harvest dinner. About four Hundred adults of town and country sat down together and talked and visited three hours. At this dinner the County Council of the Farmers' Union announced through the writer, as prospective director, that a school to study the co-operative movement would be held dur ing the winter. Within ten days fifteen or twenty men and women, mainly leading citi zens, about half from the farms and tbe other half from the town, asked to be enrolled as students. Among the students already en rolled are the president of the locai Chamber of Commerce, the president of the County Council of the Farmers' Union, several presi dents of locals and departments of the Farm ers' Union, the County Demonstration Agent, a minister, the superintendent of the Crow Indian Reservation, the economics teacher in the local high school, a railroad agent, a county attorney, and an editor. You see we have a diverse group. Ihis j'ear we shall focus attention upon the historical and ethical aspects of the co opera tive movement. We hope that everyone will become acquainted with the theor;- and present status, and will grasp something of the spir itual significance of the co-operative as an 36 CO-OPEKATION CO-OPERATION economic foundation on which a Christian order may be built. Also we shall endeavor to make the truer vision gained in the study apply practically in local enterprises. Every student will be required to prepare and deliver a fin ished address on some phase of the co-opera tive movement. Thus apostleship should be multiplied in number and improved in quality. Public lectures will be given every evening, at which the school bands, orchestras, and glee clubs will assist. The lack of experienced co-operators as teachers is embarrassing, but we shall all be teachers and students together. Fortunately Chester Davis, Commissioner of Agriculture of this state, has agreed to be with us. M. J. Abbey, professor of agriculture education at the State College at Bozeman, has also ac cepted, for a day or two. We have invited Professor M. L. Wilson and Professor J. H. Underwood, both of them sympathetic and scholarly students of co-operation. State President W. L. Hopper of the Farmers' Union will no doubt be with us. Our little school is frankly experimental. We hope to note its phenomena accurately, end shall be glad to inform you later about it retrospectively. Assuring you of my appreciation of your interest, 1 am, S. R. LOGAN, Superintendent, Hardin School District, Hardin, Mont. HOW CO-OPERATIVE OUR INSURANCE COMPANIES AKE The National Fraternal Congress is composed of officers elected from the Grand or Supreme Lodges of these different fraternal orders; and there never was a closer corporation in any political party than there is in that institu tion. I am an officer myself and have no criticism of anybody wishing to hold his job; there are certain rights and privileges he is entitled to. But when they put over in forty- four states, as they have, a law known as the "New York Conference Law", which sanctions taxing their membership 100 per cent more than the actual mortuary cost of life insur ance according to the experience of the legal reserve companies; when they still more vi ciously have the representative Republican gov ernment defined in said law.as being composed of a "Supreme Grand Lodge of delegates elected directly or indirectly" and make that body the judiciary, the legislative, and the executive, in fact, the Constitution—then I want to say that it is not even mutual or American, and it is most vicious. Further, I find many of these fraternals have provisions in their by-Jaws whereby they have concurrent jurisdiction in local lodges in pre ferring charges against members for "les majesty" or something of that kind, and can summon them away from their home town or state into a foreign state and try them by a jury of their own picking withoi:t redress, and simply because the United States Supreme Court ruled that such members have no re dress except in their so-called Grand or Su preme lodges. I want to say it is positively damnable. Pardon my effusion on this occa sion, but I have had about 37 years of ex perience with that kind of proposition and know whereof I speak. I have been talking this way in the legislative halls of the state and in fraternal congresses and any other old place where I have had an opportunity, and I am still talking as you will observe. This is not written confidentially, as it is no secret. I only ask that if anyone wants to take exception to it, just arrange for a public hearing or a jury to pass upon the merits of the controversy, and I will show you or else look pleasant when I fail. CHAELES D. SHABBOW, President, New Era (Life Insurance) Association, Grand Rapias, Mich. FROM COVINGTON, VIRGINIA Your Bulletin some time back touched on the flour question. It's rather a hard proposi tion to handle; freight rates and pushing it (co-operauve brand) and all. Your income tax Bulletin touches the ques tion properly. We experienced trouble but finally our taxes were returned to us. Our mistake seemed to be in the meaning of the word 'Dividends in our by-laws. This should have read Rebates. Sorry to say the co-operative spirit does not prevail stronger among the people here. It is a proposition to enlighten the minds of the public in general towards their own advantage. Would be very glad to hear from you at any time. Wishing you good success in the work and hoping more co operative business may be started during the year, 1 beg to remain, CHAELES EHBHAET, Manager, Workingmen's Mercantile Association. GOOD WORK AT A LABOR COLLEGE Our class in The CO-OPEBATIVE MOVEMENT has held its own the past ten weeks. Profes sor Friederich of Keed College, who gives the course, is an enthusiast on the co-operative idea in industry and has c-rried his students along with him. We expect to repeat the course though, this coming term we may give a course in economics as a basis for the course on Co-operation next fall. Our Board of Directors meets this coming Thursday and I hope they will take out a membership in the Co-operative League. E. E. SCHWABTZTS MT3EK, Director, Portland Labor College, Portland, Oregon. Index for CO-OPERATION for 1923 may be procured without charge from the League office. PUBLICATIONS of THE CO-OPERATIVE LEAGUE HISTORICAL Per Copy 8 Storj of Co-operation .......................................................-.$ .10 7 British Co-operative Movement ............................................... .10 as! Co-operative Consumers' Movement In the United States....................... .05 39 Consumers' Co-operative Societies In N. Y. State, (Published by Consumers* League). - . . ............................................................. .10 A Baker and What He Baked (Belgian movement) ........................... .10 TECHNICAL. 4. How to Start and Bun a Bochdale Co-operative Society....................... .10 5* System of Store Becords and Accounts......................................... .50 6- A Model Constitution and By-Laws for a Co-operative Society................ .05 S. Co-operative Education. Duties of Educational Committee Denned.......... .10 9 How to Start a Co-operative Wholesale....................................... .10 27! Why Co-operative Stores Fail.... ............................................. .02 2 Co-operative Store Management................................................ .10 ii. How to Start and Bun a Women's Guild....................................... .05 15 How to Organize a District Co-operative League.............................. .10 29! Credit Union Primer (By Ham and Robinson)...................... ......... .50 32! Application Blanks for Membership in a Co-op Society...................... MISCELLANEOUS 16. Model Co-op State Law........................................................ .10 17 Syllabus for Course of Lectures, with References and Bibliography.......... .25 46° Producers' Co-operative Industries............................................ .10 U. Control of Industry by the People through the Co-operative Movement...... .10 12 Credit Union and Co-operative Store.......................................... .05 34. Co-operative Movement (Yiddish).............................................. .02 41. -- — _ _ „ ^-_„,„, 1K 42. 10. Co-operative Movement iuuuian;...........................................__. Farmer's Co-operation (By Bensou Y. Landis)................................ n!6 Co-op Homes for Europe's Homeless.......................................... .10 43 Co-operative Housing. . . . .................................................... .10 30. " When the Whistle Blew " (Story, by Bruce Calvert)......................... .06 81. Course of Study In Successful Co-operation (by W. C. Lansdon). 10 pamphlets.... ONE-PAGE LEAFLETS (One cent each; 50 cents per 100; $2.50 per 500; $4 per 1,000) Per 10* $8.00 6.00 4.00 4.00 2.60 1.00 .65 1.76 1.25 1.00 UUll U11U Xtt:l.lt*<4l.*vu . , \~*., .. ————— —— ———- _ (47) A Man's Bight to a Job; (48) Tips to Co-operators MONTHLY PUBLICATIONS CO-OPEBATION—(In bundle lots, $7.50 per hundred). Subscription, per year..............$1.00 HOME CO-OPERATOR, 4 pages......................................................... .$1 per 100 INTEBNATIONAL CO-OPEBATIVE BULLETIN (Pub. by The I. C. A.)..........per year, $1.60 BOOKS The following books are recommended as containing the best discussions of the modern Co-operative Movement. They may be ordered through The League: Bergengren, Roy F.: Co-operative Banking, A Credit Union Book......................... $3.00 Bubnoff, J. B.: The Co-operative Movement in Bussia, 1917.................................. 1.25 Paber, Harald: Co-operation in Danish Agriculture, 1918.................................... 2.76 Flanagan, 3. A.: Wholesale Co-operation in Scotland, 1920................................... 2.00 Gebhard, Hannes: Co-operation In Finland, 1916............................................. 2.00 Glde, C.: Consumers' Co-operative Societies, 1921............................................. 2.60 Glde, C.: Consumers' Co-operative Societies, American edition and notes, 1922. Cloth, $3.00; paper bound................................................................... ,.90 Harris, Emerson P.: Co-operation, The Hope of the Consumer, 1918. Cloth, $2.00; paper bound. . . . . ............................................................................... .60 Holyoake: Bochdale Pioneers................................................................. 1.00 Howe, Fred C.: Denmark, a Co-operative Commonwealth, 1921............................... 2.00 Madams, J. P.: The Story Betold............................................................. .BO Nicholson, Isa: Our Story..................................................................... .25 Potter, B.: Co-operative Movement In Great Britain.......................................... 1.00 - -- — —-- «"-—— ~» «— fi -sit? K ............................................. 2.00 The" Story" of the C. W. S. ...................-.--••--.-----.---------. The Consumers' Place In Society, 1920...................................... 1.00 Reconstruction in Ireland, 1918.............................. 1.50 Bedfefn, Percy: Redfern, Percy: j.i>c ^^«=u^.^» -—— — _-—., Smith-Gordon & Staples: Rural Reconstruction in Ireland, _—......... Smith-Gordon and Staples: Co-operation In Denmark......................................... 1.00 Smith-Gordon: Co-operation in Many Lands, 1920............................................ 1.60 Sonnichsen, Albert. Consumers' Co-operation, 1919. Cloth bound, $1.75; paper hound....... .75 Steen, H.: Co-operative Marketing ............................................................ 2.00 Stollnsky, A.: The Co-operative Movement. In Yiddish....................................... 1.00 Warbasse, James P.: Co-operative Democracy................................................. 3.BO Webb, B. and S.: The Consumers' Co-operative Movement, 1921.............................. 5.00 Webb, Catherine: Industrial Co-operation, 1917............................................. l.BO Woolf, Leonard: Co-operation and the Future of Industry.................................... 1.50 Woolf, L.: Socialism and Co-operation........................................................ 1.60 "The Co-operative Consumer" and "Co-operation," III (1917), VI (1920). VII (1921), VIII '-'—• ............................................... 1.: (1922). _ ,28 1.00 i-iu^r. . . . . ......................-.--..---- Transactions of Second American Co-operative Congress, 1920.................................. 1.00 Transactions of Third American Co-operative Congress, 1922................................ 1.00 The People's Year Book, 1923. Cloth, .80; paper bound...................................... .60 (Ten cents postage should be added for books which cost more than $2.00, and five cents tot the smaller books.) THE CO-OPERATIVE LEAGUE (Member of The International Co-operative Alliance) 167 West 12th Street, New York An educational organization for teaching the history, principles, methods and aims of th« Co-operative Movement and for the promotion of Co-operation in the United States. Join The League and thus help promote the educational work of the Co-operative Movement. Subscribe foi the Monthly Magazine and keep in touch with the Movement. Enclosed find $......... for Subscription for CO-OPERATION, $1.00. Membership in The LEAGUE, $1.00. Name. Address. Co-operative Central Exchange Wholesale Grocers and Jobbers, Bakers We supply goods to Co-operative Societies ONltlT. We are owned and controlled by Co operative Societies. We ore organized to enable Co-operative Societies to do collectively what they cannot do individually. Co-operative Central Exchange Offices, Warehouses and Plant: Winter Street and Ogden Ave., SUPERIOR, WIS. Co-operators' ltd. Mutual Fire Insurance Co. is now writing insurance in State of Wisconsin THE PRODUCER Issued Monthly Price 3d. If you want to keep in touch with business, organization, administrative affairs, and problems of the British Co-operative Movement, read THE PRODUCER. Published by Co-operative Wholesale Society, lac. 1 Balloon Street, Manchester Poet free 4 sh. 6d. a year. The Trade and Technical Organ of British Co-operation. The New Secretary's Ledger Just published by the EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT, Central States Co-operative Wholesale Society (203 Converse Ave., E. St. Louis, 111.) is the form for keeping the Membership Ledger of a Co-operative Society which provides ample and proper space for all transactions with a maximum of efficiency and a minimum of time, worry and errors. Send for Samples and Prices. Co-operation in Scotland In no part of the world ia Co-operation fur ther developed, or more successfully practiced than in Scotland. If you wish to keep in, formed, read 'The Scottish Co-operator" (Published Weekly) Subscription: Year 12 ah.; half-year, 6 sh. Address, 119 Paisley Road, Glasgow, Scotland The Madras Monthly Bulletin of Co-operation ROYAPETTAH, MADRAS, INDIA The only monthly on Co-operation in India. Special articles on Rural, Con sumers', Agricultural, Credit and Indus trial Co-operation; and Co-operation Abroad. Subscription Rs. 4/12 per annum. The Canadian Co-operator Brantford, Ontario, Canada The organ of the Canadian Co-opera tive Movement, owned by and con ducted under the auspices of The Co-operative Union of Canada. Published monthly 75c per annum THE HOME CO-OPERATOR A four-page magazine for use in co-operative societies. Issued monthly, in bundles, $1 per hundred. Published by The Co-operative League Publishing Office, Willimantie, Conn. Albert Sonnichsen, Managing Editor. A magazine to spread the knowledge of the Co-operative Movement, whereby the people, in vol. nntary association, produce and distribute for their own use the things they need Published monthly by The Co-operative League, 167 West 12th Street, New York City. J. P. Warbasse, Editor. Entered as second class matter, Decem ber 19, 1917, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Price $1.00 a y«ar. Vol. X, No. 3 MARCH, 1924 10 Gents VITAL ISSUES A FARMERS' PLAN Last year two million people left the farms in the United States. More than half of the population of this country is now living in towns and cities of more than 2,500 population. Only about one- fourth of the people are on the farms. The mortgages on the farms, unlike the people, are steadily increasing. The farms are slipping out of the hands of the farmers. The farmers are slipping away from the farms. All kinds of schemes to relieve the farmer have been promoted at Washing ton. And about the only thing he has been relieved of is his cash. The Federal Farm Loan Act and the Bureau which it created might have done the farmer good. But the whole machinery was turned over to the bankers, who now use it to do the farmers. The farmers have no control over the very act that was passed for them. In. the meantime things with the farmers go from bad to worse. A most comprehensive plan has been developed by A. S. Goss, master of the Washington State Grange. Mr. Goss has taken his plan to Washington with a committee of the National Grange, which has indorsed it, to try to get it enacted into law. This plan provides for a fed eral marketing commission made up of representatives of producers and con sumers under governmental auspices. Prices are to be fixed by joint and bal anced action between producers and con sumers. Every possible safeguard is provided to co-ordinate production to prevent overproduction and underpro duction and to stabilize prices and link up the whole great farming business of this country into a co-operating mechan ism with democratic control. This measure has great social possi bilities because it recognizes the con sumer as well as the farmer. This is due to the fact that Mr. Goss is one of the rare men guiding the destinies of the farmers who understand the consumers' Co-operative Movement. Mr. Goss' plan is too good to find en thusiastic reception in Washington. Anybody interested in helping the farm ers can see at a glance that the plan is practicable. If the Department of Agri culture were devoted to the interest of the farmers it would get behind this plan and press it forward. Mr. Goss is find ing that Washington is a poor place to go with any measure that has only to recommend it the fact that it would be a good thing for all of the people. A long period of education and pub licity is necessary to secure support for this excellent project. The National Grange has for many years been a bul wark of reactionary conservatism. The fact that this measure has come out of its last convention would indicate that the breath of a new life has been blown into it. It looks as though leaders who 38 CO-OPEEATION CO-OPEEATION 39 once were but the agents of the railroads are giving place to farmers of vision and capacity. THE BRITISH LABOR GOVERN MENT There were those who said that the rulers who opposed the war would be execrated to their graves. The predic tions are not coming true. One English labor leader who was in jail during the war for "sedition" has just been elected to Parliament over militarist opponents. And now Ramsey McDonald, an out- and-out pacifist, reviled, castigated, and pursued during the war, has become Prime Minister of the British Empire. The reason for all this is that the forces which make for war are not able to solve the problems of peace. There is discontent. The people want to try some thing different. The new Labor Govern ment, which has just come into power, has among its leaders people of vision, understanding, and broad human sym pathies. Any government is to be con gratulated which counts among its offi cials Margaret Bonfield and Sidney Webb. Great Britain never had so en lightened a government as it has to-day. The Labor Party is not so devoted to state socialism as was the present Rus sian socialist government when it first came into power. It is, on the whole, sympathetic to the Co-operative Move ment. Unfortunately, it cannot do much in the way of effecting fundamental changes. Its tenure of office is so deli cate that it cannot be expected seriously to disturb British imperialism abroad or British privilege at home. It will do the things that are in the interest of the Government and the State. There are some fundamental things it might do. It might quietly see to it that the laws were adjusted so as to make im possible the taxation of co-operative sur plus-savings. It might modify the laws so as to remove the obstacles in the way of the development of co-operative so cieties. It might see that these societies had as fair a chance as profit business. Finally, tie Labor Government might see to it that co-operative education is carried on as a public function. Such education should be introduced in the schools. It would be a great thing for the children of England to be taught how another motive besides the profit motive can and does function as a pur pose of business. This Labor Government might wisely give most serious attention to this field. If it should do this there would be re sults to show when the government is gone. Governments come and go, but co operation remains, moving on steadily under every regime. What is gained for co-operation is permanent. This government, too, will pass away. It will be succeeded by another—per haps by a conservative government. Too much, however, is not to be hoped from the Labor Party. The King and all the British flunkeyism remain. The spirit of imperialism lives in most of the members of the Labor Party. This recent political change is not so much a victory for Labor as it is an ex position of the sterility of the ruling economic powers. The old system is go ing out. Great changes come by degrees. J. P. W. OUR DEMANDS "The workers are entitled to the full product of their labor." So runs the slogan of .several large radical move ments throughout the country. We have no quarrel with that statement, for we realize that it is aimed at the privileged employing interests which exploit Labor, the powerful corporations which control men's jobs and let them labor only as the vested interests are permitted to skim off the cream of the returns for themselves. In that particular quarrel we are all for the workers. But how pitifully inadequate are these demands which Labor is making. What are the workers of America pro ducing? What is this "full product of their labor". It includes, among other things, poison gases, guns and battle ships, vast fleets of fighting planes, mil lions of dollars worth of bayonets, trench tools, army shoes and clothing, tenting, and the thousands of other items of equipment for military life. It includes impure foods, shoddy garments, adul terated building materials, newspapers and magazines filled with lies, patent medicines. It includes enormous lux uries for the idle rich, cosmetics and vanities, commercialized recreation, jazz music, bunk of all kinds. The people of the country need some thing vastly different than the "full product of their labor". They need to get back to fundamentals, to question the reason for the existence of all these harmful products to which they are de voting so much of their energy. It is not only the things they produce under a profit system that they need. They need a new economic system organized around their everyday demands. The poor girl who slaves ten hours every day making adulterated candy may be en titled to the product of her toil, but she doesn't need it, nor does any one of her fellow workers the country over need it. She does need a new dress, new shoes, a better place to live, and more whole some food. She needs these desperately and knows that she needs them. That is one reason why she doesn't enthuse greatly when the speaker on the box down on the corner tells her she is en titled to all she produces. All the men and women and children are entitled to the necessities of life and some of its comforts and luxuries; and they are entitled to a chance to get together and produce these together. That is the bigger, wider view of the matter. Privileged interests are so manipulating things that the common folks can neither produce for their own use nor can they have free access to the essentials that are already produced. People are hungry, cold, homeless. They might band together in co-operative groups to find the essentials of life they so sorely need. Get out of the way, you who obstruct, you who build barriers between brothers so that they cannot co operate, you who fence off the treasures of the earth from the people for whom they were intended. Consumers' co-operation is concerned first of all with the needs of the peo ple, confident that once men and women unite to search together for the good things of life they will solve the minor matters of production very easily. That is why we cannot wax enthusiastic over that slogan at the head of this editorial. MORE ABOUT LOYALTY One of our good friends who has him self been through the fires of experience, in a letter to be found on another page, raises the question, "Why not a mutual contract in the Co-operative ?'' We have little to add to what we said editorially in the February issue, but we can per haps be a little more specific. There are two outstanding arguments against the contract form of membership for the distributive Co-operative. It vio lates the whole tradition of the Rochdale movement which has proved so highly successful in almost every country in the world. And it probably would not be legally enforceable before a court. The first objection looks pretty weak to the liberal or radical minded co-oper ator. Are we to be tied hand and foot by tradition? they ask. Assuredly not. But tradition in this case is more than a dead law; it is the living experience of tens of millions of people and hundreds of thousands of co-operative societies. Nevertheless, we should like to see some cautious experiments in the direction of the contract form of membership. We already use the yearly contract in our housing associations. We might try it out in such Co-operatives as those for the distribution of milk, coal, ice, in laundries, in other associations where a single commodity is handled. We might even experiment with the contract idea in the store society, as suggested in a later paragraph. A contract which is not legally en forceable has no really permanent value, even though it may have a temporary moral effect upon the members. And it is likely that a pledge which bound a man and all the members of his family to buy every article needed for home consumption from one store for a period of a year or longer would not be recog nized as binding by any court. Even if it were legally valid, the member himself 40 CO-OPEEATION CO-OPERATION 41 mi could find many ways of evading it if he really wanted to evade it. Nevertheless more interest in this sub ject should be aroused among our Co- operators. Why not restrict the pay ment of savings-returns and interest to those who have done a certain minimum amount of business at the store during the year? We already know of two or three societies which do this, and others might try it out. Why not specify in the by-laws that members who do not give this minimum amount of business to their own association are not eligible for the Board of Directors or any other office? There are other restrictions that may be placed upon the member who is not loyal. The League will be glad to advise with any Co-operators who wish to incorpo rate any such features in their by-laws. C. L. CONTRIBUTED ARTICLES ANNUAL REPORT OF OFFI CERS AND DIRECTORS OF THE FRANKLIN CO-OPERA TIVE CREAMERY ASSOCIA TION [ABBREVIATED] It is with pleasure that we again re port to you the condition of your co operative institution. Many things have developed since our last annual meeting which will interest you. But we shall enumerate only those we think of most importance. As part owners, you are, no doubt, most interested in the financial condition of our association and we are proud to report to you to-day that never has our co-operative been in a better condition financially. This of course will be dis closed to you in our financial report. We only want to call your attention to our current liabilities, which at the an nual meeting a year ago were over $200,- 000, while our current assets at that time were only $100,000. That condition has been reversed during the year just closed, so that to-day our current assets are more than three times greater than our current liabilities. The Sales Although the sales have practically doubled during the last year, the north side plant is not yet up to its full ca pacity. We still have facilities at this plant to handle another ten thousand quarts of milk per day. In other words, the north side plant is now running about two-thirds its capacity. Sales for both plants for the year came to $3,106,- 691.27. It will no doubt be interesting for you to know also that we have distributed during the year 24,083,075 units of milk, cream, butter, etc. One unit may be a gallon, quart or pint of milk, a bottle of cream or a pound of butter. This means that we have distributed a little over two million units per month or 67,000 per day. Ice Cream Sales Our ice cream department did very well for its first season. Ice cream is altogether different from other dairy products in that it is looked upon as a luxury more than a necessity, and there fore the sales are seasonable. Another thing is that ice cream is sold largely through dealers. Manufacturers furnish their dealers with cabinets, and in many instances signs, window display, etc., which makes the dealer dependent on the ice cream manufacture to a large ex tent, and for these reasons contracts are signed for a year-at a time between ice cream manufacturers and dealers. From all expectations we will more than double our output in this department in 1924. Sales for 1923 from this depart ment were $144,595.48. Our Butter Department Ever since we started operating, in March, 1921, we have maintained that nothing is too good for the common peo ple. Our conviction still tells us that we are right, and yet competition, and in many cases the limited income of the average family, has compelled us to change our policy somewhat in this re spect. We therefore expect in the near future to churn a second grade butter. This new grade of butter will also stim ulate our milk sales, because many peo ple who could not afford to buy our butter got their milk also from other dealers. This, together with our added ice cream sales and efficient management, should bring our 1924 sales up to $4,- 000,000. Sales of butter in 1923 came to $604,768.09. Our Shaps Since early in 1923 the association has maintained its own shops. We have made, repaired and painted our own wagons and truck bodies in our own shops, maintained a blacksmith shop where we have shod our horses, a harness shop where we do our harness repairing, and a carpenter shop where we have made a lot of our equipment. In addition to that we have employed a plant electrician to look after our elec tric motors at both plants and keep them in running order at all times. Employees and Wages It may be interesting for you to know that we have on the payroll at the pres ent time 360 employees, and that during the rush of the ice cream season we had as high as 374 on the payroll. It may farther be interesting for you to know what the wages of these employees are. Our drivers are guaranteed a weekly wage of $35, but in addition they re ceive a commission after having sold a certain number of bottles. The average wage of our drivers for the month of December was $39.65 per week. This in cludes truck drivers and special drivers who are not receiving any commission. The average commission earned by our regular route salesmen for the month of December was $22.38. From a dollar and cents standpoint the highest paid driver is the greatest asset to the asso ciation. The inside creamery workers receive an average of $34.96 per week, the low est is $30, while the highest paid man on the inside receives $50 per week. Our office employees, practically all girls, receive an average of $31.37 per week. Our highest paid employee at the present time is the manager, who receives $75 per week. These wages are based on a six-day week and, as far as the inside men are concerned, an eight-hour day. Anything over eight hours is paid for as overtime. The drivers of course do not receive any thing extra outside of their commission for overtime. All these employees are members of some labor organization, even the office employees. So here is an institution where everyone, from the janitor and office girl to the president and manager, belong to the organized labor movement. What Have We Done to Further Co-operation? This is a question that rightfully should be asked on this day. Have we done anything to further and advance this "hope of humanity" called "co-operation," or have we mere ly been contented with doubling our sales and making a financial success ? If we have, we have missed our calling. Speaking truthfully, we have not done as much as we should have liked to have done, and yet we have done more along this line than any co-operative, not only in the city of Minneapolis, but in the country at large. Besides our monthly bulletin which is printed in lots of 15 thousand to 20 thou sands copies a month and distributed to our members and patrons, we have printed and distributed over one-half million other pieces of co-operative lit erature and arranged educational meet ings for employees and members. But probably the most constructive thing we have done along this line is the estab- .lishing of the first Co-operative Train ing School in the English language in America, here in our own city and in our own building. It is true that the school was conducted under the aus pices of the Northern States Co-opera tive League, but the plans were laid here in Minneapolis a little more than a year ago. Seven of our own members and em ployees took the five weeks' course and the school was a success in every respect, but the students and teachers alike felt that five weeks was too short a time and it was therefore decided to make it six 42 CO-OPEEATION CO-OPEEATION 43 weeks next year. The dream of those who organized this school is to establish a co-operative college here in the city of Minneapolis, where we can train our own people to become competent man agers and executives of our co-operative undertakings. THE CONSUMERS' DIVIDEND When the Franklin began paying a consumers' dividend the other milk deal ers started to give a five per cent dis count telling the people that in buying from them they would not have to wait until the end of the year to receive a re fund. This of course seemingly meant a lot to many housewives and for com petitive reasons, our association a year ago, too, began to give our patrons five per cent on every dollar's worth of mer chandise sold. Later it was discontinued. There were some complaints natur ally, but if we had not taken off the dis count at that time we would have had to raise the price of milk. Some—well meaning people, we take it—told us that we were not co-operative any more after taking the discount off. They evidently did not know that the most militant and most aggressive co-operatives are those who do not pay a consumers' dividend, like those of Belgium, Finland and others. It may not be out of place here to mention a few of the things we could use our net earnings for: First of all the Co-operative School should be provided for and enlarged on from year to year until we reach our goal—a co-operative college. Second. A recreation center where- the grown-ups as well as the children could gather in a true co-operative spirit under the leadership of trained workers. Third. Summer vacation camps •where the whole family may spend a week or two at a nominal cost. Fourth. Provide those in need with free milk. No greater work could be done by our co-operative association than by providing some of the under nourished children of Minneapolis with free milk. Another thing that you as stockhold ers are naturally interested in is that your association is safeguarded by a sub stantial reserve fund. In other words, here is one million dollars of the com mon people's money which must be pro tected. Not to protect it, by setting aside a substantial part of the net earn ings for reserve, would be a crime. BECOMMENDATIONS As stated in the financial report over $87,000 out of the $179,482 net earn ings for 1923 have already been returned to the consumers, leaving approximately $90,000 to be distributed at this time. The question is how should this be dis tributed. Under the law a reserve fund must first be provided for. Next comes the stock dividend, tne educational fund and finally the consumers' dividend and the employees' bonus. Our recommendation under the cir cumstances is that six (6) per cent be paid to the stockholders on their in vestment; that $1,500 be set aside for educational purposes and that the re mainder, approximately $33,000, be put in the reserve fund. This of course means that there will be no consumers' dividend and no employees' bonus. The consumers are getting their dividend every day in a better product at a lower price and the employees are getting their bonus in higher wages and better work ing conditions. Our association is commanding the re spect of the business world, and as the greatest single consumers' co-operative on the American continent it is watched with a keener interest than any other undertaking of the common people of America. But do not forget that its future is what you make it. By your delibera tions you may further its progress or retard its growth. We hope, however, that your actions will be such that we can meet again a year from to-day and truly say that we are one year nearer to true Co-operative Democracy. THE CO-OPEEATIVE BUILDING BY W. H. CLOSSEE Ground has been broken and the foundation of "Rochdale Co-operation" is being laid in the United States through the efforts of its own people for the sole benefit OF the people. This is as it should be, because any great change of the basic principles of our Industrial Conditions must be brought about by the people themselves through their own efforts. We have two distinct "Co-operative" forces, Producers and Consumers, now already at work, and the time will soon arrive when these two great links must be joined together by a third link unit ing the two, which will necessarily be owned and controlled jointly by "Pro ducers and Consumers." This one "Co-operative Clearance House" is the only needed middleman, and the so- called "Profits" now eaten up by these leeches upon society could be eliminated. One of the strongest and best man aged "Consumers' Rochdale" Co-ope rative Associations in the United States to-day is "The Soo Co-operative Mer cantile Association" of Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Only eleven years ago a few men in that little city (of 15,000 inhab itants located in the extreme northern part of Michigan) conceived the idea of forming a Co-operative organization that they might secure their needs with out being robbed by the middlemen. They started with a capital of about $2,000 in the retail business, handling groceries and meats, with a membership of about 100 members, doing a business the first year of $34,531. The past year this organization, with a paid-up capital of $30,000, did a business of over $362,- 000, completely turning over their cap ital invested twelve times, making a profit of 81 per cent on their invest ment. During the past eleven years this organization through the Rochdale plan has paid back in dividends to its stockholder-customers and in bonuses to its employees the sum of $68,349.12, after paying 7 per cent interest on the Capital Stock and setting aside in its Reserve Fund the sum of $18,491. They own their own three-story and basement stone block, which is used as a wholesale and retail store, with offices therein; they also operate within this city seven branch retail stores, all of which handle a complete line of gro ceries, meats, and bakery goods. They not only produce in their own electric bakery what they consume through their own stores, but wholesale to many other retail stores in the city and county, and are shipping their bread to outside counties. This organization is now so well rooted that the members are contemplating branching out into other lines of merchandizing. The organiza tion is controlled by its members through a board of nine Directors, some of whom have been on the board since its organ ization. The board hires and fires its managers and has complete control of the organization. The association repre sents all nationalities, creeds, and colors, and its powerful community spirit is being felt throughout the city, county, and State. This short story covers just one little Consumers' Retail organization in this great Co-operative Building, but it is ready to be linked up right now to other like organizations until we are finan cially BIG enough to swing clear from all other interests that shackle us. When this is accomplished, then it will be possible to blaze across the sky to all of those who render service this motto, "Profits to those who made profits possible." HOW THEY SPELL SUCCESS AT CLARENCE, PA. One of the finest little stores in the United States is that at Clarence, Penn sylvania. The people of that town, mem bers of District 2 of the United Mine Workers of America, are almost entirely Slavish. During the strike of miners in 1919 they found that the private store keepers of the town had an agreement among themselves to maintain fixed high prices for goods and to refuse credit to the striking miners. When the strike was over and the workers were able to raise a little money again, the organiza- 1 *_J i CO-OPEEATION CO-OPEEATION 45 tion of a co-operative store was launched. About 135 families took one or more shares of stock at $10 each. In May, 1920, they opened up for business with $4,576 in capital and an additional $3,000 borrowed from their local union. Since that time Clarence has suffered as few other industrial communities in Central Pennsylvania have suffered. In the spring of 1921 trouble occurred in some of the local mines and a strike started which involved most of the co operative members. To-day, three years later, the majority of those men are still on strike and their families are existing on the meager strike relief granted them from District headquarters. During the four and one-half months of 1922 when the national strike was in effect they did not even get this small allowance. Yet that original four and one-half thousand has expanded remarkably. To day they are entirely free of debt; they have purchased during these scant four years their $7,000 building and cleared it of incumbrances; they have turned over to their local union $13,000 as an outright gift; their merchandise and fixtures inventory at $4,500; bills re ceivable account comes to $4,500; the manager has $1,000 cash on hand; they have paid about $1,500 to the income tax collector; and their dividends paid members (in cash or merchandise) dur ing the past two years amount to about $5,000 more. That original investment of less than $5,000, well administered by managers and directors and loyally sup ported by the membership, has yielded about $36,500 in savings to the associa tion, a gain of more than 800 per cent. The members are now receiving a 10 per cent merchandise dividend quarterly; non-members 6 per cent. Business runs about $5,500 a month. These miners of Clarence can attribute their remarkable success to two factors: a militantly co-operative membership and extraordinarily good management and direction. In all fairness it must also be admitted that the union relief funds, administered through the store, have made loyalty almost compulsory for many of the weaker members. The Clarence Co-operative Association has some unusual features. Many of the stockholders have been so hard pressed they have had to withdraw all except the required $10 of stock. Therefore these $17,000 of assets rest upon a capital stock total of only $1,700 at the begin ning of 1924. Membership meetings are attended by almost 90 per cent of the members. Last summer the officers de cided that directors were not attending meetings regularly enough and ruled that in the future twenty-five cents would be paid each director for attend ance at Board meetings. Since then al most every Board meeting has seen a 100 per cent attendance. Early in the winter there was some complaint that two or three members were doing all the work at the store while nearly 100 miner members were idle month after month. Why shouldn't work on the delivery wagon be rotated among the entire mem bership? For the past few months the new policy has been in force, and every day a new member takes out the wagon and receives $5 for his day's work. After the big strike of two years ago these people found that their priest had been secretly supporting the operators and they let him know what they thought of him; but later, when he ran up a bill at the co-operative and refused to pay it, they ran him out of town. It is stated above that this store boasts efficient management. A weekly business of nearly $1,300 is handled entirely by the manager, Mike Koshko, and the one inexperienced driver, with the addi tional help on Mondays of Andrew Koshko, the president of the Associa tion. That credit and delivery business of $5,500 per month is conducted on a wage expense of $300—less than 5yz per cent of sales. There are many other stores in Cen tral Pennsylvania but none that makes such an unusual showing as this. C. L. FOREIGN WISDOM OUT OF INDIA Hardly a week goes by but The Co operative League has a visitor or a let ter from some enthusiast who wants to join a co-operative colony or to start a new one. The subject of colonies is one of tremendous interest for tens of thou sands of people. That such enterprises have failed so regularly through the centuries is no deterrent for present-day enthusiasts; most of us don't care about history, we are confident that we are to be the Makers of History, and that the study of other men's experience is a pastime for sickly souls. In the light of these facts it is in teresting to read again the following words from an article printed several years ago in the "Bengal Co-operative Journal": " ... Already the workers are beginning to realize that as fast as they are learning to combine, and send wages up, capitalists are learning to manipu late prices, and so to rob them, almost in advance of the advantages they might gain. "But clearly we must do something and do it quickly. The workers, having now seen what wealth we can produce under modern conditions, will never re main contented with a social system that develops its power conspicuously to pro duce machinery of destruction and luxuries for the rich. . . . "Having realized that the plan of making wages high, and specially the methods employed to carry it out, are fraught with danger, people are natur ally turning now to the co-operative al ternative suggestions of using the pro ductive power of labor better and mak ing people better off by making cost of living low; it is also fairly generally, if vaguely, understood that co-operation fully carried out, would go to the root of the whole problem. . . . "The plan of the co-operators is not the plan of yesterday, but is more than a century old; it has been steadily sup ported for the whole of the time by the most thoughtful reformers. "First let us understand it correctly: the first effort of the co-operators, as of course we know, was to establish co-op erative colonies, whose workers would produce the principal necessaries of life for themselves, and be independent, to a great extent, of trade. "The co-operators hoped that these agricultural-industrial colonies would multiply and develop, and be equipped with the best machinery, and work by the best methods, so that their workers would enjoy to the full the benefits of modern progress. Nobody would then have worked for wages that would pur chase less than his labor would procure him working in those organizations, so that 'real wages' would have been kept everywhere up to the level that our productive power well used will allow, and so the problem would have been solved, not only for the co-operators, but for everyone. They did not of course contemplate the co-operative colonies producing everything, and being quite independent of the rest of the world; and they fully recognized the advantage of importing things from foreign coun tries. We shall not, however, go into details of the plan because the co-opera tive colony never succeeded; but it gives the simplest illustration of co-operation; as also unfortunately of the reasons why Co-operation has not yet solved the problem; namely, that there was never the self-sacrificing devotion to make the workers pull together and work in the disciplined way that is indispensable to successful production with modern meth ods. That is the rock on which those attempts were always wrecked. "The co-operators then formed their present plan. To sum it up briefly it is to have, first, co-operative shops, and so to secure at once the profits of trad ing, or 'distribution' to the co-operators; then to go on to co-operative production, and produce more and more things, and save also the profits of production; finally, when a large variety of neces saries are produced to carry out the true plan of production mainly for the use of the producers themselves. That is to say when the organization became large enough it would be possible for its regular members who wished to pay l! „ 46 CO-OPEEATION CO-OPEEATION 47 for what they required by doing some work in one or other of its many branches, paying by labor for products of labor. Then, obviously, we would have the economic conditions of the co operative colony, but without the ap pearance even of severance from the out side world, and the whole problem would be solved. . . . "The plan seems perfect. It offers some solution at once by cheapening our purchases; it does not break abruptly with the present order but, going step by step, aims at grafting upon our pres ent system which, by itself, cannot use our immense productive power well, a co-operative system that could. . . ." CO-OPERATORS WIN SIX SEATS IN PARLIAMENT The Co-operative Party elected six members to Parliament in the last gen eral election in Great Britain out of ten candidates nominated. Two of the un successful co-operative nominees barely failed of election by a few hundred votes. In the previous election there were four seats won by the Co-operative Party. Since its organization in 1918 the Co-operative Party has been steadily gaining in power. It should be borne in mind that the Co-operative Movement has many friends and supporters in Parliament in addition to those elected by the Co-ope rative Party. Nearly every Labor Party member belongs to a co-operative society, and many Liberal Party members also belong to co-operatives. Twenty-eight members of the new British Parliament, including Ramsay MacDonald, are mem bers of the London Co-operative Society. Several members of the new Cabinet are staunch co-operators. The Co-operative Party candidates waged their campaigns on the issues of free trade, a capital levy upon the wealthy for the purpose of reducing war debts, the demand for a revision of the Treaty of Versailles, and remedial legis lation. In the last Parliament the four Co-operative members fought for the abolition of the embargo on the impor tation of Canadian cattle into England. No sooner was the embargo removed than the price of beef went down. For many years the question of whether or not co-operators should vote as such in the elections has been agitat ing the Co-operative Movement in Great Britain. Apparently co-operators are now going into politics in earnest to de fend their political interest as consumers. NEWS AND COMMENT CO-OP CENTRAL EXCHANGE BREAKS OWN RECORDS All previous records for turnover of the Co-operative Central Exchange were broken during 1923, according to the annual report issued by the Exchange at Superior, Wis. An increase of nearly $100,000 over the sales of any previous year was shown. The total sales for 1923 amounted to $504,177, compared with $409,590 in 1920, the highest previous year. In 1922 total sales dropped to $337,566, due mainly to the general de flation in prices prevailing that year. A net saving of $5,180 was realized on the business conducted in 1923. This will be distributed by the annual meet ing of the societies affiliated with the Exchange, to be held in March. A por tion will probably be refunded as patronage rebates to stores making their purchases through the Exchange, a por tion transferred to the reserve fund, and a goodly sum set aside for co-opera tive educational work, as has been the custom in former years. The Co-operative Central Exchange is a co-operative wholesale house for over one hundred co-operative societies and consumers' clubs, chiefly organized by Finnish workingmen and farmers lo cated in the states of Wisconsin, Minne sota, Michigan, Illinois and the two Dakotas. About seventy of these local organizations are directly affiliated with the Exchange, but over a hundred make purchases through the Exchange in varying amounts. The Exchange was organized in 1917 and the headquarters located in Superior because it was considered the central location for the Finns in the north-cen tral states. The Board of Directors are recruited from three states. The educational department of the Exchange aids in the organization of co operatives and the carrying on of their work. Under the direction of this de partment courses in Co-operation are conducted each year for training man agers, bookkeepers and other employees for co-operative associations. Forty students attended the six weeks' course held in Superior last fall. An auditing department aids the co operatives in arranging accounting sys tems specially applicable to their needs, and in auditing their accounts. Three men are at present in the employ of this department performing audits. The Exchange has a bakery plant, en gaged chiefly in the manufacture of hardtack and toast. Practically all of the product is shipped out to the co operatives. The sales of the bakery amount to about $5,000 per month. About fifteen people are employed by the wholesale house and bakery plant in Superior. At the present time the Ex change bakery is the only union bakery in Superior. The office force also is unionized, the Exchange being the other of two concerns in Superior employing union office workers. • The educational department of the Exchange was one of the prime movers in organizing the Northern States Co operative League a couple of years ago, for the purpose of furthering co-opera tive educational work in the northwest ern states. MORE THAN 100 PER CENT SAVINGS The Hillsboro Co-operative Society at Taylor Springs, Illinois, saved more for their members in the second half of 1923 than the total of capital they had in vested in the society. This splendid showing far exceeded the hopes of even the most optimistic member. The net savings for the period of July to Decem ber amounted to $2,800, or $300 more than the capitalization of the society! An 8 per cent patronage rebate was re turned to members, interest was paid on capital stock, and the neat sum of $75O placed in the reserve fund for emer gencies. The membership of this co-operative is. almost international in character. Ger mans, Slavs, and Italians co-operate with Americans to run this successful society. The Hillsboro Co-operative Society is, affiliated with The Co-operative League. PRESIDENT COOLIDGE URGES CO-OPERATION President Coolidge endorsed co-opera tive marketing by farmers and purchas ing by consumers in a letter addressed to a recent meeting in Washington of the National Council of Farmers' Co-opera tive Marketing Associations. This en dorsement, following that of the late President Harding, may be taken as a sign of the times. The letter of Presi dent Coolidge is in part as follows: '' I have many times declared my con viction that the development of a power ful Co-operative Movement in this coun try is one of the needs of this period of economic readjustment. Much has been accomplished along this line in many- American communities, but it cannot be said that the co-operative idea has found, a very firm lodgment in the actual prac tice of the great majority of the Amer ican people. "Yet the examples of its advantages- which have been set before us in this and other countries are so numerous and im pressive that one cannot but wish that every encouragement may be extended to> such organizations as your own. In the- long run we will all be bettered if we- can lessen the burdensome costs of con veying our necessaries from the pro ducer to the consumer. "There is need for co-operative organ izations among agricultural producers to help them both in selling their products- for a better price and buying their re quirements more cheaply. There is like wise need for organization of the urban consumers to give like benefits. The establishment of a close working rela tionship between these two groups ought to be the ideal at which the larger Co operative Movement of the country should aim." 48 CO-OPEEATION LEWISTON RECOUPS LOSSES The Lewiston Co-operative Associa tion, of Lewiston, Idaho, had a profitable year in 1923, after suffering a loss in the previous year. The total sales dur ing 1923 were $67,000. After all ex penses had been paid, and allowances made for interest payments, taxes, etc., there was a net gain for the year of $2,700, or a little over 4 per cent. This more than wiped out the loss of $1,389" suffered during 1922, and helped to .swell the educational, building and emer gency reserve accounts. This is a very creditable showing in view of the trouble the Lewiston Asso ciation ran into from the beginning. It will be remembered that this Association was a part of the ill-fated Pacific Co operative League which went into bank ruptcy. Warned of the dangers of cen tralization by The Co-operative League, the Lewiston Society withdrew from the Insolvent P. C. Lt. before the crash came. 'This turned out to be a piece of good fortune, as otherwise the Lewiston So ciety would have suffered the fate of the forty co-operatives which were closed up i)y the bankruptcy of the P. C. L. As it was, the early experience with the Pacific League was a costly one, and Lewiston had to fight an uphill battle for years to regain the confidence of the members and to wipe out losses. But the courage and idealism of the Lewis- ton co-operators is at last meeting with success. THRIFTY CO-OPERATORS AT BENLD, ILLINOIS The Prosperity Co-operative Society •at Benld, Illinois, is everything that its name implies. The thirty-sixth quar terly report issued by this co-operative shows a remarkably successful period. Some of the members received as patron age rebates during the last quarter as much as $59, the equivalent to an extra pay day. The lucky co-operators made these rebates possible by their thrift and loyalty. This society is remarkable for the fact that every member in addition to owning :$25 worth of share capital has a savings account with the association. The low est account is $3.15, the highest amounts to $736, the average being about $225. In all, the members contributed $41,222 in loan capital. Instead of putting their money in banks or investing in profiteer ing business ventures, the co-operators of this town deposit their surplus funds in their own society. This enables the so ciety to make thrifty purchases, and it acts as insurance for the members who can feel secure in the knowledge that they have enough money on deposit to meet unemployment, strikes, and other emergencies. During the past year $15,091 were re turned to members as patronage rebates, and $1,478 as interest on share and loan capital. This amounts to a return of 34 per cent of the capital invested. The total sales for 1923 were $266,708. Dur ing the last quarter an 8 per cent sav ings return was paid to members. And it will bear repetition to state that some of the members received in patronage re bates the equivalent of a good week's wages. CO-OPERATIVE DELICA TESSEN The Clifton Co-operative Association, Clifton, N. J., has embarked on a hith erto almost uncharted sea. These co- operators have been running a grocery store for several years past, but early in 1924 divided off one side of the store and opened up a delicatessen department. Located on the main street of Clifton, and with one of the best locations on that street, these co-operators believe that they can get some of the transient trade in ready-cooked foods which is now going elsewhere. The store is open every evening and on Sundays dur ing the morning and evening. One thousand dollars was invested in new fixtures, and the first week under the new plan saw an increase in business of almost $100. At the same time the new Board and the Manager, Martin Weber, are putting on a more intensive educational cam paign. League leaflets are being dis tributed, personal letters are being sent CO-OPEEATION 49 to members and patrons, delivery serv ice is being reorganized.. For the last half of 1923 the sales were $13,565. Expenses have been kept well within limits, and the Directors report a slight gain for the six months. With the new policies in force they expect a much better showing before next July. KANSAS CO-OP REGAINS LOST GROUND A splendid recovery is reported by the Farmers Union Jobbing Association of Kansas, which six years ago was insolv ent. After finishing the most prosper ous year in its history, the association has wiped out its deficit. Only a few years ago the directors reported that the value of the capital stock of the associa tion had been entirely lost. The mem bers were given the alternative of let ting the association go down in history as another failure, or pouring more money into what looked like a bottom less pit. Some of the loyal members subscribed a few thousand dollars, and it was determined to keep the association •afloat. Now, after six years of uphill work, all losses have been wiped out. Although no patronage rebates have been paid to the members, the Farmers Union Jobbing Association has saved millions of dollars for them in lowered prices. The association supplies hun dreds of co-operative stores with farm and household requisites. The saving in one item alone, binder twine, has saved the farmers many times the value of their capital investment. MINERS' CO-OPERATIVE OF OHIO Although the Bush Bun Co-operative Society of Bayland, Ohio, is far from the largest store society of the state, it is among the most progressive. Made up entirely of miners who are members of the United Mine Workers of America, and carrying on its rolls names derived from many of the nations of Europe, this little association is very typical of the best kind of co-operative we have in this American melting pot. In 1923 the sales amounted to $22,094 and expenses of operation to $3,492, or 15.8 per cent. As the gross surplus sav ings were 20.8 per cent, the net saved to the members was almost 5 per cent— $1,091.82, to be exact. The Directors expect to pay a savings return to mem bers of about 10 per cent, and a 1 per cent return to non-member purchasers. In addition they are donating $265 this past year to the Labor Press, have put $350 into organization and education, and have made a loan of $300 to one of their fellow co-operators who went to jail and needed bail. These miner co- operators of Ohio introduced into the last National Co-operative Congress the resolution demanding the release of political prisoners. UTICA MAKES GREAT SAVINGS The Utica Co-operative Society of Utica, New York, increased its sales dur ing 1923, and made large savings for its customers. The total sales for the past year were $113,305, a gain of $14,000 over the previous year. The savings on this turnover amounted to $3,839. Of this amount, $1,480 went toward the payment of interest on share capital, $500 to the reserve fund, $191 to the educational fund, $1,411 as rebates to members, and $256 as rebates to non- members. Since its organization in 1915 this co operative has sold $661,701 worth of merchandise, paying total rebates of $11,258, and in addition paying $7,315 as interest on shares. The assets of the society have steadily grown, the real estate being valued at $42,000, while cash in bank, machinery, truck, etc., bring the assets up to $70,000. The Utica society runs a bakery in addition to its grocery store. The bak ery employs only union labor. Half & million loaves of bread are baked annu ally by the Utica society. Active educational work is carried on by this society. A Women's Guild meets from time to time, at which discussions on the Co-operative Movement are held. The society has subscribed to CO-OPERA TION for all the members. 50 CO-OPEEATION EIGHTEENTH YEAR THE BEST AT MAYNARD Maynard, Massachusetts, has been a co-operative center for many years, boasting a larger co-operative popula tion than any other city or town in the eastern part of the country. The 1923 financial statement of the United Co operative Society of that community shows that business the past year has been larger and more profitable than that of any year since the society was incorporated in 1907. The store (in which meat, clothing, general merchandise and furniture are sold as well as groceries) had sales of $204,805.25; the restaurant had sales of $34,893.89; the milk and dairy depart ment sold $62,655.20 worth of goods; and the bakery business (included in store sales) was $34,652.12. Each of these departments made savings for the members, too, the bakery department doing the best with savings of 9.5 per cent. The total savings ("profits") for the whole business were $13,883.89. Counting cash, stocks, real estate and equipment, these people now have re sources totalling $74,827. Their capital stock is more than $27,000, and their surplus almost $7,000. These figures do not look very large to a few of our big city co-operatives, but they are very large for a town whose population is considerably less than 10,000, and which tries to support two or three other co operatives as well , (Maynard has co- operators among its Americans, its Finns, its Poles, its Kussians). Late in the year a new department was opened up, operations of which do not appear in this statement. In Novem ber they began to handle coal, and in the three months since the first carload came have sold nearly forty cars. To begin with they had trouble in getting coal at a reasonable price, but have now overcome that difficulty and are able to save their members more than $3 per ton. They invested more than $15,000 in equipment before they were able to handle coal satisfactorily and economi cally. W. Niemela, the Manager of this most successful society, is a Director and the Treasurer of The Co-operative League,, A GENUINE ENDORSEMENT FOR CO-OPERATION Probably there are few men in politi cal life who have so little in common as President Coolidge and Senator La Follette. But that merely makes all the more interesting recent statements froir these two men regarding the co-opera tive movement. The President's words appear on another page. As we should expect, Senator LaFol- lette does not deal in mere abstract en dorsements. Since his return he has written several articles on his co-opera tive experiences in Europe last summer. At the end of one of these articles ap pears the following clear-cut statement: "I expect to devote a large part of my time during the coming years to fostering the development of co-opera tion in the United States, because I see in this movement an opportunity for a great good for the common man and a means of escape from the operation of the monopolies and combinations which are slowly but surely throttling the economic life of America," FIRE DAMAGES CENTRAL STATES WHOLESALE A fire in the warehouse of the Central States Co-operative Wholesale Society at East St. Louis, Illinois, resulted in the loss of about $10,000, early in January. Although an immediate alarm was turned in, the firemen found it difficult to save the stock and fixtures, due to a frozen water pipe making it hazardous to get at the fire. The loss was fully covered with insurance. PROFITEERING UNDER THE PRESENT SYSTEM An interesting article appears in a re cent number of The Railroad Trainman. A few brief quotations from the open ing paragraphs follow: "We have a proposition that asks the Government to subsidize certain prod ucts that cannot find a profitable market. CO-OPEEATION 51 e reason is that too much of this one commodity was produced, not only in the United States, but in the world. . . . To subsidize a product because there is too much of it certainly does not mean lower costs to the consumer. ... If we mean to do anything for the last buver, the thing to do is to commence at the bottom and control both production and distribution. Subsidizing produc tion is an old game with us." The writer then goes on to quote from a recent article by B. F. Yoakum in The Nation's Business, organ of the National Chamber of Commerce: "I foresaw that the margin of profit between the producers and consumers, especially of food, was being gobbled up through a marketing system which has steadily become a great burden upon both the producer and the consumer." Mr. Yoakum goes on to show that in 1922 the potato crop, which netted the farmer an average of 56 cents per bushel, cost the average consumer $2 per bushel, almost four times as much as the farmer received. Seventy-two per cent of the consumers' dollar gone to the costs and profits of distribution! Or, considering the question from the con sumers' point of view, it cost almost three times as much to market the product as it did to get it from the farmer to the first middleman. Mr. Yoakum goes on to show that the study made by the Bureau of Markets •of New York proved that the retailers of bread were making from 30 to 50 per •cent on their sales to consumers. Much of this is due to the fact that there are too many distributors. New York City lias 80,000 concerns selling foodstuffs, •or (at five to the family) 400,000 people getting their living off the sale of food stuffs. As the population is only €,000,000, this means that there is one person living off the food purchases of •each fifteen of the population. In Hart ford, Conn., there is one person living off the food purchases of each twenty- eight of the population. In the entire •country there are 19,000,000 people liv ing off the food business of the nation. As the entire farm population of the •country is only 33,500,000, there are four people who get their living out of the labor of every seven people on the farms. And since the population of the country is about 110,000,000, there is one person getting his living from the needs of each six consumers! In other words, the nation is made up so that for every seven of food pro ducers, and for every twenty-four of food consumers, there are four who make a living as go-betweens. Mr. Yoakum concludes: '' The next big- thing of national importance in connec tion with the farm problem is to push co-operative consumers' associations in large consuming centers. . . . Produc ers' and consumers' co-operative associa tions will become nation-wide and will exert an influence which will carry power sufficiently strong to force the recognition that they deserve, eliminat ing the enormous burden that the farm ers and consumers are compelled to carry.'' FAILURES AND THE REASONS WHY During the ten years from 1913 to 1922 more than one thousand farmers' organizations went out of business. These organizations were engaged in collective buying or selling, 83 per cent of them being co-operative. The United States Department of Agriculture tabulated and analyzed the reports, which make an interesting study. It is stated at the outset of the report that the abandonment of business by a thousand societies "is not so serious a matter as might be supposed, as many of these organizations ceased to function only after they had rendered services that fully justified their formation and their support during a period of years. Probably a majority of the associations that have ceased to function have just 'faded out.' The initial capital has slowly dwindled, as has also the volume of business and the amount of enthusi asm for the enterprise. In such cases the only pecuniary loss has been that involving membership fees or dues or the value of shares of capital stock. Even in such cases the loss has not al ways been real, for the reports received indicate that not infrequently the ben- 52 CO-OPEEATION CO-OPEEATION efits to a community or to the individ uals composing an association have more than counterbalanced the initial cost of starting the enterprise. Farmers' busi ness organizations have gone out of busi ness on many occasions to make way for larger associations, which have absorbed the membership and functions of the original organizations. In a few cases associations have gone out of business because the members (or stockholders) have had an opportunity to sell the prop erties and good will at a profit. How ever, some of the associations failed with financial losses to members or stockhold ers and with losses to creditors." Almost half (48 per cent) of the asso ciations that closed down did a business of less than $25,000 a year; 65 per cent of the associations did a business of less than $50,000 a year. The most frequent cause of failure was inefficient manage ment. The dwindling of interest of the members is the next most frequent cause. The following are the various reasons given for failure by the associations which reported: Inefficient management .......... 558 Lack of interest ................. 556 Insufficient business ............. 326 Insufficient working capital ....... 282 Insufficient membership .......... 222 Too liberal credit ............... 187 Inadequate accounting system..... 114 Lack of proper audit............. 103 Dishonest management ........... 100 Capital stock falling into hands of too few....................... 32 Property damaged by fire......... 12 Co-operators may well examine their own societies to see whether they are- suffering from any of these troubles which cripple or kill co-operative asso ciations. THE DIRECTORS' PAGE WHOLESALERS stance the salesman will fail to leave a ARE THE OVERCHARGING YOUR MAN AGER? The Directors of a co-operative, re sponsible for the efficient conduct of the business, are almost helpless before the sharp practices of wholesale houses and their salesmen unless they have a man ager who is just as shrewd as the best of these salesmen. And most managers are a match for neither the regular salesman nor the specialty man. Most of our managers think that the salesman has a fixed price for his goods. Practically all directors think this. But as a matter of fact these men have sev eral prices and they quote their lowest only to their oldest and shrewdest cus tomers; in other words, they quote low only when they have to. And we have found very few co-operative managers capable of getting such quotations. One device often used, though, by the salesman who is trying to break into another man's territory is to quote his lowest price and thus get an order away from a competitor. But in such an in- copy of the order with the manager and when the invoice comes in the prices are higher than those quoted. The manager can protect himself from these practices only by keeping a careful record of every order placed. But aside from the tricks of the un scrupulous salesman, the manager who does not discount his bills is beset with another difficulty. Wholesale houses lose considerably on bad debts. They can afford to give their best prices only to those who pay promptly and thus show that they are absolutely sound finan cially. Every grocer who fails to take his discounts regularly is classed as either a fool or in financial difficulty; and the wholesale house must guard against losses from such grocers. The best protection is to make good all pos sible losses fee/ore they occur; they can't be recovered afterward. Therefore these merchants begin systematically to over charge as soon as the bills run over the discount period. And the grocer has no way of protecting himself because he cannot leave the people to whom he owes money. The first protection the co-operative manager has is that of discounting all bills. Once he does that regularly, his next protection is to subscribe regularly to the catalogue of at least one large and reliable house and keep posted on prices. But there is only one certain protection available to the Board of Directors—who are held to final responsibility by the stockholders. They should have dupli cates of all invoices sent regularly to the head office of one of the Co-operative Accounting Bureaus in this country (there are such Bureaus in the State of Washington, in Illinois, and at League Headquarters). These Accounting De partments have passing before them every day hundreds of invoices from scores of wholesale houses; and thus, they get a birdseye view of prices throughout the entire wholesale field. If your manager is being overcharged, the expert accountant will see it and let you know—that is, they will if your Association has signed up for this Accounting Service. BOOK REVIEW CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN RUSSIA BY ELSIE TERRY BLANC Since J. B. Bubnoff's book on Co operation in Russia, published in 1917, we have had no adequate treatment of the subject in English. And because of the tremendous upheaval in Russian political, economic and social life since that date, a comprehensive view of the movement in the land of the Soviets has been badly needed. Mrs. Blanc's book, just published by Macmillan, despite many minor faults, gives us most of this needed information. Much of her treatment of the earlier stages of Co-operation in Russia is famil iar to those who have read Bubnoff and others, but the re-reading of all this is stimulating exercise. We find how regularly the agricultural artels failed in those early days to function regularly and evenly; how so many of the indus trial artels so often became capitalistic; how both the Schulz-Delitsch and the Raiffesen banks were brought in from Germany; how the consumers movement received its first stimulation at the hands of the well-to-do. From the be ginning of the twentieth century down to 1917 we see the continued hostility of the revolutionary parties toward co operation, or their attempt to capture it for "direct action." The chapter on the place of Co-operation during the Great War is particularly good. In 1918 the Soviet Government found the consumers movement by far the strongest of all the co-operative move ments in Russia. Then in August the Government withdrew eighty million rubles within a few weeks from the Moscow Narodny Bank, and soon the era of "compulsory co-operation" be gan. Co-operative registration was de manded of all citizens, and shareholding was often compulsory. After this began the fearful deprecia tion of the ruble, the government at one time employing 13,000 workers in the money factory and sending out into the cities and towns sixty to seventy freight car loads of money per month. Finally the New Economic Policy, with its at tempt to promote business, stabilize the currency and free the co-operative, set Russia on the road to plenty again. The chapters on the educational work of the co-operatives are particularly significant. They promoted elementary education for the peasants, established high schools, supported universities. In the bookshop of Centrosoyus an annual business of 3,000,000 rubles took place. One provincial union alone established 170 libraries, 130 reading circles, and purchased 42,000 books within six months. The co-operatives promoted dramatics, kindergartens, the study of foreign languages (including Esper anto!). In October, 1918, there were 143 co-operative publications in Russia, eighteen of them full-sized newspapers. Those who look forward longingly to a huge co-operative movement in the United States should read this book if they would realize the possibilities ahead—and the difficulties. C. L. J i: CO-OPEEATION THE PLACE OF CO-OPERATION AMONG OTHER SOCIAL MOVEMENTS BY V. TOTOMIANZ Having been asked to what party he 'belonged, a Co-operator replied: "I be long to no party. Co-operators are the Jriends of all men and the enemies of none." He who is asked to what class he belongs can make the same reply. This is the center or core of the little forty-eight-page pamphlet just written by the well-known Russian co-operator .and published by The Co-operative Union, Manchester, England. Mr. Totomianz begins with a Defini tion of Co-operation and a statement of its aims. Dealing briefly with the three chief branches of Co-operation, Distri bution, Credit, and Production, he passes on to an investigation of the ways in which Co-operation differs from other Social Movements, such as Trade Unionism, the different kinds of Social ism, Anarchism, Nationalization, and the Land Program of Henry George. He shows the relations of Co-operation to the Class Struggle and to Political Action. And he closes with a brief definition of some of the terms used in the co-operative vocabulary that are un like those used in the jargon of the profit-making world, such as Rebates (instead of Dividends), Social Fund (in place of Capital), etc. This little pamphlet is well prepared, very well edited, and cheap (at sis- pence). More important yet, the sub ject is concisely and clearly handled. C. L. THE CORRESPONDENCE FILE MORE ABOUT MANAGERS AND LOYALTY I enjoy the articles in the magazine very much. In defense of most managers will say that most consumers as members treat the manager like a messenger boy because they •own the store. The best way to reduce ex penses is for members to be loyal to the store. We hear a good bit about one vote for one member. Why should a member who spends $75 for the necessities of life at the store .across the street, and maybe $5 or $10 at his •own co-operative store each month, have a Tote? When the time comes that the loyal members control the store it will be a success, t think. Then we hear again about compulsory ley- ,alty. Why should there be any member op posed to a mutual agreement? That would .give the manager a chance to show the mem bers a nice savings at the end of the year. I think a co-operative society is not only a means to do business but also a savings society. I have also noticed that in the store where the manager lets the members have their own way in managing the affairs the first year, the business doesn't last long, for generally the members desire large dividends. Thus the manager is handicapped for capital to increase the different lines he should carry. If the members are loyal for at least tnree years, and if the society handles merchandise like a general store, then the prices on groceries can be reduced with still a good surplus. If those who oppose the mutual contract would get a little experience in managing a co-operative store they might change their attitude towards •the contract. Why should the loyal members shoulder the loss when a few disloyal members get together (perhaps because one of their friends was not elected a director) and cause the society to close the store? Why not have a rule that unless a member spends at least $30 or $40 a month he should not have a vote? That would not take away their liberty. A disloyal member is a traitor, both to his store and to Co-operation. One of the chief reasons, i believe, that co operation does not advance is that it has been the policy of co-operatives in general to let the members do as they please; and then the manager gets the blame because the store failed, whereas the members themselves are to blame. I am in favor of the mutual contract. Why not take a vote among the managers of the co-operative stores in the U. S.? I think you will find the majority will be in favor of a contract. PEEL HEDDLESTON, East Pittsburgh, Pa. A TRIBUTE FROM ADAMSTON We are enclosing herewith application for membership and check covering one year's dues. The League has already demonstrated its value to us, and we should, we feel, try to mutualize our relations. Your secretary's visit to our city was an inspiration to us, and the writer feels the need of more impartial advice and criticism. F. H. BAETLETT, Secretary, Adamston Co-operative Mercantile Co., Adamston, W. Va. CO-OPERATION s. 7. 38. PUBLICATIONS of THE CO-OPERATIVE LEAGUE HISTORICAL 1'tr Copy Btorj of Co-operation .........................................................$ .10 British Co-operative Movement ............................................... .10 Co-operative Consumers' Movement in the United States....................... .05 Consumers' Co-operative Societies in N. Y. State, (Published by Consumers' League). . . . ............................................................. -10 A Baker and What He Baked (Belgian movement) ........................... .10 fcr J«* ti.Utt 4. CM 4.CC 2.60 1.0ft .60 1.T6 1.2B 1.00 10. TECHNICAL. 4. How to Start and Bun a Bochdale Co-operative Society....................... .10 0. System of Store Beoords and Accounts......................................... .60 6. A Model Coustitution and By-Laws for a Co-operative Society................ .05 8. Co-operative Education. Duties of Educational Committee Defined.......... .10 ». How to Start a Co-operative Wholesale....................................... .10 27. Why Co-operative Stores Fail.... ............................................. .02 2. Co-operative Store Management................................................ .10 14. How to Start and Bun a Women's Guild....................................... .05 15. How to Organize a District Co-operative League.............................. .10 29. Credit Union Primer (By Ham and Bobiuson)...................... ......... .50 32. Application Blanks for Membership in a Co-op Society...................... 43. Co-operative Housing. . . . .................................................... .10 50. ABC of Co-operative Housing.......................................... .10 SIISCKIJLANEOUS 16. Model Co-op State Law........................................................ .10 17. Syllabus for Course of Lectures, with Beferences and Bibliography.......... .25 46. Producers' Co-operative Industries............................................ .10 11. Control of Industry by the People through the Co-operative Movement...... .10 12. Credit Union and Co-operative Store.......................................... .05 34. Co-operative Movement (Yiddish).............................................. .02 41. Farmer's Co-operation (By I'.ctison Y. Laudis)................................ .15 42. Co-op Homes for Europe's Homeless.......................................... .10 30. " When the Whistle Blew " (Story, by Bruce Calvert)......................... .06 81. Course of Study in Successful Co-operation (by W. C. Lansdou). 10 pamphlets..... 35. Doing it Together. .............................................. .05 ONE-PAGls M5AFI..ETS (One cent each; 50 cents per 100: $2.50 per 500; $4 per 1,000) (1) Principles and Aims of The Co-operative League; (18) Do You Know Why You Should Be a Co-operator; (20) Why Loyalty Is Necessary; (21) Cost and Crime of Credit; (22) A Bea3 Co-operator; (25) Besolutions Adopted by A. F. of L.; (26) Factory Workers Co-operate I; (28) Do You Know About Co-operation in Europe?; (40) Have You a Committee on Educa tion and Becreation?: (44) What Vs the Co-operative Movement?: (4f>> Schools and Stores; (47) A Man's Bight to a Job ; (-18) Tips to Co-operators ; (49) The Way Out. BIONTHL.Y PUBLICATIONS CO-OPEEAT1ON—(In bundle lots, $7.50 per hundred). Subscription, per year..............$1.00 HOME CO-OPEBATOB, 4 pages......................................................... .$1 per 100 INTEBNATIONAL CO-OPEBATIVE BULLETIN (Pllh. by The I. C. A.)..........per rear, 81.60 BOOKS The following books are recommended as containing tbe best discussions of the modern Co-operative Movement. They may be ordered through The League: Bergengren, Boy F.: Co-operative Banking, A Credit Union Book........................ .§3.00 Blanc, Elsie T.: Co-operative Movement in Bussia .............................................. 2.50 Faher, Harald: Co-operation in Danish Agriculture, 1918........................ ......... 2.75 Flanagan, J. A.: Wholesale Co-operation in Scotland, 1920................................... 2.00 Gebhard, Haiines: Co-operation in Finland, 1816............................................. 2,OO Gide, C.: Consumers' Co-operative Societies, 1921............................................. 2.5G Gide, C.: Consumers' Co-operative Societies, American edition and notes, 1922 Cloth, $3.00; paper bound................................................................... .BO Harris, Emerson P.: Co-operation, The Hope of tbe Consumer, 1918. Cloth, $2.00; paper bound. . . . . ............................................................................... .60 Holyoake: Bochdale Pioneers............................................................... . i.oft Howe, Fred C.: Denmark, a Co-operative Commonwealth. 1921............................... 2.0O Madams, J. P.: The Story Betold............................................................. .GO Nicholson, Isa: Our Story......................................................... ... 25 Potter, B.: Co-operative Movement In Great Britain.......................................... l OG Bedfern, Percy: The Story of the C. W. S................................................... 200 Bedfern. Percy: The Consumers' Place in Society, 1920...................................... ] 00 Smith-Gordon & Staples: Rural Beconstructiou in Ireland. 1918............................ . 1.RO Smith-Gordon and O'Brien : Co-operation in Denmark.................................... l.OO Smith-Gordon and O'Brien : Co-operation in Many Lands, 1920........................... 1.5ft SennichRen, Albert. Consumers' Co-operation, 1919. Cloth bound, $1.75; paper bound....... .7.'> Steen, H.: Co-operative Marketing ............................................................ 2.00 Stolinsky, A.: The Co-operative Movement. In Yiddish....................................... l.OO Warbasse, James P.: Co-operative Democracy................................................. 3.50 Webh, B. and S.: Tbe Consumers* Co-operative Movement. 1921.............................. B.OO Webb. Catherine: Industrial Co-operation. 1917............................................. i.fio Woolf. Leonard: Co-operation and the Future of Industry.................................... 1.150 Woolf, L.: Socialism and Co-operation........................................................ J.jsc "The Co-operative Consumer" and "Co-operation." Ill (1917). VI (1920), VII (1921), VIII (1922). .... ............................................................................... 1.2B Transactions of Second American Co-operative Congress. 1920.................................. l.OO Transactions of Third American Po-owrative Congress, 1922.............................. . 1.00 The People's Year Book. 1924. Cloth. $1: paper bound................................... GO (Ten cents postape should be added for boohs wblch rest more than $2.00, and fire tents fojt the smaller books.) THE CO-OPERATIVE LEAGUE (Member of The International Co-operative Alliance) 167 West 12th Street, New Yotk An educational organization for teaching the history, principles, methods and alma of the Co-operative Movement and for the promotion of Co-operation in the United States. Join The League and thus help promote the educational work of the Co-operatiye Movement. Subscribe fen the Monthly Magazine and keep in touch with the Movement. Subscription for CO-OPERATION, $1.00. Membership in The LEAGUE, $1.00. Enclosed find $......... for Name................................. Address............................... Co-operative Central Exchange Wholesale Grocers and Jobbers, Bakers We supply goods to Co-operative Societies ONLY. We are owned and controlled by Co operative Societies. We are organized to enable Co-operative Societies to do collectively what they cannot do individually. Co-operative Central Exchange Offices, Warehouses and Plant: Winter Street and Ogden ATB., SUPERIOR, WIS. Co-operators' IittL Mutual Fire Insurance Co. is now writing insurance in State of Wisconsin THE PRODUCER Issued Monthly Price 3d. If you want to keep in touch with business, organization, administrative affairs, and problems of the British Co-operative Movement, read THE PRODUCER. Published by Co-operative Wholesale Society, Inc. 1 Balloon Street, Manchester Post free 4 sh. 6d. a year. The Trade and Technical Organ of British Co-operation. The New Secretary's Ledger Just published bv the EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT, Central States Co-operative Wholesale Society (203 Converse Ave., E. St. Louis, 111.) is bhe form for keeping the Membership Ledger of a Co-operative Society which provides ample and proper space for all transactions with a maximum of efficiency and a minimum of time, worry and errors. Send for Samples and Prices. Co-operation in Scotland In no part of the -world is Co-operation fur ther developed, or more successfully practiced than in Scotland. If you wish to keep in- formed, read "The Scottish Co-operator" (Published Weekly) Subscription: Year 12 sh.; half-year, 6 sh. Address, 119 Paisley Road, Glasgow, Scotland The Madras Monthly Bulletin of Co-operation ROYAPETTAH, MADRAS, INDIA The only monthly on Co-operation in India. Special articles on Rural, Con sumers', Agricultural, Credit and Indus trial Co-operation; and Co-operation Abroad. Subscription Rs. 4/12 per annum. The Canadian Co-operator Brantford, Ontario, Canada The organ of the Canadian Go-opera tive Movement, owned by and eon- ducted under the auspices of The Co-operative Union ol Canada. Published monthly 75c per annum THE HOME CO-OPERATOR A four-page magazine for use in co-operative societies. Issued monthly, in bundles, $1 per hundred. Published by The Co-operative League Address Publishing Office, Willimaiitic, Conn. Albert Sonnichsen, Managing Editor A magazine to spread the knowledge at the Co-operattre Movement, whereby the people, in yol« untary association, produce and distribute for their own use the things they need Published monthly by The Co-operative League, 167 West 12th Street, New York City. J. P. Warbtuue, Editor. Entered as second class matter, Decem ber 19, 1917, at the Post Office at New Tork, N. T., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Price $1.00 a yew. *- Vol. X, No. 4 APRIL, 1924 10 Cents VITAL THE CATTLE EAT AND ARE NOT FED "We like to think of Co-operation as a voluntary movement. People go into it of their own free will. But as a matter of fact there are always forces that drive people into Co-operation. This is the way it happens: The farmers buy feed for their cattle. The feed merchant is to be found in every town. There is much adulteration of feed. The farmers get a law passed against adulteration. Immediately after such a law is signed one of the big feed houses in Washington actually sends out a notice to its customers that the price of feed has to be raised 20 per cent. There is a frank acknowledgment to begin with that up to that time feed had been at least 20 per cent adultera tion. But the law did not stop it. Feed dealers continued to put in shorts, oat hulls, screenings, rice polish, rice hulls, and ground straw. Screenings used to be burned; now they bring $15 a ton just for adulteration purposes. This sort of stuff has about the same nourish ing value as sawdust or wall paper. The poor cows chew and chew and always are hungry. It is a common practice for the feed dealer to work up a good business on feed that is but slightly adulterated, and then gradually to begin to slip in the adulterants. He keeps this going until he begins to get the reaction from the livestock. The farmers begin to ISSUES complain that the feed is not satisfac tory. Then he lets up a bit on the adul teration. So long as the farmer does not complain the dealer increases the fraud. The squealing point marks the danger line. Some dealers have this system so well worked out that they have secret bins of oat hulls and screenings connected by a chute in such a way that by simply pulling a string or stepping on a release they can mix this stuff with the feed at any time. In the State of Washington the farm ers simply could not get feed that could be depended on to keep their stock healthy. And when the farmer bought a bale of hay he could always know that the dealer had sprinkled at least five gallons (forty pounds) of water into it before it was weighed. The dealer who did not do these things failed; he could not compete with those who did. What did the farmers do ? They went into the feed business themselves. The Grange Warehouse of Washington, sup ported by some ninety co-operative stores, now has its own feed mill. The farmers supply feed to themselves at a low cost. There is no reason for adul teration. The feed is now produced for use and not for profit. They do not even have to suspect adulteration. No inspectors are necessary to see that the law is complied with—or bribed not to see that it is not. These farmers will tell you they have 58 CO-OPERATION "Too far away!" is merely looking for an excuse for his own disloyalty to the larger co-operative movement. No man ager or director is really to be called loyal to all that Co-operation implies until he has written to one or two of these wholesales and received quotations on such goods as the manager of the wholesale can give the best prices on. We need a larger loyalty from many who are now blaming the members of their own societies with disloyalty. Let the pot scour itself clean before it calls the kettle black. C. L. BUILDERS OF CO-OPERATION JOHN T. W. MITCHELL By Albert Sonnichsen JOHN T. W. MITCHELL Leaders are usually people who can talk more glibly and more noticeably than their fellows. They are remembered by what they have talked. There are two classes that must be excepted. One is the military leader. The military commander holds his job because of the efficiency with which he can direct action. The less he talks the more effective his work. How many generals of the late world war can you recall by name! The second class is the leader of Co operation. Here, too, the essential qualification is the ability to direct ac tion, with the result that only the close students of the movement remember the names of the men who have guided the building. Silent, almost inarticulate, never brilliant in self-expression, men who pass through a crowd unobserved, such have been the majority of the leaders of the Co-operative Movement. Such a man was John T. W. Mitchell, the master builder of the British Con sumers' Co-operative Movement. Portly in his later years, of ruddy fea tures, almost completely bald, you have probably seen his like in hundreds of individuals and remembered them only as a type; the prosperous tradesman, a businessman. The likeness goes even deeper, for Mitchell was a man of simple thoughts and words, seeking refuge in trite phrases. Art and literature to him were mere words. And yet, with all his apparent medi ocrity, there was something tremen dously outstanding in the mind and character of John Mitchell. His biog raphers play up the fact that he devoted himself to the cause of Co-operation, and that it was his ability which built up the English Co-operative Wholesale Society, during the period when it had not yet cleared shallow waters. But thousands of other men are devoting their lives to social service, doing con structive work, and yet are by no means comparable to John Mitchell. Another point that is played up is that he began his career as a poor work ing boy. So have a million other suc cessful men in all walks of life. Far more significant is the fact that when he first began to give himself to Co-opera tion he was no longer a laboring man. CO-OPERATION 59 Mitchell was a Rochdale man, born in that famous suburb or outlying district of Manchester on October 18, 1828. His mother kept a beer house. There is the old story of little schooling, long work ing hours and study by night. Roch dale was a flannel producing center, and the boy worked in that industry. Prom a warehouseman he rose to the position of manager of a big factory and ware house. And then he did what would be expected of a man of his vitality and initiative—he went into business for himself. He was a man who knew all about drygoods, and in that business he prospered. Which is the point that his biographers do not stress, as it should be stressed. At the age of twenty-four Mitchell joined the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers Society, but it was some years before he took any active part in the society's af fairs. Later his name appears as a member of committees and as a delegate to the Congresses of the Co-operative Union and still later as a delegate to the meetings of the C. W. S. He was forty-one years old when he was elected to the board of directors of the Wholesale Society. Here Mitchell stood on the threshold of his career as a Co-operative leader. Naturally, he was welcomed by his associates, for at this time Mitchell was already what is termed a "successful business man." He was prospering as a merchant and he knew the cotton and woolen industry. His colleagues, most of them poor working- men whose experiences had been gained as directors of their little local societies, counted him as a big asset. Small won der that they hastened to elect him their chairman. It was then that Mitchell stood facing the crossroads. On the one hand lay his private career as a merchant. He saw before him, in that direction, the possi bility of large wealth. In the other direction, along the road of social serv ice for Co-operation, poverty. For in those days, when the C. W. S. was barely established, there was no prospect of anything more than bare expense money for a member of the board, with a labor er's wage for those who gave up full time to the work. Mitchell did not at that time give up his private business for the sake of the Wholesale. In fact, he maintained his hold on it till the end of his days, but as his duties on the Wholesale took up more and more of his time, he gave less to his business. When he died, in 1895, it liquidated for a bare $1,500. And that was a remarkable sacrifice. The average labor leader rises from poverty to a life of ease, and even luxury, with the success of his movement. Mitchell was on the road to a place among the wealthy Manchester merchants, when he deliberately turned and gave himself up to a movement which had nothing to offer him but a life of poverty. So much for his character. His men tality has been described as mediocre. His thoughts were expressed in the lan guage of the man in the street. But whatever his shortcomings in the art of self-expression, Mitchell was the man in whose brain was first conceived the idea that the only true industrial democracy must be based on the broad collectivism of the people as consumers. It was Mrs. Sidney Webb who first put this philosophy into comprehensible words, into scholarly phraseology, bnt frankly she admits that ihe fundamental thought was conveyed to her by John Mitchell. One catches the idea dimly in the fragments of speeches presented by Percy Redfern in his short biography of the man. But his vocabulary was limited. It was in his actions that the idea rose clear. The so-called leaders of Co operation of that day, Jacob Holyoake, Vansittart Neale, Tom Hughes, held that the future salvation of the people lay in profit-sharing, in a partnership between the workers and the capitalist. When the Wholesale Society, therefore, not only discontinued "sharing profits" with its workers, but deliberately went into manufacturing on behalf of its con stituent societies, under the leadership of Mitchell, he was bitterly attacked by all these intellectuals. He was a rank "materialist," a "dividend-hunter," the champion of the selfish consumer. Mitchell withstood these attacks with a self-possession that showed the stabil ity of his own inner convictions. On lug 60 , CO-OPERATION own board there were men against him, sharing the opinions of the intellectuals. But Mitchell, almost single handed, fought for his principle, and a principle it must have been for him, for he had nothing to gain materially by doing as he did. Industry was for the purpose of supplying the consumer, he main tained. Therefore the consumer must control. The workers' duty was social service, at a fair wage. Time has vindicated him. The profit- sharing schemes of the intellectuals are now mostly forgotten, many of them absorbed after bankruptcy by the Whole sale Society. Vansittart Neale died a bitterly disappointed man. Holyoake had not the imagination to realize de feat. And John Mitchell, the son of a saloonkeeper, stands forth as the man who, more than any other individual, laid the foundations of that vast, world wide movement, Consumers' Co-opera tion. CONTRIBUTED ARTICLES THE MANHATTAN HEALTH SOCIETY By Olive B. Husk In an uptown section of New York known as "Washington Heights" a cer tain triangular business block houses, among its other communal interests, a steadily growing co-operative association known as the Manhattan Health Society, an experiment of pioneer significance in the development of a public health serv ice. Only sixteen months old, it already claims a definite place in the com munity's activitiea The Society had its inception some three years or more ago when the Mater nity Center Association of New York began to discuss the possibility and feas ibility of self-support for its own work. Late in 1920 their discussions led to the appointment of a committee to study the matter, and interest was intensified by a gift of $10,000 from an "anonymous donor" to aid the committee in study ing similar experiments that might have been made elsewhere; to secure the ideas, opinions, and judgment of per sons and organizations dealing with health problems; and, if necessary, aid in the organization of some form of self- support in some given community. In January, 1921, the original committee was enlarged, and as constituted repre sented the Boards of Directors and Executive Staffs of the Maternity Center Association, New York Diet Kitchen Association, Henry Street Visiting Nurse Service, and certain other persons of recognized authority in public health work, and thus became an independent group known as the "Committee to Study Community Organization for Self-support of Health Protection for Mothers and Young Children." For a number of months this group gave serious considerations to two ques tions, namely, the practicability and timeliness of an experiment designed to prove whether or not the support of a given community could be obtained for health protection of mothers and young children within its area, and what the cost of such service would be to the com munity. It seemed not unreasonable to believe that people would learn through their own management of a self-support en terprise practical lessons essential to the successful transfer of all such measures from private to public control; first, the necessary amount and standard and cost of any health service; and second, that when transferred to public control as surance of adequate appropriations and qualified workers would rest on them as voters. And further, the committee be lieved such work to be a community re sponsibility and one that should be borne collectively. The project was finally outlined by this committee. The services offered were maternity, infant and pre-school CO-OPERATION 61 clinics with salaried physicians and nurses in attendance; follow-up home visits by the nurses and qualified nutri tion workers; visiting nurse care for persons of all ages who are sick in their homes, and nursing care in confinement. The organization proposed to be a demo cratically organized self-support society designed to express community responsi bility for and co-operation in health protection. Bounded geographically within certain sanitary areas (the unit for recording vital statistics in New York). Eligibility to extend to all per sons on a per capita cost of service. Re sponsibility for extending membership to be borne largely by the members. If necessary, a subsidy to cover organiza tion period. Suggested as adjuncts to the clinics and nursing service were mothers' clubs and a co-operative store providing ma terials, patterns and finished garments for pregnant mothers, infants and chil dren; utensils and supplies needed in times of sickness. The purpose of the committee as it was formulated and its tentative plans were indorsed by the Boards of Direc tors of the three associations concerned and the individual members of the com mittee, the Chief of the Division of Child Hygiene of the New York City Depart ment of Health, and the Babies' Wel fare Federation of New York City. By July, 1921, the committee was agreed that the experiment should be undertaken as a local community serv ice within a limited district. Several sections of New York City were consid ered, and the one finally chosen in the Manhattanville section seemed to meet all of the qualifications, with the seem ingly additional advantage of already having established under one roof the three organizations concerned. The estimated cost of service at a mem bership of 5,000 members was $6.00 per year per person. This estimate was based on the actual cost of the 1920 operating expenses of the three associa tions concerned and upon sickness sta tistics of a population of 5,000. The method of payment for service to be through individual memberships at $6.00 a year, payable in advance; concessions of a monthly or quarterly rate to be made to those who would find it difficult to meet the full yearly due at one time. It was recommended that a family mem bership be worked out after actual ex perience in cost and amount of service. In presenting the project to the chosen district, the approach was made through the local Chamber of Commerce, the local Woman's Club, the schools, churches, and all known social and civic groups, from which a temporary Citi zens' Committee was recruited. On May 1, 1922, as the result of a decision of the Citizens' Committee to organize and conduct its affairs from its own Health Center, a store room was rented approximately in the center of the selected area, to be used both as office and Health Center. On June 15, 1922, the Manhattan Health Society began to function. For its members, and as required, the Society purchased from the three par ticipating associations the professional services of physicians and nurses, on the basis of an hourly fee for the physicians, and the regular monthly salary rate for nurses, both doctors and nurses being assigned from the regular staffs of the associations they represented. Special arrangements were made with "Henry Street" for night delivery service and Sunday care on a cost per visit basis. From the inauguration of the service on June 15, 1922, the enrollment of members has steadily but slowly in creased through the medium of satisfied members rather than through any spe cial publicity effort. On May 1,1923, the Center was moved to 502 West 163d Street. Later a re organization was effected and new offi cers elected. The faith of the anony mous donor, who has made the Manhat tan Health Society possible, was shown in a second gift of $12,000 to carry the Society through 1923, and later by as surance to help meet deficits of 1924. Up to the present time all expenses have been met by the subsidy, and the mem bership fees allowed to accumulate as a reserve fund, still untouched but to be included in a budget for 1924 which is to be a basis of an increasing fee account and a decreasing subsidy. At the end 62 CO-OPERATION of four months of service, September 1, 1933, the fees received amounted to 4.5 per cent of the cost of service given; by September 1, 1923, the monthly in take had climbed to 25 per cent of the current cost, and by November 1, 1923, it had climbed to 26.7 per cent of the cost. The Society has encountered the usual vicissitudes to be expected in the growth of a Co-operative Society. With the ex ception of the Medical Society at The Hague, and a Co-operative Students' Society at the University of California, there are no precedents for such a health service. Practically all mutual benefit societies provide monetary benefits rather than medical and nursing care service. The essential difference be tween the foregoing and the Manhattan plan, with its many possibilities of health education, is that it tends to re duce sickness and thus lower the cost of service. On October 1, 1923, there were 424 paid-up members entitled to the service of the Society; 72 expectant mothers, 825 babies, 45 children of pre-school age have had the advantage of the advisory conferences of physicians and nurses; 793 visits to homes have been made to give nursing care to members who were under the care of their family physician. More than 70 physicians have given their approval of the service which the Society provides for them and their patients. The Society's Co-operative Store is organized and functioning. Further than these accomplishments, the spirit of co-operation is percolating through the community, and families from varied economic and social levels are actually becoming partners in the business of providing for themselves and their neighbors a community health service of the highest standard. The little group of pioneers working for and with this demonstration of self- support of a community health service are not prophets, but they are exceed ingly optimistic, and their optimism is based on the appreciation, enthusiasm, and co-operation of the members of the Manhattan Health Society. THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF '' CENTROSOYUS,'' MOSCOW By Charles Gide (Reprinted from the International Co operative Bulletin) Russian Co-operation, if we take into account the distributive movement alone, has 30,000 societies, with over 12,000,000 members, and therefore has three times as many members as Eng land. . . . As regards home trade. The share taken by the Co-operative societies . . . is estimated at a third. ... As re gards foreign trade. In no other coun try have the Co-operative societies nor their Wholesales attempted foreign trade, or, if so, on a very limited scale, while the "Centrosoyus" is already the largest and, apart from the State, the sole export organization of Russia. . . . The Russian Co-operative program is truly imperialist—in the sense that it tends towards absorbing the entire na tional economy. It acts as an interme diary between State industries, "the trusts," as they are called, and the rural population, to provide the latter with manufactured products, agricul tural machines, sugar, etc. Above all, Russian Co-operation is un rivalled for the place it occupies in the national life. It is everywhere—in the streets, where its shops display innumer able signs—500 in Moscow, almost as numerous as the churches!—in all the public ceremonies, where it has its place; even in military reviews, where the "Centrosoyus" has its regiment, like the sovereigns of yore, and where the President of "Centrosoyus" appears in the uniform of a colonel; in the schools and universities, where it is taught; in its Co-operative clubs, overflowing with life; in the press, where it has already eighty-five journals. In order to under stand fully the part which Co-operation plays in Russian life we need only men tion all those who came to pay their tribute on the occasion of the celebra tion of the 25th Anniversary of "Cen trosoyus." Beginning with the Presi dent of the Republic and the chief of the Government, followed by the repre- CO-OPERATION 63 sentatives of all the parties and trade unions, about thirty speakers succeeded one another between 6 P.M. and mid night. . . - By the results already gained, as well as by the promise of the future, Russian Co-operation gives entire satisfaction to the ambition which is at the heart of every good Co-operator, namely, to see Co-operative organization become uni versal; that is to say, that it should gradually supersede, and in all branches be substituted for, capitalistic organiza tion, creating a new economy, the N.E.P., so often mentioned in the Rus sian press. It is the Co-operative so cieties, far more than the Soviets, that will bring about that result. Can we, however, say that this form of Co-operation corresponds to the ideal of the Pioneers of Rochdale—the same ideal which so many others as well as ourselves have striven for, after them? We cannot say that. There are a certain number of socie ties in. Russia which have remained faithful to the Rochdale example; these are the ones called "Free" which were established some years ago in opposition to the system of compulsory Co-opera tion, when the Co-operative societies had been almost entirely requisitioned by the Soviets. There are but few of them; the great majority of societies do not practice the Rochdale system, hav ing done away with the rule, which was the triumph of its founder, Charles Howarth, and the application of which has made the Co-operative Movement successful in all countries, namely, the distribution of the profits to members on a pro rata basis of their purchases. Members of Russian Co-operative socie ties do not receive dividends but a 10 per cent rebate on the purchasing price. It is possible that this amendment to the old rule may have been instituted owing to the poverty of the Russian population and the necessity of lower ing the purchasing prices to a minimum; but there is reason to believe that it was instituted above all owing to the idea that the dividend is a survival of the capitalistic regime, the expectation of which creates in the mind of the mem ber the sense of being a bourgeois or in dependent person, and that it is contra dictory to the professed aim of Co operation, which is no other than that of the abolition of profit-making. Furthermore, Russian Co-operative societies tend to become exclusively pro letarian. We find that the decrees voted at the last Congress of Moscow indicate that the otject which is to be attained, as soon as possible, is "the ex clusion of the non-workers." In this way the Co-operative society ceases to be open to all consumers, but becomes instead a class institution. . . . Finally, Russian Co-operation is in close relations with the State. It has certainly ceased to be, as in the period from 1919-1921, a simple dependent of the Soviets, a department for the distri bution of foodstuffs covering, by com pulsion, the whole population. It has fought to regain its autonomy, and it has succeeded. Indeed, on the occasion of the 25th Anniversary of "Centrosoyus," and also in its honor, a further decree was approved which will put an end to the last remains of legal restrictions, al though in practice those have already ceased to exist. Nevertheless, between the Co-opera tive societies and the Soviets—both on account of the similarity of their organ ization and the common opinion of their members—there are about five-sixths communists and one-sixth "non-party" in each—the relations are necessarily much closer than those which exist be tween the Co-operative societies and the Governments of all other countries. It is not possible, neither is it desirable, that it should be otherwise. It is not perhaps chimerical to suppose that a day will come when the government of the country will be transferred to "Cen trosoyus, '' the Soviets retaining only the political control. In the outlines we have traced it will be easy to gather that the Russian Co operative program is none other than that of Socialist Co-operation, and our Comrades of the "left" who, in France, at least, attack us at each Congress for being too neutral and the puppets of the capitalists—will find a powerful argu ment in support of their thesis. That 64 CO-OPERATION is their right. It is well, however, to point out to them that Russian Co-opera tion exists under special circumstances, and that it is precisely owing to these reasons and not to the modification of the program of Rochdale that it owes its marvelous growth. After the Revolu tion, the whole of the old capitalistic organization having been wiped out, Co operation was confronted with a desert —"no man's land," as was the name given to the zone under fire—and it had only to take the empty place. To-day private trade reappears but rarely here and there, like the stumps of old felled trees. It would therefore be very un wise for the Co-operative societies of other countries to model themselves henceforth on the lines of those of Moscow. I know quite well what the Commun ist Co-operators will reply. They will say that the example of Russian Co operation teaches us precisely that Co operation will not attain its great ideals and create a new social order until the path has been cleared, probably by Social Revolution! . . . It is here, in fact, where our paths separate. For us Co-operation, as its founders and apostles have taught us to appreciate it, awaits victory solely on its own merits and economic superiority. That victory has no need to be preceded by a vanguard of destroyers. In its fight against the capitalistic regime all that Co-operation asks is "Fair Play." Is this a too optimistic point of view 1 Experience will decide. But in any case we are grateful to Russian Co operation for what it has done, for if one day, owing to the political blunders made in this unhappy Europe of ours, Revolution should come to us as it did to Russia, we are comforted by the thought that here as there Co-operation will be with us ready to create anew the economic life on the ruins of the capitalist regime. Russia teaches us that if the Great Night should come, Co operation will be the dawn of a new day. NEWS AND COMMENT CO-OPERATIVE INSURANCE THROUGH THE CONSUM ERS' MUTUAL AID GUILD At the regular February meeting of the Educational Committee of the Cen tral States Co-operative Wholesale So ciety the organization of the Consumers' Mutual Aid Guild was completed, By- Laws adopted, officers and directors elected for the ensuing year and the officers authorized to incorporate the Guild under the laws of the State of Illinois. The charter has since been received, the By-Laws and other printed matter necessary for conducting the business of the Guild is in the hands of the printer and will be ready for distribution by the first of March. Officers and Directors Elected The Board of Directors of the Guild for the ensuing year are: John H. Walker, Springfield, 111.; Joash Critch- ley, Glen Carbon, 111.; Thomas Cam- eron, Belleville, 111.; Samuel Tarran, Hillsboro, 111.; Peter Moerth, L. R. Martin and A. W. Warinner, East St. Louis, 111. Thomas Cameron, who is also Chairman of the Educational Com mittee of the Central States Co-opera tive Wholesale Society, which commit tee has charge of directing the work of the Educational Department, was chosen President of the Guild. A. W. Warin ner, Educational Director and head of the Educational Department, was elected Vice-President; L. R. Martin, Chief Ac countant for the Central States Co operative Wholesale Society and head of the Accounting Bureau, was made Secretary, and Peter Moerth, Manager of the Central States Co-operative Wholesale Society, was named Treas urer. The Object The object for which the Guild is or ganized, as set out in the charter and CO-OPERATION 65 the By-Laws, is: to promote the welfare of its members by inculcating the prin ciples of Co-operation in their social and economic relationships; to encourage and support every kind of co-operative effort; to provide the means for co operative education and for mutually aiding each other in case of sickness, accident or death, on a co-operative, non-profit basis, for and among the members of the co-operative societies af filiated with the Central States Co operative Wholesale Society and others. The Plan The plan upon which the Guild is to work is simplicity itself. It simply means that one thousand workers are going to band themselves together in a group and agree with each other that whenever one of their number dies, they will all contribute $1.00 each to the widow and children or other heir or beneficiary of the deceased member. They agree also that they will each con tribute a small sum in addition to this each year for the purpose of paying for the necessary stationery, postage and other incidental expenses for maintain ing the group on an organized, perma nent and effective basis, and they fur ther agree that while doing so they will do what-they can to spread the knowl edge and understanding of the princi ples of mutual self-help through Co operation among the members. Membership Any person, regardless of race, creed, color, sex or nationality, who is in good health at the time of making application for membership, regardless of occupa tion, who is not under sixteen years of age or over sixty, may become a member of the Guild by making application on the prescribed form and paying the $5.00 initial membership fee. Persons between the ages of sixteen and fifty come in as Class "A" mem bers, while those from fifty to sixty come in as Class "B" members. Group No. 1 has already been started in each Class, and as the applications for mem bership are received in each class they are added to this group in their class. As soon as either of these groups is completed, Group No. 2 for that class will be added to that group as they come in, and so on continuously. Thus there will always be one group forming in each class. As a death occurs in any particular group in either class, the old est applicant from the group then form ing in that class will be transferred from the incomplete group to the complete group where the vacancy occurs, thus keeping the membership of a group, once it has been completed, up to its- full quota of 1,000 members. The Cost While the Guild must not be consid ered as life insurance in its strict sense,, yet at the same time it brings to the member the more important benefits and protection of life insurance and at an average of less than half the cost of so- called old line life insurance. It does this because all the private profit has been squeezed out of it. It is a co operative organization, owned and con ducted by its own members to serve them at cost, while the life insurance com panies are among the worst private profit vultures that the competitive profit-system has yet developed. The $5.00 membership fee which is collected from each member at the time he files application for membership is for the following purposes: $2.00 to pay the expense of organizing and the member's pro rata part of the operating expenses until the following January or July, when the next semi-annual dues will become due and payable; $1.00 for membership as an individual affiliating member of the Educational Department of the Central States Co-operative Wholesale Society, which includes fifty cents annual subscription to The United Consumer, which has been adopted as the official organ of the Guild, and $2.00 to the death benefit fund with which to meet the first two death benefit claims- occurring in the group to which the member belongs. The only additional cost is the $3.00 per year membership dues payable $1.50 in January and July each year, which pays the office expenses of the Guild, such as office salaries, rent, printing, postage and stationery, and include* CO-OPERATION $1.00 for the annual dues as an indi vidual member of the Educational De partment, including annual subscription to The United Consumer. • Benefits When you make application for mem bership you are placed in the Group in your Class that is then forming, in the order in which your application is re ceived. If your death should occur be fore this group is completed and the membership brought up to 1,000, you will receive $1.00 for each member in the group at the time your death occurs, provided you are a Class "A" member. This holds good also after the group has been completed, but as the group when completed will always have 1,000 mem bers, it means practically a guarantee of $1,000 in case of your death. In Class "B" Groups, only fifty cents for each member in your Group at the time of your death is paid, making a total of $500 if you are a member of a full group, but as contributions to the death benefit fund are only collected on every alternate or second death in your Group, the cost should be much less than in Class "A" Groups, while the death rate •will undoubtedly be higher. Safety of Funds The funds of the Guild will be in the hands of and under the control of the Secretary and Treasurer, who will be amply bonded to protect the membership against any loss, as will also be the or ganizers working in the field. The death Tbenefit fund will be deposited as a sav ings account in a LABOR BANK and the interest received from it will be placed in a special fund. The general expense fund which is created by the members' annual dues will be deposited in the same way and the interest from this fund will also be placed in the spe cial interest fund. Control The membership meetings of the Guild are held annually immediately follow ing the adjournment of the regular an nual convention of the Central States Co-operative Wholesale Society. At these meetings the Board of Directors are elected for the ensuing year and any other matters acted upon that may come before the meeting. Initiative, referendum and recall are provided for in the By-Laws. Any proposition may be referred to a refer endum vote of the entire membership upon the petition of 20 per cent of the members, and any officer or director may be recalled for cause by the same method. The Board of Directors of the Guild are compelled to meet at least once each month and the Executive Board at least once each week. They must report their actions to the Board of Directors of the Central States Co-operative Wholesale Society at each of its regular meetings, thus giving a double control and check upon the Board of Directors of the Guild, which will act as a double safe guard for the interests of the members. Probable Cost Per Annum This is not a new plan for Mutual Aid by any means. Organizations of this character have been in existence con tinuously for the past 700 years. The probable cost of membership per annum in each class and group, of course, can never be accurately determined in ad vance. We can make a reasonably close estimate, however, by taking the experi ence of similar organizations and by the death rates bearing upon the class of people who will make up the larger por tion of our membership. The death rate for the United States for 1922 was 11.8 per 1,000, while the death rate of the Illinois miners for the past five years has been a little over 16 per 1,000. The other mutuals operating on this or similar plans in this country for the past several years have had a death rate ranging from 7 to 12 per 1,000 members. It is reasonable to as sume, therefore, that our death rate in each group should range somewhere be tween 10 and 15 per year. Figuring in Class "A" upon the basis of $1.00 for each death and $3.0,0 per year dues would make the average cost from $13.00 to $18.00 per year, while in Class "B," with its increased death rate and de creased benefits, the cost should average between $8.00 and $12.00 per year, in- CO-OPERATION 67 •eluding the dues. This cost, however, is paid in small installments scattered throughout the year in such a way that they never become burdensome and the money is scarcely missed. In the event that a member feels that the cost is excessive for the benefits re ceived, all he needs do is notify the Secretary that he wishes to withdraw his membership, cease paying his dues and contributions and his membership automatically ceases and his liability -and obligation is at an end. He is not the loser in any sense in this case, as he has had value received for the money he has paid while he retained his mem bership, by virtue of the fact that his fellow members have protected him to the extent of $1,000 during the time he was a member, which any old line life insurance company will tell you is worth anywhere from $20.00 to $50.00 per year, according to the age of the member. The office of the Guild is at present at 203 Converse avenue, East St. Louis, Illinois, and inquiries addressed there for any further information you may require will be gladly answered.—United Consumer. LECTURE COURSE ON CO OPERATION The Central Bureau of the Central Verein gave a course of five lectures on the Co-operative Movement Among Farmers at their headquarters in St. Louis on February 27 and 28. About eighty people attended the sessions, most of them from the rural districts of Illinois and Missouri, according to a re port sent The League by Aug. F. Brock- land. A number of those who attended were Catholic priests, some were prac tical dirt farmers, a few were students for the priesthood, and a handful came from the city. Two of the five lectures were given by Directors of The Co-operative League: A. W. Warinner, Educational Director of the Central States Co-opera tive Wholesale Society, and L. S. Her- ron, Editor of the Nebraska Union Farmer. Rev. A. J. Muench is on the faculty of St. Francis Seminary at St. Francis, Wis. Mr. Herman Danforth is a founder of the Illinois Agricultural Association and once president of the Federal Land Bank, St. Louis. The first three lectures were given on Wednesday, the last two on Thursday. The subjects and speakers were as follows: 1. Principles and Advantages of the Co-operative System; a Study in Ethics and Economics. Rev. A. J. Muench, Professor of Dogmatic Theology and So cial Science, St. Francis Seminary, St. Francis, Wis. 2. Co-operative Marketing by Farm ers; Marketing in Its Various Phases as Engaged in Co-operatively by Farm ers. Mr. L. S. Herron, Editor the Nebraska Union Farmer, organizer of the Farmers' Co-operative and Educa tional Union, State of Nebraska. 3. The Co-operative Elevator Move ment ; Special Reference to Co-operative Marketing of Grain. Mr. Herman Dan forth, one of the founders of the Illinois Agricultural Association, and one time president of Federal Land Bank, St. Louis District. 4. Co-operative Production and Sale of Dairy Products; a Study in Dairy Farming and Co-operative Marketing of Dairy Products. Mr. Betts, of the Equity Exchange. 5. Co-operative Buying by Farmers; the Farmer as Member of Co-operative Consumers' Societies. Alien W. Warin ner, Educational Director of Central States Co-operative Wholesale Society. SIXTH ANNIVERSARY CELE BRATION AT BLOOMINGTON To celebrate the sixth birthday of their Co-operative society, the support- era of the Bloomington Co-operative So ciety met recently at a banquet and entertainment prepared by the active women of the Society. The banquet and entertainment cele brating the sixth anniversary of the Bloomington Co-operative Society re minds one of the meeting of a big and 68 CO-OPEEATION happy family, each individual member of which realizes that the interest of each is the interest of all. Six hundred and fifty hungry Co- operators sat down at this festal board and partook of a meal which started with chicken and ended with ice cream and cakes, with all the things that usually go in between. The whole thing was done by co-operators and done co-opera tively, with the result that the cost of this banquet, for which any profit-mak ing hotel or restaurant in the country would have charged from $1.50 to $2.00 per plate, according to the pomp and circumstances with which it was served, was so low, per plate, that if we told you the amount you would not believe it. Three orchestras furnished music for the occasion, in addition to which there were a number of individual musical and literary numbers rendered by mem bers of the society. The feature of the evening, aside from the banquet, was the address on "Co-operation" by Carl Vrooman. Mr. Vrooman, who is a mem ber of the Bloomington Society, has long been a student of Co-operation, both in Europe and America. He was Assist ant Secretary of Agriculture during the Wilson administration, and is one of the leading advocates of Co-operation in America. Mr. Vrooman said, in part: "Co-operation and civilization are synonymous. In the progress of man kind toward higher planes of thought civilization develops as fast as does co operation, and no faster. '' Co-operation consists of a spirit and a method. The spirit here is that of brotherhood, of working together, of the recognition of one another's needs. The method consists of the putting to gether of common resources for the gain ing of a common objective. '' Co-operation is the opposite of war. As men learn the advantage to be gained from voluntary teamwork, all forms of war will be laid aside. This means com mercial wars, class wars, industrial wars, international wars—all wars will gradually disappear. "It may be there was a time when, in order that the few might enjoy the leisure necessary for study and the de velopment of their intelligence, that war was necessary. It may be that there was a time when it was necessary that the few should rule a less favored class. But, with the advance of modern science, it is plainer every day that nations and individuals from this time on can pro gress faster and farther by uniting to exploit nature than in fighting among themselves to exploit each other." A large part of the credit for the success of the celebration belongs to the exceedingly active, loyal women of the society. The men, through their com mittee, of course, did their part, but in the very nature of things their part in an undertaking of this kind could not be as big as that of the women. A co operative society with such a back ground is sure of success. May their success ever grow greater. CO-OPERATIVE HOUSING EXHIBIT From February 26 to March 2, The United Neighborhood Houses of New York City held the first Co-operative Housing Exhibit ever staged in this country at the exhibition rooms of the Kussell Sage Foundation. The doors were opened on Tuesday morning, and from that time until Sun day evening there were crowds going through the material every morning, afternoon and evening. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings a speaking program was put on, and twenty speakers in all talked to hundreds of people on hous ing problems in relation to health, hygiene, city planning, charity and re lief work, organized labor, labor bank ing, the church. And through all the talks ran the constant note emphasizing the fact that Co-operation is the only permanent and sure cure for the housing difficulties in such a large city as New York. Congratulatory messages were received from President Coolidge and Governor Smith. Mrs. Warbasse closed the Saturday evening session with stere- opticon views of co-operative housing in Europe. The exhibit itself contained many photographs of co-operative houses now CO-OPEEATION 69 tinue to show a marked improvement from month to month and to take on new life and vigor. The Beardstown store is one of the neatest, cleanest and most attractive co operative stores we have ever seen. Al though we had just eaten lunch before we went over to visit the store for the first time, the first impression it made on us was a distinct feeling of hunger, so appetizing and appealing was the tasty display of the very best of food prod ucts and the general appearance of the store. Their statement, which we publish be low, covers a period of one year. Mr. Foster did not assume charge until June and a careful check reveals the fact that they sustained an operating loss of some $500 for the first half of the year which would mean that Mr. Foster not only made a net saving of $1,346.67 for the second half of the year, but over came the $500 loss for the previous half of the year as well. Profit and Loss Statement for the Year iwi ____ _ Ending Dec. 31, 1923. meetings with a view to getting business Net sales ........................ $47,737.07 •were briefly disposed of. Cost of Sales. Inventory, Jan. 1, 1923. ...........$ 5,338.57 Net purchases .................... 37,700.36 ——————— Freight, drayage and express....... 789.80 $43,768.73 BEARDSTOWN SOCIETY Inventory, Dec. 31, 1923........... 5,444.79 At the annual meeting of the Beards- Cost of sales ................. .$38,323.94 town Co-operative Mercantile Associa- ————— tion, held Tuesday evening, January Gross Sain .--...--.....-.-...$ 9,403.13 22cl, the members present voted unani- mously to affiliate with the Educational A, . . ^ A. ^pense. -rx , j nji /-liicijj. n Administration. ... .............$ 2,388.00 Department of the Central States Co- Saleg •* 3'044 gg operative Wholesale Society, The Dis- General......................... 1,134.40 trict Co-operative League for Illinois. Delivery ......................... 433.88 This society, in the three years of its LiS]lt. lleat and rent.............. 862.7O existence, has met with many difficulties, DeP««ation.................... 147.42 chief among which has been inefficient Expenses. ....$ 8,oii.3s management and a loss of members ————— through the recent strike of the rail- Gain from operations... .......$ 1,391.86 road shopmen. However, since securing Financial Loss and Gain Adjust- ., A „ ., , i\ir ment. . . .................. 306.47 the services of the present manager, Mr. _____ Glen G. Foster, last June, the society has $ i,o85.38 taken on new life. There is little doubt Interest and discount earned....... 261.29 but that under the management of this . energetic and devoted co-operator and Net ^am for the V"*~ •••••••* W? trade unionist the business will con- —The United Consumer. operating in New York—both interior and exterior views. Many small card board or wood models of the houses themselves were donated to the exhibit "by groups of school or settlement house .children who made them. These models were very interesting, for even the miniature pieces of furniture, the little rugs, the chandeliers, were all made to scale to fit the small rooms. On the walls were a great many charts depict ing health conditions in the various dis tricts of Greater New York, congested areas, vacant land still available for buildings within the five-cent fare zone, and other matters of interest. The liter ature table was always kept loaded with booklets and pamphlets about co-opera tive housing and hundreds of pounds of this was carried away by visitors. There were many associations in the city which contributed to the success of this exhibit, but the chief credit goes to Mrs. Emily Bernheim, Executive Di rector of the United Neighborhood Houses of New York, Inc. None but 100 per cent co-operative housing was displayed, and the many promoters and real estate brokers who attended the 70 CO-OPERATION CLOQUET, MINNESOTA The annual meeting of the Cloquet Co-operative Society -was held January 28, 1924. There were 174 members present and registered. The total mem bership of the society is 559. Altera tions were made in the by-laws, the capital stock of $25,000 being raised to $75,000, and the board of directors to be elected for one year instead of for six months. Financial statement with the man agers and auditors report were read and approved. Total net sales for the year were $265,757.43; gross profits $38,- 642.07; total expenses $28,777.94, leav ing a net gain for the period of $9,- 864.13. Two thousand of the net gain was transferred to contingencies and $500 to the educational fund, the bal ance being divided in shares to mem bers and nonmembers, on the basis of patronage. Gross profits for the net sales were 14.46 per cent, total expenses 10.77 per cent and the net gain 3.69 per cent. Average merchandise inventories were $34,221.31, making the turnover about twelve and one-half times during the year. Total assets of the society were $63,- 320.58. The current liabilities were $18,553.99, and the net worth, including share capital, $44,766.59. The society took over, September 15th, the Knife Falls Co-operative Associa tion of the same town and is now operat ing in two stores under the same man agement. The kind of business handled is groceries, meats, shoes, clothing, hardware, furniture, building materials, feed, seeds and farm machinery. About 30 per cent of the business is done with the farmers and the balance is city trade. The meeting was well attended and complete harmony prevailed among the members. The members and patrons seem to understand co-operation very well and have developed a determination to back up their co-operative affairs in the future. The society has earned net profits since 1918 of $29,045.88, which has been distributed in shares among the patrons and members. This is really a nice lit tle saving for the people who make their purchases in a co-operative store. P. K. EMBARRASS, MINNESOTA The Embarrass Farmers' Co-operative Mercantile Association had a most suc cessful year in 1923. Though their capital stock is but $10,710, their sales were $82,609.82. Gross profit was $13,- 676.90, or 16.55 per cent of sales; ex penses were $6,661.15, or 8.06 per cent of sales; and net savings for the year were $7,015.75, or 8.49 per cent. These are good figures and show a most healthy condition. Turnover of stock was 5.81 times during the year. The Embarrass Association is one of the scores of societies in the North Cen tral States which are members of the Co-operative Central Exchange and thus indirectly members of The Co-ope rative League. VOLUNTARY ASSOCIATION AMONG FARMERS The various governmental plans for relieving the difficulties of the farmers have received much attention in the public press. Some of them deserve all the attention they get because of their merits; others deserve it for their faults. But there are farmers in the country, thousands of them, who realize that gov ernment aid or other schemes for highly centralized control are no unmixed blessing, and who desire complete in dependence for their voluntary co operative associations. The following is a resolution adopted at the annual con vention of the Minnesota Dairymen's Association, held at Albert Lea, in February: Whereas: Many of our co-operative ereamerieB have become imbued with the idea that by organizing and concentrating the product they can increase prices beyond -what the consumer will pay; we consider this, pyramiding of prices impractical and fear it might encourage the use of imported butter nnrl substitutes, the effect of which would b& a depressed market and lower prices to the- consumer; therefore Be It Resolved: That the Minnesota Dairy men 's A Bsoeiation advice the creameries that they use their best judgment and discretion before embarking on any new and untried program. CO-OPERATION DETERMINED MINERS AT WITT, ILL. The coal miners, whether in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio or Kansas have an equally difficult time to find continuous employment and keep their co-operative work going along evenly. In CO-OPERA TION for February appeared the story of the miners' co-operatives at Clarence, Pa., and Rush Run, Ohio. Witt, Illinois, also "boasts" of mines which do not support the mining population. For six months these men have been without work, yet their store goes on its way as well as ever. Henry Scobel is the manager of this co-operative which has been battling against just such economic conditions as these for the past four or five years. In 1923 total sales were $32,600.88; gross gain was $7,128.57; expenses were $5,927.06, and net gain was $1,201.51. From this savings $146.51 was paid out in interest on capital, and the balance is undivided savings. TOVEY, ILLINOIS The recent annual meeting of the Tovey Rochdale Co-operative Society had more women than men in attend ance, according to the testimony of A. W. Warinner, Educational Director of the Central States C. W. S. This is s& unusual an event in a mining town that it is worth blazoning to all the other miners' co-operatives throughout the anthracite and bituminous districtfi. But this was no chance turnout by the women. They have been organized and working for some time, and the success of the meeting was largely due to then- efforts. The membership voted unani mously to affiliate with the Educational Department of the C. S. C. W. S. Al ready they have been taking the Central Accounting Service of this Department. For the last two months of 1923 the Tovey Society had a surplus savings of $389.46 out of sales amounting to $1,- 904.97, or 5% per cent. Gross savings were a little better than 16 per cent of sales; expenses were 11.3 per cent, and the purchase discounts added to the dif ference give the 5y2 per cent. With expert auditing and bookkeeping which these folks will now receive from the office in East St. Louis, the co-operators at Tovey should make bigger gains next year. UNITED CO-OPERATIVE SO CIETY OF NORWOOD The co-operative society at Norwood, Mass., though not as old as some of the others in the Bay State, is doing its Groceries Sales..... ........ $73,219.99 Cost of goods sold... 62,727.73 share of the distribution of the neces sities of life to the people of that city of 12,000 people. The figures recently sent to The League by the Manager, O. E. Saari, show large sales for 1923 and a good net gain. Total $103,694.69 84,168.10 Gross Gain ......... $10,492.26 Expenses. . . ....... 8,257.00 Dry Gods $8,924.38 8,152.68 $771.70 1,182.98 Milk $21,550.32 13,287.69 $8,262.63 7,630.88 Net Income ......... $2,235.26 Gain on real estate and on exchange. Lose $411.28 $631.81 Total Net Gain $19,536.59 17,070.80 $3,455.79 579.39 $3,035.18 The group of Finns at Norwood is not as large and has not been at this game as long as those in Fitchburg or May- nard, but they are pushing ahead each year. 72 CO-OPERATION THE CORRESPONDENCE FILE THE "PURITY" OF PATERSON Since, I presume, co-operative news that you receive from Paterson is very meager, it might be well for me to inform you that the Purity Co-operative Bakery was partly damaged by a fire a week ago which broke out at and gutted •a lumber yard adjoining the bakery. Two ovens were rendered useless for a few days and all of the flour then on hand was dampened by water. The damage has been repaired and the flour partly replaced so as to enable the daily routine of the bakeshop to go on. The loss was covered by insurance and there is no fear of the "Purity" sufl'ering in any way as » result of that fire. it might also interest you to learn that a net profit of $1,800 for the three months past was reported for the "Purity" at its last quarterly general membership meeting. This is indeed encouraging, in view of the fact that this constitutes the first gain made in three years. It marks the beginning of a new era in the Purity's business and general affairs. It is generally conceded that the bakery is now on the road to recover its lost thousands of dollars which have depressed the institution for such a long time. The butcher shop is doing well as usual. It is being planned to branch out this enter prise into another section of the city, but it is waiting for the bakery to go in with it on a partnership basis in the renting and running of & store jointly, one half for meat and the other for bread. This, we believe, will be realized some time during the latter part of this year. HENBY BEBGEB, Paterson, i\ew Jersey. PROGRESS AT LEWISTON The Lewiston Co-operative Association is progressing nicely from the standpoint of earnings on the investment, but it has been a hard pull all the way through. It seems our main trouble here in Lewiston is to increase our membership. Of course at the beginning we lost considerable in the Pacific Co-operative League, and it seems there were quite a num ber of knockers enrolled in our membership. Possib'y tLey became knockers due to the fact that they were promised splendid results. W«j started business when goods were at the high est price and they have declined ever since, and being in a farming country, we got the full benefit of the declining market. So it was impossible for us to satisfy the wants of these knockers. A good many wanted their membership loans returned, but necessity forced us to withhold payment. We are now providing a fund to pay these off and we expect to take up several of them in the next few months. Vve now hope to increase our membership and grow in earnest. CABL MALMGREN, Manager, Lewiston Co-operative Association, Lewiston, Idaho. CO-OPERATION IN CHINA I read your "Co-operation" from Commer cial Press Ltd, Shanghi, China, very under stand and worship your propagative mood. Our China's mood use only word. Cooperative knowledge can not make acquaintance to common peoples. I think few peoples gain knowledge, success must be very slow. Now I want that collect some things, Co-operative famous photographs or lives, pictures and diagrams, etc. May I discover very much in your publication department? If you can help me, I may help our co-operators to in crease China's co-operative movement. Be cause this good moods can take for common peoples alike. Do you wish sending as I collect? Please you send me each a kind. If not wish, tell my price. I am very obliged to you in reply. WOO YII CHANG, Member of Ping Ming Co operative Association, South Gate, Loo Chow, Szecliawn West China. A MONTANA FARMER ON THE TARIFF. The poor farmers are groping around try ing to get a tariff on wheat, forgetting that many children have not enough wheat to eat and that many more people must buy wheat than are growing wheat. About all the farmers need is co-operation, but they do not know enough to use it. I have wheat to sell, but I am opposed to any tariff. Yours for Co-operation, S. E. PENN, Lovejoy, Mont. POSITIONS WANTED A young married man of thirty years of age desires to connect with a co-ope^ rative store in the capacity of manager. I have made a study of co-operation and feel as though I could be of great as sistance to a store of this nature. Ref erences exchanged. Write W. E. FASNACHT, Queens Junction, Butler County, Pa. Young German bookkeeper wishes a position in a co-operative society. Ref erences sent on request. AKTUK BARTHELMES, Zella-Mehlis I, Friedsburgstrasse 15, Germany. CO-OPEEATION s. 7. 88. se. 10. 4. 6. 6. 8. e. 27. 2. 14. IB. 29. 32. 43. GO. 51. 16. 17. 46. 11. 12. 84. SO. 81. SG. 41. 42. 62. Per lot fO.OU 0.00 4.00 4.00 2.BO 1.00 ,.p Co-opprntivp Movpmpnt. In Yiddish....................................... 1.00 Wnrbasse, Jnmes P.: Co-operative Democracy................................................. 3.GO Wpnb. B. nnd S.: The Consumers* Co-operative Movement, 1921.............................. B.OO Webb. Catherine: Industrial Co-operation. 1917............................................. l.fiO Woolf. Leonard: Co-operation nnd the Future of Industry.................................... 1.00 Woolf, L.: Socialism nnd Co-operation........................................................ l.BO "Thp Co-operative Consumer" and "Co-operation," III (1917), VI (1920), VII (1921). VIII (1922). .... ............................................................................... 1.25 Transactions of Second American Co-operntive Congress. 1920.................................. 1.00 Trnniactlons of TMrd .America" Co-OTiprattvp Conerpss, 1022................................ 1.00 The People's Year Book, 1924. Cloth, $1; paper bound................................... 60 (Ten cpnts postage should be added for books which cost more than $2.00, and five cents for the smaller books.) THE CO-OPERATIVE LEAGUE (Member of The International Co-operative Alliance) 167 West 12th Street, New Yoik An educational organization for teaching tbe history, principles, methods and alma ef tki Co-operative Movement and (or tbe promotion of Co-operation in tbe United States. Join -The League and thua help promote the educational -work of the Co-operative Movement. Subscribe fo» the Monthly Magazine and keep in touch with the Movement. Enclosed find $......... for Subscription for CO-OPERATION, 91.00. Membership in The LEAGUE, $1.00. Name... Address. Co-operative Central Exchange Wholesale Grocers and Jobbers, Bakeia We supply goods to Co-operative Societies ONI-.1T. We are owned and controlled by Co operative Societies. We are organized to enable Co-operative Societies to do collectively what they cannot d« indlvidnally. Co-operative Central Exchange Offices, Warehouses and Plant: Winter Street and Ogden Are., SUPERIOR, WIS. Co-operators" XJtd. Mntual !Fire Insurance Co. Is now writing insurance In State of Wisconsin THE PRODUCER Issued Monthly Price 3d. •If you -want to keep in touch with business, organization, administrative affairs, and problems of the British Co-operative Movement, read THE PRODUCER. Published by Co-operative Wholesale Society, Inc. 1 Balloon Street, Manchester Post free 4 sb. 6d. a year. The Trade and Technical Organ of British Co-operation. The New Secretary's Ledger , , Just published by the EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT, Central States Co-operative Wholesale Society (203 Converse Ave., E. St. Louis, 111.) ..is .the form for keeping the Membership .Ledger of a Co-operative Society which provides ample And proper space for all transactions with a maximum of .efficiency and a minimum of time, worry •'and errors. • • • • • • • • • Send for Samples and Prices. Co-operation in Scotland In no part of tbe world Is Co-operation fur ther developed, or more successfully practiced than in Scotland. If you wish to keep In- formed, read "The Scottish Co-operator" (Published Weekly) Subscription: Tear 12 sh.; half-year, 6 eh. Address, 119 Paisley Road, Glasgow, Scotland .The Madras Monthly Bulletin of Co-operation ROYAPETTAH, MADRAS, INDIA The only monthly on Co-operation in India. Special articles on Rural, Con sumers', Agricultural, Credit and Indus trial Co-operation; and Co-operation Abroad. Subscription Rs. 4/12 per annum. The Canadian Co-operator Brantford, Ontario, Canada The organ of tbe Canadian Co-opera tive Movement, owned by and con ducted under the auspices o( The Co-operative Union of Canada. Published monthly 75c pei annum THE HOME CO-OPERATOR A four-page magazine for use in co-operative societies. Issued monthly, in bundles, $1 per hundred. Published by The Co-operative League Address Albert Sonnichsen, Managing Editor Willimantic, Conn. A magazine to spread the knowledge of the Co-operative Movement, whereby the people, in vol« nntary association, produce and distribute for tbeir own use the things they need Published monthly by The Co-operative League, 167 W«»t 12th Street, New York City. J. P. Warbasse, Editor. Entered as second class matter, Decem ber 19, 1917, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Price $1.00 a year. VoL X, No. 5 MAY, 1924 10 Cents VITAL PROFIT-MAKING "CO-OPEBA- TIVES" The "Co-operative" Shingle Mills A few months ago there appeared in the Monthly Labor Review an excellent analysis of the movement in -the State of Washington to establish co-operative shingle mills. The first was organized in 1910, and since then there have been many others. To-day eighteen shingle mills and three lumber mills maintain a central organization called the Mutual Timber Mills, Inc.; and there are sev eral independent co-operative mills out side this Central. The League has been bitterly assailed because it has so often stated that producers' co-operatives become capital istic. As this group of producers' co operatives on the western coast is prob ably the most successful in the country, it is worth examining. We learn that the by-laws of the Olympia Shingle Co., organized in 1915, have been most carefully worked out and have since served to a large extent as a model for other mills. Outstanding provisions in these by-laws are: Equal number of shares of stock for each stock holder; election of all new stockholders; one vote only to each stockholder; all stockholders must be employees of the company. Some of the more recent or ganizations also provide that any s+" ': which is for sale must be offered to M. stockholders at the same price as has ISSUES been bid by any outsider. These are all good provisions. Do they, however, eliminate the most notorious features of the capitalistic corporation? The Mutual Mill of Marysville is the oldest, having been established in 1910. To-day twenty-five of the employees are stockholders and seven are mere wage workers. Shares of stock which orig inally cost $600 are now worth as high as $1,800. The Olympia Shingle Mill (with its model by-laws) now has twenty-nine employees, of which eight een are stockholders and eleven wage workers only. Stock which was orig inally $150 a share has sold for as much as $3,800 a share. The study goes on to state: "The mills when first organized in cluded all or nearly all the employees as stockholders, due to the need for work ing capital, but after the mill has be come a success this reason for having all workers as part owners no longer exists. If a worker drops out and the worker taking his place buys his stock, no new capital is brought to the enterprise; and if the mill is making a good profit the remaining stockholders can keep this profit in their own hands by buying in this stock as a group or through pur chase by some individual among them. . . At the present time there is no co-operative mill in which all the work ers are stockholders, although there are two in which only one employee is not a stockholder, and one mill where all but two employees hold stock. In a number 74 CO-OPERATION of cases, however, consolidation has gone so far that the mills can hardly be classed as co-operative in any sense." Two of the most outstanding and es sential evils of the capitalist form of organization are these: 1. No limitation upon the value of a share of stock or the profit it can earn: i.e., pyramiding of capital values at the expense of human values. Stock in these shingle mills has increased in value from 300 per cent to 2,500 per cent. Our steel and oil corporations have not a much better record than this. 2. Closed membership: exclusion of Avorkers or consumers from a share in the management of the co-operative. Apparently there is not one of these shingle mills which does not maintain hands who are "wage slaves," with no voice in the corporation. Those who continue to call these mills "co-operative" should give us a new definition for that word. G. L. ON THE SQUARE The strength of the Co-operative Movement rests in the fact that it is on the square. The front page of any daily paper shows that the prevalent method of doing things has something about it that is causing a lot of crookedness. One does not need to go to Washington to see it; the home town supplies evi dence enough. Graft, bribery, scandal, mud-throwing, and crime of every sort are in the headlines. It seems that somebody is always after somebody else; somebody is always trying to get some body. Two large dusky citizens are brought before the judge for fighting, on circus day. What is it all about? One had called the other '' a rhinoceros.'' When ? Three years ago. "Why," asks the judge, '' did you pitch into this man and start a fight to-day, three years after he called you a rhinoceros?" "Why, judge," says the culprit, "to-day is the first time I ever seen a rhinoceros." Under the present system there is no peace. Old scores to be settled. New scores to be made. Why should we ex pect something- different? We reap as we sow. The founders of our govern ment provided that it should be a gov ernment of superior people in the in terest of a superior class. Superiority- has come to spell property in plain English. Alexander Hamilton did not believe in democracy. In framing our Constitution he saw to it that it was so framed that we should not have real democracy. Now we swear everybody to support the Constitution. If anybody is opposed to this kind of super-govern ment he gets himself clapped into jail, and at the same time the people are making a terrible fuss because they do not get just what they are shouting for. Why the tempest in a teapot? Why the fuss about Teapot Dome? Why establish a government upon the basis of privilege and a privileged class un less it can make good and yield privilege to the privileged? Teapot Dome; the dome of the capitol—Arcades ambo. The strength of the Co-operative Movement rests in the facts that it makes for democracy; it sets people working together in harmony and in the spirit of mutual aid rather than in antagonism and hostility; it substitutes the motive of service for that of personal economic profits; it makes democracy practicable by developing and discovering experts to serve the mass; it turns the faces of people from money-getting to getting life. While it does these things it pro motes harmony and peace as it moves forward. Its best rewards encourage men to be on the square. J. P. W. "THE SEARCHLIGHT ON LIFE INSURANCE" The competitive life insurance com panies are subjected to a searching and merciless study, in a series of interest ing articles written by J. V. Nash in "The Dearborn Independent." Mr. Nash lays bare some of the gouging tactics employed by the life insurance companies that have made billions out of the business of protecting against want. There is hardly a business in which the consumer is more thoroughly mysti fied by sleight of hand manipulations than the field of life insurance. The CO-OPERATION 75 average policy holder has countless varieties of insurance dangled before him—ordinary life, twenty payment life, endowment, etc.—with varying premiums, until he is hopelessly mud dled on what is perhaps one of the simplest affairs in the world. Experts who have studied the life insurance companies intimately have suggested that the profusion of types of insurance is deliberately employed to cover up the huge profits in the life insurance busi ness as it is conducted to-day. The official Insurance Year Book gives the total income of 260 life insur ance companies during 1922 as over $2,100,000,000, of which policyholders received in payments only one billion dollars. The difference is absorbed in unnecessarily high overhead expenses and in huge profits. Large sales forces of highly paid agents are employed, directors and officers receive princely salaries, and gigantic office buildings are reared to the skies. Despite heavy expenditures in maintaining expensive organizations and equipment, the prof its continue to pour in. This is perhaps inevitable, as the life insurance business has practically no factor of risk. Actuaries have studied mortality figures so carefully as to know to a certainty just what is the probabil ity of death among a given number of people, in the different ages, at any given time. All life insurance com panies rely upon a standard Table of Mortality. They know to a certainty in advance what the basic cost of insur ance will be. Yet premium rates differ because the public is easily confused by the various types of insurance. As Mr. Nash aptly puts it, "In the hypnotism of the public lies the profits of the com panies." Here is a field where Co-operation is badly needed. The honest policy of supplying insurance protection at basic cost, could save billions of dollars for the public. Every co-operative life in surance company we know of has made countless friends and has grown steadily, because of the savings they make. In England the co-operative life insurance department of the C. W. S. furnishes protection at a fraction of the usual profit rate. In the United States, there is a successful and constantly growing co-operative society that has been able to cut the premium rate in half. We call attention to the article appearing in this issue on the New Era Association which has millions of in surance in force, and a membership of 37,000 co-operators. Self-help in the insurance business is saving millions wherever tried. The abuses of the private companies will make Co-operative Insurance grow. H. R. CONTRIBUTORS TO CO OPERATION Last month Mr. Sonnichsen had an article in CO-OPEKATION under the title "Builders of Co-operation"; and we ex pect to have a series of such articles from his pen in future numbers of the magazine. This month we start another new fea ture; a series of paired discussion ar ticles on the larger aspects of the Co operative Movement, by well-known writers who are, for the most part, out side the daily grind of co-operative activities and can view the entire sub ject from a more detached, though none the less human viewpoint. Occasionally we shall have to call upon some more active co-operative worker, as we do this month, to present some particular aspect of the matter discussed; but we prefer to let the readers of CO-OPEEATION "see themselves as others see them." Mr. Chase, who starts us off this month, is the President of The Labor Bureau, Inc., treasurer of several liberal and radical organizations in New York City, a frequent contributor to the Nation and other papers, a certified public accountant who has given expert technical service to many and diverse or ganizations, and a former officer or director of two or three of New York's co-operatives. Mr. Sonnichsen is well known to all readers of CO-OPEKATTON, to members of hundreds of co-operative societies and to thousands who have read his book, CONSUMERS' CO-OPERA TION. C. L. 76 CO-OPERATION HAS CO-OPERATION A FUTURE IN THE U. S. A Discussion HURRAH BOYS! By Stuart Chase It has been claimed that the co-opera tive movement lacks pep—particularly in America. As an amateur student of social behavior, I have been asked how this missing ingredient may be supplied. This is a large order, one quite beyond my powers, and also, I fear, quite be yond the boundaries of human knowl edge to date, for group psychology, as an exact science, is still in its infancy. All that one can do in the premises is to speculate, and my initial leap into the dark is to doubt if the co-operative move ment needs pep—as commonly denned. Co-operation grew out of an economic necessity. Its beginnings are merged with the beginnings of machine industry. It appeared at the time when the handi craft regime began to give way to the factory regime. With the wage system, unemployment, rising prices, and the ruthless exploitation of workers, a cen tury and more ago, came co-operation. It was not planned any more than cap italism was planned. It developed al most unconsciously out of the exigencies of the time. It filled a need amidst a given group faced with given economic pressure. It helped the group to make Life more tolerable. Thereafter other groups in similar situations used the technique to their mutual advantage. Following the fact came the theory. . . . Just as the Manchester School formulated the theory of laissez-faire economics on the basis of what the ma chine age had been unconsciously prac ticing for fifty years. The Manchester School explained, not very accurately, and with rather too much ethical sanc tion, the habit patterns which coal and iron had forced on men and masters. And in due time came Dr. William King to explain and rationalize the co-opera tive sproutings of Napoleon's time in England. It is not recorded, however, that the twenty-eight weavers of Roch dale ever heard of Dr. King and his theories. They, like their predecessors, were faced with brutal bread and butter realities, and they closed their ranks the better to parry the assaults which were being made upon them. The Rochdale weavers met their con crete situation with marked success. Other groups succeeded. The news of co-operation spread. Messrs. Neal, Hughes, and Kingsley—intellectuals all —took up the work of Dr. King, and proceeded to formulate a theory of co operation. It was a theory as ethical as it was ingenious. They put their souls into the work, and the societies which they founded failed with a kind of dia bolical certainty. In America conditions of livelihood were very different from those to be found in Europe a hundred years ago. There was the limitless West, the spirit of adventure, the doctrine of "shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves." Economic real ities accordingly did not foster a co operative movement as inevitably as they did in England and on the con tinent. Many co-operatives were started notwithstanding. But it is to be feared they were started on pep. Propaganda had crossed the Atlantic. Theorists were busy. Ethics was in the air. The early American movement traveled hand in hand with Prohibition, if you please. One organization essayed to pass on the "moral character" of all applicants for membership. The name of an early fed eration in the Northwest was the '' Right Relations League." And with unfail ing regularity these high-minded groups went to smash. The only sort of co operation which has fundamentally pros pered in America is the producers' movement among the farmers. This grew out of ruthless economic pressure, and had nothing to do with right rela tions. So far as my feeble lights go, I draw the obvious lesson. It would seem that co-operation is not primarily an ethical way of life, but a very practical way of making existence less burdensome in cer tain concrete situations. Incidentally, and in passing, there are considerations of justice and fair play which have much to recommend them—but ethics CO-OPERATION 77 follows the primary economic need. If this analysis has any merit it would seem that the ideal time to start a co operative is when you find a fairly com pact group bellowing with pain and anguish anent a specific economic griev ance. The chances of success in such a case would probably far exceed the chances in a group composed of kindly, uplifting individuals with only the evils of the world in general on their minds. Rather than put pep in the co-opera tive movement, I would put research. By study and analysis I would locate available sore spots, and the scientific possibilities of remedying them through the co-operative technique. Is the tem per sufficiently exasperated to make a genuine effort towards readjustment? Does the surrounding situation lend it self to the technique? If research answers both questions in the affirma tive, then strike! If in the negative, then drop it utterly, whatever the num ber of well wishers, however great the foot-poundage of pep. Groceries are sore spots to many local groups, but the chain stores have too much strength to make the technique immediately prac ticable. Rent is a sore spot, but the initial capital required presents difficul ties of the gravest sort. Research should tabulate failures, tabulate successes, analyze causes, and work with the same relentless pragmatism out of which the movement itself was born. The crusad ing spirit has its uses, but in co-opera tion particularly it should not go forth naked. It should be armored and hel- meted with facts. Some movements can gather momen tum on their ethical appeal alone. Christianity did in its early days. So did Islam. Socialism weaves a spell of words, provides a villain, gives all the essentials of a drama in the doctrine of the class struggle. You can put pep in religion—as the Y. M. C. A. has ad mirably demonstrated. You can put pep in socialism or communism or even into single tax, with its devil of a landlord. But co-operation by its very nature has to be more concrete. There is no devil— except a vague, impersonal "private profit." There is no kingdom of Heaven. To idealize the "consumer" is one of the dreariest tasks imaginable. No revolution, no barricades, no fires of hell, no Utopia—just stock ledgers and shelves of goods and minute books and now and then a rebate. It does not fetch the essential drama in the human spirit. It is grounded too close to the harsh realities of every day. So I would say that the job of spread ing co-operation by ethical appeals, by hurrah boys, by "let's get together," is a psychologically unsound one. Rather it should be fed by the scientific spirit of research—informed, if you will, by pas sionate devotion on the part of a few leaders. By your works—not by your words—mil you be known. And when all is said and done, why isn't this the best way to be known ? What is the net accomplishment of propaganda by faith to date? A few gaudy dreams, a few noble lives, an altar fire, and a funeral pyre. The rest is silence. CO-OPERATION VIA THE SQUEEZE PROCESS By Albert Sonnichsen So far as the past is concerned, Mr. Chase can't be disputed. His facts are straight enough, and his interpretation of those facts seems pretty sound. Fol lowing out this beginning logically, I believe we can come to a very hopeful conclusion. Before the introduction of machine industry economic necessity, or pres sure, was caused by "acts of God"; wars or crops failures, etc. Machine in dustry, through transportation, more or less removed or reduced these particular causes. But a steady, continuous pres sure remained just the same. The first effect of economic pressure on a people is emigration. When this tendency is blocked, as may be the case where a people are surrounded by re gions already overpopulated, the next result is collectivism. In primitive forms of society this takes the shape of communism, as the Slavic zadrugas, in Southern Europe, or the Chinese family communities. In an industrial society, however, collectivism must naturally 78 CO-OPEEATION take on a broader scope, and then we get Consumers' Co-operation in prac tice or Socialism or Syndicalism in thought. The economic pressure created by the introduction of machine industry brought about the first result in large volume. The cream of the European working classes abandoned their homes and made their way across the Atlantic. The grade below these, those who had not the means to pay their passage, or not quite the courage to tear themselves up by the roots, stayed at home. They resorted to collectivism. The result was the Co-operative Movement among the workers and Socialism among the intel lectuals. For a time the pressure in creased so rapidly that the final result, revolution, seemed ever near. Marx and his followers saw it close at hand. But emigration was the safety valve. It was, at the same time, a serious handicap to the growth of collectivism, in either practice or thought. As an instance, William Maxwell tells how the first at tempt to establish the Scottish Whole sale Society failed because of the emi gration of every member of the organiza tion committee. In this country there was no economic pressure, therefore no Co-operation— and no Socialism. Penniless adventur ers saw tremendous opportunity for big profits all around them, and for every one that made a fortune a dozen went on with flaming hopes. Every man was a pioneer. And you can never make a Co-operator out of a pioneer. What does a quarterly rebate on the purchase of his groceries mean to the man who sees a pot of gold at the end of the rain bow? Yet for a period, before the Civil War, conditions in New England be gan approaching those of Europe. Manufacturing was begun and indus trial communities appeared. There was a slight touch of economic pressure. And Co-operation appeared. No, it was not created by enthusiasm. No mass1 movement was ever yet created by en thusiasm. You may go out in the mid dle of the market place and shout "hurrah, boys"! till the cows come home, but unless your call harmonizes with some real human need, material or spiritual, you will get no response. That is a bit of herd psychology that needs no laboratory demonstration. Co-operation appeared in New Eng land. Then came the Civil War, and the cream of the working classes was drawn off and sent to the front. Had this vital element returned home there might have been a further development of Co-operation, but just then the west was thrown wide open by railroad de velopment, and the New England boys, already uprooted, swept westward in a body. What manhood was left in New England followed. New England has not yet recovered from this bleeding. Yet there was enough Co-operation there ten years ago to form the subject mat ter of James Ford's book, "Co-opera tion in New England." For forty years the westward flow of the American population continued. It was not only the gold in California, but the prairie wheat fields being developed, the building of railroads and the tre mendous expansion of all industry to meet the needs of the growing western population. Every red blooded Ameri can saw himself an ultimate millionaire. The whole working population was in a perpetual state of flux. Well, to-day it is mostly invalids and movie actors who go to California. I be lieve Mr. Chase will agree that the gilded age has definitely come to an end. All the claims have been pretty well staked out and fenced in. The lateral flow of money, passing from Tom to Dick and on to Harry has ceased and now it sinks down from father to son. Our industrial aristocracy has been more or less established. And so has the working class. Economic conditions are not yet the same here as in Europe, but we are traveling in that direction. The symp toms of economic pressure are here; the growth of radicalism, of labor organiza tion, and the sprouting co-operatives. The rural population is decreasing, the industrial population increases. The screws are turning, slowly, but cease lessly and remorselessly. The first result should be emigration. For some years past there has been a solid flow of emigration over into CO-OPERATION 79 Canada, but there is no golden west be yond. There remains Mexico. But Mexico is not what is called a "white man's land." Beyond the Pacific lies Asia, with her teeming millions. Growing economic pressure, minus the safety valve of emigration, is the condition that is facing us. Economic pressure, though relieved by emigration, produced Co-operation in Europe. What will economic pressure, without emigration, produce in this country ? Socialism, says the Socialist. But throughout all Europe the resort to col lectivism has -manifested itself con cretely as Consumers' Co-operation. There is a vast amount of Socialism there, in thought, but not in practice. The one determined effort to set Social ism to work, in Russia, has been a dis mal failure. Consumers' Co-operation is doing the real work there. As for pep, that is a side issue. So cialism attracts the intellectuals because it has pep. In other words, it is sugar coated. Naturally, we would like a lit tle sugar coating. Waiting for the evo lution of mankind is a dreary job with out it. But we can pull along without it. We may have to. CONTRIBUTED ARTICLES COMMONWEALTH MUTUAL SAVINGS BANK OF MILWAUKEE Annual Report of the Secretary C. B. WHITNALL (Abbreviated) Fellow Corporators: This, our twelfth annual report, is as gratifying as the eleven which have pre ceded it when measured by the personal interest shown in our co-operative method in the use of savings. But our encouragement as a group, eager for the development of co-operative democ racy, is more assuring than ever, so that a depositor, whose study of social eco nomics enables him to visualize a co operative democracy, will understand that in his use of this Bank he is not only experiencing a personal benefit, but that he is helping to build a future se curity for Labor against exploitation. Believing as we do, that desirable ends are reached by desirable means, begin ning on a small scale, then ever increas ing and expanding, we are traveling a road toward the co-operative goal, train ing ourselves by doing those things which we predict will be done in a better society to come. We feel that the man who does not produce anything himself, yet who consumes that which others have produced and created, is in reality a thief, and that some time, sooner or later, he must meet the conse quences of his acts of pilfering. In con tradistinction, this Bank is a voluntary association, in which the savers organize democratically to supply their needs through mutual action, and in which the motive is service—not profit. We are evolving toward a social state capable of supplanting the occupation of profit making. Thus far we have confined our loan service to the individual anxious to free his home from a burdensome mortgage. This service has been appreciated by about six hundred families up to the present time, and will continue in in creasing numbers. But we shall not be fulfilling our mission if we fail to broaden our scope of service as we gain strength. To help a family clear their home of debt is by no means reaching the fundamental factors involved in what we call the "housing problem." This problem, measured by our needs, includes land, architectural skill, all building materials and skilled labor. Whether these items be considered sepa rately or grouped as included in a single home, it must be borne in mind that the building industry does not produce these homes because they are useful or beautiful, but because somebody can be induced to buy them for more than they cost. Therefore, our assistance to the home owner has been in helping him to pay more for his home than it is actually worth. To overcome this outlay for profit is not only a saving in dollars but an im provement in quality, because the incen- 80 CO-OPERATION tive of the builder for profit has in duced him to use inferior materials and poor labor in the construction in order to increase this profit. It is quite obvi ous, therefore, that our assistance should be of greater value during construction than after completion. ... To under take the production of a single home at cost will entail the same care, knowl edge, and experience as would engineer the development of many. In fact, co operative building, like all co-operative successes, requires the association of a group. Real co-operative housing elim inates profit and speculation; there is no unearned increment added to the price which families are obliged to pay either as original occupation or when there may be a change of ownership. It seems logical that co-operative hous ing should in time become our method of providing homes by building groups of houses by association of individuals and receive the aid and economy afforded by co-operative banking. This would lead in time to co-opera tive manufacture of building materials; later on to co-operative heating, etc., until some day a co-operative common wealth would be the result, thereby ful filling the mission originally indicated by our name—The Commonwealth Mu tual Savings Bank—which, was quite a large name to be supported by such a small bank. But we have now attained a position where it may not seem ridicu lous to disclose somewhat the ambitions which prompted the choice of our name. In Europe this co-operative movement has been described as being a "State within a State" wherein principles of self-government are applied to the con duct of a large part of their economic relations. They have survived the wreckage of their political governments, and their practical experience is in itself an education in fundamental democracy, and will in all probability be the only organized intelligence which will be capable of rescuing civilization when the prevailing financial system of pyramid ing interest-bearing obligations breaks down. . . . Although our principles appear to baffle the understanding of many so- called business men, we know from constant inquiry made of us that our perseverance and success has created considerable thought and study. Our growth of $236,000 since our last an nual meeting is a fair indication of ap preciation. . . . Milwaukee Labor is learning to do its own thinking. . . It is time for our workers to realize that investing in oil, copper, railroad notes, or mortgage bonds issued on the calculation of the borrowers that the investor takes the chance, is merely en couraging a vicious trend of exploita tion which we are endeavoring to over come. Such investments are made by thousands of workers in Milwaukee who are actuated by selfish impulses. They listen to the promoter, who cleverly en courages Mm and argues in favor of self ish moves, understanding full well that his own selfishness is dependent upon their selfish support. Every time a worker lends encouragement to an in vestment which, in order to succeed, must exploit others unduly, he is de feating the cause of Labor—for all that Labor wants is the product of its own labor, and by co-operative methods we secure more and more of that product, and suffer less and less exploitation. . . . The following is a statement of our financial condition for the year just passed: Surplus, carried over Jan. 1, 1933......... Fees collected during year............. Interest received on loans and bonds..... $33,101.04 Interest received on bank balances. . . . ...... 1,314.30 Cash over........... 11.23 Dividend returned .... .54.32 Old account charged off 18.17 $ 4,388.42 1,109.29 Less old accounts rein stated .... ... $34,499.06 10.35 Total. . Expenses for year. ....$ 7,819.91 Dividends paid . . .... 27,631.45 Amount required for guarantee fund ..... 4,301.83 $34,488.71 $39,986.42 Surplus on hand to start 1924 $39,153.19 $833.83 CO-OPERATION 81 CO-OPERATIVE TELEPHONES IN THE U. S. By J. P. Warbasse There are more than 300 co-operative telephone societies in the "United States. Some of these are organized under the ordinary stock-corporation laws, some under membership association laws, and some under co-operative laws. But they all are organized for service, not for profit. They have been started by peo ple who got together to supply them selves with telephone service. These are almost exclusively farmers' organizations. The farmers buy the instruments and equipment; the farm ers put up the lines and do the work. They commonly use the barb-wire fence to carry the electric messages. The cen tral switchboard is established in a far mer's house; his wife or daughter is paid a small amount to serve as "cen tral" and make connections. Fifty cents a month from each member abun dantly pays for the service. Everything goes well. The neighbors are considerate and do not call "cen tral" out of her bed at night excepting under urgent circumstances. "Cen tral" knows all of the gossip of the neighborhood. She can tell any mem ber at most any time who has gone to town, at what house the doctor is call ing, where the county agent is, "if a big yellow car passed about half an hour ago," how Mr. Olsen's broken leg is coming on (or off), exactly what time o'clock it is, or what is Mrs. Wigg's recipe for crullers. There is only one fly in the ointment. On rainy days the blamed thing won't work. Electricians know why you can't get juice through a barb-wire fence when the heavenly choir is singing Father Noah's favorite hymn, "Oh, Lord, didn't it rain." Well, what's the odds? as the far mers say. The society has some surplus funds, so they buy some "two-by-fours," run them up about six feet above the fence posts, string the wires on insu lators, and from that time on they have their electric current hog-tied so it can't get away. After that they get a con nection with the general telephone sys tem in the nearest town, and then they are connected with all the round world— slightly flattened at the poles, as the school teachers say. These telephone societies for service have been developing ever since away back in the middle 80's when the Bell patents expired and instruments became cheap. Bell, be it understood, did not invent the telephone; he invented the telephone company and patented the telephone. He also made the money out of it. But that is another story. The im portant fact is that it is possible to use electricity to serve the people. The modern notion that electricity should be used to make dividends for stockholders was not always true. I am sure that Benjamin Franklin, who got his sent to him free from heaven, would approve of Co-operators using electricity for their own needs. There are some interesting things about these co-operative telephone com panies. The first and most astonishing fact is that the big telephone trust likes to see them started. It encourages farm ers to oiganize co-operative telephone societies; but why? Let's go right to some farming country and take a "look in" on the works. The Kennewick Val ley Telephone Company was one of these. Back before the war that made the world free from democracy, about eighty farmers were in this association. It served them well. The rate for serv ice was fifty cents a month. Then the neighboring telephone cor poration made a proposal to this inno cent virgin association. It was an inde cent proposal, but the folks didn't know it. The big city fellow with the diamond rings proposed that he adopt little Miss Kennewick Valley. He would give her everything—good home, good food, fine clothes—everything—and at the same old rate of fifty cents a month. Of course the people signed the con tract. The co-operative was sold out forever to the big fellow, and everything was merry. No more responsibility, no more meetings, no more worry. But the contract soon ran out—all contracts do sooner or later. It was a short one. 82 CO-OPERATION And then what happened? The rate was jumped from fifty cents a month to $2.00 a month. The people of the Valley have been ever since at the mercy of the same telephone octopus that has most of us in its grasp. Go out and take a look at Kennewick Valley now. Look at its fine clothes, paint, and glass diamonds. Ask what it is all about. And the reply will be that of the overdressed colored lady: "Why, lordy, 'aiut you all heard the news? Why, I's been ruined, I has." There is another interesting thing about these co-operative telephone lines. The big trust likes to have the farmers go ahead and organize because it saves the trust the trouble and expense of doing the preliminary work. It is an expensive job for a corporation to go out and get a lot of subscribers signed up in a new territory. But the neigh bors do it easily because they know one another. After all of the preliminary organizing has been done, the farmers' company organized, the instruments in stalled, and everything going smoothly, then is the time for the big fellow to come in and "take over" the business. These hundreds of assocations are easy to find. The big corporation can smell them out as soon as they are ripe for picking. It does not even have to be smart. It can use the method of the village fool. A man offered a reward of $5 for his lost horse. People went seek ing it in every direction. Presently the fool came back leading the horse. "How did you find it?" asked the owner. "Well, I just says to myself, I sez: If I was a boss, where would I go? And I just went there, and there he was.'' That is the way the telephone trust locates the whereabouts of these innocent little companies of co-operators. Having located them, it has a line of talk that they cannot resist—flattery, promises, threats—and then some other things. The guileless farmers sign up; that is the end of co-operation. But suppose the farmers should not sign up and give up their assocation to the trust! Big business has many ways of doing things. Every state has its public service commission, created to serve the big interests. This is the way it does it: The public service commis sion notifies the little company that it is violating the labor law; it is working its switchboard operator more than eight hours! The little telephone asso ciation is then ordered to put on three girls in eight-hour shifts at full-time service in a job that could be done by one woman on part time. And when the little association finds that it has been so base and vile as to break the labor laws of the state, and that it will have to spend a lot of money to obey the law, it just runs to the big telephone corporation and goes down on its knees and begs the trust to take it over. Then there is '' the certificate of neces sity." It is one of the implements in vented by the public service commis sions. "The certificate of necessity" provides that if a community is already served by a public service corporation no other corporation to supply similar services can enter that community, or if a community is not served then no other corporation can enter it if the nearest corporation thereto is willing to or con templates extending its lines of service into the community. So if the big profit- telephone corporation learns that the farmers are starting a telephone com pany, and it does not want them to do so, it just flashes "the certificate of necessity" on them, and they have to stop. Then there is another remarkable hocus-pocus to regulate the fixed charges of public service corporations—depreci ation, and all that sort of thing. In the end the big corporations have behind them all the powers of the government and the little co-operative association has only the strength of its members' wills. So there the matter stands. But there is a bright side. A report by the Fed eral Government shows that they are succeeding. They stand forth among the many examples of voluntary asso ciate action to give encouragement and hope. Although insecure, often weak, and easily swept away, still they grow and multiply even faster than they can be destroyed. CO-OPERATION 83 CALL TO THE FOURTH CO-OPERATIVE CONGRESS The Co-operative League calls upon its constituent societies to send dele gates to the Fourth Co-operative Congress, to be held at NEW YORK CITY, NOVEMBER 6, 7 and 8, 1924. This most important Congress should be attended by a representative of every co-operative society. Every society is welcome, though only delegates of constituent member societies may vote. Every society which is a member of The Co-operative League is entitled to one voting delegate, and an additional voting delegate for every 500 members above the first 500. Delegates or alternates should be elected at the earliest possible membership or board meeting. Societies are invited to send as many other non-voting delegates as possible. All co-operative societies organized on the Rochdale plan which are not members of The League are entitied to be represented by fraternal delegates. Trade unions, educational societies, and other non-profit organizations, not co-operative in form, but favorably interested in the promotion of the Co-opera tive Movement; producers' co-partnership societies, and agricultural marketing and service societies are invited to send fraternal delegates. The courtesy of discussion may be extended to Fraternal Delegates. Members of co-operative societies, trade unionists, and individuals who are interested in the Co-operative Movement are invited to attend the Congress. Among the subjects which will be presented and discussed are: District Wholesales Accounting Banking Laundries, Bakeries, Restaurants, Housing, etc. Meeting Chain Store Competition How to Avoid Credit Trading Promotion of Education Women's Guilds Co-operation and the Labor Movement Co-operation and the Farmers' Marketing Movement Store Managers' Problems Model Co-operative Law Income Tax and Other Legal Problems Co-operative Accounting International Co-operative Congress The names and addresses of Delegates, Freternal Delegates, and Alternates should be sent to the Executive Board of The League before the first of October. Exact information regarding place of meeting, etc., will be sent to Delegates and to all others who send their names and addresses to the office of The League. THE CO-OPERATIVE LEAGUE. THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS. J. P. Warbasse, President. John F. McNamee, Secretary. 84 CO-OPEEATION FOREIGN A PLEA FOR CO-OPERATIVE UNITY At the meeting of the Central Com mittee of the International Co-opera tive Alliance which was held at Prague in March, Mr. Eenner, speaking for the Austrian co-operators in particular and the German speaking co-operators in general, expressed the fear that the .central co-operative organizations of Germany, Austria and Czecho-SlovaMa might not be able to attend the Interna tional Congress to be held in Ghent the first of September. He reminded the members present that co-operators in the Buhr had been expelled from their homes and doubted whether, even in Brussels, the liberties of co-operators might not be violated. The President of The Co-operative League of the U. S. A. has sent the fol lowing letter to the heads of the Co operative Unions in these three German- speaking countries and copies of the let ter to leading co-operators in France and Belgium. Dear...................... I learn from the report of the meeting Of the Central Committee of the Inter national Co-operative Alliance at Prague that it is possible that the German- speaking co-operative societies will not send delegates to the International Con gress to be held at Ghent this year. If you have come to such a conclusion I do very sincerely hope that you will reconsider the matter. The invasion of the Ruhr by the armies of the French .and Belgian Governments are acts of those two Governments. The atrocities which have been promoted against the people of the Ruhr are not atrocities .committed by the Co-operators of France and Belgium; they are atrocities com mitted by the Governments under which these Co-operators, by force of circumstances, are compelled to live. The French and Belgian Governments are not controlled by the Co-operators of those countries. Just as is the case with the United States Government, these Governments are far removed from the hands of the Co-operators. The Co- operators have little to do with their conduct. It seems to me that we Co-operators should rise above the sins of the Govern ments under which we live. We should be superior to them. Co-operation should express so far as possible the true spirit of international and world brother hood. The German-speaking Co-opera tors have an opportunity to show their magnanimity and their loyalty to the principles of internationalism by attend ing the Ghent Congress. I take the liberty thus to express my self in the interest of the world Co-ope rative Movement and also with the hope that I shall have the privilege and pleasure of meeting and greeting the German-speaking co-operative comrades at Ghent. With best wishes, Faithfully yours. RUSSIAN PUBLICATIONS (From the Federated Press) After a lapse of several years Cen- trosoyus has again begun to publish its Yearbook. The Yearbook for 1922 ap peared recently and is divided into two parts, the first of which is devoted to a report of the activity of Centrosoyus during 1922. An outline is given of the organizing and economic activity of the leading organizations affiliated with Centrosoyus, as well as reports on the activity of special sections of Centro soyus such as the Transport Workers' Co-operatives, the Insurance Section, the Timber Co-operatives, etc. The second part of the Yearbook is devoted to a report compiled by the' officials of the Statistical Department of Centrosoyus. It contains detailed tables depicting the condition of the consum ers' co-operatives and the development of the co-operative nep during 1922, the capital and turn-over of the various pro vincial unions, the business shares and membership dues, the money and com modity credits of the provincial unions and individual co-operatives according CO-OPERATION 85 to territorial classification and types of co-operatives, a comprehensive classifi cation of the accounts, etc. The Yearbook gives a very detailed picture of the trade and industrial ac tivity of Centrosoyus and a perspective of co-operative activity in general. The Jubilee Number of Soyuz Potri- bitelei (Consumers' Society), which has just been issued, is dedicated to the 25th anniversary of Centrosoyus. The first part contains a number of greet ings written by the leaders of the Com munist Party of Russia, who express their opinions of the co-operatives. Lenin's article, of course, is featured. Besides this, there are articles by Trotsky, Lunacharski, and others, ex pressing their appreciation of the work of Centrosoyus during the twenty-five years of its existence. Following these is an exhaustive article on the new tasks confronting the Soviet co-operatives in connection with the introduction of the principle of voluntary membership. The second part contains a review of the results of the activity of Centrosoyus and of the consumers' co-operatives during the twenty-five years of their existence. The following are the more important chapters of this part: Cultural and Educational Work in the Past, Present, and Future. The Role of the Consumers' Co-opera tives and of Centrosoyus in the Eco nomic Life of the Country during the Various Stages of Its Development. The Trade and Industrial Activity of the Consumers' Co-operatives. Relations with the Workers' Co operatives. The Role of Centrosoyus in the Inter national Co-operative Movement. The Role of Centrosoyus in the Sys tem of State Agriculture Since the Revolution. In addition, this number contains articles by persons engaged in practical co-operative work and by co-operative functionaries. These articles give a complete survey of the twenty-five years of development and history of the Cen tral Union of Russian Consumers' Co operatives. CO-OPERATIVES AND THE JAPANESE EARTHQUAKE Reports from Tokio tell of the devas tation wrought among the co-operatives by the fearful earthquake which demol ished so much of that country last summer. The following figures give a glimpse of the devastation and loss. In Tokio nearly 13,000 houses of Co-operative Members have been destroyed by fire; 308 Co-operators were killed, and the number of the injured is unknown. Taking the districts of Tokio, Kana- gawa, Chiba, Saitama and Shiznoka, no less than 39,886 houses of Co-operators have been destroyed, while the number of their dead cannot be computed. Out of 768 Societies 331 have been seriously affected, and in Tokio alone the damage to co-operative property amounts to over five and a half million yen. CO-OPERATIVE UNITY IN POLAND A great step in the direction of uni fication of the Co-operative Movement of Poland was taken by the All-Polish Congress which was held November 17th and 18th at Warsaw. Poland has eight separate Co-operative Unions, all with headquarters at Warsaw. Many of these federations have local societies in the same town. The result was that co operative societies were competing with each other. The All-Polish Congress was convened by the two most important fed erations, the Union of Consumers' Socie ties ("Spolem") and the Socialist Union, which consists of workers' societies. Delegates from 519 societies attended. Henry J. May, Secretary of the International Co-operative Alliance, greeted the co-operators in the name of the Alliance, and urged unity. Profes sor Charles Gide, representing the French Federation, reported on the im petus given to the Co-operative Move ment by the consolidation of several competing federations. After much discussion a resolution in favor of complete unity passed by two to one. It is hoped that complete plans will be worked out soon for the consol idation of co-operative forces. 86 CO-OPEEATION NEWS AND COMMENT CO-OP BAKERY WIPES OUT LOSSES The Co-operative Bakers of Browns ville, an outlying section of Brooklyn, N. Y., during the past year wiped out 80 per cent of the losses it had incurred during the past six years. At the be ginning of 1923 the Co-operative Bakery was confronted with a deficit of $10,681. A concerted drive to wipe out this defi cit brought in donations amounting to $3,200, but more encouraging still, the business made a net saving of $5,439, which was also applied toward cleaning up debts. For the first time since it was organized, this co-operative bakery is running on a safe margin. The co-operative is by far the largest bakery in Brownsville. Eight trucks are kept busy supplying the trade. Last year $227,446 worth of bakery products were produced and sold. The bakery has & new model plant, sanitary and modern in every respect. It should be stated that although the Co-operative Bakery has not as yet paid patronage rebates to its customers, it has managed to save them hundreds of thousands of dollars by reason of de creased prices. During the period when bread was at its peak price, the co-opera tive drastically cut prices, forcing its competitors to do likewise. The 1,400 consumers who own and democratically control this co-operative are supplying themselves with the purest of products on a non-profit basis. KINCAID, ILLINOIS At the general meeting of the mem bers of the reorganized Kincaid Work men's Co-operative Association, which was held early in March, the members voted unanimously to affiliate with the Educational Department of the Central States Wholesale. This store is doing a business in gro ceries, shoes, meat, and notions. Their meat business is probably the largest in town. For the quarter ending December 31, 1923, the total sales were $11,959.37; gross gain was $3,358.07; expenses were $2,469.71; and net savings $944.91. These are good figures for the first ef forts of a society which had to be com pletely reorganized after the old "American plan" organization was pulled to pieces. TWO HARBORS, MINNESOTA The Workers' and Farmers' Co operative Company of Two Harbors, Minn., had a most prosperous year in 1923, and the members gathered late in February to learn the details and to celebrate. There are now about 300 stockholders among the railroad em ployees and the farmers in and about the city. During the shopmen's strike the co-operative suffered severely from the strain put upon its credit resources; but this Accounts Receivable figure has been much reduced the past year. After the business meeting a Co operative Rally was held under the lead ership of President Olaf Quist. Eskel Ronn, Manager of the Wholesale in Su perior, gave a talk on the wholesale and the general movement throughout the northern part of the three states. Man ager and Treasurer Omtvedt talked on the subject of loyalty and support to the store. Musical selections, a lunch, a party, and a couple of hours of danc ing concluded the evening's festivities. The store at Two Harbors is using the coupon book to stimulate the members to invest money with the society in ad vance of buying goods, and is giving a 5 per cent reduction on the purchase of these books. CO-OPERATION 87 CO-OPERATIVE LIFE INSURANCE The New Era Association of Grand Rapids, Michigan, has returned to its members a good statement of conditions at the end of the year 1923. The mem bership is 37,008, and benefits on these total $43,777,000. Assets Cash on hand and in bank...... $ 59,251.08 Investments. . . . ............. 124,100.00 Total. Liabilities Accounts payable. . . . ..... Benefit -fund ................. Guarantee fund. . . . .......... Bonds in excess of cost........ Management fund ............ Investment and life reserve ac count . . . . ................. Investment and life premium ac count . . ................. Total... .............. $183,351.08 $ 7,251.16 68,162.35 83,5«9.37 8,648.00 6,224.62 6,391.55 3,104.03 $183,351.08 Cash Receipts for December Balance Dec. 1................ $223,350.22 Receipts (Nov. collections).... 36,431.78 Total. . . . .......... Estimated Dec. collections. $259,782.00 35,000.00 $294,782.00 Cash Disbursements for December Management expenses ......... Death claims ...... Cash surrenders ............ Death claims not proven........ Bills payable ................. Net resources over liabilities $ 7,211.29 76,269.71 201.08 51,442.36 11,985.12 147,672.44 $294,782.00 FARMINGTON MAKES ANOTHER LEAP Five to ten thousand dollars' increase' in business each three months is no stunt at all for the Co-operative at Farming- ton, 111. In fact, between the third and fourth quarter of 1923 there is a gain of more than $12,000 in the business handled. During the last three months of the year the total sales were $74,422.70, $13,697.39 of which was gross gain. As expenses took only $9,073.31 of this, the net savings were $4,624.08, or more than 6 per cent of the sales, and more than half as much as the expenses for the period. We become rather accustomed to large figures from Farmington, and these certainly hold up the reputation of that hustling society. SIX MONTHS BUSINESS AT STAUNTON Since Peter Moerth left the Union Supply and Fuel Company of Staunton, TIL, to take charge of the wholesale at Bast St. Louis, there has been new man agement for the miners' store, but the good work goes along as well as ever apparently. Sales for the second half of 1923 are more than half those for the entire year 1922. The condensed report follows: Sales to members. Sales to public. Coal sales .... Wholesale .... Income Total. . . . ......... Cost of merchandise sold. Gross gain ......... Operating expenses Net gain Expenses Assets Cash on hand Jan. 1, 1924.. Merchandise inventory ..... Real estate .............. Fixtures. . . . ............ Bills receivable ........... Notes. . . . ............... Coal. . . . ................ Local union aid account.... Insurance. . . . ........... Total. . . . .............. Liabilities Share and loan capital... Savings certificates .......... Investment by local unions.... Mortgage to local unions...... Note and interest to bank..... Reserve fund. . . ............ Bills payable ................ Interest on share capital...... Interest on loan capital....... Interest on savings certificates. Savings ret. at 3 per cent. Reserve and undivided surplus. Total. . . . $ 31,085.07 10,631.80 19,375.70 1,443.99 $ 62,536.56 i $ 53,818.16 $ 8,718.40 $ 7,566.94 $ 1,151.46 $ 3.462.44 19,814.48 8,450.00 2.299.36 6,217.26 1,356.34 1.949.98 264.99 745.89 $ 44,560.74 $ 17,507.68 2,256.72 9,002.96 3,600.00 2,060.00 3,133.49 5,538.72 189.77 74.88 66.68 932.55 197.29 $ 44,560.74 88 CO-OPEEATION RADIO FANS CO-OPERATE Radio "fans" in Chicago have organ ized a co-operative society for the pur pose of exchanging information, assist ing inexperienced members to build their sets, and to act as a buying club. The Chicago Radio Listeners' Co-operative Association is, so far as we know, the only association of its kind in the world. The association was started in February at the instance of radio enthusiasts led by G. H. McDonald. Meetings are held weekly at which the members discuss their hookups, tuning, and instruments. Upon the payment of a small initia tion fee any radio fan may join. No capital stock is sold. The club supplies radio instruments to its members at a liberal discount. Hundreds of manu facturers have offered large discounts on orders pooled through the co-operative association. It is planned to test instru ments of the various makes, selecting the best quality goods for the co-operators. Apparently the members of this co operative association are not acquainted with the Co-operative Movement, for when they were asked whether they were running a co-operative the reply was: "No, we're not out for profit; we're try ing to get together to help .ourselves and save some money." This is the old- fashioned spontaneous development of a co-operative organization. PANA CO-OPERATIVE CON TINUES TO GAIN Many a seer has prophesied failure for the store at Pana, for there is very little practice of the co-operative prin ciples among the directors and members. The adviser who visited this town from The League last year was told that the Directors held no meetings, that the members had no interest in the store outside of their dividends, and that the manager ran the entire business pretty much by himself. Yet the annual re port shows that the society is financially successful, if not otherwise. Sales for the year 1923 were $35,- 278.05; gross profit was $6,038.74; ex penses were $4,330.34, and surplus sav ings $1,708.40. The gain thus proves to be almost 5 per cent of sales. THE DIRECTORS' PAGE HOW ABOUT A SUMMER TRAINING SCHOOL? Co-operative clerks need vacations during the summer, and when they go the store is left short-handed unless extra help is taken on. The League is interested in that extra help situation. For we can recommend a few clerks who are studying co-operative and labor problems at labor schools and who want to get closer to the movement during the summer months. Your store might make a genuine con tribution toward educating some young man or woman for a few weeks or months in co-operative store problems. Two or three stores, like those at Utica or Rose- land (Chicago), have already'hired peo ple whom The League has recommended for several weeks to do general work about the store or bakery in the summer. Many of the best managers in the North Central States have got their start as green young clerks who wanted to find out just what the co-operative movement is all about and what it is trying to do. Co-operators know from bitter expe rience that one of the prime causes for co-operative failures in this country is. the failure of our movement to train its own managers. The Co-operative Train ing School at Minneapolis is a first step toward remedying this situation, but so long as it is held in that particular part of the country only, it will not bring much relief to the Western, Eastern, and Southern States. We must still rely chiefly on the individual store as the Local Training School. Will your society become a unit in this Summer Co-operative Training School and take one clerk? Talk it over at the next Directors' Meeting. Write- and tell us how long you could employ CO-OPERATION 89 a young man or woman, what wages you can offer, and when you want a new clerk to begin. Your society can help to-day to edu cate to-morrow's co-operative leaders— and at no extra expense to your store. Will you help this plan along ? The League office would like to receive replies from all Boards of Directors who are interested in making this work a success. Replies should be sent very soon, though, for the best young men and women for our work are the kind that are engaged early by other progres sive movements. Let's get to them first! ACTIVITIES OF DISTRICT LEAGUES The Executive Board of the Northern States Co-operative League held a meet ing on March 24. One of the outstand ing features of the meeting was the re port of the affiliation of the Wisconsin State Federation of Labor with the League as a fraternal member. More than a year ago the Minnesota Federa tion of Labor affiliated with this District League and has recently renewed its membership. Another matter of importance was the discussion of the Co-operative Training School to be held in the autumn of 1924. Although the Educational Department of the Central States Wholesale re quested that the place for the 1924 school be changed so as to be nearer the Illinois societies, it was practically de cided that Minneapolis both deserved and needed the school this year. Other matters of minor importance came up. Several affiliated societies sent in financial statements, and several others wrote asking for advice of one nature or another. Two auditors of the Exchange reported that they had col lected eighteen subscriptions for the magazine CO-OPERATION, and Co-opera tors Nurmi and Sahlman reported that they had secured sixty individual mem bers for the League at the Managers' Meeting and at the Annual Meeting of the Co-operative Central Exchange. Re ports were also made on circulars sent out to co-operative societies urging the reading of co-operative literature and membership in The League. Treasurer reported Receipts since No vember of $121.65 and Disbursements of $135.75. Cloquet Society sent an invi tation to The District League to hold its next Convention in that city. BOOK REVIEW LABOR YEAR BOOK The American Labor Year Book for 1923-24 appeared April 1st. This is the fifth volume of the series begun in 1916. The present edition, edited by Solon De Leon, contains fourteen chap ters covering in an objective manner the American labor and political move ments, labor organizations and labor politics abroad, labor legislation, work ers' education, labor banking, co-opera tives here and abroad, and an exhaustive study of labor disputes. A new feature of the book is a carefully compiled labor directory giving names and addresses of every international, national, and state labor organization in the United States, and a complete list of labor, Socialist, and Communist papers. Speakers, writers, teachers have found the Year Book invaluable in the past. It is to be found in the libraries of trade unions, co-operatives, banks and com mercial institutions. Much of the ma terial it contains is unavailable in any other form. The book is published by the Rand School of Social Science, 7 East 15th Street, New York City, and may be ob tained from The League. 90 CO-OPERATION THE CORRESPONDENCE FILE THE SUBJECT OF LOYALTY AGAIN I believe every organizer ought in the be ginning to teach the consumer that a co operative society is not a place to make profits but a place where merchandise is distributed to the members of a social and savings society. I think, too, many co-op erative societies have been destroyed by those who see profits at other peoples' expense. Part of a Plan for a Co-operative Society Buy a building out of the high rent district or buy a lot and put up a building. Then start with every member subscribing for at least $200 worth of stock. Allow no member to became a director unless he has bought at least $360 worth of goods at the store per year. Also restrict the savings returns and interest to those who have done business with the store to at least the minimum amount of $360 per year. Thus novices will be kept off the Board of Directors. As an added feature, those members who have done business at the co-operative store to the amount of $360 a year shall be entitled to a death benefit of $800. Those who bave bought a minimum of $480 worth of groceries per year for two years shall be entitled to a death benefit of $500, three hundred dollars of which shall be paid in cash and the balance in goods. Those who have spent $50 per month, or a total of $1,800 for three years shall have to their credit in case of death, $1.000, $500 to be paid to heirs at the death of the member, and balance in goods to the amount of not more than $50 per month. In case of sickness of a member in good stand ing, the member should be entitled to gro ceries to the amount of $7 per week. I should be glad to hear from those who favor this plan in the by-laws. PERL HEDDLESTON, East Pittsburgh, Pa. CO-OPERATIVE PROMOTION IN MEXICO I have just received the March number of your important magazine CO-OPERATION. I have found the articles it contains most in teresting and encouraging and hope to de rive from the monthly reading of same, in spiring and useful information for my work in behalf of the co-operative movement in Mexico, which is just commencing. Having been appointed by the Mexican Government one of its many enthusiastic propagandists, I am devoting all my time and energies to this work, because I am convinced that this movement is bound to bring great benefits to the working people. Perhaps you are aware of the fact that the present Government of Mexico is devoting the greatest attention to co-operation and is car rying on active propaganda throughout this Republic in favor of the movement. It has succeeded in dividing up the enormous ex tension of land that for centuries has been in the hands of the feudal landholders, and has provided the poor farmers with small tracts of land which they are now cultivating for their own benefit. Co-operation will make a success of such a subdivision of the land. I will be very much indebted to you for any suggestion that you may kindly wish to make that will enable me to carry out my work of organizing farmers' co-operatives successfully in Mexico, where the majority of the people have been shamefully exploited by capitalists for centuries and hope to be re deemed by co-operation. IGNACIO FLORES, 5a Comfort 88, San Luis Potosi, S. L. P., Mexico. Statement of the Ownership, Management, Circulation, etc., Required by the Act of Congress of August 24, 1924, Of Co-operation, published monthly at New York, N. Y., for April 1, 1924. State of New York, County of New York, ss.: Before me, a notary public in and for the State and county aforesaid, personally ap peared Julia N. Perkins, who, having been duly sworn according to law, deposes and says that she is the business manager of Co-opera tion, and that the following is, to the best of her knowledge and belief, a true statement of the ownership, management (and if a daily paper, the circulation), etc., of the aforesaid publication for the date shown in the above caption, required by the Act of August 84, 1912, embodied in section 443, Postal Laws and Regulations, printed on the reverse of this form, to wit: 1. That the names and addresses of the pub- lish-r, editor, managing editor, and business managers are: Publisher, The Co-operative League, 167 West 12th St., N. Y. C.; Editor, James P. Warbasse, 167 West 12th St., N. Y. C.; Managing Editor, Cedric Long, 167 West 12th St., N. Y. C.; Business Manager, J. N. Perkins, 167 West 12th St., N. Y. C. 2. That the owner is: The Co-operative League of U. S. A., 167 West 12th St., N. Y. C. (organization members, 1,000); J. P. Warbasse, President; A. P. Bower, Vice- President; J. F. McNamee, Secretary; W. Niemela, Treasurer. 3. That the known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders owning or holding 1 per cent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other securities are: None. J. N. PERKINS. Sworn to and subscribed before me this S8th day of March, 1924. (Seal) HARVEY P. VAUGHN. (My commission expires March 30, 1984.) CO-OPERATION PUBLICATIONS of THE CO-OPERATIVE LEAGUE HISTORICAL Per Copy Per 10* 8. Story ot Co-operation ..........................................................| .10 J8.00 1. British Co-operative Movement ............................................... .10 C.OO 88. Co-operative Consumers' Movement in the United States....................... .05 4.00 89. Consumers' Co-operative Societies in N. Y. State, (Published by Consumers' League). . . . ............................................................. .10 10. A Baker and What He Baked (Belgian movement) ........................... .10 TECHNICAL 4. How to Start and Bun a Bochdale Co-operative Society....................... .10 4.00 6. System of Store Records and Accounts......................................... .60 6. A Model Constitution and By-Laws for a Co-operative Society................ .05 2.60 S. Co-operative Education. Duties of Educational Committee Denned.......... .10 8. How to Start a Co-operative Wholesale....................................... .10 27. Why Co-operative Stores Fail.... ............................................. .02 1.00 2. Co-operative Store Management................................................ .10 14. How to Start and Bun & Women's Guild....................................... .05 15. How to Organize a District Co-operative League.............................. .10 29. Credit Union Primer (By Ham and Kobinson)...................... ......... .60 32. Application Blanks for Membership in a Co-op Society...................... .65 43. Co-operative Housing. . . . .................................................... .10 60. ABC of Co-operative Housing.......................................... .10 61. Model Lease for Co-operative Apartment House............................ 1.00 MISCELLANEOUS 16. Model Co-op State Law........................................................ .10 17. Syllabus for Course of Lectures, with References and Bibliography.......... .25 46. Producers' Co-operative Industries............................................ .10 11. Control of Industry by the People through the Co-operative Movement...... .10 12. Credit Union and Co-operative Store.......................................... .05 J.76 13. The Place of Co-operation Among Other Movements........................... .15 34. Co-operative Movement (Yiddish).............................................. .02 1.2& SO. "When the Whistle Blew" (Story, by Bruce Culvert)......................... .06 35. Doing it Together..................................................... .05 41. Farmer's Co-operation (By Benson Y. laaiftoB)................................ .,15 42. Co-op Homes for Europe's Ttararteafi.......................................... .10 52. Homes to Live In Through Co-operation....................................... .05 63. Beal First Aid for the Farmers............................................... .05 54. Credit at Cost ................................................................. .05 ONE-PAGE LEAFLETS (One cent each: 50 cents per 100: $2.50 per 500; $4 per 1,000) <1) Principles and Aims of The Co-operative League: (18) T)o Yon Know Why Yon Should Be e Co-operator; (20) Why Loyalty Is Necessary; (21) Cost and Crime of Credit; (22) A Beal Co-operator; (25) Resolutions Adopted by A. F. of L.; (26) Factory Workers Co-operate!; (28) Do Yon Know About Co-operation in Europe?: (40) Have Yon a Committee on Educa tion and Recreation?; (44) What Is the Co-operative Movement?: (4K) Schools and Stores; (47) A Man's Bight to a Job; (48) Tips to Co-operators; (49) The Way Out. MONTHLY PUBLICATIONS CO-OPERATION—(In bundle lots, $7.50 per hundred). Subscription, per year..............Jl.00 HOME CO-OPERATOR, 4 pages......................................................... .$1 per 100 INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATIVE BULLETIN (Pub. by The I. C. A.)......... .per year, $1.00 BOOKS The following books are recommended as containing the best discussions of the modern Co-operative Movement. They may be ordered through The League: Bergengren, Roy F.: Co-operative Banking, A Credit Union Book........................ .$3.00 Blanc, Elsie T.: Co-operative Movement in Russia .............................................. 2.50 Faber, Harald: Co-operation in Danish Agriculture, 1918.................................... 2.7B Flanagan, J. A.: Wholesale Co-operation in Scotland, 1920...................... .... 200 Gebhard, Hannes: Co-operation in Finland, 1016............................................. 2!oo Gide, C.: Consumers' Co-operative Societies, 1921............................................. 3.50 Gide, C.: Consumers' Co-operative Societies, American edition and notes, 1922. Cloth, $3.00; paper bound................................................................... .80 Harris, Emerson P.: Co-operation, The Hope of the Consumer, 1918. Cloth, $2.00; paper bound. . . . . ............................................................................... 60 Holyoake: Bochdale Pioneers................................................................. i.oo- Howe, Fred C.: Denmark, a Co-operative Commonwealth, 1921..................... . 200 Madams, J. P.: The Story Retold............................................................. .'cot' Nicholson, Isa: Our Story..................................................................... 25 Potter, B.: Co-operative Movement in Great Britain.......................................... i OO1 Eedfern, Percy: The Story of the C. W. S................................................... 20* Redfern, Percy: Tho Consumers' Place in Society, 1020...................................... i oo Smith-Oordon & Staples: Rural Reconstruction in Ireland, 1918.............................. l!sn Smith-Gordon anfl O'Rrien : Co-operation in Denmark.................................... 1 00 Smith-Gordon and O'Brien : Co-operation in Many Lands, 1920........................... 1.50 Sonnicbien, Albert, ("'onpninprs' Co-operation, 1919. Cloth bound, $1.75; paper bound....... .7r> Steen, H.: Co-operative Marketing ............................................................ 2.00 Btolinsky, A.: Thp Co-operative Movement. In Yiddish....................................... i <\0 Warbasse, James P.: Co-operative Democracy................................................. 3.50 Webb, B. and S.: The Consumers' Co-operativp Movement, 1921.......................... . . 5 no Webb. Catherine: Industrial Co-operation, 1917............................................. 1 50 Woolf, Leonarfl: Co-operation and the Future of Industry.................................... i oo Woolf, L. : Socialism and Co-operation.......................................... l r\(\ "The Co-operative Consumer" and "Co-operation," III (1917), VI (1920), VII (1921) VTli (1922). . . . . .........................................................................'.... 125 Transactions of Second American Co-operative Conpress, TS20.................................. j'ofl Transactions of Tbird American Co-operative Coneress, 1922.............. " I 00 Tbe People's Year Book. 1924. Cloth, $1; paper bound..............................'."'."." "e0 (Ten cents postage should be added for books which cost more than $2.00, and five cents for the smaller books.) THE CO-OPERATIVE LEAGUE (Member of The International Co-operative Alliance) 167 West 12th Street, New York An educational organization for teaching the history, principles, methods and alma of tVa Co-operative Movement and for the promotion of Co-operation in the United States. Join The League and thus help promote the educational work of the Co-operatiro Movement. Subscribe fo* the Monthly Magazine and keep in touch with the Movement. Enclosed find $......... for Subscription for CO-OPERATION, $1.00. Membership in The LEAGUE, $1.00. Name... Address. Co-operative Central Exchange Wholesale Grocers and Jobbers, Bakers We supply Roods to Co-operative Societies OlNIjY. We are owned and controlled by Co operative Societies. We are organized t» enable Co-operative Societies to do collectively what they cannot dsi individually. Co-operative Central Exchange Ofiices, Warehouses and Plant: Winter Street and Ogden Ave., SUPERIOR, WIS. Co-og»es*ators' I^td. Mutual ITire Insurance Co, is now writing insurance in State of Wisconsin THE PRODUCER Issued Monthly Price 3d. If you want to keep in touch with business, organization, administrative affairs, and problems of the British Co-operative Movement, read THE PRODUCER. Published by Co-operative Wholesale Society, Inc. 1 Balloon Street, Manchester Poet free 4 eh. 6d. a year. The Trade and Technical Organ of British Co-operation. The New Secretary's Ledger Just published by the EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT, Central States Co-operative Wholesale Society (203 Converse Ave., E. St. Louis, 111.) is the form for keeping the Membership Ledger of a Co-operative Society which provides ample and proper space for all transactions with a maximum of efficiency and a minimum of time, worry and errors. Send for Samples and Prices. Co-operation in Scotland In no part of the world is Co-operation fur ther developed, or more successfully practiced than in Scotland. If you wish to keep In formed, read "The Scottish Co-operator" (Published Weekly) Subscription: Year 12 sh.; half-year, 6 eh. Address, 119 Paisley Road, Glasgow, Scotland The Madras Monthly Bulletin of Co-operation ROYAPETTAH, MADRAS, INDIA The only monthly on Co-operation in India. Special articles on Rural, Con sumers', Agricultural, Credit and Indus trial Co-operation; and Co-operation Abroad. Subscription Rs. 4/12 per annum. The Canadian Co-operator Brantford, Ontario, Canada The organ ut the Canadian Coopera tive Blovemetttt owned by and con ducted under the auspices ot The Cooperative Union •£ Canada. Published monthly 75c per annum THE HOME CO-OPERATOR A four-page magazine for use in co-operative societies. Issued monthly, in bundles, $1 per hundred. Published by The Co-operative League Address Albert Sonnichsen, Managing Editor Willimantic, Conn. 07CRAT10N A magazine to spread the knowledge of the Co-operative Movement, whereby the people, in vol< untary association, produce and distribute for their own use the things they need Published monthly by The Co-operative League, 167 West 12th Street, New York City. J. P. WarbasBe, Editor. Entered as second class matter, Decem ber 19, 1917, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Price $1.00 a year. Vol. X, No. 6 JUNE, 1924 10 Gents VITAL ISSUES AET AND CO-OPERATION The Co-operative Society of Ghent, Belgium, employed Van Biesbroeck, the great Flemish artist, and instructed him to create beautiful things. This was an important step in Co-operation. It was also an historic event in the emancipa tion of art. This society now has in its buildings many very beautiful allegori cal paintings and pieces of statuary illus trating the upward struggle of the masses. Some of these pieces have been awarded international prizes, and pro claimed as superb. The Festal Palace of the Ghent So ciety is a thing of beauty as well as a great center of co-operative art. This building, with its two theaters, will be the meeting place of the Tenth Inter national Co-operative Congress this year. Co-operation is seen also expressing itself in its standards of architecture. One of the very beautiful office build ings in Europe is the building of the Danish Co-operative Bank in Copen hagen. The massive bronze doors are ornamented with an allegorical bas relief illustrating the development of the co operative idea. The office building of the German Co-operative Wholesale in Hamburg is another example of archi tectural beauty. For dignity and ele gance the central office buildings of the Berlin Society, the Swiss Co-operative Onion at Basel, and the main store of the Zurich Society are noteworthy. The finest business buildings in Glasgow are those of the Scottish Wholesale. One can see in Europe a hundred towns in which the most beautiful business build ings are the premises of the co-operative societies. Besides its charming buildings, the co-operative society "Umanitaria" in Milan, Italy, is promoting possibilities for art expression open to all of its members in its School of Art and Handi craft. Here are taught designing, painting, metal work, lace making, etc. Fine work in these arts is carried on. The Institute Carducci by the side of Lake Como is another institution for popular education in the arts. Then we see in many countries the co-operative theater and even the opera house; choirs, choruses, orchestras, and bands are found in societies in many lands. In the United States, the Theater Guild, in New York, has a theater owned and conducted by the members who constitute the audience. It presents the best plays. In Berlin is the "Volks- biihne", a great people's theater with more than a hundred thousand mem bers. The Franklin Society in Milwau kee has an orchestra and a choir. The male voice choir of the British Co-opera tive Wholesale Society ranks among the best of the musical bodies of England. One of the encouraging signs is that an address on "Art, Life and Co-opera tion" has recently been delivered in Manchester by Mr. Charles E. Tomlin- son, and is now published in pamphlet 92 CO-OPERATION form by the British Co-operative Union. There is much to encourage the hope that Co-operation will promote more and more the expansion of art and beauty. Competitive profit-making business and political governments have failed to create the best conditions for the de velopment of art. The freedom under which it could best expand has been lacking. Those who could produce things of commercial value have been sometimes rewarded, but the lot of most artists has been failure of opportunity. Still the artist is the flower of civiliza tion. No obstacle should be put in his path. Society should make him free to create. The world's great period of art was before art became commercialized. The artists of the Middle Ages excelled be cause they were made free from the de pressing influence of economic competi tion. The artist was subsidized by a wealthy patron, by the church, by some noble, or by the state; and from that day on he was free from the worry as to his bread and housing. His living was guaranteed by a yearly stipend; and the beauty of his products augmented his rewards. It should be possible for Co-operative Democracy to perform this ancient service for art, and restore the artist to freedom. THE TRADE UNION AND THE STRIKE Trade Unionism in order to solve the workingman's problem must have the assistance of organization of the con suming needs of the workers. The worker not only earns money but he spends it also. If he leaves this spend ing power unorganized, his earning power is organized in vain. Organization to earn more at the point of production is just what the capitalistic producer is doing. Trade Unionism alone is capitalism in overalls. It develops a capitalistic idea in the head of the workingman. One hundred per cent Trade Unionism, that gets everything it wants, converts working- men into capitalists. That is good enough so far as it goes, but it does not solve the economic prob lem for Labor—or for anybody else. Trade Unionism has one weapon—the strike. The General Strike is the glori fied ideal. George Bernard Shaw has said that the strike means starving on your enemies' door step. Then he adds: "It may terrify an Oriental if he hap pens to believe that your death will bring the wrath of Allah on him; but your modern capitalist snaps his fingers at Allah; he simply calls the police to remove your body to the mortuary." The possibility of the strike may be a good thing for the workers to have up their sleeves; but is it not possible that some of the millions upon millions of dollars that the workers are paying for strikes might be spent to good ad vantage, closing up the leak at the other end of the economic stream. While the worker has no control over the price he has to pay for life, he in creases his wages in vain. What his strike wins for him the merchant, trader, and landlord take away from him as soon as he gets it. Labor can not be said to be organized until it is organized both as producer and as consumer. J. P. W. COULD THIS KIND OF THING HAPPEN IN A CO-OPERATIVE COMMONWEALTH? The Christian Science Monitor aroused considerable discussion during the past six months by having submitted to Con gress a bill which would force the gov ernment to conscript all wealth as well as its citizens in time of war. This pro posal is an old and familiar one to those who kept their heads during the late war, for there were thousands who dared talk about prevention of war even while the "War against War" was in prog ress. But it is new to the great unthink ing majority. The following are some of the logical reasons for conscripting wealth if there must be wars; but the most logical action would seem to be a concerted effort by the workers and farmers of America to organize industry and commerce so that real wealth was returned to those who make real wealth possible. CO-OPEEATION 93 Professor Lloyd Crosgrave shows that 85 out of every 100 families in the coun try receive less than $2,000 a year; 13 out of the 100 receive from $2,000 to $5,000; and the other two families get more than $5,000. This last 2 per cent of the population thus gets 20 per cent of all the income of 105,000,000 people. Reports show that there are 28,946 persons who receive more than $25,000 income a year, or a total of more than two billion dollars. The average annual income of these good folks is about $70,- 000 before they pay their Federal taxes, and more than $50,000 after the taxes are paid. But particularly interesting is the fact that more than 90 per cent of the incomes of the still better folks who receive upwards of half a million each year are from "lazy men's" work— from rents, stocks and bonds, interest, investment, royalties. Income to the government from taxes on these large fortunes is decreasing each year; in 1923 it was $400,000,000 less than the year before. Also, 261 millionaires who had the misfortune to die during the year left something in excess of $733,- 000,000 to their heirs, or an average of $2,808,986. As the average estate tax was only $363,621, the beneficiaries re ceived on the average the good round sum of about $2,450,000 apiece. In contrast to some of these figures, it is interesting to note that the taxes on articles of consumption, borne mostly by the great majority of working people, amounted to $620,857,000, or upward of $35 per family. Of course the tariff on imported articles of consumption raises this tax upon the common people to two or three times this amount. Truly, the proposal that wealth as well as lives of men be conscripted in case of another war is mild indeed. As it goes now, it looks as though wealth were making a hundred times the effort to escape its obligations to the country that the slackers and conscientious ob jectors were ever blamed with making. But this proposal is no cure for essen tial evils, at all. It is merely a pallia tive. The fundamental cure would be the reorganization of our economic order so that vested interest in great blocks of the nation's wealth would be elim inated, and with it would go the causes of war as well. But that means that business corporations for profit must give way to co-operative associations run for and by the people: a drastic rem edy. The hopeful signs that we see in the sky are the increasing numbers of men and women who are devoting them selves to the difficult task of effecting such a reorganization. C. L. A FARMERS' PLAN In the March issue of this magazine we published a leading editorial on "A Farmers' Plan." This was based on the efforts of Mr. A. S. Goss, master of the Washington State Grange, to pro mote legislation that would be helpful in relieving the distress of the farmers. Mr. Goss went to Washington and la bored earnestly with the best authorities on farmers' legislation. One by one the co-operative features had to be dropped until, when a bill was finally produced, it provided for a marketing commission under government control, and even this is so much more favorable to the farmers than any other bill in sight that there is little possibility of its becoming a law. Thus Mr. Goss and all of us should again be disillusioned. The best help to the farmer will come from himself. His own co-operative efforts can best solve his problems; but the government can not and will not. J. P. W. WHY ISN'T THIS CO OPERATIVE? It is estimated that the Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company now does a busi ness of about a million dollars a day. And there is only one co-operative in the country that handles as much as one thousand dollars a day! What are the reasons ? There are many. But the one that always interests us most is this: that most of our radical and liberal friends who condemn so heartily the entire profit system are buying their foodstuffs from the Atlantic and Pacific Tea Com pany. Here is the true index of the temper of radicalism and liberalism in America. C. L. 94 CO-OPEEATION THE "MORAL EQUIVALENT" OF JAZZ By L. S. Herron What has the co-operative movement to offer as a substitute for the thrill that comes when the political spellbinder sticks great handfuls of fresh feathers into the eagle's tail and makes him scream 1 What can take the place of the entertainment, fireworks, and that "gr-r-rand and glorious feeling" fur nished by the political aetionists? In short, what is the "moral equivalent" of political jazz? No movement that really proposes to do something for the people can be pro moted by the methods of the hair oil vendor. Just as real religion never has been, and cannot be, propagated by prancing sensationalism, so real eco nomic reform cannot be advanced by noise and bombast. Nevertheless, I think the most serious of us will admit that we do need entertainment features in the co-operative movement, as well as striking ways of presenting co-operative truth. More than entertainment features, however, we need a deeper and better- founded enthusiasm for co-operation, not only to attract new members and adherents, but to carry us all over the rough places and periods of discourage ment. That is the moral equivalent of political jazz that I wish to discuss here. How shall we arouse such enthusiasm? First, it seems to me, we must show that we are going somewhere. We must show that co-operation is a comprehen sive remedy, that it is potent to cure deep-seated economic disorders—more potent than anything else that has yet been advocated. We must give to the term co-operationist as much meaning and significance as the term socialist has had for many years. By this, I mean we must show that co-operation is just as definite a program as is socialism. The trouble is that outside of a com paratively few convinced eo-operation- ists, the people, in this country at least, do not consider co-operation a compre hensive remedy. By the great majority of those who know anything about it at all, co-operation is looked upon as a means of saving some of the retailer's profit on soap and prunes, but not as a road to prosperity and general well- being. National prosperity is still gen erally associated with politics. Most of the people still harbor the notion that we vote prosperity in or out on election day. It is not to be wondered at that peo ple in general do think politics is the key to prosperity. We are "fed up" on that notion from the beginning to the end of our earthly pilgrimage. All the heroes of the school histories were political actionists, from George Wash ington down. Almost every schoolboy, whether fired with ambition to gain fame or to serve his fellowmen, gets the idea that the sure road is to attain some office high in the government. Such a thing as showing that men and women can render noble service to their fellows in the field of economic relations without getting into the government is simply "not in the books." To supplant this supine trust in polit ical action, we must show that it has not delivered the goods. My memory covers thirty years of political action by farm ers, reaching back to the Populist days. In all that time what have the farmers accomplished by politics? If one-tenth of the promises made by office seekers and winning parties in this period had been fulfilled, or if one-tenth of the "pointing with pride" by those in power had had any foundation, farm ers would be rolling in prosperity. But the truth is that agriculture is now in a very bad plight. All the fundamental ills in our eco nomic system remain. With a few ex ceptions, politicians and officeholders have no thought of going to the root of our troubles. They would rather dip into the treasury and offer a handout to the victims than to abolish the privileges of the industrial masters. For example, Congress at this time is considering all sorts of bootstrap-lifting measures for the "relief" of agriculture, but is ignor- CO-OPEEATION 95 ing the outrageous tariff duties that pro tect manufacturers in shameful profit eering, and which are the most immedi ate factor in the disparity between prices of farm products and prices of industrial products. "Throw the rascals out" is the cry of the progressive political actionists. Well, I remember some campaigns in •which we thought we were doing just that. We have learned, however, that the real power in government rests not with those who hold the offices, but with those who hold the reins. In an increas ing measure, I find myself accepting the conclusion that those who own the wealth of a country, those who control its eco nomic life, are the ones who control its politics and government. This conclu sion is pretty well supported by history. Political democracy, therefore, depends upon first establishing industrial de mocracy. This reveals one of the weaknesses of the method proposed by our socialist friends. They say the people must use the government to promote the common weal. But any short step in socialism, such as state ownership of a flour mill, let us say, is always in danger of reversal at the polls and sabotage by the indus trial masters through their control of the government. And if the people brought about a complete "revolution" by the ballot—or any other means—at one fell swoop, and could force the economic masters to let go, the system would be doomed to failure because of the lack of experience in running the different in dustries. Let us make whatever use we can of political means as we go along, to re move barriers and loosen the grip of privileged interests, but let us show that positive economic salvation cannot be expected by political action. And what is more important, let us emphasize, in season and out, that co-operation is really potent to establish economic peace and prosperity for those who practice it. This we must preach with all the zeal of crusaders until the public recog nizes co-operation as one of the "pro posed roads,'' and an increasing number of people accept it as the< road, to free dom. Just what is it that ails us? All our economic troubles, I think, can be classi fied under two general heads: (1) In efficiency in production and distribution, due to too many people doing useless or needless things, or more people than necessary doing the useful and needful things, and (2) one part of the popula tion taking more than it gives in return. In other words, our economic ills are comprehended under inefficiency and profiteering and their various corollaries. Co-operation has everywhere shown it self potent to cure these ills just so far as it has been earnestly applied. But the politically minded folks say, "Co-operation is too slow, and doesn't go far enough." And if that does not hold you, they will seek to flatten you out entirely by asking, "How are you going to overcome monopoly of natural resources with your little co-operative societies?" That is supposed to be a poser. But listen! All of the fortunes in this country, or any other, were built from the profits made on the trade of the people. All of the factories, mills, and mines were ac quired in this way. Let the people es tablish their own co-operative businesses, beginning at the bottom, and save the ' profits on their own trade, and they can soon acquire these facilities for them selves. They can buy and build their way into the economic system until they arrive at the ownership of natural re sources. When the people set about in dead earnest to "mind their own busi ness, '' there will be plenty of plants and holdings of natural resources for sale— for no trust or combination, no matter how strong, can long endure without customers. The potency of co-operation to check mate the profiteering system, and ulti mately to replace it, is limited only by the vision, devotion, and loyalty of the people themselves. Our English broth ers have carried co-operation far enough to show that it is a practicable cure for economic ills—the big ones as well as the little ones. Their movement should furnish us a considerable amount of "moral equivalent." Of course, we must make immediate savings as we go. There are a great many people who can be held in the movement only in that way. Also, we 96 CO-OPERATION shall have to use entertainment and so cial features and attention-arresting publicity to attract new recruits. But men of faith and vision must ever be pointing to the goal. They must show that co-operation will take us somewhere —more surely, if less spectacularly, than anything else that has been proposed. By this means can be aroused the quiet, but deep-running, enthusiasm that will be far more effective than the torchlight processions of the political actionists. EDITOR'S NOTE. The writer of the companion article to this ivas unfortu nately delayed by pres&ure of other duties. We will therefore have to pub lish the answer to Mr. Herron is next month's CO-OPERATION. CONTRIBUTED ARTICLES DISCUSSION OF CONSUMERS' CO-OPERATION AS A DIRECT MEANS OF PROMOTING WORLD UNDERSTANDING At the Congress of the Women's Inter national League for Peace and Free dom, Washington, D. C., April, 1924 (Abbreviated) It is encouraging to know that some of the objects that we are here seeking are being brought about, to-day, in dif ferent parts of the world. It is good to know that we do not need to wait for the revolution—that we do not even have to "capture our govern ment" in order to begin to remove some of the causes which make for interna tional hostility and to substitute, in their place, agencies which promote economic justice and human brotherhood. All of the methods that heretofore have been advanced, both political and economic, in this Congress, have been methods which use the state, the political government, as their agent. Free Trade is good. We want it— but it is the various governments of the world that must institute Free Trade and the abolition of tariffs. The same is true of the stabilization of the currency —of the nationalization of industry—of the government control of natural re sources, of the Outlawry of War—the World Court and the League of Nations —all these require political action. To change the policy of the govern ments in the near future appears to many of us as an almost superhuman thing. It is too arduous, too roundabout, too distant. Therefore the Co-operators of the World—united in the International Co operative Alliance with forty million members—seek to accomplish their re sults quite apart from political action. They are not using the machinery of the state to bring about their ends. They are proceeding directly by the voluntary action of the people. These people, united in Consumers' Co-operative Societies, have ideas broad and noble as those of any dreamers, but though their "heads are in the clouds— their feet are on the ground.'' What are Co-operators doing inde pendently of their governments? They are producing and distributing locally, nationally and internationally the things the people need in their daily lives. They are using the regular meth ods and the regular machinery of private commerce. They are baking bread, building houses, manufacturing cloth ing, shoes, furniture, utensils and agri cultural implements; they are carrying on co-operative banking, insurance and credit; they are conducting creameries, restaurants and laundries. They are do ing all these necessary things that make the wheels of daily life go round, but they are doing them with such a differ ent motive than the motive which ani mates ordinary trade and commerce! They are distributing and producing food, clothing, etc., solely for service, not for private profit or speculative in vestment. Co-operators are by their CO-OPERATION 97 very actions to-day proving that trade and economic intercourse can be carried on effectively without personal gain as the incentive. In every country of Europe local Co operative Societies are federated into national wholesaling for national pro duction and manufacturing, and for na tional education and propaganda for Co-operation. The national federations of Co-opera tive Societies are united in an Interna tional Federation, called the Interna tional Co-operative Allliance. Through its committee on Interna tional Co-operative Trade we learn that to-day, despite all the numerous obsta cles which prevent free economic inter course, such as civil war, foreign invasions, instability of exchange, high tariff walls, etc., direct international ex change of products is being carried on between fourteen countries. The total amount of international trade recorded in 1923 amounted to £29,231,290 (sterling). This does not include the reports of the international trade of Russia, Austria Hungary, Rus sian Lithuania or Esthonia. It may be surmised, however, that this amount would be more than doubled were a re port from these countries included. The chief items include such com modities as wheat and flour, lard and ham, butter, sugar, coffee and rice, tim ber and hides, fish, meats and oils. These raw products are exchanged for manu factured articles, such as textiles, shoes, implements and machinery from indus trial countries. And all this trade is carried on for no other purpose than mutual service! None of the evils which make for war exists in this form of economic inter course. No one group is seeking mar kets at the expense of the other. No national wholesale is claiming special privilege for the few private owners of that wholesale. They are all acting and working with the same common purpose, the service of their members, the simple people. Any one can become a member of a co-operative society at any time. It recognizes no distinctions of race, class or creed. It is open to all. So here we are to-day, all of us able to go back to our own localities and put our shoulders to the wheel of economic progress, if we but choose to do so, with out waiting for political changes. Through the Consumers' Co-operative Movement we can unite, and by our practical, concrete efforts demonstrate that economic justice, equality and serv ice is not a "dream of the future" but a possibility, and in a limited sense an actuality to-day. The great English economist, Richard Cobden, said that the "Peace of the world can best be brought about by as much intercourse as possible betwixt peoples and as little intercourse as pos sible betwixt governments." This friendly economic intercourse be twixt people is the daily work of the Consumers' Co-operative Movement, both nationally and internationally. Let us in this Congress of the W. I. L. dedicate ourselves to forwarding this great Movement. AGNES D. WARBASSE, Member of W. I. L. Delegate appointed by the Executive Committee of the I. C. A. to represent the International Co-operative Alli ance at the above Congress. Educational Secretary, The Co-operative League of TJ. S. A., headquarters New York City. TWO IMPORTANT CONFER ENCES IN WISCONSIN By Arvid Nelson Two meetings of great significance to the Co-operative Movement in the North Central States were held in Superior, Wis., during March of this year. One was the fourth annual conference of managers and directors of co-operative associations, held March 16th and 17th, and the other was the sixth regular an nual meeting of the Co-operative Cen tral Exchange, held March 18th and 19th. Both meetings were held in the meeting hall of the building owned by the Exchange in Superior. 98 CO-OPEEATION It was admitted by all that the man agers' and directors' conference held this year was in all respects more suc cessful than any such conference hereto fore arranged by the Exchange. The total attendance this year was 62, com pared to 39 in 1923. Many managers and a number of members of co-opera tive boards were present who had not attended these conferences in the past, and all were so well pleased with the work accomplished during the two-day session that before adjournment a mo tion was unanimously passed to request the Exchange to arrange another such conference this year and to hold them twice a year in the future. The order of business included the following questions, which were thor oughly discussed and acted upon by the conference: How co-operative educational work should be carried on in the future. Co-operative agitational committees and their duties. Danger of chain-stores to co-opera tives. Centralization of co-operatives by dis tricts. Why the Co-operative Movement must function hand in hand with the other branches of the Labor Movement. Why the co-operatives must support and develop their own banking institu tion (The Workers' Mutual Savings Bank of Superior, Wis.). Joint meetings of co-operative em ployees and directors. Why employees of co-operative stores must be versed in salesmanship. The co-operative societies and then- relation to the Exchange: (a) How purchasing power can be centralized be hind the Exchange; (b) How and why the co-operatives must sell products labeled with the Co-operators' Best brand; (c) How new brands of goods may be secured for the Exchange: (d) Sale and improvement of the Exchange bakery products. In addition, brief talks on coffee, canned goods, seeds and farm machinery were given by representatives of various concerns with whom the Exchange has business relations. Resolutions, embodying the sentiments expressed by those attending the confer ence, were adopted on all the questions discussed and acted upon during the session. All these resolutions were later presented to the annual meeting of the Co-operative Central Exchange and duly confirmed, so they became the offi cial decisions of the central organization, to be carried out in the course of this year's work. One noteworthy fact, showing the im mense possibilities for expanding the business of the Exchange, was brought out very distinctly during the discus sion on the relations of the co-operatives to the central organization. It was pointed out, on the basis of statistics se cured from the representatives of co operatives attending this conference, that the total annual sales of all the co operatives in the district, including the American stores, undoubtedly exceed ten million dollars, while the sales of the Exchange last year for the first time exceeded $500,000. This was one of the principal arguments expounded by the manager of the Exchange in impressing the centralization of the purchasing power of the co-operatives through the medium of the Exchange. The annual meeting of the Co-opera tive Central Exchange this year was at tended by 39 delegates, representing 28 affiliated co-operative societies. Twenty- two affiliated societies had been repre sented by 33 delegates at the meet.ing held in 1923. The number of co-opera tives now associated with the Exchange totals 58, while it is estimated that there are about 100 Finnish co-operative asso ciations in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Mich igan, Illinois, and the Dakotas, which comprises the territory covered by the Exchange. Detailed reports of the management, the board of directors, and the various departments of the Exchange were pre sented to the annual meeting. Total sales in 1923, according to the manager's report, had amounted to $504,177.01, which was an increase of $166,610.08, or 49.35 per cent over the sales of the pre vious year. Flour and feed sales, which form the bulk of the products handled by the Ex change, amounted to a total of 232 car loads in 1923. In 1922 the flour and CO-OPEEATION 99 feed sales had amounted to 130 carloads, and in 1921 to 69 carloads. Coffee sales for the year reported on at this meeting amounted to 139,106 pounds, compared to 93,014 pounds in 1922. Sales of bakery goods, chiefly hard tacks and toasts manufactured by the Exchange in its own bakery plant, in creased from $34,126.16 in 1922 to $51,- 338.03 in 1923. A total of 23 persons were now em ployed by the Exchange in its office, warehouse, bakery, and auditing depart ment, the manager stated in his annual report. A net saving of $5,180.60 was realized on the sales last year. This was dis posed of in the following manner by the annual meeting: Interest of paid-up shares, 6 per cent, to be paid in shares....... $921.25 Educational fund, 5 per cent...... 259.03 Reserve fund .................... 819.72 Purchase dividend, to be distributed iii shares - . 3,180.60 $5,180.60 The annual meeting also decided to increase the capitalization of the Ex change from $20,000 to $75,000. The total amount invested in shares of stock of the Exchange, both paid-up and sub scribed for, was $17,992.86, according to the financial statement submitted to the annual meeting. From this it will be noted that the Exchange is doing business on a very small investment of capital. During the forepart of 1923 the board of directors of the Exchange had made an effort to increase the work ing capital of the concern by floating a bond issue, but only about $3,500 had been obtained in this manner, due to the depleted condition of the finances of the co-operatives and the farming popula tion in general. Lengthy reports were submitted to the meeting on the work of the auditing department during the past year, and the co-operative course for managers and bookkeepers conducted last fall. It was disclosed by the report of the auditing department, among other things, that very satisfactory progress had been made by the affiliated societies, that the majority of them were now in a healthier condition financially and otherwise than they had been for several years past, and that failures, especially among those taking advantage of the services of the Exchange auditing de partment, were becoming an exception. The last co-operative course, of six weeks' duration, had been attended by 34 students desiring to become more ef ficient managers and other employees of co-operatives. These courses are con ducted annually by the Exchange, and it was decided to continue them by ar ranging an eight-weeks period of such education in the fall of this year. A question entailing the fundamental principles and policies of the Co-opera tive Movement, from the viewpoint of workingmen and working farmers, oc cupied a prominent position in both the managers' and directors' conference and the Exchange annual meeting. It came up first in the conference when the ques tion, "Why the Co-operative Movement must function hand in hand with other branches of the Labor Movement," was outlined and discussed. All were agreed in principle, in both meetings, that the Consumers' Co-opera tive Movement, as such, is fundamentally a part of the Labor Movement, that it was created as such by its originators, who were forced to seek alleviation of their conditions as poorly paid workers, and that it must be retained as a portion of the conscious movement of the work ing class seeking emancipation from the injustices of the present capitalistic sys tem of society. But varying opinions were expressed as to policies and the position and value of the Co-operative Movement in the struggles of labor; and these took the form of a debate lasting several hours. A resolution 011 the subject, of some length, was finally adopted by the man agers' and directors' conference, practi cally unanimously. This resolution was later presented to the annual meeting of the Exchange, which was attended by a number of delegates who had not been present at the conference. Another de bate, of a couple of hours' duration, 100 CO-OPEEATION therefore ensued, but as a result of fur ther interpretation by its sponsors, the resolution was unanimously confirmed in its original form. The resolution in full follows: Why the Co-operative Movement must func tion hand in hand ivith other branches of the Labor Movement. This conference verifies,, that the Consumers' Co-operative Movement is one of those move ments, one of those means by which the work ing class endeavors to release itself from its distressing position, by the aid of which it tries to abolish the capitalistic system and to create in its place a new equitable system of production and distribution, based on the in terests of all members of society. The more conscious this movement becomes of its inner most substance, the more clearly it will real ize that it is an opposition movement to the present form of society, a movement which the reigning class of present society will endeavor to destroy •with the aid of capital, legislation and court decisions, or at least to prevent it from developing to a stage injurious to the present propertied class. This conference realizes, that a fundamental change of the present corrupt system of so ciety can not be achieved through the Co operative Movement, although we feel that it can be of great assistance in this work. This conference considers, that it is erroneous in this situation to endeavor to lead the Co-opera tive Movement, and the industrial and the agricultural workers affiliated with it, aside from the economical and political struggles of the Labor Movement under the guise of the neutrality of the Co-operative Movement. This conference considers, on the contrary, that its duty is to fix the attention of the most intelligent portion of the membership of our co-operative organization on the necessity of the effort, which will eventually lead the members of all our co-operative associations to realize the necessity of a fundamental change in our whole social structure, as well as to seek and construct such connections and ties with other forms of the class struggle, so that our co-operative organizations shall become fighting units in the class struggle of the working class. We feel, that at this time, our co-operative organizations can partake in the forming of this kind of co-operation in the following ways, among others: (a) By carrying on educational work among wide masses of consumers along the lines in dicated above. (b) By aiding and taking part, wherever possible, in the political action, of a class nature, of the workers and farmers, and not by criticizing as bystanders the confused na ture of the political action of American labor, such as it is during this critical period; but by affiliating with it as working masses and by influencing it from within, so that it would overcome its confusion and could form itself into a clear fighting party of the proletariat. (c) By aiding in the development of indus trial organizations, wherever there are such organizations, as well as by aiding the work ers in their economic struggles against their employers; by showing the workers struggling in economic organizations the feeling of com munity of interests and the solidarity of the Co-operative Movement, by demanding of the employees of co-operative societies, not only membership in economic organizations, but the need of proper activity within them, so that they may become hetter qualified for the conflict. (d) By aiding, with mass meetings and financial assistance, the political and other class war prisoners of the working class, and by taking part in demonstrations, through mass meetings which have a class significance, against the present possessing class THE CO-OPERATIVE BAKERY OF SYRACUSE By Anna B. Zellman At 918 Orange Street, in the heart of the downtown Jewish section, I found a new one-story red-brick building, part of which was used as a bakery, the other part rented to a kosher meat market. The bakery seemed all windows, two large plate-glass ones plus a good sized glass door. Behind the counter stood a girl who appeared to be about twenty years old; and just as I was making known my mission Fannie came from the bakeroom. She took me around and told me the story. There are two ovens—one a '' Patent'' with the fire built underneath, used for the lighter baking; the other an "Amer ican," with a door at one end through which the coal is placed right inside where the fire is built in one corner. The latter is used for heavier baking, such as the twenty-pound loaves. The bakery opened six years ago—in November, 1917. People in the Jewish section had been aroused because the quality of their bread was poor and prices were high. Nor could they get the kind of bread they wanted, twisted and turned into shapes they liked. It took about one year to organize the group and get together the necessary funds. A building was finally rented for one year. At once quality and prices gave satisfaction, and many people came into the society and were held. The CO-OPEEATION 101 bakery continued in this first location for four years, in the meantime search ing for a new site and putting up their own building at a cost of $23,000. They have now been in the new home two years. They have a membership of about 300, all of them Jewish with the exception of about ten persons who are Gentiles. Membership meetings are held every six months, but there are no social gatherings. Five dollars consti tutes a share and no interest nor rebates have ever been paid. The treasurer comes daily to look after the cash and to sign necessary checks. The head baker or "first hand" cares for the bread in the oven; the "second hand" is dough man; the "cake man" comes third on the wage list. The "bench man" forms the bread and biscuits. The "helper" is a boy only six months over from Europe and serving as apprentice. The cake man is the only Gentile, though he speaks Jewish and makes Jewisji cakes. A special janitor cares for the coal, the ashes, and the general cleaning work. A window cleaner comes twice a week. All the bakers receive more than the union scale, principally because of the scarcity of Jewish bakers in the city. In addi tion to wages, all bakers and drivers get free bread and what baked goods they need for their families. About 5,500 loaves of bread are sold a week, and 1,600 dozen rolls. The weekly business is $1,000 plus. Eye, white, and black bread are sold, the latter in large loaves which are cut up and sold by the pound at six cents per. White bread is nine cents per pound and rye bread seven cents. They are using three brands of flour, at the rate of about forty barrels per week, storage "cracked" eggs, "kosher crisco.'' In the store there are three workers, all girls at low wages. Delivery is done by two men who own their own delivery outfits. Fannie Gabriel is a Jewish girl from London, England, and has had some training in stenography. She started with the bakery in February, 1920, at $12 per week. At the end of this first week the manager broke his legend left upon her the entire responsibility of the business management. Since that date she has acted continuously in the same capacity. At present her duties are: Handling trade over the counter from 1 P.M. to 7 P.M. Making out the daily orders for the bakers each night. Keeping track of the amount of flour and other materials used. Placing order for new orders of flour and materials each week. Taking inventory once a month. Keeping the books of the business. Banking all money and paying all bills. Humoring everybody and keeping things "balanced.'' Yet they say this Co-operative has no paid manager! CONSUMERS' CO-OPERATION AT MILFORD, N. H. By Cedric Long New Hampshire is one of the desert areas of the country so far as co-opera tive stores is concerned. But there is one oasis in the desert; and the weary traveler is mightily refreshed after spending a few hours with the flourish ing little co-operative society at Milford. The chief industry in this little town of less than 3,800 people is its granite quarries. The organized workers in these quarries are almost entirely Eng lish, Scotch, Finnish and Italian. And it is the English and Scotch who organ ized and opened the co-operative in October, 1920, and who still are the chief factors in directing it. Needless to say, the Finns loyally support the store. The Italians among the shareholders number about eighty, but their trade over the counter amounts to very little. When the store opened three and one- half years ago the customary prophecies of failure were forthcoming from the business interests. Less than a hundred members had put up scarcely $2,000; there was not an experienced business man on the board, and chain stores were making life miserable for several of the 102 CO-OPERATION CO-OPERATION 103 old established grocers. From that day to this, however, the store has regularly paid 4 per cent interest on capital and has never missed the semi-annual sav ings return to members and non-member purchasers. The last two returns have been at the rate of 8 per cent to mem bers and 4 per cent to non-members. There are few families loyal to the store which haven't got back that original in vestment of $25 several times over. The half-yearly report from October 1, 1923, to April 1, 1924, shows a sales income of $37,753.92 and a gross gain of $6,651.85. As operating expenses, in cluding delivery, come to only $4,233.71, or a little over 11 per cent, the share holders and other purchasers have more than $2,200 to divide among themselves after putting $150 into the Reserve Fund. The remarkable success of this store, largest and most prosperous of twelve or fifteen in the town, is due to a combina tion of features. The original organizers have tried consistently to develop a cos mopolitan, inclusive policy, so that all groups in the town should have equal access to the co-operative. Anyone who knows the conservatism of the small New England towns realizes some of the dif ficulties they have encountered. But their insistence on this point has re sulted in having Italians, Finns and Americans, as well as English and Scotch members, on the Board of Direc tors, and has won them the patronage of all nationality and religious groups. It is the native American population that has been slowest to join up, but even they now are coming in. The most noteworthy feature of the society is the control exercised by the Directors. All books are kept by the Secretary and the Treasurer, and the Treasurer handles the check book ex clusively. This throws the final respon sibility for the conduct of the business upon the Directors, where it belongs; and at the same time leaves the Manager free to run the store. As a result, the Milford society has a Board of nine Directors each one of whom has the most complete understanding of all the de tails of the business and the keenest in terest in these matters of detail. On this score the Milford Board of Directors compares favorably with the Boards of our best Finnish societies, always famous for their control over the co-operative business. The Secretary, Harley Riley, and the Treasurer, George Marshall, have spent several evenings each week for more than three years working on the books and other records of the organization. Finally, the Manager, Frank Dutton, is one of those born grocers who are suc cessful wherever they work. Young and active, and at the same time well trained in modern business methods, and with all this a good co-operator as well, he has a store that is a challenge to every other store in the town. The four clerks under him, all young fellows, too, make a good team, are liked by the townsfolk, and keep the store stock and fixtures spruced up in apple-pie order. The butcher's equipment is brand new all the way through, and with the care it is getting now will continue to look new for many years to come. That this Man ager turned his stock twenty-five times last year is an indication that the busi ness methods he uses are just as up to date as the superficial appearance of the store itself. I realize that I will be blamed for writing such a nattering account of one little co-operative society. It does have its weaknesses, and I pointed them out to the Directors: lack of sufficient, Re serves; no appropriation for Education, etc. But the Co-operative League staff has never yet found the co-operative so ciety that didn't have weaknesses. What impressed me so strongly at Milford was the unusual intelligence and efficiency of Directors, Auditors and Manager and the remarkable financial success of a co operative so far away from other co operatives which might give it advice and inspiration, and located in such a conservative section of the country. I am tempted to send a railroad ticket to Milford, N. H., to my good friends who say that a genuine workers' co-operative cannot succeed in conservative sections of the United States. FOREIGN INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERA TIVE WOMEN AT GHENT Of the many co-operative events to be held this summer in connection with the Tenth International Co-operative Con gress and Social Welfare Exhibition at Ghent one of the foremost will be the International Conference of Co-opera tive Guildswomen. Who are the Co operative Guildswomen? What is their relation to the Co-operative Movement? What are their aims and why do they want an International Guild? The Guildwomen are working-class mothers banded together in their com mon capacity as consumers and wage spenders who act through the Co-opera tive Movement to bring about a better social era and who, realizing the value of co-operation in the smaller spheres, are determined to carry its wholesome principle, "All for each and each for all," into the bigger sphere of world relations. They need an International Guild to further their great aim to bring peace and social justice to the world. Experience has shown that huge armies and navies do not prevent war. They make wars. And it is for the home-makers, the women whose baskets control the trade of the world, to say, to-day, that wars must cease. The con sumers of one country have no quarrel with those of any other country. The International Co - operative Women's Conference promises to be the most representative gathering of working women ever yet held, and it is earnestly hoped that arising from this Conference a permanent International Co-operative Women's Guild will be established. Interested readers are asked to com municate with the Secretary, Miss A. Honora Eiifield, 29 Winchester Road, Hampstead, London, N. W. 3, England, who will gladly reply to inquiries or send literature to interested readers. The Women's Committee has lately been conducting a contest among its members for the best song and badge. The two songs which came down into the finals of the competition are in Dutch and English respectively. The English song was finally selected as best repre senting the purpose for which the com petition was given out. This is the song: The Mothers' International Round the world a new song's ringing; Listen! Women of all climes! "fis the mothers' song we're singing, Telling hopes of happier times:— '' We will put all hate behind us, We whose hearts are sick and sore, Tired of strife and empty vict'ries— Bear the pangs of war no more.'' For our eyes have seen the vision Of a world where peace doth reign, Where our husbands, sons and brothers Shall not kill, nor yet be slain; But where love shall be triumphant Over greed and hate and pride; Like the sunlight melting hardness, Spreading warmth on every side. Speed our message! ye who hear it, North to south and east to west: "Let us be a League of Women, Love inspired our ev'ry breast, Pledged to end the awful carnage That so sears a nation's soul; Linked in one 'Co-operation,' Peace o'er all our final goal." The International Badge lias also been selected, and the various countries are already sending in their orders to Frau Freundlich of Austria. The Co-opera tive League of the U. S. A. has ordered 200 of the badges. TOWARD AN INTERNATIONAL WHOLESALE For a good many months the Com mittee on International Trade estab lished by the Executive of the Inter national Co-operative Alliance has been trying to gather statistics on the present status of trade between co-operatives of different countries and the possibilities for systematizing and enlarging this trade in such a way as to lay the founda- * I. 104 CO-OPERATION tion for a future International Co operative Wholesale. Figures gathered late in 1923 show that goods are being imported from, for eign co-operatives by the co-operative movements in England, Scotland, Ger many, Switzerland, Czecho-Slovakia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, France, Bel gium, Holland, Poland, Latvia, and Italy. The total value of these goods was more than $40,000,000. The largest trade of this nature was in meats and fats, dairy products and oils. Next came cereals, sugar, peas and beans. Third was the class comprising fruits, nuts, perfumes, and fish. Cloth and manufactured goods or timber, minerals and acids were purchased in very small quantities. This committee is now circularizing the co-operatives of all countries to find out what quantities of tea, coffee, cocoa, sugar, wheat, rice, and other cereals are being sold by the Wholesales. These are the commodities that the International Wholesale would be most likely to handle at first. BULGARIAN CO-OPERATORS PERSECUTED In the systematic class warfare now being waged in Bulgaria, many co- operators and their societies are being made to suffer. According to reports received from abroad, September saw an organized campaign of violent repres sion on the part of the Government against the Communists. Since many of the Communists are members of co operative societies, the Government di rected its campaign against the co operatives. For two months the stores of societies coming under the ban were closed down, ostensibly for an "investi gation." Many of the officials of the "Osvobojdenie" (Workers' Co-operative Organization) were imprisoned; others less fortunate were killed. Many co operative buildings were looted and burned; the printing departments closed down. The authorities are still in possession of several of the properties of the co-operatives. NEWS AND COMMENT COAL DISTRIBUTION AT MAYNARD The United Co-operative Society of Maynard, whose Annual Report was published in CO-OPERATION for March, has made an unusually auspicious be ginning with its new coal business. For the past two years the Maynard co-operators have declared no savings returns to members, but have kept this money in the Reserve of the Society. Thus at the latter end of 1923 they found themselves with a surplus of about $23,000. The Directors decided to go into the coal business. Big gains were being made each year from the restau rant, grocery store, meat department, bakery, milk distribution, and furniture department; why not extend the busi ness to one more item of the necessities of life? Early in the autumn an agreement was made with one of the coal mining companies of Pennsylvania, and work begun on the yards in Maynard. A piece of land was purchased near the Boston and Maine Railroad tracks for $2,100, permission finally wrung from the Railroad Company to build a spur, and work started on the overhead trestle and big concrete bins. Before this over head track was completed and bins built the cost had risen to more than $10,000, $8,000 going to trestle, track and bins alone. A large scale was installed, the swampy land filled in, and other work finished so that delivery of coal started late in October. The entire plant cost $15,000. At the end of March the report of the society showed that 2,200 tons had been sold, with a substantial saving to the co-operators on each ton handled. The CO-OPERATION 105 directors of the Lehigh and Wilkes- Barre Coal Company recently declared an extra cash dividend of 80 per cent on its capital stock. Some of our co operative coal companies could do as well if they were declaring dividends on capital stock; but they are organized for another purpose, and therefore dis tribute their earnings more widely to purchasers and consequently at a lower rate. The next move of the hustling society of Finnish folks at Maynard is to be the expansion of their furniture department, which hitherto has merely carried sam ples and has ordered most of the goods purchased by members shipped direct from Boston. UNITED CO-OPERATIVE OF FITCHBURG, MASS. The United Co-operative Society of Fitchburg made a substantial gain in 1923 and continued its progressive march toward becoming the largest dis tributive business in the city. The So ciety now conducts four grocery and meat stores, a milk department, a bak ery, and a men's furnishings depart ment. In the same building with the main store there is a co-operative restau rant run by the same group of people, but under another charter. Sales for the year were as follows: Grocery store No. 1 (inc. bakery) $135,559.54 Grocery store No. 2............. 26,637.77 Grocery store No. 3..... 24,791.93 Grocery store No. 4. ............ 25,264.28 Milk Department .............. 41,494.66 Furnishings... ...... 16,777.12 Total Sales ............... $270,525.30 Proportion of gross profit and ex penses to sales was as follows: Gross Net Profit Expenses Profit Groceries. ...... 18.3% 16.1% 2.2% Furnishings..... 21.3 21.4 minus. 1 Milk. . . ........ 33.5 31.5 2. Bakery. ........ 41. 36. 5. The Fitchburg Co-operative made a gain in gross sales of $24,339 over the business of 1922, or 10 per cent. JEWISH BAKERIES IN SPRING FIELD AND WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS The Jewish Co-operative Bakeries in Springfield and Worcester, both mem bers of the Massachusetts Conference of Jewish Co-operative Bakeries, and thus affiliated with The League, have not done so well during the past year as formerly, though their business con tinues to hold up well. The sharp cut in the prices of bread due to competi tion during the year is the principal cause for this failure to make gains. The Jewish Workers Co-operative Bakery of Springfield has a paid "up capital of about $6,000 and the first three months of this year did a business of $21,344.06. The gross profit on this was a little in excess of $10,000, and as the expenses are almost $11,000, there is about $800 -loss for the period. There is a good Board of Directors and good management for the co-operative in Springfield, and with the end of labor troubles that have handicapped the work for more than a year, the society should begin to make money again be fore the year is out. The Labor League Co-operative Bakery of Worcester, with a member ship of about 200 stockholders and a paid in capital of only $3,000' is doing a little better. Sales in 1923 were $72,- 000. As more than half of the business of this bakery is retail through their own store, the operating margin is wider and they have not suffered losses. Though the books show no gains, the society gave away several thousand dol lars' worth of bread to various groups of strikers or others in need. This same factor must be considered in the appar ently poor showing of the Springfield bakery, which also made donations to worthy causes during the winter. Both bakeries have a monthly state ment drawn up and presented to their directors by a competent outside audi tor. Both are doing good educational work, principally through the distribu tion of the quarterly co-operative jour nal published by the Conference. It is 106 CO-OPEEATION interesting to note that while the Massa chusetts bakeries are meeting unusually severe competition this past year, the Jewish Co-operative Bakeries in and near New York are experiencing un usual prosperity during the past twelve or fifteen months. TWO NOTEWOETHY CON- GEESSES IN AUTUMN OF 1924 The Co-operative League is entitled to five delegates to the International Co operative Congress which is to be held at Ghent, Belgium, the first week of Sep tember. Who these delegates are to be has not yet been fully decided. The Board of Directors and Executive Board hope that one representative may go from Illinois, either one or two from Northern States League, Franklin Creamery and Co-operative Central Ex change, and two from New York or other parts of the East. The delay in selecting the delegates is due to uncer tainty of the various co-operative groups as to their ability to finance a repre sentative. Already several co-operators in various parts of the country have sig nified their intention of going to the Congress as visitors, and four or five of these have already sailed. After the return of the delegates from Europe, the societies affiliated with The Co-operative League of the U. S. A. will send their delegates to the Fourth Co operative Congress of The League, to be held in New York, November 6, 7, and 8. Previous Congresses have been held in Illinois or Ohio, and this is the first to be planned so that the many Eastern co- operators can comfortably finance dele gates. The Congresses held in the cen tral part of the country have had only one or two delegates from New England and not much more than half a dozen from New York and New Jersey. This year there should be a score from New England and twice as many from other Eastern co-operatives. THE DIRECTORS' PAGE THAT CO-OPEEATIVE TEAIN- ING SCHOOL AT MINNE APOLIS, 1924 The story of the highly successful Training School which was held in Minneapolis in September-October, 1923. was told in these pages during the winter. A large and more intensive course is already being planned by the Directors of the Northern States Co operative League for the autumn of 1924. Every experienced co-operator in the country knows that the one Big Reason which stands out above all the multi tudes of Little Reasons for the failure of Co-operation to take hold in America in a large way is the lack of co-opera tive understanding; the ignorance of the fundamental economic principles un derlying the movement, and the igno rance of the best technical methods of dealing with organization and adminis tration problems. The Northern States Co-operative League, in making a direct attack upon this weakness through the inauguration of such a full-time Train ing School, has done a bold piece of pioneering work from which the entire movement in the United States is to benefit. In the fall of this year there should be students in attendance at the Train ing School from every section of the country. The co-operatives of the country should not consider this a local affair for the benefit only of the Central States. It is the only school of its kind anywhere and its classes are available to all co-operators. The Executive Board of The League strongly urges every co-operative in the United States to adopt either one or the other of the following propositions: 1. Plan immediately to prepare one student for this School; lay aside a few dollars each month to help finance him; and communicate with either The League or the Northern States League, Box 147, Superior, Wis. CO-OPERATION 107 2. Appropriate at least $20 as a scholarship at the School so that some other co-operative can send the young clerk that they would not be able to finance without your help. Your as sociation thus becomes a donor of the School and helps to support there some student who is taking the place of the one you are not able to send. Now that there is such a Training School in the United States, our co operatives must take advantage of its facilities. Classes will be in session about seven hours daily. Courses will be given in Co-operative Principles; Co operative Accounting; Co-operative His tory and Theory; Co-operative Organi zation and Administration. The School will continue at least six weeks, perhaps eight. The young men and women who go will come into contact with co-oper ators from all parts of the country; meet with many of the national leaders; study large co-operative institutions as well as books. In short, they will be steeped in co-operative ideas and the co-operative atmosphere for fifty or sixty days, and will bring back to you multitudes of new ideas. Full particulars will be sent all so cieties at a later date. BOOK REVIEWS HANDBOOK FOE MEMBEES OF CO-OPERATIVE COMMIT TEES By F. Hall, M.A., B.Com. This book by Professor Hall, pub lished by the Co-operative Union, Man chester, meets a long felt need in Great Britain, and should be of great service to co-operative societies in the United States. The author, as Adviser of Studies to the Co-operative Union, as chairman of the Central Education Com mittee, and as an experienced executive and student, is possessed of the peculiar qualifications necessary to the author ship of such a book. This book of some 450 pages, is inspired by the fact that the Co-operative Movement is ruled by committees. Rarely is a society so small in membership as to make it pos sible to have all of its business matters submitted to the whole membership. The author realizes that not always is the most efficient person necessarily the one elected at a members' meeting. Even though he were there would still be need of a formulation and standardi zation of the work of the executives of a co-operative society. This book is ad dressed especially to the Board of Directors which is naturally the most important committee. This body which carries the business responsibility for the members must make itself efficient. It is not only charged with the duty of promoting a great social and ethical en terprise of transcendent significance, but it must so conduct the business af fairs of the society that it can compete successfully with profit-business which is free of social responsibilities and not at all concerned with ethics. The historic development of co-opera tive business is shown. The steps neces sary to establish a society upon a sound basis are described. We find chapters upon such important subjects as "Co operative Capital", "The Place of the Members", "The Place of the Commit tee", "The Committee's Administrative Work", "Trading Policy", "The Fix ing of Prices", "The Payment of Divi dends", "Working Expenses", "Co operative Finance", "The Balance Sheet", "Labor Matters" and "The Educational Committee". These few titles give one an idea of the scope of the book. On the subject of maximum dividends the author says, "The only sound prac tice is to sell at the current prices of the district or a little less (in order to exert a downward pressure on prices) and let the dividend represent the su periority of co-operative organization and management over that of private traders." There is a large part of the philosophy and practice of Co-operation contained in this sentence. It is highly significant. 108 CO-OPERATION The British societies often charge their members interest upon overdue ac counts. The author regards this as highly proper and fair. He believes that the amount of credit allowed should never exceed three-fourths of the paid- up share capital of the member. "Co-operative societies ought to be able to give as satisfactory a service as a private trader; indeed, they should be able to give a better service, for their trade is more regular and their purpose a better one." This is not only true but co-operative societies have to give as good service as their competitors or they will not succeed. This book discusses fully the rela tion of the society to its employees. It is interesting to note that of the more than 1,200 British societies only thirty of them permit employees to be elected to the board of directors. Of this situa tion, the author says that any employee who is elected to the board should be elected as a members' representative responsible to the members and not as an employees' delegate responsible to the employees. Practical information and advice which is applicable to conditions in every country are found in this book. "Where an employee purchases from the shop in which he is engaged it is ad visable to prepare and file a written statement of goods purchased, and have the goods checked and the parcel made up by another employee"—this disposes of a condition which every store must meet. Professor Hall's book should be read by all board members. If every society in the United States would purchase this book and require its board members to read it, we should witness a great im provement of efficiency among our directors. J. P. W. EDWARD OWEN GREENING, A MAKER OF CO-OPERATION By Tom Crimes Here is a book published by the Co operative Union (Manchester) which gives an excellent idea of the character of Greening. It tells about almost everything except his interest in the Co-operative Movement. And, perhaps, this omission is due to the fact that Greening was not especially interested in Co-operation. The subtitle of the book is surely not correct. Greening was not '' a maker of modern Co-operation". If he had had his way he would have made a very dif ferent kind of co-operation from the modern kind. He was a maker of the old fashioned co-operation, out of which modern Co-operation evolved, despite its makers. It was not made by any one. Greening belonged to that old school of splendid men who hungered after righteousness for labor. They wanted the workers to organize as producers to control their own shops. They hoped to see the Co-operative Movement grow by the increase of workers' controlled shops. But Co-operation did not grow that way. And men of Greening's point of view never quite became reconciled to the modern movement; nor under stood it. Greening always was closely associ ated with Co-operation. He wrote and spoke much—always well and effectively. However, the thing for which he worked and hoped was not Co-opera tion, but syndicalized trade unionism. Workers' productive industries belong in this category rather than in the catalog of Co-operation. Greening has left a large following; and so long as this old school remains large, the British Co-operative Move ment will have labor troubles, a hedge podge of Co-operative understanding among the masses of its membership, and a lack of clearcut appreciation of the meaning, possibilities, and philoso phy of Co-operation. Thanks to the many live and progressive minds of a new generation, this difficulty is being overcome. Co-operative teachers are practically undoing the damage of the old thinking, and the prejudice against the consumer is melting away in the light of the facts of Co-operative ex perience. CO-OPERATION PUBLICATIONS of THE CO-OPERATIVE LEAGUE HISTORICAL Per Copy Per 109 8. Story of Co-operation .........................................................^ .10 $0.00 7. British Co-operative Movement ............................................... .10 8.00 88. Co-operative Consumers' Moveineut in the United States....................... .00 4.OS 89. Consumers' Co-operative Societies in N. Y. State, iPublished by Consumers' League). . . . ............................................................. .10 10. A Baker and What He Baked (Belgian movement) ........................... .10 TECHNICAL, 4. How to Start and Kuu a Kochdale Co-operative Society....................... .10 4.00 5. System of Store Records and Accounts......................................... .BO 6. A Model Constitution and By-Laws for a Co-operative Society................ .05 2.66 8. Co-operative Education. Duties of Educational Committee Denned.......... .10 9. How to Start a Co-operative Wholesale....................................... .10 27. Why Co-operative Stores Fail.... ............................................. .02 l.OS 2. Co-operative Store Management................................................ .10 14. How to Start and Kun a Women's Guild....................................... .05 IB. How to Organize a District Co-operative League.............................. .10 29. Credit Union Primer (By Ham and Robinson)...................... ......... .50 32. Application Blanks for Membership in a Co-op Society...................... .6$ 43. Co-operativo Housing. . . . .................................................... .10 50. ABC of Co-operative Housing.......................................... .10 51. Model Lease for Co-operative Apartment House............................ l.OO MISCELLANEOUS 16. Model Co-op State Law........................................................ .10 17. Syllabus for Course of Lectures, with References and Bibliography.......... .25 46. Producers' Co-operative Industries............................................ .10 11. Control of Industry hy the People through the Co-operative Movement...... .10 12. Credit Union and Co-operative Store.......................................... .05 J..7& 13. The Place of Co-operation Among Other Movements........................... .15 34. Co-operative Movement (Yiddish).............................................. .02 1.2E SO. " When the Whistle Blew " (Story, by Bruce Calvert)......................... .06 35. Doing it Together..................................................... .05 41. Farmer's Co-operation (By Benson Y. Landis)................................ .15 42. Co-op Homes for Europe's Homeless.......................................... .10 62. Homes to Live In Through Co-operation....................................... .05 63. Eeal First Aid for the Farmers............................................... .05 64. Credit at Cost ................................................................. .05 ONE-PAGE LEAFLETS (One cent each; 50 cents per 100; $2.50 per 500; $4 per 1.000) (1) Principles and Aims of The Co-operative League; (18) Do You Know Why You Should Be » Co-operator; (20) Why Loyalty Is Necessary; (21) Cost and Crime of Credit; (22) A ReaJ Co-operator; (25) Resolutions Adopted by A. F. of L.; (26) Factory Workers Co-operate! r (28) Do You Know About Co-operation in Europe?; (40) Have You a Committee on Educa tion and Recreation?; (44) What Is the Co-operative Movement?: (45) Schools and Stores; (47) A Man's Right to a Job; (48) Tips to Co-operators; (49) The Way Out. MONTHLY PUBLICATIONS CO-OPERATION—(In bundle lots, $7.50 per hundred). Subscription, per year............. .$1.0® HOME CO-OPERATOR, 4 pages......................................................... .$1 per 109 INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATIVE BULLETIN (Pub. by The I. C. A.)..........per year, $1.H» BOOKS The following books are recommended as containing the best discussions of the modern Co-operative Movement. They may be ordered through The League: Bcrgengren, Roy F.: Co-operative Banking, A Credit Union Book......................... $3. OO Blanc, Elsie T.: Co-operative Movement in Russia .............................................. 2.5O Faber, Harald: Co-operation in Danish Agriculture, 1918.................................... 2.75 Flanagan, J. A.: Wholesale Co-operation in Scotland, 1920................................... 2.0O Gebhard, Hannes: Co-operation in Finland, 1916............................................. 2.00' Gide, C.: Consumers' Co-operative Societies, 1921............................................. 2.GO> Glde, C.: Consumers* Co-operative Societies, American edition and notes, 1922. Cloth, $3.00; paper bound................................................................... .90* Hall, Prof. Fred: Handbook for Members of Co-operative Committees .................... 2.00* Harris, Emerson P.: Co-operation. The Hope of the Consumer, 1018. Cloth, $2.00; paper bouud. . . . . ............................................................................... .8ft Holyoake: Rochdale Pioneers................................................................. 1.00s Howe, Fred C.: Denmark, a Co-operative Commonwealth, 1921............................. 2.00 Madams, J. P.: The Story Retold............................................................. .Bft' Nlcholson, Isa: Our Story..................................................................... .25 Potter, B.: Co-operative Movement in Great Britain........................................ 1 OB* Redfern, Percy: The Story of the C. W. S................................................... 2.Off Redfern, Percy: The Consumers' Place in Society, 1920...................................... 1.00 Smith-Gordon & Staples: Rural Reconstruction in Ireland, 1918.............................. 1.50 Smith-Gordon and O'Brien : Co-operation in Denmark................................... l.OO Smith-Gordon and O'Brien: Co-operation in Many Lands, 1920........................... 1.50 Sonnichsen, Albert. Consumers' Co-operation, 1919. Cloth bound, $1.75; paper bound..... . .75 Steen, H.: Co-operative Marketing .......................................................... . 2. W> Stolinsky, A.: The Co-operative Movement. In Yiddish....................................... l.OO Warbasse, James P.: Co-operative Democracy................................................. 8.59 Webb, B. and S.: The Consumers' Co-operative Movement, 1921.............................. 5.00 Webb. Catherine: Industrial Co-operation, 1917............................................. 1.BO Woolf. Leonard: Co-operation and the Future of Industry.................................... l.oo Woolf, L.: Socialism and Co-operation............................................... . . j EQ "The Co-operative Consumer" and "Co-operation," III (1917), VI (1920), VII (1921), VIII (1922). .... ............................................................................... 1.25 Transactions of Second American Co-operative Congress, 1920.................................. l 00- Transactions of Third American Co-operative Congress, 1922.............................. i.oo> The People's Year Book, 1924. Cloth, $1; paper bound...................................' 6©> (Ten cents postage should be added for books which cost more than $2.00, and five cents fos- the smaller books.) THE CO-OPERATIVE LEAGUE (Member of The International Co-operative Alliance) 167 West 12th Street, New York An educational organization for teaching the history, principles, methods and aims of tk« Co-operative Movement and for the promotion of Co-operation In the United States. Join The League and thus help promote the educational work of the Co-operative Movement. Subscribe fo* the Monthly Magazine and keep in touch with the Movement. Enclosed find $......... for Subscription for CO-OPERATION, $1.00. Membership in The LEAGUE, $1.00. Name... Address. Co-operative Central Exchange Wholesale Grocers and Jobbers, Bakers We supply goods to Co-operative Societies ONIiY. We are owned and controlled by Co operative Societies. We are organized to enable Co-operative Societies to do collectively what they cannot do individually. Co-operative Central Exchange Offices, Warehouses and Plant: Winter Street and Ogden Ave., SUPERIOR, WIS. Co-operators' !Ltd. Mutual Fire Insurance Co. Is now writing insurance in State of Wisconsin THE PRODUCER Issued Monthly Price 3d. If you want to keep in touch with business, organization, administrative affairs, and problems of tlie British Co-operative Movement, read THE PRODUCER. Published by Co-operative Wholesale Soci