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 XI January — December 1 925 CO-OPERATIVE LEAGUE OF U. S. A. 167 West 12th Street, New York City 1925 INDEX A. and P. Stores Make Money, Do?________ A. F. of L. Adopting Marxism, Is the?________ Adamston, W. Va. Co-operative.._________ Anarchist on "Why Co-operation Is Not Enough" Animals, Co-operative Book ____.____.__...— Arkansas, Banking Practice In__.______...... Auditing Bureau ______________.___.... " Committee Report _________........ Audit, Start the Neve Year with a Co-operative...... Australia's Marketing Act _________._......_. Austria, Co-operation Mixed with Politics, in__... Automobile Insurance (Co-operative) ......__.__.._ __....... 145 .................. 206 ....._.... 75 47 ................. 97 25 ...15, 38, 57 52 15 185 69 ....... 133 B Bakery, Co-operative ......____...._.............._.........._.................................................62, 73, 132, 141, 143, 152, 153 Baking of the Daily Loaf__________.__.____________...._______________ 142 Balch, Emily Greene________....__.__....._......_......____._________.__._____ 208 Baldwin, Roger N. __________.______..____________...______________ 168 Bank, Co-operative Savings__.__________.____.____...........__._._....________._ 93 Banking, Legislation, Co-operative____._____._____.__________.___.._____24, 25 Banking Laws, Co-operative _____._____.___._._______________._______ 144 Banking, Thoughts on ______.____._____________.__________________ 27 Banks, Co-operative, How to Incorporate_______.__________......____________ 26 Barnacles on Ship of State.__._______________________________________ 125 Base Ingratitude __...__.___.__.__......__.____._____.________,__....._.____ 113 Bauer, Herr, of Munich, visits N. Y.________________________________......_ 114 Beardstown, 111. ____________._._____......_._......_......________.________._ 113 Bedford Barrow Co-operative Apartments__.__.........._____._______.________.__ 3 Beers, Lorna Doone ______.________._____._._______.___...______..... __ 236 Belgium, Medical Co-operation, in.....______________________________._____ 106 Bergengren, Roy F. _.__________.__._...-_____......_...........__ _____________ 162 Birth Control, Menace of___________.______.___.________________.__...... 125 Blairsville, Pa. __._..................._........._...........__...................................____......_........______..___...... 154 Book Reviews ________.........__....__.._..__...................................___......97, 117, 137, 196, 216, 235 Bread Costs, What________........____________............__.............___.__.__.__.____ 138 British Canadian Co-operative Society ______.___.__._____._____......______81, 82 " Co-operative Bakeries ____________________._____.__..........._____.._ 132 " Co-operative Movement Gains ______________......__._.__._......___...._... 211 " Labor Movement ___________.___________.....___.________._____...... 131 Brockton, Co-operative Bakery ________._._______......__________________ 73 Brookhart, S. W. ________________...__..__.__.___.____._____.________. 24 Brotherhood of the Commonwealth_________________......_......_____.___......___ 212 Browder, Earl L. ____.__________.________....__.__.__________._____ 90 Butcher Shop Operation __________________________________.__._._.__ 95 Cafeterias, Co-operative ____._______ Cal and the Farmers_.__._____.____. Can Labor Get All the Profits and Win_____ Can We End Economic Warfare....._.____.. Canada, Co-operative Medical Service, in... JAN 17'48 Canadian Co-operative Society, Nova Scotia_____ Capitalist Attitude Toward Co-operation..... Capitalist Versus Co-operative Dividends_. Capitalists Out-maneuver Workers ____.... Carver, T. N. ______..__.____...................... Central Exchange, Superior, Wis. ___.__ " Bakery .......... Schools _______ Central States Co-operative Wholesale... Cherry Valley, Pa. _.._____ .........____33, 116 .....________ 141 ........__.._.......... 156 .............................36, 115 ........153, 194 INDEX Christmas Gifts, Distribute to Your Patrons..........___.________.............__.______...._-- 237 City Co-operative Dairy, Cleveland_......_..__..._________________.___....__-__-__ 34 Cleveland City Co-operative Dairy_____.___________...____.__...____..........—. 34 Classes, Two Developing __._.___....._.........._....__.____...._......_ _......__....._.............._ 223 Cloquet, Minn. ....................——........._...._.............-..............——....—......—__....................._...........................................93, 195 Coal, Co-operative Co., Pittsfield, Mass______.._______._________________•___- 134 Commonwealth Mutual Savings Bank......_______._._.__....____—.-_-—__-—__ 93 Communist on "Why Co-operation Is Not Enough"-...._____________________-__ 90 Competition in This Machine Age__._......__......._______ ._._____ __..____———— 96 Compulsory Co-operation _____........___......__._...._____—____•__......... ___............ 185 " Patronage ____________.__.___________._.__.__.._—— 137 Conference of Illinois Societies ....____._.....__......_____............._.......— —.......— ——.————36, 173 " in Minn. ...................................................__....._____.................—........__..__.......__..............96, 155 Consumers Co-operative Movement in Illinois____________.______-.—_....—.—....148, 170 " Co-operative Services _...._.............._......__......—.......__....__....—.....92, 173, 201, 202, 236 Co-operating to Exploit the Consumer........—.—...........__....__..__._...___...—.........__.............—— 166 Co-operation and the Working Class___.___.__.___-_________—__————— 165 " Recommended to Congress _....____.._-___._ -___________-__•••••- 13 " Wins Another Round ......._._.__.__...__.__———.-.........—....________........_.- 192 Co-operative and Taxation of Land Values......_______________..__...——_—————— 231 " Automobile Insurance _......__......________......_______———..—.————— 232 " Banking _____...__............__..__.._____.____—_____... __.--.—___24, 31 " Buys a City __________....____.....____.__.__.....__..________— 35 " Brands of Groceries .______._____—__._..—._____-__-_.___.__-_ 233 " City ________._ __....__.__________._____.____________ 35 " Education and State Aid__._..............._.....__...__.—...-..___.........—.......__.................. 12 Housing __..___._......_—............__...._.___._——____.....___.......46, 64, 117 Principle Being Recognized by the Government_._________________.- 166 Principle Opposed __.__....___...___._____._.___.____-___-__•-— 84 Restaurants _......___._____......___. ____.___.____-_____-__ 201 Tea, Coffee and Publicity............__.____..........__...........—.............——.....__.......................... 115 Training School ............__.........._____......____...___32, 102, 156, 175, 221, 222, 233 Co-operator on "Why Co-operation Is Enough"._____._____________________—— 226 Co-operators' Day _____.__________...__._-__________•_______-____-____96, 111 Corporations, Do Large, Govern this Country ?____________.-_____._____.... ——- 67 Correspondence File ________._____._______________.__.___<__98, 217, 237 Credit at Cost for the People_____________.______________..._.__..............——.—— 13 Unions ______ ____________—_._________.__-_162, 213 Union and Co-operative Business____—________......__.______..__... ___.... 3 " Extension Bureau __._.__........._____.._____..............__._........._____..13, 162 " of Houston Texas _.______.___.____.___________.____.__ 134 " Progress ............__._______......______.________._____________ 193 Union, West End, Boston ___....____..........._............__..............____...... ____..........161, 162 Customer Owners ...-....-.......................-...--.-..-.-..........--.^^ 45 D Delivery Costs ..............___...........__..__...__..........................._____................___..________....__........ 195 Dennison, Ohio _______.._ ____. .__———————————>-.—.....—•—————————•———•— 154 Development of Co-operative League ____......___..___________._-__-_____...._ 17 " of Farmers' Business Organizations__.__ _._____.......__—__..—..__...... 118 Dillonvale, Ohio (Banking) ________...._ __.——— — ———.—————— —————————• 27 District Leagues ............___.......__..____......._______...-.-36, 72, 76, 96, 116, 155, 174, 214, 233 Director's Page __...__.....__...........___......._,..—..__.—...15, 38, 57, 95, 115, 135, 195, 215, 234 Dudley Diamond, The........................_............................____..-.....................__....__..........................____.....__ 105 Dunn, Fred _______.__—-___•____•____—______•_____•_•__• 117 Eastern States Co-operative League __.........______._____...____._....._______—.72, 214 11 u Farmers Exchange __.______._....___._._..______..........._.__.__...__ 133 Economic Warfare, Can We End This......_.__..________._______. —______—— 23 Educational Program ......__________.__________.___.___.__..._......__.——— 197 Electricity, Capture of...____________....—,-.__......____.........._______................__.__... 112 Electrification of Czecho-Slovakia __.____......____._____...__..—________—— 152 Employee, Do You Need a Co-operative....____........__.__..__......______.__—__— — 135 Employees' Association at S. S. Marie_.__..... ___.___....______.._...______———— 14 English Co-operative Tea in the U. S..._.....__.....___.._....................__.........._....._,_.............——— 115 INDEX PAGE Fable, A _____.________.__.___............—.._______.__ __ ______....____ 229 Failures, Causes of ______......._________._.__.__..____........______...... 56 Fake Co-operative, One More Gone_________..__..__.__..__..__..__._..._.__._. 232 Fancy Housing Schemes _____________.____.__.____. ___ _. 46 Farmer Must Finance Himself.......___......__.__.__._.__._......__.___.____.________ 172 Farmers Are Consumers, Where_.____._ ___ ____....._..... __._........ _._._____ 210 " As Consumers ______._..______._.__.________.__._____________ 133 " Co-operate to Exploit the Consumer, Do ?________..___.____________ 228 Farmers' Co-operation _____.—....____._._.__..____.__._...... .__.......... ___ 4 " Co-operative Exchange ._______________.____.________44, 122, 133, 173 Farmers, Drifting Along with the.___.___._.____......_._.....__.____..__._.....__ 66 Farmers in Nebraska —. _.____.__._._.._.__._.____.________44, 91, 98, 122, 173 " Mutual Life Insurance in U. S.___.________._.___...._._____......___._... 196 " Union Co-operative Ass'n, Clarkson, Neb..__.__________.__._.____.___ 121 Farmington, 111. .________.__._____________._.__.___ ...........__,__._____..... 182 Federal Trade Commission on Co-operation____.__.__.__......____________.___ 11 Financial Report of The Co-operative League......__......._......._..............._..__...18, 52, 77, 177, 238 Finland, Co-operative Progress in________._......_.............____...........__.____... ......____6, 191 Finnish Co-operative Trading Ass'n. ____________........__.......__...________._62, 194 " Co-operation in Central Exchange......_.__.____.__._.........____............_......___..__ 116 " K. K. and Communism_.____________.______________________ 58 Fitchburg, Mass. Co-operative______._____......_.__._______._____________ 94 Forward from the Land._______.__......__.._______________________....__. 126 Franklin Creamery ____________.__._._______._._______.__._________ 42 " " Educational Committee .....—...__.____.___..______________14, 156 Free Acres, N. J.__..................__.___._______......____.__..____.________.____ 188 Furniture Insurance, Co-operative....__._......._.....______......_....._______.__________ 152 Furniture, Co-operative, on the Installment Plan......__.__________._.__.___......__ 111 Furnishings and Hardware, Book Review..___..........___._._____.__.__________ 23 5 Future, Do You Buy on?______......_.._______._..__._____________.__,____ 234 G Garage, Co-operative _.______.__.__......__.___.________......_.....__.______ 65 Gardner, Mass. __________________________.__._____..___.________ 154 German Co-operative Movement________._______.._______...........______.___.... 114 Ghent Congress __________......._........________.._____.......____________.17, 118 Goss, A. S. ......__________._____ __________._____________________ 4 Government Aid Resented ____.____....______.________________________ 23 " Ownership or What?.....______________.__.__.____.___.________ 104 Grange Marketing Plan______._________.____________._________._._ 5 Greystone, R. I. ____________.__....._..._______._.__.__..________,____ 152 Groceries, Co-operative Brands of__._________.___._.__________________ 233 H Hall, Bolton _______________.__._......_____.___.___________________ 188 Hamburg Co-operative Society_._.__.._._______.__._......______........__._____ 134 Health Service at Franklin Creamery.......—...__....____.___...________.....__._......____ 42 Heating and Lighting the Store___.__.________._._..._.__....___.______..__ 215 Herron, L. S. _____________________.__.______.. ......_ 91 Hillsboro, 111. _________..._________________......................................_.__.________ 153 Hoan, Daniel W. _________.__._______ _________, ______________ 68 Hogue, Jas. E. ________________._______ __ ______ ______ 25 Home Educational Meetings in Minneapolis_______.____._......_______________ 156 Homes and Children First.______._____._______________ _ __,_____............. 22 Housing, Co-operative _.___._..................________.__..............._____3, 46, 64, 117, 194, 213 Hudson Guild Store......__.....____._____......__.__________.__._.____._____ 75 Hungary, Co-operative Movement in___...___________....__.____.________98, 128 INDEX India, Co-operative Education in... Indian Orchard, Mass. __.___ Industry for Service_________ Ingalls, R. ____.___............ Illinois Co-operative Movement______ Insurance, Automobile Co-operative ... " Co-operative, in Sweden _ International Co-operative Alliance 30th Anniversary... Wholesale Society......... " Co-operators' Day _______._. " Summer School ______________ Intoxicants, Non Profit Sale of__.___.__-__ Italy, Co-operation in____......__._....._.__... PACE .... 197 ................................................... 94 ".__..«__.__.„"__-._ 26 ...36, 148, 170, 173, 174 ..........__.. 133 ...__.__.____.... 190 ...__ 190 230 ......................96, 111 ____112, 231 ............................ 225 ..__.....__ 86 INDEX N Names of Co-operative Workers in League Office............... National Co-operative Wholesale Federation....__............. Nebraska Farmers Stand Fast.......__._____....... Neligh, Nebraska Farmers' Co-operative Store New Year, The __........__............................................................................. Northern States Co-operative League...._____ Norway, Co-operation Gaining in_...._____ Norwood, Mass. .______________ PACK .__......._....... _... _..__ 135 ___.....__....__............ 9 .........__....__....... 44 __.............___......___....... 1 ...37, 76, 77, 102, 156, 222, 233 _______._...__......___ 211 _.73, 133, 194 O One More Fake Co-operative Gone.__ Operating Expenses in Grocery Stores..... Operation of Butcher Shops___.__..... 232 196 95 Japanese Co-operative Movement ____. Jewish Workers Bakery of Springfield _ " Worcester ___ Karolyi, Michael . Kelly, Harry ___ Killing Miners ..... K ..114, 230 ............. 35 .. 153 ._.... 128 47 ............. 66 Labor Get All the Profits and Win? Can. " Unions __.__ ..........______.._... Land Co-operation _____ 2 2 188 Landis, Benson Y. .........................................._...._........................__....____..........__...____-____.........137, 1S7 Lay of Our Co-operative Cafeteria (Poem)__......__.__.__.____..................——..................———— 93 League, Development of .....___......______——————————————••••—————•—•——.......... — 17 " Reports ____............_..........._..............__.-__...._--___........_——......_______! 6, 52, 77, 177 Letters from Abroad, J. P. Warbasse............__..__..__.._........6, 28, 69, 86, 106, 128, 167, 186, 207 Life Insurance, Co-operative__..........._......—-..———_.--...——.—————...........——————————— 154 London Co-operative Society_____..............—.....—.....—— ——......— —•-.....—............... .................—..............— 113 Long, Cedric ......__.._..________3, 23, 27, 46, 67, 145, 166, 184, 185, 205, 206, 224, 225, 226 M McCarthy, C. ___________.______........ Managers, List of ____._____.__..___-___ Managing the Manager __________-———- Marsh, Benjamin C. ____.........__...—__...——- Maynard Co-operative Society Report____— Medical Clinic at Franklin Creamery...--......-....--_ " Service, Co-operative, in Canada_____ " Service in Brussels__..._.____......_—— Milford, N. H. ___........______.__...___.__. Milk, Co-operative __.__......_........_..__—— Millers' Trust Defeated in Sweden_.____...._ Miners, Killing .__________._..__.—._—_— Miners of Nova Scotia._____.._.......__.....——••••• Miners' Store, Hillsboro, 111______.......................... Minn. Co-operative Societies Conference__......—. " Farmers Ship Wheat to British C. W. S... Monopoly in Bread and Milk___..—.————............ ............. 123 __ 156 .__ 21 ........— 130 ......74, 214 ......_ 42 .......... 112 106 .....35, 155 .........34, 84 ............. 192 ,.....—. 66 82 .—..... 153 -96, 155 ............ 154 _ 205 Pacifist on "Why Co-operation is Not Enough".......____-_________.__....__....._____ 208 Patronage Makes Dividends._____._.__._.„_...._....._..........____.....___.._._____.___ 233 Pension Plan ___.________._......________ ...._.__..._ . . 212 " Scheme for Employees__.____________._.____......_......_......__..._.......____ 191 People's Corporation—Book Review......___......._..__._____________.________....... 118 Photographs _.............________..___........._.............41, 61, 81, 101, 121, 141, 161, 181, 201, 221 Picnic, Co-operative, Minn. Managers____...___._________________________ 213 Political Commissions ___..______________.............________________.______ 125 Popular Ownership _........._______..._._____._....__.._._______ ______H4) 216 "Prairie Fires": Book Review___________.__..___._.__._._..._......_________...___ 236 Press Owned by Readers.___.___________......________........__._...____......___ 204 Production, Co-operative __.............___.___.._.__,__.__._.......____.._________133, 189 Producers and Consumers, Unite!......__........__............__...............__.____......____._.....___ 84 " Co-operation in Great Britain__._....._______........ ...____.......__._._._.__ 84 "Produktion" ._____.___._.......................____..___.__._._........._.................._................__............___...... 134 Promotion Methods Used on Children.._______.__________.___.._,._____.____ 206 Publications, New League______.__....._......___.__...........__________......_ __._.... 97 Questions to Directors_. Q R 135 Radicalism, New Moves to Arrest._____..___________________.___.____.__ 224 Radical Labor Leaders on Co-operation__..........___._____.____________.__..__ 131 Receivership for Producers and Consumers Bank__.____.__......__..__._......__....____ 131 Reeve, Sidney _____..._________......__.__.____ __.. _, ___.......____....._.. 108 Religious View on "Why Co-operation is Not Enough"......________.___..______..... 187 Rent Bill Like This? Why Isn't Your........................................_....................._....................................................................... 3 Resolution re Executives Not Holding Political Office____________________.____ 106 Restaurants: Co-operative ______.__._..........__.....___......__._.__..........._......__ ...._ 202 Richberg, Donald _________._____.__________._______ 229 Riverview Co-operative Apartments ___________________________ ____ 64 Russia and Conflict Between Co-operation and Stateism.—....._._______________._.28, 48 Russia, Co-operation in ......._..___......______.___.....___.__......__.__.___.____..28, 189 Sarteel Statue ____.__........................___...__..............__..................__....._...............158, 176, 178, 198, 218 Sault Ste Marie Co-operative Association___..___.__........__________________14, 94 Schools, Co-operative _....___....____._....._____.....___......„„....... .34, 112, 130, 231 " Co-operative Training .............................._......._.„.—.„„..........._.............................102, 156^ 175^ 222, 233 Secretary's Report of Activities of Co-operative League__.......—_....__......__._.__......_...... 16 Seven Strides Onward___...._ . 62 Shilling, W F. ....................................___....................._—.„.„..............._..................„„...................—......I—____„!__ 106 Single Taxer on "Why Co-operation Is Not Enough"__...__________...__.__..____ 130 Social Aspects of Farmers Marketing__.__._...____....—_._......_._____._________ 137 " Evolutionist on "Why Co-operation Is Not Enough"_____.__________........._.... 108 INDEX Socialist on "Why Co-operation Is Not Enough"... Springfield, Mass., Co-operative Bakery_............_..... Start New Year with Co-operative Audit_. Staunton, 111. __.________________ Stock Turn, Do You Get?__....._____.......... Stone, ^Varren S. _______._____>___. Subscription Getters ____......____.____.... Super City ______.....____________ Sweden, Co-operation in ___._........._____._......... Switzerland, A Little Journey Into (J. P. W.)___.. Syndicalist on "Why Co-operation Is Not Enough"...... .......... 68 ...35, 152 . 15 __ 155 __ 229 __ 146 __ 176 ....... 118 ....... 190 ....... 186 ....... 168 Taxation, Co-operative and Land Values__...__... Telephone Sales _____........__.._.......................................... Telling the Farmers What They Already Know- Things We Value Most_________...____........... Thompson, Huston ______________——.—— Trade Unions of the World._______......_——. Union Sidelights (J. P. W.)__..........__...... Training School Students ......___........_.....__...——. " School, Co-operative _______.._....._.... Treasurer's Report, Co-operative League___.......... Two Classes Developing._____.—.—————.——— 231 115 _ 127 ___.................. 22 . ................. 172 .........._.................__..___ 127 .................... __...............__...... 167 ..__.............._....._.....101, 221 ...32, 102, 156, 175, 222, 233 ...1...11..L1........J___........... 223 U United Co-operative Society, Maynard, Mass......... " States of America________...._............ Utica, N. Y., Bakery and Store.______....._..... _____74, 214 .__.. ___ 207 ..__74, 133, 194 Valgren, Victor N... Victoria, Kansas ____. Villa Grove, 111__..........._... __ 196 .......... 154 ......... 194 W Wage-worker, What is the Place of the___________—————— Wages in Europe and America____________——————————— Wall Street to Main Street.__...........——————————————————--- Warbasse, J. P...... ...............___.........._1, 2, 6, 21, 22, 28, 44, 45, 46, 106, 125, 126, 127, 128, 145, Ward, Gordon H. ______......................... Warne, C. E......._..........._..__............__... Waukegan Society to Conduct School... What Killed the Co-operatives?. Why Co-operation Is Not Enough.....____....._46, 47, 68, 90, 108, Who Are Co-operators?.____________..........——•—••••••———————• Wholesale Federation ___________..........._.............——.———————• Wholesaling, Co-operative _______._.___........__-_———.——— Women in Japanese Co-operative Movement......__.............———.——.......... Women's Electrical Association, England————————————————— " Guilds in Illinois__.....___._......_........................................_—— Worcester, Mass., Jewish Bakery_______...._......_——............................. Workmen's Circle on Co-operation...____......____——————————— 48, 165, 66, 69, 84, 167, 186, 86, 204, __ 191 __ 224 113 104, 105, 207, 223 ........... 229 148, 170 ____ 193 ...........................___.___.... 56 130, 146, 168, 187, 208, 236 .___.._............__...___ 184 ".......................____.._.......... 173 .... .. __ 114 . ...__........_____ 112 ...................__..___..__........ 96 ______________ 153 _______.._______ 152 X Xmas Gifts, Distribute to Your Patrons....... ......... 237 Year Book, Co-operative 37 (MOTION A magazine to spread the knowledge of the Co-operative Movement, whereby the people, in voluntary 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, December 19, 1917, at the Post Office at Km- York, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Price gl.OO a year. VOL. XI, No. 1 JANUARY, 1925 10 CENTS Vital Issues \Ll The New Year JANUARY, 1925! The tumult in politics has ceased. The parades, prophesies, promises and shouting are done. As the dust settles there remain upon the field of contest the two eternal classes of political voters: the re joicing victors and the dissatisfied van quished. Each thinks it has saved the country, or has failed to save the country, as the case may be. Each is probably as wrong as the other. The country is not saved or lost by poli ticians. The number of people who think it is not is increasing. Only about half of the voters voted at the last presidential election. In some states more than ninety per cent of the voters did not vote. They plowed their fields and cast corn to the chickens instead of votes. After all, per haps, they realized that that was more im portant. The politicians' pledges will not be kept; but the farmers' plowed fields will fulfill their promises. They will yield grain; and the chickens, eggs. And by these we live. In the field of Co-operation the New Year begins fair and clear. We have no political contests to rend us in twain. "We welcome to our society the politically vic torious and the vanquished. We know no classes. This is possible because: we are not concerned with any purpose to rule men; we are only concerned with the administra tion of things. This is the great principle of Co-operation. We are learning how to carry on busi ness for purposes of service. It is just the same sort of business that other people have learned to carry on for purposes of their own private profits. We are training our selves in distribution, production, adminis tration. It all means work; but we are learning. Most people would rather shout and parade and make speeches and vote for somebody who is mighty in hopes and promises; and then forget it all until the next time. But we have to be eternally at it. Patiently learning how to make our accounts balance, putting goods on the shelves; reducing costs while doing justice to labor, and teaching people how to help themselves. These are our endless but not thankless tasks. This New Year finds us farther ahead than we were a year ago. As we look back the progress can be clearly seen. We can check it up and measure it by actual figures. The executive staff of The Co-opreative League believe in Co-operation. It is a sound and winning principle. We send greetings to our fellow Co-operators who are working for this movement and giving it their best support in the building of a better world. We know the goal toward which we are moving. "Forward and Together!" CO-OPERATION CO-OPERATION Can Labor Get All the Profits and Win TAKE a look over the results of the increase of wages in the pivotal in dustries. What has happened ? When labor has gotten more wages, prices have been put up higher. Read the report of the U. S. War Labor Board on "The Relation Between Better Wages and the Increased Cost of Living." When labor got an increase of 16% in the sugar industry, the price of sugar was per manently increased more than 40%—at first it was jumped up over 300%. The coal companies in 1909, when they increased wages, increased prices four times more. In 1905, the cost of labor on a pair of shoes was 60 cents. Fifteen years later the labor cost was $1.02. That means that during this time labor got an increase of 60%, but the price of shoes to the consumer increased 200%. It is a pretty general rule that when the industry has to pay an increase of wages, it adds that increase to the price of the com modity, and then, to be on the safe side and to provide for any unexpected contin gencies in the future, it adds some more. How many of us have been canny enough to observe that the more labor at tempts to cut into the profits and take them for itself in the form of larger wages and shorter hours the bigger the profits become ? How many people have realized that in stead of reducing the profits of the em ployer, the demands of Trade Unionism result in increasing the profits of the em ployer ? Do you recall the motto of the Indus trial Unionist?—"Strike; get an increase of wages; rest; then strike again." Many trade unionists believed that this was the way to win: to keep on striking and de manding until the workers finally have got ten all of the profits. Then the industry would fall into their hands like a ripe apple. They said: "When labor takes all of the profits, labor will then take charge of the business. When labor is at last in control, the man who was once a capitalist or an employer will have to join the ranks of labor. He will have to go to work himself, if he wants to make a living, for there will be no other way!" But what are the facts? The more wages the workers have gotten in response to their demands or their strikes the more profits the employers have made. Look at the surplus wealth in interest and dividend which have been created by our industries in these days of high wages. Low wages could never have created such profits. Is the worker "getting control of the business?" Is the employer "joining the ranks of labor in order to make a living?" He surely is not. Industrial unionists may answer, "We have not had enough strikes, we have not gotten enough in wages yet." But the facts stand out—more wages; higher prices; more profits! Is there anyone who still claims this is the way to put the employer out of business? Is there anyone who still thinks that this is the way to supplant the capitalist ? Of course we are for labor organizing. Labor should organize for the same reason that the capitalist organizes—for protection and for solidarity. But neither the capitalist, organizing to get more profits, nor the worker, organizing to get more wages, will change the present industrial system. Neither is offering a fundamental plan of constructive progres sive action. Before we can have a plan we must have a motive, a motive that is as sound as it is human. The best motive we know for the reorganization of industry is to have indus try run in the interest of all the people. At present it is run in the interest of the own ers. Some people would have it run in the interest of the workers in the industry. We believe neither of these are sound. And they are not human either. They leave too many of us out of the picture, the women home-makers, the old folk, the non-indus trial workers. They all need to be included. These people are all consumers. To run industry for service is a sound motive. To run the industrial system in the interest of the consumers, this is a mo tive that excludes none. It is human. Con sumers' Co-operation is the plan that can and does put into effect service for all rather than profit for the privileged. This is the program for a New Civilization. J. P. W. The Credit Union and Co-operative Business have advocated for many years that the Credit Union be used more as an aid to the co-operative store. Recent experiences of a few Credit Unions in Massachusetts and New York confirm our belief that this is sound doctrine. In New York we have a Credit Union which (contrary to the customary rules of the Banking Department) is permitted by its charter to make loans to co-operative associations. One of the newer housing associations has just become a member of this Credit Union. When a person comes along wishing to join this housing associa tion, but is unable to put down the full amount of money required for the posses sion of an apartment, the association can either urge that he himself join the credit union and borrow the money or it can borrow the money itself and make the loan to him. This arrangement between the credit union and the housing association benefits the individual wanting a home, the housing association wanting members, and the credit union in search of borrowers for its idle capital. In Massachusetts the Jewish co-operators have several credit unions which are doing valiant service for the co-operative bakeries. In one city we found that a private baker was causing many defections in the ranks of the co-operative baker's membership. But the same men who are directing the policies of the bakery are also running a very popular credit union. When the folks who are disloyal to their own bakery apply for a loan from the credit union they find themselves in an anomolous situation, and the Credit Committee of the Credit Union are in a good position to reason with them and show them the folly of deserting one of their own co-operative enterprises and at the same time coming to another for help. In another Massachusetts city the bakery co-operators formed a credit union and within a year had enough capital on hand to purchase a large building on the main street of the city. This building is bringing in a good revenue to the group and can well be used as a good distributing center for the bakery products. Incidentally, we find that co-operators in many parts of the country who have no credit union legislation enabling them to start an orthodox credit union bank are resorting to other forms of incorporation and in some cases finding more freedom than we, in New York for instance, have under our regular credit union charters. The development of co-operative credit and co-operative banking in the United States depends not so much upon proper enabling legislation as upon good co-opera tors determined to find the way to start such institutions. When enough people want co-operative credit we shall have it, regardless of the condition of the banking laws. Why Isn't Your Rent Bill Like This? rent statements openly arrived at are not in favor with the landlords of the United States. The rent bills handed out to the tenants are the private concoc tions of the real estate owners, and no amount of pleading, cajoling or threatening by the hapless householders will induce these estimable gentlemen to produce the chemical analysis of the brew they force their helpless victims to gulp down. The following is the bill sent each month to the tenants of the Bedford-Barrow Co operative Apartments, owned by the Con sumers' Co-operative Housing Association of New York. It tells the member of the co-operative everything he wants to know about the use to which his money is being put, and it is a challenge to the private owners of apartment houses in the city which will make these profiteers squirm. MR. JAMES COUGHLIN, 68 Barrow Street, New York City. BEDFORD BARROW CO-OPERATIVE APARTMENTS Monthly Charges for December, 1924 Operating Expenses: Janitor ..................... $2.05 Insurance ................... .30 Taxes (real estate and water) 6.19 Coal ....................... 3.43 Lighting (halls) ............. .89 Repairs ..................... .89 Interest, 1st Mortgage. ....... 5.95 Amortization, 1st Mortgage... 1.76 Depreciation Fund ........... 5.59 Interest, 2nd and 3rd Mort.. . . 5.97 Interest on stock ............ 4.65 Management and miscellaneous 3.05 ———— $40.72 Retirement of Mortgages: (Credited to stock account)... 11.28 Total Charge $52.00 The Consumers' Co-operative Housing Association is using facsimiles of this state- CO-OPERATION ment for publicity purposes, and before it has gone very far it is going to set a great many of the unfortunate tenants in the metropolitan area thinking and figuring on rental problems as they have never thought and figured before. Apartments of the same size as this one and located in the same neighborhood are being rented out by private landlords at $100 per month and upward. And they are not getting back any credit in the form of additional stock for the amount they con tributed each month to the retirement of the landlord's mortgages! The thirty families that have already moved into these houses since they were re novated are now planning for collective buying of several of the essentials which are sold at a good margin of profit, such as cord wood for fireplaces, electric bulbs and fixtures, ice, milk and cream, apples and other perishable fruits; they are consider ing the fitting out of a kitchen in the base ment where food may be prepared and sent hot in the dumbwaiters up to the apart ments where the occupants are out all day and have no opportunity to do their own cooking; and they are arranging for a play ground on the roof and a large room in the basement for the use of amateur carpenters; a common sewing room for the women, magazine clubs and other co-operative features. The Association is now planning its second housing development over in Brook lyn Heights, just across the East River. Co-operation Among the Farmers Address Delivered at the Fourth Co-operative Congress By ALBERT S. Goss Master, Washington State Grange; Formerly Manager, State Grange Wholesale TN discussing Co-operation among the *- farmers we must remember that farm ers are not all members of co-operative associations, and all those who belong to co-operative associations are not all co- operators. The percentage of real co-opera tors is small. Nevertheless I believe that there are more farmers interested in Co operation than any other single class. We have 10,000 agricultural co-operative organ izations in America to-day. Some of them have a membership as high as 10,000. They call themselves "co-operative" although the members know but little about it. There are two reasons why we have more farmers than any other class in the co-operative movement. First, the average farmer has more opportunity to think about these problems. He arrives at the conclu sion that it is a lot better to work with his neighbor and organize with his neighbor than to work against him. When he has come to that conclusion, he is a long step forward. Secondly, we farmers just have to do it. We have been forced to it. Dis honesty, poor service, and high prices have all combined to force the farmers into the co-operative movement. Let me illustrate. The last figures from the Department of Agriculture stated that there is a thirty-five million farm popula tion and they raised in the year seven and a half billion dollars worth of crops. They sold this to the middleman for nine billion dollars. The latter sold it to the consumers for twenty-two and a half billion dollars. In other words nineteen million people, the traders, got twice as much for selling as thirty-five million farmers received who raised the crops. Do you see why we have to get into the business for ourselves ? How about the investment? The middleman didn't have money invested. The farmer who raises his crop sometimes has money invested for four years. The last figures from the Department of Agriculture tell us that farmers in America had seventy- eight billions invested in agriculture. This is more than the banks, railroads, manu facturing enterprises and all the mines of America combined. We say we haven't been getting our fair share. During the last four years, the mortgage indebtedness has increased over three hun dred per cent; two million farmers have left the farms; and 26.7 per cent of the American farmers have either lost their farms or are hanging on with their credit- CO-OPERATION ors on their necks. That is another reason why we have been forced into the co operative movement. These two million farmers have not left because they wanted shorter hours nor were they lured by the tinsel of the city. The farmer loves his daily life, he loves the soil, he loves his tasks. They left because they couldn't meet their bills on the farms, despite the sixteen or eighteen hours work a day. That is the history of the American farmer in the four years just passed. The farmer's problems could be solved if he could get a fair price for what he raises. When we realized that the middle man gets twice as much as the farmer who raises the product, we cast around and tried to find out where the remedy lay. A farmer sees that there is a shortage of some commodity in Maine and he ships a carload of that product to Maine, and farmers from everywhere begin to ship to Maine. The result is that enough stuff goes to Maine to last them for seventeen years, and of course the price falls. You can't dump down all your crops. You cannot foresee how much you will get. The system at present available is that of the middle man who takes it off our hands, stores it, and sells it where he can get the most money for it. I want to tell you about the deflation of 1920. An instance will serve to illustrate. A family of farmers, father, mother, and three children, came from Montana and found a spot in Washington which they thought was heaven. They all worked until the father finally got on his feet sufficiently to be able to buy the farm on mortgage. The bank through which things were nego tiated was a little bank in the community. The notes were deposited in the Federal Reserve Bank. The crash came in Septem ber. Prices were cut in half, and by Octo ber there was nothing left because the farmers lost everything. This little family lost everything. They were starved off their place because there was no legitimate credit. The farmers could not buy any of the necessities of life and the vicious circle of that time went round and round. It started when the Federal Reserve Bank deflated the farmer. You in the city are interested in us because we farmers are your buyers. I want to read to you Mr. Swing's state ment in connection with this: Mr. Swing on May 23, 1922, said: "I cannot understand how men can continue to deny that the deflation policy adopted by the Federal Reserve Board was not deliberately aimed at the farmers of this country. "I was present at a meeting of the bankers of southern California, held at El Centre, in my district, in the middle of November, 1920, when W. A. Day, then deputy governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, spoke for the Federal Reserve Bank, and delivered the mes sage which he said he was sent there to deliver. He told the bankers there assembled that they were not to loan any farmer any money for the purpose of enabling the farmer to hold any of his crops beyond harvest time. If they did he said the Federal Reserve Bank would refuse to rediscount a single piece of paper taken in such a transaction. He declared that all the farmers should sell all of their crops at harvest time unless they had money of their own to finance them, as the Federal Reserve Bank would do nothing toward helping the farmers hold back any part of their crop no matter what the condi tion of the market. "I think I was the only person present who was not a banker. This was in a way, confi dential advice being given by the Federal Re serve Bank for the guidance of the smaller banks, many of whom were members. One of the bankers asked Mr. Day this question: 'If you say to us we cannot loan the farmer the money with which to hold his crop, to whom may we loan money to hold the crop until it can be taken up by the market in an orderly way according to the demands of the consum ers?' 'Oh:' said Mr. Day, 'of course, we will have to loan money to the middleman to take up the crop and hold it until the market is ready for it.'" We farmers say that until we have a de pendable source of credit, we cannot build a solid co-operative movement. Our plan is to base automatically the amount of credit on the amount of success in raising crops. There must be some system under which the credit can be furnished regardless of opinions of any man or any set of men, it must be automatic according to the demand. We have incorporated this plan into a na tional marketing act. It also provides for assistance in organizing the farmer. This is the Grange Marketing Plan. We have met here primarily to consider the consumer's co-operative movement. We farmers have been forced into the con sumers' movement. We want to build the consumers movement to a point where we can own our factories and sources of pro duction. We want to build the producers organizations to a point where we can raise, CO-OPERATION assemble and ship to the consumer. There are those who feel that the producers' move ment is not a complete movement. I wish the day would come when the consumers could own farms. But that will take a long time. In the meantime the producer must organize. Farming is done by a class of citizens who take so much interest in their work and they love it so much that they can never hire men to compete with them. Hired labor on a farm is usually inefficient labor, and we must not plan to load down the consumers' co-operative movement by inefficient production. You cannot force an inefficient system in the place of an efficient system. The farmer is the victim of the middle man quite as much as any other consumer. I could tell you of hay purchased for $20 and sold at $60 a ton. Farmers were forced to buy because they needed hay and could not get it anywhere else. This kind of profit-making is nothing short of robbery and it is against this practice that the farm ers have to contend. The adulteration of products is a common practice among the middlemen, despite the state laws which are supposed to protect the consumer. There were more than two hundred violations of the law in the State of Washington which came to the notice of the Agricultural De partment of that state in one year. Out of these only five feed dealers were fined $500 each. The Department didn't divulge their names. The fine is nothing but a license to protect these men. We have laws against adulteration but they do not heed them. We have sixty co-operative store societies in our district federation in Washington. Thirty of them are real stores and the re maining thirty are buying clubs. They are doing about six million dollars worth of business per year. We have our own feed mill, and in three years we have not had a single case of feed adulteration charged against us and there have been one thous and cases charged against private dealers. We have been forced into consumers' co operation. The average farmer is slow to go into business, but we have been forced into it. Our only hope of economic freedom is to control the source of production of the things we need. We were selling cereals. An Eastern manufacturer, wanting our market came out with a big advertising campaign, plas tered up the cities and towns with a Scotchman in kilts and was ready to sweep us out entirely. We had to resort to his own tactics and sent out canvassers to the stores. Then the manufacturer put pages upon pages into the newspapers and plac ards in the trolleys. We sent out canvassers into the homes. After fifteen years we were forced to do billboard advertising and to use every device to hold our own; and you are paying the extra 50 per cent of the cost of that man's advertising. We are driving ahead in the co-operative movement. We are going to keep our minds on the main point that we are build ing for the purpose of owning our sources of production. With that idea, some day we shall be a dominant factor in the com mercial world. Letters From Abroad Finland, the Farthest North By J. P. WARBASSE rT^HE Finns have suffered about every- •*• thing that ruling classes can impose upon them. The Swedish government on one side and the Russian on the other fought over them, robbed them, persecuted them, and "governed" them for over 800 years. Despite all the attempts to stamp out their language and their national soli darity, both have survived; and what is more, Finland has built up a great culture that the world is compelled to admire. There are scarcely 3,000,000 Finns, but they are playing a noteworthy part in ad vancing civilization. Those who have come to the United States can show a larger percentage engaged in co-operative organi zation than can the people from any other country in the world. Take the boat from Stockholm in the evening. As you sail out of that beautiful harbor you get a good view of the big flour mill of the Swedish Co-operative Society on the island of Hastholm. It stands at the water's edge like a monument to human progress and faces the palatial residence and grounds across the harbor of the CO-OPERATION "money king" of Sweden. The symbol of the civilization of the future and the sym bol of the civilization of to-day face one another at the gates of Stockholm and the stream of traffic passes between. Some day one of these will be gone. [n the morning you arrive at Abo, Fin land. There on the pier stand the Finns. You see a half a dozen whom you recog nize at once. But you are wrong; they really are not Alanne, Niemela, Grandahl, Wirkkula, Ronn and Liukku—they only look like them. By train you come to Helsingfors and get out at a railroad station which is unique in its beauty and architecture. And then you are in the heart of Finnish Co operation. If you are fortunate enough to be wel comed at the station by such a friendly host as the K. K., with Mr. Ules Primus-Ny- man as its representative, you are happy indeed. Then you proceed to learn about Co-operation. The oldest co-operative store in Finland dates back only to 1899. The "Pellervo" Society (1899), is the first serious attempt at an educational organization. Then so cieties multiplied. In 1904 the Wholesale S. O. K. was formed by the union of twelve store societies. Since then the move ment has grown steadily. Co-operative so cieties for most every sort of service— stores, telephones, farmers' supplies and production—are to be found even far above the Arctic Circle. The largest single society is "Elanto" in Helsingfors. It began with a bakery in 1907. Its 1,000 members have increased to 30,000 in a city of 220,000. The bakery supplies one-third of the bread of the city. It is just completing a new bakery which will have a capacity to bake all of the bread used in Helsingfors. This new bakery is a fine plant. It has 43 ovens, is 250 feet long, 90 feet wide and 95 feet high. A flour mill will be built adjacent to the bakery. From bread the "Elanto" society next expanded into other fields—milk and groceries. It opened restaurants in 1908 to popularize its bakery products. Then came shops of all kinds. Now it has 57 bread and milk stores, 52 grocery shops, 14 meat shops, 1 warehouse, 9 drug stores, 4 shoe stores, 2 dry goods and clothing stores, 8 restaurants and 1 savings bank—171 stores in all. It has also a sausage factory, a brewery for making non-alcoholic malt beer, and a jam factory. The society limits savings- returns to 2 per cent., and is building up a reserve. It owns two farms with an area of 4,500 acres. The society has 1,500 em ployees. It owns 35 automobiles. It dis tributes 11,000,000 quarts of milk yearly. Statistics show that it is responsible for a decided lowering of the cost of living to all of the inhabitants of Helsingfors. In the beautiful harbor of Helsingfors is the island of Sumparin. It is the prop erty of "Elanto" and is used as a place of recreation. In the summer a motor boat makes regular trips to this charming island. There the children of the employees spend the bright summer days playing, swimming, singing and dancing, under the guidance of trained instructors. There are two large national co-operative unions in Finland, the S. O. K. and the K. K. The S. O. K. has its membership most largely among the farmers. It is a wholesale society connected with the Y. O. L., or the General Co-operative Union. Its membership consists of 464 so cieties with 1,763 stores, having a total individual membership of 180,000. It has a match factory, brush works, preserving factory, bag and envelope mill, wood work ing and furniture factory, saw mill, a flour mill, fruit farms, hosiery factory, chemical factory, coffee roastery, biscuit and maca roni factory, brick yards, meat packing, etc. The match factory makes over half a million boxes of matches daily and employs 270 people. The head offices in Helsingfors occupy a model building. There are 170 office employees. Among the many depart ments in this well-organized business is a completely equipped department of archi tecture. Many of its buildings are of unique beauty. The K, K. was organized in 1916. It came about in this way. The "Elanto" so ciety in Helsingfors had grown large and prosperous. Its members were mostly in dustrial workers. It was a member of the S. O. K. The members of "Elanto" were much more radical than the rural members of the S. O. K. "Elanto" withdrew from the S. O. K. and, with a number of other societies composed largely of industrial workers, formed a federation called the K. K. (Central Union of Finnish Distribu tive Societies) with a wholesale department called the O. T. K. ("Osuustukku- kauppa"). This name is short enough to CO-OPERATION print, the others for want of space must be abbreviated to their initials. With many young, efficient and aggressive men in the management of this organization, its progress has been remarkable. In the course of seven years its member societies have extended all over Finland. Its mem ber societies have over 1,000 stores, with many bakeries, restaurants and other pro ductive plants. The total membership of the K. K. so cieties has become nearly as large as that of the S. O. K. Its life insurance society "Kansa" and its fire insurance society "Tulenturva" are also growing. Its cen tral offices in Helsingfors are models of efficiency. Here one finds systematized every necessary department for carrying on the work of a central union. Among these departments may be mentioned the follow ing: Propaganda, Management, Super visory, Building, Law, Audit, Employment, Education, Publishing, Statistical, Foreign, Sales, Productive Plants, Office Furniture, etc. And just a few blocks away is the head office of the S. O. K. with a duplication of all of these splendidly organized depart ments—two central offices in the same city doing much the same work! One day in July we drove sixty miles out in the country from Helsingfors to visit the Ahjo society. In this district the people of several of the country towns formed a society to which nearly the whole population belongs. The one big business building of this town Hyvinkaa, is that of the Co-operative Society. The store has de partments for all kinds of goods. A neat restaurant in the same building serves meals to men members who are unmarried. The bakery in a new building produces bread to relieve the housewife of drudgery and cakes beyond the ability of the amateur to make. The meeting hall of the society was still decorated with the green boughs that signified a recent wedding. These country societies play a vital part in the lives of the people. On another occasion we visited the so ciety at Viborg near the Russian border. Most of the business of the town is done by this society. Viborg has 50,000 population. The society has 48 stores, besides restaur ants, a bakery employing 15 bakers; a pig farm, sausage factory, bottling works, etc. Its shoe repairing shop mends 30,000 pairs of shoes a year and manufactures 3,000 pairs of high boots and an equal number of sandals. It distributes 1,500,000 quarts of milk yearly. From Viborg we drove 80 miles back in the country to Imatra. Here in the forests, by the roaring water falls of Imatra, is a society of 3,000 members. Some of its 11 stores are built of logs. The store in the village is neat and clean. The barefooted women customers, healthy, ruddy and cheerful, apparently go without shoes from choice. And why not? They look com fortable and charming. We found in this little remote village, as everywhere in Finland, the S. O. K. store and the K. K. store in competition. If these two co-operative organizations would unite into one, Finland would have, next to Denmark, the strongest co-opera tive movement of any country in the world. There is no good reason for two separate national wholesales. The S. O. S. is neu tral and keeps free from politics. It is con servative as all organizations of farmers are bound to be. That is purely a matter of the occupation of the members. Officers of both organizations are members of par liament. The K. K. was once accused of left wing socialist activities. In America the Finns have regarded it as the Communistic wing of the Finnish movement. This is positively not correct. The K. K. is neutral in poli tics. Some of its leaders and many of its members are personally promoters of the politics of the Social-Democratic party, but the K. K. as an organization takes no sides in politics. Its officers are not Communists. Some of them might during the revolution six years ago have looked with some hope towards communism to save Finland from militarism and from the white terror of the bourgouisie; but if they did then, they do so no longer. At present, not only the officers but the general membership of the K. K. are strongly opposed to communism. What little influence communism once had is gone. They will have none of it. They feel that it is destructive of Co-operation. In every country in Europe, except Russia, the leaders of the co-operative movement are opposed to communism; and in no country is this feeling stronger than among the leaders of the K. K. in Finland. The American Finns will make a useful CO-OPERATION contribution to the accurate study of Co operation if they will circulate the knowl edge of this fact. The reason that these K. K. leaders are opposed to communism is because they are thoroughly radical. They want to see a co operative commonwealth take the place of the capitalist system in Finland, and they believe that Co-operation can accomplish this end and communism can not. They have seen communism in action and they know its limitations by observation of it at work. As one of them said: "Communism would only break down what we have thus far built, give us disorder and autocracy in its place and then swing back toward capitalism in the end; we want to keep moving steadily onward." Finland is moving on. The consumers' co-operative societies are steadily growing. Already in this country of a little over 3,000,000 population, the consumers' so cieties connected with S. O. K. and K. K. have a total membership of 350,000—that represents more than half of the families of Finland. There is something about the Finns that makes them effective co-operators. They make their societies succeed because they are willing to sit down together and give all of the time necessary to think things over and plan things out. When they have a meeting they talk slowly and deliberately, the meeting lasts a long time and then they do an unusual thing: they go out from the meeting and put into action the thing they agreed upon. The Finns get results. They work to gether. They have a strong clannish spirit. And above all they have social ideals. No people in the world, of whom I know, have a more earnest desire, backed by a will, for a better organization of society. They want social justice and they are willing to work for it. This springs, perhaps, from the fact that for centuries they have been persecuted and subjugated by the Russian government and by the Swedish rulers. For nearly a thousand years they have hoped and struggled for liberty. Now they find them selves on the way to attain it. And Co operation is the instrument they find most effective. News and Comment National Co-operative Wholesale Federation of the outstanding results of the Fourth Co-operative Congress in No vember was the Conference of Wholesale Managers and those engaged in joint buy ing activities. These sessions began Sunday morning immediately following the Con gress and continued for a day and a half. The subjects discussed were : Brief history of the wholesales repre sented. Possibilities of consolidation of buying of flour and other commodities. Access to producers of nationally adver tised products. Import and roasting of coffee by whole sales. Necessity for uniformity of co-operative labels and brands. Promoting the loyalty of retail managers. The buying club and the wholesale. Wages among wholesales employees. Dealing with the credit evil. Publications by the wholesales. Organization of a permanent wholesale federation. Those present for part or all of this Conference were: S. Alanne, Educational Director, Co operative Central Exchange, Superior, Wis. A. S. Goss, Master, Washington State Grange, Seattle, Wash. M. Goldberg, Secretary, Co-operative Bakeries of Massachusetts, Lynn, Mass. K. E. Grandahl, Manager, United Co operative Society, Fitchburg, Mass. George Keen, General Secretary, Co operative Union of Canada. W. Niemela, Manager, United Co operative Society, Maynard, Mass. Eskel Ronn, Manager, Co-operative Central Exchange, Superior, Wis. M. Rubinson, Manager, Co-operative Bakeries of Brownsville, Brooklyn, N. Y. A. W. Warinner, Manager, Central States Co-operative Wholesale Society, East St. Louis, 111. Dr. Warbasse and Cedric Long repre sented the Executive Staff of The League. 10 CO-OPERATION CO-OPERATION 11 Mr. Ronn briefly outlined the develop ment of the Co-operative Central Exchange since it first started in business in 1917 with one employee at a rented desk, up to the present time when it is doing a business of almost three-quarters of a million dollars and has more than sixty retail stores in affiliation. Mr. Warinner related the story of the Central States Co-operative Whole sale Society. It started as a conference for joint buying in 1919; swollen in 1921 to a vast chain store system doing a business of three million dollars; and shrunk again in 1923 to a condition of virtual bankruptcy. The Central States Wholesale is now or ganizing the educational work which should have been done from the beginning and for the past twelve months is showing a healthy growth. Mr. Gross related the story of over-expansion in Washington with its disastrous effect on a group of farmers' stores organized merely for the purpose of giving bargains in prices. Like the Central States Wholesale, the Associated Grange Warehouse Company, now built over the ruins of misnamed "Rochdale Co-operative" (Pacific Co-operative League), is gradually building up a strong membership and a sub stantial business among forty or fifty stores and an equal number of buying clubs in the Northwest. One of the most powerful in fluences for progress in Washington is a central accounting system conducted by the Warehouse Company in Seattle, and the exchange and comparison of invoices from the various stores. Considerable time was given to a dis cussion of flour. The Massachusetts Con ference of Jewish Bakeries and the Massa chusetts Finnish Bakeries together are using hundreds of carloads of flour every year. The same is true of the Jewish and Finnish bakeries in Greater New York. The Co operative Central Exchange of Wisconsin is shipping flour only to the Finnish bakery in Brooklyn. Meanwhile the Grange Warehouse in Seattle requires tremendous quantities of feed for its farmers' stores. Mr. Goss proposed that an effort be made to locate a mill in the neighborhood of Montana whose product might be so utilized that the flour would come to the co-operatives in the East and the feed go to the co-operatives in the West. Such an arrangement as this might ultimately enable the co-operative wholesales of the United States to control completely the output of one mill. Mr. Ronn promised to attend the next meeting of the Conference of Massachu setts Jewish Bakeries to talk with them about the joint buying of flour directly through the Co-operative Central Ex change. It was also agreed that samples of the flour now being used in the East should be sent to Mr. Goss in Washington so that he can have tests made and thus be able to make his investigations in Mon tana more intelligent. It was discovered that the wholesales in Washington and Wisconsin are unable to buy the nationally advertised products di rectly from the factory, whereas the United Co-operative Society of Massachu setts and the Central States Wholesale So ciety has access to these commodities. The particular commodities discussed were to bacco, soap, coffee and cereals. It was de cided that the managers now unable to pro cure these products should establish a closer contact with Mr. Warinner at St. Louis. Mr. Grandahl advocated the direct im port of coffee and roasting under co-opera tive auspices. There was considerable dis cussion as to the advantages of a vacuum pack for coffee. All agreed upon the desirability of hav ing a uniform co-operative brand and a uniform label for co-operative products; but it was also agreed that progress in this direction would necessarily have to be slow. The brand "Co-operator's Best" seemed to be generally accepted. A decision was made that each group represented at the confer ence send in to The League office twelve sets of labels and printed bags for distribu tion to all the centers. The question of loyalty of local store managers and control over local stores is a difficult one. The wholesale in Seattle establishes its control through its central accounting system and the inspection of purchase invoices. The Central Exchange relies largely upon its auditing department and its training school for managers and bookkeepers. Both the Central Exchange and the Central States Wholesale find managers' conferences extremely valuable. Whereas in Seattle the conference of store managers had to be discontinued. The question was raised as to whether the wholesale could best promote sales among its affiliated stores through educa tion of the managers, the clerks, or the con suming public. The Central States Whole sale is making the biggest effort to reach the consumer directly through the United Consumer. Mr. Alanne believed that the employees, particularly the clerks, should receive the most attention. Mr. Ronn found the managers themselves most ac cessible. In the North Central states and in the Northwest there are many co-operative buy ing clubs, a proportion of which develop into co-operative stores. In order to dis courage the tendency of these groups to become mere devices for getting bargains from the wholesale, the Grange Ware house Company of Seattle refuses to sell to any buying club which does not retail the goods at more than 5% margin so as to build up a reserve for expansion. Mr. Warinner advocated expansion with the idea of the "store on wheels" or the "store at your door." Everybody present agreed with him. It was found that wages for wholesale managers and employees were fairly uni form in all parts of the country. There was a slight variation in the average of wages paid to managers of retail stores. The credit evil was found universal. The private manufacturers or brokers who wished to discriminate against co-operative wholesales find a ready excuse in the credit practice of the co-operative wholesales. The Central Exchange is very strict with its local stores and charges interest on all ac counts overdue; but it finds that less than 10% of its retail stores are doing a cash business with their own people. The Central Exchange does all of its publicity through articles in the Finnish papers. The Grange Warehouse depends entirely upon The Grange Nezus of the state of Washington. The Central States Wholesale utilizes both the United Con sumer and the Illinois Miner and does a great deal of direct advertising in the former. At the close of the last session of the Conference, Mr. Warinner expressed the opinion that this meeting of the wholesale managers was the most fruitful session of the entire Congress and believed that simi lar conferences should be held in the future. Mr. Goss moved that a permanent Wholesale Federation be formed and his motion was carried. The name adopted is "The National Co-operative Wholesale Federation." Officers elected were Mr. Warinner as chairman; Mr. Niemela, vice- chairman; and Mr. Ronn, secretary- treasurer. Mr. Alanne and Mr. Ronn were appointed a committee of two to draw up a declaration of purposes. Upon motion of Mr. Goss it was voted that the next meet ing of the Conference be called by joint action of the chairman and the Executive Staff of The League, at a place and time later to be determined. A decision was made that a real exchange of invoices between wholesales be inaugu rated. Mr. Ronn will mail his invoices to St. Louis; Mr. Warinner will attach in voices of the Central States Wholesale and forward to Maynard. Mr. Niemela will forward to Seattle and the Seattle Whole sale will return the shipment to Superior. Each manager will make necessary notes on the margin of all invoices he receives. The Conference adjourned at 12:30 P. M., Monday, November 10th. The Federal Trade Commission on Co-operation "PDUCATION works slowly, but it •*—' works. Ten years ago who would have believed that a department of the U. S. Government would be sending a re port to Congress recommending Co-opera tion as a cure for our ills and advocating that the government teach this subject and promote it in many ways ? But it has come to pass. In the summer of 1923, the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, Mr. Huston Thompson and Dr. William Notz, Chief of the Export Trade Division, studied Co-operation in fifteen European countries. The Commission has now made a voluminous report to Congress dealing with certain specific phases of the subject. Insurance and housing are omitted. But the report is illuminating on banking, distribu tion, co-operative education, women's organ izations, international Co-operation and co operative laws. It is a progressive sign that at last our Congress has had presented to it a docu ment announcing that the Co-operative Movement is of such magnitude and im portance as to challenge attention. The re port states that "more than 120,000,000 people are linked up with the co-operative cause." It is not news to co-operators, but it certainly is news to the Congress of the U. S. that, "during the world war the state 12 CO-OPERATION authorities in a number of countries found in the co-operatives the best if not the only large-scale organization available for dis tribution of the necessities of life and a serviceable agency for protecting the public against profiteers." The report goes on: "Moreover, in the post-war era the net work of co-operative societies stretching out over whole nations and tying together all classes of society, formed in many cases the strongest basis upon which the reconstruc tion and development of trade and industry could proceed, and without which certain economic reforms seemed impossible of achievement." It may open the eyes of our political class to learn from a governmental source that, "in some of the larger countries of Europe like the United Kingdom, Germany and France, the consumers' co-operative societies rank among the largest producers and dis tributors of necessities of life. In England and Germany nearly half of the population is affiliated with the consumers' wholesale and retail societies." The report goes on and gives figures showing the membership of the societies in many lands and the amount of business they do. There are such chapter headings as "World-wide Extent of the Co-operative Movement," "Magnitude of Business Turnover," and "Advantage of Consumers' Co-operatives." Under the heading, "Con flicting interests of consumers' and pro ducers' societies," the Commission gives its observations on the various methods of har monious exchange discovered in different countries. Thus the report shows that in Freiberg, Germany, the local consumers' society and the farmers' co-operative so ciety jointly operate a market in the city. In Switzerland the consumers' societies unite with the farmers' societies and with the municipal government to appoint a commission that fixes the price the con sumers shall pay the farmers for milk. Perhaps the most illuminating section in this report is on "Co-operative Education and State Aid." Here the Commission shows an unusual, and we may say with apologies, an unexpected grasp of the whole co-operative problem. This is summarized briefly as follows: "The factors which have contributed to the development of the co-operative move ment vary in the different countries. It is generally recognized, however, that popular education and training in co-operative methods and principles, by means of system atic educational propaganda and through special schools established for this purpose, is the one agency which has been most fruitful throughout the world in causing the co-operative idea to take root and to prosper. Leaders of the co-operative move ment have time and again emphasized the fact that the best aid which the State is able to give to their cause consists in pro moting the study of Co-operation, its aims and agencies, but otherwise to allow it free dom to develop independently by its own initiative and through its own resources and agencies. Experience in the United King dom and in Continental European States shows that State aid along other lines has in the long run proved more of a hindrance than a benefit to the co-operative movement. In some of the newly formed states of Europe, where war had practically wiped out industry there has been an exception to the principle of no state aid in the matter of reconstruction. Here the governments- have given at least temporary financial as sistance directly to the co-operatives." The important fact is that if government would give pupils in schools and colleges information and instruction in the co-opera tive method of business, as it does in the profit-making method of business, this is all that we need ask. No favors are ex pected. Co-operation wants only that it shall not be discriminated against. But as the matter now stands, in the United States, a boy graduates from school or college and knows of no other approved method of carrying on the business of the world ex cept the competitive profit-making system. The Commission recommends for further development of Co-operation in the United States: 1. Farmers' co-operative societies for marketing products and for joint purchase of farm supplies. 2. The simple, elastic and inexpensive system of rural credit societies of the Raif- feisen deposit and loan type, adapted to local conditions and needs, managed by the farmers themselves, limited to small areas, but with a centralized auditing system and central banks for diverting funds from one section to another as needed. 3. The distribution of electric power in rural communities through farmers' co-op erative societies has proved so advantageous CO-OPERATION 13 in Europe that a greater development of this means of furnishing light, heat and power to the American farmer is recom mended. 4. It is recommended that the establish ing of retail consumers' co-operative socie ties be promoted in the thickly populated rural districts of the United States. 5. Co-operative distribution of house hold coal is looked upon in some of the leading coal consuming centers of Europe (among them London, Manchester, Edin burgh, Glasgow, Hamburg, Prague) as the best solution found thus far for keeping down the high cost of household fuel. The English Wholesale Co-operative Society handled about two million tons of coal last year which it bought at wholesale prices and transported in its own coal cars from the mines to the coal depots of its retail societies. Similarly the distribution of motor fuel through co-operative societies is carried on with success in a number of foreign countries. 6. The distribution of milk by con sumers' co-operative societies in certain large cities of Europe has met with the well nigh universal approval of the populace. Unreasonable price increases have been pre vented thereby, and a supply of milk of good quality and handled along approved sanitary lines has been assured. The co operative consumers' societies, in addition to procuring a part of their milk supply from farmers' co-operative milk producing societies, operate dairy farms of their own. 7. It is believed that through the agency of co-operative export associations the mar ket for American farm products could be substantially enlarged in foreign countries. 8. In various foreign countries efforts are being made to bring about a greater degree of decentralization of power and ad ministration in co-operative organizations. A study of the possible drawbacks arising out of over-centralization would, it is be lieved, open the way for more efficient methods in the field of Co-operation. The fact that it is possible for the ma chinery of the State to create a Commission that can make such an enlightened and progressive report as this to the parliament of a great commercial nation must make us pause and prompt us to rejoice that govern ment after all possesses redeeming virtues which make it possible to face the realities of a world of economic progress. It is almost too good to be true. The next question we must ask is: How long will such an enlightened and progressive department be permitted to survive? Credit at Cost for the People THE Peoples' Banks or Credit Unions, as they are called in this country, pro vide loans to meet the needs of the man with ideas and of the worker with his labor power but who has little else to offer for security. They also supply credit to the farmer and tradesman whose business is too small to interest big banks. That is the reason they have increased so rapidly in the last few years. The need is there. The people are learning how to supply it. In New York State, up through 1923, 104 credit unions have been organized. They have assets of $8,506,265. They have made loans amounting to $7,584,453. Their membership is largely composed of civil service employees, clerks, etc. There are 95 credit unions in Massachu setts. Their assets up to October 31, 1924, were $6,297,241. Their loans amounted to $5,515,181. In Massachusetts, the mem bers are workers in the industries and pub lic service corporations—mill operators, telephone girls, government employees and small business folk in community groups. North Carolina follows with the next largest group of credit unions yet organized. Twenty-five credit unions with assets of $99,652 in 1924, made loans to their mem bers—chiefly farmers—amounting to $86,- 773. Their development has been marked during the past year. The Credit Union Extension Bureau, with headquarters in Boston, Mass., is do ing pioneer work in seeking to develop favorable legislation in the states where it is lacking. There are credit union laws in Rhode Island, Kentucky, North Carolina, Massachusetts, New York, Tennessee, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Vermont, Indiana, Wisconsin and South Carolina. In Utah, Oregon, Nebraska, Texas and Maine, there are laws which permit of limited types of credit union organization. In addition to the groups in the three states—New York, Massachusetts and North Carolina—there are scattered credit unions throughout the country, about 300 altogether, with total assets of at least $15,000,000. The members have used their savings to 14 CO-OPERATION CO-OPERATION 15 meet the credit needs of their fellows whose needs and character they know. Over $12,000,000 has been used in loans. Prac tically no losses (in some districts, a small fraction of one per cent only) have been sustained. These organizations are the foundation of the co-operative banking movement of this country. If, instead of being isolated groups, as they are, the membership were •made up of the same people who are the members of the substantial co-operative consumers' societies, we should then have the combination of capital and business, which some day, we must have to guarantee the strength of our movement. A co-operative bank in each community of organized consumers, all federated in a central national union, is the combination which gives strength to the strongest of the European societies. It should also give strenght to our movement as we develop. Educational Director for Franklin SEVERI ALANNE, Executive Secre tary of the Northern States Co-opera tive League, of which the Franklin Co operative Creamery Association is a mem ber, is to transfer his headquarters from Superior to Minneapolis in January and give the larger part of his time to the educational work at the creamery. He will continue his work with the Northern States League at large and will devote at least two days a week to the outside field; but the bulk of the work up-state and in Wis consin and Michigan will fall upon an assistant. This is an important move both for Mr. Alanne and for the Franklin Association. The former has been in Superior for eight years carrying on propaganda and educa tional work for Co-operation chiefly among the Finnish societies. The formation of the Northern States League was the first effort to get the Finnish and the American socie ties together. The present move of Mr. Alanne is one indication of how successful that effort was. On the other hand, Franklin has been going along for four years with no trained educational director in charge. Mr. Solem, Mr. Nordby, the Educational Committee, the Board of Directors as a whole, the Women's Guild, the Franklin Fellowship— all have contributed greatly to the educa tional guidance of this mammoth institu tion. But it has been the dream of several of these people, anxious to see a careful educational program planned and not able to give time to the work themselves, that sometime one of the bigger men in the American movement might come there and take charge of this work. They wanted someone who was thoroughly saturated with the history and theory of consumers' Co-operation and who was yet perfectly practical; and they believe they could not have found a better man than Sever! Alanne. The co-operators in other parts of the country will watch with much interest the educational work in Minneapolis this com ing year. Like all co-operatives, Franklin has had its internal disagreements due to lack of understanding or even of outright selfishness on the part of individuals; will these folks now reduce these sources of fric tion to the vanishing point and show the rest of us how it is done? The institution as a whole, like Topsy, more or less has "just growed," and its own momentum has carried it pell mell through difficulties and over obstacles that have wrecked many a less fortunate society in the United States. Will the directors, workers, and sharehold ers now find time, under Mr. Alanne's leadership, to study out the path they have been following and chart out a surer course for the future? Employees' Association at Sault Ste Marie THE Soo Co-operative Mercantile Asso ciation of the "Lock City" in Northern Michigan not only does a large business in groceries, meats and baked goods—this year its sales will reach the half million mark— but it has one of the best employees' organi zations to be found in the co-operative movement in America. Five years ago the men and women working in these stores and the bakery formed the Soo Co-operative Employees' Club. The employees themselves set aside a small percentage of their pay for use of their Club and the Association puts in an equal amount. The activities of the Club are chiefly recreational. On Tuesday, the 16th of December, the fifth annual banquet of the club was held in the Hotel Murry Hill. The employees, sweethearts and wives present numbered 110, and they enjoyed a full Christmas dinner, songs, speeches and dancing. Leo Le Lievre, the manager of the Association's business, acted as toastmaster and several of the directors spoke. The Soo Association is one of the few in the country that pays a wage-rebate to employees at the same rate that it pays a patronage rebate to shareholders. Directors' Page Start the New Year with a Co operative Audit THE League is beginning the year 1925 with a Co-operative Auditing Bureau all its own. This Bureau will be able to handle auditing work for co-operatives as far West as Ohio, as far South as Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland, and as far North as Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire. The work will be so arranged that a definite period of the auditor's time will be devoted to New England, another period to Pennsylvania and Ohio, etc. Where it is necessary that books be audited in two different states at the same time, two men will be put into the field. Several large societies have already spoken for the services of the Bureau. During the first year the department will probably be run at a slight deficit, but when there are large numbers of societies in each state using it this deficit will be eliminated. The Executive Staff of The League has been planning this Auditing Bureau for many months. It was hoped that the work might be opened up by H. V. Nurmi, founder and present head of the Auditing Department of the Co-operative Central Exchange which does the work for dozens of societies in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan. But the big business in those states cannot be turned over to a new lead ership on such short notice, so Mr. Nurmi must remain there during the first few months of 1925 and organize the work so he can leave it later and come to the New York office. Meanwhile the staff of the League has effected a very satisfactory arrangement with the Labor Bureau, Inc., of New York, accountants, engineers and advisers to labor unions and allied interests. Stuart Chase, Certified Public Accountant and head of the Accounting Department of the Labor Bureau, will take charge of the auditing work of The League during Mr. Nurmi's absence. The actual auditing will be done by Mr. Chase himself or by members of his staff. The following points are well worth the careful consideration of all Directors of co operative societies: 1. A bonding company will not make good on any losses incurred through theft or carelessness unless the co-operative so ciety keeps good books. 2. An audit conducted by an auditing committee elected or appointed from the membership of a co-operative society is not, in the eyes of the law, an impartial audit. 3. An audit conducted by a private ac countant or firm of accountants who are in business for their own profit is not the kind of an audit a co-operative needs. The aims of Co-operation and the aims of private business differ sharply. The ac countant for private business interprets pro duction or operating costs with a view to increasing profits to capital. The account ant for co-operative business interprets these costs from the viewpoint of savings to patrons. 4. There are special problems of organ ization bookkeeping in a co-operative busi ness that are quite unknown to private busi ness. The accountant who is accustomed to studying the special problems of the co operative and advising with the directors and manager on these problems is the man who is most valuable to the society. He brings to his work the accumulated experi ence gained with scores of other co-opera tives. The League has also worked out a book keeping system for co-operatives that are not able to keep their own books properly and therefore are not even ready for an audit. 16 CO-OPERATION CO-OPERATION 17 From the League Office Secretary's Report of the Activities of the Co-operative League for 1923 and 1924 1. During 1923 and 1924 The League has sent out 85,800 pieces of literature and 1,135 books. 2. Published two monthly magazines averaging 8,000 copies per month. 3. Issued a monthly practical bulletin to affiliated societies, some of the subjects being: "Income Tax for Co-operative So cieties," "Co-operative Societies and Coal Distribution," "Check Up That Overhead Expense," "Mobilize the Credit Power of Your Members," "Co-operators' Day," "Does Bonding Your Manager Really Pro tect You?", "Co-operative Corporations in New York State." 4. Sent out a News Service to 275 papers of the labor and farmer press. 5. Received and answered 5,903 letters asking for advice and information; and sent out 49,415 circular letters on routine work of the co-operative movement and 1,450 special letters to individuals. 6. Sent speakers to 251 meetings, in cluding two extended trips from the At lantic to the Pacific. 7. Supplied an organizer, educational director and Guild organizer to four so cieties for periods of time varying from six weeks to six months. 8. Conducted two evening courses in co-operation embodying educational sub jects, store management, administration problems, theory and survey of the move ment. 9. Sent one instructor to the Full-Time Co-operative Training School in Minne apolis in the autumn of 1923. 10. Conducted an employment bureau which supplied managers and other workers for co-operative societies. 11. Sent four delegates to the Inter national Co-operative Congress in Belgium, two of whom visited over 100 co-operative institutions in 10 countries and addressed audiences in Russia, Germany, England and Austria. 12. Sent accredited delegates to Co operative Congresses in Great Britain, Ger many and Belgium. 13. Interviewed in the offices of The League 1,452 visitors from the United States and 11 foreign countries. 14. Organized nine new Women's Guilds and sent special suggestions for socials, entertainments and members' meet ings to societies. 15. Distributed widely the new book "Co-operative Democracy" by Dr. War- basse and the American edition of Prof. Gide's "Consumers' Co-operative Societies" which was edited by Cedric Long. 16. Aided in the distribution of the following new books by American writers: Bergengren, "Co-operative Banking," and Mrs. Blanc's "Co-operative Movement in Russia." Conducted the sale and distribu tion of Sonnichsen's "Consumers' Co-opera- iton," and Harris' "Co-operation, the Hope of the Consumer." 17. Wrote 94 special articles for maga zines and newspapers. 18. Published the following new pamphlets: "A. B. C. of Co-operative Housing," "Model Lease for Co-operative Apartment House," "When the Whistle Blew" (a story by Bruce Calvert), "Co operative Homes for Europe's Homeless," "Homes to Live In," "Real First Aid to the Farmers," "Credit at Cost to the People," "A Better World to Live In," "Government that Begins at Home," "A Way Out," "The Co-operative Movement in Europe." 19. Gave written advice on problems of store management, organization and ad ministration; sent out technical advisors, and supplied accountants and managers where needed. 20. Gave legal advice to co-operative societies on incorporation, charters, taxa tion, and litigation. 21. Investigated and lodged formal complaints with state authorities against fake co-operatives, and warned societies of fraudulent and unsound enterprises. 22. Conducted the Fourth National Co-operative Congress in New York City, at which 180 societies were represented by 63 accredited delegates, and 18 labor and co-operative organizations which were rep resented by fraternal delegates. The following are some points of interest in the development of The Co-operative League and the movement in the United States: Three hundred and thirty-three societies representing a membership of 50,000 and a turnover of $15,000,000 are affiliated with the League. These constituent mem ber societies are conducting the following kinds of business and services: a sale of groceries, meats, dry goods, clothing, shoes, milk, coal, bread and other baked goods and furniture; and credit and banking, life and fire insurance, housing, recreation, restaur ants, laundries, health, schools and tele phone services. One of the affiliated socie ties does an annual business of $3,500,000 and 22 others have an annual turnover of more than $200,000 each. There seems to be no increase in the number of co-operative societies during the past two years except in the field of agri cultural marketing, credit unions and hous ing. However, there is evident a strength ening of many of the societies already estab lished and a rapidly growing consciousness of common aim and purpose among groups of societies in certain areas where formerly each society lived an isolated life. The progress of the Northern States' Co operative League is most encouraging. This district league has not only united scores of societies in the North-Central states for educational work, but has fathered the co operative training schools which turned out a second group of graduates in the autumn of 1924. The Educational Department of the Central States Co-operative Wholesale So ciety has done well in the face of great obstacles in building up an educational federation of 25 societies in Illinois and in getting "The United Consumer" estab lished as a monthly co-operative journal and in inaugurating a co-operative death bene fit society—The Consumers' Mutual Aid Guild. The six Jewish bakeries of Massachusetts have established a central federation and are now publishing every three months a co-operative journal in Yiddish. The Franklin Co-operative Creamery, the largest consumers' organization in America, continues to develop and is now doing an annual business of three and a half million dollars in the distribution of milk, cream, butter and ice cream. Farmers' central organizations affiliated with The League during the past two years are, The Nebraska Farmers' Union, The Kansas Farmers' Union, The Iowa Farm ers' Union, The Kentucky Farmers' Union and the Washington State Grange. The Ghent Congress— A Correction TV/T UCH of the time of the last Congress **•*- of the International Co-operative Alliance at Ghent was consumed by the dis cussion of the "Russian Problem." The Russians had offered various resolutions for the establishment of relations between the Alliance and the Moscow International. In the October number of CO-OPERATION, in tne article reporting this congress, appeared the statement that the British Co-operative Union offered a substitute resolution which was carried—397 votes for and 115 against; and the resolution of the Central Com mittee was lost. The General Secretary of the Alliance informs us that this is not correct. The resolution of the Central Committee on "Relations with Interna tional Federations of Trade Unions" was adopted unanimously after the British Union's proposal that the report be "re ferred back" had been defeated by 332 to 222 votes. The proposal of the Russians for the establishment of relations with the Moscow International was defeated by 424 to 179 votes. The British Union's resolu tion in favor of neutrality was adopted by 397 votes for and 183 against on the last day of the Congress. New Officers of the League THE Directors have elected (by ballot through the mails) the following as officers of The League for 1925: President, JAMES P. WARBASSE. Vice-President, ALBERT SONNICHSEN. Secretary, CEDRIC LONG. Treasurer, ADOLPH WlRKKULA. Index for 1924 Co-operation The index for Volume X of CO-OPERA TION (Year 1924), can be procured from the office of The League, 167 West 12th Street, New York City. :i 18 CO-OPERATION CO-OPERATION 19 REPORT OF THE TREASURER THE CO-OPERATIVE LEAGUE OF AMERICA STATEMENT OF RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDING September 30, 1924 BALANCE IN BANKS, October 1, 1923. RECEIPTS: From Membership: New .............. Renewals ................... Affiliated ....... ........... From Subscriptions: New .............. Renewals Bundle ...... Foreign From Literature, Books, etc.: Literature ............. Books ................. Transactions (Books) .. Associated Magazine ... From House, Rents, etc. .. From Donations ......... From Speakers' Fund ........ From Trust Fund Donation .. From Loans ................ From Miscellaneous Items: Accounting Forms .... Films .................... Postage .................. General Expenses Returned TOTAL RECEIPTS DISBURSEMENTS: For Membership and Subscriptions: New ......................... Foreign Subscriptions For Literature, Books, etc.: Literature .................... Books ........................ Associated Magazine .......... For House Upkeep ............... For Speakers' Fund ....... For Co-operation ...... ........ For Loans Returned .............. For Furniture and Fixtures........ For Expenses: Salaries ....................... Postage ....................... Stationery and Supplies ........ Printing and Addressing ....... Advertising .................... Telephone and Telegraph ...... Light and Power ............... Miscellaneous General Expenses 57.00 280.75 667.68 276.95 644.80 180.49 20.50 418.76 788.90 29.70 312.29 27.74 11.00 12.53 162.18 130.00 38.50 484.77 260.23 612.81 $11,094.34 727.20 235.60 690.67 194.68 256.05 122.35 320.46 TOTAL DISBURSEMENTS BALANCE $ 1,005.43 1,122.74 1,549.65 2,137.50 388.00 3,082.32 11,450.00 1,063.40 213.45 $ 168.50 1,357.81 832.87 1,857.64 1,212.21 2,396.13 111.00 13,641.35 $ 1,262.18 22,012.49 $23,274.67 21,577.51 $ 1,697.16 APFEL & ENGLANDER, Certified Public Accountants. PUBLICATIONS — OF — THE CO-OPERATIVE LEAGUE HISTORICAL PIT Copy Per 100 3. Story of Co-operation '.............$ .10 $6.00 7. British Co-operative Movement ...... .10 6.00 38. Co-operative Consumers' Movement in the United States ............... 39. Consumers' Co-operative Societies in N. Y. State, (Published by Con sumers' League) ................ 10. A Baker and What He Bated (Belgian movement) ..................... .05 .10 .10 TECHNICAL +.00 +.00 2.50 1.00 .65 4. How to Start and Run a Rochdale Co operative Society ................ .10 5. System of Store Records and Accounts .50 6. A Model Constitution and By-Laws for a Co-operative Society ........... .05 8. Co-operative Education. Duties of Educational Committee Defined.... .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 Run a Women's Guild ......................... .05 15. How to Organize a District Co-opera tive League .................... .10 29. Credit Union Primer (By Ham and Robinson) ..................... .50 32. Application Blanks for Membership in a Co-op Society ................. 43. Co-operative Housing .............. .10 50. A B C of Co-operative Housing. ..... .10 51. Model Lease for Co-operative Apart ment House .................... .10 MISCELLANEOUS 16. Model Co-op State Law ........... .10 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 33. Credit Union and Co-operative Bank.. .05 13. The Place of Co-operation Among Other Movements ..................... .15 34-. Co-operative Movement (Yiddish).... .02 30. "When the Whistle Blew" (Story, by Bruce Calvert) ................. .06 41. Farmer's Co-operation (By Benson Y. Landis) ........................ .15 42. Co-op Homes for Europe's Homeless.. .10 52. Homes to Live In.................. .05 53. Real First Aid for the Farmers....... .05 54. Credit at Cost for the People....... .05 55. A Better World to Live In.......... .05 56. Government That Begins at Home.... .05 59. Co-operative Movement in Europe.... .05 ONE-PAGE LEAFLETS (One Cent each; 50 Cents per 100; $2.50 per 500; $4.00 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 Real Co-operator; (25) Resolutions 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 Education 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; (58) Mating Co-operation Succeed in America. 1.75 1.25 MONTHLY PUBLICATIONS CO-OPERATION—(In bundle lots, $7.50 per hundred). Subscription, per year..................... .$1.00 HOME CO-OPERATOR, 4 pages.......... .$1.00 per 100 INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATIVE BULLETIN. (Pub. by The I. C. A.).......... .Per Year. $1.50 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 Brightwill, L. R.: Animal "Co-op" Book—For Children ................................. Faber, Harald: Co-operation in Danish Agriculture, 1918 .................................... .15 2.75 Flanagan, J. A.: Wholesale Co-operation in Scot land, 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, Ameri can 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, 1918. Cloth, $2.00; paper bound... .60 Holyoake: Rochdale Pioneers ................... 1.00 Howe, Fred C.: Denmark, a Co-operative Common wealth, 1921 ............................. 2.00 Jessness, O. B.: Co-operative Marketing of Farm Products ................................. 2.50 Madams, J. P.: The Story Retold. ........ .50 Nicholson, Isa: Our Story ..................... .25 Potter, B.: Co-operative Movement in Great Britain 1.00 Redfern, Percy: The Story of the C. W. S.. ....... 2.00 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 Den mark .................................... 1.00 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 .............. 2.00 Stolinsky, 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...- 1-50 Woolf, Leonard: Co-operation and the Future of Industry ................................. 1.00 Woolf, L.: Socialism and Co-operation. ........... 1.50 "The Co-operative Consumer" and "Co-operation," III (1917), VI (1920), VII (1921), VIII (1922), IX (1923), X (1924).............. 1.25 Transactions of Second American Co-operative Con gress, 1920 .............................. 1.00 Transactions of Third American Co-operative Con gress, 1922 ............................... 1.00 The People's Year Book, 1924. Cloth, $1.00; paper tjound ................................... -oO (Ten cents postage should be added JOT books which cost more than $2.00, and five cents tor the smaller books.) THE CO-OPERATIVE LEAGUE (Member of The International Co-operative Alliance) 167 West 12lh Street, New York An educational organization for teaching the history, principles, methods and aims oj 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 D Subscription for CO-OPERATION - $1-00 O Membership in The LEAGUE - - $1.00 Name . .. Address Co-operative Central Exchange Wholesale Grocers and Jobbers, Bakers We supply goods to Co-operative So cieties ONLY. We are owned and con trolled by Co-operative Societies. We are organized to enable Co-opera tive Societies to do collectively what they cannot do individually. Co-operative Central Exchange Offices, Warehouses and Plant: Winter Street and Ogden Avenue SUPERIOR, WIS. Co-operators' Ltd. Mutual Fire Insurance Co. is now writing insurance in State oj 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-OPEKATIVE WHOIJ:SAI,E SOCIETY, INC. 1 Balloon Street, Manchester Post free 4 sh. 6d. a year. The Trade and Technical Organ oj 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, III.) is the form for keeping the Membership Ledger of a Co-operative Society which provides ample and proper space for al] transactions with a maximum of effi ciency 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 further developed, or more successfully practiced than in Scotland. If you wish to keep informed, 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 Co-operative Movement, owned by and conducted 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 100 Published by The Co-operative League Address: ALBEBT SONNICHSEN, Managing Editor Willimantic, Conn. (mam A magazine to spread the knowledge of the Co-operative Movement, whereby the people, in voluntary 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, December 19, 1917, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Price $l.OO a year. VOL. XI, No. 2 FEBRUARY, 1925 10 CENTS Vital Issues Managing the Manager MOST co-operative managers serve their societies well. There are many societies in the United States that can thankfully say that they have managers who effectively serve the needs and the will of the members. But there is such a thing as the danger ous manager. There are two kinds of dangerous managers: the bad and the good. The bad managers wreck societies through their own inefficiency. The good often wreck societies through the inefficiency of the members. The history of co-operation in this coun try is strewn with failures due to the in efficiency of the manager. It has been one of the most common causes of failure. Now we are beginning to get efficient managers. And with efficient managers a new com plication is developing which may prove in the end quite as disastrous. The efficient manager may become "the whole show." The directors find that he knows so much more about the business than they, and can do things so much better than they, that they begin to regard themselves as super fluous, as a sort of honorary part of the business. Presently the manager is telling the directors what to do. Then the society is in a "highly successful state." Every body is happy. And everybody is boasting about "our manager." Before any decision is made the manager is consulted. After a while no decisions are made except by his consent or approval. He starts everything. He does everything. He carries through everything. Nobody, not even the directors, need to think about the welfare of the society. The manager does it all. With the recognition of the manager's superiority comes the tacit ac knowledgment of the inferiority, or at least the mediocracy, of everybody else. The manager at last becomes the benevolent autocrat. The directors and members sing to his tune. A visitor taking a look at such a society thinks he sees a successful organization. But his eyes deceive him. He is wrong. It only looks successful. A successful co-operative society is one which is not only fulfilling its present mis sion, but has the power to go on and per petuate itself. Such a society as described above lacks this element of endurance. Its eggs are all in one basket, and that basket is in one hand, and that one hand is sooner or later going to let go its grip. The one-man society, the society whose success is all in the hands of one person— the manager—is pretty generally doomed. If the manager moves on or is taken ill, or "goes bad," then the weakness of the society comes out. Then is revealed that the suc cess is not the society's success after all, but the manager's; and when he goes, it natu rally goes with him. This matter touches many of our so cieties. The manager must be thought of 22 CO-OPERATION CO-OPERATION 23 always as a temporary instrument. The so ciety must be thought of as the permanent thing. That means that the society must build itself into a self-perpetuating mech anism. The members must each feel their re sponsibility. They must attend meetings, discuss the problems of the society and de mand to hear and to be heard. The directors must direct and not be directed. They should take neither the manager's word nor anybody's word for everything. They should make themselves efficient and responsible. A successful co-operative society is one which is not dependant upon any indivi dual, but can spare any person and still go on. It contains within its membership the power that makes it survive. Its strength is its people. Its people are its strength. Homes and Children First REFORMERS of the present economic system have given their first attention to the factory, the field, and the workshop, as though work were the object and end of life. It is interesting to observe how they have always thought of reforming so ciety by beginning with the place where people labor. The Christian Socialists aimed to have "self-governing" work shops. The Social ists plan to capture the government and thus own and administer the industries. The Syndicalists would have the workers get possession of the shops and have in dustrial representation. The Guild Social ists have written volumes on the reorgan ization of society by changing the owner ship and the method of control of the ma chinery of production and distribution. Trade Unionism has been concerned especially for more wages for the workers on the job. The economic system, that does not start with the places where the workers labor, is Co-operation. This is a fundamental peculiarity of Co operation when we come to think of it. All of these other reforms are concerned with special and restricted classes of adult society. Not everybody is a plumber, a Trade Unionist, or a farmer, or even a worker. Co-operation includes everybody. Everybody is a consumer—men, women and children. Co-operation does not have to convert people to become consumers or to wait until everybody gets to be a consumer. Everybody is a consumer. No education or propaganda is necessary. In the home, too, men and women are nearest to being equals. This is not true of the workshop and factory. They are dominated by men. Women cannot have an equal voice there because industrial work is not women's permanent job. Work is men's permanent job. Women marry and become mothers. They leave the shop and go to the home and have babies. These they nurse and nurture. These functions interrupt women's life in industry, and like wise their influence and control in industry. The workshop cannot be representative. It largely represents the man worker. The home is the place where all types of human beings are represented—men, wo men, the young, and the aged. In the home above all places the interest of the children is best developed and protected. Co-operation is the only economic move ment that begins with the home. The home and the children are the centers about which it would build its new and free civi lization. When these are served, then we may turn to the factory and workshop and make them fit places for free people. The Things We Value Most "PEOPLE take better care of the things A they have worked for than of the things that come easily. The beautiful stores now in the hands of the co-operative societies in Leningrad and Moscow were confiscated from the men who created them. They are now in the hands of the co- operators; but it is obvious that they are not cared for or kept up as they formerly were. The stores of the Zurich society and of the Stockholm society are, next to these Russian stores, the most beautiful co-opera tive grocery stores in the world. But these Swiss and Swedish stores are well cared for—spick and span clean. Even though we may believe that the workers did create everything and every thing belongs to them, and all that, confis- acting things gets people into a bad habit. Everybody can always think of some reason why he has a claim on something in the possession of somebody else; and this mental state does not make for order. It is a sad sight, these once beautiful stores in Russia, now unclean and shabby, with all their "tarnished tinsel." If an in dividual had struggled and worked and saved to buy such a store from its former owner, one can be pretty sure he would be inclined to keep it up, ship shape. A group of co-operators would do the same. But a fancy personal possession, confiscated by a government, is no longer owned by a tender and solicitous master. Obervation is teaching that, even though people may be entitled to a thing, it is better to work for it and acquire it through the accepted channels of purchase than to get it for nothing. The things we treasure are the things acquired by effort, and the effort is good for us and makes us better and more considerate masters of property. J. P. W. Government Aid Resented PRESIDENT COOLIDGE in his speech to the National Council of Farmers' Marketing Association early in January, told these leaders of hundreds of thousands of farmers that they must help themselves to prosperity; the Federal Gov ernment could do very little to aid their co-operative program. The man who wrote that speech for Mr. Coolidge knew what he was talking about. But is it not strange that no such advice came from the Repub lican leaders before election in November? Previous to election day the politicians promised the farmers all kinds of govern ment assistance! The Vice-President of this National Council of Marketing Associations, Mr. Carl Williams, President of the American Cotton Growers Exchange, repeated these sentiments in a speech in New York a few days later. "An economic remedy for an economic problem" is Mr. Williams' ad vice. "We have no desire for paternalistic legislation. . . . We believe in self help. . . . Help for the farmer cannot come from the Government, but must come from an organization controlled by the farmers themselves. Government . . . relief is entirely out of order. The meeting in Washington was the first time that the or ganized farmers of the country have gone to the Government and told Congress to keep its hands off." Mr. Williams went on to say that the co-operative movement opposed political remedies for economic ills. Those sentiments are excellent. We re joice to find among the leaders of the large commodity marketing associations such sound common sense. And we are all the more ready to congratulate Mr. Williams and his fellow workers on these sentiments, because we disagree with them on others. For instance, Mr. Williams lets it be known that the co-operative marketing movement needs no legislative help because it stands in right with Wall Street and can get as good terms there as any other large borrowers. We should hate to get caught making any such statement about the con sumers' co-operative movement; first, be cause it would not be true; and second, be cause we should be very much ashamed to be classed with many of these large borrow ers from Wall Street; the militarist govern ment of France, the banking interests that are ruling over the peoples of certain Cen tral American countries, the mine operators of West Virginia, who keep so many gun men on their payrolls, the child-labor advo cates among the textile mill-owners. Can't we make it real self-help? With out going either to Washington or to Wall Street? Can We End This Economic Warfare? \ CCORDING to studies made at the ^"*- State College of Washington, the gro cer gets only 38 cents out of the average dollar spent by the consumer. According to students of agricultural economics, the farmer gets only 33 1/3 cents of the dollar which the consumer spends for farm products, and the middle man and retailer gets the rest. Then we have the banker or manufac turer who complains that he is not getting his share of the consumer's dollar. And the labor unionist has statistics to show that his share of the consumer's dollar should be much larger. They represent four classes, all interested in profiting from the consumers, and all fighting one another. And yet each one of these men is, as an individual, a consumer himself. Can't we get the individuals organized into the one movement that includes them all and then forget the conflicting classes? C. L. 24 CO-OPERATION CO-OPERATION 25 Co-operative Banking farmers and laboring people to the neces sity of a national co-operative banking system. Co-operative Banking Legislatio: Why We Need It By SMITH W. BROOKHART United States Senator from Iowa CO-OPERATIVE credit is the founda tion stone of the whole co-operative system. No co-operative system can reach a stage of permanent soundness and success unless it has its own co-operative banking and credit department, including reserve banks and all under its own control. Co-operative credit is also the one thing that will federate and unite all co-operative enterprises, whether of producers or of con sumers. Co-operative credit is also the easiest to bring to success of any of the co-operative enterprises. The reason of this is because there is always a market for credit. The product of the credit system always sells it self. If it is loaned safely so it will be re paid, it will be a success from the start. The labor banks are a noted success, and farmers could organize co-operative banks as successfully as labor. They can all unite in a co-operative reserve system, and then a great co-operative reserve system will be established which will give sound financial advice and support -to every other kind of co-operative enterprise, whether it be of producers or of consumers. This means a mobilization of the thrift savings of pro ducers and consumers of such magnitude that it would be possible to reorganize in dustrial life in the United States and change it from the competitive to the co operative method. In America we have started most of our co-operative enterprises without this co operative credit support, and many of them have failed. They will continue to fail, per haps, in as great percentage as competitive enterprises fail until the co-operative credit system is organized. A United States Sena tor said to me recently that 92 per cent of the men in competitive business fail. This is an appalling statement if true, and I do not doubt the truth of it. There is no de fense of a system that is 92 per cent failure. On the other hand, the great co-operative system in Great Britain now supported by a fine co-operative credit system, is almost a complete success. Such a reorganization of business in the United States would be a great advance toward stability, enterprise, and success. It would be better for business itself; and the business men of our country who shut their eyes toward this possibility are short sighted. The strangest part of this story is that we have no laws in the United States that even permit the organization of a co-opera tive credit system. There are laws which permit certain kinds of mutual banks, but there is no way of federating them into a system, and nearly all of these laws leave out some of the basic elements of co-opera tion. The labor banks now being organized are not co-operative nor do they have co operative charters. They cannot get such a charter under either national or state laws. They are forced to organize as profit corporations and operate under co-operative or partially co-operative by-laws. This is unjust. The farmers and laboring people have the inherent right to organize their savings in a co-operative banking system under their own control, but there is no law anywhe