t The source of this uncorrected OCR text may be viewed as a digital facsimile at: http://fax.libs.uga.edu/ •1 - J COOPERATION OFFICIAL ORGAN OF The Cooperative League o£ U. S. A. VOLUME XVII January December 1931 Published by the Cooperative League of U. S. A. 167 West 12th Street, New York City INDEX A PAGE Alanne, V. S ........................................................ 38, 110, 150, 188, 234 Alforeeht, A. E. ............................. ........................................ 118 Amalgamated Cooperative Housing Ass'n ........................................... 214 Amalgamated Credit Union ...................................................... 63, 93 Amalgamated Dwellings ......................................................... 2,2, 93 Aimeringer, Oscar .............................................................. 169, 217 Anniversary Greetings to Cooperation ...... .......................................... 2 Antoni, G. ........................................................................... 31 Austrian Cooperative Movement, History of the .................................... 217 Balbson's Statistical Organization ................................................... 226 Back to 'the Jungle ................................................................. 167 Baker, J. W. ..................................-..............'.................. 77, 191 Bakeries ...................................................................... 122, 161 Banking ............................................................................ 225 Banks-....................................................................... 9 117, 167 Bairnes, Alfred, M. P. .........................................................'...... 13 Barou, N. ........................................................................... 117 Bar-tlefct, B. W. ...................................................................... 216 Bergengiren, B. P.. .......................... ........................................ 104 Book Reviews ............................................. 34, 55, 75, 115, 136, 155, 216 Bowiman, L. E. ................................................................. 30, 205 Brooks, John Graham ............................................................... 3 Brookwcod Labor College .......................................................... 118 Burial Associations ............................................................ 149, 190 Business, Surveying ................................................................ 230 Can America be Prosperous? ........................................................ 42 Canada, Cooperation in ................................................ 32, 129, 171 232 Capitalism Defaults, When ................ ........................................' 28 Capitalism & Socialism, The new .................................................. ue Caltiholic Opinion .................................................................... 77 Central Cooperative Wholesale ................................... 48, 50, 55, 56, 108, 194 Central States Cooperative League .......................................... 93, 130, 171 Chambers of Commerce ............................................................ 113 Chase, Stuart ........................................................... 42, 82, 118, 137 China, Cooperation in ..................... ......................................... 36 Christian Socialists ................................................................. 53 Civilization .......................................................................... 23 Closser, W. H. ...................................................................... 5 CJoquet Cooperative Society .............................................. HO, 194, 132 Olusa Service, Inc. ................................................... 8, 28, 56, 109, 238 College, Cooperative .................................24, 57, 64, 77, 117, 138, 186, 197, 229 Colonies, Communists and Cooperative .............................................. 33 Competition, Free ................................................................... 82 Constant Crisis, The ................................................................ 15 Consumers Cooperative Services ............................................ 63, 147, 222 Consumer, Credit & Productive Ooopera'tive Societies in 1929 ........................ 115 Consumers' or Workers' Control? .................................................... 72 Consumption of Canned Goods ...................................................... 75 Contest. Cooperative Ptrices Win ...................................................... 27 Oooley, Oscar .......................................................... 209, 218, 222,, 227 Cooperation A Way Out ............................................................. 162 Cooperative Builder, The ....................................................... 167, 233 Cooperative Month, October ............................................... 149, 166, 188 Cooperatives Prosper in Bad Year .................................................... 69 Cooperative Fire Insurance Cos. of Woodridge, N. Y. ................................ 229 Coopeerative Trading Association of Brooklyn ..................................... 90 Cooperative Trading Company, Waukegan, 111. .............................. 26, 63, 121 INDEX PAGE Cooperators' Buying Club of Minneapolis............................................ 112 Cart, E. G. .......................................................................... 197 Craig A. ......................................................................... 5, 58 Creameries ............................................................. 81, 91, 122 161 Credit ........................................................................ 56, 70, 128 Credit Unions ........................................ 9, 62, 89, 104, 106, 117, 135, 142, 157 Crisis, The Constant ................................................................. 15 Crystal Cooperative Cleaners, Inc. ................................................... 234 Cut Price Merchants, Meeting the .................................................... 87 D Daivis, Jerome ....................................................................... 228 Denmark, Cooperation in ................... .......................................... 12 Depression ........................................................................... 232 Depression, Can Cooperatives turn to Their Own Accounts ......................... 222 Depression, How Cooperatives Can Fight ithe......................................... 210 Depression Prepares for Extension of Cooperation .................................. 205 Dillonvale Resolution, In Answer to ............................................ 16, 78 Disarmament ....................................................................... 151 Disaster in Bay of Biscay ..................................-..•••••••••-.•••••••••• 152 Dividends Mean a High .Mortality Bate? Do High .................................... 189 E Eastern States Cooperative League ...................................... 30, 85, 93, 170 Economics ........................................................................... 231 Edlberg, Gideon ................................................................. 98, 117 Educational Work Needed ........................................................... 225 Educational Committees ................................................ 55, 88, 122, 167 Education Makes Loyalty .......................................................... 183 Elanto Co. of Nashwauk, Minn. ..................................................... 112 Electric Transmission ..........................................••••.••••••••••••••••• 8 Employiess Voluntarily Cut Wages .......... .......................................... 70 Endorsements ..............................................-.•••••••••••••••••••• 28, 49 England, Cooperation in ..................... 13, 32, 55, 71, 128, 161, 172, 192, 211, 226, 231 Every Credit Union is a Cooperative Society......................................... 104 Farband Cooperative Housing Association ....................................... 93, 101 Farmers ............................................................ 9, 25, 70, 75, 230, 233 Fawners & the Farm Board ..................................................... 9, 25, 70 Fawners' Cooperatives in United States .............................................. 75 Farmers Union ..................................................................... 233 Farming by Consumer Societies ..................................................... 54 Finland, A Nation of Cooperators ................................................... 136 Finland, Cooperation in .............................................................. 33 Finnish Workers Society, Minneapolis ............................................... 234 Fire Fighting in Place of Hog-tying ................................................. France, Cooperation in .................... ................................... 172, 212 Franklin Cooperative Creamery Association. .................................. 50, 81, 88 Franklin Cooperative Creamery Educational Committee .............................. 234 Franklin Credit Union ............................................................... 63 G Gallen, Walter ..............."...........................................••••••••••.. 91 Garden Apartments, Brooklyn ...................................................... 90 German Socialists ...........................................-.......•••-•-•-•••••••• 52 Germany, Cooperation in ..........................•..••••••••••••••••• 13, 129, 151, 231 Gide, Cttias. ......................................-.....--.----••••••--••••••-••• 33, 112. Government, Prices raised by ........................................•••••••••••••••• 29 H Halonen, George .............................................-...•••••-•••••••••••••• 24 Hamilton, Peter .................................-.•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 4 ) INDEX 1 PAGE Hansome, Harms ................................................................... 156 Harris, Emerson P ................................................................... 3 Hayes, A. J. ......................................................................... 225 Health Protection ................................................................... 214 Herron, L. S. ..................................................... 18, 103, 137, 162, 183 Hindus, Maurice .................................................................... 196 History of the Austrian Cooperative Movement ..................................... 217 Hospital, A Cooperative ............................................................. 203 Housing .............................................................. 22, 71, 72, 189, 237 Hull, I. H. ........................................................................... 224 Hyde, Win. A. ....................................................................... 178 India, Cooperation in ............................................................... 153 Indiana Farm Bureau Cooperative Association ...................................... 224 Institutes, Summer ............................................................ 133, 170 Insurance ..... ................................8, 28, 31, 56, 83, 83, 109, 126, 150, 178, 238 Insurance, Fire .............................................................. 89, 126, 229 Insurance, Life ..............................................••••••••••••••••••• 31, 150 International Cooperative Alliance ................................. 54, 92, 114, 151, 210 International Summer School, llth .............................................. 92, 172 International Wholesale ............................................................ 210 Internationales Handwoerterbuch des Genossenchaftswesens ......................... 116 Isihipeming Consumers Cooperative Association, Michigan ............................ 112 Italian Cooperative .............................................................. 67, 145 Italy, Cooperation in ............................................................... 192 Jacobson, G. W. ..................................................................... 186 Jainrfouoh des Zentralverbandes deutscher Konsuanvereine ........................ 76 Japan, Cooperation in ............................................................... 41 Jewish Bakeries, Conference of Managers of......................................... 93 Jugo-Slavia, Cooperation in ......................................................... 72 Jungle, Back to .the ................................................................. 167 K Kasch, August ...................................................................... 191 Keen, George ....................................................................... 2 Kiuru, Helvi ........................................................................ 230 Klein Julius ............................. J......................................... 230 Labor ............................................................................. 23, 73 Labor Banks in United States ....................................................... 9 Laidler, Harry .................................................................. 116, 157 Laski, J. J. ........................................................................... 153 Leadership is Essential .............................................................. 125 League Directors Meet ............................................................. 209 League Executive Meeting .......................................................... 97 League Gets Results Abroad ................................................... 149, 177 Lecturing, I go a ................................................................... 94 Legal Pihases of Cooperative Associations ............................................ 75 Legislation in various countries, Cooperative......................................... 2.17 Liebman, H. ...................................................................... 57, 138 Long, Cedric .............. 23, 55, 62, 68, 106, 115, 125, 145, 155, 166, 168, 182, 188, 196, 202 M McCarthy, C. .................................................................... 102, 133 Marketing Dairy Products, Cooperation in........................................... 216 Mass Consumption .................................................................. 134 Mass Cooperative Co., Michigan ................................................... 112 Mayer, C. H ....................................................................... 38 Memorial Fund ................................................................. 133, 209 Mercer, T. W. ...................................................................... 51 Midland Cooperative Oil Association ............................................ 87, 147 r ' • i, INDEX PAGE Mill, John Stuart ................................................................... 53 MitMbusc'her, Wm. ................................................................ 133 Money .............................................................................. 207 Moore, U. G. ...................................................................... 5, 17 Motion Pictures ..................................................................... 234 Mr. Fox & Mr. Foodie in Business .......... .....................................,..'. 76 Muron, Jos. F. ...................................................................... 73 Mutual Service and Cooperation .................................................... 37 N Nebraska Farmers Union ................................................. 25, 49, 64, 91 Nebraska Farmers Union State Exchange ........................... 26, 49, 102, 109, 147 Negley, Henry ...................................................................... 57 Negroes' Cooperative League, Young ................................... 127, 145, 169, 227 Negro's Salvation, The American .................................................... 144 New Era Life Association ....................................................... 31, 150 New York State Agricultural College Endorsement ................................... 28 Nicotri, G. .......................................................................... 31 Nilsson, Harry ...................................................................... ng Nccntlhern Farmers' Cooperative Society of Angora, Minn. ............................. 112 Northern States Cooperative League ............'. 11, 12, 31, 50, 110, 130, 150, 170, 193, 233 No Great Cause for Enthusiasm .....................'................................ 126 Nordby, H. I. ....................................................................... 88 Nugent, Rolf ........................................................................ 157 O f d Cooperatives ....................................... 87, 109, 133, 147, 148, 169, 224, 23.3 Our Cooperative House .............................................................. 93 Our Credit Union .................................................................. 63 Owen, Robert ...................................................................... 52 Panics are Inevitable, Wihy .......................................................... g Park Association, Northern Wisconsin, Cooperative .................................. 132 Parker, Florence .................................................................... 115 Patronage Refund, Value of ......................................................... 123 Peculiar Forms of Cooperatives ..................................................... 67 Perky, Scott ........................................................................ 3 Petarson, P. D. ...................................................................... 91 Point of View ..............................15, 34, 52, 72, 94, 113, 134, 153, 173, 194, 214, 235 Poland, Cop/peration in ........................................................ 32, 55, 91 Political History of a Cooperative ................................................... 55 Politics ............................................................. 44, 153, 2S6, 2,17, 234 Politics and Cooperation Mix, Do ..........................................'......... 44 Politics, Cooperation and ..................................................... 34, 44, 53 Pollak, K. H. ...................................................................... 19G Potter, A. H. ............................................................ ^..i!].i][" 9 Prices Raised by Government ....................................................... 29 Prisoners Leam about Cooperation ................-...'............................. 209 Prize Picture Contest ........................................................... 14, 34 Producers Cooperation ........ ^................................................... 74' 89 Promising or Perfowning ............................................................ '194 Purity Cooperative Bakery Association, Paterson, N. J. ............................ 23 R Recent Trends in American Housing ............................................... 237 Red Bread .......................................................................... igg Regli, W. E. ................................................................. 36, 127, 181 Relation, of Membership to Population .............................................. 193 Religion in the Modern World ...................................................... 155 Renner, Karl ....................................................................... 151 Reports of Swedish Cooperative Union ............................................. 217 Retail Grocers' Problems ............................................................ 75 1 INDEX PAGE Retail Stores ........................................................................ 230 Richardson, J. B. ................................................................. 4, 17 Rinear, E. H. ....................................................................... 70 RocihdaJe, English Cooperative Store ............................................... 121 Rocfc Cooperative Company, Michigan .............................................. 194 Ronn, Eskel .............................................................. 4, 106, 117, 151 Rosenbhal, E. A. ................................................................... 3, 149 Ross, William .................................................................. 167, 122 Russia, Cooperation in .................................. 13, 54, 72, 117, 128, 152, 196, 212 Russian Cooiperative Banking ....................................................... 117 Russian Dumping, On ............................................................... 191 Ryazi, Joihn C. ...................................................................... 77 S Schools, Cooperative ........................... 70, 92 109, 110, 129, 132, 133, 170, 172, 233 Scihuyaer, George S. ..........,......................'...................... 144, 228, 234 Scotland, Cooperation in .............................................. 32, 33, 192, 213 Self and Society .................................................................... 216 Senior, Clarence ..................................................................... 118 Shadid, M. .......................................................................... 203 Shall Employees be Dismissed in Slack Times .................................... 23 Shaw, Bernard, on the Professions ................................................. 97 Shaw, Tom ......................................................................... 93 Shiiplaeoff, A. ........................................................................ 30 " Shoe Factories, Cooperative ........................................................ 89 Slogans, Prizes for ................................................................. 213 Socialism ............................................................................ 118 Socialism & Cooperation ....................................................... 73, 117 Socialism not Purely Political .......................................................' 58 Socialisfe, Ooeiperation and the ..................................................... 52 Sonriicthsen, Albert ................................................................ 2, 168 Soo Cooperative Mercantile Association, Michigan .................................. Ill Soup Stone, The .................................................................... ?3fl South Africa, Cooperation in ....................................................... 232 Spradinig, Chas. T. ................................................................. 37 Statistics ...............................................46, 48, 50, 68, 92, 115, 148, 210, 230 Stocfe Ownerdhifp by Employees .................................................. 68, 90 Subscription to Cooperation ........................................ 10, 13, 37, 38, 56, 98 Sunmyside Consumers Cooperative ................................................. 90, 93 Sweden, Cooperation in ................................................. 13, 152, 202, 217 Switzerland, Cooperation in ........................................................ 192 Syf jala, Frank J. .................................................................... 168 INDEX PAGE ,L VerbrsU'dher Woche ................................................................. 77 Virginia Work People's Trading Co., Minnesota .................................... 112 Vukowitsch, P. A. ................................................................... 217 W Waa-basse, J. P. ............ 13, 15, 33, 34, 52, 72, 94, 106, 113, 116, 134, 136, 142, 153, 156, 167, 168 173 194, 207, 214, 216, 226, 234, 237 Ward, H. F. ..................................................................... 138, 155 Wanne, C. E. ............................................................... 4, 30, 44, 77 Warning to Managers and Directors ................................................. 55 Waukegan Cooperative Credit Union ............................................... 63 What is Consumers' Cooperation ................................................... 173 When Southern Labor Stirs ......................................................... 156 Which Way Religion? ............................................................... 155 Whitnall, C. B. ................................................................... 6, 124 Wholesale, Eastern Cooperative ................................................ 30, 49, 93 Wholesale Grocers' Problems ....................................................... 75 Wholesales ................................................................... 30, 48, 49 Women's Cooperative Guilds ........................................ 11, 88, 131, 152, 194 Women Study Cooperation in Germany ............................................. 129 Wood. E. E, ......................................................................... 237 Woodcock, L. E. ..................................................................... 30 Worcester, Eastern States Convention in............................................. 85 Workers Cooperative Society of Marquette, Midi. .............................. Ill, 133 Workers Credit Union, Fitchburg, Mass. ............................................. 62 Workers Credit Union, Lawrence, Mass. ............................................. 160 Workers Vote, The .................................................................. 235 Workmen's Circle Cooperative Bakery, Worcester .................................. 93 Workmen's Furniture Fire Insurance Society..................................... 89, 126 World Workers Educational Movements ............................................. 156 Year Book, People's ................................................................. 55 Year Book, 1931, C. L. U. S. A., Second.............................................. 237 Young Negroes Cooperative League .................................... 127, 145, 169, 227 Your Job and Your Pay ............................................................. 196 Youth Leagues .......................................... 8, 11, 70, 109, 127, 132, 170, 234 Zeuch, W .E. .................................................................... 5, 64 Tariff Walls Between States ......................................................... 86 Tanner, Vaino ...................................................................... 71 Telephone Companies Convene ..................................................... 70 Thomas, Norman ................................................................... 117 Thugutt, S. ......................................................................... 217 Tippett, Tom ................................................................... 156, 196 Totamianz, V. ....................................................................... 116 Trade Unions and Cooperation ..................................................... 90 Tuura, Clhas. G. ..................................................................... 57 Two Streams ....................................................................... 145 U Ukrania, Cooperation in ............................................................ 91 Under the Lash, of the Lictors ....................................................... 112 Unemployment ................................................................. 124, 157 Unemployment and its Enemies ................................................. 23, 157 Union of Cooperative Employees ................................................... 48 United Cooperative Farmers of Fitchburg........................................... 230 University of W. Va. Fraternities Install Cooperative Buying ......................; 229 20 COOPERATION PUBLICATIONS / .^OF— THE COOPERATIVE LEAGUE HISTORICAL Per Copy Per 1 iO 3. Story of Cooperation .......... $ .10 7. British Cooperative Movement.. .05 38. Consumers Cooperation in the United States (illug.), 1930.... .10 59. Cooperative Movement In Europe .05 64 Progress of Cooperation in United States ....................... -05 69. Story of Toad Lane (By Stuart Chase) ...................... -05 TECHNICAL How to Start and Run a Rochdale Cooperative Society .......... .10 A Model Constitution and By- Laws for a Cooperative Society .05 Cooperative Education. Duties of Educational Committee Defined .10 How to Start a Cooperative Whole sale ......................... .10 Why Cooperative Stores Fail.... .02 How to Start and Run a Women's Guild ........................ -10 How to Organize a District Coop erative League .............. .10 Credit Union Primer (By Ham and Robinson) .............. .50 Cooperative Housing ............ .10 Model Lease for Cooperative Apartment House ............ .10 27. 14. $6.'iO 4.i>0 8.10 4.(0 4.1,0 4.i)0 2.60 l.liO 16. 46. 11. 12. 13. 34. 30. 49. 55. 57. 62. 63. C7. '68. 70. 71. MISCELLANEOUS Model Co-op State Law ........ .10 Producers' Cooperative Industries .10 Control of Industry by the People through the Co-op Movement .10 Credit Union and Cooperative Store ........................ -05 The Place of Cooperation Among Other Movements ............ .25 Cooperative Movement (Yiddish) .02 "When the Whistle Blew" (Story, by Biruce Calvert) .......... 06 International! Directory of Coop erative Marketing (By Benson Y. Landis) .................. .25 Cooperative Homes for Europe's Homeless .................... .10 A Way Out .................... .02 A Better World to Live In .... .05 How a Consumers' Cooperative Differs from Ordinairy Business .02 Buttons (League emblem), %, inch diameter ............... .05 Sign or Transparency of League Emblem. Green and gold, 8 in. diameter .................... .25 Stock certificates, engraved, with League Emblem. Bound in books of 100, 200, or 250 To Mothers ......... ......... .02 Farmers Marketing and Consum ers Cooperation; An address by J. P. Warbasse .......... .10 International Cooperation: An ad dress by H. J. May ......... .10 l.rs .75 .85 2.UO 15.00 1.00 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 Cooperative League; (20) Why Loyalty Is Necessary; (21) Cos' ^ .15 and Crime of Credit; (25) Resolutions Adopted by A. F. of L.; (26) Factory Workers Cooperate!: (28) Do You Know About Cooperation in Europe?: (40) Have You a Committee on Education anil Recreation?; (45) Schools and Stores. MONTHLY PUBLICATIONS Cooperation—(In bundle lots, $7.50 per hundred). Subscription, per year (foreign, $1,25).... $1.00 REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL <~ ^OPERATION (Pub. by the I. C. A.) ........ fer Year, $1.50 $1.65 if paid by check. BOOKS The following books are recommended as con taining the best discussion of the model i Coopera tive Movement. They may be ordered through The Leaeue: Blanc, Elsie T.: Cooperative Movement in Russia ............................... ?2.50 Brightwill, L. R.: Animal "Co-op" Book— For Children ........................ Chase and Schlink: Your Money's Worth, A Book for Consumers ............... 2.00 Flanagan, J. A.: Wholesale Cooperation in Scotland, 1920 .......................... 2.00 Gide, C.: Consumers' Cooperative Societies, American edition and notes, 1922. Cloth 2.00 Hall, Prof Fred: Handbook for Members of Cooperative Committees .............. 2.00 Harris. Emerson P.: Cooperation, The Hope of the Consumer, 1918. Paper bound.... Holyoake: Rochdale Pioneers ............ 1 Indian Cooperation, Children's story ...... -Iv. Jessness, O. B.: Cooperative Marketing of f Farm Products ...................--•-- 3.0Q Kayden, E. M., and Anfeiferov, A. N.: Cooperative Movement in Russia During the War ............................. Ms flams, J. P.: The Story Retold ........ Mears and Tobriner: Principles and Prac tices of Cooperative Marketing ....... Nicholson, Isa: Our Story ................ Oerne. Andrew: Cooperative Ideals and Problems ......................••••>•• Owen, Robert: Autobiography ............ Poisson, E.: The Cooperative Republic.... Potter, B.: Cooperative Movement in Great Britain ...................-...-.--•••• Redfern, Percy: The Story of the C. W. S. Redfern, Percy: The Consumers' Place in Society. 1920 .......................... 1-00 Smith-Gordon & Staples: Rural Recon struction in Ireland, 1918 ............ Smith-Gordon and O'Birien: Cooperation in Denmark ............................. Smith-Gordon and O'Brien: Cooperation in Many Lands, 1920 .................... Stolinsky, A.: The Cooperative Movement. (In Yiddish) ......................... Wairbasse, J. P.: Cooperative Democracy, (1927') . ...................... 1-5 Warbassel J.'P.:'What Is Cooperation, 1927 .75 Warne, C E.: Consumers' Cooperative Move ment in Illinois ...................... S.oO Webb. B. and S.: The Consumers' Coopera tive Movement, 1921 .................. B.OO Webb, Catherine: Industrial Cooperation, 4.00 .11: 3.20 .£5 1.25 .50 1.75 1.00 2.0- 1.00 l.OC 1.51 1.0 NortheriTlstates "Year" Book, 1928. Paper.. The People's Year Book, 1931, Cloth, $1.25; paper hound ....................... • - Year Book of The Cooperative League, 1«30. Cloth, $1.50; paper bound ............ 1-00 (Ten cents postage should be added for aU booKs.) .60 .75 ..feb. GENERAL LIBRARY 931 GEORGIA A magazine to spread the knowledge of the Cooperative Movement, where- fey the people, in voluntary associa tion, produce and distribute for their own use the things they need. Published monthly Tiy THE COOPERATIVE LEAGUE OF THE U. S. A. 167 West 12th Street, New York City CEDRIC LONG, 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 $1.00 a year. VOL. XVH, No. 1 JANUARY, 1931 10 CENTS IN THIS ISSUE My Point of View: The Constant Crisis By J. P. Warbasse Why Panics Are Inevitable By c. B. whitnaii Answers to Dillonvale Resolution on Politics Women's Guilds and Youth Leagues A Drastic Proposal to Affiliated Societies Readers Express Themselves on 17th Birthday of COOPERATION I u COOPERATION Anniversary Greetings to COOPERATION MANY OLD READERS EXPRESS THEIR THOUGHTS ABOUT THE NATIONAL MAGAZINE Many of the long-time readers of this magazine were told several weeks ago that January marks the begin ning of the 17th year since the little Cooperative Consumer first made its appearance under the editorship of Albert Sonnichsen and the support of a small group of stalwart enthusiasts. These men were interested in pro moting consumers cooperation in the Greater New York territory and in exploring the other sections of the country to learn just what cooperative societies might be in existence to the westward of New Jersey and to the north of Long Island Sound. That little paper with each succeeding issue penetrated farther and farther to the west, north and southward, bringing to hundreds of isolated cooperators the glad tidings that elsewhere in the country men and women were making the same valiant efforts to promote cooperative societies. It was the true beginning of an understanding upon which The Cooperative League and a unified cooperative movement have been founded. The present editor of COOPERATION and the staff of The League pay their humble respects to those good pioneers who made rela tively easy the work which they do today. PROM THE EDITOR OP THE CANADIAN COOPERATOR COOPERATION, with its December issue, celebrates the completion of sixteen years of publication, an event upon which The Cooperative League of the U. S. A. is to be con gratulated. In a country where the Cooperative Movement is so little understood, and so much misunderstood, and even misrepresented by people who profess to be cooperators, the continuous publication of a genuine cooperative organ is an achievement of great im portance and significance. During the whole of that period I have read COOPERATION with interest and much personal satisfaction and advantage. I have had reason to appreciate its devotion to genuine cooperative ideals, and the great ability with which they have been given expres sion. The completion of sixteen years of cooperative service has only been possible through the loyal support of the general body of cooperators, including the members, employees and directors of cooperative societies in the U. S. A., readers of the journal, and the enthu siastic, sustained and self-sacrificing efforts of the staff of The League responsible for its publication. To them, therefore, an expression is also due. I tender my best wishes for the future success of COOPERATION and a career of ever- increasinj; value and usefulness to the Cooperative Cause. Yours faithfully, GEORGE KEEN, General Secretary Cooperative Union of Canada. PROM THE FIRST EDITOR OP COOPERATION The trouble with practically all big social movements is that they are too much philo sophy and too little practice. The Consumers Cooperative Movement is unique in being exactly the opposite; all practice and no theory; a great, huge body without a head. CO OPERATION, so far as I know, is the only journal which is trying to rationalize the move ment to its own members; the only publication preaching a simon-pure Cooperation as a remedy for the anarchy of capitalism. The day will come, I think, when its pages will be studied more thoughtfully than they yet have been. Talking to a generation pernaps yet unborn is a thankless task, but it bears fruit nevertheless. Sincerely, ALBERT SONNICHSEN Willimantic, Conn. COOPERATION FROM THE LEAGUE'S FIRST SECRETARY I send a word of congratulation to The League and its magazine COOPERATION on this seventeenth anniversary of its original publication. I had the pleasure of knowing the magazine's original editors, and I have always followed its progress with a great deal of interest. Its subject matter has been increasingly important and the manner of presenting it more useful. It is very small and reaches only a few people, but it performs the incal- cula'ble service of holding before its readers the possibility of effective resistance to the many undemocratic, antisocial tendencies in American life and business. We all live in communities and depend in large measure for our happiness upon the conditions of community life; and it is in the community that democracy stands or falls. The development of cooperative machinery within our community is something that each of us can encourage; and organized self help, together with the spirit of mutual aid which makes it possible, is our only warrant that we shall achieve freedom and suitable govern ment. Yours sincerely, SCOTT PERKY Batavia, N. Y. FROM ANOTHER OF THE ORGANIZERS OF THE LEAGUE I do not want to miss the opportunity to extend to COOPERATION on its seventeenth birthday my sincere congratulations, and to express my appreciation of the splendid service it is rendering in fostering the ideals and promoting the practice of cooperation in this country. The achievements of our magazine are due not only to the untiring efforts of its de voted staff, but also to the loyal support of all its readers — rank and file members, em ployees and directors alike — which has been a vital element of its success. Let us continue our support in an ever greater measure, so that our magazine may be able to extend more and more its field of usefulness in the service of our great movement. Yours for Cooperation, E. A. ROiSENTHAL President, Consumers' Cooperative Services, N. Y. City FROM A FORMER DIRECTOR Editor COOPERATION:— Noting with interest the approach of the 17th birthday, may I send a word of congrat ulation. It has certainly been a valuable thing to have a messenger sounding a clear note of progress and enlightenment in our backward business of distribution. Dr. Julius Klein of the Department of Commerce recently called attention to the fact that on the average ten per cent was wasted in ruinous, inefficient distribution. If constant dropping wears away the stone, your clear voice should some time help the poor family which loses one in every ten of its food dollars. May COOPERATION long continue the true note. Fraternally, EMERSON P. HARRIS Author, "Cooperation, Hope of the Consumer." FROM A WELL-KNOWN ECONOMIST AND TEACHER Your 17th anniversary gives me the happy occasion to send much more than a con ventional message of congratulation. I have long watched the patience and tenacity with which your leadership, with its loyal following, has held to its main purpose. The defects and inner disagreements which have shadowed this great movement from the first, seem never to have lessened your ardor or your confidence. As for your magazine, I never like to miss a single issue. I like the candor and frank ness of its discussions, but most of all perhaps because one sees there so vividly the more spiritual side of the movement as a whole. Nowhere is there such hope of a self-respecting democracy as that promised by this movement. With every best wish, I am, Very sincerely, JOHN GRAHAM BROOKS Cambridge, Mass. COOPERATION A WHOLESALE MANAGER WRITES The present economic crisis, with its attendant mass unemployment of the industrial workers and prostration of millions of farmers, brings out forcefully the iniquities and social injustice of the present capitalist system which is based upon exploitation and the profit motive. 1 Now, if ever, is the opportune time to stress the necessity of changing the present economic system of society, and to teach the working class to organize for the accomplish ment of that task. In that achievement the cooperative movement is one of the essential means by which the workers are trained to take care of their own affairs. The mass activi ties of the cooperative movement provide a collective education whose significance and importance in the final result cannot be overestimated. The fact that cooperation offers immediate economic advantages to those who most need them, namely—to the workers and farmers, its appeal is all the more timely and ef fective during the period of general economic crisis. That fact we cooperators must utilize with redoubled activity. We must get a more thorough knowledge of the principles of co operation spread among the workers and farmers of this country. In this work our na tional magazine COOPERATION can play a very important role. For the few coopera tive oases that we have been able to build in this "Great American Desert," COOPERA TION has provided an important source for guidance and encouragement. Let us all help to make it still better able to cope with the tasks and responsibilities of the future. ESKEL BONN Manager, Cooperative Central Exchange, Superior, Wis. FROM A READER OF TWELVE YEARS' STANDING Editor COOPERATION:— Kindly allow one of your continuous readers since 1918 to congratulate you on the completion of sixteen years of useful service and fidelity in promoting the high ideals of consumers cooperation. Also allow him to add a bit of testimony regarding how you changed him from a firm believer in individual competition to a staunch believer in co operation and the future "cooperative commonwealth." The writings of Dr. and of Mrs. J. P. Warbasse have helped him most during the last six years of his intensive research into the histories (experiences) of the world coopera tive movement in quest of the underlying fundamental social principles of cooperative suc cess and the causes of cooperative failures. As in the past, during the coming years, may your pages continue to overflow with records of such experiences. May the leaders, directors and members who write be careful to analyze the causes of the failures as well as to state the reasons for the successes in order to be of much service to students of cooperation. J. B. RICHARDSOiN Lakeside, Wash. FROM ONE WHO HELPED ORGANIZE THE LEAGUE It is difficult to realize that COOPERATION is seventeen years old, so rapidly do the young grow up. I am proud to be associated with the pioneers, however humble my position among them may have been, for I still believe that in Consumers Cooperation is to be found the solution of the economic ills that plague us and which, are just now receiving so much perplexed attention. As it is a matter of education, experimentation and profit—a slow process—I would bid COOPERATIOiN be patient and continue to keep the faith. PETER HAMILTON Brooklyn, N. Y. FROM THE DIRECTOR OF THE LEAGUE CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOL Greetings to COOPERATION on its seventeenth birthday! This sturdy champion of a new social order has now weathered the dreary decade of the 20's. It has seen the rise and fall of the belief that a new type of capitalism could bring high incomes, satisfactory products and security of work. With the prosperity myth thus disposed of, the world co operative movement should go forward with even greater vigor in its work of eliminating the profit system. In this endeavor, COOPERATION will, as in the past, carry its share. Sincerely, COLSTON E. WARNE Amherst College. COOPERATION^ FROM A FORMER DIRECTOR For seventeen years the magazine COOPERATION has been the dominating influence in keeping ever before its readers true principles of Rochdale cooperation. It undoubtedly could not have done so in any degree as efficiently or consistently had it not been for the staunch adherence to cooperative principles and the complete understanding and ac companying sympathy of problems facing cooperative societies all over the nation, of Dr. J. P. Warbasse. Any tribute paid to the magazine COOPERATION must perforce be partly his. On this seventeenth anniversary of the printing of the first issue of COOPERATION, the Soo Cooperative Mercantile Association sends its most sincere felicitations, declaring the worth of the publication as being beyond monetary valuation, and extends to the staff of editors best wishes for an equally successful future. W. H. CLOSSER Vice President, Soo Cooperative Mercantile Association Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. FROM A LABOR EDUCATOR My heartiest congratulations on an anniversary that marks sixteen years of hard work for and consecration to. an ideal economic purpose. Such consistent and constant educational effort in this intense era of "rugged individualism" indicates the existence of a body of men and women devoted and loyal to the cooperative idea. These men and wom en are the true pioneers. Along with COOPERATION they have my sincerest admiration. W. E. ZEUCH Director, Commonwealth College, Mena, Arkansas. FROM ANOTHER FRIEND OF MANY YEARS So the magazine is now about to enter its seventeenth year! It is said that "the first hundred years are the hardest." However, the first sixteen years have seen some decided improvements in the cooperative situation in these United States, and I cannot but feel that some of this is due to the efforts that have been concentrated in The League and our magazine, COOPERATION. Those sixteen years have seen a wave of sentimental cooperation go over the country and end in sickening failure, much of it; they have seen much fakery in cooperation. CO OPERATION, throughout this period has mirrored much of this, has explained some of it, and helped in the beginnings of order, of sane administration and development. It is now helping to ward off the candle-snuffer of political action. I cannot but have in mind the contribution made by Dr. Warbasse, both of time and money, in the work that has been done in this connection. Surely, we must remember this, not in a foolish and bunk sentimentalism, but in sincere respect and admiration for the work he undertook and carried forward against great odds. Of course, the rank and file have done some things and there can be nothing but praise for those who have helped; but it is safe to say that COOPERATION with the wholehearted support of all those who call themselves cooperators, or who are members of organizations which style themselves cooperatives, can achieve a vastly greater stature than at present. I give you my best wish for such a happy event, not afar off, but soon. Sincerely, U. G. MOORE Seattle, Wash. YET ANOTHER READER OF A DECADE Dear Friends:— It is the misfortune of most organs of propaganda societies that much of their contents is old stuff to the insiders and seldom reaches the outsiders. COOPERATION is an ex ception, so far as I am concerned. I read it eagerly, because I am sure to find some facts that I can use in my own missionary efforts, and some ideas that help me to think more clearly. Also it is the kind of publication that one can hand to a prospect in full con fidence that it will make a good impression. I offer my hearty congratulations for your continued success. Yours truly, ARCHIBALD CRAIG Jersey City, N. J. C O O P E R A TI O N Why Panics Are Inevitable By C. B. WHITNALL Secretary, Commonwealth Mutual Savings Bank, Milwaukee Our manner of financing creates a tremendous discrepancy between ac tual values given to labor and the in flation caused by interest^bearing obligations and dividend exploitation. The readjustment of affairs induces deflation that makes the people hard up. In the consideration of values, we are obliged to use money (the dollar) as our measuring stick. Money is a receipt for service per formed or a value added to the world's wealth; it differs from a ware house receipt because it is not based on any particular property. It may have* been given for making a side walk, but may be exchanged for gro ceries, clothing, etc.—it is simply a measure of value at the time ex changes are made. The currency that represents these credits is used by individuals in making personal ex changes to save bookkeeping, but for larger transactions it is accumulated by bankers, not by hoarding the cur rency but by recording ledger ac counts. The banker is the communi ty's bookkeeper. There is nothing productive about a bank, but its serv ice is of value, and this service should be paid for as service. Banks should not subsist by graft, that is, loaning or paying out less than the borrower is obliged to pay back. Bankers Entitled to Service Charge Only For instance, a cargo of coal arrives in October. The banker is the only person in town who has accumulated enough credits to balance the value of the cargo. He loans this to the coal dealer, who collects pay from his cus tomers and gradually returns the credit to the bank. The bank is en titled to service pay just as is the ship that carries the coal. The coal dealer should add this cost to the price of the coal as well as a service fee for his own work. This is a division of labor and is the most efficient and econom ical. The banker is as worthy of his hire as any other person, but it is not customary for banks to charge for service. They charge the coal mer chant interest, which very often is an equitable amount for service but it is arbitrary and often in excess of the service. It is a graft regardless of actual equity and invariably gives the banker more or less advantage. It should be borne in mind con stantly that all property, on which money credits are based, begins to deteriorate as soon as produced. Therefore, in time these credit values shrink below the credit recorded, and the dollar's value is only maintained by the fact that goods are continually being consumed and replenished by new. A warehouse receipt for wheat ten years old would be exchangeable only at a discount but for the fact that the original wheat had been de livered to the miller and the farmer had sent in a fresh supply. However, there is some depreciation, buildings, machinery, etc. that wear out, but this depreciation is so slight and well distributed as not to cause a hard ship. Perhaps the occasional destruc tion of currency by fire or otherwise may nearly balance. Banks Gain As Property Depreciates Modern or capitalistic bookkeeping does not construct balance sheets on the equal exchange or cooperative principle. Modern business does not conduct the exchange of values on an equal or equitable basis. The credits based on property that is constantly deteriorating are loaned as interest- bearing obligations or invested in div idend exploitation. In this manner there is created an ever increasing discrepancy between actual property values available by the actual pro ducer of wealth and the financier's claim for credits. There is gradually COOPERATION shown on the credit side of the finan cier's ledger a tremendous unearned increment that paralyzes mutual ex changes. The credits of the produc tive or industrial portion of our popu lation are at a discount. For instance, dividend payments in August of this year totalled $447,687,154, an increase of nearly six million dollars over the dividend payments made in August, 1929. Yet everyone knows that the people's pay envelopes have been de flated, and in thousands of cases been entirely empty. Interest-bearing ob ligations always create unequal re compense for actual service, and when this inequality passes the point of endurance, hard times and unem ployment are inevitable. When you see a person consuming a dollar he did not earn, you know that some one who did earn it has been deprived of it. Years ago people on the Island of Guernsey built a market place, new docks, and other municipal improvements, for which they issued to labor and for materials due bills that might be called script. These due bills were made returnable in payment for taxes. This gave them a value as recognized by the city gov ernment, representing improvements the benefit of which were enjoyed by the whole population and were there fore exchangeable. This worked beau tifully until London financiers put a stop to it. There was no money lend ers' graft in it. It was virtually con sumers cooperation applied to munic ipal improvements. Cities Not Allowed to Issue Currency Our cities, most of them, borrow credits because they are too impa tient to wait for the accumulation of taxes, so they put the entire popula tion under bondage by issuing bonds, bearing interest, and usually matur ing serially in twenty years. Thus if the rate of interest be 5%, each $1,000 bond will cost the city $1,500, just 50% more than the municipality received value for. Just think how this affects some. For example, two babies are born. One inherits some of these bonds, the other inherits nothing. Is it not true that one is held in bondage by the other? This, of course, is not chattel slavery, but it is financial slavery. We did away with chattel slavery in Ab raham Lincoln's time. I wonder which of our presidents will have the cour age to do away with financial slave ry. Why may not our municipalities do what national banks are doing? They secure government bonds and deposit them with Uncle Sam as collateral security for greenbacks that Uncle Sam issued to them. The bank main tains ownership of the bonds and col lects the interest on them. All the bank is prevented from doing is to sell them to a third party. But the greenbacks are paid out over the bank's counter as the bank's own money. It is the taxing power back of the government bonds that makes the national bank notes good. Why can not Milwaukee or any other city send its bonds to Uncle Sam and get green backs to pay out for improvements and thus avoid payment of interest? Of course, the capitalist who Is ever eager to get possession of Milwaukee bonds will object because it would prevent him from collecting semi- annually enough to keep him in lux ury for which he gives nothing in re turn. This is where millions upon mil lions of unearned increment are ab stracted from productive energy and lessen the producer's ability to pur chase for his own welfare property equal to what he has contributed. This discrepancy always induces in flation for a time, but when these in terest and dividend obligations reach a demand in excess of what the pub lic can pay from its unequal portion of actual product, the day of reckon ing is forced upon us. It is not a psy chological symptom. It is deprivation in earnest. As people are able to com prehend this situation, they will ap preciate the higher standard of civili zation and assist in its gradual devel opment through the efforts of the Consumers Cooperative Movement. COOPERATION News and Comment LEAGUE INSURANCE DEPART MENT OPENED The new insurance department, authorized at the recent Cooperative Congress, was officially launched on December 16th by the executive com mittee of the board of directors of The League. This department is to operate as an independent corporation named CLU- SA SERVICE, INC. The stock will be held in trust by the board of directors of The League under a special trust agreement. William Hyde who organ ized this department is the Treasurer- Manager in charge. Insurance on household furniture coming to The League office will be placed with the Workmen's Furniture Fire Insurance Society already affil iated with The League. Life insur ance will be turned over to the New Era Life Association, likewise already affiliated. For other lines of fire and casualty insurance, agreements have been made with certain large mutual insurance companies whereby CLU- SA SERVICE, INC. will receive com missions on all policies written by it. Mr. Hyde will act as a general in surance broker and will also be agent for some of these companies. The first line of business open is that of fidelity bonding. The largest mutual in the country has offered a position bond to The League under which blanket fidelity protection is offered to the bonded officers or em ployees of The League, district leagues, and all societies affiliated with The League which are audited by The League Accounting Bureau or by certified public accountants ac ceptable to this bureau. A large vol ume of such business is already as sured from the societies in greater New York alone and all of them will receive immediate and very substan tial benefits in reduced premiums on their fidelity bonds. COOPERATIVE ELECTRIC TRANSMISSION More than 3,000 farmers in a dozen organized rural districts in Pierce County, Washington, are getting the benefits of cooperative service for transmission lines built by themselves and directly connected with the mu nicipal power plant at Tacoma. Ac cording to an article in the Grange News, The Elmhurst Mutual Co., an example of this system, charges its farmer members five cents per kilo watt hour for the first twenty hours and one cent per kilowatt hour there after. The benefits of this coopera tive service directly tied up to munici pal ownership may be clearly seen when rates for the Mutual Company are compared with those paid by con sumers to various of the private com panies in the state. Mutual Bate Compared with Trust Extortion 20 KWH 40 KWH 80 KWH Mutual Company $1.00 $1.20 $1.60 Republic (Private) 3.40 6.80 13.25 Raymond (Private) 1.60 3.20 6.10 Wenatchee (Priv.) 1.50 3.00 5.20 Kelso (Private) 1.40 2.80 4.80 YOUTH LEAGUE AT SOO The Soo Cooperative Mercantile As sociation of Sault Ste. Marie, Michi gan, now boasts of one of the few leagues of young people to be found among the non-Finnish societies in the country. The organization meet ing was held on November 17th with Toivo Tenhunen, youth organizer from Superior, present. At the initial meeting 25 young men and women between the ages of 14 and 24 registered their intention to become loyal members of the organi zation. The meeting elected Robert Vauh- konen as organization secretary, Irene Scozzafave as recording secre tary and John Smith as treasurer. COOPERATION FARMERS AND THE FARM BOARD "The Board has at its disposal 500 million dollars to make farmers' co operatives cooperate, but not one cent to help them fight each other," is the high-sounding paraphrase of a fa mous epigram that is being repeated in speeches all over the country by a member of the Federal Farm Board. Action speaks louder than words, and Farm Board action makes this para phrase just a bit of hollow rhetoric. In the field of live-stock marketing alone—to say nothing about grain and other lines—the Farm Board has already set up new marketing agen cies at St. Joseph, Mo., and Denver, Colo., to compete with well-estab lished and successful cooperative marketing agencies that are render ing excellent service and are open to all live-stock producers. In the territory of the Omaha mar ket, a field representative of the Farm Board is holding meetings, arranged by county agricultural agents, to or ganize a new live-stock marketing agency at Omaha to compete with the Farmers Union Live Stock Com mission, the oldest of the central live stock cooperatives, and one of the most successful. Since this agency was established in 1917, it has dis tributed patronage dividends aggre gating over a million dollars. _ The only sin committed by these agencies, and the sin for which the Farm Board is setting up competing agencies to fight them, is that they have refused to surrender their iden tity and autonomy by joining the Farm Board's national live-stock cor poration. LABOR BANKS IN THE UNITED STATES The decline in the amount of resources of labor banks, superficially hailed ten years ago as the solution of all financial problems for labor, Is clearly shown in the following table published by the Bureau of Labor Sta tistics of the United States Department of Labor: End of December 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 No. of Banks 2 4 10 18 26 36 35 32 27 22 14 Share Capital $960,000 1,280,000 2,050,473 4,222,230 6,441,267 9,069,072 8,914,508 8,282,500 7,537,500 6,687,500 4,112,500 Total Resources $3,628,867 12,782,173 26,506,723 51,496,524 85,325,884 115,015,273 126,533,542 119,818,416 116,307,256 108,539,894 68,953,855 WHAT THE FARMERS NEED The farmers will never get relief from their distressed condition by any help from Washington. Their only hope is in themselves. From all I can learn from government and other sources, farm debts are getting larger and larger and farm conditions be coming Jiarder and. harder. Without efficient cooperation we farmers will surely reach the peasant level. Co operation, to be effective, must be free of the present dominant financial methods. It will have to become fearless, dominant, independent and aggressive. The farmer, to save himself and his country from be coming an oligarchy of wealth, has got to take his own business into his own hands from producer to consumer. The very greed of the business world, which has built up the present system, has furnished the farmer his opportunity to become the dominant force in his own affairs. Is he big enough and fearless enough and free enough from personal selfish ambition to meet the crisis that is upon him? A. H. Potter, Bayfield County, Wis., in The Farmer. 10 COOPERATION Drastic Proposal to Affiliated Societies SHALL SUBSCRIPTIONS TO "COOPERATION" BE INCLUDED IN PER CAPITA MEMBERSHIP DUES? "Outlay for cooperative intelligence is just as important as outlay for new paint on the store building or advertising of special sales in the local newspaper." Such was the general tone of a discussion at the meeting of the Board of Directors of The League at Superior in October. Since nine out of every ten societies will not subscribe for the national cooperative maga zine for even their own directors and employees why should we not work out some method whereby these people should automatically receive the journal regularly each month? Why wait for the haphazard interest and doubtful action of presidents or secretaries before those responsible for the success or failure of the local society are assured of getting regular information about events in the cooperative movement? We all are very careful to charge up to operating expenses the depreciation on counters, shelving, or the old horse that pulls the delivery wagon; is it not at least of equal importance that a similar charge be made to depreciation of cooperative interest and enthusiasm among the officers, store clerks or delivery men? We now im prove our bakery equipment or refrigerating machinery as rapidly as fi nances permit; should we not also regularly spend something for improving the mental equipment of the men and women meeting in directors' meetings or charged with the responsibility for presenting the cooperative message to those who come to buy the cooperative goods? The upshot of this discussion was the proposal that societies affiliated with The League should, in addition to their regular dues based on number of members (or sales turnover), also pay a sum sufficient to guarantee that every director and every regular employee should receive the magazine CO OPERATION throughout the year. The only logical guarantee of this kind would be an amendment to the Constitution of The League making such an additional tax a part of the membership fee (as is done by so many labor unions and farmer's fraternal organizations). The following letter from an alternate director of The League states the case briefly. Officers of other societies are invited to write in their opinions of the proposal. EDITOR COOPERATION: It has been emphasized by many of our leaders that the Cooperative Movement will not grow .any faster than we are able to educate and teach the masses the (principles and philosophy of Consumers' Cooperation. If this is true, no wonder that our American Move ment has been growing at such a slow pace. The writer is of the opinion that the Coopera tive speakers and agitators, no matter how learned and .brilliant, are not able to school and train the membership and the people in general as effectively as our own press. In most of the European countries, the Cooperative press has become a real power. On their subscription lists are listed not only functionaries and employees but every member receives a copy of the official organ of his respective educational union. There are no doubts in my mind that if the same method were practiced in this country, we would have a much more aggressive and larger movement. At the Superior Congress a suggestion was made that in order to assure a wider distribution for the magazine COOPERATION and at the same time bring to it greater financial support which would permit us to improve the general appearance and contents, each affiliated society should subscribe for a suf ficient number of copies so that every director and employee should have one each month. It was also proposed that we might add to the present per capita dues an additional amount to cover these subscriptions for employees and directors. At the present time there are only two or three large societies in the United States which definitely are following this principle of subscribing for all of their directors and employees. How about the rest of the societies? If the European societies have found it worthwhile to subscribe for their entire membership, it seems to me that our societies should at least subscribe for directors and employees. To make a long story short, my proposal is that we have a direct tax similar to the per capita dues which come from the treasury of the local Cooperative. EDWARD CARLSON, Cooperative Trading Company, Waukegan, 111. COOPERATION 11 I Northern States Cooperative League 2100 Washington Ave., North, Minneapolis, Minnesota GUILD MOVEMENT MAKES RAPID PROGRESS Less than a year ago some energetic Finnish women of Superior, Wis., led by Helen Hayes, Esther Pesonen and others, began to organize Wom en's Cooperative Guilds in localities where there had previously been in existence so-called "Women's Sec tions" of political Finnish Workers' Clubs. Many of these Women's Sec tions had become badly demoralized by the furious controversy among the Finnish organizations over the ques tion as to whether the cooperatives should be controlled by the Com munist Party or their own member ships. Most of the Women's Sections followed the lead of the Communist Party, but in many localities there were strong groups of women who supported the Cooperative Central Exchange in its attempt to beat back the attack of the Communist Party on the cooperatives. These women have now been organized into Wom en's Cooperative Guilds of which there are at present 41 functioning in the Central Exchange territory, with a total of 718 members. New lo cals have been recently organized in the following localities: Brantwood, Prentice, Highbridge and Phelps in Wisconsin; Kettle River, Floodwood, Pine River and Onnela in Minnesota. Guilds are also under formation at Barnum, Minn., and Crystal Falls, Mich. Some of the guilds have arranged weekly classes for children. At these classes the children are taught to un derstand the principles of the co operative movement. THE COOPERATIVE YOUTH LEAGUE One of the fastest growing coopera tive organizations to be found any where is the new Cooperative Youth League which has been organized in the Cooperative Central Exchange district, with headquarters in Super ior, Wis. Its secretary-organizer and moving spirit, Toivo Tenhunen, re ports that in the first days of Decem ber there were 30 local Youth Leagues actually functioning, with a total membership of approximately 600. A "ew months ago there were none. The purpose of this Youth League is to interest young men and women, between the ages of 14 and 25, in co operative work, and make them thor oughly acquainted with the coopera tive principles and ideals. Harry Roine, a graduate of the C. C. E. Training Courses which were completed in Superior on December 6th, is now touring Youth League lo cals in Minnesota and organizing new units. In January the Enlarged District Committee of the new Youth League will meet in Superior. It consists of 17 members. New units of the Youth League have been recently organized at Wauke gan, 111., and Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. The largest local unit is that of Brantwood, Wis. Next in size is the Coop. Youth League of Rock, Mich. Superior, Wis., takes the third place. The first convention of the Cooper ative Youth League was held in Su perior on November 19th and at tended by delegates from 19 of the locals. Plans were laid for developing a young people's sports movement, for conducting cooperative educational work among the younger children and the ultimate creation of a Junior Co- operators movement. Proposals were made for the holding of cooperative youth courses next summer. Fra ternal affiliation with the Northern States League and through it with The Cooperative League of the U. S. A. was approved. 12 COOPERATION WHAT'S GOING ON IN THE N. S. C. L. DISTRICT j The Farmers' Cooperative Sampo of Menahga, Minn., has recently opened a branch store at Wolf Lake. Wni. Halmekangas, a graduate of the C. C. E. Training Courses is general manr ager at Menahga. 1 * * * \ The semi-annual meeting of the Eben Farm ers Cooperative Company of Eben Junction, Mich., voted to accept the offer of the Ish- peming Consumers Coop. Association to amal gamate their organization with the Eben or ganization. The cooperative store at Ishpeming will thus become a branch store of the Eben Farmers instead of being operated as an inde pendent cooperative, as hitherto. The Eben or ganization has previously been operating three branch stores (Chatham, Munising, Gwinn), be sides its main store at Eben Junction. Wm. Niemi is general manager. * * * Some time ago the Denham branch store of the Farmers' Coop. Mercantile Association of Kettle River, Minn., was destroyed by fire. The Kettle River organization promptly reopened the store in another building. The main store at Kettle River is being managed by Peter Kok- konen, veteran cooperative manager and a di rector of the Cooperative Central Exchange. The Denham branch is managed by Arnold Lundeen, another graduate of the C. C. E. Training Courses. II * * * I The Gowan Cooperative Association of Gowan, Minn., has recently voted to amalgamate with the Floodwood Cooperative Association. Gowan is located about 6 miles from Floodwood. The store at Gowan has been hitherto operated as an independent organization, but has now be come a branch of the larger and stronger or ganization at Floodwood. Eino Antila, a grad uate of the C. C. E. Training Courses is general manager at Floodwood, and Toiv,o Rahikainen, a graduate of the N. S. C. L. Training School of 1929, is managing the new branch store at Gowan. Evert Kilkkinen, for many years manager for the Farmers Cooperative Society of Little Swan, Minn., has recently resigned and gone Into farming. The new manager at Little Swan is Victor Axelson. * * * The cooperative store at Van Buskirk, Wis., is now being managed by Bert Aalto who for merly managed the Munising branch of the Eben Farmers Coop. Store Company of Eben Junction, Mich. Cooperator Aalto is graduate of the C. C. E. school. * * * Some time ago Filus Anderson resigned as manager of the Farmers Coop. Store of Owen, Wis. Niilo Marttila, formerly clerk of the Clo- quet Coop. Society and a graduate of the C. C. E. Training Courses, is the new manager. * * * Geo. Salo, formerly manager of Toivola Coop. Merchantile Company of Toivola, Minn., is now managing the business of Wawina Cooperative Society which operates its main store at Wa wina, and a branch at Jacobson, Minn. Walter- Peters, a graduate of N. S. C. L. Training School and for many years clerk at the Kettle River Coop. Store, has recently been elected manager of the Farmers' Cooperative Company of Squaw Lake, Minn. * * * Matti Niemi, a veteran cooperative manager who a few months ago was discharged by the board of directors of the National Cooperative Company of Ironwood on account of political reasons, has been elected manager of the Workers Cooperative Society of Marquette, Mich. Cooperator Niemi sided strongly with the Cooperative Central Exchange in the contro versy that broke out a year .ago between the C. C. E. and the Communist Party. Niemi Is a capable manager and the only reason for his dismissal was his intrepid stand on the con troversial question. There are a few other simi lar cases where a cooperative manager has been discharged by communist-controlled boards be cause they stood up for cooperative unity and elimination of political control from the co operatives. Cooperation Abroad STORE MANAGERS IN DENMARK . There are about 1800 store mana gers in the cooperative movement in Denmark, all of them known by the title of distributor. In the country towns, these distributors are given free living quarters and are paid a salary on a commission basis in pro portion to turnover. From this com mission each distributor must pay his assistants. All of these distributors are united in the Distributors Association of Denmark which is not in any way affiliated with the trade union move ment. Its chief purpose is to improve the standards of store management and administration. A special Dis tributors School, first established in 1913, has an average enrollment of 35 students and is for the instruction of all store employees. Women attend special courses between May and Au gust and men attend between Novem ber and April. There are in each term general courses in arithmetic, geog raphy, Danish language, gymnastics, correspondence, the various sciences, and also special courses for shop as sistants in bookkeeping, store ac counting, commercial arithmetic, cor respondence and window decorating, etc. Liberal grants are made to the school by both the Wholesale Society of Denmark and the Distributors As sociation. The superintendent of the school is Jens Fredericksen. A COOPERATOR FORCED OUT OF BRITISH CABINET Alfred Barnes, M. P. and chairman of the Cooperative Party, has been forced to resign a position carrying a salary of $5000 a year as Junior Lord of the treasury. COOPERATION 13 There is in England a law forbid ding anyone who is a director in any public company to hold a government post. A director of a private company, however, may take such a govern ment position. Mr. Barnes is an un paid director of the National Cooper ative Publishing Society and there fore had the choice of maintaining his cooperative position without pay or the government position with a handsome salary: and he chose the former. Meanwhile directors of large private corporations so long as their shares are not quoted on the stock exchange, may hold just such posts as that vacated by Mr. Barnes. STRUCTURE OF RUSSIAN MOVEMENT SIMPLIFIED The exceedingly complicated struc ture of the Russian consumers co operative movement has recently been vastly simplified due to a decision of the last Congress of Cooperative So cieties. Formerly the head and center of the movement, known as Centro- soyus, was divided into five parts, one for each of the Soviet governments. Under the new plan there is one head known as "Centrosoyus of USSR and RSFSR." Immediately beneath this head, under the old plan, there were transport sections of the movement, cooperative provincial unions and central workers sections. Under the new plan there is merely a coopera tive union of provinces. Next in order was the old maze of the divisional co operative unions, workers sections of provinces, village cooperative socie ties, town cooperative societies, work ers cooperative societies, and trans port cooperative societies. There are now only two such divisions, viz., workers cooperative societies and dis trict cooperative societies covering the larger rural districts. GERMAN COOPERATIVE MATCHES In the "Point of View" in November 1930, the statement that, in time the Germans will be able to manufacture their own matches, is not correct. The German Cooperative Wholesale So ciety for several years has had two large match factories which com pletely supply all of the needs of the German cooperative consumers. Un fortunately the Swedish cooperative societies are still dependent upon the match trust for their matches. Per haps we may be safe in saying that in the course of time the Swedish co- operators also will make themselves independent of the big match makers who are doing so much to make the world safe for cigarettes. J. P. W. Circulation Page Every Executive and Employee an Intelligent Cooperator With that motto for a slogan, at the end of 1930, the office of The League inaugurated a campaign to double the circulation of the magazine CO OPERATION, writing to a selected list of 500 consumers' societies throughout the country, urging that every society enter a subscription for each one of its directors and employ ees. Unbelievable though it may seem, 90% of the Boards of Directors of co operative societies in the United States subscribe to no cooperative journals whatever for their own Board membership, nor for the em ployees whom they depend upon to build up the loyalty of the consumer shareholders. They send out these workers to face a community organ ized for profit and ask them to build a cooperative business without tools, even as the ancient Israelites were told to make bricks without straw. It is remarkable that the death rate of cooperative stores is not even higher than it is. Clerks, bookkeepers, truck- drivers, branch managers can scarce ly promote a cooperative movement of which they have no understand ing. Nor can directors who themselves receive no cooperative literature be 14 COOPERATION expected to appreciate the impor tance of training cooperative employ ees. In fact, presidents, secretaries and managers themselves who have no contact with the organized con sumers movement in America may be expected to be satisfied with a Board of Directors as completely unen lightened as themselves. I This vicious circle of ignorance which encompasses the cooperative societies in most of the organized communities of the country must be broken. The readers of this journal and particularly those who them selves are cooperative officials must take the initiative. ABE YOU SATISFIED WITH THE CO OPERATIVE UNDERSTANDING OF EVE RY DIRECTOR AND EMPLOYEE IN YOUR OWN SOCIETY? PROGRESSIVE CONSUMERS COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES THEY EQUIP THEIR EXECUTIVES AND ADMINISTRATORS WITH NECESSARYi INFORMATION The Society Amalgamated Cooperative Apartments, N. Y. City Cooperative Trading Co., Waukegan, 111 Rock Cooperative. Company, Rock, Mien. Cooperative Central Exchange, Superior, Wis. Cloquet Cooperative Society, Cloquet, Minn. Soo Cooperative Mercantile Ass'n., Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. United Cooperative Society, Maynard, Mass. Consumers Cooperative Services, N. Y. City Cooperative Bakery of Brownsville, Brooklyn, N. Y. Kanabec County Cooperative Oil Association, Mora, Minn. Commonwealth Mutual Savings Bank, Milwaukee, Wis. Cooperativa Italiana, Winchendon, Mass. Workmen's Cooperative Mercantile Association, Chicago, 111. United Cooperative Society, Gardner, Mass. Farmers Cooperative & Educ. Union of Nebraska Workingmen's Cooperative Bakery, Lynn, Mass. Workmen's Circle Cooperative Bakery, Worcester, Mass. Workmen's Furniture Fire Insurance Society, N. Y. City New Era Life Association, Grand Rapids, Mich. Prentice Cooperative Supply Company, Prentice, Wis. Consumers Cooperative Association, Milwaukee, Wis. Cooperative Boarding House, Cleveland, Ohio Plymouth Cooperative Oil Company, Le Mars, la. Stelton Cooperative Association, Stelton, N. J. Settlers Cooperative Trading Company, Bruce Crossing, Mich. Cooperative Trading Association, Brooklyn, N. Y. Russian Workers Cooperative Stores, Brooklyn, N. Y. Midland Cooperative Oil Association, Minneapolis, Minn. Minot Cooperative Company, Minot, N. D. Chatham Farmers Cooperative Store Company, Chatham, Mich. Dorchester Cooperative Company, Dorchester, Wis. And many others taking 5 or less. The Number of Copies of COOPERATION Received Each Month 100 70 58 30 25 24 20 16 12 11 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 10 8 7 7 5 5 5 5 5 LEAGUE OFFERS $50 PRIZE The 'best painting to be submitted to the offices of The Cooperative League will win a •sash prize of $50. This painting is to be used n the 1932 calendar, which will be distrib- ted by cooperative societies. The painting must have genuine artistic value and must be symbolic of Cooperation. All entries for the contest must reach The League office before April 1st, 1931. COOPERATIO N? 15 My Point of View By J. P. Warbasse THE CONSTANT CRISIS We now have collapse of business. Wide-spread unemployment, poverty, begging and hunger are everywhere. Along with them goes the inevitable demoralization that is their natural companion. The attitude of our dominant class toward this crisis is that it is like a spell of bad weather. It is like a visita tion of Providence. It is to be expected every so often. It is to be endured as best it can until the sky clears and the sun appears again. It will be fol lowed by the blessed prosperity. And then the world will begin to move on toward better and bigger things. Thus our rulers tell us. They do more. They give us the encouragement that mod ern business is so organized that it will soon be possible to prevent these crises. Indeed, it had become the gos pel of Wall Street, just prior to Octo ber, 1929, that no more crises would come. Presidents Coolidge and Hoover and their respective governmental ma chines, acting as the agents of big business whose mouthpieces they are, solemnly told the people that no crisis was imminent. The Partnership of Ignorance and Greed Today all over the country, com munities, boards of trade, charity or ganizations, and even bankers' as sociations are busy holding their meetings and pressing their cam paigns to raise money "to relieve un employment distress." But not one of them speaks a word nor whispers a syllable that might indicate the faintest glimmer of understanding of the cause and the prevention of the economic crisis and the associated unemployment. The world is caught by the profit system on one side and ignorance on the other, and between the two it seems as though it is destined to come pretty close to having its life crushed out. Seven major depressions have oc curred in the United States during the half century 1878-1928. Six of these depressions, (1878-9, 1884-5, 1893-4, 1907-8, 1914-15, 1920-21) coincided, as is now the case, with world-wide business crises. The de pression of 1896-7 was peculiarly our own. The present depression is simi lar to those of 1884-5, 1907-8, and 1920-21. Because recovery took place after each of these crises, our finan ciers tell us that it will take place af ter this. But they are wrong—utterly and inexcusably wrong. Recovery has nev er taken place after any of these de pressions. The prevalent economic system of the world moves on with unabated progress toward its ulti mate collapse, as surely as the sun of day moves on toward the night. The crisis is perpetual. Inverted Values Man is an industrious animal. He has a tremendous capacity to work and store up for the future. But his wonk does not store up for him in his own control the things he needs. Mod ern industry only stores up wealth the control of which gravitates away from the many to the few. Industry is not addressed to the getting of things the people need, but, instead, to the getting of money which the people can not hold. And what they do hold cannot purchase the things they need. To add a profit to all the works of labor, which makes it impossible for the people to buy what they have produced, spells disaster. To place the 16 COOPERATION ownership and control of the ma chines and the credit in one class and impose the work and the need upon the mass of people is to win disorder. To make the getting of money and not of things the object of industry is to unbalance production and place the banker in the position to extort tribute and rule the world. ) And then as a necessary associate of the profit system goes its hand maiden, the political state. She is the world's conspicuous .strumpet, and must be housed in palaces, bowed to, played to with bands of music, sung, petted, flattered, and courted. And anybody who gets her disfavor goes to the lockup. The people are taxed to death to buy strings of war ships to decorate her voluptuous bosom and to pay the wages of her lackeys and attendants. ^ Another period of grinding out and piling up commodities which the peo ple cannot buy will follow this de pression. It will be called prosperity. But that is what it will not be. Ac cumulating the powder to blow one's self up is not prosperity. ^ And each downswing of depression brings us so much closer to the ulti mate collapse. As a result of the prof it business the world got the iniqui tous Treaty of Versailles and its hand maiden The League of Nations. This precious pair, now after a cost of $200,000,000,000 spent on the war to end war, present us with a world of more military equipment ready for war than existed before the world was made safe for democracy. And the preparation for war is proceeding pell mell on every side. The Necessary Economic Structure All of these are simple and obvious facts. They need to be recited because the people refuse to know about them. But there are 60,000,000 people or ganized in cooperative societies who are learning how to supply their needs through business conducted solely for service and not for profit. Their 200,000 cooperative societies are demonstrating that the people can supply their own needs and eliminate utterly the profit motive and the pay ment of tribute. These steadily grow ing societies, in forty countries, are showing that the political state is unnecessary. They impose no taxes on industry. They use land not for speculative purposes but only for housing and living and to produce the things the people need. The cooperative movement, in its practice and method, eliminates those causes which lie at the root of our waves of depression. Cooperation pro duces and distributes for a known clientele of consumers who own the machinery of production and distri bution, and not for purposes of profit- making, speculation, nor to serve the purposes of privilege-seeking classes. It demands the elimination of tariffs, passports, visas, armies, and navies, and all of the economic causes of hostility among men and nations, be cause it does not need them. These burdens, which are breaking the back of the world, cooperation eliminates along with the whole gamut of profit which is added to the cost of every thing before the consumer can con sume. The tremendous cost of ad vertising and smart salesmanship go also into the discard. What these cooperative societies are doing is not an Utopian dream. It is a demonstrable fact, all to be seen by those who have eyes to see. It is built in brick and stone, in mil lions of acres of land, in ships and commerce, and smiling homes. The Reader Writes IN ANSWER TO DILLONVALE Editor COOPERATION: Regarding the neutrality resolution dated Dillonvale, Ohio, October 14, 1930: 5 To the writer, this resolution seems to be more of a propaganda plea in favor of the Soviet political movement, than a plea for political neutrality within our cooperative activities. The premise of paragraphs one and two COOPERATION 17 seems to be well taken and timely. Paragraph three, the writer would amend to read as follows:— "We clearly understand that the policy of the editorial staff is: while as individuals outside of our cooperative organizations, con ventions and official organs, we may take is sue on all of these questions; collectively as a body, we shall not discuss or take a stand on any of them." Paragraphs four, five and six seem indel icate, somewhat misleadng and in violation of the spirit of paragraphs one, two and three. The writer would amend paragraphs seven and eight to read as follows: Whereas, the editors of our organ, CO OPERATION, advocate impartiality for all, therefore be it RESOLVED that we go on record to ask the seventh congress of The Cooperative League of America to instruct the editorial staff of our organ, COOPERATION, to live up to its policy of impartiality and strict neutrality in all matters regarding contro versial questions such as race, religion, creeds and politics, including the working-class political movement. It is true that the consumers cooperative movement is chiefly sponsored by the work ing class largely for economic reasons. It is also true that many of the leisured class are earnestly and efficiently endeavoring to promote the true "Cooperative Common wealth," largely for moral reasons. Our co operative movement needs their help and counsel also and should treat them as justly. J. B. RICHARDSON, Lakeside, Washington. The Dillonvale resolution is interesting. Aside from the manifestly un-neutral and incorrect statements in the first "Whereas" and in the "Resolved," there are certain implications in this resolution that need to be challenged. First comes the question of neutrality; second, the question of discussion. Of course cooperatives should not enter into political conflicts. It may be necessary for their members in preventing political action detrimental to the continuance and growth of the cooperatives, but this should be along non-partisan lines. Any other course is apt to invite disaster. And this applies with as much force to "workers' " governments as to "capitalists'" governments. One cannot forget the seizure of the co operatives in Russia by the Bolsheviks and the utterly disintegrating course forced upon them by the Bolshevik government. A some what similar course was pursued in Italy by the Fascist government, although this was accompanied by much and extreme violence. As a result, the cooperatives in both coun tries have abandoned the basic cooperative attitude of neutrality in politics, and have adopted an emphatic preference, putting it mildly, for adherence to the particular polit ical organization in power. Contrast this with the neutrality of the English, Scottish, Belgian, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, German cooperative movements. But, of this, Dr. Warbasse is better able to write than I since he has come into quite close contact with the situation. •Now, would Dillonvale contend that it is the business of the Cooperative League to close the eyes of its editors from seeing and to stop their tongues from telling what they have seen? Is censorship an attribute of the cooperative spirit? Do we arrive at knowledge and understanding that way? Shall we, by withholding statements of actual conditions,, find ourselves in possession of facts upon which to base judgments? Dillonvale should distinguish between neu trality as between particular forms of polit ical organization and neutrality as between cooperative organization and political organ ization. Cooperative organization and political or ganization mix as readily as oil and water. Cooperative organization wants neither hos tility from nor close cooperation with polit ical organization whatever its complexion. It desires and asks that it be left undisturbed, untrammeled and free to pursue its own ex periment along its own lines. I read COOPERATION thoroughly. So far, I have seen nothing therein that a. cooperator should ask to be excluded. Some of it may have been objectionable to one politically minded, but such a one should remember that COOPERATION is a magazine of Co operation and not of politics, and therefore, it is not a breach of neutrality to consider how such and such political action effects cooperation. In fact, if cooperation is not to- degenerate, it must be kept free from ad herence to or alliance with political action except for purely defensive purposes. This: necessitates constant statements of facts' that show the delusion in the idea of the co operative commonwealth, a voluntary state of society, coming through political action, a state of compulsions. It seems to me that Dr. Warbasse is con stantly pointing out this difference between the cooperative attitude of mind and the 'Political attitude of mind, and the necessity for this work is quite apparent when one dwells upon the Dillonvale Resolution, jj U. G. MOORE. Seattle, Wash. The resolution from The New Cooperative Company of Dillonvale, Ohio, published in the December number of COOPERATION, 18 COOPERATION All true cooperators patronize THE NEW ERA LIFE ASSOCIATION (Established 1897) A strictly cooperative life insurance institution. Member of the Northern States Cooperative League. All standard forms of life insurance contracts written. Funeral Benefit and Disability insurance for only $1.00 a month! WE CAN INSURE YOU BY MAIL without medical examination! I ~~*~ -^—.-—.-— p-—. ___ _ For full particulars clip this coupon and mail it to: NEW BRA LIFE ASSOCIATION, Grand Rapids, Mich. Name: . Address: while intended to raise the question of neu trality, really raises the question of freedom of speech, or, I might more accurately say, the freedom of our cooperative press. t Like the brothers at Dillonvale, I have fol lowed the articles by Dr. Warbasse published under the heading "My Point of View," and while I have not always agreed with the opinions he has expressed there, I have been very glad to get his viewpoint, and have profited greatly by it. It is true that he has •made several references to the Soviet Union, but I have not observed that he has harped on that subject. Having no opportunity my self to visit Russia, I am very glad to get the opinion of a cooperator who has had op portunity to visit that interesting country. Because I believe in the adequacy of co operation as an economic remedy, because I favor solving economic problems by voluntary association rather than by politics and state- ism, I realize that I naturally would feel more kindly toward Dr. Warbasse's views of Russia than do the brothers at Dillonvale. However, the question raised by their resolu tion goes much deeper than whether we agree or disagree with Dr. Warbasse. It goes right to the fundamental issue of whether we are going to be tolerant enough to allow freedom of discussion of important questions vitally related to cooperation. With the brothers at Dillonvale I agree perfectly that the cooperative movement, as a movement, "should remain neutral on all such controversial questions as religion, creeds, and political movements, including the working class political movement." But I do not believe that this principle of neu trality, so vital to the success and perpetuity of the cooperative movement, precludes free and open discussion in our magazine of such questions as the relation of the state to vol untary1 cooperation. Surely discussion of this ikind does not commit The Cooperative League to any course. Nor do I believe that the brothers at Dil lonvale, once they have thought the matter over in this light, will want to say that they would deny the president of The Cooperative League the riglil to express opinions on such matters. Instead of wanting such discussion shut off, we should all welcome it. It is only from the freest discussion of cooperation and vitally related matters that we shall arrive at the truth. Let us remember that freedom of speech and freedom of the press are the most pre cious things we can have. Thomas Jefferson said (I am not quoting him verbatim) that we need not fear error so long as truth is left free to combat it. Shall we not be very careful, therefore, about trying to shackle what we think is error lest we also shackle truth? L. S. HERRON. Omaha, Neb. COOPERATION 4- 19 COOPERATIVE DEMOCRACY Second Edition completely revised by JAMES PETER WARBASSE President of The Cooperative League of the United States of America Member of the Central Committee of the International Cooperative Alliance A Discussion of the Consumers' Cooperative Movement In Its Relation to the Political State, to the Profit System, to tabor, to Agriculture and to the Arts and Sciences The Macmillan Co., New York, Publishers Order from The Cooperative League, 167 West 12th St., New York, U. S. A. Price, $1.50. The Cooperative Union, Holyoake House Hanover St., Manchester, England. Price 6 sh. German Edition: Verlagsgesell- schaft deutscher Konsumvereine, Stroh- hause 38, Hamburg, Germany. Price, 6 marks. i ANNUAL LIFE INCOME SOME MEMBERS RECEIVE 40% ANNUAL DIVIDEND ON MONEY PAID IN Are you interested in increasing your an nual income against old age? All mem bers of the family eligible from baby to grandparents. Small Annual Dues Wri'x for Circular of Plan BROTHERHOOD OF THE COMMONWEALTH (Under "Benevolent Orders Law" of the State of New York) 10 Gold Street NEW YORK CITY ! STUDY COOPERATION AT HOME Correspondence Courses prepared and conducted by experienced cooperators are now ready 1. Elementary English 2. Commercial Arithmetic 3. Bookkeeping for Cooperators 4. Advanced Course in Bookkeeping 5. Principles and Theory of Cooperation 6. Organization and Administration of Cooperatives For full particulars write THE COOPERATIVE LEAGUE 167 West 12th Street New York City The Canadian Cooperator Brantford, Ontario, Canada The organ of the Canadian Coopera tive Movement, owned by and con ducted under the auspices of The Co operative Union of Canada. Published monthly 75c per annum "The Cooperative Pyramid Builder" Official Organ of Cooperative Central Exchange is a snappy, live cooperative magazine. Get in line! Subscribe NOW Subscription price 50c a year. COOPERATIVE CENTRAL EXCHANGE Superior, Wis. COOPERATION, 167 West 12th Street, New York. Please send COOPERATION for one year to $1.00 a year A'c'me__. Address. 40 COOPERATION PUBLICATIONS —OF— THE COOPERATIVE LEAGUE HISTORICAL B9. 64. Per CopvPer 100 Story of Cooperation ..........$ .10 $6.00 British Cooperative Movement.. .05 4.00 Consumers Cooperation in the United States (illus,), 1930.... .10 8.00 Cooperative Movement In Europe .05 4.00 Progress of Cooperation in United States ....................... .05 4.00 Story of Toad Lane (By Stuart Chase) ...................... .OB 4.00 TECHNICAL 4. How to Start and Run a Rochdale Cooperative Society .......... .10 4.00 6. A Model Constitution and By- Laws for a Cooperative Society .05 2.50 8. Cooperative Education. Duties of Educational Committee Defined .10 9. How to Start a Cooperative Whole sale ......................... .10 27. Why Cooperative Stores Fail.... .02 1.00 14. How to Start and Run a Women's Guild ........................ .10 16. How to Organize a District Coop erative League .............. .10 29. Credit Union Primer (By Ham and Robinson) .............. .50 43. Cooperative Housing ............ .10 } 51. Model Lease for Cooperative I Apartment House ............ .10 I MISCELLANEOUS ' 16. Model Co-op State Law ........ '.10 46. Producers' Cooperative Industries .10 11. Control of Industry by the People through the Co-op Movement .10 12. Credit Union and Cooperative Store ........................ .OB 1.75 13. The Place of Cooperation Among Other Movements ............ .25 34. Cooperative Movement (Yiddish) .02 1.25 30. "When the Whistle Blew" (Story, by Bruce Calvert) .......... 06 66. International Directory of Coop erative Marketing (By Benson T. Landis) .................. .25 42. Cooperative Homes for Europe's ' Homeless ................'.... .10 49. A Way Out .................... .02 .75 55. A Better World to Live In .... .05 57. How a Consumers* Cooperative Differs from Ordinary Business .02 .85 62. Buttons (League emblem), % inch diameter ............... .05 2.00 63. Sign or Transparency of League t Emblem. Green and gold, 3 in. diameter .................... .25 15.00 67. Stock certificates, engraved, with League Emblem. Bound in books of 100, 200, or 250 63. To Mothers ................... .02 . 1.00 70. Farmers Marketing and Consum ers Cooperation; An address by J. P. Warbasse .......... .10 71. International Cooperation: An ad dress by H. J. May ......... .10 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 Cooperative league; (20) Why Loyalty Is Necessary; (21) Cost and Crime of Credit; (25) Resolutions Adopted by A F. of L.; (26) Factory Workers Cooperate!; (28) Do You Know About Cooperation in Europe?: (40) Have You a Committee on Education ana Recreation?; (45) Schools and Stores. MONTHLY PUBLICATIONS Cooperation—(In bundle lots, $7.50 per hundred). Subscription, per year (foreign, $1.25).... $1.00 REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION (Pub. by the I. C. A.) ........ Per Year, $1.50 $1.65 if paid by check. BOOKS The following books are recommended as con taining the best discussion of the model i Coopera tive Movement. They may be ordered through The League: Blanc, Elsie T.: Cooperative Movement in Russia ............................... $2.50 Brightwill, L. R.: Animal "Co-op" Book— For Children ........................ -15 Chase and Schlink: Your Money's Worth, A Book for Consumers ............... 2.00 Flanagan, J. A.: Wholesale Cooperation in Scotland, 1920 .......................... 2.00 Gide, C.: Consumers' Cooperative Societies, American edition and notes, 1922. Cloth 2.00 Hall, Prof. Fred: Handbook for Members of Cooperative Committees .............. 2.00 Harris, Emerson P.: Cooperation, The Hope of the'Consumer, 1918. Paper bound.... .60 Holyoake: Rochdale Pioneers ............ 1.00 Indian Cooperation, Children's story ...... .15 Jessness, O. B.: Cooperative Marketing of Farm Products ........................ 3.00 Kayden, E. M., and Antsiferov, A. N.: Cooperative Movement in Russia During the War ............................. 4.00 Madams, J. P.: The Story Retold ........ .75 Mears and Tobriner: Principles and Prac tices of Cooperative Marketing ....... 3.20 Nicholson, Isa: Our Story ................ .25 Oerne, Andres: Cooperative Ideals and Problems ............................. 1-25 Owen, Robert: Autobiography ............ .50 Poisson, E.: The Cooperative Republic.... 1.75 Potter, B.: Cooperative 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 Recon struction in Ireland, 1918 ............ 1.00 Smith-Gordon and O'Brien: Cooperation in Denmark ............................. 1.00 Smith-Gordon and O'Brien: Cooperation in Many Lands. 1920 .................... 1.50 Stolinsky, A.: The Cooperative Movement. (In Yiddish) ......................... 1.00 Warbasse, J. P.: Cooperative Democracy, (1927J) ............................... 1.50 Warbasse, J. P.: What Is Cooperation, 1927 .75 Warne, C. E.: Consumers' Cooperative Move ment in Illinois ...................... 3.50 Webb, B. and S.: The Consumers' Coopera tive Movement, 1921 .................. 6.00 Webb, Catherine: Industrial Cooperation, 1917 .................................. 1-60 Cooperation, Bound Volumes, 1916 to 1930 inclusive, each ....................... 1.25 Report of the American Cooperative Con gresses, 1920, 1922, 1924, 1926, 1928, each 1.00 Northern States Year Book, 1928. Paper.. .60 The People's Year Book, 1931, Cloth, $1.25; paper bound ......................... .75 Year Book of The Cooperative League, 1930. Cloth, $1.50; paper bound ............ 1-00 (Ten cents postage should be added for all boohs.) (0076 RATION A magazine to spread the knowledge of the Cooperative Movement, where by the people, in voluntary associa tion, produce and distribute for their own use the things they need. Published monthly lyy THE COOPERATIVE LEAGUE OF THE U. S. A. 167 West 12th Street, New York City CEDRIC LONG, Editor Entered as Second Class matter, December 19, 1917, at the Post Office at New York, N. T., under the Act of March S, 1879. Price $1.00 a year. VOL. XVII, No. 2 FEBRUARY, 1931 10 CENTS New York's Latest Cooperative Houses A Proposal for a Cooperative College Cooperative Prices Win Over Those of Chains Shall Cooperative Employees be Dismissed in Slack Times? An Editorial My Point of View: Cooperation and Politics 22 COOPERATION Amalgamated Dwellings Last November the newest of the cooperative housing colonies opened in New York on the congested lower east side of the city, long considered one of the most deplorable slum areas .to. be found anywhere in the United. States. This is a group of buildings 'having 231 apartments built on four streets around a whole square in which is located the central garden with its fountain, flowers, shrubs and grass plots. This garden: is 12,000 square feet in area and oc cupies 50% of the entire piece of land on which the buildings are, situated. The houses are six-story modern structures with elevator service, elec tric refrigeration, incinerator chutes and all the moist up-to-date con veniences, so that the workers who move out of the old slum dwellings into the new cooperative are making the extreme transition from the very lowest type of living conditions to the highest. Apartments are of 3, 4 or 5 rooms and the equipment put into the buildings is of the best since the construction is for the benefit of cooperative owners and not for resale at a profit, the dominating motive behind the construction of most pri vately built apartment's in all of our large cities. There is an ample roof garden, a baby carriage garage for 300 carriages, an auditorium with seating capacity of 300. On the Grand -Street side there are stores, most of them rented to private merchants, but all the rest of the building is used strictly, for cooperative dwelling and cooperative activities. From the very day the first tenant moved in there has been cooperative distribution of milk and a cooperative laundry serv ice. This newest cooperative was built at a total cost of $1,500,000 under the State Housing Law. Tax exemption is granted for a period of many years on the understanding that the rents will average less than $12.50 month ly per room. The actual average in this building is $12.18. Each member subscribes for stock to the value of $500 per room, paying down $150 in cash and the balance over a period of several years. The difference be tween $150 and $500 represents a sum of several hundred thousand dollars 'loaned to the association by Lieu tenant Governor Lehman of the State and Aaron Rabinowitz, a mem ber of the State Housing -Board, both ardent champions of low priced apartments for people in the city of New York. The rules of the association are strictly cooperative and members can neither sell nor sublet at a profit nor without the permission of the direc tors. The property as a whole can not be sold by the tenants' associa tion except batik to the State itself or to the Amalgamated Clothing Work ers Union which retained the right to purchase at book value. Plans are already under way for extensive educational activities mod elled after those in practice at the uptown Amalgamated Cooperative Apartments. To mention all the names of the various men and women who took a leading part in building this coopera tive organization would take too much space here. A. E. Kazan who is a mem ber of the Board of Directors of both the Eastern States League and the Eastern Cooperative Wholesale was in charge of the whole enterprise and directly under him A. Greenstein who took charge of the interviewing of prospective members and running the local office and carrying on all the local organizing activities. COOPERATION 23 Editorial SHALL EMPLOYEES BE DIS MISSED IN SLACK TIMES? In an article appearing recently in the German Cooperative Press, Voll- rath Klepzig raises the problem of how to handle employment when business falls off. He places before the employees the three alternatives which are: first, dismissal of work ers; second, reduction in wages; third, introduction of part time work. He states that although it violates the desires of cooperators to treat em ployees in the brutal manner they are accustomed to under capitalist business, still it is even a more serious breach of cooperative principle to im pose unbearable burdens upon the consumer shareholders by retaining employees in well paid jobs wihile many of the members themselves are unemployed. He urges ;that consumers societies maintain themselves as models of efficient collective business enterprises and not permit them selves to be surpassed by private-prof it making concerns. In response to this article a prominent labor union ist appeals to.all cooperative employ ees to go on strike rather than to ac cept dismissal or wage cuts. Mr. Klepzig retorts with a demand that employees be paid for work actually done in the shop and not for their mere presence as idle onlookers. This same dilemima is facing the board of directors of every society in the world when depression comes to the local community. The usual solu tion is the temporary or permanent dismissal of some of the unneeded help. Less frequently an agreement is effected whereby all employees un dertake to have their wages cut for full time work or to go on part time with a corresponding reduction ofl wages. Very rarely we find an in stance of the society which continues to maintain its full working staff at full time pay regardless of a decrease in revenue. The first of these methods is re pugnant to most genuine cooperators; they do not care to assume responsi bility for throwing employees of the society on the streets, already too full of unemployed workers. The third is equally repugnant to anyone who ap preciates the difficulty of competing with private business. Is not the ultimate solution to be found in some scheme whereby all employees agree to a pro rata reduction in their wages when sales decline? iSuch a plan will .meet the approval of the membership, for many of these members are themselves suffering from the depressed economic condi tions. It should meet with the ap proval of the directors and manage ment who are responsible for a proper administration of the busi ness. The justice of the plan should appeal to the employees themselves if they have ait heart the interest not only of their fellow workers alone, but also of the whole organization. Whether they go on part time or give their full time to the services of the organization during this slack period is a matter to be decided in each so ciety. The truly militant group of cooperative employees will probably decide in favor of full time work for less than full time pay, the hours not needed in the business to be devoted to extraordinary effort to enlist new members, win new customers, reno vate the premises and generally build up the cooperative organization. C. L. CIVILIZATION Millions starve in China because there is not enough food. Other millions are scarcely a twenty-four hour jump ahead of starvation in the United States and Canada because there is too much food. Shipping companies languish because there are no cargoes. The surplus food which is bankrupting the impoverished farmers of America might be packed off to the starving peasants of China. All the countries concerned would reap un told benefits from such a logical form of farm relief. But do any of the political or economic leaders of capitalist America propose such a reasonable remedy? 24 COOPERATION Proposal for a Cooperative College By GEORGE HALONEN During the past few years, con sumers cooperation in tine United States has been crystallized into a real organized movement. The Coop erative League has over 120,000 mem bers. With the growth of the movement new problems are to be faced. One of these problems is the education of cooiperaitive employees. Pioneer work in this field has been done by the Cooperative Central Exchange of Su perior, the Northern States Coopera tive League, and the Eastern States Cooperative League. Short-term courses have been arranged by these organizations. Altogether 16 train ing schools, with 463 students in at tendance, have been held. However, the requirements of the movement are becoming greater and greater. Cooperative managers and other employees are needed. A train ing school of a few weeks' duration cannot prepare managers and clerks who, in addition to technical knowl- edge, are Imbued with the coopera tive spirit. Experience from our train ing schools proves conclusively, that only the surface of cooperative knowledge can be scratched. Tech nical as well as theoretical and his torical subjects imust be rushed through. Private business has its universities and colleges. Young men and women are taught for years how to serve the profit interests at the expense of the working people. A profit system would not fuss with schooling of this kind if it would not pay. And it pays. Over a hundred thousand coopera- tors constitute a force capable of fur nishing its own functionaries. Our training schools have blazed the way. Now a regular Cooperative College can become a reality. Tentative Budget for the College Most of the training schools have been conducted in the Northern States Cooperative League district. Most of the active societies are in this, district. Therefore, it is practical to start the Cooperative College in this district. But let us also loolk into the possibilities of a Cooperative Col lege from a financial standpoint. At Smithville, near Duluth, Minn., there is a Labor College, originally a Finnish Workers College, but now also conducting classes in English. This college is large enough to house a cooperative class of some 30 stu dents. Room and board for the stu dents cost $28.87 a month. If we as sume our Cooperative College to be of eight months' duration, that would mean an expense of $230.96 to each student for the complete term. For thirty students, the total would be $6,928.80. This sum would take care of everything but the teaching. Teachers' salaries would be around $4,000. Thus with about $11,000 an eight months' Cooperative College with thirty students would be made financially possible. Can This Be Done? We believe that the consumers cooperative movement in the United States is strong enough to put through a plan like this. But where to get the money? Students at universities and busi ness colleges are paying tuition fees in addition to their room and board. The cooperative movement would like to give education free. However, under the present circumstances this is not possible. Thus the Cooperative College could charge for room and board plus tuition fee, a total sum of $250 for each student for an eight- month term. For thirty students that would make $7,500. In order to help the students, co-op erative societies could give scholar ships. Also, a loan fund could be established. Students would be able COOPERATION 25 to borrow from this fund and pay back in installments. But what about the $3,500 deficit on this tentative budget? Naturally, by increasing the student fee, this could be covered. However, our move ment would also be benefited by the college. And we feel confident that the cooperative societies will take care of their part of the expenses. The present training schools cost around a thousand dollars for each session. If the whole movement gets behind the regular college, a college fund will be easily raised. Cooperative College in the Fall of 1931 A Cooperative College to be opened in the fall of 1931 is a possibility. It requires only a little pushing on the part of cooperators. Naturally the place for the college can be finally determined by the Board of Directors of The Cooperative League. If Du- luth-Smithville is considered by the majority not to be the most con venient place, let's find a more suita ble place. This place is mentioned here as just one concrete proposition. So let's OK the idea of the Cooper ative College! Let's open the College next fall! News and Comment ANNUAL FOR NEBRASKA FARMERS' UNION The farmers of Nebraska, organized in the Farmers Cooperative and Edu cational Union which is considered by many to be the most progressive state-wide farmers' association in the United States, provided the 736 dele gates and visitors at the three-day convention in Omaha several thrills and a great deal of encouragement. Opposition to the Federal Farm Board was this year more marked than ever, and the newly elected Executive Board is more thoroughly cooperative than the old. President Keeney was reeleeted. L. S. Herron was given a vote of thanks for his excellent report as editor of the Nebraska Union Farmer which again increased the number of both readers and contrib utors to its columns; although at an other session some of his enemies got through a resolution condemning his too free "throwing of bricks." Resolu tions were passed in favor of more militant action in behalf of consum ers cooperation and a cooperative training school (see report in CO OPERATION for March). The insurance company belonging to the members had 300 delegates present to hear and discuss Manager Millington's report, which showed an increase of 10% in membership and insurance in force; 33% of the Farm ers' Union members are now in the Insurance Company. Costs are 50% less than rates through the old line companies. The company Was 329 of its own farmer members licensed to act as agents. The organization of an auto insurance company on a legal reserve, rather than on an assess ment basis was unanimously author ized. The meeting of the .State Exchange is reported on page 26. The Coopera tive Oil Association delegates were told of a large increase in the volume of oil handled and new stations or ganized. A resolution authorizing a cooperatively owned plant for com pounding of lubricating oil and grease was defeated, although another res olution demanding 100% support from local managers and authorizing the board to discharge non-cooper ating managers was overwhelmingly approved! There were several other meetings, such as those of the Ele vator Federation, the creameries, and the Livestock Commission Company. COOPERATION STATE EXCHANGE ZOOMS The Farmers Union State Ex change of Omaha, Neb., has closed another year with an increase in sales, and a net profit, or saving. This completes seven years with an un broken record of a net saving in every quarter. Sales in the year 1930 to talled $2,118,211.83, compared with $2,001,725.16 in 1929, a gain of $116,- 486.67. The net saving for 1930 was $57,947.88, an increase of $7,364.48 over the preceding year. This net savings figure does not include $12,- 901.87 to be refunded to the Farmers Union State Oil Association, for which the State Exchange is the purchasing agent. After setting aside reserves, 5% of the net savings to surplus, and allowing 6% interest on share capital, the balance available for patronage dividends is $31,240.58. The Nebraska Exchange operates 11 branch stores, from which the sales in 1930, not included in the above to tal, amounted to over $630,000.00. Current assets are now $328,300 while current liabilities are only $78,828. All of which makes Nebraska Co- operators glad; they feel that their staunch adherence to the principle of local autonomy, rather than Farm Board supervision for their coopera tive .movement, has been vindicated. Manager McCarthy reported to the annual meeting on January 12th that gasoline handled during the year came to the new high total of 1551 carloads. Visitors who addressed the delegates were Cedric Long of The Cooperative League, George Halonen of Cooperative Central Exchange and George Jacobson of Midland Cooper ative Oil Association. The Farmers Union Exchange is peculiarly strong in some respects and equally weak in others. Instead of having a clear-cut policy of only co operative stores for shareholders, it has stores, local branches of the State Union, fraternal organization, and in dividuals, totalling in all more than 6300. It has retail branches directly owned and controlled by the Whole sale as straight chain stores over which the local customers have no authority whatever, except as they are members-at-large in the Ex change. The Exchange sells to pri vately owned stores or oil stations as well as to cooperatives, though the former get no rebates. It is the only consumers cooperative wholesale in the country which is not affiliated with the organized movement as represented by The League. On the other hand, this cooperative is an in tegral and loyal part of the strong and militant Cooperative and Educational Union of Nebraska. Its .manager and most of its directors are convinced cooperators. It limits interest on its capital stock to 6% although 8% is permitted by the law of Nebraska. It is rigorously putting into force its newly adopted policy of granting to non-member patrons rebates to be credited to the purchase of share capital and at the same time buying up the shares of inactive or non-pur chasing members—thus constantly eliminating "dead" members and fill- Ing the vacancies with live ones. It has taken out a group sick and acci dent policy with the New Era Life As sociation for all its employees. Its ad ministrative practices and office rou tine seem ,to be highly efficient and its business is larger than that of any other cooperative on the continent dealing in consumers' goods, except ing only the Franklin Cooperative Creamery Association of Minneapolis. COOPERATIVE ASSISTS UN EMPLOYED The Cooperative Trading Company of Waukegan, 111., has provided spe cial assistance to such of its members and customers as are unemployed. At a meeting held late in 1930, the em ployees unanimously agreed that for the next five months one day's wages per month from each worker is to be set aside as a relief fund for unem ployed cooperators. This would amount to about $425 a month. Mean while the firms who supply the co- COOPERATION 27 operative with milk have been ap pealed to and agreed to donate one per cent of their monthly milk re ceipts to the same fund, which will bring another $130, Additional con tributions are being made by indi vidual members and friends. In addition to this assistance the Trading Company itself by action of its Board of Directors is contributing 3000 quarts of milk free during the winter to families in need through out the city. It is explicitly stated by the Co operative that this action is not char ity but an extension of the coopera tive to include not only the distribu tion of the necessities of life to those who can pay for them, but to promote mutual aid to the cooperative family whenever and in whatever form such aid is necessary. COOPERATIVE PRICES WIN CONTEST The students of the Eastern States Cooperative League Training Cours es, held three times a week for the past twelve weeks in Brooklyn, have recently completed an interesting study of comparative prices in the stores of the neighborhood. Two chain stores, two private stores and the main store of the Cooperative Trading Association were the ones investigated. Officers of the school vouch for the impartiality of the study for they maintain that half of the committee of ten investigators are politically aligned with the party hostile to the Trading Association. Seventeen items were selected for buying from all five stores—items of common use by the housewives. A comparison was first made of the total bill for the 17 items, with the following result: Store Number 17 Items cost Co-op price Co-op savings. Chain No. 1 $4.21 4.12 .09 Ind. No. 2 $4.36 4.12 .24 Ind. No. 3 $4.21 4.12 .09 Chain No. 4 $4.36 4.12 .24 Co-op No-. 5 $4.12 Each item purchased at each store was then appraised for its quality value as compared to similar item purchased at the cooperative, and price adjustment made accordingly. Following is the list of items with weighted values and (in parenthesis) the actual quality rating given to each item: Store No. Maxw. Coffee, 1 Ib. Yuban Coffee, 1 Ib. Beechn. Coffee, 1 Ib. Butter, % Ib. Sugar, Dom. Cry, 2 Ibs. Dom. Gran., 2 Ibs. Jack Fr., 2 Ibs. Best Eggs, % doz. Canned Peaches, (2%) Canned Corn, No. 2 can Canned Peas, No. 2 can Cream, % pint Flour, 3V2 Ibs. Flour, 7 Ibs. Rice, 16 ounces Olives, 4 ounces Olives, 8 ounces Total Cost Total Points Quality Co-op Advantage $.43 .45 .45 .20 .19 .12 .19 .25 .21 .15 .19 .23 .18 .35 .13 .19 .25 4.16 .04 (10) (10) (10) (06) (10) (10) (10) (06) (08) (06) (09) (10) (10) (10) (06) (06) (09) (146) (24) $.39 .45 .41 .25 .23 .12 .19 .28 .23 .20 .20 .22 .23 .43 .11 .20 .36 4.50 .38 (10) (10) (10) 007) (10) (10) (10) (07) (08) (08) (08) (09) (10) (10) (07) (08) (06) (148) (22) $.41 .45 .41 .23 .21 .14 .21 .28 .25 .19 .20 .22 .21 .35 .10 .12 .25 4.23 .11 (10) (10) (10) (09) (10) (10) (10) (09) (09) (08) (06) (08) (10) (10) (08) (09) (08) (154) (16) $.43 .45 .45 .20 .23 .12 .21 .28 .21 .21 .25 .24 .23 .39 .13 .12 .31 4.46 .34 (10) (10) (10) (08) (10) (10) (10) (08) (08) (09) (07) (09) (10) (10) (09) (07) (07) (152) (18) $.41 .45 .42 .22 .20 .12 .19 .25 .23 .19 ,21 .23 .18 .35 .10 .12 .25 4.12 — (10) (10) (10) (10) (10> (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (10) (170) ——— 28 COOPERATION LEAGUE INSURANCE SERVICE IN OPERATION CLUSA SERVICE, INC., is now in actual operation as tlhe insurance service of The League. It celebrated its start in life by negotiating a fidel ity bond in the Liberty Mutual In surance Company which is the largest mutual casualty insurance company in the country. This bond can be extended to cover any officer of a member society or district league which is audited by the League Ac counting Bureau or by an accountant acceptable to the Bureau. Because of its size the rate of this bond is 40 cents per hundred which is consid erably less than most societies are now paying. The first four societies to come under the bond ran its total up to $75,000. When it gets to $100,- 000, which should be very soon, the societies will be charged only 35 cents per ihundred. Incidentally, beside making this saving for tlhe societies, The League and CLUSA SERVICE INC. are able to keep a handling charge sufficient to cover the expenses involved. Cooperative societies and friends of Cooperation in New York State can now have their fire insurance han dled by CLUSA SERVICE, INC. Fur niture fire insurance will be placed when possible in the Workmen's Fur niture Fire Insurance Society which is a member of The League. Ar rangements have been .made to place other fire insurance with one of the largest and strongest mutual fire in surance companies in the country at a saving to policy holders of 30% from the usual premium. CONSUMERS COOPERATION EN DORSED BY STATE AGRI CULTURAL COLLEGE Dr. G. F. Warren of the New York State College of Agriculture at Itha ca has recently come out with a strong statement endorsing the co operative buying program for farm ers, insisting that such buying is even more important than cooperative selling of farm products. He believes that the greatest price differentials are to be found between wholesale and retail prices of consumers' goods and states that the buying organizations have not developed further because there are so many interests antag onistic to the inclusion of consumers cooperation in the various plans for government aid to the farmers. WHEN CAPITALISM DEFAULTS "As an economic system, capitalism is entitled to whatever credit is its due. It has stimulated enterprise, encouraged in vention, increased wealth, and used its tools to the best advantage. While it has been dominant, material wealth has been produced in great abundance. At this moment the world is full of goods that cannot be consumed. The barns are full to overflowing, the warehouses are almost bursting, every market and every retail store is over-stocked. Beyond all question capitalism has not been a failure in pro duction. But what virtue is there in pro ducing wealth if that wealth is not con sumed? "Capitalism is in danger of collapsing, and millions of workers are idle now be cause it has proved itself totally unable to solve the problem of distribution. Its leading champions admit as much, and every economist of repute says the prob lem of unemployment cannot possibly be solved until some new system of distribu tion stimulates consumption. The facts themselves proclaim the living truth. "This is where the cooperative move ment presents its solution of the problem to the world. It offers to (the nations a working model of an economic system that has equitable distribution for its pur pose, and increased consumption for its aim. Cooperation does not give the world a theory only. It reveals a theory that is applied in action. Throughout its borders production is for use. "The way of escape from imminent col lapse is through cooperation beginning from the consumers' end. And there can be no other way!" "THE COOPERATIVE NEWS" Manchester, England. COOPERATION 29 COOPERATIVE PRICES RAISED BY GOVERNMENT The Purity Cooperative Association of Paterson, N. J., which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary, had an interesting dispute with the local board of food administrators during the war in which the latter tried to force the bakery to raise its price for bread. " In those days the cooperative was selling a two pound loaf of bread at 15 cents and a three pound for 20 cents. An agent of the city division of the United States Food Administra tion one morning entered the bakery, weighed a loaf of bread, and an nounced that the law was being vio lated since the price had been set at ten cents per pound. The manager and directors took the remark as a good joke and said that of course they were not violating the law since they were well within the regulations. The administrator informed them that they were decidedly in violation of the law for they must neither advance nor reduce the price from ten cents; in other words, the two pound loaf must be raised to 20 cents and the three pound to thirty cents. He would not discuss the matter further but threatened drastic action if the order was not obeyed. The directors were greatly puzzled, took the matter up with the county division of the Food Administration. Here again the rule was ordered en forced. The directors were instructed to comply immediately on penalty of having the ba:kery padlocked, and the administrator refused to discuss the matter further. The dispute was then carried back to the state office of the Food Administration, the directors protesting that inasmuch as they were not charging more than the law specified, they should not be mo lested. For the third time they were peremptorily ordered to cease and desist selling bread at any other price than ten cents per pound and were notified that if the law was not com plied with in three days, the bakery would be padlocked. That was on a Monday morning. On Thursday, an agent of the state office appeared at the bakery on Tyler Street, weighed a loaf of bread and stated that he was going to close the doors. After a frantic appeal from the Board of Directors, he allowed one more day of grace. A subcommittee of the Board rushed to New York City to consult the well known so cialist lawyer, Morris Hillquit, who in turn wrote a strong letter to Herbert Hoover, chief food administrator, protesting against action of the va rious divisions of his department in New Jersey. The directors returned to Paterson to await a reply and mean while ordered all their bread sold at the new price of ten cents. The dispute was carried in the local newspapers and finally a mass meet ing was called for the largest hall in Paterson; 2000 were present and an other 1000 unable to gain entrance. The vast majority of the consumers refused to believe the story of the directors, feeling that this was mere ly an excuse for raising prices, and voicing great indignation against the cooperative. It took much explaining and many subsequent meetings and newspaper articles to make the issue clear to the general public. A reply came from Mr. Hoover stating that the New Jersey officials were exceeding their authority and that the cooperative was justified in charging any price it wished within the limits specified. The price of bread was at once reduced again to 7% cents a pound. Later investigation showed that both the city food administrator and the head of the state division were men at the head of large bakery con cerns. At the close of the year the Purity Cooperative Society announced that it had made a net gain for the 12 months of $20,000 in spite of the low price at which bread was sold. Profits made by private bakers in a time of great scarcity of food may well be imagined. 30 COOPERATION COOPERATION 31 District Leagues •i 'J L. B. WOODCOCK. EASTERN STATES COOPERATIVE LEAGUE NEW MANAGER FOR EASTERN WHOLESALE Ait a directors' meeting on January 6, Leslie Woodcock was appointed man- ager of the Eastern Cooperative Whole- sale. The first man ager, A. Wirkkula, resigned in the 5 summer of 1930 and Laurence I. Gra ham, purchasing a- gent -during the last few weeks of Mr. Wirkkula's term of office, took charge until a new general manager could be found. Mr. Graham will continue to work with Mr. Woodcock for several months. The new manager is well known to leaders of the consumers coopera tive movement in all parts of the country. He was one of the organ izers and the first president of Con sumers Cooperative Services of New York City, largest consumers society in the eastern part of the country. For the past ten years he has been an executive and a co-worker with Mary E. Arnold, general manager of that organization. He was also one of the organizers of both the East ern States League in 1925 and the Eastern Cooperative Wholesale in 1929. He has served on both boards of directors and as treasurer of the wholesale since its start. EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES On Monday, December 29, an edu cational dinner meeting took place at "Our Cooperative Cafeteria," attend ed by individual 'members of the Eastern League and delegates of so cieties. Professor Colston E. Warne of Amherst College, told of his im pressions and interpretations of con sumers cooperation as he saw it last summer in Russia and Austria. Abra ham Shiplacoff spoke on the cooper atives of Palestine. A discussion hour followed. On Sunday, January 18, delegates from most of the societies of Greater New York gathered at the newly opened Amalgamated Dwellings for their semi-annual Joint Educational Conference. One session was 'devoted to the practical subject of "How to Americanize Our Foreign Language Societies," and some interesting dem onstrations and experiences were presented by delegates from the Amalgamated Cooperative Apart ments, Workmen's Fire Insurance So ciety, Cooperative Trading Associa tion and other societies; as well as by individuals, such as C. F. Case of Chi cago, who have done educational work among highly diverse nationality groups. The other session was given to dis cussing the technique of contact with individual members of local societies. Organization of the young people came in for much discussion at both sessions. Professor Leroy E. Bowman of Columbia University made one of the outstanding contributions. The delegates, to the number of seventy, took dinner together at a res taurant in the neighborhood, and made a personal inspection of the new cooperative apartment building and grounds. ITALIAN SOCIETIES CONFER On Sunday the 18th of January, fifty delegates from thirteen Italian cooperative societies met in the handsome new building of the United Cooperative Society of Union City, N. J., for a discussion of the possibility of buying jointly the imported products which are so necessary to these stores. Other matters considered dur ing the day were cooperative organi zation, membership and trade, audit ing, general propaganda. Among the 1 V well known Italian leaders present were Professor Gaspare Nicotri, for merly of the Cooperative League of Italy; G. Artoni of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union; and several editors of II Nuovo Hondo, Italian la bor daily, which was helpful in call ing the conference. This meeting was the result of ac tive work by a few of the leading Italian cooperators of the east, par ticularly those at Lawrence and Winchendon, Mass., and at Stafford, Conn., with assistance from William Ross, field man for the Eastern League. Mr. Ross had recently been to the anthracite district of eastern Pennsylvania to make the acquaint ance of some eleven Italian societies, and he got their support for the pro posed conference. Before adjourn ment a Federation of Italian Cooper atives was formed with an executive committee of nine. There are at least 24 Italian coop eratives in Pennsylvania, New Jersey. New York, Connecticut, Maissachu- setts and Vermont. Northern States Cooperative League NEW ERA IS HOLDING ITS OWN The New Era Life Association, af filiated with the Northern States Co operative League since 1926, has passed through the critical year of 1930 practically unscathed. While it is true that its membership has de creased somewhat, as compared with the previous year, financially the New Era is now stronger than ever. Co operatively it as also steadily devel oping toward more democratic form and closer contact with other cooper atives. On January 14th the New Era Sen ate held its quarterly meeting. The Senate iis a law-making body which has power to make amendments to the existing by-laws and to adopt new rules and regulations for the organi zation. At the Senate meetings which are presided over by the president of the organization, reports are made on the general progress of the organiza tion. The Cooperative League has recent ly established its own insurance de partment in New York and has pledged its assistance to the New Era Life Association. NEWS FROM THE N. S. C L. DISTRICT Within the last thirty days the Consumers Cooperative Movement in the N. S. C. L. district has lost two of its active workers. Paul Lahti, formerly manager of the Iron Belt Cooperative Association, and a graduate of both the N. S. C. L. and the C. C. E. Training Schools, passed away at his home town, Cloquet, after a prolonged illness. Binar Teittinen, formerly manager of Store No. 3 of the Cloquet Cooperative Society, and also a graduate of the Central Exchange School, died at Cloquet from tuberculosis, which had compelled him to resign from active service months ago. We deeply regret the loss of these two young cooperators who always had the interest of the cooperative movement at heart and were val uable workers in it. * * * The Milwaukee Consumers Cooperative Asso ciation has been hard hit by the present eco nomic depression and has been compelled to close its branch store and its bakery. However, the main store, which is located at- 243 N. 35th St., is still in operation and is now managed by Ralph L. Hayward, at the recommendation of the creditors. D. Leuchovius, who had managed the concern for the past one and one-half years, resigned in November and is again working for the Franklin Cooperative Creamery Association of Minneapolis. The cooperative store at Battle Creek, Michi gan, has gone into the hands of a receiver. Additional reports to similar effect may be expected from our district in the near future, if the present depression persists and prices1 con tinue to fall. The League's Secretary spoke at Waukegan, Illinois, at the Slovenian Hall, Tuesday evening. January 13, to a good-sized audience. On the same trip the Secretary met with the directors and the new manager of the Milwau kee Consumers Cooperative Association, to dis^ cuss ways and means as to how that organiza tion could best pull through its present crisis. * * * The • Workers' Cooperative Society of Mar- quette, Michigan, has a new manager, Matt Niemi, who for many years successfully man aged the business of the Virginia Work People's Trading Company, now the second largest co operative store society in Minnesota. Mrs. Nie mi, wife of the new man.ager, has dramatic talent and experience, and under her direction the Finnish cooperators at Marquette, have formed a dramatic club which recently gave in Finnish an elaborate rendition of "Samson and Delilah." The fact that the play was given un der the auspices of the Cooperative Store seems to have attracted wide attention even among the non-Finnish people of the city and the local newspapers have given a great deal of publicity to the store in this connection. V. S. A. 32 COOPERATION Cooperation Abroad ATTEMPTED BOYCOTT IN SCOTLAND The firm of Elders & Fyffes, banana importers, has informed the Scottish Cooperative Wholesale Society that unless it ceases to buy bananas from the growers' cooperative organization •known as tine Jamaica Producers, it will refuse to sell in the future to tihe cooperative wholesale. For many years this private firm of importers had a monopoly of the Ja maica banana trade, but recently the cooperative requirements have in creased so rapidly that these people could not fill the demand of the Scot tish wholesale and the latter went for additional bananas to tihe Jamaica Producers Marketing Company, a newly formed cooperative of banana growers. The ultimatum threatening a boycott resulted. The cooperative wholesale has issued a circular letter to all affiliated societies stating that it refuses to accept this dictation from tihe private importing firm and appeals to all affiliated societies for their support in the fight which looms aihead. COOPERATIVES RECEIVE LARGEST TEA SHIPMENT Soon after tihe opening of the enor mous new tea warehouse of the. Eng lish and Scottish Joint Cooperative Wholesale Society on the Manchester Ship Canal, the S. S. Makalla drew up to the wharves with 4000 tons of cooperative tea in its hold, the largest direct shipment of tea ever made across seas. The tea came from the plantations owned by the cooperatives of Great Britain, the total cargo being valued at more than four million dollars. The tea warehouse is built of rein forced concrete with a capacity of 52,000 chests of tea and the output of the plant will probably be nearly one-half million pounds per week or about one thousand quarter potind packages per minute. COMPULSORY POOLING In view of the recent decision of the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool to peti tion tiheir Provincial Government to establish compulsory pooling of wheat, by a vote of 34,621 in favor and only 13,845 opposed, it is inter esting to note that the farmers in two of the states of Australia have re cently defeated similar proposals ad vanced in their own territories. The vote in Victoria showed only 56% of the farmers in favor of the proposition whereas an affirmative decision could be made only by a vote of 60%. In New South Wales, 66% of tihe farmers must approve and only 62i/2% voted favorably. When the Board of Directors of the Saskatchewan pool invited the di rectors of the Alberta pool to endorse compulsory pooling, the latter em phatically stated 'that they would adhere to the traditional system of voluntarily pooled marketing as the only sound method yet evolved, and pointed out that the delegates from the various sections of Alberta have repudiated any suggestion of de parture from the time-honored and free system of marketing. DIRECT BARTER IN POLAND In the -village of Dubno, Poland, the peasants wanted to open a branch store of the nearest regional coopera tive society but were unable to raise the necessary cash capital. An agree ment was finally effected whereby the new members each contributed 155 ,kg. of onions in lieu of a cash payment. The store was then opened in Dubno and the members derived immediate advantages when all the local merchants lowered their prices to meet the new competition. COOPERATION 33 CO-OP VERSUS PRIVATE WHOLE SALING IN FINLAND A recent study of wholesale trade in Finland compares the business of 101 of the most representative firms in the country; 94 of them are ordi nary wholesalers, five of them fed erations of local wholesalers and two of them cooperative wholesale so cieties. Between 1928 and 1929 the private firms lost 3% of the total business, while the consumers coop erative and the private cooperative gained a corresponding amount. The private houses made a return of 5x/£% on their own capital while the cooperative wholesales made 17J/2%. While the private concerns had ex penses of 6.8% of sales, expenses for the two cooperatives were only 3.3%. Measured in percentages of sales, the net gain by the private companies was .2% while that of the wholesale societies was 1.6%. 100TH CELEBRATION FOR A COOPER ATIVE The Bannockburn Cooperative So ciety of Scotland celebrated the 100th anniversary of its founding late in 1930. The society was started back in 1830 by 49 working men and women, each of whom took a pledge to buy loyally from his own store. The em ployees took the same pledge and trading terms were strictly cash. As the Rochdale rules of rebates on purchases were unknown at that time, dividends were paid on capital stock. The change to the Rochdale plan was not made until 1865. Any member of this society who bought his goods from any other shop was summoned before the manage ment committee and, if found guilty, was made to pay a fine. All members of the society were compelled to serve in rotation on this committee. Book Reviews COMMUNISTS AND COOPERA TIVE COLONIES By CHARLES GIDE (Thomas Y. Crowell Co. New York, 1930) This is a translation made by Ern est F. Row oif Professor Gide's LES COLONIES COMMUNISTES ET CO OPERATIVES which was published in 1928. The book deals with the out standing attempts that have been made to found communities of a mu tual character on the land. Prof. Gide begins with a discussion of the col onies of animals. Then come man's feeble attempts at colony building. Primitive communities, such as the Incas' and the monastic colonies are described. The Jesuit republics of Paraguay are fully portrayed. The protestant colonies in the United States include the Shakers, the Perfectionists of Oneida, the Duk- hobors, the Mormons, and others. All had their day and passed away, except the Dukhobors. Religion seems the strongest tie to hold colonists togeth er. The socialist communities went the way of all the rest. Anarchist colonies seemed a bit more reasonable but failed because of the natural human weakness to desire privilege and ad vantage over one's fellows. Among the agrarian colonies Fair- hope and the Zionist colonies in Pa lestine are described. The so-called "cooperative communities" are given fair attention. Llano is dignified by a brief description of its various schemes. The most successful colony discussed is the Lasserre Foundation which possesses the merit that it has not yet come into existence. This book is most illuminating. It is delightfully written and instructive. Professor Gide says: "Unfortunately we cannot at this moment point to a single example of a really communist society which has really succeeded." This is what might be expected. None 34 COOPERATION of these colonies has ever been co operative. They are either destined to fail or if they succeed, they are bound to become profit-maMng busi nesses. The only exception is the re ligious colony. People who expect to have their best time after they are, dead, may possibly be willing to drudge along in this world on work, victuals, and drink. J. P. W. NEW PUBLICATIONS OF THE I. C. A. Several important publications have re cently been issued by the International Co operative Alliance. Among them are the fol lowing : 1. "International Cooperation" PL927-29, Volume II, containing Reports on the Activi ties of 55 National Cooperative Organizations in 34 countries. Published at 7/6d per copy. 2. Statistics of Affiliated National Organ isations for 1928 and 1929. One edition only with Explanatory Notes. Price 2/6d per copy. NOTE: The present edition of the Sta tistics is a preliminary one but the figures are being revised and completed, and the final edition will be issued as soon as pos sible. All subscribers to the preliminary edi tion will receive the revised edition without additional charge. 3. Third Edition of the Directory of the International Cooperative Press, with ex planatory notes. Price l/6d per copy. 4. Memorandum on the Organisation of the International Cooperative Press, by H. J. May, which was presented to the Press Conference at Vienna. Price 2d per copy. 5. Papers on Internattpnal Cooperative Educcttion, by Victor Serwy and W. P. Watkins, presented to the Special Education Conference at Vienna. Price 2d per copy. 6. The Report of the Vienna Congress will be published shortly, and a notice will be in serted in our publications as soon as it is available. Meanwhile, we shall be glad to re ceive orders for this publication also. In Eng lish, French, and German, price 5/ per copy. LEAGUE OFFERS $50 PRIZE A prize of $50 is offered for the best pic ture' for the 1932 League Calendar. The picture must be in color, with genuine ar tistic merit, must be symbolic of Cooperation and carry some propaganda value. All entries for this contest should reach the League office before April first. My Point of View By J. P. Warbasse COOPERATION AND POLITICS "When we get socialism we will not need our bakery any longer." This is the statement of the leader of a cooperative bakery society speaking at the banquet on the occasion of the celebration of their twenty-fifth an niversary. The society was organized by so cialists and has always remained un der socialist control. The majority of the leadership never grasped the cooperative significance of their bak ery, but always remained socialists. The dream of the future enter tained by these people is the dream of a political state and not of a co operative democracy. The statement of this leader is significant. It is reasonable and, from the political standpoint, per fectly sound. It is a prediction of what is to be expected in the event of political success. They will not need their bakery, any longer because, as socialists, they must yield up their bakery to the state, just as the capi talist must yield up his baikery to the state. In any country where socialism wins and comes into control, the so cialized government must proceed to carry on all business for the citizens of tihe state, Where socialism succeeds, coopera tion will disappear just as surely as capitalistic business will disappear. If this did not happen then socialism would not succeed. The socialist theory provides for no makeshift. So cialism is one hundred percent so cialism. It does not mix with other methods of business. Cooperation must expect to be abol ished wherever socialism comes in. Of course socialism does not exist in any country yet. Possibly it never will. COOPERATION 35 But what is important for coopera- tors to know is, that this policy is the policy of socialists. When they win partial victories they proceed with socialist policy as far as they can go. This usually is not very far. But one thing always happens: the po litical leaders who are in govern mental power soon see that coopera tion is not socialism. The present British government, in the control of the socialist party, does not harmon ize with the cooperative movement. Prime Minister MacDonald and his associates know that the cooperative movement is of great value to the working people. But their govern ment in no way displays friendliness toward cooperation—except in the form of political oratory. The govern ment is weaik and concerned chiefly in keeping itself in power. This is its one big job. If it should do anything for the cooperative movement, it would be only for the purpose of get ting votes. If this socialist govern ment should grow strong and secure in its power, then it would take an in terest in the cooperative societies. This would be the same interest that it would take in capitalistic corpora tions. It would be interested in tak ing them over and making them state property to be administrated by political appointees. Cooperation exists and grows in the presence of state owned enterprises thanks to the weakness and insecur ity of the socialistic governments. The city of Vienna, Austria, has a socialist majority in its government. Cooperative housing was once con spicuous in Vienna. After the war it was this method that made homes for the homeless possible. But coopera tive housing in Vienna has a hard struggle now. If one goes to Vienna to see it he will have trouble to find it. The bureaus of housing informa tion are under political control and the visitor just fails to find the coop erative settlements. Vienna does everything for munici pal housing. The city is building thousands of homes which it rents to the citizens. The municipal govern ment is interested and active in pro moting government owned and con trolled houses and in discouraging cooperative housing. The socialist government is true to socialism. When the Congress of The Inter national Cooperative Alliance met in Vienna, in 1930, the municipal houses, controlled by ithe political government, were exhibited to the cooperative delegates with great pride; tout not the cooperative houses. I do not know of a delegate who saw a cooperative house in Vienna al though there are hundreds of beauti ful examples of cooperative homes. But the municipal houses were dec orated with flags and made a con spicuous part of the congress. I am not criticizing the municipal houses of Vienna. They are much better than anything the private landlord ever gave the people. I am only discussing the Incompajtability between cooperation and politics. If the socialist government of Vienna were firmly established and not hanging on with so uncertain a hold, things would be different. Then the government would confiscate the cooperative houses, make everything political, and cooperative housing would disappear. In all countries cooperators are learning that no kind of politics can mix with cooperation. Cooperation is building a society that needs no po litical state. This is quite as im portant a contribution to social se curity as is the fact that cooperation is abolishing the profit motive in in dustry. Cooperation is the only move ment in practical operation that is placing effective opposition in the way of the onward sweep of a domi neering stateisim toward which both capitalism and socialism are moving. This is the reason why the coopera tive leaders, in the countries in which cooperation is building most sub stantially, are opposed to "political action" and demand political neutral ity for their cooperative societies. The fact that socialism never 36 COOPERATION comes fully into control in any situa tion is the hope and security of coop eration. This is also important for the working people too, because if so cialism should ever fully capture a government, the workers would find that the government is not controlled by the workers at all, but by the poli ticians. A socialist government is found to be a government of, for, and by the politicians. This cannot be said of a capitalistic government. A capital istic government is of and by the pol iticians, but for the class that owns the property and controls the credit; and the politicians take their orders from this class and are its servants. When the people who need things and credit grow wise enough to own and control the property for produc ing and . distributing to themselves the things they need, and when they supply their own credit, then they will be in position to control the pol iticians and the government. And this is just what takes place in the cooperative movement. But since cooperators are not in terested in the promotion of priv ileges in the exploitation of the work ers, when they attain such political control, they do not need to use their power. The political government is no longer necessary to them. They carry on their affairs in their economic so ciety, and the political state fades away. This is the difference between cooperation and socialism. It is a fundamental difference. We should squarely face it, whether we like it or not. One other fact also should not be lost sight of. Socialism trains people to understand the weakness of the profit system and the advantages of production and distribution for the service of the consumers. Having gotten that far, the student of eco nomic problems either remains a so cialist or he grows conscious of the dangers of stateism and takes the next step in his intellectual develop ment. The Reader Writes FROM THE LEAGUE AUDITOR We stopped over one boat in Hong Kong and made a trip to Canton. What a city, Canton! I certainly never expected the Par East to be just like that. From Hong Kong we went to Shanghai, a very uninteresting city, except for .the visit to the China Cooperators Union. I'll tell you a little about it. They have quite a bit of our literature already, and have translated a few of The League pam phlets. They know the Doctor's books, both the "Democracy" and the "What Is Cooper ation." Now about the Union here.—Some time ago the government at Nanking established a Bureau of Reconstruction, and one of its activities resulted in the formation of a school for the study of the cooperative move ment. Altogether one hundred and twenty students joined, and went through a special course which occupied three months. The course dealt with the history of the cooper ative movement in foreign countries, and showed how these were organized and man aged in the interest of the members. After completing the course the school was dosed, and the students were sent forth to sow the seed. They not only had imbibed the theory but were now to put it into practice. The students were distributed to eight cen ters, Chinkiang, Wuhsich, Soochow, Lung- .kianz, Yangchero, Nantung, Havai-yin and Hsuchow. These students formed in those towns what are called Cooperative Guiding Bureaus. None of these Cooperative Guiding Bureaus was established at Shanghai; due to the fact that the work had already been done here. In June 1928 the Bureau of Social Af fairs in Shanghai established a school for the study of cooperation and altogether eighty students joined. The course was free and occupied one month. This body of co operative workers is available, and they helped the forming of the Cooperative So ciety of Shanghai. Sales 1926 Mexican $158,327 1927 " 217,742 " 1928 " 232,272 3 Branch Stores. Mexican $20 per member. Groceries, Meat, Hardware. Province of Chekiang has about 100 co operative societies and to help .them in de veloping their activities, an Agricultural Credit COOPERATION 37 Bank has been established in Hangchow which will assist the societies with credits. A school for the study of Cooperation was started in Hangchow. Mr. Wang heads the Union at present; he is a teacher in Nanking, teaching cooperative history ' and economics. If possible on the way down from Peking, we will stop there and visit. The Union at present is a league of individuals. Individual dues, and indi vidual contributions, only an educational and propaganda organization, with practical ad vice when possible. "How to Run and Oper ate a Cooperative Store," has been translated from our pamphlet, also Cheel's Cooperative Bookkeeping. The last congress, held in Oc tober, has authorized two field workers to go out and gather statistics and get the societies to join. How very much like our own be ginning. No political split yet! We are still going strong, but talk a lot about all you folks. I guess it will be nice to get home next June. I do hope I get a big stack of mail with lots of news about every body and everything. Best wishes from both of us. Wemer E. Regli on board S. S. Taiyo. THE PROPOSED RAISE OF NATIONAL DUES Editor, "Cooperation:" In the January issue of your magazine you invite officers of cooperative societies to give their opinion as to the proposal of including subscriptions to "Cooperation" in the per capita membership dues the affiliated so cieties are paying to The Cooperative League. I am heartily in favor of this move but I don't think it advisable to raise any dues without the action and consent of the Co operative Congress. The various district leagues are practically autonomous organiza tions, only federated into and with the League. Their consent should be obtained first and with definite recommendations passed by the annual conventions of the district leagues. This matter of raising the national dues so as to include subscriptions to "Cooperation" could then be submitted to the next Cooperative Congress to be passed there. How much, then, should the dues be raised to cover also the subscription price for di rectors and employees? In the case of large cooperative business concerns such as the Franklin Cooperative Creamery Association, their dues should be raised from twenty cents to thirty cents per capita to cover the present subscription price in full. However, under the present arrangement between the district leagues and the national organiza tion, only one-fourth of this would revert to The League. Of course, twenty-five cents going to The League for every one-year sub scription to the national magazine would be insufficient to pay for the cost of production. Or, to get around this, it is possible to ar range so that besides their present regular dues, the affiliated societies are required to pay, let us say 75 cents a year additional dues for each of their directors and employees, in order to be in good standing. With a greatly increased number of subscribers, the cost of the magazine probably could be kept at 75 cents a year for each one. These additional dues should be collected by the district leagues together with the present dues and turned over to the national organization quarterly. It seems to me the more I think of it that this latter proposition (of charging addi tional dues on the basis of the number of directors and employees) is the most prac tical one. It is true that even in this case there are some minor complications. For in stance, directors or employees of a coopera tive store may be directors in a cooperative oil association, and vice versa. Proper check ing methods should be devised and developed which would eliminate needless duplication in such cases. Let's all get busy and prepare a consistent proposition in this matter to be submitted first to the conventions of the district leagues, and finally to the Cooperative Con gress of 1932, and let's see to it that the proposal is adopted there. It is very neces sary that all directors and employees of the MUTUAL SERVICE & COOPERATION By CHARLES T. SPRADING "This book presents the philosophy of liberbarianism with Cooperation as its practical working basis. It is rich in information. Every cooperatar, who would be broadly cultured, should read this masterly contribution to progress ive thought." J. P. Warbasse. LIBERTARIAN PUBLISHING COMPANY 3715 FOLSOM ST., LOS ANGELES, CAL. PRICE, POSTPAID $1.00 38 COOPERATION All true cooperators patronize THE NEW ERA LIFE ASSOCIATION (Established 1897) A strictly cooperative life insurance institution. Member of the Northern States Cooperative League. All standard forms of life insurance contracts written. Funeral Benefit and Disability insurance for only $1.00 a month! WE CAN INSURE YOU BY MAIL without medical examination! For full particulars clip this coupon and mail it to: NEW ERA LIFE ASSOCIATION, Grand Rapids, Mich. Name: . Address : affiliated cooperatives keep posted on the doings of their" central organizations and at the same time become educated in Con sumers Cooperation, which they can do if they all become regular subscribers to our national cooperative magazine, and it is on ly fair that our cooperative business or ganizations undertake to bear the cost of such education. V. S. Alanne Minneapolis. FAVORS COMPULSORY SUB SCRIPTIONS Editor COOPERATION: I have read the "Drastic Proposal" sub mitted by Edward Carlson in the last num ber of your magazine in which he suggests that every society affiliated with The League shall pay in addition to its regular dues, an extra amount sufficient to cover subscrip tions to our national magazine for all its employees and directors. I believe it is es sential to get not only cooperative ideas and theories to such important workers in our societies, but also information about the ac tual progress being made in the movement here and abroad. The magazine should go to every director, official and employee to instill new enthusiasms and keep up old en thusiasms, to prevent dry rot, to show them the cooperative movement as a whole. The first way to get cooperation across to the entire membership is to get it across to the leaders. And the only way of getting the magazine to these leaders in a systematic way is to have some organized method of accomplishing this result, and not have to depend upon the whims and fancies of each individual officer or even of each local so ciety. Mr. Canlson's proposal for an amount over and above regular dues to finance such subscriptions is a good one. I approve of it, not merely as a method of turning greater financial support to the magazine, but also as an essential form of propaganda and edu cation. The journal contains valuable ar ticles and should be widely read. I personally have read COOPERATION for two years and always from cover to cover. The Point of View articles, written by one who has given his life to the movement, are most stimulating; and the magazine in gen eral brings me closer to consumers coopera tion; I know what is going on: the brief news items are good. Without the December num ber I should not have known about the Two Year Plan of The League, a real foundation for cooperative development which stimu lates new enthusiasm for me and for others. A systematic method must be organized for handling this business here as it is han dled in all the cooperative countries of Eu rope. Otherwise we are not giving the back ing to the cause which is essential. C. H. MAYER Bloomington, 111. COOPERATION 39 COOPERATIVE DEMOCRACY Second Edition completely revised . by JAMES PETER WARB'ASSE President of The Cooperative League of the United, Stattes of America Member of the Central Committee of the International Cooperative Alliance A Discussion of the Consumers' Cooperative Movement In Its Relation to the Political State, to the Profit System, to labor, to Agriculture and to the Arts and Sciences The Macmillan Co., New York, Publishers Order from The Cooperative League, 167 West 12th St., New Yonk, U. S. A. Price, $1.50. The Cooperative Union, Holyoake House Hanover. St., Manchester, England. Price 6 sh. German Edition: Verlagsgesell- schaft deutscher Konsumvereine, Stroih- hause 38, Hamburg, Germany. Price, 6 marks. ANNUAL LIFE INCOME SOME MEMBERS RECEIVE 40% ANNUAL DIVIDEND ON MONEY PAID IN Are you interested in increasing your an nual income against old age? All mem bers of the family eligible from baby to grandparents. Small Annual Dues Write for Circular of Plan BROTHERHOOD OF THE COMMONWEALTH (Under "Benevolent Orders Law" of the State of New York) 10 Gold Street NEW YORK CITY STUDY COOPERATION AT HOME Correspondence Courses prepared and conducted by experienced cooperators are now ready 1. Elementary English 2. Commercial Arithmetic 3. Bookkeeping for Cooperators 4. Advanced Course in Bookkeeping 5. Principles and Theory of Cooperation 6. Organization and Administration of Cooperatives For full particulars write THE COOPERATIVE LEAGUE 167 West 12th Street New York City The Canadian Cooperator Brantford, Ontario, Canada The organ of the Canadian Coopera tive Movement, owned by and -con ducted under the auspices of The Co operative Unio'n of -Canada. Published monthly 75c per annum "The Cooperative Pyramid Builder" Official Organ of Cooperative Central Exchange is a snappy, live cooperative magazine. Get in line! Subscribe NOW Subscription price 50c a year. COOPERATIVE CENTRAL EXCHANGE Superior, Wis. COOPERATION, 167 West 12th Street, New York. Please send COOPERATION for one year to $1.00 a year Address- 60 COOPERATION PUBLICATIONS —OF— r THE COOPERATIVE LEAGUE HISTORICAL Per Copy Per 100 " .10 $6.00 .05 4.60 4.t!0 15.00 2.50 1.00 3. Story of Cooperation ......... 7. British Cooperative Movement.. S3. Consumers Cooperation in the United States (illus.), 1930.... .10 59. Cooperative Movement in. Europe .05 64. Progress of Cooperation in United States ....................... .05 69. Story of Toad Lane (By Stuart Chase) ..................."... .05 TECHNICAL 4. How to Start and Run a Rochdale Cooperative Society .......... .25 6. A Model Constitution and By- Laws for a Cooperative Society .05 8. Cooperative Education. Duties of Educational Committee Defined .10 9. How to Start a Cooperative Whole sale ......................... .10 27. "Why Cooperative Stores Fail.... .02 14. How to Start and Run a Women's Guild ........................ .10 15. How to Organize a District Coop erative League .............. .10 29. Credit Union Primer (By Ham and Robinson) .............. .50 43. Cooperative Housing ............ .10 51. Model Lease for Cooperative Apartment House ............ .10 MISCELLANEOUS 16. Model Co-op State Law ........ .10 46. Producers' Cooperative Industries .10 11. Control of Industry by the People through the Co-op Movement .10 12. Credit Union and Cooperative Store ........................ .05 13. The Place of Cooperation Among Other Movements ............ .2i> 34. Cooperative Movement (Yiddish) .02 30. "When the Whistle Blew" (Story, by Biruce Calvert) .......... 06 66. International Directory of Coop erative Marketing (By Benson T. Landis) .................. .25 42. Cooperative Homes for Europe's Homeless .................... .10 49. A Way Out .................... .02 55. A Better "World to Live In .... .05 57. How a Consumers' Cooperative Differs from Ordinary Business .02 62. Buttons (League emblem), % inch diameter ............... .05 £3 Sign or Transparency of League Emblem. Green and gold, 8 in. diameter .................... .25 15.*0 67. Stock certificates, engraved, with League Emblem. Bound in f books of 100, 200, or 250 68. To Mothers ................... .02 70. Farmers Marketing and Consum ers Cooperation; An address by 3. P. Warbasse .......... .10 71. International Cooperation: An ad dress by H. 3. May ......... .10 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 Cooperative league; (20) Why Loyalty Is Necessary; (21) Cost T MB 2.00 l.JJO 1 and Crime of Ciredit; (25) Resolutions Adopted by A. F. of L.; (26) Factory Workers Cooperate!; (28) Do You Know About Cooperation in Europe?: (40) Have You a Committee on Education and Recreation?; (45) Schools and Stores. MONTHLY PUBLICATIONS Cooperation—(In bundle lots, $7.50 per hundred). Subscription, per year (foreign, $1.25).... $1.00 REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION (Pub. by the I. C. A.) ........ Per Year, $1.50 $1.65 if paid by check. BOOKS The following books are recommended as con taining the best discussion of the mode] i Coopera tive Movement. They may be ordered through The League: Blanc, Elsie T.: Cooperative Movement in Russia ............................... $2.50 Bright-will, L. R.: Animal "Co-op" Book— For Children ........................ .15 Chase and Schlink: Your Money's Worth, A Book for Consumers ............... 2.00 Flanagan, J. A.: Wholesale Cooperation in Scotland, 1920 .......................... 2.00 Gide, C.: Consumers' Cooperative Societies, American edition and notes, 1922. Cloth 2.00 Hall, Prof. Fred: Handbook for Members of Cooperative Committees ..'............ 2.00 Harris, Emerson P.: Cooperation, The Hope of the Consumer, 1918. Paper bound.... .60 Holyoake: Rochdale Pioneers ............ 1. Off Indian Cooperation, Children's story ...... .15 Jessness, O. B.: Cooperative Marketing of Farm Products ........................ 3.00 Kayden, E. M., and Antsiferov, A. N.: Cooperative Movement in Russia During the War ............................. 4.00 Madams, J. P.: The Story Retold ........ .75 Mears and Tobriner: Principles and Prac tices of Cooperative Marketing ...:... 3.20 Nicholson, Isa: Our Story ................ .25 Oerne, Andres: Cooperative Ideals and Problems ...................:......... 1.25 Owen, Robert: Autobiography ............ .50 Poisson, E.: The Cooperative Republic.... 1.75 Potter, B.: Cooperative 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 Recon struction in Ireland, 1918 ............ 1.00 Smith-Gordon and O'Birien: Cooperation in Denmark ............................. 1.00 Smith-Gordon and O'Brien: Cooperation in Many Lands, 1920 .................... 1.50 Stolinsky, A.: The Cooperative Movement. (In Yiddish) ......................... 1.00 Wairbasse, J. P.: Cooperative Democracy, (1927,) ............................... 1.50 Warbasse, J. P.: What Is Cooperation, 1927 .75 Warne, C. E.: Consumers' Cooperative Move ment in Illinois ...................... S. 50 Webb, B. and S.: The Consumers' Coopera tive Movement, 1921 .................. 5.00 Webb, Catherine: Industrial Cooperation, 1917 .................................. 1.50 Cooperation, Bound Volumes, 1915 to 1930 inclusive, each ....................... 1.25 Report of the American Cooperative Con gresses, 1920, 1922, 1924, 1926, 1928, each 1.00 Northern States Year Book, 1928. Paper.. .60 The People's Year Book, 1831, Cloth, $1.25; paper bound ......................... .75 Year Book of The Cooperative League, 1930. Cloth, $1.50; paper bound ............ 1.00 (Ten cents postage should be added for all boohs.) GEhnvAL LlbixARY 9 1931 fiC A magazine to spread the knowledge of the Cooperative Movement, where by the people, in voluntary associa tion, produce and distribute for their own use the things they need. Published monthly Toy THE COOPERATIVE LEAGUE op THE U. S. A. 167 West 12th Street, New York City CEDEIC LONG, 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 $1.00 a year. VOL. XVII, No. 3 MARCH, 1931 10 CENTS •tt" Boarding House for Students of The Cooperative College of Japan, situated in the suburbs of Tokyo. The College was founded in 1926, the buildings erected in 1929. About thirty of the foremost graduates of the high schools are selected each year for study at this college. The institution has interest for American cooperators at this time, because of the proposal for the establishment of a Cooperative College in the United States. There are such institutions for advanced cooperative study in practically all the countries of Europe. 42 COOPERATION Can America be Prosperous?* By STUART CHASE Depressions or no depressions, we are, it is claimed, the most pros perous nation on earth. In the vaults of a Government depository in Wall Street is a billion dollars in gold guarded by a company of armed Marines, and sunk below tide water so that the tunnels of robbers may not reach it. The total of life insur- arice policies outstanding now ex ceeds one hundred billion; the total of savings bank accounts nine and one-half billion. There are 27 million families in the country and 25 mil lion passenger automobiles. Twelve million radios take their toll of our night's sleep. Up to two years ago, we certainly thought ourselves the most pros perous nation on the planet. Mr. Coolldge and Mr. Hoover counted the gold, the Buicks, and the radios in their Thanksgiving utterances. And now look at us. At least five millions of men out of work! Un known millions of dollars being raised by "Relief Committees"! And unheard of bad feeling between the President, the Congress, and the Red Cross as to who should hand out the sandwiches, while thousands starve! What Was Prosperity, Anyway? We must remember that "pros perity" means one thing to bankers and business men, and another thing to you and me. When pieces of paper were flowing briskly from bank to bank, when clerks were hunched over ledgers tacking on the ciphers, when the ticker on the stock market got an acute attack of indigestion as the re sult of gulping its orders too fast— we were said to be commercially prosperous. And we were..... ^Reprinted by permission of Consumers Cooperative Services, which is publishing a pamphlet by Mr. Chase under this title. The article has here been somewhat condensed. In 1922, if the national income had been equally divided, every man, woman, and child would have re ceived $625. In 1929 the average was about $750. A gain of $125 or 20%. In other words, where the average man had a nickel in 1922, he had six cents in 1929. This was good as far as it went, though hardly anything to become excited about..... But alas there is a terrible joker in these figures. The joker was there in 1922; it-was there in 1929; it is there even more cruelly today. The joker is this. There is no such thing as the average worker or the average family. There are only you and your friends, and me .and my friends, and so on—fellow citizen after fellow citi zen across the country. Living de cently for me is an individual matter based on the specific income I get, and so for you and Ford and Mr. Zero. Suppose we aisik every American gainfully employed—from President Hoover to the gentlemen in white whom I see cleaning the street across from where I write—to send you a postcard with the amount of money he .actually received in 1929, together with an allowance for any home- grown food or supplies consumed. . . . Here are ten individuals at the top of the list receiving 89 million dollars between them, an average of almost nine millions per year apiece! Here are 273 individuals averaging an an nual income of $1,800,000. About 350,000 individuals receive $10,000 or more, taking in the aggregate over 10 billions of the total national income. Thus less than one per cent of Amer ican income receivers secure 12 per cent of all income. Where "Prosperity" Fails Out of the 45 million persons in the country gainfully employed, only 4,100,000 make income tax returns at COOPERATION 43 all. The total which they report is 22.6 billions. Thus less than 10 per cent of the people receive over 25 per cent of the national income. This leaves 90 per cent of all persons gain fully employed with an average of $1,500 a year in 1929! If you can locate any great amount of prosper ity in the latter figure, you deserve the gold cup at the next dinner of the Optimists' Society. And if that was true of 1929, what do you think is the average income of that 90 per cent in this month of February, 1931? We must remember, however, that whereas there are 45 million persons gainfully employed, there are only about 27 million families in the country. This means that in millions of cases, two or more persons are helping to support the family and thus raising the average family in come somewhat. Making due allow ance for this factor probably 80 per cent of all American families are re ceiving less than $2,000 a year at the present time, certainly Hess than $2,500. What do you suppose the lower third of these 80 per cent are making —in this year of 1931? That's where the "average" figure is so misleading and so intolerant of human values. By way of checking these figures Messrs. Foster and Catchings an nounced in October, 1929, that at least 35 million of the gainfully em ployed earn less than $40 a week. (Forty dollars a week means about $2,000 a year.) And here are some actual annual earnings by various occupational groups, as collected by Government investigators and re ported in Recent Economic Changes. Agricultural laborers .........$ 537 Clerks in stores .............. 1,315 Mining workers .............. 1,318 Factory workers ............. 1,362 Transportation workers ...... 1,554 Constructive workers ......... 1,574 Government employees ....... 1,585 Banking employees .......... 2,179 Unclassified workers ......... 1,408 All groups .................$1,384 Thus in 1925, a year of great pros perity, the average earnings for sal ary and wage workers, the country over was $1,384. Today, with the na tional income reduced, the average will probably be lower. The joker is now perfectly appar ent. If .ten people have ten dollars to divide between them, and one takes nine dollars, the others, while they had a theoretical average of one dollar to start with, as a matter of . cold fact,- when the surgical opera tion is over, have precisely 11 cents apiece. The Crux of It Ten per cent of Americans drain off more than 25 per cent of the total national income. At the top of the scale we have ten citizens averaging nearly nine millions of income a year; at the bottom some three mil lion farm laborers averaging $537 a year. This is a long, long way from absolute prosiperity for the nation. A selected group of families is inde cently and outrageously prosperous. The great ma'ss was poor in 1922 and is poor today. It had gained per haps, by 1929, one penny in six, but a little added to a little does not mean so. very much. And where is that ex tra penny now? Why, Then, the Appearance in 1929? How about the motor cars, the ra dios, the movie tickets, the fur coats and the silk stockings? These were facts in 1929; they look like pros perous facts; how are they to be ex plained? The point is well taken. As a nation we certainly looked more prosperous than we dlid in 1922. But •were we? In the first place, most of us had, as already explained, about 20 per cent 'more money to spend. This bought some of the new goods. In the second place, we have bought over six billions of new goods on the installment plan. We have not paid for them, but borrowed for them. In the end we have got to pay —and pay 15 per cent more than 44 C O O P E R A TI O N they would have cost us had we given cash. One major reason for busy fac tories, large outputs and commercial prosperity in general during the past eight years is the "easy payment" system. Six billion dollars worth of credit was created out of thin air. It helped dress us up considerably. But the credit limit of this racket has about been reached. It promises lit tle for the future. In the third place, we have bought many new commodities by.giving up some of the old staples. Our housing space as growing smaller. There is less room for the children to play in, less privacy, less qu'iet. We are eat ing less heavy foods—meat and cereals. Women are wearing fewer and lighter clothes, meaning less cot ton and wool and linen. Our whole standard of living has shifted. The new standard is gaudier, more eye smashing, but whether it is any bet- • ter, all things considered, is an open question. A good share of it comes under the head of window dressing rather than sound commodities de- ' signed to lay the foundation for a more abundant life. Basis of Real Prosperity Commercial prosperity at times is a fact. Human prosperity in the sense of adequate income and the good life for all, is a myth. I fear that it will continue to be a myth until something is done in the direc tion of equalizing the present fan tastic distribution of wealth. When one citizen _at the top receives as much as 20,000 citizens at the bot tom, it is obvious that only a drastic revision of the system can abolish poverty and usher in an era of real prosperity. Do Politics and Cooperation Mix? By COLSTON E. WARNE During the past summer it has been the privilege of the writer to visit a number of European coopera tive movements. On a previous trip, calls were made ait lother national cooperative unions. As a consequence of observations made, I find myself in sharp disagreement with Dr. War- basse who holds that, in Europe, we have clear evidence that the cooper ative movement should not be allied with political endeavors, Political Ties in England It is indeed my observation that much of the vitality of European CQ-- operatives .may be laid to the plu ralistic approach they take toward social change. The cooperative move ment is, almost without exception, donstide'red as one of the three weap ons by which the working class can achieve independence — the other weapons being trade unionism and political action. And the cooperative movement is, in no wise, kept sepa rate from the others. It is an integral part of working class emancipation. Even the British movement, stuffed with conservatism and love of ancient precedent, has definite Labor Party affiliations, often giving direct sup port to that group. Indeed, in some areas a Cooperative Party is main tained. In Ramsey MacDonald's ministry is a cooperator. Possibly a factor which was of importaince in leading the movement in this direc tion was the discrimination in taxa tion and in the handling of their business under which the movement suffered during the War Coalition period. It was well observed that a cooperative movement may suffer from its failure to enter politics in a 'sufficiently powerful way. Political Status in Russia The other extreme in European cooperation is Soviet Russia. There the cooperative movement is operated in the closest possible relationship COOPERATION 45 with the controlling political group. Cooperation is all but a branch of state industry. In an interview at Moscow with an official of the Centrosoyus,ithe Russian cooperative wholesale, I tried out my usual question: "Does not the co ordination of the cooperative move ment with the political state, tend to rob the movement of its independ ence, of its individual character, making it less responsive to consumer desires?" The answer was brief and to the point: "Officials of the state are, as officers of the cooperatives, interested in the welfare of the work ers; consequently we work in the closest of cooperation. Our objectives are the same." Thus, in the practice, the academic distinction (which every good book on cooperation stresses) breaks down. The cooperatives are responsible to consumers, who in a socialist state, are the people. The state in turn is run in the interests of the same peo ple. In Soviet Russia, the Communist Party has proved to be the unifying element which has coordinated co operative and state policies by being the controlling group in each. That Soviet Russia allows no other political party is of course well known. Still, this limitation on free democratic action does not mean that the dicta torship may not be acting wholly in the interests of the workers, who are essentially the only consumers. The strides which have been taken by cooperation under such a political stimulus have been marked. The Rus sian movement is now the largest in the world—with more than 35,000,000 members, and with a turnover (retail and wholesale) of more than ten billilon dollars. Five years ago, it was at less than a sixth of this magnitude. And the State, which has in the past been operating certain retail es tablishments in competition with the cooperatives is increasingly deserting the field in fa/ror of the latter. There exists, in fact, a certain division of function between cooperative and state enterprise; the former taking the retail field and, where direct shipment is not possible, the whole sale field. JVHorepver, the cooperatives do some storaging, warehousing, packing and canning. The heavier enterprises are left to state operation and administration. In thus pointing out thait coopera tives coordinated with political, groups can be successful, I do not wish to give a false impression of the Russian growth. The advance has been so spectacular in, volume tha* retailing methods have not kept pace. The bookkeeping systems are obso lete, the distribution quite inade quate, and the methods of sale time- consuming and exasperating. These difficulties are, however, being met by cooperative classes, both in residence and by mail; by a cooperative insti tute, opened in Moscow; and by in vestigations of the best retailing methods employed in the chain stores of other countries. It is most significant to note that the gains from cooperation are clear ly apparent in Russia. They fulfill the prophecies of the cooperative pioneers who held that the chief benefit to be effected by the move ment was the elimination of compet itive duplication. The cooperative commonwealth of our dreams is one with a few well-located stores in ef ficient operation. The first part of the dream has been fulfilled. The stores are few in number—in the larger cities, one passes long blocks of vacant shiops—which are at the moment eyesores. But, the future points to a scaling down of mercan tile operations to their proper posi tion. Instead of the city's center being Main Street with its gaudy shop windows and flaring advertising signs, the new center in a cooperative world may be a park surrounded by residential sections—with the shops quietly hidden in the background. Socialist ^Movements Elsewhere Between these two movements, one conservative, the other radical, stand the European cooperatives, of which 46 COOPERATION the greater share (loutside the agri cultural areas) have attached them selves to the social democratic group. America stands almost alone in its attachment of cooperation to the an tiquated doctrine of philosophical anarchism. Probably the persistence of neutrality in America can be best laid to the political stupidity which has characterized our populace. Our cooperative societies cannot find enough politically conscious mem bers to survive; hence they en courage the movement to avoid any controversy wiriclh may alienate groups affiliated. And the result is that the movement in many areas resembles ai Methodist Sunday- school. Meaning, of course, that it has a scant vitality, which must be reinforced by the introduction of "rally days" and emotional appeals. Possibly this analysis is somewhat too harsh. After all, the American political arena has offered no large third party movement or large-scale trade union growth to which the co operatives can ally themselves. Still, this should not entirely excuse us for our complacent acceptance of the status-quo in politics, or fior our wil lingness to see the cooperative goal clearly without observing that ours is not the only road to freedom. j News and Comment COMPARATIVE FIGURES FOR A FEW OF THE LARGER COOPERATIVES Year COOPERATIVE WHOLESALE SOCIETIES Farmers Union State Exchange Omalha, Neb. Co-operative Central Exchange Superior, Wis. Midland Cooperative Oil Association Minneapolis, Minn. Eastern Cooperative' Wholesale New York, N. Y. Grange Cooperative Wholesale Seattle, Wash. COOPERATIVE RETAIL SOCIETIES Franklin Coop. Creamery Ass'n. Minneapolis, Minn. Cooperative Trading Company, Waukegan, III. Soo Cooperative Mercantile Ass'n. iSault Ste. Marie, Mich. Consumers Cooperative Services New York, N. Y. Cloquet Cooperative Society Cloquet, Minn. Amalgamated Cooperative New York, N. Y. Work People's Trading Co. Virginia, Minn. North Star Coop. Store Co. Fairport Harbor, Ohio 1929 1930 1929 1930 1929 1930 1929 1930 1929 1930 Income 2,001,725 2,118,212 1,775,569 1,768,506 448,013 600,239 203,756 314,769 116,720** 302,702 Net Gain Members 59,173 70,850 35,798 36,000f 7,798 14,804 1,365 1,074*** 1,892 6,405** 6,529** 90**** 95f**** * 45**** 10**** 10**** 10**** 10**** j 1929 j 1930 ] 1929 1830 1929 1930 1929 1930 f 1929 I 1930 1929 ' 1930 i 1929 1 1930 1929 1930 3,442,292 3,149,142 797,574 818,753 686,585 627,099 608,959 588,884 546,767 579,505 343,378****** 490,602****** 422,404 423,245 465,259 Loss 413,075 Gain 130,157 4,270 107,900 4,300 41,984 1,527 35,565 1,814 43,600 605 39,495 635 38,330 3,397 30,242 3,606 19,249 1,301 22,000 1,398 6,041****** 503 11,998****** 506 12,746 1,040 10,536 1,047 171 700 2,595 695 COOPERATION 47 Cooperative Trading Association Brooklyn, N. Y. Purity Cooperative Bakery Paterson, N. J. United Cooperative Society Fitctotourg, Mass. Cooperative Bakery of Brownsville and East N. Y., Brooklyn, N. Y. New Cooperative Company Dillonvale, Ohio United Cooperative Society Mayrrard, Mass. Workingmen's Cooperative Company Cleveland, Ohio Russian Workers Cooperative Stores Brooklyn, N. Y. Grange Warehouse Company Kent, Wash. Waukegan and No. Chicago Coop. Ass'n. No. Chicago, 111. Farmers Cooperative Trading Co. Hancock, Mich. Medford Cooperative Co. Medford, Wis. Fort Bragg Coop. Merc. Company Fort Bragg, Calif. Rock Cooperative Company Hock, Michigan Elanto Company Nashwauk, Minn. Settlers Cooperative Trading Co. Bruce Crossing, Mich. Hinton Coop. Merc. Company Hinton, West Va. Embarrass Cooperative Association Embarrass, Minn. Blooinington Cooperative Society Bloomington, El. Orr Farmers Coop. Trading Co. Orr, Minn. Spencer Cooperative Society Spencer, N. Y. Workers Cooperative Society Marquett'e, Mich. Year 1929 1930 1929 1930 1929 1930 1929 1930 1929 1930 1929 1930 1929 1930 1929 1930 1929 1930 1929 1930 1929 1930 1929 1930 1929 1930 1929 1930 1929 1930 1929 1930 1929 1930 1929 1930 1929 1930 1929 1930 1929 1930 1929 1930 Income 47.1,523 400,826 394,470 448,570 372,955 371,798 369,782 365,603 274,528 332,333 348,593 292,055 273,343 246,163 214,385 232,970 225,305 223,446 235,421 202,961 182,439 198,163 179,829 175,776 166,875 157,857 195,684** 156,314** 148,849 147,753 150,458 142,527 * 130,000 130,558 113,099 121,555 129,867 114,623 125,855 118,125 111,191 111,848 109,746 Net Gain 8,912 3,657 Loss 5,645 7,677 17,885 18,200 5,044 5,195 2,384 2,953 12,675 5,967 8,041 7,809 4,679 114 3,358 1,972 2,614 6,980 8,894 8,830 8,107 8,729 2,005 8,714 *** 16,207*** = *** 7617***a 7,397 7,034 8,299 5,106 * 1,622 7,359 3,778 Loss 3,638 Gain 52 5,352 3,524 3,471 299 4,713 2,181 Members 2,451 2,650 500 500 600 600 1,100 1,000 27S 243 624 * 1,100 1,150 210 205 311 300 423 443 763 835 * * 304 * >* 422 '* 503 558 549 368 378 * 400 382 423 318 * 365 384 200 * 225 230 Approximate. Figures not available. Individuals, Farmers Union locals and cooperative associations all hold shares of stock. Feed sales in 1929 amounting to $222,326, and the commissions thereon not included in 1929 report. Shareholders are societies rather than individuals. Store Department only. Total income from store, forest products, and cream sales for 1930 \vas $453,841, as compared with -$444,633 in 1928. Includ_ed rentals from apartments as well as' income from stores, milk, ice, laundry, electricity departments, etc. 48 COOPERATION CONSUMERS' SOCIETIES IN 1929 According to a recent study by the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics which covered 656 consumers' cooper atives, there are within these asso ciations 561 stores, 198 gasoline sta tions, 20 bakeries, 17 boarding houses, 13 restaurants or cafeterias, 4 food shops, 8 dairies or milk distributing plants, 3 laundries, 3 feed .mills, 1 tailor shop, 2 coffee roasteries, 1 dance hall, 2 pool or billiard parlors, 1 plant for smoked meats, 1 tea room, 1 public dock, 3 fuel yards, 1 cheese factory, 1 establishment for cleaning beans, 1 blaciksmith shop and garage for repairing automobiles, 1 steam bath and 2 funeral parlors. Business for all of these activities amounted to $64,665,369, and net earnings were $2,980,481, of which $1,746,466 was rebated to members on their patronage. This means an aver age business per association of $155,- 000, average earnings of $4,940 and average rebates of $3,210. Of the 140 gasoline cooperatives listed among these associations, not a single one showed a loss, and the average net gain for all of them was 12% of sales. UNION OF COOPERATIVE EMPLOYEES The "Cooperative Workers Union" has lately been organized by employ ees of societies in Minnesota. The primary object is to unite all the co operative employees of the district for mutual protection, to educate them to the ideals of the cooperative and labor movements, to cultivate technical efficiency, to promote and support other unions, to promote and support the general cooperative movement, and to create better un derstanding between the employees and members of cooperative societies. Wage earners within the cooperatives are admitted to membership. Initia tion fee is $1.00 for men and 50 cents for women, with dues 50 cents and 25 cents respectively per month. The union is not permitted to have any alliance direct or indirect with any political party or antinpolitical sect. GAIN AT SUPERIOR The Cooperative Central Exchange has recently passed through the most tumultuous year in its history, and yet emerges at the close of December with its volume of business larger than that of 1929. The year's sales were $1,768,506, which is an increase of nearly $13,000 over those of the year previous. Prices of all commodities dropped sharply during the year. The con sumers in the 130 or more stores throughout the district found their purchasing power sharply curtailed by the business depression. Finally, to cap the climax, the entire year was one of unending strife between some ardent Communist Party members throughout the district, and the mass of the consumer membership, which involved excessive expenditure of time and money, that under normal circumstances would have gone to the upbuilding of cooperation itself. Within the year the Exchange started its own weekly paper, some editions of which went to more than one hun dred pages. It also kept a large pro portion of its staff traveling through out the territory, speaking to hun dreds of meetings. Thirty-four units of the Coopera tive Youth with a total membership of more than 800 boys and girls were organized in cooperative communi ties. Nearly 50 women's guilds were started within the twelve months with a total membership over a thou sand. Eight or ten of the societies for merly supporting the Exchange with drew their patronage and organized a competitive wholesale under the management of Oscar Corgan, former president of the Exchange. In other towns, small but active communist groups have conducted campaigns of sabotage against the loyal stores. In view of all these difficulties, the con tinued expansion of business and educational activities of the Ex change is truly remarkable. COOPERATION 49 PROGRESS OF EASTERN WHOLE SALE Despite two changes of manage ment, the failure of one of its stores, serious difficulties for two others, and a decline in the value of food stuffs, the volume of business done by the Eastern Cooperative Wholesale in its second year of operations, 1930, show ed a satisfactory increase even when measured in dollars alone. Sales were $314,769 as compared with $203,756 in 1929, an increase of 55%. Most of the increase is due to the gain in volume of butter and milk sales. A STRONG ENDORSEMENT The following resolution unani mously passed at the recent conven tion of the Nebraska Farmers Union is one of the most favorable endorse ments ever given to the principle of Consumers Cooperation by a state wide farmers' convention: CONSUMERS COOPERATION We, your committee on consumers co operation, call the attention of this conven tion to the recommendations made last year by a similar committee. As little, if any. ef fort has been made to carry out these recommendations, we wish to reaffirm 'them and urge that action be taken to carry them out. These recommendations are as follows: BUYING COMPLEMENT OF SELLING "The Farmers Union of Nebraska is defi nitely committed to the program of consumer cooperation as a necessary complement to producer cooperation. It profits us little if through producer cooperation we gain a greater income from the crops we produce if we do not with equal care save those gains through consumer cooperation. "In the past few years we have seen great changes in the commercial system of dis tribution. Former methods are having to give way before these changes. Our own Farmers. Union stores have likewise suffered because we have not successfully associated them.together in such a way that their com bined buying power can be directed through a single channel to the advantage of all. "We, therefore, recommend that a plan be devised and an effort made to federate these stores and the State Exchange so that their buying power may be utilized and expert supervision be secured. "We recommend that all locals be urged to promote the principles of collective buy ing, each community working out for itself the best method for its local conditions Whatever plan is adopted, this collective buying should be directed through the State Exchange. "Recognizing the need of a thorough un derstanding of the principles of cooperation on ,the part of the managers of our coopera tive enterprises and the conviction that those principles are right, we urge that this un derstanding and this conviction be the first consideration by boards of directors when employing managers. "We further recommend that the Farmers Union retail stores and buying associations send their managers and buying aigents to a conference to be held at such time and place as called bv the state president for the purpose of working out the problems stated atoove." DEMOCRATIC BRANCH STORES We approve the policy of the State Ex change in extending its system of branch stores. We recommend that this system be extended into localities where there is large demand and sufficient Farmers Union co operative sentiment to justify the establish ment of a branch store. We recommend further that a plan be devised for democratization of the State Ex change system of branch stores so that the patrons of each branch may have more voice in determining policies of that branch. We believe that this democratization is neces sary to relieve the system of State Exchange branch stores of the stigma of top-down control. We recommend that wherever possible and practicable, our cooperative organizations purchase merchandise and supplies .produced under cooperative conditions. CREDIT UNIONS IN UNITED STATES The recent reports from the U. S. Department of Labor show that credit unions have increased in number be tween 1925 and 1929 from 284 to 974. During the same four year period, membership in them has grown from 107,780 to 264,900, and paid in capital from ten .million dollars to twenty four million dollars. Loans granted by these societies in 1929 alone came to sixty million dollars. Less than six percent of these credit unions were organized before 1916; 25% were organized between 1916 and 1924; the largest growth was between 1925 and 1929 when 522 new credit unions were started. 50 COOPERATION Northern States Cooperative League COOPERATIVES FEEL THE EFFECT OF DEPRESSION A sufficient number of financial re ports of our cooperative store socie ties has reached the N. S. C. L. office, to enable us to say that the year of 1930 has been hard for cooperatives as well as for the workers and farm ers generally. A glance at the comparative table given below will give the reader an ., idea of the "hard sledding" most of I the cooperatives were up against last year. Falling prices and the prevail ing general economic depression have not only cut heavily into the business volume, as expressed in dollars and cents, but have in many instances caused a loss in 1930 where there was a gain in 1929. However, there are "bright spots" in the otherwise dark •) picture, as several of our more sub- ! stan'tial societies have been able to i well hold their own against the odds . of the past year. The total reduction in the sales of these ten cooperative stores, which may be said to be fairly typical, was 6.2% in 1930, as compared with their sales for the previous year. The re duction in the net gain was consider ably larger, being 38.8%. The Franklin Cooperative Creamery Association, Minneapolis, had sales of $293,150.17 or 8.5% less in 1930 than in 1929, and their net gain was $22,257.22 or 17.1% less for 1930 than for 1929. However, the decrease here and in the sales of most of the other cooperatives does not actually repre sent a decrease in the volume of products or merchandise handled, but is due to a reduction in the sale price of the commodities. It is encouraging that the Coopera tive Central Exchange, the coopera tive wholesale in the N. S. C. L. dis trict, was not only able to retain its former sales figure but even slightly increased it during 1930. In 1929 the sales of the Exchange were $1,755,- 627.34 and in 1930 they were $1,768,- 506.20. It also increased its net gain during 1930. Name and Location of Society Wen'twonth Farmers' Coop. Ass'n Wenitwonth, Wis. ................. Cresco Cooperators, Greseo, Iowa ..................... State Line Farmers' Coop. Co. Emmons, Minn. ................... Prentice Coop. Supply Co. Prentice, Wis. ..................... Farmers' Coop. Produce Ass'n Moose Lake, Minn. ............... Farmers' Coop. Merc. Ass'n Kettle River, Minn. ............... Embarrass Coop. Association Embarrass, Minn. ................. Elanto Company, Nashwauk, Minn. ................. Settlers' Coop. Trading Co. Brace Crossing, Midi. ............. Medford Cooperative Company Medford, Wis. ................... TOTALS ..................... Net Sales 1929 1930 $29,257.89 33,047.43 65,367.65 69,609.97 74,701.33 80,470.28 130,557.63 148,849.12 150,458.23 179,829.29 $27,050.34 29,292.80 45,171.78 67,354.42 72,760.14 89,691.49 113,098.99 147,753.36 142,527.39 175,776.14 Net Gain 1929 1930 $688.79x $ 1.02 228.53X 54.09X 3,285.00 306.70X 542.90 90.58x 1,499.49 2,262.06 5,921.47 4,903.89 7,359.33 3,778.42 7,396.82 7,033.69 8,299.22 5,105.88 8,106.91 2,728.65 962,418.82 910,476.85 41,493.82 25,362.24 (x indicates loss) COOPERATION 51 NEWS FROM THE N. S. C. L. DISTRICT Some time ago the board of directors of the Mass Cooperative Company of Mass, Mien., in order to make secure the control of the "left wingers" over the affairs of that society, re sorted to methods involving serious infringe ments upon the rights of those members who had supported the Cooperative Central Ex change in the recent controversy among the Finnish cooperators. Strong resentment to those methods on one hand and a boycott instituted against the Central Exchange by the board on the other hand has now led to the organizing of a new cooperative store at Ontonagon where the Mass Cooperative Company lias operated a branch store. Arnold Lassila, formerly .man ager of the South Range branch of the Farm ers' Cooperative Trading Company of Hancock, Mich., has been elected manager of the new store which was opened January 24th. The name selected for the new organization is Ontonagan Cooperative Society. * * * The Elanto Company of Nashwauk, Minn., one of the most substantial member societies of the Cooperative Central Exchange, is planning to open a branch store at Bpvey, Minn. Years ago there was an independent cooper ative store at Bovey but during the deflation period of 1921-22 it closed its doors. It never was affiliated with the Exchange. Since then a small buying club has operated at Balsam Lake, not far from Bovey. * * * The Northern Farmers' Cooperative Society of Angora, Minn. also is planning the establish ment of a branch store at Cook where the "left ists" succeeded in capturing control of the local cooperative, starting to boycott the Central Ex change. A decided majority of the members of the Northern Farmers' Cooperative Society re mained loyal to the Exchange and they are de termined to continue to serve Exchange sym pathizers at Cook which is located only 12-15 miles from Angora. * * * The Cloquet Cooperative Society is erecting a modern gasoline filling station near their main store at Cloquet. The station will be ready to serve early in the spring. The Cloquet Society also expects to open a branch store at Mahtowa in the near future. The membership of the Farmers' Cooperative Creamery at Mahtowa at their special meeting held Jan. 2& voted to sell to the Cloquet Co operative Society for a consideration of $2,BOO the feed warehouse which they have been oper ating for some time. As soon as 60 new mem bers have been obtained at Mahtowa for the Cloquet Society the latter will be ready to open their new branch which will be their fourth store. • * * * At the annual meeting of the Farmers' Co operative Mercantile Association of Kettle River, Minn., held Feb. 14, 1931. the membership voted by a two-thirds' majority to put their store on a strict cash basis as soon as possible. They also declared in favor of a plan to organize a credit union in the community. The annual meeting of the Farmers' Cooper ative Produce Ass'n of Moose Lake, "which "was held Jan. 30, also declared in favor of going on a strict cash basis. This was voted by a still larger majority than in the case of the Kettle River organization. * * * During the week of Feb. 8, the cooperators at Superior, Duluth, and vicinity held a "cooper ative week"at Superior. Besides exhibits, house- to-house canvassing, etc., perhaps the most spectacular feature on the week's program was a parade in which more than twenty tru^jts of the cooperatives at the Head of the Lakes_ and some forty automobiles belonging to individual cooperators took part. The week was wound up by a well-attended program meeting at which the new play "The Cooperative Spirit" was given as the main number. * * * Mrs. Alex Cordlner, who came to Minneapolis from Scotland a few years ago, and who in the old country had taken active part in the co operative store movement, addressed the annual meeting of the Prentice Cooperative Supply Company of Prentice, Wis., on Feb. 3, under the auspices of the Northern States Cooperative League. As a local women's cooperative guild had lately been organized at Prentice, Mrs. Cordiner spoke chiefly on women's participation in the Cooperative Movement. Mrs. Cordiner is an active member of the Women's Cooperative Guild of Minneapolis. * * * Floodwood, Minn., is a small-sized town, lo cated about 45 miles west of Duluth. Years ago the farmers around Floodwood, who are mostly Finnish, experimented with a cooperative store, but failed. However, in 1925 they organ ized another, with the help of the Cooperative Central Exchange, and this store has been a success from the very start. Last year its sales exceeded $70,000. Recently it took over the store of the Gowan Cooperative Association and now operates it as a branch. * * * Tn the spring of 1929 the Floodwood Cooper ative Association, in cooperation with the Clotiuet -Cooperative Society and a few other cooperative stores in the district, organized the Trico Cooperative Oil Association, with their main bulk station situated at Floodwood and another bulk station at Cloquet. The manager of the Floodwood store also takes care of the business of the Trico Oil Association. The latest cooperative development at Flood- wood is the organization of a creamery, in corporated under the name of Floodwood Co operative Creamery Association. One hundred and fifty-seven nearby farmers have pledged to take at least one $100.00 share each. Construc tion work for the new creamery building will be started presently. The Floodwood Cooper ative Creamery Association has voted to af filiate with the Land O'Lakes Creameries, the central organization of the farmers' cooperative creameries in the Northwest. AT AN OPENING CEREMONY Lines composed by the writer, in a state of acute mental agony, while listening to a portly local contractor, speaking at the formal opening of a new cooperative somewhere in England, expatiate on his own rare devotion to "The Spirit of Service." O! stop before you make me sick, You really pile it on too thick; Praise, if you must, each stone and brick, For all admire a clever trick— But do cease ranting! You got the job and drew your plan, Then did your business like a man Who seizes every pound he can, But need you make the grand salaam. With heart a-panting? Let others laud your -work and worth, Recall the hour that saw your birth, And drink your health with joy and mirth While you grow bigger in the girth, But, oh! stop canting! T. W. Mercer. 52 COOPERATION COOPERATION 53 My Point of View By J. P. Warbasse COOPERATION AND THE SOCIALISTS Cooperation is the oldest economic system in tlhe world. Money-making is new. ' The communism practiced by the Essenes and described by the histo rian Josephus in the first century was cooperation. I Sir Thomas More's "Utopia," four centuries ago, set tlhe world thinking of restoring mutual aid. James Har- rington's "Oceana," a century and a half later, continued the interest in mutualistic economics. John Bellers formulated a plan in 1696, that would have abolished poverty from Great Britain, had it been adopted. I Saint Simion, in the 18th century, evolved a system of economic action based on the formula: "To each ac cording to his capacity; to each ca pacity according tto its works." Charles Fourier was another dreamer in the 18th century, with a socialistic scheme of economic re form. The doctrine taught by the leaders of social and economic thought, be fore the Rocihda'le period, was the doctrine of socialism. Cooperation grew out of the socialism that was attempted in accordance with these doctrines. Robert Owen got ideas from all the preceding social reformers. The word "cooperation" began to be used. It first appeared in "The Economist" about 1821. Owen's genius translated socialism into cooperation. Certain economic methods called mutualism, com munism, and socialism, began to be separated under the name coopera tion. I Socialism After Robert Owen During the first third of the 19fch century, cooperation was discussed, and organized from the socialist standpoint. The Chartists and the Christian societies were a large in fluence among the working people. Cooperators, in the early part of the 19)th century, were still known by their old community name of "so cialists." They were grouped with the social reformers of all classes al though they were directing the cur rents of economic thought into new channels. Uohn Stuart Mill in his "Political Economy," in 1848, wrote what ap plied to this whole class. It is a sig nificant statement and might be taken seriously by our present rulers were they discriminating enough to discover .its sagacity. He said: "Far, however, from looking upon any of the classes of socialists with any ap proach to disrespect, I honor the in tention of almost all who are publicly known in that character; and I re gard them, taken collectively, as one of the most valuable elements of human improvement now existing, both from the impulse they give to the reconsideration and discussion of all the most important questions, and fram the ideas they have con tributed, ideas from which the most advanced supporters of the existing order of society have still much to learn." The Christian socialists, Maurice, Kingsley, and Ludlow, promoted a philosophy which "was highly favor able to cooperation. The German socialists, Marx, En- gels, and Lassalle, all developed theo ries and promoted organization which ultimately proved to the ad vantage of cooperation. They set peo ple thinking in terms of social ac tion. They exposed the weaknesses of the profit system. And they taught that an economy, based on service, was the natural solution of the eco nomic problem. During all this past period of a hundred years, the socialists have been the voice crying out in the wild erness of profiteering. They have challenged the onward sweep of capi talism. They have offered the most telling arguments against the profit motive. The cooperators have not been much given to anti-capitalistic polemics. The socialists have massed the arguments so well that cooper ators were left free to devote them selves to building up their own anti- capitalistic form of business. Socialism's More Recent Con tributions In every country where consumers' cooperative societies have been form ed, the socialists have played a con spicuous part in their promotion. This has been because socialists looked upon cooperation as a part of the socialist movement, or saw in cooper ation a practical ally to socialism which would give immediate benefits. The French speak of "the socialism of producers" and "the socialism of consumers." By the latter they mean cooperation. International socialist congresses pass resolutions "recognizing the high value and importance of the organi zation of consumers for the working classes, and urging the workers to become and remain active members of the cooperative distributive socie ties." In almost every country in Europe it was first tlhe socialists who rallied to the call of leaders of cooperation and became the first members of the cooperative societies. People who are sympathetic to socialism are the most susceptible material for the making of cooperatoirs. They do not have to be taught the simple fundamentals of economics. They already have knowledge of the deficiencies of the profit motive and the advantages of the service motive in industry. Cooperative propaganda requires a lot of explaining to the average man, but not to the socialist. The socialist is ready for it and easily grasps the idea. The American Scene In the United States one of the most important sources of support that the cooperative movement has enjoyed has come from the socialists. Especially socialists of foreign birth or parentage have given this help. They have found here so little possi bility of getting socialist results in any other field, that they have given their energies to the cooperative movement. This has been particu larly the case with the Finns, Scan dinavians, Germans, Italians, Hun garians, Russians, Ukranians, Slavo nians, Lithuanians, and other Balkan peoples. The Finnish socialists are outstanding in their support of co operative education and organiza tion. Without these socialists in the United States, the cooperative move ment would .make a poor showing. The societies that hold back from uniting with The Cooperative League, which are most reactionary, and which are in the greatest danger of becoming the personal property of their smart store manager, are so cieties with no socialist blood in their membership. In this country it has always been found that an infusion of socialist blood is of benefit to the cooperative societies. I am writing this because the no tion seems to prevail that I am not friendly to the socialists. This notion is far from the truth. I entertain both friendliness and respect for the so cialists. The misconception arises from the fact that I often point out that the methods pursued by them will not bring the ideals of socialism into operation. Although socialists claim that they do not want the ty rannical socialized state, still they are moving on toward it, and when they get- it, or when the tyrannical state gets them, they may find that escape towards the cooperative common wealth is more difficult than it seems even now. It is also possible that the high aims of cooperators may never be realized. But the cooperators' belief 54 COOPERATION and the socialists' belief in the pos- whatever they may accomplish, their sibility of attainiing their aims give ideals entitle them to the considera- them faith and courage to go on. And tion and esteem of mankind. Cooperation Abroad FARMING BY CONSUMERS' SOCIETIES Although farms owned and oper ated by distfibutive cooperative so cieties have never been highly suc cessful from a financial point of view, such farms continue to be oper ated in several countries. In England the number of societies operating such farms has steadily decreased from 181 ten years ago to 126, and acreage and capital invest ment has decreased correspondingly. Their total acreage is now 63,740 and capital invested something less than 15 million dollars. Meanwhile the value of farm products from these estates has increased to $4,875,000. Losses from operations are decreas ing. Fifty-nine thousand acres were owned outright by these societies in 1928, while 6,770 acres were leased or rented, the cooperative societies be coming tenant farmers. Meanwhile in Russia, consumers' societies this year plan to invest 62 milMon dollars in agricultural gar dens, pig breeding, farms, etc., in ad dition to the 25 million dollars which is already invested in such farms. The holdings now operated have 9,200 cows, 25,700 calves, 355,000 pigs, 29,000 rabbits, 166,000 fowls and cul tivate vegetables on 47,500 hectares of land. Thus in the country which is com mitted to the rapid extension of pro duction by consumers' societies, the farm acreage cultivated by such so cieties is continually diminishing. On the other hand, in the country where the government is supposed to con trol most of the production, con sumers' societies are very rapidly ad vancing into the field of agricultural development. The latter move is to be explained largely by the troublesome problem of the small speculators who buy from the farmers and sell to the city people in competition with the cooperatives or the government stores; and thus promotion of co operatively controlled farming is an attempt to force these speculators from the last field of activity in which they still have a real foothold. COOPERATIVES UNDER GOVERNMENT DECREE Although there continues to be much controversy as to the amount of control exercised over the Russian consumers movement by the Soviet Government, recent dispatches indi cate that such control is not being rapidly diminished. A new decree has within recent months been issued by the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union, instructing the three central cooperative organiza tions to alter their constitutions within one month so as to exclude from membership in the societies all kulaks (rich peasants) and other disenfranchised elements such as nobles, former army officers, small shopkeepers, traders, etc. MASSIVE AUDIENCE AT VIENNA What is probably the largest co operative assemblage ever gathered together was convened by the com mittee in charge of the Congress of the International! Cooperative Alli ance at Vienna in August. Members of cooperative societies from all parts of Austria flooded into the capital city to take part in the grand fete and to participate in or watch the folk dances, the athletic sports and fireworks and to listen to the speak ers. The President of the Alliance, Vaino Tanner, and Sir Thomas Alien of England spoke to 30,000 cooper- ators in the huge park laid out for the purpose. There was also a special procession of the youth organizations COOPERATION 55 of Vienna, a grand concert of Austri an composers in the Burggarten, vi sits to the cooperative institutions of Vienna and a special reception to the Central Committee of the I. C. A. EDUCATION CIRCLES IN POLAND Just as there have been for many years hundreds of cooperative socie ties organized among the students of Poland, there are also at the present time many Cooperative Circles of young people who have left school. The aim of these Cooperative Circles is to complete the education of the members, particularly in economic and cooperative questions, and also to provide social and recreational ac tivities. The eight best .known of these Circles have 464 members, and in one year held 103 conferences, 22 festivals, 22 theatrical exhibits and 13 excur sions and organized 6 libraries of 2,000 books. Book Reviews BRITISH ANNUAL "The People's Year Book" 1931 Cooperative Union, Manchester, England. From The Cooperative Ledgue; 75 cents in paper, $1.25 in cloth. This annual is an encyclopaedia of cooperative activities in some fifty different countries. It is illustrated with 24 page pictures of particular beauty. "Rationalisation." What does it mean? What is its import to you and to .me, and to all of us? The answer to these and many other questions will be found in "The People's Year Book." Rationalisation, first of all, is clearly defined and its implications analyzed by a French economist. A Berlin authority shows how Germany bias introduced rationalisation into its industry, commerce, and finance. An ex-president of the Finnish Re public takes up the theme, while Bel gium and Switzerland come under review also by native experts. Great Britain is treated of intimately by a research specialist. POLITICAL HISTORY OF A COOPERATIVE "What It's All About" Published Toy the Educational Depart ment, Cooperative Central Exchange. The sixteen page pamphlet under this title gives in graphic and con densed form the recent history of the relationship of the Cooperative Wholesale located at Superior, Wis consin, to the Communist Party, the demands made by the Party for an ever-increasing amount of direct control over cooperative policies and finances, the ultimate break between theim, and the bitter warfare which continues throughout the north cen tral states, which has even spread throughout the Finnish communities of America and reached over into many of the cooperatives of other na- "tionalities. C. LJ Directors' Page WARNING TO MANAGERS AND DIRECTORS The Cooperative Union of England has recently issued to all its affiliated societies a sharp warning that in these days of declining prices, a very careful supervision and frequent check should be made of stocks in hand and various items of expenses. WAGES. Turnover per distributive em ployee must be watched lest the store be come overstaffed with help. DEPRECIATION. All rates for deprecia tion Should be maintained ait old levels in spite of the greait temptation to reduce such rates when net gain seems to be falling. GENERAL EXPENSES. Budget for the year should be carefully esfcablislhed and based on expense records of the past few years, and all current expenditures carefully made to come within tihe budget. MERCHANDISE INVENTORY. Falling prices have a double effect on stock of mer chandise. First, tihe values of stock on hand are reduced and losses incidental to such decline of values must be taken immediately 56 COOPERATION by -taking inventory at prevailing market prices. As stock values fall, such maintenance charges as interest, etc., increase correspond ingly, due to decreased (turnover. "Therefore merchandise on hand must be kept at the very lowest possible quantity. BUYING. The buying policy must be de termined by a consideration for stocks on hand and their falling values, and unusual care must be exercised lest there be over buying. Managers must also remember that wholesale houses are often doubly insistent on unloading goods in such a period as this. •PURCHASE REBATES. This is not the time in which to increase the rate of pat ronage rebates to consumers, and certainly not the time for depleting the reserve funds by paying rebates in excess of actual earn ings. In bad times special provision should be made for the reserves. CREDIT. Societies must adopt the most rigid control over the extension of credit at a period when a demand for credit becomes peculiarly insistent. The sentiment of soft hearted officials and clerks makes it exceed ingly easy to jeopardize 'the cooperative by granting of excessive credit. CREDIT EXTENSION IN 15 SOCIETIES A recent number of the Coopera tive Pyramid Builder sharply calls to account 15 of the societies belonging I to the Cooperative Central Exchange, because these 15 societies have ex tended in the form of credit more ithan the total paid-in capital of the ^embership. The critic blames these Societies with strewing to the winds the hard earned capital of the work ers and farmers of their communities, and calls to account the unprincipled 'member or the non-member who has the audacity to demand from his co operative store unsecured credit such 'as no reputable bank or credit organi- 'zation in the country would grant to him. The total of outstanding ac counts receivable of all affiliated 'stores is in excess of one million dol lars. The League Office PROGRESS OF THE LEAGUE INSURANCE SERVICE Olusa Service, Inc., reports good progress during its first month of operation. Fire insurance policies have been written for many coopera tive societies in New York City and other business has been promised when present policies expire. The success of the Cooperative League bond has surprised even those who sta'rted it. Eight societies are al ready covered for a total amount of $107,000 and several more have agreed to join. The rate to the so cieties is now 35 cents per hundred. Our insurance manager, William Hyde, discovered one small society which was paying one dollar per hun dred for a $3,000 bond or $30 per year. When this bond is added to the League bond, lit will cost $10.50 a year and the difference will very nearly pay the dues of the society to the League. The insurance service will be avail - 'able to cooperators in New Jersey and Massachusetts in a short time. THE SUBSCRIPTION CAMPAIGN The lists of subscribers to COOP ERATION continue to come in from the societies. Between the middle of January and the middle of February the following blew in on the wings of the mailman: 8 subscriptions from Gordon H. Ward and I R. R. Wall of the Farm. Bureau of North Tazewell, Virginia. 8 from the Blooming-ton Cooperative So- ! ciety, Illinois. 16 from Consumers Cooperative Services. I N. Y. City. 12 from the Cooperative Bakery of Browns ville & East N. Y. 7 from Ooopenattve Trading Association, Brooklyn, N. Y. 10 from the Kanabec Cooperative Oil Asso ciation, Mora, Minn. 29 from the Farmers Union State Exchange of Nebraska. 10 from the Workmen's Cooperative Mer cantile Association of Chicago. 10 from Cooperativa Italiana of Winchendon, Mass. 10 from 'the Workmen's Furniture Fire In surance Society, N. Y. City. COOPERATION 57 The Reader Writes THE COLLEGE—AND A FEW WARNINGS Editor, COOPERATION:— The article by George Halonen in Feb ruary COOPERATION proposing a cooper ative college is certainly timely even if there may be some question about the advisability of starting such a venture at this time. The plan proposed is interesting and looks fea sible. Certainly the need of such a college is apparent and the best thought of coopera- tors everywhere should be given to this very important subject. Precedent to the success of such a venture is a .thoroughly aroused interest among co- operators. Enthusiastic support, financial backing and eager students are all neces sary .to make our college a success. If these elements are lacking we had best not start. A campaign of educational discussion, it seems to me, is a first requisite in attaining our desired end. Given a roused, determined Sentiment for a cooperative college the rest is easy. First, let us be sure of that senti ment. May I also add a word of caution. Let us understand from the outset that this college is to be devoted solely to turning out grad uates who are thoroughly intsructed in the theory, history, philosophy and business methods of the cooperative movement. It seems that every pet hobby and issue under the sun seeks to attach itself to the cooper ative movement and ride into favor under our name and banner. LeJt us now highly resolve that these outside movements shall not use our school to disseminate their theo ries. Only in this way may we enlist the support of cooperators of every shade of religious and political belief. Henry Negley Omaha, Neb. COOPERATIVE EDUCATION AND THE PROPOSED COLLEGE We know that education in the coopera tive movement does not grow like fruit, but only through the continuous efforts of tihe educational departments. We have 'had several short term training schools to train capable clerks and managers for our stores; and also members for our Boards of Directors, who are the defenders of the cooperative movement against the challenge of the world of big business. Co- operators can no longer recognize those who live only for themselves. All must live for the common good. The protection of the cooperative move ment lies in the education of its members, for education, knowledge, is the road to the cooperative commonwealth. To further the educational work through a cooperative col lege is a very important project. In 'this way we shall reach those members who are not now in preferential position, but who are willing to study the cooperative movement. The proposal fior a cooperative college is an excellent one. Furthermore, there is no reason why a co operative college should not succeed if our educational departments give it the right consideration. Arrangements could be made wJiereby the correspondence courses 'could be preliminary to both our short term train ing courses and to our college work. In this way, we could get better results from all three of them. I think our summer insti tutes might also be worked into the general educational plan. If we had a cooperative press, the educa tional work could be even better standardized throughout the United States, and conflict ing ideas and nationality barriers eliminated. We have the cooperative youth leagues and the women's guilds which will be a great aid; but we must do away with old traditions and adopt modem cooperative discipline which can only be founded in uniform edu cational principles. Such is the opinion of the writer who is only a member of the rank and file. I should \ MUTUAL SERVICE & COOPERATION I By CHARLES T. SPRADING "This book presents the philosophy of libentarianism with Cooperation as its practical working basis. It is rich in information. Every cooperator, who would be broadly cultured, should read this masterly contribution to progress ive thought." J. P. Warbasse. LIBERTARIAN PUBLISHING COMPANY 3715 FOLSOM ST., LOS ANGELES, CAL. PRICE, POSTPAID $1.00 58 COOPERATION All true cooperators patronize THE NEW ERA LIFE ASSOCIATION (Established 1897) A strictly cooperative life insurance institution. Member of the Northern States Cooperative League. All standard forms of life insurance contracts written. Funeral Benefit and Disability insurance for only $1.00 a month! WE CAN INSURE YOU BY MAIL without medical examination! For full particulars clip this coupon and mail it to: NEW ERA LIFE ASSOCIATION, Grand Rapids, Mich. Name: ............ Address: . .... like to hear from other members on many of these points. Charles G. Tuura Cloquet, Minn. REQUIRED SUBSCRIPTIONS TO "COOPERATION" Editor, Cooperation:— The suggestion made in the January number of COOPERATION that members of The League subscribe to the magazine for every individual cooperate is not only an excellent one but to my way of thinking an indispensable one. It is rather symptomatic of the backward ness of the American movement that such obvious necessities be timidly discussed as mere possibilities alt such a late daite. It is my strong opinion that no coopera tive should be admitted as a member of The League which does not subscribe for its en tire individual membership. Two cents per week per member is too trival a handicap to bar such a valuable publication as COOPERATION from any home. . In our case, while we subscribe to one hundred copies, it is about one-fifth of what we should subscribe to, and our Educational Department will make a strong drive to en roll every family as a regular and permanent reader. Herman Liebman, Educational Director Amalgamated Cooperative Apartments. SOCIALISM NOT PURELY POLITICAL Editor, COOPERATION:— Allow me to take exception to Dr. War- basse's "Point of View." "Cooperation must expect to be abolished wherever socialism coimes in." As a member of the Socialist Par ty for several years, I am able to say posi tively that government management of all industries has never been in its platform. The formula is "collective ownership and democratic management." Government own ership is contemplated only for enterprises which no consumers cooperative has ever undertaken, such as the natural monopolies of public utilities. The Communist Party favors government ownership of everything, but that is anotiher story. As a 'matter of theory, consumers co operation will be safer under the Socialist Party than any other, unless the cooperators get a party of their own. Dr. Wanbasse made a sUp when he called the present government of Britain socialist. It is labor union. Its members want to keep their jobs working for capitalists, and Ram- sey MacDonald had to leave the Socialist Party in order to keep in office. Perhaps that explains its coldness to cooperation. A. Craig, Jersey City, N. J. COOPERATION 59 COOPERATIVE DEMOCRACY Second Edition completely revised by JAMES PETER WABBASSE President of The Cooperative League of the United States of America Member of the Central Committee of the International Cooperative Alliance A Discussion of the Consumers' Cooperative Movement In Its Relation to the Political State, to the Profit System, to labor, to Agriculture and to the Arts and Sciences The Macmillan Co., New York, Publishers Order from The Cooperative League, 167 West 12th St., New York, U. S. A. Price, $.1.50. The Cooperative Union, Holyoake House Hanover St., Manchester, England. Price 6 sh. German Edition: Verlagsgesell- schaft deutscher Konsumvereine, Stroh- hause 38, Hamburg, Germany. Price, 6 marks. ANNUAL LIFE INCOME SOME MEMBERS RECEIVE 40% ANNUAL DIVIDEND ON MONEY PAID IN Are you interested in increasing your an nual income against old age? All mem bers of the family eligible from baby to grandparents. Small Annual Dues Write for Circular of Plan BROTHERHOOD OF THE COMMONWEALTH (Under "Benevolent Orders Law" of the State of New York) 10 Gold Street NEW YORK CITY STUDY COOPERATION AT HOME Correspondence Courses prepared and conducted by experienced cooperators are now ready 1. Elementary English 2. Commercial Arithmetic 3. Bookkeeping for Cooperators 4. Advanced Course in Bookkeeping 5. Principles and Theory of Cooperation 6. Organization and Administration of Cooperatives For full particulars write THE COOPERATIVE LEAGUE 167 West 12th Street New York City The Canadian Coopcrator Brantford, Ontario, Canada The organ of the Canadian Coopera tive Movement, owned by and con ducted under the auspices of The Co operative Union of Canada. Published monthly 75c per annum "The Cooperative Pyramid Builder" Official Organ of Cooperative Central Exchange is a snappy, live cooperative magazine. Get in line! Subscribe NOW Subscription price 50c a year. COOPERATIVE CENTRAL EXCHANGE Superior, Wis. COOPERATION, , 167 West 12th Street, New York. I Please send COOPERATION for one year to $1.00 a year Adaress- 80 COOPERATION PUBLICATIONS -r-OF— THE COOPERATIVE LEAGUE HISTORICAL Per Copy Per 140 3. Story of Cooperation ..........$ .10 $6.00 7. British Cooperative Movement.. .05 4.80 38. Consumers Cooperation in the ' United States (lllus.), 1930.... .10 8.90 59. Cooperative Movement in Europe .05 4.00 64. Progress of Cooperation in United States ....................... .05 4.90 69. Story of Toad Lane (By Stuart Chase) ...................... .05 4.00 TECHNICAL 4. How to Start and Run a Rochdale Cooperative Society .......... .25 15.00 6. A Model Constitution and By- Laws for a Cooperative Society .05 2.50 8. Cooperative Education. Duties of Educational Committee Defined .10 ' 9. How to Start a Cooperative "Whole sale ......................... .10 27. Why Cooperative Stores Fall.... .02 1.00 14. How to Start and Run a "Women's Guild ........................ .10 15. How to Organize a District Coop erative League .............. .10 Z9. Credit Union Primer (By Ham and Robinson) .............. .50 43. Cooperative Housing ............ .10 El. Model Lease for Cooperative Apartment House ............ .10 MISCELLANEOUS 16. Model Co-op State Law ........ .10 46. Producers' Cooperative Industries .10 11. Control of Industry by the People through the Co-op Movement .10 12. Credit Union and Cooperative Store ........................ .05 13. The Place of Cooperation Among Other Movements ............ .2i> 34. Cooperative Movement (Yiddish) .02 30. "When the Whistle Blew" (Story, by Bruce Calvert) .......... 06 66. International Directory of Coop erative Marketing (By Benson Y. Landls) .................. .25 42. Cooperative Homes for Europe's Homeless .................... .10 65. A Better World to Live In .... .05 57. How a Consumers' Cooperative Differs from Ordinary Business .02 62. Buttons (League emblem), % inch diameter ............... .05 63. Sign or Transparency of League Emblem. Green and gold, 8 In. diameter .................... .25 IS.Ofl 67. Stock certificates, engraved, with League Emblem. Bound in books of 100, 200, or 250 68. To Mothers ................... .02 1.00 70. Farmers Marketing and Consum ers Cooperation; An address by J. P. Warbasse .......... .10 71. International Cooperation: An ad- , dress by H. J. May ......... .10 Propaganda Cards ............ .35 Propaganda Posters ............ .10 ONE-PAGE LEAFLETS (One Cent each; 50 Cents per 100; $2.50 per BOO; $4.00 per 1,000.) (20) Why Loyalty Is Necessary; (21) Cost and Crime of Credit; (25) Resolutions Adopted by A. F. of L.; (26) Factory Workers Cooperate!; 1.7B 1.25 .1 .85 2.00 (28) Do You Know About Cooperation in Europe?; (40) Have You a Committee on Education and Recreation?; (45) Schools and Stores. MONTHLY PUBLICATIONS Cooperation—(In bundle lots, $7.50 per hundred). Subscription, per year (foreign, $1.25).... $1.00 REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION (Pub. by the I. C. A.) ........ Per Year, $1.50 $1.65 If paid by check. BOOKS The following books are recommended as con taining the best discussion of the model i Coopera tive Movement. They may be ordered through The League: Blanc, Elsie T.: Cooperative Movement in Russia ............................... $2.50 Brightwlll, L. R.: Animal "Co-op" Book— For Children ........................ .15 Chase and Schlink: Your Money's Worth, A Book for Consumers ............... 2.00 Flanagan, J. A.: Wholesale Cooperation in Scotland, 1920 .......................... 2.00 Gide, C.: Consumers' Cooperative Societies, American edition and notes, 1922. Cloth 2.00 Hall, Prof. Fred: Handbook for Members of Cooperative Committees .............. 2.00 Harris, Emerson P.: Cooperation, The Hope of the Consumer, 1918. Paper bound.... .60 Holyoake: Rochdale Pioneers ............ l.Ofl Indian Cooperation, Children's story ...... .15 Jessness, O. B.: Cooperative Marketing of Farm Products ........................ 3.00 Kayden, E. M., and Anlslferov, A. N.: Cooperative Movement in Russia During the War ............................. 4.00 Madams, J. P.: The Story Retold ........ .75 Mears and Tobriner: Principles and Prac tices of Cooperative Marketing ....... 8.20 Nlcholson, Isa: Our Story ................ .25 Oerne, Andres: Cooperative Ideals and Problems ............................. 1-25 Owen. Robert: Autobiography ............ .50 Poisson, E.: The Cooperative Republic.... 1.75 Potter, B.: Cooperative 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 Recon struction In Ireland, 1918 ............ 1.00 Smith-Gordon and O'Brien: Cooperation in Denmark ............................. 1-00 Smith-Gordon and O'Brien: Cooperation in Many Lands, 1820 .................... 1.50 Stolinsky, A.: The Cooperative Movement. (In Yiddish) ......................... 1.00 Warbasse, J. P.: Cooperative Democracy, (1927,) ............................... 1.50 Warbasse, J. P.: What Is Cooperation, 1927 .75 Warne, C. E.: Consumers' Cooperative Move ment In Illinois ...................... 3.50 Webb, B. and S.: The Consumers' Coopera tive Movement, 1921 .................. 5.00 Webb. Catherine: Industrial Cooperation, 1917 .................................. 1.50 Cooperation, Bound Volumes, 1915 to 1930 inclusive, each ....................... 1.25 Report of the American Cooperative Con gresses, 1920, 1922, 1924, 1926, 1928, each 1.00 Northern States Year Book, 1928. Paper.. .60 The People's Year Book, 1931, Cloth, $1.25; paper bound ......................... .75 Year Book of .The Cooperallve League, 1930. Cloth, $1.50: paper bound ............ 1.00 (Ten cents postage should be added for all books.) A magazine to spread the knowledge of the Cooperative Movement, where by the people, in voluntary associa tion, produce and distribute for their own use the things they need. Published monthly by THE COOPERATIVE LEAGUE OF THE U. S. A. 167 West 12th Street, New York City CEDRIC LONG, 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 $1.00 a year. VOL. XVII, No. 4 APRIL, 1931 10 CENTS CREDIT UNIONS THAT ARE TRULY COOPER ATIVE—Some Distinc tions are Drawn ROCHDALE COLLEGE A Visit to the Future Co operative College of the United States COOPERATIVES PROS PER IN A BAD YEAR A Study of the Foremost Societies in 1930 PECULIAR FORMS OF COOPERATION — Some of the Italian Socie ties in America are Ex amined 62 COOPERATION Credit Unions That Are Truly Cooperative There are credit unions in the United States which serve all kinds 'of purposes. Most of them are cooperative in structure; therefore much con fusion arises even among economists who often classify all credit unions as being within the cooperative movement. Such is far from the case. The credit union which is set up for the sole purpose of assisting a capi talist industry or commercial firm in administering its labor problems with less friction i/r in reducing the overhead expenses of the concern, although cooperative in form, is decidedly non-cooperative in purpose. It may serve the same ends as other non-iprofit mechanisms within the capitalist eco nomic order, such as the system of paying wages to clerks, the organization of restaurants for employees, or the maintenance of recreation rooms, base ball clubs, house organs, or other non-profit activities. Petty business men likewise form credit unions whose primary function is to reduce the cost of credit and thus permit of larger profits in the exploitation of producers or consumers. Here again the structure of these credit unions must not be con fused with the purpose for which they are utilized. • • Those who are truly concerned with the creation of a new economic or der can count among the cooperative credit unions only those which are created and maintained for the purpose of strengthening such non-profit movements as the cooperative, the trade union, the church, the non-poli- tical party, or other institutions or movements definitely non-capitalistic. Even some of these may be closely associated with the world of capitalism, and therefore in the final analysis antagonistic to a radically new social system. In the United States there are perhaps only a small minority of all the credit unions in existence which operate on a purely service bas's and at the same time make their chief contribution to the service motive all the way through. They are the credit unions which are working in conjunction with cooperative organizations, with certain trade unions, among muni cipal, state or government employees; and a few others. America is not unique in this confusion with regard to credit organiza tions for in many of the countries of Europe and Asia, the so-called cooper ative bank or credit association is often directly aligned with the profit system and actively promoting it. In the country where capitalism has at tained its greatest power, however, cooperators must make a special effort to distinguish clearly between those credit unions which aim at and con tribute toward the goal of a cooperative commonwealth and those which are mere adjuncts of exploitative capitalism. Without attempting here to describe the many credit unions organized among postal employees, the employees of the city of New York, the mem bers of the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks and other groups of a similar nature, we should like to point out a few of those credit associations which are closely allied with the cooperative movement. Many of the largest con sumers' cooperatives in the United States have recently organized credit -unions for their members and employees, and some other credit unions not originally so organized are being increasingly utilized and controlled by cooperators. WORKERS' CREDIT UNION This organization in Fitchburg, Mass., is one of the oldest credit unions in the country, and from the beginning has held to the special provision in its by-laws which specifies that "the membership in the association is limited to those who are members of coopera tive associations and working class societies, but the Board may admit into membership others than those belonging to the above named associations and societies if deemed ad- COOPERATION 63 visable." Now numbered among the few largest credit unions in New England, the "Work ers" is still controlled primarily by and in the interest of the Finnish socialists and co- operators of northern Massachusetts. Unlike most credit unions, its membership is scat tered throughout New England, and the New York vicinity. Annual meetings are well at tended and there is always wholehearted support for any proposals or endorsements back ing the general consumers' cooperative movement. The 2,350 membership includes 976 who have -both shares and deposits in the credit union. Assets total $870,000 and of this amount more than one half million are loans outstanding on real estate. Approximately $200,000 are ait all times in savings banks and checking accounts. The largest single liability is that of deposits which also exceed half a million. The share capital is $245,000, the guaranty fund $50,700 and undivided earnings $15,000. The net gain last year was $18,000 of which $11,500 was paid back on shares as a 5% dividend and $4,600 went into the reserve fund. Regardless of how much profit this organization may make it never pays more than 5% on shares. This accounts for its large guaranty and reserve funds. The organization is an active member of the Eastern States Cooperative League. AMALGAMATED CREDIT UNION Organized by one of the locals of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America in 1918, this credit association was taken over by men associated with the national office of the union in 1922. From the 'beginning, membership has been restricted almost exclusively to clothing workers which are members of the A. C. W. of A., although in recent years an increasing number of cooperators at large have become shareholders and the credit union rendered much assistance to hundreds of the tenants who found it necessary to borrow money before they could get apartments in the various Amalgamated cooperative housing developments. There are now between seventeen and eighteen hundred members and two employ ees in the office. Share capital is $177,000 and guaranty fund $23,600; $300,000 was loaned out during 1930 and $24,400 of additional shares sold. Although this credit union has hitherto paid dividends of 7 and 8 per cent to shareholders annually, $7,400 was thus dis tributed in 1930, a dividend of only 5%. The Amalgamated Credit Union is also a mem ber of the Eastern States Cooperative League. "OUR CREDIT UNION" Members of Consumers Cooperative Services, New York City, opened this credit union in May, 1926, with a membership restricted by the by-laws to shareholders of C. C. S. Dividends on shares of 6% have been paid for each year and are limited to 6% by the rules. At the close of 1930, total assets were $21,667 of which the largest item $16,300 was loans outstanding to members. Share capital was $11,320 and deposits by members $8,343. The guaranty fund and undivided profits came to slightly over $1,400. There were 311 active members on the same date. A total of $102,000 has been loaned out since the date of organization. This credit union also follows the prevailing credit union practices in most respects, but is definitely established to assist the parent consumers' cooperative and its membership. FRANKLIN CREDIT UNION Organized in December 1926 by members and employees of the Franklin Cooperative Creamery Association, Minneapolis, this credit union likewise has a membership restricted to these two groups. It had its beginning when the social organization of Franklin em ployees dissolved and transferred its membership to the credit association. Membership is now 475, ninety per cent being employees of the Cooperative Creamery. There are 405 depositors. A Christmas savings fund was established in 1929. Assets at the close of 1930 amounted to $49,000. Share capital was $9,400 and deposits $27,500; undivided earnings and guaranty fund were $2,000. There were 400 loans made during the year, and because many of them were first mortgage loans, the average was relatively high, $187.50. Interest was paid on shares at the rate of 6%. Franklin Credit Union is a member of the Northern States Cooperative League as well as an adjunct of the Franklin Creamery. WAUKEGAN COOPERATIVE CREDIT UNION Active members of the Cooperative Trading Company organized this association in May 1930 on the model rules recommended by the National Credit Union Extension Bureau. Only members and employees of the Cooperative Trading Company may hold shares and no one may hold more than 20. Interest is paid at 6% and borrowers pay % % monthly on unpaid loan balances, a net of 9% a year. There are now 40 members after six months' operation. The manager and bookkeeper of the Trading Company are presi dent and treasurer respectively of the credit union. The office of the credit union is at the headquarters of the main cooperative store. 64 COOPERATION CREDIT UNIONS AMONG NEBRASKA FARMERS The Farmers Union of Nebraska started this movement among its members when the Omaha Farmers Union Cooperative Credit Association was organized in September, 1930. Membership is restricted to officers and employees of the Farmers Union and its coopera tive organizations in the city of Omaha. Within' five months similar associations were organized at Verdigree, West Point, Berea and Haymow Precinct of Stanton County. In these four associations farmers alone may hold membership. The credit associations of Nebraska are the first to break away from the model rules established by the National Credit Union Extension Bureau in order to divide earnings or profits equitably among shareholders, depositors and borrowers, in proportion to dividends or interest received from or interest paid to the association. First the prevailing rate of interest is paid on deposits and charged on loans. The by-laws specifically state that dividends on shares shall not be greater than one half of one per cent above the average rate paid on deposits for the year. The portion remaining is the net gain or profit which is then distributed proportionately. These credit unions in Nebraska not only restrict their membership to farmers or the employees of farmers' associations, but do not permit shares to be sold to farmers who are not members of the organized farmers movement of the state, thus tying up the credit movement very closely to the general marketing and consumers' movement of farmers throughout Nebraska. CONCLUSION There are many other interesting examples of credit associations speci fically organized for the upbuilding of the cooperative movement at large and dedicated to the ideal of a non-profit economic order. The movement stands to make rapid headway among the farmers of at least one state and among many of the larger cooperative associations in the cities. It has al ready spread extensively among the employees of a few labor unions, al though in the latter case it is doubtful whether much emphasis is placed upon the social significance of credit unions as aids toward a new non profit economy. Rochdale College Written as of 1935 By WILLIAM EDWARD ZEUCH, Ph. D. Director, Commonwealth College NOTE. The Cooperative League of America is now considering the establishment of a school for the development of young co- operators for the consumers' cooperative movement. Some members of the League have asked me, in view of my experience as chief founder and Director of Common wealth—a cooperative workers' education community now in its eighth year, to sketch for the readers of COOPERATION my sug gestions as to just what, in my opinion, such a school for young cooperators should be like. I take pleasure in doing so. In order the better to visualize my suggestions, I am writing as of 1935 and (picturing the pro gressive cooperative educational community as already in existence. I am taking the liberty, also, of calling this cooperative school community Rochdale College in honor of the famed pioneers of the movement. Rochdale College is located on the shore of a little lake in southeastern Wisconsin. As we motored out the short distance from Waukegan the Director told me that the site had been selected when the cooperative educational community was estab lished in 1932 not only because of its natural beauty, its good soil, and its nearness to good, going local cooper atives, but chiefly for the reason that it was centrally located and acces sible to the whole cooperative move ment in America. I had been told that the college was pleasantly situated but I was hardly prepared for the sight which spread before us as we motored up in the late June evening. The well planned vil lage of neatly designed cottages and community buildings was nestled in a natural grove fronting on the lake. The whole was reminiscent of an English hamlet, except that the COOPERATION 65 smoke stack of the central heating and lighting plant which rose above the trees in the rear was most un- English. II As we stepped out of the car at the community garage the gong sounded for the evening meal so we went di rectly to the common dining hall. Hair still wet from a dip in the lake, the boys and girls drifted in rapidly. Soon about fifty young men and women and the five instructors with their families were seated at table. The meal was served in simple fami ly style and in rural abundance. Since many of the community had spent most of the afternoon at work in the fields followed by a vigorous swim in the laike I must add that all appeared to have good rural appetites. At table with this laughing, chaffing, exuber ant group I began to learn some thing of how this cooperative educa tional community was organized and run. Midway through the meal the Director got up and announced a meeting of the Council for 8 o'clock. "What is the Council?" I asked generally of the young people at our table. "The Council," said a blond young man opposite, "is the governing body of the community. But in order to understand just (how and when it functions you must know our general plan." And he lit a cigarette and settled back in his chair. III "You see," he began, "the Cooper ative League bought this site back in 1932 and set aside a sum annually to be spent on the development of a co operative educational community which was to embody the most mod ern and progressive educational ideas. The Board of the League en gaged an architect to design an edu cational village that could be erected unit by unit to meet growing needs and elected a Director who was in structed to formulate an educational program to meet the needs of the co operative movement." "Well, the architect at least," I in terjected, glancing about the model dining hall, "from what I have thus far seen outside and in, did a good job." "Yes," he assented, "and I think you will agree, once you understand it and see it at work, that our educa tional and community organization is also very good. Under our plan all the property is owned by the Cooper ative League and the Board of the League is a court of final authority in all affairs. When Rochdale was established in 1932 the Board select ed a Director with full power to go ahead with the development of the school and the community. Work was begun with two instructors and twen ty students in the spring of that year. The Director selected the first staff and the students were nominated by local cooperatives from among their promising workers. Since that time the teaching staff has functioned as a democratic group electing new in structors, developing new courses, and selecting students from the lists submitted by local cooperatives. The Board of the League reserves the- power to review all acts of the facul ty, of course." "But don't the students have any thing to say about those things?" I inquired. "Yes," he answered, "all students who have been here at least one ses sion have the right of sitting in on all faculty meetings with a voice but no vote, except when the faculty is dis cussing standing of students; but few ever bother about doing it." IV "From the beginning here at Roch dale," he continued, "the students have worked fifteen hours a week doing all the community work. We not only raise most of our vegetables and dairy products but we have quite a large surplus which we market through the neighboring coopera tives. This work of the students pays for their board, lodging, and laundry- service." 66 COOPERATION "But when do you do your school work?" I inquired. "Oh," he answered, offering a ciga rette, "we carry on all school work in the mornings. You see, all our courses are on a quarterly basis. We have four quarters, or twelve week sessions a year, with a week of intermission be tween all quarters. Each of us is in residence here for a quarter and then out on a job in the cooperative move ment for a quarter. In that way two of us can pair up and hold down a job. My buddy and I are holding down a job in the Cooperative Wholesale at Superior. He is up there now while I am here in residence. We alternate that way while we get our training. It takes us four quarters spread over a period of two years to finish the minimum course. One may take a maximum course of six quarters spread over three years. In this way we not only are able to earn our tui tion and other incidentals but we are getting the practical experience along with the cultural and technical train ing that will fit us to be of much bet ter service to the cooperative move ment." V "Yes, I can see the decided ad vantages of such an arrangement," I said, "but you haven't yet told me about the Council." "That's right," he laughed. "Well, the Council is made up of all mem bers of the teaching staff, all resident • workers, and all students who have been here at least one quarter. The Council administrates all the com munal affairs. It selects the personnel manager, the domestic manager, the farm manager, and the Relationships Committee. Rochdale is run on the basis of delegated responsibility in a selective democracy. All these com munity officials are responsible to the Council and the Council is respon sible to the Board of the League. The various managers may be teachers, students, or someone brought in from the movement." "But what of the salaries and wages?" I inquired. "Everybody is paid," he responded. "The student's fifteen hours work a week 'is offset by the charge for his maintenance. Each of the teachers is paid $50 a week with maintenance for his family. If a manager is brought in from the movement he is paid the prevailing wage in the move ment for such services." "Where does the income come from?" I asked. "Well, each of us students pays $50 a quarter for tuition aside from our work for maintenance. At present that amounts to about $10,000 a year. The League sets aside $5,000 yearly as a subsidy. This with the income from our farm surplus keeps us going. Our total budget is somewhere around $20,000 annually." VI Th next morning I began visiting the classes or discussion groups at Rochdale. It was interesting to ob serve that practically all vestiges of the old pedantic education had been swept away. I found no cut and dried lectures going on; no quizzes to ascertain if assignments had been learned by rote. In every course deal ing with the technical problems of the cooperative movement the groups were taking up concrete problems for solution. Even the cultural courses were being conducted not only as developers of personality but also with an eye to their practical value in the educational program of any consumers' cooperative store com munity. I attended the class in public speaking. Now I had been trained in college on "Webster's Reply to Hayne" and the flowery appeals of an Inger- soll. But I found no oratory of that sort at Rochdale. The class or group was organized as a Board of Directors of a consumers' cooperative store. The chairman stated the object of the meeting. For forty minutes the stu dents discussed the problem before them and in a final ten minutes the instructor, who had been sitting back taking notes, criticised crisply not on ly the arrangement of materials and manner of presentation of the va- COOPERATION 67 rious speakers but the soundness of their arguments as well. The problem discussed was one of agitating a neighboring cooperative. The class in cooperative economics was struggling with the situation of a local cooperative store that was facing the competition of one of the chain stores. Consequently there was little discussion at that session of abstract economic theories. It was a practical situation they were facing; one, however, that commanded all of their economic Knowledge, theoretical or otherwise. 1 Then I went into the Little Theajtre. But it would be too long a story to tell you all that I found at Rochdale to mark it as a purposive, progress ive, cooperative educational com munity. I have not even touched on the gardens, the farms, the dairy, and other community work. Those of you who want to know why the coopera tive movement in America seems to have developed a drive and spirit of late and why it has taken firm for ward strides the past year or two should visit Rochdale College. You may find there, perhaps, a reason. Editorial PECULIAR FORMS OF CO OPERATIVES Some of the most unusual types of cooperative society to be found any where in the United States are those among the Italians. And the various groups are all emphatic in thinking that their own organizations are the soundest and most truly cooperative and that others are something less than 100% adherents to the demo cratic ideal. A few of the older societies follow pretty closely the typical Rochdale plan, with open membership, sales to all, interest on capital, much respon sibility vested in the general man ager. But these are the exceptional cooperatives, not the usual ones. In the anthracite coal district of Eastern Pennsylvania there is a group of half a dozen young organ izations, organized as capital stock cooperatives, but otherwise most un orthodox. They open their stores only after five o'clock in the after noon or perhaps noon on Saturday or holidays. Signs prominently dis played over the door forbid any but members to enter; trade is exclusively within the membership. No wages are paid; the storekeepers work in the mines during the day and sell mer chandise in the evening. There is no manager; only a management com mittee of the board. Every member must take his turn at keeping store, and each serves in that capacity for one week only. No cash is handled in the store itself; all sales are on the member's book, and every two weeks he must come to the treasurer and settle up for his purchases. Mem bers out of work may get credit up to 75% of their paid-in capital. Every member must trade at the coopera tive exclusively and anyone caught trading at another store may be ex pelled from the organization. Month ly dues must be paid by all members, these dues are as high as $3 in some stores; $2 in others, still smaller amounts in others. Several of the societies elect officers for terms of six months only and no officer may serve for more than the one term. In one store new members are proposed at the general membership meeting, the voting for admission is by secret ballot with black and white balls, and three black balls is enough to bar the applicant from membership. Initial stock payment must be practically the same for every member in the organization; in some societies it is $25, in others as high as $55. Each year the total net worth is estab lished by the bookkeeper and comp trollers and each member's stock val uation is set accordingly. As a result of this practice of running up stock valuation according to net worth of •68 COOPERATION the society, there is one in which each share of stock is now said to be worth $588; and the value of a share in several others is in the vicinity of $200. Obviously this capitalist prac tice discourages the enlistment of new members; and a few of the lead ers begin to realize it. One society in New Jersey, now nearly 20 years old and possessed of real estate and other wealth, started with similar pyramiding of stock val uation, but had to discontinue it in order to expand. It still sells only to members, but the membership is in excess of 600. One or two of the Italian societies, especially those dominated by Italian business men, pay regular dividends on stocik, but these organizations are pretty much ostracized by the genuine "workers' cooperatives," most of which refuse to pay even a low interest on capital. Many a lesson might be drawn from the foregoing, but we forebear. Democratic these organizations cer tainly are, for they are looked upon by their members even 'more as social clubs than as business firms, and the faack room of each store is crowded to capacity every evening and all day Sunday. Many of them are extremely successful financially, as a coopera tive should be which has no wages to pay, which has a regular income 01 large monthly dues from each mem ber, and whiclh can enforce trading loyalty. According to the standards of business efficiency of most of the larger societies of other nationality groups in this country, these are ex tremely primitive and unbusinesslike. On the 18th of January the first general conference of Italian coop eratives took place in Union City, N. J., with representatives in attendance from Massachusetts, Connecticut, TSTew York, New Jersey and Pennsyl vania. If this is followed up by other similar conferences, as delegates promise, these sharp differences in form of organization will gradually be eliminated and all will come round to following one standard which will doubtless closely approximate that of Rochdale. STOCK OWNERSHIP BY THE WORKERS Close students of the popular move ment to encourage stock ownership by employees of large corporations have watched with particular interest during recent years the development of the scheme worked out by Mr. Mit ten, President of the Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company, who has fre quently made the claim, according to newspaper reports, that the rapid sale of stock in the company to its em ployees would soon place these work ers in absolute control of this public utility corporation. It was claimed that this was the logical and most direct route to real industrial democ racy. Trade unionists have been most skeptical of the whole plan for the corporation was actively anti- union, and the much heralded com pany union known as Mitten Men and Management was roundly condemned by trade unionists everywhere. Apparently the workers were actu ally getting control of the corporation stock, for as far back as the close of 1927 their total holdings were 221,475 shares of the full issue of 600,000 shares. But recent reports from Phi ladelphia indicate that the trustees, acting for the employee stockholders, exchanged the entire holdings for stock in the Mitten Bank Securities Corporation. Thus the control of the rapid transit company was saved for the big financiers who have really held it from the beginning. Consum ers cooperation or producers coop eration is not going to come by way of the voluntary distribution of capi talist stock among the producers and consumers of the country! C. L. Five hundred and four of America's wealthy had an income in 1929 of more than one billion dollars. One half of that sum would have fed all our unemployed, their families and live stock for the entire twelve months. Cooperatives in England made "profits" of 131 million dollars in the same year, but they made not a single millionaire. Most of this money was redistributed back to the con sumer members. COOPERATION 69 News and Comment UNITED STATES COOPERATIVES PROSPER IN BAD YEAR In the March number of COOPER ATION figures were presented show ing the comparative sales for practi cally all of the consumers' wholesale societies and the larger retail societies throughout the country for the years 1929 and 1930. Figures were also pre sented for net gain for these two years and for the.membership at the close of each year. An examination of this statistical study presents some interesting facts, the most important of which is, that an spite of the severe depression of 1930, our cooperative movement as represented by the largest and most progressive societies made decided gains in volume of busi ness, net gains for the year and mem bership, over the corresponding fig ures for 1929. Volume of Sales The five wholesale societies had to tal sales for the two years as repre sented below: 1929 1930 Increase 1930 $4,525,841 5,104,428 $578,587 In other words, the wholesales in creased their business by 12.7% as measured in dollars and to a con siderably larger degree if measured in volume of goods handled. Each one of these five wholesales showed a substantial Increase in turnover. Among the retail societies the fig ures are not so striking, for totals last year are slightly smaller than those for the year before. This figure is on ly 2.9% however, and the fall in re tail prices was considerably more than this; therefore the volume of goods handled was actually larger in 1930 than in 1929. The figures are as follows: 1929 1930 Decrease in 1930 $12,386,798 12,025,220 $361,578 Net Gain or Profit The wholesale societies here also showed a marked improvement in 1930 over their reports for 1929. ' 1929 Total Net Gain $105,108 | 1930 Total Net Gain 123,546 1930 Increase in Net Gain $18,438 This increase is 17.5%. Four of the wholesales showed a gain and one registered a loss. Among the 31 retail societies for which figures were presented, 11 showed an increase of profits in 1930 while 20 showed a decrease. The total for all of them was as follows: 1929 1930 $423,475 367,564 1930 Decrease $55,911 This is a falling off of 13% in net profits. Membership The figures for membership for the wholesales are of little value, for the largest of the wholesales counts both individuals and associations as share holders. Among the retail societies, however, 18 registered gains in mem bership, 6 showed losses and 2 re corded no change. The totals are as follows: 1929 'membership for 26 societies 1930 'membership for 26 societies Gain in 1930 24,363 25,408 1,045 or 4.2% The above would seem to offer con clusive evidence of the fact that even in years when the general business world is suffering from severe set backs and most chain stores are re porting lower volume of business, the foremost cooperatives in the United States are moving forward com- mendably. 70 COOPERATION COOPERATION 71 CO-OP TELEPHONE COMPANIES CONVENE The first meeting of its kind to be held in the West took place late in January when 32 delegates met in Mount Vernon, Wash., as representa tives of 7,000 telephone users who are members of four county-wide coop erative telephone associations. These associations were the What/com Coun ty Farmers Mutual Cooperative Tele phone Co., Skagit Valley Rural Tele phone Co., Snowhomish County Farmers Telephone Co., and Island County Cooperative Telephone Co. The first of those above named en joys long distance connections by vir tue of an agreement with the Bell System. The other three are heavily handicapped in having such long distance connections refused them and 2,100 members who want long distance service and are willing to pay for it, cannot procure it because of antagonism toward cooperatives on the part of the big corporation. Th Bell System takes the position that the farmers should abandon their companies and work with the pri vately owned utility. CO-OP EMPLOYEES VOLUN TARILY CUT WAGES Since the great drop in the price of poultry products, the cooperative marketing associations among poul- trymen have been seriously handi capped by corresponding increases in operating expenses. In view of these facts, the employees of the great Washington Cooperative Egg & Poul try Association at a recent meeting adopted the following resolution: "In recognition of the less favorable posi tion the poultry industry has been in, in comparison with the average of prior years, and particularly on account of the recent disastrous decline in egg prices wlhich have reduced their level to figures whiclh do not permit of any profit to tihe producers of eggs, we, your employees, wish to voluntarily sug gest that wage scales be reduced in an en deavor to partially ameliorate tihe present distress of our industry. ".We, your employees, at this time wish to renew our pledge of loyalty to the Associa tion, belief and faith in tihe principles of this Association, and pledge to you our will ingness to the very best of our ability, to serve the industry as intelligently, capably, efficiently and economically as in our judg ment is passible." WHAT CREDIT COSTS IN NEW HAMPSHIRE E. H. Rinear of the Agricultural Economics Department at the Uni versity of New Hampshire reports that a study of 89 farmers' stores in New Hampshire in one year shows that the patrons of these stores paid for credit $60,935 more than the banks would have charged them for the same credit facilities. This is a graphic illustration of the great bur den which credit business places upon all the purchasers in any store ex tending credit to its customers. This $61,000 is not the total cost of the credit granted, for that figure would be much higher. It is the difference between the charges which bankers would have made to these farmers and the charges actually made by 89 grain merchants. SCHOOLS PLANNED FOR YOUNG PEOPLE Within the past six months more than 1,000 young men and women in the north central states have been or ganized and federated within the Cooperative Youth League which has local leagues in more than 40 com munities and is rapidly extending its membership and influence. This League is now perfecting plans for summer courses of education to last five weeks and to be available to young people between the ages of 16 and 23. No more than 50 students will be allowed to attend one course. ANOTHER YOUTH CLUB The Workmens Cooperative Mer cantile Association of Chicago was the first cooperative in Illinois to or ganize a Junior Cooperators' Club, when many of the young people met on January 28 and adopted a set of by-laws prepared by the Central States Cooperative League. The object I of the organization is to provide so cial and cultural advantages for its members and to promote the interests of the cooperative movement. TOUR OF EUROPEAN HOUSING A vacation study tour of housing among many of the countries of Eu rope is being planned for July and August 1931, under the auspices of the City Affairs Committee of New York. Some fifteen housing develop ments are scheduled on the itinerary, most of them municipal or state housing, but a few examples of co operative housing are included. Cooperation Abroad FIFTIETH BIRTHDAY FOR MR. TANNER Vaino Tanner, President of the In ternational Cooperative Alliance, and chairman of the Board of Administra tion of the Central Union of Cooper ative Societies of Finland, completed his 50th year on the 12th of March and the occasion was duly celebrated by the cooperators of Finland. Not only is Mr. Tanner one of the fore most cooperative authorities of his own country and known to the move ment throughout the world, but he is also a statesman of the first rank, and well known to the general labor movement. He began work with the Finnish cooperatives in their begin ning in 1900 and has served on the Board of Administration of the old Finnish Wholesale, the Board of Di rectors of the Fire Insurance Society, the Board of Administration of the Helsingfors local Society, and has been chairman of the Board of Ad ministration of the Central Union from the day of its foundation in 1916 to the present. He has also been a director of the Progressive Coopera tive Wholesale since its organization in 1917 and a member of the Central Committee of the International Co operative Alliance since 1910. In addition to his cooperative posts, Mr. Tanner has been a member of Finnish Parliament for many years, a member of the State Court and candidate of the Socialist Party as president of the Republic on two oc casions. He was Prime Minister of Finland in 1926-27. On several occa sions he has been chairman of the socialist group in Parliament. EDUCATIONAL GRANTS IN BRITAIN Cooperative societies in England continue to make liberal grants for social and recreational purposes al though Belgium is credited with being the pioneer in this line of work. The Royal Arsenal Society near London operates a social center with hotel, library, refreshment rooms, billiard parlor, tennis court and bowling greens. In 1926, the Manchester and Salford Society put $30,000 into the purchases of Birchfield, a center for indoor and outdoor sports activities, with lecture rooms, meeting halls, billiard parlor, tennis courts and bowling greens. Later in the same 72 COOPERATION year the same society purchased an other property, Fernlea, which is the center for a dramatic society, an or chestra, choral society, and arts and crafts classes conducted by the edu cational committee. The Leigh Co operative Society at Newchurch has a holiday home for members and employees, comprising 130 acres of farm land which cost $55,000. FEEDING RUSSIAN CHILDREN The Cooperative Movement of Rus sia since September, 1930, has un dertaken the feeding of school chil dren and in Moscow today 83% of the 203,000 children in schools are ob taining hot breakfasts from the local cooperatives. In Leningrad 59% of the children are so cared for. Even in the distant rural regions the same policy is being followed and in such a district as Turkm'inistan 88% of the 42,000 children are being fed in the schools. HEALTH SOCIETIES IN JUGO-SLAVIA Jugo-Slavia is unique in having a Union of Cooperative Health Socie ties which provide all kinds of medi cal and sanitary services to their members. There are 45 of these so cieties with a total membership of 13,000. They extend over districts comprising any number up to 10 vil lages, and each society has its own doctor and nurse. Some acquire am bulances, open drug stores, make ar rangements for vaccination of chil dren, undertake drainage of swamps and training of villagers in disposal of refuse. They supply farmers with veterinary service. Jointly they main tain sanitariums. CO-OPS HELP HOME BUILDERS Cooperatives in Great Britain are giving great assistance to the home building program. An excellent ex ample of such help is that of the Great and Little Bolton Cooperative Society, which first started its aid to home owners in 1868 and during the succeeding 61 years has assisted 12,800 members with loans for build ing, to a total of $13,000,850. Rates of interest have been kept very low. Be fore 1922 they were 4 per cent and since then have never been more than 4y2 per cent. My Point of View By J. P. Warbasse CONSUMERS' OR WORKERS' CONTROL? There is a school of socialists which calls itself the modern school. It scorns the socialism that leads to the expansion of the political state. The new socialism, they say, is industrial or labor socialism, or syndicalized in dustry. It has nothing to do with stateism. Stateism is the socialism of 1885, and is quite discredited, say the progressive socialists. They believe that the workers must secure control of the industries. This is to be accomplished by the follow ing means: (1) trade union bargain ing, labor getting more and more from the employers until finally control passes to the workers, or wages be come so big and profits so small that the employer retires and labor takes charge; (2) collapse of the capitalist system and organized labor stepping in to take possession of the industries of which capitalism has made a mess; (3) uprising of the workers and the seizing of industries by force; (4) the workers gradually acquiring shares of stock until they get the ownership of industry; or (5) some combination of the above methods. All Start At Wrong End All of these schemes lose sight of the consumers. The consumers are left out of the picture. The "new so cialism" would solve the industrial problem at the point of production. COOPERATION 73 Still when we examine what goes on at the point of production, we see that there the worker is concerned with wages, with getting money, with making profit. And never in the his tory of labor have these motives changed the nature of industry. It is difficult to conceive of any kind of socialism based on the profit motive. Production and distribution for use, for service, is only found organized by the consumers. Never by the work ers as producers. A. F. of L. Program Inadequate Trade union bargaining with the employers is the method which Mr. Gompers and his successors in the American Labor Movement have championed. It falls as a radical aim because the employer is always the one who is in control of the situation. Labor must ask him to make the con cessions. If he refuses, and labor stops work, he can last the longer be cause he has more surplus resources than labor. The thing never works according to theory. The employer .may be mak ing ten per cent profit. Labor may in crease its wages with the view of tak ing half of the profit and leaving five per cent for the employer. So far so good. But labor has no control over the price the employer gets for his finished product. The employer solves his problem by increasing the price. The few workers get more wages. Labor, as a consumer, pays the in crease and solves no problem. This labor method is at best a fatuous dream. Collapse of the capitalist system will come. But when it does come, what ground is there to assume that labor can step in and reorganize the situation and establish socialism? The world has seen plenty of such collapses, but it has never seen labor get control. Putting capitalism out of business is not sufficient to give labor control. When the collapse comes, the wheels stop going round, and general disorder prevails. Then the people, who have some plan, step in and try their scheme. The mob may reject or accept it. Or some other group with another plan, and more force, may put out the people in power and take possession of the situation. There is no guarantee that the best plan will prevail. In fact, as we look at history, there is every guarantee that it will not. In a capitalistic society, labor may develop some able executives, but its executives will not equal in executive ability those found in the capitalist ranks because able executives in every field gravitate into the capi talist camp. This is the nature of capitalism; it attracts the capable from the ranks of labor by offering greater rewards and opportunities. So when chaos comes, the workers find, after the reorganization, that they have a new but not a different set of bosses. It was so after the fall of Rome, after the Cromwellian revolu tion, after the French Revolution, and after the revolutions in Russia, Germany and Austria. Either the politicians or capitalists got control, but not labor. Nor has socialism been attained anywhere. Revolutionary Coup Never Wins Uprising of the workers and the permanent seizing of the industries by force has never taken place. It has often been attempted and always failed. A political group, with force of arms, has succeeded; but the work ers never. And if the workers should, per chance, succeed, there is not the slightest historic indication that they would organize or even want so cialism. Most of the talk about the aspirations of the proletariat and what the workers want comes from intellectual and sentimental dream ers outside of the ranks of labor. Here and there are to be seen in stances of labor securing control of an industry. But every one of these instances, in the end (where they have succeeded) has become pure capitalism in operation. Where a benevolent capitalist has 74 COOPERATION given his business to the workers, the workers have become the capitalists. ] The business has been carried on as before for the sake of making profits, several owners have been substituted for one, but the nature and purpose of the industry have remained un changed. Not one of these instances is a step toward any solution of the economic problem as a whole. Con verting a few workingmen into capi talists, making profits out of the con sumers, solves only their own per sonal problems and nothing more. It is precisely the same where workers have started their own in dustry, syndicalist fashion, or have "captured" an industry. The business has been run for the purpose of mak ing profit. The motive of industry .has not been changed. Whether we study workers' control of industry in syndicalism, profit- sharing, the self-governing work shop, guild socialism, or any other form of organization, we find that the motive of the business is to make profit from all of the consumers. And it is the profit motive that needs to be gotten fid of if the world is ever to attain civilization. Radical Change of Motive Essential The only way that labor can get all of the advantages of all of the profits for itself is by stepping into the place of the capitalist and running the profit-making industries cooperative ly for itself; not for the purpose of making profits but for the purpose of making things for supplying itself with the commodities and, services it needs. When labor makes life, and not money, the object of its efforts, it ma'kes headway. By doing this, labor effects the two great economic changes: it changes the motive of in dustry and gets the advantage of what once was profit, and it elimi nates the need of the political state. Profit is the big thing that has built up the surpluses that have made the capitalist system great. Labor can get this surplus only in one way. That way Is by supplying its own needs, and ceasing to employ the capitalist, at his price and to his profit, to that end. The schemes for solving the econ omic problem for labor which are ad dressed to the workers as producers, occupied at the point of production, are schemes for making profit. They are capitalistic in nature. They make the getting of money the object of attention. If the worker would be lifted up and dignified he must ad dress his efforts to the getting of things and services. Getting money to spend in the field of profit-making business is not enough. He expresses his life as a consumer. He is a con sumer all the time. He is a worker on ly for the shortest time each day that he must work. Producers' Control Always Capitalistic When the working people are or ganized to supply their needs through agencies owned and controlled by themselves, they then give them selves employment. As workers in their trade unions to protect the worker as a worker from the worker as a consumer. The conflict of in terest between these two will exist al ways. But if there are advantages in the elimination of the profit motive, and if the service motive is to be the basis of industry, then the control must rest in the hands of the con sumers and not of the producers. Producers' control is capitalistic prof it-making control. The doctrines of the Christian so- sialists, of Marx and of the more re cent syndicalists and communists are responsible for much confusion of thinking. The matter can best be un derstood by observing these various forces in action. When one looks for concrete ex amples of successful .changes in the motive and nature of industry, the best encouragement is gotten from the example of the steadily growing 200,000 cooperative societies, in forty countries, which are performing the most effective and the most radical reconstruction of the economic sys tem. COOPERATION 75 Book Reviews LEGAL ASPECTS OF COOPERA TIVES "Legal Phases of Cooperative Asso ciations," a 125-page revision of U. S. Department of Agriculture Bul letin No. 1106-D, has just been issued by the department. The material in the revised edition is largely new. An attempt has been made to refer to all of the cooperative cases that have been decided by appellate courts down to the date of the publication of the bulletin. Scores of cases that have been de cided by the higher courts In the last few years, involving cooperative asso ciations, are referred to. The law rel ative to the formation of coopera tives is briefly discussed. The rights of members, the interest of members in an association, and the power of associations to restrict membership, are discussed. The distinctions be tween stock and non-isltocik associa tions are pointed out, and the law with reference to the right of an association to restrict the transfer of its stock is briefly stated. The duties, powers, functions, responsibilities, and liabilities of officers and directors of cooperative associations are treat ed at some length. Among other subjects that are dis cussed are: Interference with mar keting contracts, the Capper-Vol- •stead Act, the liability of associations •for taxes of all kinds, patronage divi dends, and certificates of indebted ness. Also unincorporated associa tions are discussed briefly. There is a good treatment of income taxes and of patronage rebates. "FARMERS' COOPERATIVES IN THE U. S. 1929" Circular No. 94 of U. S. Dept. of Agriculture Chris Christensen has prepared another compact little study of farmers' associations throughout the country, of which he now finds 12,000, whose total membership is about two million farmers and whose total an nual business approximates $2,500,- 000,000. He devotes one section to each of the major commodity groups of organizations: dairy products, fruits and vegetables, grain, rice, cot ton, etc., and ends the list with coop erative buying of farm supplies. Among the last named, general stores and other associations serving the ul timate consumer are given but scant attention. PAMPHLETS FROM U. S. DE PARTMENT OF COMMERCE The Wholesale Grocers' Problems By J, W. Millard. An excellent study of operating expenses; economizing on inventories; analysis of sales; warehousing, handling and trans portation problems; salesmanship, and .kindred questions. The coopera tive wholesale manager who is with out this pamphlet is not doing his full duty to the movement he pretends to serve. The Retail Grocers' Problems By W. F. Williamson. 1929. A study carried on in cooperation with the Re tail Grocers Association to discover just what chance the retailer in food stuffs has at the present time. Goes into the most modern methods of treating inventories, display, store ar rangement, store location, delivery, credit: 95% of the cooperative store managers in the country think they have no time to study such material —and most of them are making no progress. The Consumption of Canned Goods By R. S. Hollingshead. A study of housewives' opinions in cities of New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, the Carolinas, Texas. The greatest fear of canned goods is that sickness will re sult from using them; next greatest prejudice is on account of the loss of food value in canned goods. Canned meats are feared most, then fish, then vegetables. Most canned goods are 76 COOPERATION bought by brand rather than by grade. Lunch carts and cafeterias use more canned goods than do hotels and boarding houses. Apartment dwellers of the middle classes use more canned vegetables than do those who live in tenements or in well-to- do homes; but the larger amount of canned fruit is used in the tenements. The Germans use much more of this class of food than do the Jews or Ital ians. Other interesting data. Retail Store Problems Covers all kinds of stores. Takes up such problems as Location, Store Planning, Budgetary Control, the Sales Force, Cooperative Advertising, Vehicular Traffic Congestion. 140 pages. TWO GERMAN PUBLICATIONS Jahrbuch des Zentralverbandes deut- scher Konsumvereine I, II & III Vols. 1930 These three volumes represent the reports of the Central Union of Ger man Consumers Societies of Ham burg for its twenty-eighth year. They give full information con cerning the work of the more than 1,000 societies affiliated with the MR. FOX AND MR. POODLE IN BUSINESS Mr. Pox acquires money—rone million dollars. But money must not remain idle. Mr. Pox looks through newspapers, he consults his friends, he employs agents. Prom morning till night his agents comb the city, look about, and make inquiries. What is to be done with the money of Mr. Pox? Finally a business is found. Hats! That •is what one should, make. Hals go well, people get rich. There is nothing to hesitate about. Mr. Fox builds a hat factory. The same idea occurs at the same time to Mr. Pox, and Mr. Orox, and Mr. Nox. And they all begin to build hat factories simultaneously. Within half a year there are several new hat factories in the country. Shops are filled to the ceiling with hat boxes. Store rooms are bursting with them. Everywhere there are posters, signs, ad- vertisemertts: HATS, HATS', HATS. A great many more hats are made than are needed—twice as many, three times as many. And the factories continue to work at full speed. And here something happens that nei ther Mr. Pox, nor Mr. Pox, nor Mr. Nox, nor Mr. Crox anticipated. The public stops buying hats. Mr. Nox lowers his prices 20 cents, Mr. Crox 40 cents; Mr. Pox sells hats at a loss in order to get rid of them. But business grows worse and worse. In all of the papers advertisements ap pear: YOU MAY HAVE BUT ONE HEAD, BUT THAT DOES NOT MEAN AT ALL THAT YOU SHOULD WEAR ONLY ONE HAT. EVERY AMERICAN SHOULD HAVE THREE HATS. BUY THE HATS OP MR. FOX! Mr. Pox offers to sell hats on a three- year installment plan. Mr. Nox announces a sale: ONLY FOR ONE DAY! TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS OPPORTUNITY! But this does not help. Mr. Fox lowers the wages of his workers one dollar a week. Mr. Orox lowers the wages two dol lars a week. Again business grows worse and worse. All at once—STOP! Mr. Fox closes his factory. Two thousand workers are dis charged and permitted to go wherever they please. The following day the factory of Mr. Nox stops. In a week practically all hat factories are standing idle. Thou sands of workers are without work. New machines grow rusty. Buildings sold for A year or two pass. The hats bought from Nox, Fox, Pox, and Crox wear out. The public once more begins to buy hats. Hat stores become empty. From the top shelves dusty cartons are taken down. There are not enough hats. Prices on hats go up. And now, not Mr. Fox, but a certain Mr. Doodle thinks of a profitable business —the building of a hat factory. But the same idea also enters the heads of other wise and business-like people—Mr. Boodle, Mr. Foodie, and Mr. Noodle. And the old story begins over again. The experience with hats is repeated with shoes, with sugar, with pig iron, with coal, with kerosene. Factories are blown up like soap bubbles and burst. One would think that people had lost their minds. A Russian story for children ap pearing in Dr. George S. Counts' The Soviet Challenge to America, published ty the John Day Co. ($2.50) COOPERATION 77 Central Union. The various problems which confront these societies are discussed. The statistical tables are models of accuracy and of informa tion. Verbraucher Wotihe This attractive book is put out by the Reichsverband deutscher Kon sumvereine of Ko'ln. It gives in series the necessary information and help for the organization of a "Consumers' Week." It presents in text and pic tures an admirable plan for coopera tive propaganda and the adding of new members to each society. THE NEW SLAVERY "The trend of industrial development and the development of control in industry is approaching a condition that resembles, in many respects, the mediaeval feudalism. Feudalism, in the middle ages, was based on ownership of land and on military power. The feudalism that we are developing in this country is based upon industrial power, and, as a corollary of industrial power, poli tical power. I do not think that the coming industrial feudalism is going to treat the working classes or farmers with particular harshness. Probably it will avoid all of the coarser and cruder forms of injustice; pos sibly it will give the masses a somewhat bet ter general standard of living than they have enjoyed before, but it will do that at the ex pense of freedom. The masses will have lost their desire to resist, to think for themselves, to determine their own economic lives. Their minds will have become the slave mind. We see instances of that on every hand now, especially where organized propaganda by newspapers in favor of a particular legisla tive proposal produces its full effects." DR. JOHN A. RYAN, National Catholic Welfare Council. The Reader Writes MOVE THE COLLEGE A LITTLE! Editor, COOPERATION: The proposal for a Cooperative College outlined by George Halonen in COOPERA TION of February should have a very wide appeal. Technical training for those active in cooperative work is a prime requisite if the movement is to earn its place in Ameri can life. Mr. Halonen has apparently given careful thought to the question of plans. Might not the Educational Committee of The Cooperative League now canvass the situa tion thoroughly to ascertain whether the college could be opened next fall? To an Easterner, Duluth, Minnesota, seems far in the wilds. If the college were to be held there it would probably serve only the co operative movement of the Northwest. Might arrangements not be made to bring the col lege nearer to a central point, say Chicago or Waukegan, so that the eastern group would stand some chance of sending students to take part in it? Altogether, the idea seems a sane, practical scheme which if planned carefully and sufficiently in advance should prove of great value to the movement. Colston E. Warne Amherst, Mass. HE WILL HELP THE COLLEGE Editor, COOPERATION: The plan for a cooperative college as out lined by Mr. Halonen is timely. There surely is plenty of need for such education right now. Many of the local oil cooperatives get into capitalist ruts, simply because their leadership does not understand cooperation. Training in the profit-seeking schools of business is often worse than useless. The greater part of the curricula of the state and sectarian schools is of no value to cooper- ators. Such education seeks to bolster up the interests of its capitalist supporters. It seems that practically all of the support for such a college in this northwest district will have to come from, this region. It would be better for the East to support and pat ronize Brookwood Labor College which is now in sympathy with and working for the interests of the cooperative movement. Most of the .support for such a college on this region will have to come from the district north and east of the Twin Cities, for the first year or two at least. But we who work south and west of the cities surely can do something. There is evident a growing ap preciation of the value of cooperation. Many are coming to believe that capitalists have no solution for the present economic and social difficulties. There are outspoken con victions to the effect that the only relief on which fanners can depend is that which they get for themselves thru their cooperatives. I assume that the college will be or ganized on a cooperative basis, so far as the living requirements of its personnel will be involved; somewhat after the plan of Brook- wood Labor College. I am willing to con tribute to a student loan fund and to work toward stirring up support for this neces sary step in our work. J. W. Baker Fieldman, Midland Cooperative Oil Association, Minneapolis. 78 COOPERATION ALL STATES NOT ALIKE Editor COOPERATION: Our resolution (published in your number of January 1931) was well meant, but was construed by you as wanting to forbid Dr. Warfoaese using the columns of the maga zine for his opinions. This was not our in tention. In September last Dr. Warbasse wrote "Nor can I see how socializing the government would make it any different. Of politicians there would be more. The over- lordly economic power would be transferred to the great state. The attempts of the Rus sian Bolsheviki to create socialism prove these facts. A great capitalistic overlord, called the State, is the result." Dr. Warbasse likes to slander the Soviet leaders, saying that the Russian Govern ment is hungry for profits, carries on busi ness for profits, grinds labor for profits; he says the Soviets suppress the liberties of the people for profits and that meetings of the unemployed are disbursed by soldiers' bay onets and bullets and prisons. I believe Dr. Wiaxibasse has not seen any of this. He says that a few big bankers dominating the economic life in a capitalistic country are less ruthless than one big banker, the State. We think that these last words of his prove Dr. Warbasse' short sightedness. Are the Bolsheviki more terrible in their methods of trying to clean their own house than the nice socialist overlord, Ramsey MaoDonald, send ing soldiers into India, Africa, Palestine and China? I have been in the cooperative movement for over 35 years and wherever I go, try to spread the cooperative message. I hate politics but in thinking over the wonderful work voluntarily done in Dillonvale, its nice cooperative stores, is it all done voluntarily after all? No, it represents a lot of hard work, force and good judgment; some volun tary labor, but much of it compulsory. I am eager to see the day come when goods shall be produced for use and not for profit, whether it be voluntary or by force. I look for the time when there shall be no millionaires' protectors such as soldiers and their instruments of murder, no international barriers, no bondage; for then there will be no more need for fioroe. Then there will be cooperation in full swing. Yours for the day to come. Joseph F. Muron Dillonvale, Ohio All true cooperators patronize THE NEW ERA LIFE ASSOCIATION (Established 1897) A strictly cooperative life insurance institution. Member of the Northern States Cooperative League. All standard forms of life insurance contracts written. Funeral Benefit and Disability insurance for only $1.00 a month! WE CAN INSURE YOU BY MAIL without medical examination! For full particulars clip this coupon and mail it to: NEW ERA LIFE ASSOCIATION, Grand Rapids, Mich. Name: Address: COOPERATION 79 COOPERATIVE DEMOCRACY Second Edition completely revised by JAMES PETER WARBASSE President of The Cooperative League of the United Staites of America Member of the Central Committee of the International Cooperative Alliance \ Discussion of the Consumers' Cooperative Movement In Its Relati' n to the Political State, to the Profit System, to labor, to Agriculture and to the Arts and Sciences The Macmillan Co., New York, Publishers Order from The Cooperative League, 167 West 12th St., New York, U. S. A. Price, $1.50. The Cooperative Union, Holyoake House Hanover St., Manchester, England. Price 6 sh. German Edition: Verlagsgesell- schaft deutscher Konsumvereine, Stroh- hause 38, Hamburg, Germany. Price, 6 marks. ANNUAL LIFE INCOME SOME MEMBERS RECEIVE 40% ANNUAL DIVIDEND ON MONEY PAID IN Are you interested in increasing your an nual income against old age? All mem bers of the family eligible from baby to grandparents. Small Annual Dues Write for Circular of Plan BROTHERHOOD OF THE COMMONWEALTH