The source of this uncorrected OCR text may be viewed in the DjVu format at: http://fax.libs.uga.edu/HD2951xC776/co24 or http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/ugafax/HD2951xC776/co24 CO-OPERATION PUBLISHED MONTHLY By The Co-operative League of U. S. A. VOLUME X January—December 1924 CO-OPERATIVE LEAGUE OF U. S. A. 167 West 12th Street, New York City 1924 INDEX Accounting and Centralized Bookkeeping............................................ 1C2 " Simplified . . . . . ..................................................... 16 Adamston, W. Va................................................................ 157 Address of Greeting to German Congress.......................................... 115 Administrator, The Technical Expert as....... ................................... 3 Agricultural Co-operation in Denmark.............................................. 211 A. F. of L. Convention Endorses Co-operation............. .......................... 30 Anti-malarial Co-operative Societies in India........................................ 10 Art and Co-operation............................................................. 91 Associated Grange Warehouse Co................................................. 12-16 Auditing and Accounting Service.................................................. 141 Australia, Farmers & Industrialists in............................................. 208 B Bakeries, Co-operative, in TJ. S....................................8, 12, 86, 100, 105, 155 Bank, Labor . . . . .............................................................. 31 " , Savings . . . . . ........................................................... 79 Beardstown, 111, Society.......................................................... 69 Benld, 111. ...................................................................... 48 Bloomington, III . . . ..........................................................15, 67 Bookkeeping, Accounting and .................................................... 162 Book Reviews..................................................35, 53, 89, 107, 194, 211 " Store, Co-operative ..... ................................................. 122 Bread Trust, The................................................................. 196 British Labor Government......................................................... 38 Brookhart, Senator . . . . ........................................................ 128 Brookwood, N. Y. . . . .......................................................... 123 Budget Committee . . . .......................................................... 202 Builders of Co-operation . . . ..................................................... 58 Building, The Co-operative ....................................................... 43 " and Loan Association................................................... 56 Bulgarian Co-operators Persecuted................................................. 104 Business Man and Co-operation................................................... 210 C Call to Co-operative Women...................................................... 174 Canadian Co-operative Anniversary................................................ 180 " Farmers Try Chain Stores.............................................. 15 Cattle Eat and Are Not Fed...................................................... 15 Central States Co-operative Society.............................................. 50, 128 Centrosoyus 25th Anniversary..................................................... 62 Chase, Stuart . . . . ............................................................. 76 Chicago Co-operative Bookstore................................................... 122 Christensen, Chris. L............................................................. 211 Christian Science Monitor Proposal to Conscript Wealth............................. 92 Clarence, Pa. ... ...................................... ........................ 43 Cleaver, P. J. . . ................................................................ 151 Cleveland City Dairy............................................................. 157 Clifton, N. J.................................................................... 48 Cloquet, Minn. .................................................................. 70 INDEX Page Closser, W. H. .................................................................. 43 Coal Distribution at Maynard..................................................... 104 Cohn, Hyman I. . . . ............................................................ 209 College, A Co-operative . . . . ..................................................... 160 Colonies, Single Tax . . . ........................................................ 5 Coming Changes in Distribution.................................................. 147 Commonwealth Mutual Savings Bank.............................................. 79 Conference of Managers, Wisconsin............................................... 97 Congress, The 4th Co-operative....................... .'83, 144, 164, 179, 1S3, 184, 195, 199 Congresses, Two . . . . ........................................................... 106 Consumers Co-operative Services, Inc............................................... 15-6 Coolidge, President, Urges Co-operation............................................ 47 Co-operation Among the Czechoslovaks.............................................. 205 " as a Means of Promoting World Understanding......................... 96 " in Ohio and Illinois.................................................. 139 " in Public Schools.................................................... 127 " on the Screen . . ... ................................................. 8 '' via the Squeeze Process............................................... 77 Co-operative Administration . . . . ................................................ 3 " Business Increases . . . .............................................. 189 " Central Exchange..................................17, 26, 46, 119, 148, 178 " Democracy . . . . .................................................... 129 " Education . . . . . ................................................ 106, 155 " Garage ............................................................ 33 " Gasoline ...................................................... .124, 177 " Housing Exhibit . . . . ............................................... 68 " " in N. Y. . . ............................................... 112 '' Land Purchases . . . . ............................................... 5 '' League Meetings . . . . .............................................. 32 " League's Exhibit at Ghent............................................ ISO " Papers . . . . ....................................................... 120 " Police Department . . . . ............................................. Ill '' Princ:ple Opposed .... .............................................. 193 " Eebates . . . . ....................................................... 6 " Training School . . . . ............................................24, 106 Co-operatives and Labor Legislation............................................... 160 Co-operator, A, in the Cabinet.................................................... 205 Co-operators at Play . . . . ........................................................ 156 " in Washington . . . . ................................................. 12 " Win Seats in Parliament.............................................. 46 Correspondence . . . . ........................................ 18, 35, 54, 72, 89, 126, 162 Costs, Survey of Operating...... .................................................. 158 Credit Union, Consumers, N. Y................................................... 16, 124 " "of Texas .... .................................................... 157 Cresco, Iowa . . . . .............................................................. 177 Crosgrave, L. M. . . . . ........................................................... 133 Czechoslovaks, Co-operation Among the............................................ 205 Dairy As a Unit for Co-operation.............................................. 181, 198 Demands, Our . . . . .............................................................. 3'8 Democratized Capitalism . . . . .................................................... 209 Denmark, Agricultural Co-operation in.............................................. 211 Denver, Colo. Co-operative Milk................................................... 14 Directors and Auditors Elected................................................... 202 Directors' First Duty . . . . ....................................................... 33 INDEX Page Directors' Page ................................16, 33, 52, 106, 125, 141, 161, 192, 210 District Leagues . . . . ......................................................... 89, 125 Doctrine of Scarcity . . . ......................................................... 21 Does America Want to Co-operate?................................................ 210 Dreams Come True, How.......................................................... 148 Duluth, Minn. . . . .............................................................. 122 £ Education, Co-operative . . . . ............................................... 24, 2'6, 32 Election, One Way to Eun an..................................................... 168 Embarrass, Minn. . . . . .....--.......-...........................'................ 70 Englander, Jules . . . . . .......................................................... 141 English C. W. S. Strike.......................................................... 9 Europe's Conflagration . . . . ..................................................... 19 Evolution . . . ................................................................. 209 P Failure an Incentive.............................................................. 211 Failures and Eeasons............................................................. 51 Fake Co-operative Dissolved ... .................................................. 32 Farmer and His Taxes........................................................... 4 Farmers and Industrialists in Australia............................................. 208 '' Association in Minnesota................................................. 70 '' Co-operative Association . . . . ............................................ 51 " Fall for This ... ....................................................... 146 " Make Success of Laundry................................................. 206 " Plan . . . . ...........................................................37, 93 " Store, N. D. . . . ....................................................... 15 " Union, Kansas . . . . ..................................................... 49 Farm'ng'.on, 111. . . . ...................................................... 13, 86, 121 Finnish Association, Brooklyn..................................................... 122 '' , The oth Co-op. Course in................................................. 2-6 Fitchburg, Mass. . . . ............................................................ 105 Forward! . . . . . ................................................................ 199 Franklin Clubs, The.............................................................. 206 " Creamery ... ........................................40, 121, 176, 177, 133 Free Acres Colony . . . . ....................................................... 5, 178 Galesburg, 111. . . . .............................................................. 190 German Congress . . . . .......................................................115, 153 Germany, Eesolution on . . . ...................................................... 13 Gide, Charles . . . . ............................................................... 62 Glen Carbon, 111. ... .................. ........... ............................. 121 Gompers, Mr., For Industrial Democracy........................................... 2 Goss, A. S. . . . .................................................................. 37 Grain Merger . . . . .............................................................. 146 Grange, Washington . , . . ........................................................ 12 Greetings to Members, 1924....................................................... 1 H Hall, Bolton .................................................................... 5 Hamilton, W. P................................................................... 210 Has Co-operation a Future in U. S.?............................................... 76 Health Society . . . . ............................................................ 60 Help Farmers to Spend Money.................................................... 206 Henderson, Sidney . . . . ......................................................... 24 INDEX Page Herron, L. S. . . . ............................................................... 94 Home Owner Becomes a Landlord, How the........................................ 56 Housewives' and Mothers' International........................................... 191 Housing, Co-operative . . . ...................................................... 112 How Dreams Come True......................................................... 148 How to Have Peace.............................................................. 22 India, Anti-malarial Societies in.................................................. 10 " , Co-operation in .... ............ ............. .........................45, 206 Individualism . . . . ......................... .................................... 125 Industrial Democracy in U. S..................................................... 2 Insurance, Co-operative .......... .............................................. 64 International Co-op. Congress..............................................29, 106, 171 " " Exhibit.... .............................................. 136 " Co-operation in 1922 . . .......................... ................. 116 " Wholesale .... .................................................... 103 Women at Ghent . . . 103 Japanese Earthquake Destroys Co-operatives....................................... 85 K Keen, George, of Canada .......................................................... 15 Kincaid, 111. ................................................................ -86, 156 Labor Year Book................................................................ 89 LaFollette Endorses Co-operation.................................................. 50 Laundry, Farmers Make Success of ................................................ 206 League's Exhibit . . . . .............................................••-•••••••••• 180 Lecture Course on Co-operation. ..................-...----.-.--.......•-•••-•....•• 67 Letters from J. P. Warbasse................................... .136, 153, 171, 186, 203 Letter to Co-operative Unions ....................................-...••••••••••••• 84 Lewiston, Idaho . . . ...............................-•-....•••-•--••..•-..-•--•••• Life Insurance, Co-operative. .................................................. -64, «• " Profits . . . . .................................................... " " , The Searchlight on . . .......................................... Lithuanian Co-operators in U. S. . . . .............................................. Long, Cedric . . . ..............................••...-••••••••••••••••••••••-••••• Loyalty, More About . . . . .......................................•••••••••••••••• " , Shall, Be Compulsory? . ............................................... 87 158 74 175 101 20 M Manhattan Health Society . . . Maynard, Mass. . . . .......... Meat Market Needs . . . . ...... Merchandise Stock Control .... Milford, N. H. ............... Milk, Co-operative . . . . ........ Miners' Co-operatives in Ohio... M'tchell, John F. W. . . . ... 60 .50, 176 ... 206 ... 192 ... 101 .14, 40 .... 49 ... 58 Moral Equivalent of Jazz ......................-••••••.••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 94 More Politics . . . . ..............................-...-.........••••••-•-•--••..•• 1?9 Muffin Tin, Out of a ...................•••••••••••-••••-•••••••-•••••••••••••••• xl Mutual Aid Guild . . . . .......................................................... 64 INDEX N Page Nearing, Scott . . . . ............................................................. 129 Newmanstown, Pa. . . . •••••••-.••..•••••........................................ 157 N. Y. State Co-operatives......................................................... 133 Northern States League ..................................................... .155, 190 Norway, Co-operation in . . . . .................................................... 186 Norwood, Mass. . . . . ......................................................... 71, 177 Nurmi, H. V. ................................................................26, 161 0 One Way to Eun an Election...................................................... 168 On the Square . . . - ............................................................. 74 Our Demands ................................................................... 38 " Vote .... . ................................................................ 163 Out of a Muffin Tin . . . . ........................................................ u Pana, HI. . . . 88 Patriotism and Plunder .... ..................................................... 2 Peace Prize Humbug . . . ........................................................ 23 ' ' , How to Have . . . . ....................................................... 22 Poland, Co-operative Unity in. .................................................... 85 Police Department, Swiss Co-operative. ............................................. m Politics, More . . . . ............................................................. 1 79 Presidential Candidates on Co-operation. .................................... 47, 167; 182 Producers' Co-ops Oppose Limited Interest. ........................................ 195 Profiteering Under Present System ... ............................................ 50 R Eadio Fans Co-operate . . . . ..................................................... 88 Rebates . . . . ................................................................... 6 Eochdale Flour Mill . . . . ........................................................ 109 Bonn, Eskel .................................................................... 143 Eosedale, Pa. . . . ............................................................... 177 Eoseland, Chicago . . . •••••••••••••••••••....................................... 123 Eural Co-operatives in N. Y. .......................................... ........... 133 Eussian Co-operation . . . . ............................................ . .5.3, 52 207 " Private Traders Quit . . . . ............................................... 117 " Publications . . . . - ..................................................... 34 S San Diego, Cal. . . . .............................................................. Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. . . . ............................................ ..... .31 School, Co-operative Training .................................................. 155 Schools, Summer Training ......... ......................... ... Seaman 's Bank, A ............................................ ............ . . Shingle Mills ... ........................................ .... Solem, Edward . . . ............................................... isi Sonnichsen, Albert .................................................. .58, 77, 130, Shakespeare, William, Jr. . . . . .............................................. . . Sparta, 111. . . . . .................................................... Spooner, Wis. ............................................ ........ . . 11 Statesmen and Co-operation . . . .................................... Staunton, 111. ... ................................................ " Steel Trust Changed into a Co-operative. ..................... ......... . . ....... Steer By the Compass ............................................................ 14 191 197 73 193 197 211 12i 118 no 37 128 INDEX Page Strike in English C. W. S. . . . ................................................... 9 " , Trade Union and the...................................................... 92 Summer Training School ... ...................................................... 88 Survey of Operating Costs......................................................... 15!8 Sweden, the Land of Steady Progress.............................................. 203 Swiss Co-operative Police Dept. . . . ............................................... Ill T Taylor Springs, 111. . . ........................................................... 47 Taxation Again . . . ............................................................. 205 Taxes, Farmers' . . . . - .......................................................... 4 Telephones, Co-operative . . . . .................................................... SI Thousand Necessary for Meat Market Success....................................... 206 Tovey, 111. . ................................................................. 71 Trade Union and the Strike....................................................... 62 Training School, Co-operative . . . ........................ ...................... 155, 188 Trifles Make Success . . . ........................................................ Ill Trusting Our Own People........................................................ 109 Two Congresses . . . . ..............................-•.........-..••..-•••••-••••• 106 Two Harbors, Minn. . . . ........................................................ 86 U Understanding Ourselves . . . . ................................................... £02 Undertaking, Co-operative, Association ............................................ 30 United States Dept. Agri. Report on Farmers' Organizations.......................... 51 Utica, N. Y. ................................................................... 49 V Victims of Theatre Collapse....................................................... 21 Villa Grove, 111. . . . . ............................................................ 120 Vital Issues ... ........................................ ••!, 19, 37,55,73,91, 109, 127 Vote, Our . . . . ................................................................. W3 W Warbasse, Agnes D. . . . . ......................--•••-.....••••-..•••••••••••••••• 96 Warbasse, J. P. ............................... -22, 81, 115, 136, 153, 171, 186, 195-6, 203 Washington Grange Warehouse.................................................... 56 Wealth, Proposal to Conscript . . . ............................................... 92 Wellman, Iowa, Farmers' Co-op. ... .............................................. 16 What Do You Mean—Loyalty?.................................................... 57 Whitnall, C. B. ..................-.-•....-.-•--•••••..•-•••••-•••••-----•--•-••• 79 Wholesale Overcharging Manager.................................................. 52 Wholesaling and Chain System................................................... 147 '' , Beginning Steps in . . . .............................................. 56 " , Co-operative, in North West.......................................... 151 " f " , " Washington . . . . .................................... 118 Witt, 111. . . . ................................ •••••••.••••••••••••••••••••...••n, 121 Women's International League . . . . .............................................. 96 Woodcock, Leslie E. . . . ...........................••...••..••••••••..••••••••••• 168 Working Class Complex ... ...................................................... 130 " Hours of Co-operative Employees.......................................... 160 World's Statesmen and Co-operation............................................... 110 Z Zellman, A. B. . . ................................••..........••.••.•••..•••••••• 100 ©O'C-'TION A magazine to spread the knowledge of the Co-operative Movement, whereby the people, in vol^ untary association, produce and distribute for their own use the things they need Published monthly by The Co-operative League, 167 West 12th Street, New York City. J. P. Warbasse, Editor. Entered as second class matter, Decem ber 19, 1917, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Price $1.00 a year. Vol. X, No. 1 JANUARY, 1924 10 Gents VITAL ISSUES GREETINGS—1924 At this beginning of the New Year we greet the loyal Co-operators, who have held aloft the banner of our cause, with renewed hopes and strengthened pur pose. The past year has been one of uncer tainties. The old order of things has brought unnecessary suffering and op pression to countless innocent people. Its inefficiency and injustices have caused disorder and wrung with pain the hearts of multitudes. Europe is suffering from a peace, brought upon it by diplomats, statesmen, and warriors, more terrible and more devastating than war. The profit-system and the governments which it dominates are tottering and far advanced in decay. In the presence of these conditions, the Co-operative Movement goes steadily on, erecting new structures, rescuing fallen communities, restoring the shat tered machinery of distribution, and building its bridges between the hope less past and the hopeful future. It summons to its fellowship all who seek a way of life that is free from in justice and contention. In every country of the woild Co operation has made progress during 1923. Where financial crises exist and where unemployment is rife it has pro tected the people from the forces that would prey upon them. And in all lands it has carried on education 'to ?F strengthen the foundations of under standing upon which Co-operation rests. In our own country, the Co-operators are building solidly and laying deep foundations. Educational woik has been promoted as never before. Courses in Co-operation have been given in a large number of schools and colleges, special schools have conducted co-opera tive instruction, and two training schools for the education of co-operative execu tives have conducted signally successful courses ?nd graduated students unusu ally well prepared to administer co operative undertakings. The understanding of Co-operation has been widely extended. Spurious, fraudulent, and fanciful schemes have less chance of securing a foothold than ever before. Throughout the length and breadth of the land there is a markedly better understanding of Co-operation. Most countries have built a Co-operative Movement first, and then co-operative culture. In the United States we are building a culture upon which to found a movement. All of this progress is due to the faith ful, steady, and consistent work of the loyal Co-operators who keep their hands to the task and their eyes upon the goal. Greetings to them and good wishes for the New Year! May courage, strength, and support be theirs. May they be •ever conscious of the significance for good to mankind of the structure they are building1 And may they be gener- 'fOi^J. CO-OPERATION ously contented that those who come after them shall see the great results and reap the full ripened fruit of their labors. The year 1924 we greet with renewed hopes and firm resolves to go on—ever on toward title great victory. PATRIOTISM AND PLUNDER Mr. Frank A. Vanderlip says: "I am getting an obsession against this word patriotism." There are other people also who are beginning to see what forty different patriotisms in Europe are doing to the suffering people. So long as each one says that his country is best and the children are taught the same fiction in the schools, people will grow up with the superstition that the other countries are worse. But it remained for Judge Gary of the Steel Trust to put on the finishing touches in his '' Thanksgiving Proclama tion. '' He said that we should be thank ful because, while the people in other countries were starving and in want, our industries had produced an abund ance—a greater abundance than we could use—and our warehouses are bulging with goods. So long as American patriotism is fed on this sort of sentiment, what hope does America offer for the brotherhood of man? And now comes the Secretary of Agri culture to solve the farmers' problem and to make them more prosperous and to love their country more. He advises the farmers to plant less wheat so as to have a small crop, to cause scarcity of wheat, and thus make the price go up. This proposal is offered by a full-grown man, a churchgoer, and a good citizen, drawing a salary from the U. S. and serving in the President's Cabinet. It is offered in the face of the fact that not only is Europe starving to death but in our own country 20 per cent of the pub lic school children in the industrial centers are underfed. Patriotism and nationalism have brought the world to a bad pass. But one of the worst things that has come out of it are public officials with ethics and economics that would scarcely do credit to a cave dweller, conscious only of his own tribe and the wild beasts, about him. Civilization is perishing for want of an understanding of the simple fact that the problems of the peoples of all nations are the same problems, and that no nation can rise at title expense of an other. The days of successful predatory conquests have passed. He loves his country best who desires that the peo ples of other lands shall be as prosper ous as the people of his land, and who shapes his conduct accordingly. MR. GOMPERS FOR INDUS TRIAL DEMOCRACY President Gompers of the A. F. of L. has issued a statement in which he as serts that this country must either have state socialism or industrial democracy. By industrial democracy he means a gov ernment controlled by thti industries of the country. Mr. Gompers advocates a representative industrial democracy, in which the legislative authority in indus trial matters is vested in an economic congress composed of representatives chosen by industrial groups. If we do not take this course we are headed for state socialism, he declares, in an inter view published in the Washington Star. He says: "Since our form of government was created we have developed a tremendous industrial organization which has revo lutionized society and produced condi tions which the founders of our republic knew nothing about and could not have foreseen. The attempts of our political government to regulate this vast business machine can lead only to state social ism." Mr. Gompers' alternative is represen tative industrial government from which politicians are barred and which shall be administered by the chosen represen tatives of the various groups constituting industry. This is good sound stuff, so far as it goes. But it provides nothing new. As a matter of fact that is the sort of gov ernment we now have. The people who CO-OPERATION control the industries control the gov ernment. Who are the representatives in Congress? They are people chosen almost exclusively by the industries. The so-called politicians are title agents appointed to represent the railroads, coal, steel, banking, lumber, petroleum, agriculture, and other industries. The U. S. Congress represents industry as effectively as though its members were directly appointed by the steel trust, the mine owners, the lumber combine, and the other big industrial organizations. It is perfectly natural that legislative bodies should be so constituted. It is inevitable in the course of events. The thing that we should be inter ested in is not that industry shall dom inate the government but who shall dom inate industry? Organized Labor in the U. S. seems satisfied that industry shall be owned and controlled by interests which carry on industry for their own profit. The privilege of collective bar gaining with these interests will never solve the problems of Labor. Bargain ing inside of an unjust system does not bring justice. A real industrial democ racy is impossible so long as the motive of industry is not service but economic profit for the owners. The "industrial democracy" which Mr. Gompers advocates would give us just about the same results we have now. Neither industrial control nor industrial democracy will be possible until the in dustries are producing commodities for use; and commodities will be produced for use only when the users control the industries. J. P. W. THE HIGH SALARIED TECH NICAL EXPERT AS ADMIN ISTRATOR In the United States we have two theo ries regarding the administration of co operative business; and they differ sharply. Each theory has ardent cham pions among the co-operators themselves. These are the two opposing viewpoints briefly stated: 1. "We are interested in starting a store (or bakery, housing association, milk business, or restaurant) and we in tend to get the best technical expert that the business world has to offer (provided we can pay the price) to administer the enterprise. Co-operative societies who have this common fear of Big Business have repeatedly fallen before the supe rior efficiency of Big Business. Co-opera tion needs the same superlative business management that Private Business has, and we shall not hesitate to take over the latter's best administrators when we can get them.'' 2. "One of the primary functions, probably the primary function of Co operation, is to fit the average run of men and women to administer their own business affairs themselves. If we buy up the superlatively efficient managers of Private Business to do this for us, we have perhaps achieved a smoothly running business machine, good returns (profits), all that the world of private profit calls Success; but we have bar tered away the immediate and vital con trol over our affairs that makes Co operation important in our eyes. We have the body and form of Co-operation and have lost the spirit. We do make many mistakes, we often fail, and it does cost much in time and money to train our own administrators, men and women of our own group. But the joy of life for us is in the mutual effort, the com mon struggle, rather than in the mate rial rewards of effort. We shall leave it to otha-s to secure their experts from the world of private business who shall carry them painlessly to security and comfort; and if they wish, let them call that 'Co-operation'." True, these are the more extreme statements of each position. On occa sions a co-operative has taken over from the profit world the manager of unusual ability and found he had more of the co-operative spirit and understanding than the membership and the Board of Directors. And on other occasions the working people have picked from their own group an administrator of amazing executive ability latent within him. Nevertheless, this disagreement does ex ist between the most sincere and en thusiastic of co-operators in America. And we often hear those of one school condemn harshly those of the other. CO-OPERATION CO-OPERATION Co-operators who lay special emphasis upon administrative efficiency are not numerous yet. We wish there were many more of them. Yet, we ask them, is there not danger of putting too ex clusive an emphasis upon this point? Is there not a good deal to be said for that other theory, after all: that one of the first purposes of Co-operation is to train ordinary men and women to gain a more complete control over their own affairs? And to the ultra "radicals" who con temn everything that savors of Big Busi ness efficiency we respectfully suggest that co-operators should not scoff at pri vate enterprise until co-operative enter prise has shown itself as successful as its enemy. After all, are not co-operatives destroyed oftener by the profit-seekers within the co-operative membership than by the agents of capitalism? And sup pose a co-operative did take over one of these efficiency experts: if the directors were genuine and intelligent co-opera tors wouldn't they still be able to control the policies of the society? C.L. THE FARMER AND HIS TAXES It happened that the report to Presi dent Coolidge by representatives of the War Finance Corporation respecting aid to the wheat farmers appeared on the same day that the program of the Farm Bloc was announced by Senator Capper. It is a striking fact that the two agree 011 the most important point. They agree that the farmers should help them selves by means of Co-operation rather than by government aid. The more ex perience people have and the more they think about these matters the greater is the tendency to recognize the fact that self-help is better than governmental help. The farmers are beginning to realize that whenever the government does something that costs money the farmer- bears a disproportionately large part of the cost. He pays more than his share of the taxes. One reason for this is be cause most of his property is real prop erty and cannot be concealed from the taxing authorities. The middleman, who gambles in the products of the farm, has his property in the form of stocks and bonds, the income from which can be hidden from the tax gatherer. Fur thermore, high taxes and high wages mean high costs of farm production and reduction of the farmer's profits. But high costs to the middleman can easily be passed on to the consumer at a price fixed by the middleman. The farmer does not fix the price of his products. The taxes collected in the United States, local and national, in 1913 amounted to two billion dollars; in 1922 they were seven billion. Taxes in 1913 were $17 per capita; in 1922 they were $64. Twelve per cent of the national income now goes for taxes, and the in dications are that taxes will grow stead ily larger. This is one reason why the farmer's dollar now has a purchasing power of only 65 per cent of what it had ten years ago. The farmers who are thinking about this know that they have got to bear more than their share of the taxation, no matter whether it is for battleships or for farmers' subsidies. For this rea son they should be the class that opposes every sort of "governmental welfare work." Unless the farmers, and every body else for that matter, turn to Co operation as the means of doing things, taxes will grow. The people who bear the chief burden of the taxes will con tinue to be those who perform the useful productive work. Still the fiction that the rich pay the taxes is kept alive; and the workers are everywhere seen chuck ling with glee whenever a big piece of work "for the people" is undertaken by the Government. They would laugh less joyously if they knew that they were paying the bill. Except on the land, there is no such thing as direct taxation; all other tax is indirect, and the man who finally pays is the one who least suspects that fact. But when the taxgatherer knocks at the farmer's door the farmer pays; he pays or quits the farm. J. P. W. CONTRIBUTED ARTICLES CO-OPERATIVE LAND PURCHASES, OR COLONIES? By Bolton Hall Co-operators explain to me that they begin upon the things that people must pay for almost every day, and that are in constant demand—and they therefore usually concentrate on groceries. It would be much more intelligent to con centrate on land than on petty pur chases. Everybody must have that every day and it will keep indefinitely. There are now a whole lot of co-op erative purchases of land. I have been connected with three at Stelton, one at Berkeley Heights, one at Freedom Hill, one at Meyersville and at Chatham, in New Jersey—all successful, but not one of them was conducted in the interest of the Co-operative principle. The forma tion of settlements is the easiest way to introduce co-operation, especially of those that aim at "greater personal and economic freedom than under conven tional forms of government,'' by simple release from the power of the land owner. Civilization is the capacity for co-op eration. Co-operation, of course, begins with the first act of trading among men, which is itself significant, because man has been defined as the trading animal. In the socialist colonies we shall not find much that seems permanent or vital, ex cept for such pioneer enthusiasm as sur vives ; but in the religious settlements we do indeed find some real vigor. This is in line with the facts and the conclusions presented in Hind's "Amer ican Communities," which shows that nearly all, except the single tax settle ments, have been of small vitality, mostly brief in life and of practically no influence upon the thought of the world. Propagandist colonies are en tirely different from mere co-operative purchases of land, though both are spoken of as "colonies." The organization of colonies to exploit any social theory or way of living is al ways a matter of difficulty and doubtful success. A colony is like a gold mine. It depends upon three factors: First, the promoters; second, the executive; and third, the opportunity. These three are about equally important. As in the case of the gold mine, the failures are more often from the promoter or from the executive branch than from the thing in itself. A colony may have an admirable ob ject, a very excellent lot of colonists, and a merely visionary head, or a head with out any vision; or it may be that the only vision there is consists in looking. In either case, the way of the colony is hard. Liberty is opposed to organization, as organization necessarily implies obedi ence in directions where otherwise there would be individual liberty. It is on the rock of law-making and of laying down rules for one another that most of the reform colonies have been wrecked. We think that we have avoided that in our "Free Acres," the Single Tax Vil lage at Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, by condensing our constitution and by laws into "Pay your own rent and mind your own business." In the colony plan the patriarchal government might be used instead of the democratic. It need hardly be said that patriarchal government where it is really inspired by love works very well. Per fect love would bring liberty, but per fect liberty would also bring love. Perhaps the liberty may be more im portant and also the first thing to seek, because love, to work as a perfect world plan, must be universal. It seems that a few persons who are still mainly in the animal stage might derange a govern ment of love almost as much as a gov ernment of non-resistance. Justice can only follow liberty—it can never pre cede her. Respect for the equal rights of others can be impressed upon back ward members of a community until such time as they too come to realize that we are all one, and there are 110 "Others," no separate interests. CO-OPERATION CO-OPERATION CO-OPERATIVE REBATES Recently the leaders in two of the country's large and well-known co operatives have asked The League for a statement on the subject of Dividends or Rebates to Members. This is a highly important subject, and lack of under standing of the fundamentals has been responsible for the difficulties that many societies have encountered. Directors might solve many of their problems of Finance, of Loyalty among the members, of Dividend Policy, if they were straight in their thinking on this subject. One request for the opinion of The League follows: '' I would like to have your opinion 011 a matter of policy in co-operative asso ciations. Not long ago I attended the annual meeting of the stockholders of one of our local co-operative associations which operates an elevator and handles coal, salt, lumber, implements, and quite a list of farm supplies. The association needed more capital and was keeping the earnings, or savings, in the business, in stead of dividing them as patronage dividends. Quite a surplus had already been accumulated in this way. "The question was whether to issue shares of stock to the members to the amount of this surplus, in proportion to their patronage during the time it was accumulated. The articles of incorpora tion set a limit to the amount of stock one person could own, and many of the members already had the limit. These were the very men, in most cases, who would get tlie biggest stock dividend. Of course, the articles of incorporation could be amended, so the real problem, after all, was whether stock should be issued for a surplus that was being used as operating capital, to replace borrowed funds, and not for expansion. "I had to leave before the meeting was over, and have not heard what the decision was. I told them they should leave the surplus as surplus and forget about who it belonged to. They didn't seem to take much stock in what I said. But wasn't that the right advice? If they issue stock for this surplus they must hereafter pay interest on it. And if the association meets losses they will have a deficit, with no surplus to meet it. "Aren't we too meticulous in this country about trying to determine what exact fractional part of a co-operative association belongs to each member f Don't we need a great deal more of the quality you might call social-minded- ness? I fear that some of our associa tions are going to dwindle because of applying capitalistic ideas to co-operative financing. "The whole question of co-operative financing needs to be discussed a great deal more than it has been. If it is not too much of an imposition upon your time, may I have your opinion on the questions raised in this letter? "Very cordially yours, The answer sent by The Co-operative League was this: "Dear ——————.- '' There are two distinct and different approaches to the question that you raise on the use of surplus-savings. This matter should be freely discussed and understood. This is the way we look at it. "1. When a successful co-operative society performs service for a member and he pays his money for the service at the current market rate, he pays more than the service costs. The overcharge is really a loan that he makes to the so ciety. It is customary to return these loans at the end of a fiscal period as savings-returns or 'dividends.' They belong to the member just the same as though he had made any other sort of a loan. From the standpoint of accuracy and strict accounting, this is the correct attitude toward the matter. "2. A co-operative society is a social organization for mutual aid through joint action. The members are in it to get something for themselves, but they are in it also to help the whole member ship. The more each member helps the whole membership the better is it for him and the more does he get out of it. The view may be taken that the surplus- saving is a common fund, made possible not by individual but by common ac tion, and that it belongs to the whole organization. As a matter of fact this is the case because it remains in the com mon treasury until the members decide what disposition to make of it. "Now as to the practical application of these two principles. The first is adapted to associations of people who are not socially minded but are still deeply tinctured with the present prevalent profit-seeking psychology. If Co-opera tion is to be made to appeal to them it must shoAv them results in terms of the god of profits which they worship. No appeal is so strong as that of cash in the hand. "The second principle is for the so cially minded who have caught the vision of the larger possibilities of Co operation and the obligations of Co- operators. "These two classes are quite different. Both are right. The first becomes con verted into the second by the slow proc esses of experience and education. "But in our Co-operative Movement the matter is not as simple as it might seem. Each co-operative society is com posed of people representing both of these principles. And both are more or less represented in each individual. For this reason practice requires an adjust ment of the two. And this is precisely what experience has taught. "The general practice among success ful societies is to return part of the sur plus-savings to the members in the form of cash and to use part of it for social purposes and for the common good. In different situations the proportion be tween these two uses of surplus varies. Associations of "green-horns" in the United States, and in other countries also for that matter, pay back a savings-re turn as soon and as large as possible. Later, when they have established their success and gotten some education, they tend to put their surplus to social uses. In Great Britain the average society just about divides even; one half of the 'profits' is paid back to the members as 'dividends' and the other half is used for the common good of the society. "On the other hand, there are many societies that are accumulating surplusas and that pay no savings-returns to the members. We have a number of such societies in the United States among the Finns. The Belgians have the reputa tion for doing this, but most of their societies pay 'dividends.' However, many Belgian societies use more than half of their surplus for social purposes. "What do we find these socially- minded societies doing with their sur plus? First, they build up reserves for expansion. I have often heard these people say, 'We prefer to belong to a society that has a good big reserve fund, and which we know is strong financially and able at any time or in any emer gency to do big things for the members, than to belong to a society that pays 'dividends' and has no reserve to give it strength and make expansion and so cial service possible at any time.' "The European societies are aiming more and more toward doing social things for their members. Life insur ance; insurance against sickness, acci dent, and unemployment; medical and nursing care; recreations and entertain ment; music; literature; and art— these are some of the things societies are providing for all of their members out of the common savings. "Societies should be in a position to make every possible use of the surplus- savings. The matter should be discussed at the members' meetings. The mem bers should decide whether they want to accumulate reserves for strength and ex pansion, use the funds for common so cial purposes, or take it back as savings- returns. The mere discussion of the matter will do them good. "The issuing of stock to the members instead of giving them cash savings-re turns has not much to recommend it. If the society needs the money, then it had better keep it in its treasury as a common fund without any strings to it. Non-interest-bearing stock (non-divi dend-bearing) is best, if the members insist on having stock. On the other hand, this surplus does belong to the in dividuals who created it, and if the ma jority of the members think that they should have it, that is a good reason why 8 CO-OPERATION they should have it. Only a larger so cial interest in Co-operation can make them think differently. "Of course, the best thing to do with money is to spend it, to buy life in great abundance, but socially administered money can usually be better spent and made to purchase more life than is the case when the individual is turned loose with the cash in his hand. That is the thesis that Co-operation should prove. Our societies should be so well organ ized and so efficiently administered that the individuals will be best served by the largest use of their united capital and man power. "Faithfully yours, LYNN CO-OPERATIVE BAKERY BUYS NEV7 BUILDING By Meyer Goldberg A new home for the Workingmen's Co-operative Bakery of Lynn, Massachu setts, now appears to have become a real ity. Three years' existence has shown the need of a shop and bakery to be owned as well as operated by the co operative. Money can be saved by cut ting rent charges. More space can be provided for ovens and machinery to take care of the increasing demand for co-operative products. Above all, the satisfaction of the yearning for a home for the co-operative pushed the directors of this bakery to this step. At a cost of thirty-eight thousand dol lars, a property containing a block of five stores, several other buildings, and a large plot of land has been acquired. From its present small store and single oven, the bakery expects to occupy two of the five stores in the new block and to build a row of three ovens in the rear. The facilities for baking and delivering are to be so enlarged as to put out products sufficient to supply the entire Jewish population. Architects are now drawing up plans for the alterations. These plans are to call for one of the most up-to-date bak ery establishments to be found in the section. Fixtures and machinery are to be of the latest, with every regard for sanitation and efficiency. Bakery and shop are to be housed in walls of enam eled brick, with tile and concrete floor, germ-proof and dust-proof. Shining white, it will spell the true spirit of the co-operatives. Of even more interest are the plans in regard to the additions to be made when the co-operative has been able to absorb the drain of the initial payments on the purchase. On the foundation of the store block the Lynn people are to raise another story and equip this with audi torium and meeting halls as the center of the fraternal and radical Jewish or ganization activities of the city. To the Co-operative Movement, mod est and unassuming, yet growing more and more powerful and drawing to itself the faith and support of the people, will be due this landmark. With the New Co-operative Bakery will arise the Co operative Center of Lynn. FOREIGN CO-OPERATION ON THE SCREEN! Are Charlie, and Mary, and Duggie invincible on the screen? The answer is not in the affirmative, according to Finnish co-operators. "K. K.", or the New Union in Fin land, has arranged a film to be taken of the "Elanto" Society in Helsingfors, claiming to be the largest distributive society not only in Finland, but also in the whole of Northern Europe, and this film is likely to beat all earlier records on the screen in the Finnish Eepublic. The film which, by the way, was shown to the British and foreign delegates, at tending the Annual Congress of the New Union in June last, pictures the activi ties in Elanto '& various productive es tablishments, showing the interior and exterior of numerous stores, as well as CO-OPERATION the buzzing life in some of the cafes and restaurants, belonging to the society. No less than 23,000 members of the Elanto Society saw the film in Helsing fors alone, where twenty-five perform- ences were given, and the film is just now being shown in Sweden, whilst an other copy of the same film is circulat ing among the Progressive societies in the home country, giving their members an idea as to how the work is carried out by a model society. THE STRIKE IN THE ENGLISH C. ¥7. S. A great deal of comment has appeared in the American press relative to the strike of the workers in the plants of the Co-operative Wholesale Society; and most of this comment has betrayed much prejudice and little 'knowledge of the facts on the part of writers of the ar ticles. As the strike is now settled the facts in the case can be given briefly and with some accuracy. The parties to the dispute were the Directors of the C. W. S. and the of ficials of the National Union of Dis tributive and Allied Workers (N. U. D. A. W., which is the union of employees in co-operative shops and factories). The General Council of the Trade Union Congress (which is just what the name implies) had no direct participation in the dispute, but was appealed to indi rectly several times. The "Trade Board rates" which are so often referred to are the wage rates established by the trades as a whole, i.e., the Trade Board rates for confectionery workers are those set by the entire confectionery industry, most of which is, of course, private profit-making industry. In 1915 a Joint Committee was created to deal with all disputes between eo-operative organizations and their em ployees' unions. This consisted of eight members, four from the Trade Union Congress and four from the Co-opera tive Congress. A set of rules were agreed upon which should determine the functions of this Joint Committee. The trouble started in August and September, 1922. The Union claims that the C. W. S. reduced wages, in creased working hours, and reduced wages for holidays and sickness of em ployees. The Directors of the C. W. S. claim that a number of employees were taken off "Staff Conditions" and placed on "Factory Conditions" and that wage rates were set 10 per cent above Trade Board rates. Conferences followed without ending the deadlock. Finally the employees' organization appealed to the General Council of the Trade Union Congress with the result that the latter met with the Directors of the C. W. S. in conference. The following agreement was reached: "We agree that all future variations in wages, hours and conditions of em ployment shall be negotiated with the Unions concerned and, failing agree ment, to refer the matter to the Joint Committee in accordance with its con stitution. '' On February 23d the Directors of the C. W. S. informed the Joint Committee that they would refer all matters in dis pute to said Committee except matters stated in their "proviso." The Joint Committee insisted that this "proviso" was no part of the January agreement between the General Council and the C. W. S., and therefore could not be con sidered until these two parties had dis cussed it. In March the Employees' Union sent in application to the C. W. S. for a re turn to the old conditions which had been in operation before the change from "Staff Conditions" to "Factory Condi tions" in January. The C. W. S. re plied that due to the severe trade de pression through which they had passed this request could not be met until the outlook in the trade became brighter. On April 12th the Trade Board rates in the confectionery industry were re duced and in consequence the C. W. S. notified its employees in the Silvertown and Pelaw plants that wages would be reduced two shillings. The C. W. S. in sisted that inasmuch as wages were still 10 per cent above Trade Board rates no negotiations with the unions were necessary, especially in view of the "proviso" made to the January agree- 10 CO-OPERATION CO-OPERATION 11 ment. The N. U. D. A. W. insisted that this "proviso" was no part of the of ficial January agreement; and after further futile negotiations, all workers in the factories of the C. W. S. were in structed to go on strike and members of the union working in stores were in structed not to handle goods from the C. W. S. During all these negotiations the Gen eral Council of the Trade Union Con gress adhered to the authority of the Joint Committee in such matters and urged that the entire matter be put in charge of this committee and that the "proviso" of the C. W. S. be withdrawn. As the deadlock continued, however, the Joint Committee finally went ahead and drew up terms which called for resump tion of work in all the establishments of the C. W. S., for a return to the wages prevailing before April 12th in the two factories, and for the submission of the points in dispute to the Joint Commit tee. The "proviso" was also to be ex amined by the Joint Committee. These terms were accepted by the unions and work resumed late in June. The Direc tors of the C. W. S. also accepted them but with a reservation regarding the "proviso." On July 31st the Joint Committee met and adopted a report on the matter of the "proviso," which stated that "Trade Board" rates could not be considered "Standard rates" as the C. W. S. de sired; and expressed the belief that neither side to the recent dispute had acted with a proper appreciation of the point of view of the other. Gratification was expressed that both sides now de sired more harmony in the future, and the suggestion was made that an early meeting be held to discuss ways and means for meeting future disagreements. In September the whole matter was reported to the Trade Union Congress at Plymouth; and upon receipt of a tele gram to the effect that the C. W. S. agreed to refer all labor disputes to arbitration in accordance with the rules of the Joint Committee, the report was accepted. Here the dispute of more than a year's duration ended. HINDUS CO-OPEEATE TO FIGHT DISEASE From far-off India comes the news that many co-operative societies are springing up in Bengal for the purpose of fighting malaria. Under the leadership of Dr. G. C. Chatterjea, Secretary of the Central Co operative Anti-Malarial Society, a study was made of scientific preventive meas ures, as well as of remedial treatment. Already thirty-one anti-malarial socie ties have been organized in various com munities. The members contribute a monthly subscription which enables many of the societies to maintain dis pensaries and physicians. All societies either pay laborers or obtain volunteers to spread kerosene over stagnant water, clearing the jungles and filling up the pools in the rainy season. A thorough survey is made in every town. The area is mapped out, the work is allotted, and thorough systematic work is carried on to stamp out the disease. So far the results have been very gratifying. The Pannibatty Society in duced its members to keep a record of the number and kinds of fever suffered by its members. The latest reports indi cate that there has been a decline in fever by 50 per cent, over the rate last year. The Central Anti-Malarial Society was incorporated in July, 1919, for the purpose of organizing and financing rural societies of this type, to purchase wholesale the drugs and other necessary commodities for them, and to provide advice and supervision. The by-laws of the society limit dividends on shares to not more than 6 per cent. Actually no dividend has been paid, the surplus be ing allotted to a reserve fund to aid the extension of the work. Although the work of the anti-malarial co-operative societies is in its beginnings, much has already been accomplished to stamp out the disease. With the growth of this form of Co-operation, it is hoped to conquer the plague of malaria. NEWS AND COMMENT OUT OF A MUFFIN TIN Spooner, Wisconsin, had a branch store of the ill-famed American Co-op erative Association of Milwaukee. Dur ing the death throes of that organization in 1921, even while the final meetings were being held just before the collapse, a small band of men were circulating within the hall among the members agitating for the formation of a genuine Rochdale co-operative to be owned and controlled by residents of Spooner. Thus was born, out of the death struggle of its unfortunate predecessor, the Spooner Co-operative Association. To begin business the new infant had only $998 and two score members. But the members had had experience and from the experience had acquired wis dom. Instead of trying to support the elaborate store in the center of town and the warehouse down by the railroad tracks, they borrowed $1,800, purchased the warehouse only, screened off one end of it for an improvised store, bought a small supply of merchandise and opened up for business. This little store down on the edge of town and quite out of the line of travel was the laughing stock of all the busi ness men for several months. The manager could not afford so much as a cheap cash register, so he made change from an old muffin tin and locked the tin up at night in his desk. As business increased the tin had to be kept in the drawer constantly and the old drawer and tin together finally wore away from overwork. Then the manager found he could afford a cash register. For the railroad men and the farmers who be longed to this queer organization did support their store, much to the amaze ment of the other grocers in town. The farmer with his cream cans of a morn ing or with his family of a Saturday evening drove right down the main street of the town and out along the railroad tracks to the south to tie up before the dilapidated old warehouse and buy his groceries, flour and feed. Competitors began to shake their heads and grumble. That was in 1921. For about two years the store handled cream for the farmers and occasionally marketed some of their crops. Recently a co-operative creamery has been organized in Spooner and the store has turned the cream busi ness over to them. Such commodities as potatoes are still being marketed occa sionally by the store manager. For more than a year the Spooner Co operative has been handling coal for its members. At first they had trouble getting the coal, for the big companies would not sell to them; but once they got started and established themselves they found all the companies ready and anxious to sell to them. At present they are buying from three different com panies, one of which is the Daleport Coal Corporation which sells the coal mined at the Brotherhood of Locomotive En gineers' mines in West Virginia. They had a very interesting experience with one of the notorious nonunion mines of West Virginia which refused to sell to them because they retailed the coal at a price below that of the private dealers in the town. A letter sent to this com pany informing them that continuation of this boycott would compel the Co-op erative to place the matter in the hands of the Federal Trade Commission got an immediate response in the form of a let ter promising to ship all the coal the Co-op wanted! The Spooner Co-operative Association is now little more than two years old. But it has some rather remarkable figures to present to co-operators in this country. With a membership of less than 100 and monthly sales of something over $6,000, they continue to pay no purchase rebates to members but turn all savings back into the reserve. Build ing is all paid for, the manager is turn ing his stock over 28 times a year, and total wages come to only 3.8 per cent of sales. On an average capital of $3,050 during these two years they have real ized a savings of $3,200 in net profits. The low wage item and high profits are perhaps due to the fine co-operative spirit among the members. When a car of flour and feed comes in or an empty 12 CO-OPERATION car arrives to be loaded with potatoes or others of the farmer-members' prod ucts, the manager has only to get in touch with a few of the men to muster a volunteer force of laborers that do the job in short order. Spooner's Co-operative is one of the members of the Northern States Co-op erative League and one of which that League can be proud. THE CO-OPERATIVE BAKERY IN SYRACUSE The Purity Co-operative Bakery Asso ciation of Syracuse, N. Y., according to a recent letter from one of the members of The League, has moved out of its former dingy quarters into a model building which they built for themselves two years ago, at 918 Orange Street. This building cost them $23,000 and in volved them financially so that they have had some difficulties since that time, but are doing a good business in spite of the handicap. The membership is 300, each member owning at least one $5 share of stock. The baker receives here $8 above the Union wage and has the reputation of producing the best bread in town bear ing the Union label. During the war the Co-operative was prosecuted for us ing too much flour in their bread! The management of this organization is unique in that there is no paid manager, but the administration is cared for by three members of the Executive Board voluntarily. A girl is in charge of the store. The building is beautifully clean; and the bakers are obliged to use the shower baths before going to work each day. Two wagons are kept busy deliv ering the bakery products. The majority of the members are Jew ish, and the By-Laws, modelled upon those of the Purity Bakery of Paterson, are in Yiddish. Eecently several mem bers of the Consumers' League of Syra cuse have become interested in this co operative and are considering the ad visability of throwing much of their support to the bakery. CO-OPERATIVES DOING FINE WORK IN WASHINGTON The Patrons of Husbandry, better known as The Grange, is nowhere more progressive than in the State of Wash ington. For several years they have been subsidizing the co-operative move ment in their own state, and as a result they now have a pretty solid foundation established for a strong movement in the Northwest. At present the Associated Grange Warehouse Company, wholesale for the stores in the state, is doing a business of more than $500,000 annually. On their mailing list are about 90 stores, 65 of which are trading more or less regu larly with the Wholesale and about 80 of which have active accounts on the Wholesale's books. Thirty are regularly affiliated. Last year the pages of CO-OPERATION carried the story of the attempted boy cott of the Co-operative Wholesale by the private manufacturers of soap and the establishment of co-operative brands of soap on the part of the Wholesale. At the present time these two brands, "Pomona" and "Gleaner" (laundry and toilet soaps), are selling at the rate of about 1,000 cases a month. These two brands cover every form of soap needed by the average household, from the finest bath soap to the roughest laundry soap, and the different grades of soap powder. One man who had much to do with the building up of this institution is A. S. Goss, for several years the manager of the Warehouse Company and now the Master of the State Grange. The state organization of the Grange has put $10,000 into co-operative education dur ing these few years. At the recent National Congress of the Grange the co-operators of Washing ton submitted a most thoroughgoing legislative program for presentation to the Congress just about to convene in Washington, D. C. One of the interest ing features included in this program is a provision for "commodity credits," not much different from the commodity currency now being used in Russia, to be issued by the Government and to be based upon the commodities held by the Farmers' Marketing Association of the CO-OPERATION 13 country. To" be sure, such a proposal will be hailed as "extremely radical" by the majority of the legislators at the national capital. To co-operators, how ever, and especially to the producers of the nation's food, it will look like very good economics. On the Directors' Page appears the fine story of centralized bookkeeping as it is carried on by these people. Stores in Oregon and Idaho are now buying goods from this Wholesale. There is no reason why stores three or four times as far away should not use their centralized accounting service. RESOLUTION ON GERMANY Be It Resolved by the Board of Di rectors of the Central States Co-opera tive Wholesale Society, that the commu nication from the Central Union of Ger man Consumers' Co-operative Societies, signed by their Board of Directors, Heinrich Kaufmann, Hugo Bastlein, August Kasch and Paul Hoffmann, be received. That we express our sympa thy with the German Co-operative Move ment in this crisis and strongly indorse their effort to maintain their present form of government as represented by the German Republic now in power; that we are in accord with their declara tion that there should be a readjustment of the reparations question made by competent representatives of the differ ent governments of the civilized nations of the world on the basis of Germany's ability to pay as contemplated in the proposal of Secretary Hughes, repre senting the United States government, and agreed to by Great Britain, Italy, and other enlightened nations, and that we call on all Co-operators in all of the different countries of the world by every honorable means possible to endeavor to influence their governments to bring about this conference to the end that industry in Germany and hi all of the other European countries, and our own as well, may be brought into a normal condition, functioning for the best in terests of the peoples of all these coun tries; and that the awful suffering be remedied at the earliest moment possi ble; and that a friendlier and more helpful attitude and relationship be es tablished permanently between the peo ples of the earth. Be It Further Resolved, that this resolution be given to all the Labor Press of our country and that a copy be sent to the President of the United States, to the Board of Directors of the Central Union of German Consumers' Co-operative Societies, to the Interna tional Co-operative Alliance. CENTRAL STATES CO-OPERATIVE WHOLESALE SOCIETY. John H. Walker, President. Robert D. Kelly, Vice-President. Al. Towers, Secy.-Treas. Directors: L. J. Salch. Chas. Wenschel. Sam'1 Willis. G. L. Kennedy. Wm. Shears. FAEMINGTON BREAKS ITS OWN RECORDS Farmington, Illinois, is a town of only 3,000 population. Yet the co-operative store there, by far the largest in the town, does business every month to the amount of nearly $20,000. The sales for the third quarter of 1923 are as follows: Sales in Grocery Department..... $42,112.88 Sales in Dry Goods Department.. .. 10,700.100 Sales in Butcher Department...... 6,068.15 Total Salea ....$58,881.03 After paying all expenses and mak ing deductions for depreciation, taxes, and interest, the balance remaining to the co-operators was $7,394. This is pretty near the total share capital put into the business by the members ($8,045.06). The members also have loan capital in their society to the amount of $26,291.18. For a town this size, a co-operative store society with total resources of $70,255 must very nearly monopolize the commercial activities of the community. At any rate, Farmington is a good ob ject lesson for those pessimists who still believe that co-operation cannot succeed in the United States in the face of the competition of private business. 14 CO-OPERATION SAN DIEGO CELEBRATES VICTORY The co-operators of San Diego, Cali fornia, celebrated on November 14th a great victory. Not only has the San Diego Co-operative Association succeeded in its legal battle to carry 011 its store independently of the bankrupt Pacific Co-operative League, but its business has been prospering. On June 8th the local co-operators took over their business •which for a time had been taken away from them by the receivership. The first few weeks small losses were incurred. In August the store was "breaking even." September showed a small net gain, and by the end of October the business was steadily increasing. The Jubilee program included talks on the Co-operative Movement and lively music. The keynote of the gathering was stated by the little magazine now published by the San Diego co-operators: "San Diego's Co-operative Movement has been 'tried in the fire' and has stood the test. Our Rochdale store and our local movement is once more on a solid foundation. "Let us all turn our faces ahead, for get the past and face the future in a comradely spirit. Let us all set our eyes upon the Ultimate Goal toward which all humanity is sloAvly moving— The Co-operative Commonwealth and the Brotherhood of Man." MORE CO-OPERATIVE MILK IN PROSPECT Denver, Colorado, has had a situation in the milk business similar to that which caused the formation of co-opera tive creameries in Minneapolis and Cleveland. Within the past few months a group of labor and co-operative lead ers have been busy trying to perfect an organization for the co-operative distri bution of milk in that city. To-day both the producers and the consumers of milk are pretty much at the mercy of one large distributing corporation. Recently one or two of the men who are at the head of this new movement have been corresponding with The League and with the Franklin Creamery officials. They already have the good will of the farmers and believe that these farmers Avill join the consumers' organization. They have an option on a building which can be leased. Stock will probably be sold in two classes, common and preferred, the former only to have voting power. Common stock will cost $25 per share. Co-operators in all parts of the country will watch with interest this new effort in the direction of co operative dairy products. WHERE DO THE MILK USERS GET THE BEST SERVICE? Recently a report has been published of the successful distribution of milk by the organized dairymen of Quincy, 111., to the consumers of Quincy. Eight retail and three wholesale milk routes are being operated and products sold are milk, butter, buttermilk, cream, and cottage cheese. Milk is being sold at 10 cents a quart, and the farmer is getting 61 per cent of the consumer's dollar. The farmer is getting $2.40 for milk that tests 3.5. This is producers' distribution of milk. Recent figures from Minneapolis show what consumers' distribution of milk can do. Milk there is more expen sive, of course, as is always the case in the larger city where the expense of bringing the milk in from the farms is higher. But though milk is selling for 12 cents in Minneapolis, it has been sold by the co-operative there as low as 10 cents also. The farmers selling to the Franklin Creamery are getting 65.4 per cent of the consumer's dollar. Whereas these same farmers received only $2.20 per can from the private dealers in Min neapolis in 1921, they now receive about $2.70. Unfortunately, the Quincy Asso ciation does not give the butterfat tests for all its milk, but we have the Frank lin test as 3.71 for 1921, 3.79 for 1922, and 3.76 for the first half of 1923. Neither does the Quincy Association tell what its bacteria tests are, but we find that Franklin in 1922 reports 16,166 per c.c. The farmers about Quincy are selling to the public at a reasonable price, but CO-OPERATION 15 their first interest is their own income. The Franklin Creamery is interested in pure milk primarily, for it represents the consumers. The Franklin Creamery buys from the organized producers, too, but it sees that the consumers have a chance to express their collective desires for the best products at the lowest price. We will wager that the people of Minne apolis are getting better service all round; and it appears as though the farmers of Minnesota were getting more money under this arrangement, also. 150 PER CENT SAVINGS IN BLOOMINGTON The co-operative society of Blooming- ton, Illinois, has the splendid record of having returned to its membership in co-operative savings $1.50 for every dol lar invested in the society since it was organized. This society started business in January, 1918. At the close of busi ness July 1, 1923, it had saved its mem bers $35,133, or more than $15,000 in excess of its paid-up capital stock. In a little over five years the members have not only received 4 per cent interest on the money invested in their own store, but they have saved $1.50 on their gro cery bills for every dollar they put into their society. Self-help certainly pays in dollars and cents. FARMERS' STORE AT ALEX ANDER, N. D. The Farmers' Co-operative in the lit tle town of Alexander, North Dakota, recently affiliated with The Co-operative League, began business in April, 1922, and already has built up a good trade among the families of the town and out lying country. Although there are yet only 39 members and a paid-in capital of hardly $4,000, the sales for that nine months of 1922 were almost $25,000. Friends in North Dakota report that the law there compels the co-operative society to pay 8 per cent to stockholders. This is a rather burdensome loan to place upon a young co-operative that is trying to get a good start, but even in those first nine months the co-operators of Alexander were able to save $129.61 net surplus. Like other amateurs, they have made their mistakes and learned much thereby. How well they do in the fu ture may depend very much upon the kind of contacts they can establish with other co-operatives in that state of mul titudinous co-operative failures. FOLLY AMONG CANADIAN FARMERS General Secretary George Keen of the Co-operative Union of Canada tells of the disastrous experience that has come to thousands of the farmers of Ontario who insisted on trying the chain store experiment again in the field of co operation. Several years ago a successful operator of chain stores in the Province of On tario sold out his own business and then went throughout the province preaching the gospel of "co-operative chain stores." The farmers, meeting in large numbers, easily swayed by the platform orator with his vast promises, were swept off their feet, in spite of the wiser coun sel given them by the officers of the Canadian Union. Forty-seven stores were organized in as many communities. This year the entire system is in collapse and all the stores, with the exception of a few that have been turned over to local farmers' associations, are closed. Half a million dollars, or two-thirds of the farmers' total investment, has been lost. The great farmers' marketing associa tions of the province now admit in their publications that the scheme was a mis take, but they do not put so much blame on the chain store method of organiza tion as upon Co-operation itself! They say that co-operative stores are generally a failure in America; hence the organ ized farmers of Ontario should not blame their leaders, but should blame Fate or some other impersonal bogey. In the future the organizations are going to confine their activities to cen tralized marketing and to the mail order business. The Canadian Union now has 16 CO-OPERATION to combat this organized propaganda that tells thousands of farmers that con sumers' stores are impracticable. The hopeful element in the situation is the small group of stores which still survive and which are making a living demon stration of the practicability of genuine consumers' co-operation in foods and clothing and the other necessities of rural life. have shown scant interest in the subject. The office of this Union is in the Com munity Church House, 12 Park Ave. CONSUMERS CREDIT UHION GROWING The Consumers Co-operative Credit Union of New York City, although one of the smallest of the 95 that are located in the Metropolitan area, is one of the most progressive. The statement issued by the Treasurer in December shows a paid-up membership of 100, total capital of $2,219, deposits of $529, and loans outstanding of $2.793. For several months now there have been applications for loans that could not be filled and the members are at work getting then- friends to join and increase the working capital. This Credit Union is one of the few co-operative institutions of the kind that has its headquarters in a church other than a Catholic church. Throughout the countries of Europe and in Canada the Catholic priests are frequently the organizers and leaders in the local credit institutions, but Protestant churches WELLMAN, IOWA The Farmers' Co-operative Mercantile Company of Wellman, Iowa, is now five years old and going stronger than ever. The membership is 100, there are nine employees, and the paid-up capital stock amounts to $29,000. The store is hand ling dry goods, groceries, flour, feed, coal, notions, and some of the farmers' produce. This year the sales are up ward of $300,000. The store at Wellman is doing a hand some business, but in the early days bad mistakes were made which have seri ously handicapped the co-operators ever since. The first year a trade dividend of 30 per cent was paid out, and the effects of that error are still being felt. Now the directors are much better informed on the manner of running a co-operative store, the members have had a chance to realize that a co-operative cannot do superhuman stunts for them, and the future looks better. Co-operators who make mistakes and learn thereby are true co-operators. It is those who never learn who are keeping the movement back. Wellman now has the bigger vision and the better training which augurs well for its future. These people have just united with the national move ment by joining The League. THE DIRECTORS' PAGE ACCOUNTING SIMPLIFIED Proper bookkeeping in the local so ciety is one of Co-operation's most dif ficult and pressing problems. Books must be kept and kept right or the so ciety is in constant danger. Eight book keeping means complete double-entry records, and the little group of farmers, railroad men or miners are hard put to it to produce such a volunteer worker; and they can't afford a full time em ployee for that work alone. Until co- operators can solve this common prob lem they cannot pretend to be competing effectively with private business. But co-operative societies acting to gether can do what they cannot do separately, and they can do it even bet ter perhaps than private business does it. At present consumers' societies in three sections of the country are finding the solution for this perplexing problem. The Associated Grange Warehouse Company of Seattle, Washington, is a CO-OPERATION 17 wholesale for about 65 stores, 30 of which are directly affiliated and using the central accounting system of the Seattle office. Managers of the stores throughout the state make out on a single sheet a Daily Report showing Cash Disbursements and Cash Receipts, itemized statements of Checks Drawn and of Invoices and Credit Memoranda. A carbon of this is kept by the manager and the original mailed to the offices in Seattle, accompanied by all invoices and credit memoranda received during the day. The accounting staff at head quarters keeps a set of books for each society and sends a monthly statement to the Board of Directors of each store. This report contains not only the statement of Assets and Liabilities and an itemized statement of purchases classified according to commodities, but a careful analysis of the month's ex penses. This analysis gives the figures for each item of expense, the percentage for each of these, and the corresponding percentage figures for the corresponding month in the previous year, the average for all the stores in the state for the month, and the averages for all the stores for the two- preceding years. Ap pended to the report is a Comparative Report showing in parallel columns the figures for the current month and the three preceding months for Accounts Receivable, Notes Receivable, Accounts Payable, Inventory, Net Purchases, Ex penses and Sales. Incidentally, it is worth noting that the average Expense Percentages for all the stores affiliated with the Grange Warehouse have run as follows: 1921 8.566% 1922 8.250% 1923 (Oct.) 9.390% It is pretty difficult to find any other group of stores that keeps expenses so low as that over a period of years. The local store pays for this service a flat rate of $10 per month plus $1.75 for each $1,000 of sales. The local society thus gets regular accounting service which is much cheaper and much more efficient than that of the local book keeper. But even these are not the greatest advantages gained. At headquarters the accountants regularly compare the invoices from different stores, and they have made two discoveries. First, an occasional man ager, not a co-operator and so accus tomed to getting his private rake-off, makes an agreement with a salesman from a private wholesale house whereby the invoiced charge for goods is raised and the manager and salesman split 50-50 on the graft. The local directors would have no means of checking this dishonesty, but the central accountants can compare invoices from dozens of stores. Second, there are some managers getting special bargains that other co operative managers should know about. One store in the northern part of the state was found to be buying egg-crates at a very low figure. The wholesale transferred its entire egg-crate business to this company and thus saved for most of its stores enough money on egg-crates alone to cover the cost of the central accounting service. The Co-operative Central Exchange, Superior, Wisconsin, has maintained an auditing service for several years. H. V. Nurmi is in charge of this and at busy seasons of the year has as many as four men visiting the local societies. This is essentially an auditing service only, not centralized bookkeeping, but it has saved the life of many a co-opera tive which could not get competent auditing service locally. The Central States Co-operative Wholesale Society has recently estab lished a central accounting bureau some what similar to that in effect in the State of Washington, but this service has just been started and only a few stores are using it yet. Directors must realize that the cen tralized bookkeeping idea will be bit terly opposed by many managers who feel that this kind of thing takes away much of their independence. The co operative manager who gets the larger idea of the movement, however, will be glad to be relieved of this responsibility so that he can give more attention to the problem of buying, selling and adminis tering his store affairs and his staff of employees. The societies in the eastern part of the country have no such central bureau of accounting at present and 18 CO-OPEKATION The Co-operative League hopes in the near future to establish one which will T)e able to handle reports from any state east of the territory now served by the wholesales in Illinois and Wisconsin. Just how soon we can do this and just what the nature of the service will be depends very much upon the sentiment, the demand for it among the societies in the eastern states. THE CORRESPONDENCE FILE WHAT CO-OPERATIVE BANKING DOES FOR FARMERS Explanatory of the difficulties attending the introduction of co-operation in this country compared with its long existence in the dif ferent parts of Europe, we ignore the difference in environment, intercommunication, and transmission of intelligence. This is best illustrated possibly by Raif- feisen's introduction of co-operative rural credit into the infertile Westerwald after a succession of crop failures, when the rapacity of the money-lenders led whole communities to consider emigration en masse. The existence of the co-operative rural credit banks estab lished by Raift'eisen was not known across the Rhine for about twenty years, and then it had transformed the Westerwald into one of the richest and most fertile sections of Germany and its discouraged and intemperate citizens into thrifty, wealthy, and efficient farmers. As soon as the story was known the system overran all Europe. The financial over-lords could not stop it. I do not think the above facts are generally known. They are of record in the report of Taft's commission, appointed by himself and governors of states and sent ab'road to study the Raiffeisen System of Rural Credit; and they appear in the reports to Congress by David Lubin, Myron Herrick, and many others. The book, "David Lubin," by Olivia Rossetti Agresit, Little, Brown and Co., has much bear ing on this subject. His interview in Paris with the committee of bankers sent out to head off co-operative rural credit is especially interesting. Here all sorts of obstacles are put in the way by '' big business,'' and many co-operative forms of business which would succeed with helpful advice of business men are ruthlessly rooted out. J. H. GREENE, St. Paul, Minn. SAN DIEGO KEEPING UP THE MAGNIFICENT FIGHT These last three years are the longest three years I ever spent. But a ray of light is finally peeping through all the topsy-turvy mess here. If we can have some good sound educational work right now and good business advice, it looks as though things were going to come out all right. The situation is this: I saw which way the Pacific League was headed and tried to pull our stores out in time. Finally got enough of a group to control organization meetings, but too late to beat Ames and his crowd in tying up our property. When it was too late, the crowd woke up. We begged enough money to carry our fight for possession through the state and federal courts and won. The San Francisco Board of Trade, as creditor- trustee of the alleged estate of the Pacific Co operative League, have appealed and we are now awaiting the decision of the United States Circuit Court of Appeals which will review the matter next February. There will be a dickens of a lot more legal fighting even if we win that decision. Seeing that this thing would drag along for months and perhaps years, succeeded in get ting through a motion last June to take over our one remaining store from the receiver, posting a bond to secure the receiver and con tracting for a bill of sale, if we lost our ap peal, upon payment of a stipulated sum. This was done and agreed to by the federal judge. From June 8th, 1923, the store has been in our possession. When we took it over there was no business at all—it had been ruined by the receiver. June and July we lost nearly $500, but by August the members saw we really meant business and began slowly to come back and do their trading at the store. Business has been steadily increasing. August we "broke even." September we made a lit tle profit and in October a little more. We are paying an enormous rental, but we have succeeded in subletting parts of the store and have brought our own rent down to a very low rate. The future looks very encouraging so far as the business is concerned. But we are not incorporated. We are act ing simply as an extra legal voluntary associa tion doing business through our Board of Directors as trustees. We must have a real business organization, properly incorporated, and must then prepare to make a campaign for new members. STANLEY M. GUE, San Diego, Calif. Those desiring the Index for CO-OP ERATION for the year 1923 may procure a copy by writing to The Co-operative League. CO-OPERATION PUBLICATIONS of THE CO-OPERATIVE LEAGUE HISTORICAL Per Copy 3 Story of Co-operation ........................................................ J .10 7 British Co-operative Movement ............................................... .10 SS. Co-operative Consumers' Movement in the United States....................... .05 89. Consumers' Co-operative Societies in N. T. State, (Published by Consumers' League). . . . ............................................................. ,.10 10. A Baker and What He Baked (Belgian movement) TECHNICAL 4. How to Start and Eun a Eochdale Co-operative Society....................... .10 6. System of Store Records and Accounts......................................... .BO 6. A Model Constitution and By-Laws for a Co-operative Society................ .05 8. Co-operative Education. Duties of Educational Committee Denned.......... .10 9. How to Start a Co-operative Wholesale....................................... .10 27. Why Co-operative Stores Fail.... ............................................. .02 2. Co-operative Store Management................................................ .10 14. How to Start and Eun a Women's Guild........................................ .05 IB. How to Organize a District Co-operative Jjeagne.............................. .10 29. Credit Union Primer (By Ham and Eobinson)................................ ,.25 MISCELLANEOUS Model Co-op State Law........................................................ .10 Syllabus for Course of Lectures, with Eeferences and Bibliography.......... .25 Producers* Co-operative Industries............................................ .10 Control of Industry by the People through the Co-operative Movement...... ..10 Credit Union and Co-operative Store.......................................... .05 „. Co-operative Movement (Yiddish).............................................. .02 41. Farmer's Co-operation (By Benson Y. Landis)................................ i.lB 42. Co-op Homes for Europe's Homeless.......................................... .10 43. Co-operative Housing:. . . . .................................................... .10 30. " When the Whistle Blew " (Story, by Bruce Calvert)......................... .06 XL Course of Study in Successful Co-operation (by W. C. Lansdon). 10 pamphlets...... $6.00 6.00 4.00 4.00 2.60 1.00 16. 17. 46. 11. 12. 34. 1.78 1.26 1.00 ONE-PAGE LEAFLETS (One cent each; 50 cents per MO; $2.50 per 500; $4 per 1,000) (1) Principles and Aims of The Co-operative League; (18) DO You Know Why You Should Be a Co-operator; (20) Why Loyalty Is Necessary; (21) Cost and Crime of Credit; (22) A Eeal Co-operator; (25) Eesolutions Adopted by A. F. of L.; (26) Factory Workers Co-operate!; (28) Do You Know About Co-operation in Europe?; (40) Have You a Committee on Educa tion and Recreation ?; (44) What Is the Co-operative Movement ?; (45) Schools and Stores; (47) A Man's Eight to a Job; (48) Tips to Co-operators MONTHLY PUBLICATIONS CO-OPEEATION—(In bundle lots, $7.50 per hundred). Subscription, per year..............$1.00 HOME CO-OPEEATOE, 4 pages..........................................................81 per 100 INTEBNATIONAL CO-OPEEATIVE BULLETIN (Pub. by The I. C. A.)..........per year, $1.60 BOOKS The following books are recommended as containing the best discussions of the modern Co-operative Movement. They may be ordered through The League: Bergengren, Eoy F.: Co-operative Banking, A Credit Union Book.......................... S3.00 Bubnoff, J. B.: The Co-operative Movement in Eussia, 1917.................................. 1.25 Faber, Harald: Co-operation in Danish Agriculture, 1918.................................... 2.75 Flanagan, J. A.: Wholesale Co-operation in Scotland, 1920................................... 2.00 Gebhard, Hannes: Co-operation in Finland, 1916....................................... 2 00 Gide, C.: Consumers' Co-operative Societies, 1921............................................. 2.50 Gide, C.: Consumers' Co-operative Societies, American edition and notes, 1922. Cloth, $3.00; paper bound................................................................... ,.90 Harris, Emerson P.: Co-operation, The Hope of the Consumer, 1918. Cloth, $2.00; paper bound. . . . . ............................................................................... .60 Holyoake: Eochdale Pioneers................................................................. 1.00 Howe, Fred C.: Denmark, a Co-operative Commonwealth, 1921............................... 2.00 Madams, J. P.: The Story Eetold............................................................. .50 Nicholson, Isa: Our Story..................................................................... .25 Potter, B.: Co-operative Movement in Great Britain.......................................... 1.00 Eedfern, Percy: The Story of the C. W. S................................................... 2.00 Eedfern, Percy: The Consumers' Place in Society, 1920...................................... 1.00 Smith-Gordon & Staples: Eural Eeconstructlou in Ireland. 1918.............................. 1.50 Smith-Gordon and Staples: Co-operation in Denmark......................................... 1.00 Smith-Gordon: Co-operation in Many Lands, 1820............................................ 1.50 Sonnichsen, Albert. Consumers' Co-operation, 1919. Cloth bound, $1.75; paper hound....... .75 Steen, H.: Co-operative Marketing ............................................................ 2.00 Stollnsky, A.: The Co-operative Movement. In Yiddish....................................... 1.00 Warbasse, James P.: Co-operative Democracy................................................. 3.50 Webb, B. and S.: The Consumers* Co-operative Movement, 1921.............................. 5.00 Webb, Catherine: Industrial Co-operation, 1917............................................. 1.60 Woolf, Leonard: Co-operation and the Future of Industry.................................... 1.60 Woolf, L.: Socialism and Co-operation........................................................ 1.50 "The Co-operative Consumer" and "Co-operation," III (1917), VI (1920), VII (1921), VIII (1922). .... ............................................................................... 1.25 Transactions of Second American Co-operative Congress, 1920.................................. 1.00 Transactions of Third American Co-operative Congress, 1922................................ 1.00 The People's Year Book. 1923. Cloth. .80: paper bound...................................... .60 (Ten cents postage should be added for books which cost more than $2.00, and five cents for the smaller books.) THE CO-OPERATIVE LEAGUE (Member of The International Co-operative Alliance) 167 West 12th Street, New York An educational organization for teaching the history, principles, methods and alms «f the Co-operative Movement and for the promotion of Co-operation in the United States. Join The League and thus help promote the educational work of the Co-operative Movement. Subscribe for the Monthly Magazine and keep in touch with the Movement. Enclosed find $......... for Subscription for CO-OPERATION, $1.00. Membership in The LEAGUE, $1.00. Name... Address. Co-operative Central Exchange Wholesale Grocers and Jobbers, Bakers We supply goods to Co-operative Societies ONLY. We are owned and controlled by Co operative Societies. We are organized to enable Co-operative Societies to do collectively what they cannot do individually. Co-operative Central Exchange Offices, Warehouses and Plant: Winter Street and Ogden Ave., SUPERIOR, WIS. Co-operators' Ltd. Mutual Fire Insurance Co. is now writing insurance in State of Wisconsin THE PRODUCER Issued Monthly • Price 3d. If you want to keep in touch with business, organization, administrative affairs, and problems of the British Co-operative Movement, read THE PRODUCER. Published by Co-operative Wholesale Society, Inc. 1 Balloon Street, Manchester Post free 4 sh. 6d. a year. The Trade and Technical Organ of British Co-operation. The New Secretary's Ledger Just published by the EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT, Central States Co-operative Wholesale Society (203 Converse Ave., E. St. Louis, 111.) is the form for keeping the Membership Ledger of a Co-operative Society which provides ample and proper space for all transactions with a maximum of efficiency and a minimum of time, worry and errors. Send for Samples and Prices. Co-operation in Scotland In no part of the world is Co-operation fur ther developed, or more successfully practiced than in Scotland. If you wish to keep in. formed, read "The Scottish Co-operator" (Published Weekly) Subscription: Tear 12 sh.; half-year, 6 sh. Address, 119 Paisley Road, Glasgow, Scotland The Madras Monthly Bulletin of Co-operation ROYAPETTAH, MADRAS, INDIA The only monthly on Co-operation in India. Special articles on Rural, Con sumers', Agricultural, Credit and Indus trial Co-operation; and Co-operation Abroad. Subscription Rs. 4/12 per annum. The Canadian Co-operator Brantford, Ontario, Canada The organ of the Canadian Co-opera tive Movement, owned by and con ducted under the auspices of The Co-operative Union of Canada. Published monthly 75c per annum THE HOME CO-OPERATOR A four-page magazine for use in co-operative societies. Issued monthly, in bundles, $1 per hundred. Published by The Co-operative League Publishing Office, Willimantic, Conn. Albert Sonnichsen, Managing Editor. OO'C-'TION magazine to spread the knowledge of the Co-operative Movement, whereby the people, in vol- nntary association, produce and distribute for their own use the things they need Published monthly by The Co-operative League, 167 West 12th Street, New York City. J. P. Warbasse, Editor. Entered as second class matter, Decem ber 19, 1917, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Price $1.00 a year. Vol. X, No. 2 FEBRUARY, 1924 10 Gents VITAL ISSUES COOL HEADS IN EUROPE'S CONFLAGRATION The distress of the working people in Germany is desperate. We are con stantly in receipt of communications from the German Co-operators which show the terrible obstacles against which they are keeping alive their movement. Industry is growing stagnant. The members of the societies are working only part time—many but one day a week. The income of the worker is not sufficient to feed the family. Mothers come to the stores to beg credit for a little bread, while the hungry children stand barefooted and cold in the streets hoping for food. A once great nation— the most learned, the most progressive and the most highly developed in science and art—is being purposefully starved to death six years after the great victory to "make the world a better place to live in" While the children, the aged, and the weak are being destroyed by the de liberate acts of the Allied statesmen, a noteworthy tone is to be discovered in all of the German co-operative papers. There is no expression of malice. No resentment. No hatred. The co-opera tive publications calmly and plainly state the dreadful facts and then ad monish the people to be calm, to be patient, and to be courageous. "Cool headed" is the watchword that meets the co-operators at every turn. The co-operators, numbering half of the population of Germany, know the awful truth of the war. They know now that their Kaiser was no better than Lloyd George, Clemanceau or Wilson, He fed them upon the same sort of lies and propaganda that the people of France, England and America swal lowed. And they now witness their country invaded by a powerful army, perpetrating atrocities, sneering at them because they will not fight, resorting to every measure to exasperate and humili ate them. Their children are wasting, their aged are starving, their strong are growing weaker day by day. The babes suck in vain the empty breasts of hungry mothers. The German co-operators know that all of this goes on in a world capable of producing enough food to give every body abundance. Yet unemployment is rife the world over; hands are idle; com merce is growing stagnant. And mean while a million children, born since peace was declared, are dying so that the defunct government of their dead parents can be punished. And the real culprits who made the war and kept it going are feeding themselves fat. In the face of this dreadful blasphemy of justice the German Co-operators are calm and unresentful. They do not hold the French co-operators guilty. They know that behind it all stands the black and ominous figure of French Big Busi ness, hungry for the coal and iron of 20 CO-OPEEATION CO-OPEEATION 21 Germany and greedy to be rid of a com mercial rival. These patient Co-opera tors know that the French Government and its diplomats are but the paid agents of Big Business and that the Govern ment is required to control and stupefy the minds of the French people with propaganda. Perhaps no people in the world are so ignorant of the real nature of the war now being waged by France against Germany as the French people themselves. The one encouraging sign is that the French Co-operators do not support their government in its invasion of help less Germany and in its purpose to ex terminate the German people. They know the futility of such a policy, and the possibility of the economic disaster which may react upon their own coun try. At least they possess a common knowledge with their German comrades that neither French nor German, distant Hindu nor Turk, can count his life secure until the principles of justice for which Co-operation stands become domi nant methods of intercourse among men. J. P. W. SHALL LOYALTY BE COMPULSORY? Co-operators generally will agree that the most potent cause for failure is lack of loyalty within the society. And where disloyalty does not cause actual failure, it does prevent the proper de velopment of the society. Is there any sure cure for this most devastating of all co-operative maladies ? The farmers who are marketing their products collectively say there is a remedy. It is the contract. Under this contract the member of the association is legally bound to deliver all his prod uct (or such major part of it as is speci fied in the contract) to his own associa tion. He can't deal with private business or the co-operative association will sue him for damages. And the co-operatives have always been upheld in these suits by the courts. Here is a solution for the problem of disloyalty; make loyalty compulsory! Can the consumers' co-operative use compulsion on its members? We know of one very prominent leader in the farmers' marketing movement who says it can and should. He would have every member of the consumers' association sign a contract to buy every cent's worth of his groceries from his own store, or pay a fine! A lot of directors and man agers could get rid of countless worries under such a plan. And no need for an educational committee either! "But this theory is in direct conflict with the whole history and theory of the voluntary consumers' co-operative movement", we say. "There is enough compulsion in the world as it is; what we need is more liberty, more intel ligence, more brotherhood. Compulsion destroys all of these." Does it? Is it an unmixed evil? There is a lesson for us in this dis covery that the farmers have made. They have found a method whereby they free the co-operative of all competition from private business interests. We in the consumers' movement cannot always do that. But in certain instances we can do even this. And we can always give more attention to those lines of business where there is the least com petition. In our large cities the competing chain store is a constant invitation to our members to be disloyal. But there is one line of business that we can go into and use the contract just as.the farmers use it in their marketing. That is housing. And the contract is the year's lease. Once we get the member signed up for the apartment or the house, we know we can count on that income to the association for the rest of the year. There is no reason why we can't do the same with coal, which is a single commodity where orders for the season can be placed at one time. We can do it again perhaps with ice. We imagine that sometime a consumers' co operative may attempt to use the con tract for the year's or the half year's supply of milk and cream. There are possibilities for a modified contract method in several commodities that are delivered to the home of the member rather than purchased by the member on his shopping trip around town. To be sure we do not believe that the consumers' co-operative should be too free with the law suit in case members break such contracts. Compulsion of that kind has little place in our volun tary movement. The contract should be considered more in the nature of a promise, an agreement. And yet the association might occasionally find the necessity for enforcing it in an instance where the member broke his pledge not so much through ignorance or indiffer ence as through actual malice, a desire to injure the organization. And though we can scarcely use the contract form of membership in the grocery co-operative or the clothing co operative or the restaurant co-operative, we can choose those lines of business where competition is slight or absent al together. Most workers and farmers cannot get small loans without collateral except from loan sharks. The credit union has almost no competitor. Though it would be folly for the rural groups to organize a co-operative mail order house to compete with the powerful Sears, Eoebuck, or Montgomery Ward, still there may be a real savings to the members through the co-operative gro cery store in a small town where efficient grocery methods have not yet been in troduced and where the advantage of trading in the co-operative store is ap parent to all. The profit interests capi talize the selfishness of men and women. The co-operative can do the same—pro vided it never neglects the more power ful weapon of education. Co-operators must remember that the farmers' commodity organizations do not have a monopoly of this contract form of membership. There are in stances where we can use it, too. And where we can't use it we can at least learn the lesson of the contract, which is to eliminate as many as possible of the temptations offered by competing busi ness. C. L. of the need of scarcity of things in order to keep up prices of goods and to keep down the costs of labor. The following statement is attributed to an eminent college professor in a re cent discussion on housing. The learned man has since disclaimed it. Still, if he did not say it, many professors and most business men are saying it. This is the statement: '' There must always be a surplus of labor to keep wages down, or else wages would be abnormally high. There must always be a number of work ers without employment; and the same thing applies to renting. There must always be a surplus of tenants," This is something more than false economics. It cannot be disposed of on the ground of ignorance of fundamental principles. It is something more. It is rank im morality. Yet this false notion provides the moral power and support to ex ploiters of the people to lay on and do their worst. Whoever makes this statement really means that, if the present profit system is to be kept alive, there must be surplus of labor and scarcity of the things the people need. The unfortunate fact is that people still support an economic theory that has gotten the world into its present mess, that is responsible for slums and poverty, that hurled twenty million men at one another's throats and is preparing to do it again. J. P. W. THE DOCTRINE OP SCARCITY We Co-operators at least know how to carry on business without the need of unemployment and scarcity of homes. Still there is prevalent the ancient idea "NOW THAT THE VICTIMS ARE DEAD AND FORGOTTON" CO-OPERATION for March, 1922, ran an editorial upon the terrible Knicker bocker Theatre collapse at Washington in which 100' people were killed. We quoted the President's pious words about "revolving fates", and suggested that revolving profits had much more to do with the disaster, for the theatre was built not for the safety and happiness of its patrons, but for the profit of mercenary promoters of commercialized recreation. We now come across a newspaper item which declares that the men indicted for criminal negligence at the time, the architect, building inspectors and fore- 22 CO-OPERATION CO-OPERATION 23 men, have been set free by the court which "failed to find evidence that the men were guilty of manslaughter". And the court is quite right. The men are guilty of nothing worse than doing the job they are paid to do; put up a building in the shortest possible time, put into it the cheapest materials which will pass the inspectors, and turn the finished structure over to some amuse ment company at the biggest profit to themselves and their employers. The charge of manslaughter should be brought against the profit system which sets money above human life. But that charge waits for the decision of a h:gher court than the Court of Appeals at Washington, D. C. That decision will be made by the common people of the country when they have acquired an un derstanding of the co-operative move ment. C. L. CONTRIBUTED ARTICLES THE PEACE PKIZE HUMBUG: HOW TO HAVE PEACE By J. P. Warbasse The Bok peace prize is the greatest piece of fraud that has been put over on the American public since the war humbug was perpetrated. It is also an unblushing piece of effrontery to the few thinking people who call the United States their country. A wealthy advocate of The League of Nations offered a prize of $100,000 for the best plan whereby the U. S. might co-operate with other nations to achieve world peace. A jury of seven was ap pointed to make the award, six of whom were already committed to the League of Nations plan. Some 22,165 plans were sent in. But the prize has been awarded to a contestant who merely advocates the same old League of Nations which the voters of the U. S. so overwhelmingly repudiated when they cast out Mr. Wil son and his League of Nations baggage in 1920. During the past four years the world has had ample opportunity to see this iniquitous product of the Versailles treaty in operation—or rather fail to operate. Now, the committee, having made the award, has sent a referendum broadcast over the country to reach every citizen asking for his vote of approval or dis approval of the plan of the prize winner. They have sent out a ballot with a short explanation of the plan. The fifty mil lion citizens who vote on the strength of this summary actually will think that they are voting on the plan for peace, but here again they will be humbugged. They think they are voting for our join ing the World Court, but "the plan" is for our joining the League created by the Versailles Treaty. Nor would they be much better informed if they should read the whole of "the plan" itself, for it is much the same as that which Wilson attempted five years before. Among the other 22,164 plans were undoubtedly some that contained at least a suggestion as to how to have peace. This one does not. It looks as though it might have been writ ten by a fiscal agent of the British Gov ernment. It is nothing more or less than a pretty piece of propaganda to get the American public unwittingly to support the League of Nations. The British Government spent $100,- 000,000 in propaganda to get the U. S. into the war. Our entrance into the war was a calamity for the U. S., for the people of Great Britain, and for Ger many. The world would have been bet ter off if we had stayed out. Now we are to be propagandized into the World Court and the League of Nations. And our entrance will be another calamity for the whole world. Helping to make a bad business succeed is not the way to success. The Great War was a conflict between the profit-making interests of the great countries. It had nothing to do with humanity or the principles of justice. They lied to us who said it had. The League of Nations is a natural product of such a wicked war. It is a league of the victors to preserve the profit-system in their interest. It has no implications of world peace; and it never had any. It has no more purpose "to end war" than had the Great War a purpose "to end war." The same state of mind that was deluded by the one is now de luded by the other. We are aware that a large proportion of the co-operators of Great Britain and of France desire that the U. S. shall enter the League of Nations. They are conscious of the bankruptcy of their governments. The whole European eco nomic fabric is going bad. The U. S., with its great wealth, might stabilize things. And they are right. The U. S. might stabilize things. But the way our money would operate would be to fix the status, quo. If the U. S. "stabil ized" Europe it would be by helping to strengthen the privileged profit-making system and to fix it upon the people. Such a function would do more harm than good. It would only dam back the natural current of events which must sweep away the old economic order be fore Europe can settle down to peace. Our European co-operative comrades are taking too seriously the League of Nations, created by four old men—each one long since discredited. We should turn our backs upon the trappings of the old order and face toward the fu ture. Co-operators know how to prevent wars. We have the magic talisman in our hands. Why should we play the old game with the old gamesters? It avails nothing. The essentials for peace are these: 1. Organize the people of each coun try into voluntary nonpolitical co-opera tive consumers' societies, to supply their own needs and ultimately to create a Co-operative Democracy through which to control and administer for mutual service those useful functions now per formed by profit-business and by the political state. Thus should we substi tute the service-motive for the profit- motive in the economic life. 2. Federate the co-operative associa tions of each country into a national co operative organization. Thirty-eight countries of the world have done this. 3. Federate the national co-operative organizations into an international league of the peoples. This organization already exists in the International Co operative Alliance, which already fed erates over thirty countries. It is the nearest approach to a true League of Nations in existence. 4. Establish an international economic organization for international commerce and exchange. This is going forward in the International Co-operative Whole sale and in the International Co-opera tive Banking and Insurance Societies now in process of development. Out of this should grow international exchange for service and elimination of the inter national profit-seeking causes of war. 5. Free trade, free and unrestricted communication, and free and unham pered intercourse between nations. These are essential for the promotion of inter national friendship and understanding. In the interest of the development of the conditions that make for peace each nation shouid undertake the adoption of the following secondary essentials: 1. No government should declare war against another until the proposition has been submitted to the people by refer endum and until a majority of the men and women over eighteen years of age have voted in favor of the declaration. 2. All who have advocated war should be drafted first upon the declaration of war. 3. The people of each nation should oppose imperialistic conquest of alien peoples by their government. 4. None of the chief commodities and appliances used in warfare should be produced for profit or be a source of profit to anyone. 5. Funds for the maintenance of gov ernments, municipal, state and federal, should be raised by a tax upon the land equal to its rental value, and industry and exchange should be freed from taxation. To undo some of the past injustices of the war and to set the world in a position to go forward, released from the clutch of the dead hand of the past, the following course should be pursued: 1. Cancel all international debts that were created by the war. 2. Release all countries from the pay ment of further indemnities to the victors. 3. Withdraw all troops from foreign soil. 24 CO-OPEEATION CO-OPEEATION 25 4. Permit the peoples in lands and countries which were transferred since the war to determine by free plebiscite to what country they would be attached, or to enjoy autonomous independence. 5. Employ armies and navies for police purposes only. These, I believe, are the essentials for peace. Not one of them is contained in the prize-winning "plan" accepted by the American committee. And had a single one of these essentials been intro duced in a plan it would have been re jected. This is because the backers of war are the backers of the League of Nations. The perpetuation of the preva lent system of privilege, profit-making, and imperialism must have the condi tions that make for war; and the League of Nations is the best machinery to keep alive, for a little while longer, those conditions. The pity is that the deluded people should accept a war-making institution as an instrument of peace. THE CO-OPERATIVE TRAINING SCHOOL By Sidney Henderson {Student at the Co-operative Training School, Minneapolis) The benefits received by the students of the Co-operative Training School at Minneapolis for their five weeks of in tensive training are many and varied. I would be the last to underrate the value of Mr. Alanne's instructions on how to distinguish between real and fake co-operatives; Mr. Clark's and Mr. Nurme's careful teaching of bookkeep ing, which gave many a student the necessary minimum of knowledge to be gin immediately the keeping of store records, or Mr. Long's and Mr. Solem's practical pointers on the actual manage ment of co-operative stores and indus tries. This knowledge is essential. In fact, it forms the necessary basis for the less immediately practical but perhaps ultimately more effective influences of the school. For the school not only sends the stu dents back to their own local co-opera tives as more obliging and efficient clerks, better bookkeepers and man agers, or more effective exponents of co operative principles; it also gives them a clearer idea of the fundamental pur pose of co-operation and of its relation to other working class movements. It gives them a personal attachment to the movement as a whole. And it gives them not merely the solution to certain immediate problems, but an attitude toward co-operative problems in general which will help them to meet new prob lems as they arise. Some of the students came from dis tricts where co-operation is considered to be little more than a purely business venture. Others came from the class- conscious ranks of the Workers Party. Still others belonged to A. F. of L. or ganizations or were interested in the co-operative marketing of farm pro ducts. All were themselves advocates of co-operation, but in the groups which they represented are all shades of indif ference and opposition. Obviously, then, if the students can go back to their organizations and present the funda mental purpose and nature of co-opera tion in such a way as to gain their sup port, the school will have done a valu able service. And I believe the students all came away with the conviction that the co-operative movement is fundamen tally in sympathy with the aims of all these groups. For if there is any one idea gained at the school which will stick above all others it is this: that the Consumers' Co-operative Movement is part and parcel of a great movement of the working people of the world to estab lish a better social and e