The source of this uncorrected OCR text may be viewed in the DjVu format at: http://fax.libs.uga.edu/HD2951xC776/co33 or http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/ugafax/HD2951xC776/co33 COOPERATION ORGAN OF THE Consumers Cooperative Movement in the U. S. A. VOLUME XIX January—December 1933 Published by The Cooperative League of U. S. A. 167 West 12th Street, New York City INDEX INDEX PAGE Accounting .................................................................... 168 Advertising ........................................................ 2, 55, 70, 110, 182 Alanne, V. S. ................................................................ 38, 73 Amalgamated Cooperative Apartments ................................... 25, 51, 74, 123 Amalgamated Dwellings ................................................... 25, 83, 123 American Federation of Labor ................................................... 3 Arabs and Cooperation .......................................................... 69 Argentina, Cooperation in ....................................................... 207 Auditing ................................................................ 45, 104, 110 Austria, Cooperation in ......................................................... 170 Awakening Community, The ..................................................... 146 B Back to the Land .................. ........................ .. .. 22, 147 173 Bakeries ............................................................... 25, 104, 126 Banking ......................................................... 13, 18, 69, 94, 96, 151 Bargain Hunters ................................................................ 103 Barnes, Harry Elmer ........................................................... 83 Baron, N. .................................................................... 18, 67 Beer, Should Cooperators Sell ........................................... 131, 142, 162 Bergengren, R. F. .............................................................. 85 Bokal, M. E. .................................................... ....... .. 56 Book Reviews ................................................... 18, 39, 146, 163, 178 Brands, Cooperative ............................................................ 109 British Canadian Cooperative Society, Sydney Mines, N. S. .......................... 162 Bruere, Henry ............................................................... 83 Builder, The Cooperative ...................................................... 26, 46 Building and Loan Associations ................................................... 94 Bulgaria, Cooperation in ........................................................ 16 Burial Associations .............................................................. 72 Calendar ...................................................................... 117 Capitalism, Cooperation, Communism .............................................. 39 Capitalism and Wage Cutting ................................................... 33 Cash Basis ..................................................................... 12 Cash Trading .......................................................... 134, 156, 160 Central Cooperative Wholesale ................ 6,. 17, 26, 46, 70, 76, 95, 104, 154, 185, 207 Central States Cooperative League ............................ 37, 45, 51, 95, 97, 106, 176 Central States Cooperative Youth League ......................................... 177 Chain Stores ................................................................. 2, 109 Chicago Pure Milk Association ................................................... ] 2 China, Cooperation in ........................................................... 79' Churches and Cooperation ................................................ 12, 30, 102 Citizens Cooperative Store, Buffalo, N. Y. ........................................ 4 Claessens, A. .................................................................. 163 Cloquet Cooperative Society, Minn. ................................. 139, 141, 160, 185 Clusa Service ................................. 17, 37, 77, 92, 115, 129, 140, 146, 163, 170 Codes ............................................ 134, 151, 152, 168, 183, 186, 203, 205 Cohen, E. M. ...................................................... ............ 39 Cohen, H. I. ...................... ....... .... . ...... ................... 58 Cole, G. D. H. ................................................................. 98 Columbia Conserve Co., Indianapolis .............................................. 5 Commonwealth College, Mena, Ark. ............................................ 32, 190 Commonwealth Mutual Savings Bank .............................................. 96 i PAGE Competition ......................................................... 11, 59, 102, 109 Consumer, The Prostrate ......................................................... 82 Consumers, Awake ............................................................. 165 Consumers Cooperation in U. S. ................................... 24, 45, 87, 105, 123 Consumers Cooperative Services, N. Y. City ........................... 27, 123, 139, 189 Consumers Cooperative Services and Restaurant Code ............................... 207 Consumers Guide, The .........................................•••••••••••••••••• 202 Consumers Research ......................................................... 33, 189 Continental Congress ............................................... 102, 111, 141, 160 Cooley, O. ............................................. 4, 19, 22, 24, 43, 81, 112, 190 Cooperation Here and Abroad ................................................... 178 Cooperative Bakery of Brownsville 6 E. N. Y. .................................... 126 Cooperative League, The ............................................. ........ 44. 148 Cooperative Month .......................................................... 35, 167 Cooperative Trading Association, Brooklyn, N. Y. .................................. 126 Cooperative Trading Co., Waukegan, 111. .................. 8, 12, 51, 78, 96, 106, 114. 156 Cooperation vs Coercion ......................................................... 150 Cooperators Life Association ..................................................... 122 Cordiner, Mrs. Alex. ........................................................... 162 Cort, E. G. .................................................................... 38 Cowden, H. A. ............................................................... 6, 175 Creameries ................................................... 11, 12, 17, 41, 87, 140 Credit Trading ........................................................... 16, 34, 58 Credit, The Parentage of ......................................................... 182 Credit Received His Fair Name, How .............................................. 208 Credit Union National Extension Bureau .......................................... 86 Credit Unions ........................................................ 42, 68, 86. 189 Czechoslovakia, Cooperation in ................................................ 16, 178 D Deal, F. E. .................................................................... 18 Democracy Doomed?, Is ......................................................... 146 Democracy in Crisis ............................................................ 146 Deposit Accounts—R. H. Macy ..................... ............ ............... 135 Dietrich, J. H. .................................................................. 32 Eastern Cooperative Agency .................................................... 13 Eastern States Cooperative League .............................. 45, 51, 94, 123, 127, 128 Eastern States Farmers Exchange, Springfield, Mass. ................ 27, 31, 122, 155, 185 Edberg, Gideon ................................................................. 206 Editorials—Oscar Cooley ............... 2, 22, 42, 62, 82, 102, 118, 134, 150, 166, 182, 198 Education ................................................. 52, 102, 108, 182, 201, 205 Electric Power Societies .......................................................... 207 Electricians, Farmers are their own ............'.................................... 160 Emblem, Our Cooperative ...................................................... 206 Emergency Conference of Consumers- Organizations ................................. 184 Employee Cooperation ..................... ...................................... 33 Employees Cooperative Union ............. ...................................... 159 Equity Union Grain Co., Kansas City, Mo. ....................................... 175 Europe, Cooperation in, by C. E. Warne .......................................... 170 Executive Order, President Roosevelt's ............................................. 198 Fairchild, H. P. ................................................................ 19 Farband Housing Corporation, N. Y. City ......................................... 94 Farm Board, Federal ............................................................ 27 Farm Bureau Services, Lansing Mich. .............................................. 156 Farm Credit Administration .................................................. 151, 199 Farm Publications .............................................................. 146 Farmers and the Farm Bureaus ................................................... 3 Farmers as Radicals ............................................................. 62 INDEX PAGE Farmers Cooperation ......................................................... 26, 112 Farmers Marketing Cooperatives and Trade Unions ........................'. n9, 157, 193 Farmers Organizations," "Those Damned ........................ . ... . 13 Farmers Union Central Exchange, St. Paul .................... 37, 50, 72, 95, 105, 155, 185 Farmers Union Cooperative Oil Association, Bancroft, Neb. ........................ 10 Farmers Union Cooperative Oil Plant, N. D. ..................................... 7 Farmers Union, Neb. ...................................................... 11, 49, 50 Federal Farm Relief Administration ............................................'... 201 Finland, Cooperation in ....................................................... 35, 170 Finnish Cooperatives ............................................................ 24 Fire Insurance Companies of Woodridge, N. Y., Associated .......................... 139 Fire Insurance Society, Workmen's Furniture, N. Y. City ......... ............... 24, 93 Fitchburg Cooperative Club ............................... 36, 57, 76, 113, 177, 194, 210 Floodwood Cooperative Association, Minn. . 13 Folk High School ..............................................'..'....'.'.'..'.'...'.. 14 Food and Drugs Act ............................................................ 189 Forgotten Consumer, and Who has forgotten him, The ............................... 120 Forgotten Consumer Organize and Act, Let the ..................................... 188 Franklin Cooperative Creamery Association .................................. 9, 87, 202 France, Cooperation in ...................................................... 17. 170 Garibaldi, Giuseppe C. Assoc.—Mishawaka, Ind. .................................. 207 Germany, Cooperation in ............................................. 26, 35, 118, 174 Gilbert, Joseph .................. ' ' 143 Good, W. C ........................'...'..'....'...'..'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'. .146 Goss, A. S. .................................................................... 175 Government Finances Cooperative Education ....................................... 201 Grange ........................................................................ 24 Grange League Federation Exchange, Ithaca, N. Y. .......................... 2, 156, 160 Great Britain, Cooperation in ..................... 16, 35, 42, 106, 109, 115, 122, 137, 187 H Hagge, Fred ................................................................... 13 Halonen. Geo. ............................................................ 29, 99, 136 Hayes, A. J. ................................................................'... 58 Health, The Public might take care of its .......................................... 63 Hedebol, F. C. N. .......................................... .. .......... . 14 Herron. L. S. ................................................... 11, 27, 119, 142, 200 Hill, Virginia ................................................................... 98 H. O. B. Cooperative Oil Association, Bruce Crossing, Mich ............ ...... . . 159 Hood, Robin ................................................................... 136 Hospitals ............................. ... ... ..... .. 17 47 Housing ............................................................ 64, 83, 94. 123 How to Spread Cooperation .................................................... 52, 70 Howe, F. C. ......................................................... .. . 202 Hubbardston Cooperative Club .......................... 36. 56, 113, 145! 177, 194, 209 Hughes, H. J. .................................................................. 178 Hull, I. H. ................................................................ 9, 84, 157 Hyde, W. A. .................................... .............................. 17 I Jdrott Cafe, Chicago, 111. ......................................................... 25 Ikle, Adolph .................................................................... 98 Illinois Farm Supply Co., Chicago ................................................ 156 Indiana Farm Bureau Cooperative Association................... 3, 9, 70, 84, 128, 155, 203 Insurance ..................... 17, 25, 38, 45, 77, 92, 95, 115, 122, 129, 139, 146, 163, 179 International Cooperative Alliance ............................................. 16, 140 Industrial Arts Cooperative Service, N. Y. City .................................... 139 International Wholesaling ........................................................ 51 INDEX PAGE Jacobson, Geo. W. ...................................................... 38, 193, 201 Jessup, J. A. .................................................................... 144 Jewish Cooperatives ........................................................... 25, 67 Jokes, Cooperative .............................................-•••••••••••••••• 66 Junior Cooperators of Chicago ................................ 56, 76, 130, 145, 161, 211 K Kastel, A. .................................................................. 130, 145 Keen, George ................................................................... 131 Kirby, George .................................................................. 4 Knights of Labor ............................................................... 24 Kress, A. J. .................................................................... 39 Land, Back to the ...................................................... 22, 147, Land O'Lakes Creameries ........................................................ Laski, Harold J. ................................................................ Laws, Cooperative ...................................................... 37, 162, Lawler Cooperative Creamery Association ........................................ Liberty Cooperative Co., Cleveland, Ohio ...............................•••••••••• Library, Cooperative Chain ...................................................... Libraries, Cooperative ..........................................••••••••••.••••••• Liebman, H. ................................................................ 62, Liikanen, A.M. ........................................................... 36, 75 Lilly, Esther ................................................................... Liukiku, J. ............. ........................................................ London Cooperative Society .............................................. 42, 84, Long, Cedric ................................................................... Luma, A Challenge to the Trusts .....................................••••••••••• 173 26 146 184 17 5 109 12 143 97 53 142 122 24 28 M McCarthy, C. ............................................................ 31, 49, 141 McGuire, A. J. .................................................................. 211 Madera Consumers Cooperative Association, Cal. .................................. 159 Manitoba Cooperative Wholesale, Winnipeg ................................... 156, 162 Manty, Chas. .................................................................. 51 Marketing Associations and Trade Unions ......................... 11. .9, 135, 157, 193 Martinek, Jos. .................................................................. 4 Mass. League of Cooperative Clubs ....................................... 76, 177, 209 Maynard Cooperative Club ....................................................... 194 Meat Market Statistics .......................................................... 50 Men's Guild, Waukegan, 111. ........................................... 58. 78, 96, 209 Mexican Cooperative Law ...................................................... 162 Midland Cooperative Oil Association ............... 6, 17, 26, 46, 37, 70, 92, 108, 155, 159 Minneapolis Cooperative Oil Association ........................................... 110 Mims, Mary and Moritz, Georgia ................................................. 146 Minnesota Valley Burial Association ............................................. 73 Minot Cooperative Co., N. D. ................................................... 72 Moldenhawer, J. V. ............................................................. 12 Money's Worth, Coops, insure the Consumer gets his ................................ 154 Moore, J. L. ................................................................. 18, 59 Morgenthau, Henry, Jr. ........................................................ 151 Mott Equity Exchange, N. D. ................................................... 175 Movies ............................................................... 9, 16, 51, 172 Mutual Trade Relations .......................................................... 159 INDEX INDEX N PAGE National Cooperatives, Inc. ....................................... 1, 6, 10, 33, 70, 205 Nebraska Farmers Union State Exchange ............. 13, 26, 31, 49, 104, 105, 118, 154, 159 Nelson, E. E. .............................................. ................... 4 New Cooperative Co., Dillonvale, Ohio ........................................ 27, 207 New Era Life Association ............. ......................................... 13 New Year's Resolutions .......................................................... 209 Noble Co. Farm Bureau Cooperative Association .................................. 197 Northern States Cooperative League .......... 8, 37, 45, 72, 95, 105, 109, 110, 139, 178, 184 Northern States Cooperative Youth League ........................................ 194 N.R.A. .......................... 133, 150, 152, 166, 168, 182, 184, 186, 188, 198, 202, 205 Nurmi, H. V. .................................................................. 188 o Ohio Farm Bureau, Columbus, Ohio .......................................... 160, 189 Oil Cooperatives ............................... 7, 10, 17, 27, 84, 110, 121, 155, 159. 166 One Hundred Million Guinea Pigs ................................................. 99 Omaha F. U. Credit Association ................;.................:............... 211 Opportunity, Cooperation's ............................................... 23, 30, 42 Orr Farmers Cooperative Trading Co., Minn. ..................................... 33 Ozanne, J. ..................................................................... 142 PAGE Saari, Leo ..................................................................... 79 Sammeli, J. .................................................................... 98 Sankari, H. O. .................................................................. 74 Schools, Cooperative.. 14, 32, 37. 72, 75, 76, 94, 97, 110, 112, 128, 139, 143, 144, 160, 161, 185 Schuyler, G. S. ................................................................. 132 Sciences, Physical and Social ................................................... 43 Scotland, Cooperation in ........................................................ 17 Seidel, Edmund ................................................................ 74 Shadid, M. .................................................................... 47 Slogans ................................................................... 176, 183 Slovenian Cooperative Youth League, Cleveland, Ohio .............................. 113 Socialists and Cooperators ...................................................... 94 Socialists Seeking Cooperation .................................................. 8 Soo Cooperative Merc. Association, Sault Ste. Marie, Mich. ......................... 87 Soviet Russia as I Saw It ....................................................... 18 Speakers, A Manual for Socialist ................................................. 163 Spirit of Cooperation, The .................................................... 54, 74 Square Deal Cooperative Store, Milwaukee, Wis. ................................. 175 Statistics ....................................................... 25, 88, 122, 124, 138 Stein, Emanuel .............................................................. 64, 147 Sunnyside Consumers Cooperative, L. I. City, NY. ........................... 142, 207 Sweden, Cooperation in. ............................................... 16, 28, 51, 162 Palmer, Edwin C. ........................................................... . . 95 Palmer, Carlos C. ............................................................... 197 Palestine, Cooperation in ....................................................... 67 Peoples Cooperative Society, Superior, Wis. .................................... 73, 185 Peoples Year Book .............................................................. 39 Pesek, Frank .......................................................... 37, 56, 79, 97 Pointers on Propaganda Meetings ................................................. 192 Producers Cooperation .................. ............................ 26, 87, 106, 122 Profit Seeking Producers vs Cooperation .......................................... 62 Program. Cooperative ........................................................... 21 Profit-Piling .................................................................... 11 Profits or Prosperity ............................................................ 19 Propaganda .............................................................. 52, 70, 19? Public Utilities .................................................................. 3 Publishing Co., Cooperative .................................................. 185, 187 Purity Cooperative Bakery, Paterson, N. J. ....................................... 126 Q Quincy Cooperative Youth Club ................................................. 76 Quotations ................................................ 23, 81, 83, 86, 102, 175, 205 R Racketeering ................................................................... 12 Radio Broadcasting, Cooperative .................................................. 32 Rats, Anti, Campaign .......................................................... 32 Recreation ..................................................................... 17 Rent Relief Fund ............................................................... 94 Reynolds, Q. ................................................................... 157 Rimpila, L. .................................................................. 78, 144 Robinson, Wm. G. ............................................................. 18 Roosevelt and the New Deal .................................................... 85 Rosenthal, E. A. .................................................................. 132 Taxation ............................................................... 104, 110, 168 Technique of Fraternity .......................................................... 43 Technocracy and Cooperation .................................................. 29, 99 Telephone Companies ........................................................... 3 Theatre, Cooperative ............................................................ 17 Throop, C. .................................................................... 43 Trade Unionism ................................................................ 43 Tolstoy, Leo ................................................................... 13 Trade Union and Cooperative Council, Minneapolis ................................ 8 Trade Unions and Marketing Coops. ................................. 119, 135, 157, 193 Twin City Cooperative Council ................................................... 109 Twin Cities Milk Producers Association ........................................... 87 U Unemployed Cooperative Leagues ................................... 8, 12, 58, 107, 175 Union Merc. Co., Isanti, Minn. .................................................. 38 Union Oil Co., North Kansas City, Mo. ...................................... 70, 155 United Cooperative Farmers, Fitchburg, Mass. ..................................... 126 United Cooperative Society, Maynard, Mass. .............................. 51, 126, 160 United Cooperative Society, Fitchburq, Mass. .................................. 126, 185 United Cooperative Society, Quincy, Mass. ......................................... 128 United Farmers Exchange, Fulda, Minn. ....:..................................... 73 U. S. S. R., Cooperation in ................................................ 16, 18, 170 V Virginia Farmers Purchasing Association ......................................... 141 w Wagg, Olavi .................................................................. 36 Wages under N.R.A. ........................................................... 150 \Vages Cut at the Points of Production and Consumption ........................... 204 Wages vs Capitalism ........................................................... 33 Warbasse, J. P. .................. 18, 24, 45, 63, 85, 120, 131, 133, 152, 168, 186, 200, 202 A INDEX PAGE Ward G. H. ................................................................... HI Warinner, A. W. ........................................................ 95, 128, 157 Warne, C. E. ........................................................... 33, 157, 170 Washington Cooperative Egg and Poultry Producers Association .............. 26, 110, 154 Washington, Cooperation Impresses ............................................... 202 Washington State Grange .................................................... 153, 175 Waste, Criminal ................................................................ 10 Waste, Cutting out .............................................................. 31 Waukegan and No. Chicago Cooperative Association ................................ 51 Wentworth Farmers Cooperative Association ....................................... 108 Wholesaling ........................................................ 1, 28, 49, 50, 70 Winchester, H. J. ............................................................... 142 Wise Sayings ...................................................... 81, 92, 103, 163 Womens Guilds ................... 16, 46, 54, 56, 78, 95, 98, 114, 129, 130, 162, 176, 194 Workers Cooperative Union, Lawrence, Mass. ............................ 41, 51, 94, 126 Workingmen's Protective Union .................................................. 24 Workmen's Circle .............................................................. 25 Workmen's Cooperative Merc. Association, Chicago, 111. ............................ 37, 97 Workmen's Furniture Fire Ins. Society, N. Y. City ................................ 24, 93 Workingmen's Cooperative Co., Cleveland, Ohio .................................... 4 World Chaos, A Guide Through .................................................. 98 World Economic Conference .................................................... 140 Y Young Circle League ............................................................ 76 Young Cooperators Club, Maynard, Mass. ......................................... 57 Youth League of Superior, Wis. ................................................... 76 Young Negroes Cooperative League .............................................. 5 Youth Leagues .................. 4, 36, 56, 75, 95, 97, 113, 129, 130, 145, 161, 177, 194, 209 "f COOPERATION ORGAN OF THE Consumers Cooperative Movement in the U. S. A. \ VOLUME XIX January—December 1933 Published by The Cooperative League of U. S. A. 167 West 12th Street, New York City 20 COOPERATION STUDY CONSUMERS' COOPERATION The books and pamphlets listed below are available through The Cooperative League. Read them and pass them on to your friends HISTORICAL Per Copy Per 100 38. Consumers Cooperation In the United States (illus.), 1930.... .10 8.00 6». Story of Toad Lane (By Stuart Chase) ...................... .05 4.00 TECHNICAL 4. How to Start and Hun a Rochdale Cooperative Society .......... .25 »>. Muiiel By-Laws fo. Price $1.00 a year. Vol. XIX, No. 1 Jan. 1933 In Cahoots with the National Advertiser? WE WENT into a grocery store and asked for some Florida oranges. "These are all Floridas," said the clerk, pointing to a bank ot fruit. Every orange was wrapped in the familiar trademark of the Califor nia Fruit Growers Exchange. Such is the wisdom of the average grocery clerk. Since the advent of the Era of Na tional Advertising, retailing has be come largely a matter of handing out branded goods, on call, over the coun ter. Your modern retailer is little more than an automaton, a human slot-machine, a puppet with the na tional advertiser as puppet-master. It is complained that there is little profit in retailing any more, but why should there be? One-half of one percent would be big pay for the slot-machine service you get in the average store. How much better are our coopera tive stores? In all too many cases we fear they are merely duplicating the slot-machine tactics of the private re tailer. If called to answer to this charge, cooperative store managers will say that the public calls for national brands and they have to give the pub lic what it wants. Neither statement is wholly true. There are many con sumers—and may we be optimistic enough to think that there are espe cially many among cooperative store patrons?—who have not sold their souls to nationally advertised brands and who are willing—nay, desirous— of being informed by their retailer as to qualities and standards. The re tailer is always in a better position tc influence the customer than is the na tional advertiser, for the retailer cart maice a direct statement at the moment she is making her selection, while the national advertiser can only throw a suggestion at her as she whizzes by his billboard in her automobile, or pages through a magazine, her mind intent upon the story she is reading. Some retailers have taken full advantage of this fact. Many of the chains, for ex- ample, have built up a big volume for their private brands, not by advertis ing, but by judicious "pushing" over the counter. They have done this di rectly against the force of millions of dollars of national advertising. If the chains have done this wit 5 their brands, which have no appeal whatever except price, and quality (maybe), how much more can not the cooperatives do? Besides having every appeal that the chains have, they can point out that the co-op brand is made according to the specifications of the cooperative, that is. of the consumer, and so there has been no incentive to stint on quality. Cooperative brands are good brands. If not, somebody has failed to cooperate, and the result has no business to be called a coopera tive brand. A man with long experience in the retailing field recently expressed to us the opinion that a store could be opened and run successfully without a single branded article on the shelves. He says that much of the public's buy ing of advertised brands is because there is nothing else to buy, or they do not know how to buy according to description and standard. If they were offered an open formula article, un loaded with advertising cost, on the basis of its merits, thev would buy it eagerly, he believes. But this would be a different kind of retailing than obtains at present. The retailer and his clerks would have to know their goods. They would have to be able COOPERATION to tell precisely the difference between Fancy and Extra Fancy and stand back of their words. Such a retailer would gain a tremendous hold on his public. Private retailers will never do this, but cooperative retailers might. Tn fact it seems to us exactly "up their alley." It is a way in which coopera • tives can set themselves apart and out side of competition. Cooperatives are founded on the philosophy of service to the consumer, whereas private re tailers are founded on a ohilosophy cr: profit to themselves. Every coopera tive should be the champion of the consumer. He needs a champion, heaven knows. The private retailer and the national advertiser are both "agin him;" together they are straining every nerve to sell him a big red label and a large measure of hokum. Go into your cooperative store or oil station and take a look around. To what extent is your society serving the consumer and to what extent is it oper ating in cahoots with the national ad vertiser? • Don't Blame the Bureau-crats Too Harshly The reaction of the American Farm Bureau leaders to the proposal of the Chicago conference that they aid and abet a general consumers cooperative is not to be wondered at. They feel that they have one specific job to do: Help the farmer. This, in their view, does not require—or perhaps even per mit—them to go out of their way to help everybody else. Like many a farmer of the past, the A. F. B. F. ap parently feels snug and self-sufficient behind its own line fences and com paratively unconcerned with whafc happens to its neighbors. Provincial, you say? Yes. but when has the A. F. of L., for example, gone out of its way to cooperate with farmers? In fact., what if any organization of a produc ing class has ever shown a disposition to help or to cooperate in helping others than that class; even when, as in this case, cooperation with others 'n. the long run could only benefit them selves? No, organizations of producer classes are traditionally narrow and provincial. They are primarily inter ested in profit for their class, and devil take the rest of the world! This is the root cause of most social conflict. When we organize on consumption lines, however, we have a common ground on which all kinds of produc ers, farmer and laborer, can meet; nay, on which it is positively in their inter est to meet. Thus consumers coopera tion breaks down class lines and tends to wipe out class conflict. This truth is seen by the farmers' cooperative wholesales which at the Nov. 21 conference took a firm stand for a central wholesale capable of serving both farmer and worker con sumers. This is statesmanship of a high order, and great credit is due such, organization as the Indiana Farm Bu reau Cooperative Association, (which, be it noted, has considerably extended its horizon beyond that of its parent organization). There are Farm Bureau cooperators and there are Farm Bu- reau-crats. The former can still milk a cow or two upon necessity; the lat ter are more expert at milking Con gress. Practicing cooperation, coming smack up against the needs of the people and helping them to satisfy their needs through cooperation— nothing beats that as a prescription for toning up and broadening out a phil osophy. Save Money and Breath Many farmers in Indiana—"Other states, too, probably—'are having their telephones taken out. Why shouldn't they? The rate of the Indiana Bell Telephone Company is $24 a year. You can forego a lot of talk for $24 these days. Meanwhile a small coop erative telephone company which has been running in that state for many years we are told has never charged over $6 per year and has averaged nearer $5. Three cheers for the great- ness and efficiency of a nation-wide, monopolistic public utility! COOPERATION WANT to take a trip from New York to Minneapolis and back, stopping here and there on the way to say hello to various cooperators who are laboring mightily in their local vineyards? Chances are they will be glad to see us—'it's lonely business tending a green shoot in a desert—and maybe they will let us pay for our din ner, at least partially, with a talk on cooperation—barter's the style now,, you know. Want to go? All aboard, then. One main objective we have: A con ference of district cooperative whole sales to meet in Chicago Nov. 21 to consider plans for combining their buying power. That sounds worth sit ting in on. Mail Order We leave New York Nov. 16. Buf falo is our first stop and a snowy one it is. We call up George Kirby, whose hobby is how to get a cooperative mail order service started. He was with Larkin & Co. many years and so is no tyro at that sort of thing. He would like to see such a service set up and controlled by the League, or perhaps preferably by one of the wholesales, giving people a chance to buy cooper atively who are not in cooperative ter ritory now, insuring honest goods and making savings, too. We would not have to stock goods at first, he says. Arrangements could be made with manufacturers to fill orders direct. Textiles, household articles and toilet goods could be handled, maybe tires, And an ounce of cooperative propa ganda with every pound of goods. This might be the means of planting the seed On the Road By Oscar Cooley of cooperation in many communities that are now barren. Mr. Kirby thinks we may be missing a chance here. There are still left a few men of the old school who were more interested in doing a good job, producing and sell ing good goods at a fair price, than in getting rich quick at any cost to the consumer. Mr. Kirby appears to be one of those men. Dr. Nelson After our visit, he drives us through the slush to the Citizens Cooperative Society store. A gallant band of negro cooperators started this store over a year ago. It has had hard sledding, but is still running. The indomitable spirit of one man, Dr. E. E. Nelson, has kept it running. There he is in a grocer's white apron, waiting on customers. He is a physician; why isn't he doctoring? Because this other thing was more im portant. He has sacrificed his practice, abandoned his office and moved his furniture into the rear room of the store. One girl helps him. Their wages between them are $10 a week. It has to be, to keep the landlord and the bill collector away from the door. "But,\ Dr. Nelson, you will ruin yourself!" "It does not matter, not if I can get my people to see this great thing, Cooper ation, and what it can do for them." The store is cold. One shivers to think that he is allied to a cause that can do this tragic thing to a man. And yet is it tragic? In the midst of a poverty- stricken, starving and hopeless nation, here is a man who is rich indeed. You know, he may win. In the last six months' operation, he has paid off one- COOPERATION half of a $400 wholesaler's bill. It's hard to beat down a man like that. We have to go on. Cleveland is our next stop. United Front There Joe Martinek, about to take a train to Chicago to attend a meeting of Bohemian fraternal societies, pauses to pour into our ears his ardent belief that the movement should get closer to these organizations, which are really cooper ative insurance societies. He sees diem as a part of the complete and united labor front, and for the latter his enthusiasm is intense. As an ex ample he points to the strength of the Bohemian radical group in Cleveland with its well-rounded pro gram consisting of 1. Cooperative so ciety (incidentally, our strongest store society located in a large city); 2. Building and loan association; 3. Fra ternal society; 4. Athletic club; 5. Polit ical party (Socialist). Here we have institutions for satisfying the needs of the community in goods distribution, banking, insurance, information and propaganda, sports, the ballot. Add to these, housing, transportation and health service, 'and we begin to see a new world evolving. Let us sink our differences, says Martinek, all we who yearn for this new world, and merge our forces into a solid phalanx. A phone call informs us that, by, chance, the Slovenian Youth League is meeting this evening. We find them in their snug clubroom over the garage, and guess what they are doing? Read ing Dr. Warbasse's "Cooperative De mocracy" aloud. They are on the chap ter having to do with producers' co ops. This is solid stuff. Who said our young people are interested only in parties and frivolity? Like all our youth clubs, this one is searching for the pro gram which will attract youth and at the same time make cooperators of the future out of them. This is the vital part of our movement; in truth the only part that matters. The next day we enjoy the hospi tality of Roy Shanks, known to many as a former active worker in coopera tion, and after dinner he drives us to the home of Joseph Myers, who takes us across the street to a combined meeting of the Liberty Cooperative Co. and the Young Negroes Coopera tive League, two negro organizations which are developing a buying club. The women, who have a Guild, are present too. This is one of several negro groups throughout the country who with little capital but much ear nestness are delving into the possibili ties of cooperation for their race. They wonder if the time has come to open a store. Easy now. Better go slow and succeed, than hasten and fail. After a good discussion, we hurry away in the rain to catch our train to Indianapolis. Mr. Hapgood Everyone has heard of the Colum bia Conserve Company, the purest ex ample I know of an industrial pro ducers' cooperative, a gallant attempt to achieve complete worker ownership and control. William Hapgood invites us to lunch. He tells us of their diffi culties, caused by shrinking markets. People are boiling up the soup bone these days, it appears, rather than buying canned soup. It's the marketing problem that is the weakness of these producers' co-ops. Columbia is now seeking a way out by developing its own brand. But he tells us of more, of the "each for all and all for each" spirit of these Columbia workers, of their unanimous willingness to sacrifice for the sake of the whole. What we have, that will we share, they agree. Mr. Hapgood believes that the develop ment of social-mindedness among workers through this experience in democratic control is of supreme value. He would like to see a closer working relationship between producers' and consumers' cooperatives. We talk of how this may be brought about. Thence to Chicago with E. G. Cort, who has been paying the Indiana Farm Bureau a visit, and we talk about many things on the way but especially of the purchasing pool, which appears to be about to take the shape of a national 6 COOPERATION cooperative wholesale and which is to be discussed the next day. All day Sunday the men dribble into the Hotel Sherman; from Kansas, Nebraska, In diana, Illinois, the Farmers Union of St. Paul, the Central Wholesale, the Midland. Most of them represent co operative oil wholesales. This is the first time that all these have got to gether; but they have common ground, they are working in the same field. They gather in knots in the lobby and talk. They gang in one another's rooms. Something is in the air. There is a sense of expectancy; something new is about to be created. The Chicago Conference Next morning the conference opens. Howard Cowden of Kansas City is elected chairman; the writer secretary. A set of articles and by-laws has been drawn up by the attorney for the Illi nois Farm Supply Company. We vote to read and discuss these. The reading begins—and pretty soon the fireworks, for it is clear that the majority want something different. The proposed set-up is for an association to pool the purchasing of farm supplies, petro leum products chiefly. It would be in corporated under the Illinois Agricul tural Act. Well, isn't that all right? We're all farm organizations, aren't we? Except the Central Wholesale, and 90% of its supporters are farmers. No, it isn't all right. If we are going to set up a consumers' wholesale or ganization, let us not restrict it to any one class of consumers. Let us make it broad enough to serve all consum ers, as time goes on, with all their needs. Even now more than one of the farm groups represented here are edging into town, seeking to organize urban consumers. These urbanites burn gasoline and use tires and bat teries, do they not? As the line of goods handled is broadened, that common ground will widen. Here's the Central Wholesale of Superior; do we want to shut them out? We're all consumers under the skin; why try to draw a line between town and country? Besides, there is volume. Increased volume helps all of us. The consumers* move ment in the towns has been slow to grow. It will be helped by strong cooperative wholesales. We have the beginnings of such wholesales, built by farm consumers. If these wholesales broaden their scope to reach the town consumer, they may be the means of giving the general consumers* move ment a great boost, which again will help all of us. Thus runs the argu ment. Among those who speak strong ly for this principle are Mr. Cowden, I. H. Hull of Indiana, Ivan Lanto of the Central Wholesale, A. W. Warin- ner, C. C. Talbott of North Dakota, the Midland and St. Paul delegations. On the vote, no one dissents. Naming the Baby Then comes the name. "American Service Association" is the one pro posed. Some one suggests that the word "cooperative" should be in there somewhere. Tom Dewitt of Kansas says that whatever other words we use in the name, he wants to see the word "cooperative" in there. So do we, others chime in. But Mr. Mar- chant of Illinois says the word "coop erative" won't get by with his folks; it is looked upon as a "class" word. How would tank cars marked COOPERA TIVE look in his state? Not good at all. Mr. Herndon, Illinois president, appears to agree with him, but ex presses a cooperative attitude by sav ing "I am here to cooperate with this group." On a vote, "Cooperative" wins. It begins to look as if Illinois were getting it in the neck. Ao- parently they have come here with a different idea of this thing than the rest of us. Many of the de tails of their plan seem good and worthy of acceptance, but basically it is in for revamping. Many names are suggested, such as National Coopera tive Wholesale, American Cooperative Wholesale Society, and National Con sumers Cooperative, Inc. The last is proposed by Mr. Hartsock, attorney for the Indiana Farm Bureau Coopera tive Association, "in order that no one COOPERATION may make the mistake of assuming that this is not a consumers' coopera tive." We don't want the income tax authorities to make any wrong assump tions about this, he says. As to the word "Society," the opinion is gener ally expressed that, though widely used abroad, in this country it connotes a social organization, perhaps a Ladies Aid Society. That would never do. And so the various names are written on the blackboard and we ballot on them, each organization having one vote. The choice seems to lie between National Cooperative Wholesale and National Consumers Cooperative. On the final ballot, the latter wins, 5 to 2. What's in a name? A great deal some times. People think by catchwords and phrases. A good name is a fair beginning for any infant. The discussion flows on, forming ar. eddy here and there but not seriously, the direction of the current having been determined upon. How shall control be vested? In the member wholesales according to the volume of their purchase, each having one vote per $5000 of volume. This is taken over from the original articles. A voice is to be given also to the national organizations that are engaged in co-operative educational work such as the Cooperative League, National Farmers Union, American Farm Bureau, National Grange, and Farmers Equity Union. Each is to have one vote and one representative on the Board of Directors. This too, which seems to many an excellent pro vision for tying up the business and educational interest and unifying their . - ^ •'.;!' I FARMERS UNION COOPERATIVE OIL PLANT, NO. DAKOTA This picture is typical of the hundreds of cooperative bulk plants which have sprung up throughout the West in the last few years. These plants are built, owned and operated by the farmers of a county or more, organized in their cooperative oil association, which is in general founded on Rochdale principles. Cooperative oil distribution is almost invariably successful, in the face of some of the largest and most ruthless of profit concerns, the oil combines. 8 C O O P E R A TIO N aims, was provided in the Illinois set up. Another major principle is that of the contract agreement. Although rec ognizing the value of the principle of voluntarism, the majority feel that mem bers must come in with 100 per cent of their purchasing in the lines the nation al can furnish if there is to be enough assured volume to give the national a basis for bargaining. In other word*, every member wholesale must come in meaning business, not simply with an eye to shop around. But allowance is made for necessary spot buying. Hov/ about this? Is this true cooperation? Is it not an attempt to force coopera tion? Can the voluntary principle al ways be maintained, or are legal sanc tions sometimes necessary in the coop erative movement? This has been amply debated abroad; it is a live topic for our readers to debate. It is night. Many grave policies have been discussed and some really heavy thinking done, although no one feels that this is the last word. Are you ready now to draw up the articles? is the question put to the attorneys. Mr. Kirkpatrick withdraws. Mr. Hartsock says he is willing to try and so the night's work begins, the secre tary translating his minutes and At torney Hartsock dictating the articles of the National Consumers' Coopera tive Incorporated. The next day the articles and by laws are submitted, amended in part and then voted on and accepted. It is agreed that acceptance means that each will report back to his organiza tion and recommend adoption and af filiation. The youngster is born. Whether he will prove a genius or a monstrosity time now will tell. (Later events have indicated that some thought him a monstrosity, and that surgery was called for. This was to be expected. A strong species arises by evolution, not by overnight crea tion.) There have been previous attempts to form national wholesales in this country, never successful. What right have we to be optimistic about this one? Simply that here is represented a large body of organized consumer de mand. Economic law, which caoital- ists have always flouted, to their sor row, but to which cooperators are; obedient, states that it is dangerous to create supply until demand is known. If the National Consumer's Coopera tive succeeds it will be largely because this law has been obeyed. But also it will be because the leaders in this en terprise possess cooperative under standing. If not, we are treading on very dangerous ground. We must be on our way. With Ivan Lanto, sales manager of the Cen tral Cooperative Wholesale, we go to Waukegan. The Board of Directors of Cooperative Trading Company is in session. Is it our imagination, or do we see the light of hope rise in their eyes as we describe the doings of the last few days? May they not be dis appointed. Socialists Seeking Cooperation Thanksgiving with the Liukku's, a tremendous turkey baked in the coop erative bake oven, adorning the board. We visit Ed Carlson and his wife and go to inspect the cellar of potatoes and sauerkraut-making by which the un employed, assisted by the cooperative, are helping themselves. Then on in the morning to Milwaukee where the Mayor's secretary, Mr. Hauser, has called a conference of trade-unionists and others interested in cooperation to discuss ways and means of developing a cooperative movement in Socialist Milwaukee, (isot in every city is tuc cooperative emissary entertained in the Mayor's office and his mission written up in the local papers.) Lead ers who understand cooperation and have time to concentrate on it seem to be the great need here. In Minneapolis we meet the new as sistant secretary of the Northern States League, Joseph Gilbert. More field work is the demand in this district and Mr. Gilbert, a veteran in labor and farmer organization work, has been hired to team up with Mr. Alanne and provide it. Already a Trade Union and Cooperative Council has been or- COOPERATION ganized and will hold classes in coop eration under Mr. Gilbert through the winter. Another similar group has been formed among the employees of the Franklin. Thus the seed of coopera tive knowledge is being sown in the Twin Cities. We have lunch with Mr. Eide, nourishing ourselves with good Franklin milk, sit in a Board of Direc tors meeting and again see hope kindle when we mention the national whole sale. We visit the Farmers Union Central Exchange in St. Paul, go and make the acquaintance of Mr. Mc- Guire of the Land O' Lakes, and listen to E. G. Cort tell of the progress of the movement to start a cooperative oil association in the university section of the city. This will be watched with in terest, as the notably successful coop erative oil movement has thus far been confined to farmers. At the meeting of the Northern States Leaque Board the matter of affiliation of the Farmers Union Central Exchange is discussed and it is voted to defer action until the national wholesale has had a chance to try its spurs at resolving competitive difficulties between its member asso ciations. Thus confidence is expressed in the infant. Will he measure up? Thence back to Chicago where we are entertained by hearty John Konec- ny, have lunch with Clarence Senior, drink coffee at the Cafe Idrott and spend an evening with the eager and intelligent Junior Conoerators' Club. Indiana's Program We have promised ourselves a few days' stop in Indiana on our return trip. The movement in this state is ac outgrowth of the Farm Bureau. The farmers in Indiana talk about "our pro gram" and in truth they have a pro gram. It is a program of filling insofar as possible all the needs of the farmers, from gasoline to credit unions, coop eratively. In their oil compounding plant they compound the best of lubri cating oils; to their seed cleaning plant the farmers bring clover and grass seed to be cleaned and returned to them; in their cooperative hatcheries the farmer's eggs are turned into chicks. To the cooperative elevators the farmers bring their grain to be sold or ground into feed, to their coopera tive creameries their cream. Other en terprises might be named and still others are contemplated. An attempt is being made to get the workers in the cities of Indiana to organize into cooperatives. It annears that in Amer ica consumers cooperation is to be taught to the cities by the farmers. Tony Lehner takes us to a couple of township Farm Bureau meetings. Tony is one of three field men employed by the Indiana Farm Bureau Cooperative Association. He hands out the gospel of cooperation without soft pedal or compromise and these weather-beaten, depression-buffeted sons and daugh ters of the soil take it and like it. T*e proof is in the constant and growing patronage they give to their coopera tive enterprises. We s~end Sunday at I. H. Hull's and thoroughly enjoy the hospitality and warmth of this Ameri can, farm-bred family. At the office the next day they honor us with a private showing of a couple of coop erative propaganda films with their employee-actors putting Hollywood's best to shame. These are really ab sorbing pictures, one entitled "True Love and Good Oil," and the other "You Reap What You Sow." We are impressed with the psychological ap peal of films as cooperative propa ganda. There is a depression, true, in all these farm states but their cooperative organizations in general are not going under. Rather they are increasing their activity in many lines and are full of plans and hopes for the morrow. We would hazard a guess that there is more hopefulness in the American farmer today than in the American worker in spite of all that has been said of the farmer's straitened cir cumstances. Perhaps it is because his feet are on solid substance, the land, in which there is always new life gener ating with the seasons regardless of the ups and downs of the industrial structure. 10 COOPERATION COOPERATION 11 Sequel A second trip to Chicago was neces sary Dec. 19th to attend a continuation of the organizational meeting of the "National Consumers Cooperative/' The path of the youngster it seems, was not to be all smooth. Sharp criticisms had been offered. Orthodox coopera- tors had attacked the set-up for not being cooperative, and the American Farm Bureau Federation was objecting because it was so cooperative as to take in general consumers. The A. F. B. F. exists to serve farmers only; why should it be interested in approving a cooperative wholesale for all con sumers? Let this wholesale be set up primarily for farmer-consumers and be incorporated under an agricultural marketing act—then they might be in terested. Moreover, such a wholesale might be able to take advantage of some of the national legislation favor ing farmers, whereas a general con sumers wholesale would not. Thus ran the argument of a committee of the A. F. B. P., supported by the Illinois Farm Supply Company. It looked as if these groups would drop out if the former broad plan of a consumers cooperative wholesale were adhered to. And so—although most of the other district wholesales stated that they had not changed their minds on this point —it was voted to refer the whole pro gram to a committee consisting of a representative from each organization. This committee is to review all cri ticisms of the "National Consumers Cooperative," draft a new set-up and report it back within a year. Mean while, some will be getting practice in actual cooperation by making group purchasing arrangements. There was a lengthy debate on the -question: Should the so-called educa tional cooperative organizations (Farm Bureau, Farmers Union, Cooperative League, etc.) have a vote in setting up and directing the policy of a business cooperative such as this, or should they act merely in an advisory ca pacity? The Farm Bureau bloc in sisted that if they were to accept the responsibility of acting advisorily, they should also have a vote. The Coopera tive League contingent, on the other hand, held that a cooperative business wholesale should be set up and man aged by its member wholesales only, and that the educational organizations should sit in merely for advice and counsel. The Indiana Farm Bureau agreed, pointing out the danger of top-down control by parent organ izations. This question is to be thrashed out in the committee, the next meeting of which is to be on Feb. 20th. • Criminal Waste We made the sad mistake of getting hungry while riding on a train recent ly. An order of bacon in the dining car cost us 70 cents. There were six slices, perhaps one-third of a pound at most. In other words, our bacon cost us well over $2 per pound. The farmer, at the same time, is getting about 2^/2 cents on the hoof. And yet the 14 largest packers, we are told, lost 44 cents per $100 of sales in 1931. Allowing for the fact that there is more than one way of salting down profits which do not show up in a profit and loss statement.—5-figure salaries, for example—the fact remains that the above absurd discrepancy in prices, quite typical of all lines, is the natural result of a system more wasteful than could have been created by a nation of lunatics. And the poor, dear packers have played their part in the crime of building such a system. At lunchtime we bought an apple (10 cents). It was one of those very big, very red and very tasteless apples grown in the Pacific Northwest. At the time our train was passing through the heart of New York state, than which no state produces better apples —for eating purposes. • On the Increase, Even Now The Farmers Union Cooperative, Oil Association of Bancroft, Nebr., in creased its volume of gasoline handled last year by 19,064 gallons and kero sene by 14,960 gallons. A 10% patron age dividend was paid. Profit-Piling Is the Evil; Not Competition .25 1.35 .75 1.85 1.10 2.25 1.00 1.00 1.10 L*0 1.00 1.50 .75 3.50 5.00 1.60 1.65 1.25 1.35 .75 COOPERATI Organ of the Con- Movement in the FES ,& sumers Cooperative United States '([7 Vol. XIX, No. 2 FEBRUARY, 1933 10 cents THE COOPERATIVE PROGRAM Aims .—Production for use.—not for profit. •—To each, plenty—to none, wealth or want. Philosophy •—Control by persons.—not by money. •—Voluntarism.—not coercion. •—Self-help.—not charity, or paternalism. •Recognition that a squarer economic deal will not be achieved ex cept by the cooperative efforts of those who most need it. .—Development of society by development of the character and intel ligence of individuals. •Recognition that the individual is strong only as he acts with the group. Technique for Accomplishing These Aims According to this Philosophy •—Ownership and control of industry by voluntary associations con sisting of consumers, run by consumers, functioning for consumers. I. The banding together of neighbors whose economic needs and tastes are similar into local associations for purchasing or other wise producing those needs, such associations to govern them selves by the following (Rochdale) principles: a.—Open membership, b.—One man, one vote, c.—Rate of interest on capital limited. d<— Market prices, or prices which provide a margin of safety, any net accumulations to be used jointly for the good of the group, or to be refunded to each, periodically, in proportion to his purchases. II. The banding together of these local associations into federations for wholesaling, manufacture, banking, insurance, education or other forms of cooperative action, these wholesales to govern themselves by principles basically similar to the above. II'I. The organizing of all production under these two types of as sociations, or variations therefrom which maintain the fundamen tal principle of democratic consumer control. 22 COOPERATION COO PERATBO N An organ to spread the knowledge of the Cooperative Movement, whereby the people, in voluntary association, produce and dis tribute for their own use the things they need. Published monthly by The Cooperative League of the U. S. A., 167 West 12th St., New York Gty.____________________ OSCAR COOLEY, Editor Contributing Editors George Halonen A. W. Warinner L, S. Herron Herman Liebman V. S. Alanne___________George Jacobson Entered as Second Class matter, December 19, 1917. at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., un der the Act of March 3. 1879. Price $1.00 a year. Vol. XIX, No. 2 Feb. 1933 Landward Out of the cities, back to the land, trek our depression-weary citizens. Out of the tenements, out of the rook eries — yes, and out of the more respectable pueblos along the avenues, pass the job-seeking-weary; on another search now, a search for a strip of land, a plow and a handful of seed, a search for the sources of production and a chance to translate willing ener gy into the wherewithal to live. So great is this migration during the last two years, according to the esti mates of the LI. S. Bureau of Agricul tural Economics, that by the end of 1932 our farm population had regained all that it had lost during the previous twenty years! "The farm has once more become a refuge," says the information service of the Federal Council of Churches, "many abandoned farm houses are once more occupied, rural schools have increased enrollments, and all the so cial and religious institutions are deal ing with an increasing farm popula tion." Even from business men comes the evidence. Colby Chester, the president of General Foods Corporation, ascribes a .part of his company's loss of food sales to this emigration from the cities, where people must buy every mouth ful of food, to the country, where they can produce much of it. Let us shed a tear for Mr. Chester. Because the people are turning to production for use, poor Mr. Chester's production for profit is being interfered with. Has it occurred to Mr. Chester that, because his and other firms like his have pro duced so assiduously for profit and salted the profit away so safely, that on this very account the people are now being forced to turn to production for use? • Which Side o£ the Cow There are many who deplore this migration. The editor is not among them. His slogan is "production for use," and you don't have to put "mass" in front of it to suit him. It is true that many of these ur- banites will find hard sledding on the farms. The first season they will raise more blisters than beans. Books won't tell them which side of the cow to sit down to. They'll soon find how igno rant they are of farm "production for use." And their standard of living will be low—but not so low as in the bread lines. There are too many people in the cities. We are too highly centralized. This migration proves it. We are too highly industrialized. We have piled intricate machine upon intricate machine, factory upon factory —'and as a result human beehive upon human beehive. But we are not so smart as the bees. We thought we could pull it off, but we couldn't. Now, some will say, all that ails us is the profit motive. That does ail us, granted. But assuming that profit mo tive could be wiped out tomorrow and replaced by true service motive, still would we be smart enough to run this stupendous machine? Doubtful. It won't hurt us any to reach back and take a new hold in a smaller way, building 'our production-for-use in dustries up on a modest scale, with democratic control and resident own ership, educating ourselves as we go— learning which side of the cow to sit down to. Consumers' Cooperation offers us the way to do this. Our cooperatives can not take over a Ford factory, but as they grow they can build smaller COOPERATION 23 plants. Efficiency will be sacrificed? Let it go. God, haven't we a bellyful of efficiency! • Our Opportunity What a priceless possession we have in Cooperation at this time! We do not evaluate it ' near highly enough. Economic society is bankrupt and the people are completely at a loss for a technique to build a better society. Co operation offers such a technique. A pall of hopelessness, cynicism, broken morale, casts darkness over the land. Cooperation has hope, light, vigor. The nation is like a crew of sailors whose ship has sunk under them and who are nigh exhausted from swim ming in a circle. They are at a point where they do not much care whether they sink or swim. They need a life- raft to bear them up and renew their faith in life. The bright hope and prom ise for the future which Cooperation offers is such a life-raft. Cooperation can not cure the de pression; that is a mess which capital ism must mop up as best it can. But Cooperation offers a way of reorgan izing society so that such a scourge may not descend upon us again. It of fers a system for establishing and building production for use, a system for guaranteeing such an equitable distribution of wealth that none will be in want—and not a mere paper system drawn by economists and theorists but a proven system which the workers and common people in over 40 coun tries have developed by practice. We know that it works. The local cooperative society of con sumers (with open membership, one consumer—one vote, and distribution of profits according to purchases— which is true industrial democracy) is the type-form, .the basic machine, of an entire production-for-use economy. Who runs this machine? The fra ternity of workers, pulling together. Singly they are powerless; cooperating together the strength of each is as the strength of ten. Here is the 'keynote which we should sound and sound again during these times: Fraternity. Technique o£ Fraternity America has staked her faith on in dividualism and individualism has failed her; consequently she is all at sea. Gone faith, gone hope. What now? Love. In its truest sense. Frater nity, mutuality, Cooperation. This is not gush; it is plain, hard, common sense. Wouldn't it be fine if we could all cooperate immediately, as one vast fraternity? We can't; let's be honest with ourselves. But we can as groups, as communities of workers bound to gether by common need and by loca tion, brothers by need and neighbors in fact. Group by group, locality by lo cality—thus the pyramid of fraternity is built. We are too apt to be smitten with the idea of great, mass grouping. But that may be impractical. There was a .tribe whose members warred so among themselves that they were in danger of extinction. Some wanted to hold a great, mass peace conclave of all the people. But they in habited a rugged, mountainous coun try, with narrow valleys and small, open meadows here and there. There was no large plain, or common, on which all could pitch their tents. And so they came together in groups, each in its own small meadow and made peace and learned to work together in these groups. Later each group sent representatives to a central conclave. The tribe grew in strength, wisdom and prosperity. It had learned through the practice of Consumers' Coopera tion. Shall that tribe be America? The knowledge of Cooperation as a way of creating the genuine fraternity which people long for is a pearl of great price which we in the movement possess in abundance. When will we cease babbling about rebates and go out to our starving countrymen with this nourishing man na in our hands? O. C. Cooperation is the one banner be neath which all the nations are able to unite.—T. W. Mercer. 24 COOPERATION Consumers' Cooperation in the United States By Oscar Cooley Beginning a series of articles in which we attempt to survey the pres ent status of the Consumers' Coopera tive Movement in this country. In so doing we have drawn heavily on the pamphlet written by J. P. ^^arbasse and last revised by Cedric Long in 1930. Our readers will, naturally, find more facts and figures on cooperatives that are members of The Cooperative League than on non-members, since we have access to more information concerning the former. But we shall try to give a true, though not an ex haustive, picture of the extent and character of the entire movement. In this issue we give a general sur vey of the movement; in future issues we will describe specific societies, take up special types such as credit unions, and discuss the structure and work of The Cooperative League. Statistics on the operations of societies in 1931 and 1932 will also be published in connec tion with future installments. I THE history of associations of con sumers for service to themselves, not for profit, dates back in the United States at least 88 years. In 1845, the year after the founding of the Roch dale Pioneers, the Workingmen's Pro tective Union opened its first coopera tive store in Boston. In 1853 we find the International Industrial Assembly of America, with a membership of 200,000, promoting cooperative enter prises; likewise the National Labor Union 13 years later. Then followed the Patrons of Husbandry (Grange), and the Knights of Labor who by 1877 had hundreds of stores throughout the Central and Eastern states. The New England Protective Union at one time had 400 branches located along the Atlantic seaboard. All of these, with the exception of a few of the farmers' stores established by the Grange, have faded away. "Countless societies," wrote Cedric Long, "have burst into bloom, flour ished for a few months and gradually withered away again. Until the past 15 years, the United States had no gen uine national cooperative movement^- never anything better than some loose aggregations of isolated cooperative societies. As recently as the beginning of the World War we still were in the dark ages of Cooperation in America. Hundreds of struggling little societies were scattered over the country, each one completely separated from its kind; most of them ignorant of similar efforts being made elsewhere; no opportunity for collective buying; no standard of form, of structure, of technique." And little recognition, we might add, that cooperation is more than an eco nomic method, that it is a movement of radical social change, requiring a right-about-face in the psychology of the individual and therefore calling for a constant and expert educational pro gram to establish the cultural base necessary. Central leadership was the need. It came with the establishment of The Cooperative League in March, 1916, by a handful of enthusiasts under the leadership of Dr. J. P. Warbasse. For some years Dr. and Mrs. Warbasse traveled about the country, forming contacts with existing cooperative so cieties, helping and advising by virtue of their knowledge gained on exten sive trips abroad, and drawing these groups together into a national, educa tional union, with headquarters in New York. A national magazine, CO OPERATION, was started in 1914. Regular bulletins, .pamphlets and other educational materials were issued, speakers were sent out, legal advice was given. And finally the first na tional Consumers Cooperative Con gress was convened in Springfield, 111., in 1918. Seven congresses have been held since that time, each of them a rally of cooperative leaders and dele- COOPERATION 25 gates of societies from many parts of the country. In England the Coopera tive Union has been called "the soul of the movement"; here in America The Cooperative League has had to be this and more; for here we have no great national Cooperative Whole sale Society, as England has in addi tion to its Union, to bring our societies together into a united, national pro gram. Make-Up of the Movement How many and what type are the co operative societies in the United States at the present .time? The total number of consumers' co operative societies is estimated to be 2000 or over. Approximately half of these operate general merchandise or farm supply stores in the small towns and villages. Some 400 have grocery or meat stores; some 600 oil associa tions; and the balance have restau rants, bakeries, apartment houses, dai ries, etc. These societies can be divided, roughly, in two classes: the foreign- born, or those founded by foreign- born, and the American farmers. The societies which have made the greatest success over a period of years are the foreign-born. Cooperation is a part of their culture, brought with them from the homeland. The Finns, for ex ample, upon their arrival here found it as natural to set up cooperative stores as it was for the Puritans to establish churches. Then, too, their natural im pulse to herd together for protection and mutual aid, upon finding them selves isolated in a strange land, sur rounded by a babel of strange tongues, helped them to cooperate successfully. Unhappily, as they learned American ways and caught the American con tagion of profit-seeking, and as political dissension invaded their ranks, some of their enterprises failed, but the so cieties established by the Finns in the Lake Superior country and in New England, in cities like Waukegan, 111., Fairport Harbor, O., and Brooklyn, N. Y., still form the backbone of the co operative store movement. Other suc cessful racial cooperatives are the Bohemian, Italian, Jewish, Slovenian, Russian, German and Swedish. In many of these groups, political So cialism, as well as Cooperation, is a "tie that binds," and a large measure of working-class-consciousness is pres ent. This is an aid in binding the group together in the common enter prise of the cooperative society, and the latter is looked upon as an integral part of the broad, working-class pro gram. At the same time, this factor, together with the racial segregation so prevalent in American communities, in many cases has undoubtedly restricted the cooperative from extending itself among consumers who as yet lack class-consciousness or who hold more conservative opinions. Following is a tabulation of the co operatives originally founded by for eign-born (though numbering many American-born at present). These are chiefly League societies. The figures are approximate. No. of societies Total Members Finnish Bohemian Italian Jewish Slovenian Russian Swedish 117 3 19 9 2 2 1 32315 2044 2001 5412 732 318 150 153 42972 The majority of these are store so cieties, but in many cases they operate also bakeries, dairies, coal-yards and other services. The single Swedish so ciety is the Cafe Idrot, a unique co operative workers' club-restaurant in Chicago. The Jewish group includes two large housing societies, the Amal gamated Cooperative Apartments and Amalgamated Dwellings of New York City, but the balance are bakeries. Most of these Jewish bakeries were established during and after the War, at a time of high bread prices, and were fostered by branches of the Workmen's Circle, fraternal Socialist workers' organization. Not included in this tabulation is the Workmen's Furniture Fire Insurance Society of New York, started in 1872 26 COOPERATION by Germans, but now 'having 61,600 members of all nationalities and oper ating 90 branches in many states. This unique organization will be discussed in more detail in a later issue. Nor have we included the many large fraternal organizations offering sick and death benefits on a cooperative plan. An other type not included are the Finnish boarding houses, many of which were originally established largely by un married men, lately arrived in the country, but now less flourishing—• perhaps because the single men are no longer single! Among the Farmers The American farmers' cooperative societies, or "associations" as they are more often called, are birds of a somewhat different feather. In general they are more strictly "economic," or utilitarian. The farmers are led to co operate in purchasing, just as in mar keting, because it appears that it will pay them to do so. Swindled and horn- swoggled for years by salesmen of fer tilizer, seed, stock foods, spavin cures and gold bricks ad infinitum, the farm ers combine for purchasing simply to get better goods at lower prices, not to help bring the cooperative common wealth, of which most of them have no conception. They are not class-con scious; they are on the other hand highly individualistic. They do not fraternize as Socialist "comrades"; in fact to most of them Socialism is anath ema! When they practice consumers' cooperation, they are not aware that they are doing anything "radical"; to them it is just plain, common sense— as indeed it is. The result of this atti tude is that they cooperate as long as it pays them to, and don't when it doesn't. At present, however, in certain sec tions as in Nebraska and the North west under the urge of the Farmers' Union, and in Indiana, consumers' co operation among American farmers is taking on something of the aspect of a crusade. We find the influential "Neb raska Union Farmer," published in Omaha, preaching the faith of Roch dale as well-nigh the salvation of the farmer. Farther north, "The Coopera tive Builder," published by the Cen tral Cooperative Wholesale of Su perior, in addition to its large circula tion among the Finns and others in the 101 store societies of the Central Wholesale group, is now circulated to 12,600 farmers, chiefly American, who are members of the Midland Coopera tive Oil Association in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Thus the influence of the Finnish class-conscious cooperators is spreading over the prairies. The farm cooroerative purchasing as sociations tend to specialize in farm supplies, such as fertilizers, feeds, gas oline and oils, in contrast to the co operative soci