The source of this uncorrected OCR text may be viewed in the DjVu format at: http://fax.libs.uga.edu/HD2951xC776/co41 or http://purl.galileo.usg.edu/ugafax/HD2951xC776/co41 CONSUMERS' COOPERATION OFFICIAL ORGAN Of The Consumers' Cooperative Movement in the U. S. A. VOLUME XXVII January—December 1941 Published by The Cooperative League of U. S. A. 167 West 12th Street, New York City „ INDEX CONSUMERS' COOPERATION OF GtC A PAGE Accountants Recommend Program to Meet Crisis ..................................................................... 155 Act Now or Regret Later .............................................................................................................................. 16< AE's Letters to Minanlabain, a review ............................................................................................. 240 Aiken, Senator George D. .................................................................................................................. 70, 126 Alanne, V. S. ......................................................................................................................._ 55 Amalgamated Cooperative Apartments ............................................................................................. 142 American Cooperative Crusade ................................................................................................................... 163 Annual All-American Tour of Cooperatives .................................................................. 120, 183 Architectural Modernization, Plans Laid For .............................................................................. 158 Arnold, Mary E. .................................................................................................................................................. 51 Arnold, Thurman ................................................................................................................................................ 70 Articles on Cooperatives, Recent ............................................................................................................ 28 As I Remember ................................................................................................................................................... 50 Augustus, E. K. ................................................................................................................................................... 234 B Baker, Jacob ............................................................................................................................................................ 80 Belloc, Hilaire ......................................................................................................................................................... 127 Bennett, J. L. ..........................................................................................................._ 200 Bergengren, Roy F. .......................................................................................................................................... 223 Bingham, Alfred ................................................................................................................................................... 71 Bolin, J. H. ............................................................................................................................................................... 69 Bowen, E. R. ............................................................................................................................................. 102, 230 Bowman, LeRoy E. ............................................................................................................................................. 19 Boyle, George ......................................................................................................................................................... 191 Brandies, Louis D. .................................................................................................................................... 98, 214 Brouckere, Professor Louis de .................................................................................................................. 134 Buy in Co-ops ......................................................................................................................................................... 201 Calkins, Gilman ................................................................................................................................................... 202 Call to Peace and Plenty ................................................................................................................................. 200 Campbell, Wallace J. .............................................................................................................................. 10, 175 Campus Cooperative, The Evolution of a .......................................................................................... 84 Capitol Letters ........................................................................... 57, 92, 141, 153, 172, 189, 236 Carson, John ....................................... 57, 92, 141, 153, 172, 189, 206, 214, 223, 236 Central Cooperative Wholesale ............................................................... 31, 54, 125, 142, 220 Central States Cooperatives ........................................................................................................................... 125 Challenge to Cooperative Accountants ................................................................................................ 208 Character Building and Cooperatives ................................................................................................... 19 Cheel, Mabel ......................................................................... 50 Church and Cooperatives .............................................................................................................................. 222 Circle Pines Center ........................................................................................................................ 9, 122, 219 Coady, Dr. M. M. ........................................................................................................................ 16, 71, 129 Coerr, Janet ...........................................................................................................:.................................................. 119 Cohn, Hyman ........................................................................................................................................ 117, 129 Consumer Distribution Corporation ...................................................................................................... 31 INDEX PAGE Consumers Book Cooperative ......................................................................................................... 62, 94 Consumers Cannot Depend on Government Price Controls ............................................. 149 Consumers Cooperative Association ......................................................... 24, 62, 87, 124, 220 Consumers Cooperatives Associated .......................................................................................... 62, 220 Consumers Cooperatives in the North Central States, a review ....................................... 190 Consumers Cooperative Services ............................................................................................................ 142 Consumers Cooperative Stations .............................................................................................................. 62 Consumers Incarnate the Public Welfare ....................................................................................... 206 Cooperative Distributors ................................................................................................................................ 125 Cooperative Plenty, a review ..................................................................................................................... 239 Cooperative Terminal, Inc. ........................................................................................................................... 166 Cooperation, a Christian Mode of Industry, a review ............................................................ 223 Cooperation at Home and Abroad, a review ................................................................................. 144 Co-ops are Co min', The, a review ......................................................................................................... 218 Co-ops in the Crisis .......................................................................................................................................... 220 Co-op Week .....*..........................„............................................................................................................ 31, 6l Council for Cooperative Business Training ................................................................................. 126 Covey, Esther ......................................................................................................................................................... 218 Cowden, Howard A. ........................................................................................................................... 182, 201 Credit Union National Association ...................................................................................................... 223 Curry, James ................................................................_........................................................................................ 191 D Debt and Disaster ................................................................................................................................................ 73 Declaration of Cooperation ........................................................................................................................ 210 Democracy's Second Chance, a review ................................................................................................ 191 Douthit, Davis ...................................................................................................................................................... 5 Drury, James C. ................................................................................................................................................... 144 Eastern Cooperative Recreation School ............................................................................. 122, 187 Eastern Cooperative Wholesale ...................................................................................................... 31, 221 Economic Organization of Freedom, The ....................................................................................... 134 Educate for Democratic Economic Action ....................................................................................... 203 Education-Recreation-Publicity Institute ............................................................................................. 123 Edwards, Ellen .......................................................................................... 29, 59, 156, 187, 205, 238 Emporia Cooperative Association, The Down and Up Of ............................................. 216 Estes Park Co-op Camp ................................................................................................................................. 188 Farnsworth, Ruth Broan ................................................................................................................................. 117 Fay, C. R. ....................................................................... 144 Films ................................................................................................................._ 13, 218, 222 Film Cooperative Society, Timmins ...................................................................................................... 91 Finland Solved the Farm Tenancy Problem, How ..................................................................... 105 Form Letters, Here's an Idea on ............................................................................................................... 27 Foundation of Civilization ........................................................................................................................... 226 Fowler, Bertram B. ............................................................................................................................................. 175 INDEX INDEX PAGE Fox, Glenn S. ................._...._................-...._ 170 Friends of Rochdale Institute ..................................................................................................................... 208 From Consumer to Crude ....................................................................................................................... 24 K PAGE Kagawa, Toyohiko ............................................................................................................................................. 131 Kenyon, Dorothy ..............................................;................................................................................................. 14 Kreiner, Viola Jo .......................................................................................................................................... 9, 219 Kress, Andrew J. ................................................................................................................................................ 143 Getting Your News Across—Here's an Idea for ........................................................................ 140 Giles, Richard ......................................................................................^ 224 Gilman, Charlotte Perkins ........................................................................................................................... 148 Give Cooperation the Radiance It Deserves .................................................................................... 202 Gjores, Axel .._......._......._...............^ 212 Get Grocery Minded ....................................................................................................................................... 17 Go Into Groceries Faster ................................................................................................................................. 227 GOSS, A. S. .............................................................................^ 52 Group Health Association, Minneapolis .......................................................................................... 62 Group Health Association, D. of C. ................................................................................................... 124 Group Health Cooperative ..................................................................................................................... 94 Groves, Harold M. ............................................................................................................................................. 190 Grundtvig of Denmark ................................................................................................................................. 89 H Hackman, Vera R. ......................................................................................................................................... 151 Halonen, George ......................................................................................................................................... 166 Hamilton, Peter ..................................................................................^ 50 Harris, Frank .........................._......._...™^^ 159 Hedberg, Anders ............................................................................................................................................ 212 Highlights of 1940, Cooperative ............................................................................................................ 10 Hill, Gladys ...,,.......................................................................^ 151 Holmes, John Haynes ................................................................................................................................... 71 How Balance Prices and Income ............................................................................................................ 230 How Co-ops Grow ............................................................................................................................................. 87 Hull, I. H. ............................................................................^ 52 Hutchinson, Carl „........................_......._.................................._...............................-........-............-..-........••• 168 Indiana Farm Bureau Cooperative Association ............................................................... 94, 221 I.L.O. Carries On, Cooperative Division Of .............................................................................. 119 Introduction to the Cooperative Movement, a review ............................................................ 143 Insurance, Cooperative, Should be Organized How ............................................................... 102 Invest in Co-ops ......................._................-..........-..........-................-..........-............•-.-----—-•••--— 203 Invest your Money in Cooperative Properties .............................................................................. 80 J Jackson, J. Hampden ........_......................._......_.............-..........-...............................-.—.-.....-..--»...... 105 Join a Co-op ........................................................................................................-...............—....-.............-.-.... 200 Jones, E. Stanley ............................................................................................................... 66, 70, 129, 1= I Justice Louis D. Brandeis, Counsel for the Consumer ......................................................... 214 Labor and Cooperatives ................................................................................. 30, 61, 126, 142, 223 Lau1 of the Organization and Operation of Cooperatives, a review ........................ 190 Let's Drive for Modern Co-ops ............................................................................................................... 207 Let's Get the Cooperative Movement Together ........................................................................... 5 Lehner, Anthony ....................................................................................................................................... 31, 204 Lehtin, Laurie L. ................................................................................................................................................... 155 Lincoln, Murray D. ................................................................................................................................. 93, 200 Ligutti, Msgr. Luigi .......................................................................................................................................... 66 Local Cooperative Organization Managers .................................................................................... 168 Locke, John ^^.f^^^..^..^..^....^.....^..^^^^^....^^^^.^^^^...^^^^^..^^..^^..........^...^^. 99 Long, Mary Coover ............................................................................................................................................. 51 Lull, Dr. H. G. ....._......._.................._......._ 216 M MacMillan, Mary ................................................................................................................................................ 183 Marketing, Consumer Co-ops Go Into ................................................................................................ 166 Maurin, Peter ,......................................................................................................................_................................ 66 McGowan, Rev. R. A. ....................................................................................................................................... 5 3 McLanahan, Jack .................................................................................................................. 8, 27, 140, 186 Measuring Stick for a Cooperative Oil Co. .................................................................................... 170 Metzger, T. Warren .......................................................................................................................................... 15 Midland Cooperative Wholesale ................................................................................................... 31, 142 Miller, Joseph Dana .......................................................................................................................................... 67 Morale of Democracy, a review ............................................................................................................... 175 Morgan, Joy Elmer ............................................................................................................................................. 71 Myers, James ..........................o................................................................................................................................ 14 N Nationwide Co-op Drive .............................................................................................................................. 194 National Cooperatives ................................................................................................... 61, 93, 124, 221 National Cooperative Recreation School ..................................................................... 60, 90, 156 National Cooperative Womens Guild Notes ................................................................................. 56 New Books and Pamphlets Received ................................................... 15, 63, 127, 160, 224 Niemela, Waldemar .......................................................................................................................................... 53 Northwest Cooperative Society ............................................................................................................... 125 o '"'•Her' in College Co-op ................................................................................................................................... 8 5 <~'e~re, Anders ...................................................................................................................................................... 66 C^'-io Farm Bureau Cooperative Association ......................................................... 93, 142, 221 ^bio Farm Bureau Insurance Services ........................................................................... 11, 61, 124 Ohio O^'ers Complete Cooperative Investment Program ................................................... 234 INDEX INDEX PAGE One Day in the Life of a Cooperator ................................................................................................... 182 Organized Labor and Consumer Cooperation, a review ...................................................... 14 Organization of the Nationwide Co-op Drive ........................................................................... 196 Ownership, Three Forms of ........................................................................................................................ 100 PAGE Southeastern Cooperative Education Association ......................................................... 124, 142 Spencer, Anne ......................................................................................................................................................... 56 State, Cooperation and the ........................................................................................................................... 137 Summer Opportunities in Cooperatives ............................................................................................. 143 Swedish Cooperator in the Government, A .................................................................................... 212 Packel, Israel ........................................................................................................................................................ 190 Pacific Supply Cooperative ........................................................................................................................... 31 Palo Alto Cooperative .................................................................................................................................... 126 Paying Patronage Returns—Here's an Idea for ........................................................................ 58 Pennsylvania Farm Bureau Cooperative Association ............................................................ 94 Pioneer Cooperator, A .................................................................................................................................... 70 Price Boom Is On ................................................................................................................................................ 72 Profit Motive and the Common Good ............................................................................................... 136 Progressive Education Association ......................................................................................................... 62 Publicity and Education Committee .......................................................................................... 93, 158 Publicity—Here's an Idea on ..........................:......................................................................................... 8 Quotations ..... 146 R Rawe, Rev. John C. .............................................................................................................................. 130, 191 Recreation—A Vital Part of the Nationwide Co-op Drive ............................................. 205 Recreation Notes ................................................................................................... 29, 59, 91, 123, 238 Recreation Training Opportunities ......................................................................................................... 122 Refinery, Cooperative ........................................................................................................................... 10, 30 Refineries, Consumers Cooperative ......................................................................................................... 142 Rees, Albert ..........................„.........._ 85 Restoration of Property, a review ............................................................................................................ 127 Review of International Cooperation ................................................................................................... 133 Reviews .............................................................................. 14, 31, 126, 143, 174, 190, 223, 239 Rochdale Institute ................................................................................................... 30, 39, 62, 126, 208 Roosevelt, Eleanor ............................................................................................................................................. 70 Ross, Rev. J. Elliot .........................................................................................................:................................... 239 Ruf, Dr. _.................................................._..„ 136 Rural Electric Cooperatives ........................................................................................................................... 11 Russell, George ............................................................................................................................... 101, 180 Schmiedeier, Rev. Edgar J. ..........................................................................,.............:..................... 71, 223 Selvig, E. F. ............................................................................................................................................................... 208 Shipe, J. Orrin .............................................................................. 31 Skillin, Edward ..................................................................................................................................._.............. 127 Skomorowsky, Boris .......................................................................................................................................... 71 Smith, Robert L. ................................................................................................................................................... 203 Snyder, Ralph ......................................................................................................................................................... 66 Social Reconstruction and Cooperation ............................................................................................. 133 Socialist Trend as Affecting the Cooperative Movement, a review ........................... 14 Song Book, Cooperative, a review ......................................................................................................... 16 Teaching Cooperation at Pine Mountain .......................................................................................... 151 The Cooperative Consumer, reprint of May, 1914 issue ...................................................... 41 The Cooperative League, First Twenty-five Years Of ......................................................... 37 Tichenor, George ................................................................................................................................................ 175 Times, New York ................................................................................................................................................ 70 Torma, William J. ............................................................................................................................................. 207 Trail to Co-op Fun, The .............................................................................................................................. 138 Train Employes to be Practical Idealists .......................................................................................... 204 Training Lay Leaders—Here's an Idea for .................................................................................... 186 Twenty-fifth Anniversary Celebrations ............................................................................................. 9 5 Twenty-five Years Ago and Now ............................................................................................................ 48 U United Cooperative Society, Maynard ................................................................................................ 61 V Voorhis, Congressman Jerry ........................................................................................................................ 130 W Wallace, Henry A. ............................................................................................................................................. 163 Warbasse, Dr. James P. ........................................................................ 14, 37, 95, 124, 144, 175 War Time Conditions, What Cooperatives Should Do Under ....................................... 26 Warne, Colston E. ............................................................................................................................................. 52 Webb, Mrs. Beatrice .......................................................................................................................................... 164 What's News with the Co-ops .............................................................................. 30, 61, 124, 142 What We Ought to Know About Credit Unions, a review ............................................. 31 Whitney, E. A. ,.............,,.............................,........................,......^ 203 Who is Responsible in a Co-op ............................................................................................................... 82 With the Co-op Caravan .............................................................................................................................. 183 Womens Guilds Plan Greater Activity ................................................................................................ 157 Wright, Frank Lloyd ........................................................................................................................... 143, 146 Youth Councils, Farm Bureau .................................................................................................................. 91 Youth League, Northern States Cooperative ....................................................:............................ 142 Your Work is Prized ....................................................................................................................................... 117 A \ Build Cooperatives Stronger and Faster Follow These Successful Examples Let's Get The Cooperative Movement Together Here's An Idea on Publicity Circle Pines Center Davis Douthit Jack McLanahan Viola Jo Kreïner Cooperative Highlights of 1 940 Wallace J. Campbell Reviews: Dorothy Kenyan and T. Warren Metzger January 1941 lATIONAL MAGAZINE FOR COOPERATIVE LEADERS "THE CONGRESS ISSUE IS A MASTERPIECE' So said a prominent educator after reading the November-December Special Congress Issue of Consumers' Cooperation. "I want fifteen copies to give to members of the board of our co-op" said the president of a nourishing midwest co-op food store. "In our opinion every cooperator should study the Congress Issue of Con sumers' Cooperation, for it gives a clear concise picture of the four cornerstones of cooperation and the major problems and accomplishments of the American coop eratives today." This was the unsolicited advice of a New York Cooperator. The Eastern Cooperative League has prepared an advisory council study out line based on the Congress issue which will be used by a hundred co-op study clubs in the East as the basis for their January discussions. Order your extra copies today while they are still available. This 64-page report of the 12th Biennial Congress of The Cooperative League of the U.S.A. is a bargain at 25c. Five copies for a dollar. Special prices on larger quantities. Mail your order to: THE COOPERATIVE LEAGUE 167 West 12th Street, New York City THE COOPERATIVE LEAGUE 608 South Dearborn, Chicago 167 West 12th Street, New York City 726 Jackson Place N.W., Washington, D. C. DIVISIONS: Auditing Bureau, 167 West 12 St., N. Y. C. Design Service, 167 West 12 St., N. Y. C. Medical Bureau, 1790 Broadway, N. Y. C. Rochdale Institute, 167 West 12 St., N. Y. C. AFFILIATED REGIONAL COOPERATIVES Address Publication Superior, Wisconsin Cooperative Builder 2301 S. Millard, Chicago The Round Table Name Central Cooperative Wholesale Central States Cooperatives, Inc. Consumers' Cooperatives Associated Consumers Cooperative Association Consumers Book Cooperative Cooperative Distributors Cooperative Recreation Service Eastern Cooperative Wholesale Farm Bureau Cooperative Ass'n Farm Bureau Mutual Auto Insurance Co. Columbus, Ohio Farm Bureau Services Lansing, Michigan Farmers' Union Central Exchange St. Paul, Minn. Grange Cooperative Wholesale Seattle, Washington Indiana Farm Bureau Coop. Association Indianapolis, Ind. Midland Cooperative Wholesale Minneapolis, Minn. National Cooperatives, Inc. Pacific Supply Cooperative Amarillo, Texas N. Kansas City, Mo. 118E. 28St,N. Y. 116E. l6St.,N.Y. Delaware, Ohio 135 Kent Ave., Bklyn Columbus, Ohio Chicago, 111. Walla Walla, Wash. A "*-""- ~"i-r-j ~__r — Pennsylvania Farm Bureau Coop. Ass'n Hitrfrsburg, Penn. United Cooperatives, Inc. Indianapolis, Ind. Workmen's Mutual Fire Ins. Society 227 E. 84th St., N. Y. The Producer-Consumer Cooperative Consumer Readers Observer Consumers Defender The Recreation Kit E.C.L. Cooperator Ohio Farm Bureau News Ohio Farm Bureau News Michigan Farm News Farmers' Union Herald Grange Cooperative News Hoosier Farmer Midland Cooperator Pacific N.W. Cooperator Penn. Co-op Review DISTRICT LEAGUES 135 Kent Ave., Brooklyn, N. Y. 7218 So. Hoover St., Los Angeles, Cal. 372—40th Street, Oakland, Cal. 608 South Dearborn, Chicago Carrollton, Georgia Eastern Cooperative League Associated Cooperatives, So. Cal. Associated Cooperatives, N. Cal. National Cooperative Women's Guild Southeastern Cooperative Education Ass'n FRATERNAL MEMBERS Credit Union National Association Madison, Wisconsin The Bridge CONSUMERS' COOPERATION OFFICIAL NATIONAL JOURNAL OF THE CONSUMERS' COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT Volume XXVII. No. I PEACE • PLENTY • DEMOCRACY JANUARY. 1941 Ten Cents BUILD COOPERATIVES STRONGER AND FASTER This is an enduring cooperative slogan for 1941 and the future. It summarizes the double challenge of Cooperation to members and employees. It is expressed by Dr. G. Fauquet, member of the Executive Committee of the International Coopera tive Alliance and former Director of the Cooperative Division of the International Labor Office, in these words: "Two tasks are imperative: within the Movement—to administer the enterprises with diligence and also some inventive spirit, at the same time to train and instruct cooperators and to instill in them a sense of individual and collective responsibility; outside the Movement—to give Cooperation the radiance that it deserves, and to manifest to those who are ignorant about it—what are its principles and methods, and the goal towards which it leads mankind." No greater or more permanent goal was ever set before the Cooperative Movement. Build Cooperatives Stronger! Stronger recreationally, so that every cooperative association will mean to its members a pleasurable place to play together, as well as to learn together, buy together, and bank together. Stronger educationally, by member discussion groups and employee and directors schools. Stronger commer cially, by greater efficiency of operations and diversity of lines. Stronger financially, by the elimination of credit and by increased capital and reserves. Build Cooperatives Faster! Cooperators hold the key to the door of economic democracy. We must persuade others faster to become active members. We must "give Cooperation the radiance it deserves" as Dr. Fauquet urges. It is the Economic American Dream—it is economic liberty; it is economic equality; it is economic fraternity. Every Cooperative and every Cooperator should adopt this as their principal motto, "BUILD COOPERATIVES STRONGER AND FASTER." An organ to spread the knowledge of the Consumers' Cooperative Movement, whereby the people, in voluntary association, purchase and produce for their own use the things they need. Published monthly by The Cooperative League of the U.S.A., 167 West 12th St., N. Y. City. E. R. Bowen, Editor, Wallace J. Campbell, Associate Editor. Contributing Editors: Editors of Cooperative Journals and Educational Directors of Regional Cooperative Associations. Entered as Seecond Class Matter, December 19, 1917, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Price $1.00 a year. FOLLOW THESE SUCCESSFUL EXAMPLES! The Consumers' Cooperative Purchasing Movement in the United States has now reached the place where successful illustrations have been developed in many fields. Further rapid development of the movement is primarily a matter of other groups patterning after these examples. Much pioneering has been done during the past two decades in both the rural and urban fields. However, there is still too much time lag in adopting successful methods elsewhere after the initial pioneering has been done, even though we are speeding up the process through increasing national contacts between regional and local representatives. Every local and regional cooperative Board of Directors should divide itself into three major committees: Education, Business, and Finance, whose duties should be not only to supervise the present activities of the cooperative in each of these fields, but also to constantly investigate other projects which might be adopted. By subdividing the work, more rapid progress can be made. There is no necessary limit until the members both distribute and produce for themselves cooperatively every thing they desire in the fields of recreation, education, business and finance. To help every local and regional cooperative to profit by the successful examples of other cooperatives and to speed up the process of duplication everywhere, we are listing here some of the major examples of successful cooperative pioneering in the fields of Education, Business and Finance. It goes without saying that no such list can be altogether complete and we are only including illustrations of some of the better known examples to stimulate investigation in each field by every other cooperative. Follow These Successful Examples in EDUCATIONAL Activities Central Cooperative Wholesale, Superior, Wise, has an Architectural Depart ment which is modernizing store buildings and equipment. Write them for their folder "Trends in Cooperative Architecture." Consumers Cooperative Association, North Kansas City, has developed it; second Five Year Plan by democratic discussion. Write them for their foldei "Second Five Year Plan." Local cooperatives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Schenectady, New York, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and others have modernized their stores into Self-Service Food Markets. Write Consumer Distribution Corporation, 420 Lexington Avenue, New York, for illustrations and information. The State of Wisconsin has a Co-op Week officially designated by the State Administration. During the week more than 100 radio broadcasts are made and hundreds of cooperative meetings are held. Contact your State Administration. The States of Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota have developed prc grams to Teach Cooperation in the Schools. Write the State Departments of Public Instruction. The Michigan State Federation of Labor has appointed a Committee on Co operatives. Write the Co-op and Labor Committee of the Cooperative League. Cooperative Services, Minneapolis, Minnesota; Racine Consumers Coopera tive, Racine, Wisconsin ; Konsum, Washington, D. C., and others have Union Contracts with their employees. Write the Co-op and Labor Committee of the Cooperative League. Minneapolis and St. Paul have a Twin-City Co-op-Labor Council. Write the1 Co-op and Labor Committee of the Cooperative League. 2 Consumers' Cooperatioi The Ohio Farm Bureau Cooperative Association issues a Weekly Neivs Service to local papers. Write them for a copy. Floodwood, Minnesota, conducts a 12 Weeks Co-op Forum sponsored by the Community Adult Evening School. Write Central Cooperative Wholesale, Superior, Wisconsin for a copy of their program. Eastern Cooperative Wholesale has a colored film "Consumers Serve Them selves." Write the Cooperative League for rental prices. Midland Co-op Wholesale, Central Co-op Wholesale and the Ohio Farm Bureau Cooperative Ass'n have Educational Fieldmen in every district, as well as commodity fieldmen. Write their Educational Departments as to their programs. The Ohio Farm Bureau Co-op Ass'n, Midland Co-op Wholesale, Consumers Cooperative Association, Eastern Co-op Wholesale and Central Co-op Wholesale are organizing their members into Study Circles. Write their Educational Depart ments for samples of their discussion outlines. Central Co-op Wholesale and the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau Cooperative Ass'n conduct Directors and Employees Circuit Schools. Write their Educational Departments. Central Co-op Wholesale, Midland Co-op Wholesale, the Farmers Union Central Exchange, Consumers Cooperative Association, Eastern Co-op Wholesale and Ohio Farm Bureau Cooperative Ass'n hold regional Employee Training Schools. Write their Educational Departments. Central Co-op Wholesale, Midland Co-op Wholesale, Consumers Cooperative Association and Central States Cooperatives, have organized Women's Guilds. Write the National Women's Guild, care of The Cooperative League. Central Co-op Wholesale, Ohio Farm Bureau Cooperative Ass'n, Midland Co-op Wholesale, Central States Cooperatives and Eastern Co-op Wholesale have Youth Leagues. Write their Educational Departments. Central Co-op Wholesale and Farmers Union Cooperative Education Service have organized Junior Groups. Write their Educational Departments. Central Co-op Wholesale and Central States Cooperatives have Co-op Parks. Write their Education Departments. Central Co-op Wholesale and Farmers Union Cooperative Education Service conduct summer Cooperative Youth Courses. Write their Educational Departments. Ohio Farm Bureau Cooperative Ass'n, Midland and Eastern Co-op Wholesales are actively promoting Cooperative Recreation. Write the Cooperative Society for Recreational Education in care of The Cooperative League. Local co-ops in Washington, D.C., Evanston, 111., and Great Falls, Montana, have Co-op Book Stores. Write The Cooperative League. Some States have good Consumers' Cooperative Incorporation Laws. Write the Cooperative League for a copy of the Department of Labor Bulletin with the text of all State Laws and for a copy of the new District of Columbia Cooperative Law. Follow These Successful Examples in BUSINESS Acti/j Central Co-op Wholesale, Eastern Co-op Wholesale, fives, Midland Co-op Wholesale and Consumers Cooper handling Groceries. Write them. Indiana Farm Bureau Cooperative Association, Consumers Coopei ciation and others are handling Building Materials and Coal. Write them. January, 1941 Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania Farm Bureau Cooperatives and others own Fertilizer Factories. Write them. Consumers Cooperative Association and Indiana Farm Bureau Cooperatives own Petroleum Refineries. Write them. Consumers Cooperatives Association and United Cooperatives own Paint Plants. Write them. Consumers Cooperative Association owns a Grease Plant and Oil Wells. Write them. Indiana Farm Bureau Cooperative Association owns Chick Hatcheries. Write them. The Range Cooperative Federation, Virginia, Minnesota, unites 18 local co operatives for recreation, education and business activities. Write them. The Cooperative Trading Company, Waukegan, 111., owns local Bakery, Creamery and Meat Packing Plants. Write them. Local cooperatives in Minneapolis, Madison, St. Paul and New York have Cooperative Housing Associations for individual homes and apartments. Write The Cooperative League. Iowa and Minnesota and other States have Cooperative Burial Associations. Write The Cooperative League. Group Medicine is developing in a number of places. Write the Bureau of Cooperative Medicine, 1790 Broadway, New York. New York City has eight Cooperative Cafeterias. Write Consumers Coopera tive Services, 433 West 21st Street, New York City. Follow These Successful Examples in FINANCE Activities Waukegan, Illinois; Elkhorn, Wisconsin, and other cooperatives require each member to own a minimum number of shares before receiving dividends. Write them. Consumers Cooperative Association is actively promoting Cash Terms on both farm and home supplies. Write them. Midland Co-op Wholesale is using a Condensed Comparative Balance Sheet to help build capital. Write them. Ohio Farm Bureau Cooperative Association, Central Co-op Wholesale and Midland Co-op Wholesale have organized Finance Associations. Write them. Consumers Cooperative Association and Farmers Union Central Exchange, are building up Loan Capital. Write them. Indiana Farm Bureau Cooperative Association has a Co-op Bank. Write them. Central Co-op Wholesale and Midland Co-op Wholesale publish Year Books. Write them. Cooperatives in Washington, D.C. have organized Cooperative Properties to own and rent land and buildings. Write them. Learn from Others Experience There are just two ways to learn—from your own or others' experience. The more we can learn from others, and thereby avoid the trial and error method, the more rapid progress we can make. These are some suggestions for action. Their success should encourage others. Build Cooperatives Faster! Follow these Successful Examples. $ Consumers' Cooperatio. LET'S GET THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT TOGETHER! IF ever cooperative leaders received a mandate to set about collecting and tying together the various loose ends of the cooperative movement in this country, they got it at the 12th biennial congress of The Cooperative League in Chicago last October. "LET'S GET TOGETHER!" It was implied by some speakers, touched upon by others, and finally, it was shouted right out loud by the rank- and-file delegates themselves. It is becoming trite to say that the most effective brake on the consumer coopera tive movement has been the failure to get together, to cooperate. American coopera tion, despite local and regional headway, has yet to ring the bell as a genuinely na tional movement. It consists, in large part, of sprawling, provincial cooperatives, each a movement unto itself. True, these co operatives do associate together education ally in the League and for occasional joint buying purposes in National Cooperatives, but the association is somewhat polite and uneasy. The regional leaders (who are also national leaders) appear to find it advis able to keep a wary eye on each other to see that no tricks are pulled which might affect their own special provinces. "You Can Lead a Horse to Water" Important strides have been taken nev ertheless, toward getting the movement together. Uniform dues to support educa tional and legislative activities have been agreed upon; the League and National Cooperatives, though still separate organi zations, now have the same address, in terlocking directorates and a common blueprint for the future. Cooperative leaders have, one might say, led them selves to the headwaters of a truly national stream. Will they drink, or will they kick up their heels and gallop each for his own pasture ? The answer to this question is tremendously important. It may deter- January, 1941 Davis Douthit, News Editor Midland Cooperator mine whether consumer cooperation ma tures in this country, or whether it is des tined to wind up in the barnyard, a sort of rural "dead-end kid." If the former, time's "a-wastin" ", for these are blitz krieg days, and the stream may, before long, be sucked dry by the whirl of events. A "truly national" movement is an all- together movement. It consists of parts or units, none of which is bigger or more important than the whole, and all of which are headed, like the cars of a train, for a common destination. Such a move ment must have, of course, democratic control from the bottom up. The pas sengers must have the right to decide where and how they want to go and what engineer they want to take them there. But this "truly national" movement also must have management coordination from the top down. The passengers, un less they're more interested in playing train than in getting somewhere, really ought to let their engineer run the train, and he really should have only one locomotive to attend to, not one for each car, going off in all directions at once. Gets Picture of Hen with Head Off Too many cooperators, saturated with literature based on 1844 theology—pre- chain and pre-monopoly—give all their attention to democratic control from the bottom up, none whatever to coordination from the top down. Yet, if the cooperative technique is to survive chains, trusts and monopoly fascism, such coordination is absolutely essential. A just-beheaded hen has plenty of democratic control from the bottom up, but no coordination from the top down. It is a temptation to say that this hen picture is much like the one ob tained by looking at what is known as the national cooperative movement today. Its top has no power to coordinate the some what spasmodic jerkings and twitchings down below. A similar weakness, it is now being re alized, afflicts the British movement. Carr- Saunders and other British economists, in their important research volume, "Con sumer Cooperation in Great Britain," put it this way: "A movement which consists of a large number of completely autonomous units, subject to no unifying authority, bound to no common policy even as trading units, cannot effectively work out a common will or apply that common will to the prosecu tion of its aims. ... A unified central authority, answerable to a united coop erative democracy, would become one of the most powerful influences in the state, capable of directing economic policy so as to ensure the widest distribution of those benefits which modern civilization and the modern technique of production should enable all to enjoy." Proposes Merger of Two Wholesales A most significant cooperative wartime development has been the increasing amount of agitation for drastic overhaul ing of the British cooperative machinery to give the movement a united front. W. Gallagher, a director of the Scottish whole sale, and president of the Congress of the Cooperative Union, proposes the merging of the chief factories of the English Co operative Wholesale and its Scottish coun terpart, and he urges coordinated manage ment of the British movement by "some body whose decision should be final and binding." In an important series of "Plan for the Future" articles in the English Coopera tive Neii's, Alfred Barnes, cooperative member of parliament, points out the clumsiness, weakness and inefficiency of the present set-up of separate national educational and business federations. And he proposes replacement of what he calls the present "happy-go-lucky" cooperative methods of operation and government with a genuine Cooperative Union having the authority (1) to enforce decisions of policy democratically arrived at, and (2) to "accomplish its economic purpose without becoming involved in a mass of sterile controversies about local parochial ism and the individual interests of persons and societies." These articles aroused such enthusiasm that they were followed up with two na tional conventions organized by the Co operative News to discuss and promote the proposals. One statement at the second convention in support of the Barnes plan is especially noteworthy, for it applies to the United States as well as to Britain. It was made by J. J. Worley of the Co operative Press. Co-ops Challenged by New Capitalism "This country," he said, "is passing through what I regard as another indus trial revolution which threatens to en trench the new capitalism, new because it marks a distinction between competitive capitalism and corporate capitalism. If the cooperative movement shrinks jrom the inescapable challenge of the new Cor porate State tendencies, its progress will be arrested and the movement will be gradually merged into statutory schemes O J O J for industrial rationalization and in thai process will lose its identity and au tonomy." The conventions, reported the Coop erative News, revealed a "unanimous recognition of the urgent need for co operative reconstitution." Now if a movement as huge and well- founded as the British is finding it urgent ly necessary to coordinate and centralize its government and operations to meet modern conditions, how much more im perative it is that cooperators in this country read the handwriting on the wall. Co-ops With No "M.A." Have Little Chance - American cooperatives have succeeded best so far in lines such as petroleum products and fertilizer and feed, where the retail margins have been large. Coop eratives in such fields required no great amount of efficient management or capital, and they saved their members money. They had "mass appeal." But cooperatives, in this country or elsewhere, have not been generated on a wide scale where margins were narrow and where considerable cap ital, purchasing power and efficient man agement were necessary to successful com petition. In such fields—and their num ber is increasing swiftly — cooperatives lacking those necessary qualities have been unable to develop mass appeal and they have not flourished. They never will until they, like their competitors, pool their money and brains, coordinate their opera tions and develop efficiency and expert- ness in serving the public. Poll members of Swedish or British co-ops, and it's ten to one a big majority will say they are cooperators, not because cooperation is a "new way of life" or "the label tells the whole truth," but simply because the co-op stores are nice looking, inside and out, they have good stuff, and you save money there. They have, in brief, "m.a." They have what lone wolf co operatives, going it more or less alone without enough capital, will never, never have. Most People Still Remain Folks The Sales Management survey, which found that most members of urban co-ops belong because the CO-OP label tells the whole truth, may be more significant for its indication that few members belong be cause they save money. This, it is possible, explains why co-ops don't have more members than they do. You can shout the virtues of cooperation as a new way of life at people until you're blue in the face, but in the end most of the people will still be folks and they'll still belong to the co-op only when and if they think they can save money or get better stuff by doing so. And it is only through centralization and coordination of capital and purchas ing power and management brains on as large a scale as possible—locally, region ally, nationally—that co-ops are likely, in the small-margin, big-capital fields, to make it possible for folks to do those things. Now it's all very well, of course, to be writing about a genuinely national move ment and saying that cooperative leaders ought to drown their professional jeal ousies and personal ambitions in a sea of unselfish cooperation, but it's quite another thing to "rare back" and pass such a miracle. Perhaps the most cooperators can do is to keep right on repeating and repeating that the miracle just must be passed, or else— and to keep drumming away on the tune that if only we did have more coordination and unity this American cooperative move ment would be going places nationally in groceries, gasoline, tires and other com modities, in insurance, publicity, educa tion, finance, recreation and in Lord knows how many other categories at least 100 per cent faster than it is going now. Cer tain it is that as cooperatives plunge into production they're going to need all the national coordination of purchasing power and management they can get. And they must go into production if they expect to do a halfway decent job of controlling quality and costs. Warns Against Wreck of Whole Train It might help, too, to point out that if the cooperative movement doesn't develop some sturdy, centralized machinery pretty danged soon, shrinking retail margins, in creasingly stiff competition from vast in dustrial aggregations of capital and the en croachments of American Fascism are apt to strip the movement of the mass appeal it now has and wreck the whole co-op train. Yes, the American cooperative move ment needs desperately to get together. It needs to get together on a coordinated in surance program; on a coordinated pro duction program ; on a coordinated distri bution program ; on a coordinated finance program; on a coordinated educational program. "Union Now" ought to be the slogan of the day for co-ops as well as for nations; union of retail co-ops, union of wholesale co-ops. Co-ops exist to serve the people. Very well, then, if one large wholesale can serve the people better than two medium-sized ones, why not add one and one and get ONE? And so on. Bigness, or coordination, or centraliza- Consumers' Cooperation January, 1941 tion, do not in themselves, of course, spell efficiency. All machinery requires human care and operation, and you know these humans. Nevertheless, other things being equal, an intelligently coordinated coop erative movement, with its educational and economic gears meshing in a single-pur posed mechanism-of-the-people, would be the most powerful agency we can think of for the defense of America, for the exten sion of American freedom and democracy, and for the elevation of the American standard of living. Unite Before It's Too Late This article, then, is an appeal to Amer ican cooperative leaders to achieve re gional and national unity in these unpre dictable times by building as quickly as possible regional and national organiza tions with enough authority, derived dem ocratically from the bottom up, to coordi nate the management and operation of a strong, united movement from the top down. Cooperative leaders have "within their own hands" the power to make consumer cooperation a tremendous influence in the life of the country "in our time." They also have the power to doom it to a piffling, hand-to-mouth existence, scorned and derided by its rivals, apologized for by its friends. HERE'S AN IDEA—ON PUBLICITY TWICE within the week I've heard people stand up in a co-op meeting and ask why it was that they had not heard about the cooperative in that community. In both cases they and the co-op had been there longer than two years. A third man put it this way, "Don't the co-ops believe in telling the public what they are doing?" Whether they do or not seems to depend on the particular co-op being referred to, but the point is that co-ops in general haven't made a real effort to tell people about their commodities and their organi zation. Compared to the clever and imag inative methods employed by competitive private business the co-ops are not even a voice crying in the wilderness. Truly we have hid our light under a bushel. Perhaps it is time to reveal it to a waiting world. Here are some ideas that are being used to get news about cooperatives in the press. With a little thought others will come to mind. The Cooperative League of the U.S.A. sends out news releases every week, two or three pages of well written concise articles that can be lifted in toto by an editor of a mind to print such items. This news service now goes to over 500 papers and writers. Ohio Farm Bureau Co-op sends out news releases every week to all papers in the state. Midland Co-op Jack McLanahan does the same thing, not as a regular ser vice but whenever there is news of a na ture that might be accepted by the local press. Many local co-ops have realized the value of getting news into print and regu larly write up accounts of interesting meet ings and happenings to send to their local papers. Some papers have even been persuaded to set aside a column or part of a page in each issue for news of the co-op. In getting your story to the papers in regular news releases or in contributed articles here are a few things to remember: 1. Send in news—not personals or fea ture articles—unless you know the paper will accept them. Of course, local people can hand in personals with good results. 2. Write the news with a general inter est slant to appeal to as large a number of people as possible. 3. Use names of people concerned. Those who send news releases will often cover a story such as the Cooperative League Congress and leave space at the end for adding names of those who have attended as delegates from that particular locality. 4. It is sometimes better to write up the news and give it to a local manager or member. These persons may have a right of way with the local paper not open to an outsider. 5. Be brief and be certain that the article is well written. Busy editors don't like to take time to rewrite and may assign your contribution to the wastebasket. People read the daily papers and they are perhaps impressed by what they read much-more than we realize. Co-ops should not overlook the possibilities. In the face of a new year it is a good time to resolve that we are going to get our story before the public. If yours is a regional, send news releases regularly. If yours is a local, CIRCLE PINES CENTER HPO catch the spirit and significance of 1 Circle Pines Center in the space of a short column is an assignment too great for this writer. Suffice it to say that in Lower Central Michigan is a cooperative camp that is challenging many a firm be liever in cooperation and many a disillu sioned Thomas to a realization that the cooperative way of life means more than activity in the field of economics. This unique recreational and cooperative ven ture started three years ago when a few far-sighted members of the Central States Cooperative League dared to gamble the rental of one of the National Park Service camps for a summer vacation and educa tional center. The season passed with people from a dozen states coming to learn that here was a camp operated by the people, set up to satisfy the need for family vacations at a cost available to working people, where elbows could be rubbed with people of all races, creeds, and stations of life, where "learning by doing" was the watch-word, and coopera tive living the goal. Out of this pioneering venture has grown the Circle Pines Center Associa tion, a Rochdale cooperative that has pur chased a 283 acre farm on Stewart Lake at Cloverdale, Michigan. Enthusiastic mem bers from several states are building this property into their ideal of a cooperative vacation camp and educational center. At send in articles of your activities as often as there is something worth reporting. You can find plenty to write about; world shaking cooperative events are in the making. There is hardly a single paper in a community with a co-op oil station that would not have carried an article on the CCA refinery and oil wells if properly presented. Follow Consumers Coopera tion, the national magazine and the re gional papers for such news and then keep your eyes on the alert for the things in your own community that ought to be set down in black and type. Viola Jo Kreiner their farm house, which is kept open for winter sports and which was reconditioned last summer by members of a Friends' Service Work Camp, the Board of Direc tors met a few days ago. From three states they came to cut wood, to do preliminary clean-up work, and to lay plans for the coming season. Indications are that again the Friends' Service Committee (Quaker) will set up a work camp to assist in the building of the project. The National Park Service camp which accommodates 120 people may again be rented. A sep arate children's camp will be maintained, and a cooperative youth work camp will be carried on. Institutes on cooperative recreation, education, management, and labor relations will also be offered. Con struction work will begin on central camp buildings and many cooperators whose society has a group membership will start the erection of their own cabins and lodges. Oak lumber taken from the wood land and the natural fieldstone from the property will be used for construction purposes. From the viewpoint of recreation, Circle Pines Center is one of the significant cooperative developments in America. It makes a reality of the belief that out of democractic action and creative group "re-creation" will grow the Good Life. It upholds our faith in the ultimate triumph of democracy. Consumers' Cooperation January, 1941 COOPERATIVE HIGHLIGHTS OF 1940 Wallace J. Campbell Counsel of the Bituminous Coal Commi; DURING the past year the pine trees have been growing so rapidly it is hard to see the forest. It is safe to say, however, that the year was marked by a concerted drive toward cooperative production of goods distrib uted through cooperatives ; that important steps were taken to modernize and stand ardize co-op food stores ; that the ground work was laid for the eventual financial independence of the movement through the operation of cooperative finance asso ciations; and that the democracy of the movement was made more effective by the expansion of the discussion group method of cooperative education. Greater Organization Strength For The Cooperative League, the year marked the close of the first quarter cen tury of organized cooperative activity. At its 12th Biennial Congress held in Chicago in October, The League's membership was reported as 1,115,000 patron-members. Two new-organizations, the Southeastern Cooperative Education Association and Associated Cooperatives of Southern Cali fornia were admitted to membership in The League and since that time the Asso ciated Cooperatives of Northern Califor nia have applied for membership. During the year the Central States Cooperative League and The Cooperative Wholesale, Chicago, were merged into a unit organ ization, Central States Cooperatives, Inc. At the co-op congress steps were taken toward the creation of a National Coop erative Finance Association which will act as a financial clearing house for the co operative movement. Already three coop erative banks or finance associations have been established by regional cooperatives. The movement into finance should give the cooperatives greater strength and fi nancial independence. Another milestone in The League's his tory was the opening of a Research and Information office in Washington, D.C. in July. John Carson, former Consumer's 10 sion and previously secretary to the late Senator James Couzens, was chosen t head the office. Co-ops Move Into Production The big news of the year, of course, was the very dramatic progress of the co operatives in producing goods for distrib ution through the retail and wholesale cc ops already established. A dozen mills factories and refineries and a coal min were built or purchased during the year« and the world's first consumer coopératif oil wells began production. By producing goods for use the coop eratives enlarge their field of service, c the costs of goods by eliminating one ext. profit and increase efficiency by producinj at peak capacity for a known demand More important than these factors, how ever, is the fact that productive enterprisf assures the cooperatives a constant ane dependable source of supply. The first of January, 1940, the first c op oil refinery in the U.S., an $850,001 plant at Phillipsburg, Kansas, began op erations. Early in May, 25,000 co-op mem bers and their friends took part in dedi cation ceremonies. Ten days later privai profit oil interests were responsible fo: cutting the co-op's source of crude oil. drastically that the refinery had to shii down for lack of oil. But the co-ops vote $42,000 to build additional pipe line into adjoining fields; made arrangement with friendly private oil companies, fi whom the co-ops had been good cui tomers, for a temporary supply of crude and protested to the Governor of Kansa on behalf of the 56,000 co-op members L the state against the "squeeze play." Bt tween these three moves the co-ops secure enough oil to reopen the refinery. The« to assure a constant source of supply, th cooperatives bought an interest in an o lease and started drilling for oil. By t year's end, five co-op oil wells were i production — making a complete cycle distribution and production without profit. In May, co-ops in Indiana opened a $330,000 refinery at Mt. Vernon, Indiana and in July the Consumers Cooperative Refineries, Regina, Saskatchewan com pleted a modern quarter-million dollar re finery to supplement its other plant. Cooperatives in Ohio, Indiana, Pennsyl vania, New York and a few southern states built five co-op fertilizer factories and in Ohio alone saved the farmers $700,000 on their fertilizer purchases. A modern paint plant in Alliance, Ohio was built to sup ply an already sizeable business in co-op paints. In Superior, Wisconsin a new co op printing plant started its presses roll ing. Feed and flour mills in Pennsylvania, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Saskatche wan and Washington state were built or enlarged during the year. Canadian co ops, moving into coal production, pur chased a substantial interest in a 1,000-ton- a-day coal mine in Drummeheller, Al berta, marking the first step on the part of co-ops in the Western Hemisphere into coal mining. The cooperatives' accomplishment in reducing artificially maintained price lev els in fertilizer may be rated as a first evi dence of their power as American trust busters. Streamlining Grocery Distribution In the field of grocery distribution, 1940 was marked by a concerted drive for modernization of old stores and opening of new "kitchen clean" self-service coop eratives in the East and Middlewest. Co operatives were aided in this venture by technical assistance from Consumer Dis tribution Corporation, established by the late Edward A. Filene. Central Coopera tive Wholesale at Superior, Wisconsin, set up an architectural service for design ing new stores and opened a testing kitch en to check the quality of goods packed under the co-op label. This gives the Mid west co-ops a "food laboratory" to sup plement the work of the first co-op testing kitchen established two years ago by East ern Cooperative Wholesale in Brooklyn. Many new commodities were put under Consumers' Coopérât« January, 1941 the co-op label as the consumer coopera tives led the field in introducing govern ment ABC grade labeling. Sales Management magazine, making a scientific survey of the cooperative movement sent research men into 15 typi cal eastern cities to ask co-op members why they joined and maintained their loy alty to cooperatives. Eighty-eight per cent checked as vitally important, "Coopera tives can be depended upon to tell the whole truth about merchandise." Next in importance co-op members rated "Even where there is no money saving, the coop erative member may reasonably expect better quality." Co-op Farm Supply Purchases Gain 23 Million Cooperative purchasing of farm sup plies jumped $23,000,000 ahead of its volume for the previous year according to statistics just released by the Farm Credit Administration. During the 1939-1940 fiscal year cooperative purchases of farm supplies totaled $448,000,000—an all time high. Nine hundred thousand farm ers were members of 2,649 associations. Buying organizations are responsible for 17.2 per cent of all farm co-op business. Cooperative insurance reported remark able progress. The Farm Bureau Coop erative Insurance Services, Columbus, Ohio, reviewed their progress from a $10,000 business in 1926 to its present $10,000,000 a year premium income, pro viding auto, life and fire insurance for 380,000 consumer members in 11 states. During the year Minnesota and Wiscon sin cooperatives established Cooperative Insurance Services, backed by Central Co operative Wholesale, Midland Co-op Wholesale and local cooperatives in those two states to coordinate the life and auto insurance program carried on by Coopera- tors Life and the Cooperative Insurance Mutual. Rural Electric Cooperatives, set up with the assistance of long term loans from the Rural Electrification Administra tion were reported to be handling 92 per cent of the new develop- 11 ment under the REA program. At the end of the year more than 600 co-ops with 483,000 members were operating well over 200,000 miles of power lines. More rural homes have been electrified by co-ops in the last five years than were supplied power by all agencies in the previous fifty years. Cooperative burial associations in five midwestern states served more than 30,- 000 members through 40 societies. The average cost of a co-op burial was re ported to be $166 as compared with an average of $363 per burial in private profit mortuaries, according to a study made by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statis tics. Other Cooperative Services Grow Cooperative housing associations in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Madison and Nova Scotia completed about a hundred new houses. At the year's end, members of Amalgamated Cooperative Apartments in New York City voted to erect a new build ing consisting entirely of small apartments. The project, akeady housing 638 families, will thereby make its fourth addition since it was founded in 1927. Almost 2,000 new co-op credit unions were organized during the year, bringing their membership up to 2,250,000 and boosting their capital to above $200,000,- 000. Student co-ops on 160 campuses con tinued to expand—organizing new hous ing associations, eating clubs, book stores, laundry services, credit unions and medi cal associations on their campuses. The Pacific Coast League of Student Coopera tives and the Midwest Federation of Campus Co-ops increased their activity and worked in closer cooperation with the movement as a whole. A new Central League of Student Cooperatives including campus co-ops from North Dakota to Texas was formed during the annual meeting of CCA in North Kansas City in November. At the end of the year cooperative health associations were in operation in New York, Washington, D.C., Greenbelt, 12 Maryland, St. Paul, Superior, Wisconsin Elk City, Oklahoma, St. Louis, the Uni versity of Georgia, Washington State Col lege and in the Texas Panhandle. Cooperative Education and Recreation Cooperative democracy .is dependent o intensive cooperative education. In th state of Ohio alone 667 discussion grout. or advisory councils were in action at th close of the year. More than 8,000 fami lies were meeting regularly in thes groups. Inspired by the results accon pushed by the Ohio Farm Bureau Co operative Association, the Consumers Co operative Association, Midland Co-o, Wholesale, Central Cooperative Whole sale, Eastern Cooperative League and th California cooperatives launched simil adult education programs reaching an other 800 study clubs with 10,000 men bers. Employee education, spurred on by th rapidly increasing demand for traine personnel, reported its most successfn year. Rochdale Institute, in cooperatio with the Council for Cooperative Busine, Training, made up of representatives o Eastern Cooperative Wholesale, Con sumer Distribution Corporation and tl Institute, graduated its sixth class o trainees. Central Co-op Wholesale ran ten- week training school in Superior, Wis consin. Ohio Farm Bureau Co-ops ra their first employee training school thi fall, while Midland and CCA ran short courses. Youth camps and institutes wer run by half a dozen regionals. For the first time group singing, in promptu dramatics and folk dancing we made a part of the Cooperative Congre program, thus reflecting the growing in terest in all sections of the country i recreation. Evidence of this interest shown in many ways — the enrollment the National Cooperative Recreatio School reached a high of 125 students regional recreation conferences were con ducted by Midland Cooperative WhoL sale, Eastern Cooperative League, Centr States Cooperatives (Circle Pines Camp, and Ohio Farm Bureau Cooperative A ^dation; annual meetings of cooperative wholesales took time to sing and folk dance as part of their program; the an nual congress of the National Recreation Association had a special session on Rec- «aj1«1 ln Cooperatives for the first time; ^d lo<-al cooperatives from California to New York began to discover the values of group play in building the cooperative way ot Me- Cooperation in the Spotlight Among the important national organ- Jzations which gave or renewed their en- dorsement of the consumer cooperative movement were the National Education Association, Federal Council of Churches, American Federation of Labor, Congress Of Industrial Organizations, the National Grange, the Farmers Union and the American Farm Bureau Federation. Many individuals in the field of political action endorsed the movement. Among them were: Vice-president-elect Henry A. Wal- lace; Senator-elect George D. Aiken, Congressmen Jerry Voorhis and James C Oliver; candidates for presidential nom- jnation Thomas Dewey, Robert Taft, John Backer, Burton K. Wheeler, Norman Thomas and others. During the Cooperative League Con- gress the major press associations and radio news services carried stories on the Congress. Metropolitan newspapers in New York, Chicago and Boston sent special correspondents to cover it and several trade journals and other magazines wrote feature stories on the Congress Highlight of Congress publicity was a Special broadcast over the Columbia Broadcasting network immediately fol- lowing the Congress. More than sixty important magazines rom Readers Digest to New Republic to ^m-ey and Business Week published ar- iicjes a|-,out t^e cooperative movement New Books and Pamphlets Among the new books on cooperatives published during the year were the first iffo books published by The Cooperative eague: Consumers' Cooperatio January, 1941 Cooperation and Nationality, George Russell (AE) * The Story of Tompkinsville, Mary E. Arnold Other new books included: ABC of Cooperation, Gerald Rich ardson Cooperation to the Finnish, Henry H. Bakken Credit Unions of North America, Roy F. Bergengren Belgian Rural Cooperation, Eva J. Ross My Story by Paddy the Cope Manual for Cooperative Food Stores, Consumer Distribution Corp. Among the pamphlets published were: The Socialistic Trend As Affecting the Cooperative Movement, Dr. James P. Warbasse Organized Labor and Consumer Co operation, James Myers Cooperation Between Producers and Consumers, E. R. Bowen and Murray D. Lincoln Report of the NEA Committee on Cooperatives New Plans for Medical Service, Bu reau of Cooperative Medicine What You Ought to Know About Credit Unions, Anthony Lehner Credit Unions, The Peoples Banks, Maxwell Stewart Come On, Let's Play, Frank Shilston All Join Hands, Ellen Edwards and Jac Plauche A Manual on the Church and Coop eratives, Benson Y. Landis Among the new motion pictures on the cooperative movement completed during the year were: Consumers Serve Them selves, produced by the Eastern Coopera tive Wholesale and Consumer Distribu tion Corporation describing the co-op wholesale, testing kitchen and model store, and Traveling the Middle Way in Su'eden, a 6-reel movie in color, including a two-reel unit on Consumers Coopera tion in Siveden. Produced by the Harmon Foundation and The Cooperative League. 13 REVIEWS ORGANIZED LABOR AND CONSUMER COOPERA TION, by James Myers. Published by The Cooperative League of the U.S.A., 167 West 12th Street, New York City, 40 pages, 15c. This booklet is addressed not to cooperatives but to labor. And a good and challenging state ment to our friends in the labor movement it certainly is. The labor movement in this coun try needs to know much more about the coop erative movement. It needs to know it, as Dr. Myers points out, not only in its idealistic aspects but also as a plain matter of dollars and cents. If it is the practicality of our ideas that Dr. Myers stresses most in this connection no one will be likely to quarrel with him. For while men cannot live on bread alone they also cannot live without it. Organized labor, says Dr. Myers, has found one means of raising living standards, the trade-union. That device has proved highly effective in putting more dollars in the pay- envelope of trade-unionists. But, as he points out, the device only skims the surface of the problem. Another and very much more po tent device for expanding pay-envelopes lies ready at hand in the cooperative movement which, as we cooperators know, makes each dollar in the pay-envelope go further by giving us better merchandise at lower cost. Labor gives lip-service to the idea of consumer co operation but as yet has shown little inclina tion to do more than talk about it. All this and more Dr. Myers points out in his plea to labor to join forces with American cooperators in our great self-help movement. The cooperative movement is described from its humble beginnings among the Rochdale weavers (sweated workers every one of them) down to the amazing developments of the last few years in England, the Scandinavian coun tries and, most recently, here. Its relation to the labor movement is described in terms that should be helpful to cooperators as well as to labor. European cooperatives have adopted the policy of giving their cooperative employees better working conditions than are given their competitors in ordinary business. At the same time, as Dr. Myers is careful to point out, the trade-unions have shown a keen understand ing of the business problems involved and, as lie phrases it, have been careful not to "kill the goose that lays the golden eggs" by exces sive demands. The book concludes on a note of challenge. The cooperative idea has shown amazing vi tality in this countiy in the last decade. All branches of labor support it. Let us all there fore go forward together, labor and coopera tors alike. 14 And, as a final challenge of our own, let us assume the role of missionaries and see to it that this booklet gets everywhere into labor's : hands. —DOROTHY KENYON THE SOCIALISTIC TREND As AFFECTING THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT, by Dr. James P. Warbasse. Published by The Coopérât™ League of the USA, 32 pages. 15c. This brochure, Dr. Warbasse's latest, renders a signal service to the Cooperative Movement in America. Once and for all, we have a definite, two-fisted statement that "Cooperatio^ is the opposite of Socialism, and is the one effective organized force to-day that is mov ing the world away from Socialism." On this premise the Doctor builds an argument that will be hard to answer in as coolly logical t manner. He traces the creeping paralysis of stateism, and, looking ahead, sees more and more government ownership and dominatio., "if the organized consumers do not prevent it." And thus we go, step by step, toward to- tolitarianism, and all its damage to democratic rights. . . . and this is Socialism in effect, if not in pure theory. And here will come, says the author, "the conflict of the future—between a growing state- ism, (or Socialism in effect) and Coopéra tion." The severest critics of this contention! will be those who have followed, without fear, the encroaching powers of the state in these rapidly recurring periods of depression. The; believe that an expanding political state can save democracy. Dr. Warbasse doesn't. The; believe the state must ever be doing more and more for its people. Dr. Warbasse believes through Cooperation the people should be do ing more and more for themselves. Like squir rels, they jump from limb to limb and from tree to tree as one socialistic, or fascistic, ex periment "turns sour" for their ideals. Dr Warbasse remains constant. As they expect miracles from the power of the state, Dr. War- basse may also be expecting the impossible from Cooperation—but as between some doc trine of crass materialism and the doctrine of the Golden Rule we must reject the former— always. Likewise in this growing conflict, wi accept the calm, dispassionate, logical reason ing of the author. This is a brochure to which only less thought must be put into the reading than the author has put into the writing. Every sentence de serves mental parsing and close analysis. II will stand it. It must be read in a sense of d* tachment, if you will, from the dreary, opaque conditions here and abroad. If you can't di vorce yourself for the moment from the under- Current of war hysteria; if you can't gain a broader vision than that of the moment—don't read it awhile. Wait until you can read it in the crisp air and warm sunshine of clear thought. Then you will have a better idea of Cooperation as a practical ideal—not to be con fused with the reactionary theories of socialism that lead us away from democracy. —T. WARREN METZGER LATEST BOOKS RECEIVED (Available through The Cooperative League) ON COOPERATIVES Cooperation to the Finnish, by Henry H. Bak- ken, Mimir, Madison, Wis., $2.50 Credit Union North America, by Roy F. Bergen- gren, Southern Publishers, Inc., New York, $2.00 Marketing Cooperatives, by Donald F. Blank- ertz, The Ronald Press, New York, $4.00 Cooperation the Master Key in Universal Prob lems, by Lemuel Call Barnes, Schulte Press, New York, $1.00 Belgian Rural Cooperation, by Eva J. Ross, Bruce Publishing Co., Milwaukee, $4.50 The Problem of Cooperative Medicine, by V. J. Tereshtenko, Works Projects Administra tion, New York. * * * WITH SECTIONS ON COOPERATIVES Rural Roads to Security, by Msgr. Luigi G. Ugutti and John C. Rawe, S.J., Bruce Pub lishing Co., Milwaukee, $2.75 Do You Know Labor? by James Myers, Na tional Home Library Foundation, Washing ton, D.C., 50 $ Into Abundance, by Soren K. Ostergaard, Wil- lett, Clark & Co., Chicago, $1.50 Society in the Making, by M. N. Chatterjee, published by the author, Yellow Springs, Ohio, $1.00 So You're Going to College, by Clarence E. Lovejoy, Simon and Schuster, New York, $2.50 Trails to the New America, by John W. Her ring, Harper & Bros., New York, $2.00 Leadership for Rural Life, by Dwight Sander- son, Association Press, New York, $1.25 Rural America Lights Up, by Harry Slattery, National Home Library Foundation, Wash ington, D.C., paper bound, 25(S Tomorrow in the Making, Ed. by John N. An drews and Carl A. Marsden, McGraw Hill, New York, $3.00. Ch XII. The Cooperative Way, by Jacob Baker. Group Life, by Mary K. Simkhovitch, Associa tion Press, New York, $1.00 Consumers' Cooperation January, 1941 Consumers All, by Joseph Gaer, Harcourt, Brace & Co., New York, $2.00 Getting A Living, by Lutz, Foote and Stanton, Row, Peterson and Co., Evanston, 111., $1.80 Consumer Representation in the New Deal, by Persia Campbell, Columbia University Press, New York, $3-25 The American Stakes, by John Chamberlain, Carrick & Evans, Inc., New York, $2.75 Problems of American Democracy, by Horace Kidger, Ginn & Co., New York, $1.68 Introductory Sociology, by Robert L. Sutherland and Julian Woodward, Lippincott & Co., New York, $3.50 The City of Man, A Declaration on World De mocracy issued by Herbert Agar and others, Viking Press, New York, $1.00 Social Education, Stanford Educational Confer ence, Macmillan Company, New York, $1.75 Rosscommon, Charles Alien Smart, Random House, New York, $2.00 Making Consumer Education Effective, Proceed ings, 2nd National Conference, Institute for Consumer Education, Stephens College, Co lumbia, Missouri, $1.00 * * * LATEST PAMPHLETS RECEIVED Credit Unions: The People's Banks, by Max well Stewart, Public Affairs Committee, New York, 10(S What You Ought to Know About Credit Unions, by Anthony Lehner, Pennsylvania Farm Bureau Cooperative Ass'n, Harrisburg, Penn., 10 $2.50 color and $1.50, blart When You Buy, Trilling, Eberhart and and white. Nicholas, High school and college, two _. chapters on consumer cooperatives ........ 1.80 "The Lord Helps Those —Who Help KM» „ ., TT 11 j «r »i • <-,«> • , Othe»," a new 3 reel, 16 mm. film of the NOTI Coopération, Hall and Watkms, Official Scotla' a per week. American Students and the Cooperative "A HouHe Without » Landlord," a new 2U Movement 02 reel, 16 mm. silent film on the Amalgamate« Co-ops on the'Campus,' Bertram "ETFOwler .03 Cooperative Houses in New York City. Campus Co-ops, William Moore ... ........ 05 "ClaiipliiR lliinil«." 1(i mm. silent, two reel fill.., showing how cooperation is taught in tlii Cooperatives and Peace schools of France. Cooperatives and Peace, Harold Fey ........ .05 "When Miiiiklnil I* \VlllliiK." a 10 mm. silei» Cooperation—A Way of Peace, J. P. War- eratfve'^'tilres whoVsnles^aiid^^ctories'0!!! basse, Co-op Edition ...................................... .50 France. • Caatorrativ* Rerrrafi™ A D^ wlth Kagawu. 3 reel, silent, 16 mi_ • cooperative Kecreatton Kagawa and his co-ops in Japan. The Consumer Consumed. Josephine „*.,*,,*» ,. .« , .-..,, Johnson, a Puppet Play ........ . 05 «ental: Each of four above $3 per day, $1.50 ,, .. „ ., -, , TT . " . for each additional showing or $10 per week. Cooperative Recreation, Carl Hutchinson, reprinted from The Annals .......................... .05 POSTFRS Two One Act Plays, Ellis Cowling .............. .15 The Answer. 3-act play, EHis Cowling ...... .20 Organize Cooperatives, 19"x28" The Spider Web, 3-act play, Ellis Cowling .25 „ **Teeu' ° ro* ** —•--••••••--••-•-••----•-• - _ .. „. „ , , .. . „ Cooperative Principles. 19"x28" Let's Play, Frank Shilston .............................. .20 mue, 5 for $1 ................................................... .2« All Join Hands, Edwards and Plauché .... .15 Cooperative Ownership, 19"x28" Education Through Recreation. L. P. Jacks 1.50 Mulberry, 5 for $1 .......................................... .2« List of recreational materials, songs, dances. Consumer Ownership—Of, By and For fames, available from Cooperative Recreation the People, 19"x28", Red-White-and- ervice, Delaware. Ohio. Blue. 5 for $1 .................................................... .2« Fun for All, two spinning games, Midland Buy Co-op, 19"x28", Red-White-and-BIue. Co-op Wholesale ................................................ .10 5 for $1 ...................................................._...... .2fl 16 Consumers' Cooperation f G Stimulate Consumption Instead of Subsidizing Scarcity Cooperatives and Character Building Dr. Le Roy E. Bowman From Consumer to Crude—Cooperation All the Way Ten Things Which Cooperatives Should Do Under War Time Conditions Here's an Idea Jack McLanahan Cooperative Recreation Notes Ellen Edwards What We Ought to Know About Credit Unions: A Review J. Orrin Shipe February 1941 25 YEARS OF COOPERATION On March 18th the Cooperative League will celebrate its 25th birthday, by looking back over a quarter of a century of organized Cooperative education and looking forward to the job of post-war reconstruction. "Nothing is so powerful as an idea whose time has come." As America turns into a new period of its economic history, the Cooperative Movement is destined to an important position of leadership. In recognition of this 25th Anniversary, the March issue of Consumers' Co operation will be a special number, dipping into the past and laying out a partial blueprint for the future. We urge you to place your order now for extra copies of the March issue* or for subscriptions to Consumers' Cooperation, $1 per year, 27 months for $2. Mail your order to: THE COOPERATIVE LEAGUE 167 West 12th Street, New York City THE COOPERATIVE LEAGUE 608 South Dearborn, Chicago 167 West 12th Street, New York City 726 Jackson Place N.W., Washington, D. C. DIVISIONS: Auditing Bureau, 167 West 12 St., N. Y. C. Medical Bureau, 1790 Broadway, N. Y. C. Design Service, 167 West 12 St., N. Y. C. Rochdale Institute, 167 West 12 St., N. Y. C. AFFILIATED REGIONAL AND NATIONAL COOPERATIVES Name Address Publication Associated Cooperatives, N. Cal. Associated Cooperatives, So. Cal. Central Cooperative Wholesale Central States Cooperatives, Inc. Consumers Cooperative Association Consumers' Cooperatives Associated Consumers Book Cooperative Cooperative Distributors Cooperative Recreation Service Eastern Cooperative League Eastern Cooperative Wholesale Farm Bureau Cooperative Ass'n Farm Bureau Mutual Auto Insurance Co Farm Bureau Services Farmers' Union Central Exchange Grange Cooperative Wholesale Indiana Farm Bureau Coop. Association Midland Cooperative Wholesale National Cooperatives, Inc. National Cooperative Women's Guild Pacific Supply Cooperative Pennsylvania Farm Bureau Coop. Ass'n Southeastern Coop. Education Ass'n United Cooperatives, Inc. Workmen's Mutual Fire Ins. Society 372—40th St., Oakland Cooportunity 7 218 S. Hoover St., New Age Living Los Angeles Superior, Wisconsin Cooperative Builder 2301 S. Millard, Chicago The Round Table N. Kansas City, Mo. Cooperative Consumer Amarillo, Texas The Producer-Consumer 27 Coenties Slip, N.Y.C. Readers Observer 116 E. 16 St., N. Y. Consumers Defender Delaware, Ohio The Recreation Kit 135 Kent Ave., Brooklyn The Cooperator 135 Kent Ave., Bklyn The Cooperator Columbus, Ohio Columbus, Ohio Lansing, Michigan St. Paul, Minn. Seattle, Washington Indianapolis, Ind. Minneapolis, Minn. Ohio Farm Bureau News Ohio Farm Bureau News Michigan Farm News Farmers' Union Herald Grange Cooperative News Hoosier Farmer Midland Cooperator Chicago, 111. 608 South Dearborn, Chicago Walla Walla, Wash. Pacific N.W. Cooperate Harrisburg, Penn. Carrollton, Georgia Indianapolis, Ind. 227 E. 84th St., N. Y. Penn. Co-op Review Southeastern Cooperator FRATERNAL MEMBERS Credit Union National Association Madison, Wisconsin The Bridge CONSUMERS' COOPERATION OFFICIAL NATIONAL JOURNAL OF THE CONSUMERS' COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT Volume XXVII, No. 2 PEACE -PLENTY • DEMOCRACY FEBRUARY. 1941 Ten Cents GET GROCERY MINDED! When will every cooperative leader answer the expressed and unexpressed demand of the members to get into groceries? When will we all answer the chal lenge of Sir William Dudley, late president of the Cooperative Wholesale Society of England, that feeding human stomachs cooperatively is more important than feeding animal and tractor stomachs cooperatively? The consumer need is here. The statistics show that even farmers buy more food than any other commodity. Fortune magazine gave these figures for one year of the distribution of farmer purchases: for the farmer, 571/2%, for the farm, The economic requirement is here. Margins in farm supply lines into which the cooperative movement has entered are declining as a result of cooperative competi tion. It is necessary to broaden the base of cooperatives with home supply lines to insure economic success for the future. The member demand is here. The Cooperative Reporter, published by the Ohio Farm Bureau Cooperative Association, challenges leaders to lead out in these words, "Instead of searching for facts in their field, with a view to extending the range of their services as quickly as possible, cooperatives are inclined to hold back until forced by an impatient minority to take some forward step. It is the exception and not the rule, it seems, to find an association that does not have to be almost driven to subscribe to the wider ideals of the cooperative movement." The evidence of success is here. The bogy of chain store efficiency is cracked. The Harvard study proved that even in their early stages cooperative stores have been able to equal chain stores in percentage of expense. Market basket test pur chases show that cooperative stores can and do equal chain store prices and give higher quality. A cooperative store has the precious ingredient of business which no An organ to spread the knowledge of the Consumers' Cooperative Movement, whereby the people, in voluntary association, purchase and produce for their own use the things they need. Published monthly by The Cooperative League of the U.S.A., 167 West 12th St., N. Y. City. E. R. Bowen, Editor, Wallace J. Campbell, Associate Editor. Contributing Editors: Editors of Cooperative Journals and Educational Directors of Regional Cooperative Associations. Entered as Seecond Class Matter, December 19, 1917, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879. Price $1.00 a year. chain store can ever achieve, of the loyalty of consumer ownership which results in mass automatic distribution to equal modern automatic production. All too slowly are cooperatives going into groceries. Why should not every farm supply cooperative appoint a committee to investigate the addition of home supplies to their lines. It's time to act now! Why should not urban cooperatives be formed more rapidly where none exist and follow the proven methods and achieve the possible results which others are doing ? Superior has pioneered the way. Midland, Kansas City, Chicago and Brooklyn have followed. Now the Great G.L.F. of Ithaca, N. Y. is starting to answer the unexpressed and expressed demand of their members for cooperatively purchased and processed food, as well as animal feed, by opening a modern food-store at Rome, N. Y. Other regionals should "do likewise." Religious, educational and political democracy will never be retained in Amer ica and still further developed, unless and until a cooperative economic democracy is built alongside them. Either a brighter democratic age or a darker dictatorial age is ahead of us, and we are the ones who will decide which it will be in America. STIMULATE CONSUMPTION INSTEAD OF SUBSIDIZING SCARCITY We must turn our faces toward abundance. We must accept the possibilities of power production to provide plenty for all. We must build an automatic method of mass distribution to match our automatic machines of mass produc tion. We must release our power machines from the hands of finance-capital which operates them to produce profits for the few and poverty for the many. We must take off the brakes and dig out the sand in the gears by which profits slow up production. Finance started the scarcity program by high interest rates. Industry fol lowed by high prices. Labor followed by immigration quotas and other restrictions. Agriculture then followed in line by reducing production. Now all four great producer groups are following a scarcity instead of an abundance program. And with what result? Not parity of plenty, but parity of scarcity. It could not do otherwise. Means and ends are always the same. Scarcity policies result in scarcity production, not plenty. We have reached the age of producer groupism. Finance, industry, labor and agriculture are fighting out a battle as groups instead of individuals, but it is still the same old battle with the same old results. Finance and industry continue to increase their percentage of ownership, and labor and agriculture increasingly lose out. When Henry A. Wallace, our Vice-Président, went to Washington eight years ago he said that the government was going to take hold of the heads of this four horse producer team and keep them in line. But no free government can do it and continue to be free. Government cannot control economics in a free society, nor can economics control government. Economics is made up of pro ducers and consumers. Government is made up of citizens. Only economic con sumers, not political citizens, can control economic producers in a free society. If citizens attempt to take control of producer groups, then the end is Statism. The basic trouble in America is that consumers have not recognized their potential power and organized to deal directly with the producer groups. Pro ducers are basically farmers and workers. Consumers (who are the same farmers and workers) must become the owners of finance and industry. Then represen tatives of farmers and workers, organized as producers and consumers, will meet across the table and bargain with themselves. Only then can we have plenty— never so long as we permit finance and industry to be owned by a few middle men for their own profits. Speed the organization of farmers marketing cooperatives and labor unions! Speed the organization of consumers cooperatives in every field of industry and finance! This is the road to plenty. This is the next and final step for democracy. In the meantime, until these voluntary democratic producers and consumers cooperatives can take over, the government should base its relief program for all groups on the principle of stimulating consumption instead of restricting pro duction, as it has largely done thus far. The two things most necessary are, first, to make every effort to reduce consumers prices and second, to tax away the excess savings from the few. Taxation of excess incomes, inheritances and profits is the most important function the government could perform to stimulate con sumption, instead of continuing to borrow the excess savings away and paying interest on them. The two greatest mistakes in government policy in recent years are in encouraging price fixing at higher levels and in borrowing instead of taxing. It's high time for the government to encourage consumption rather than reducing production. COOPERATIVES AND CHARACTER BUILDING ""THERE is always the temptation, A whenever one speaks of an organiza tion with which he is identified, to find in it the elements of virtue and to assume that competing or parallel organizations are "not so good." In time of war or preparation for war this temptation is stronger. Our country is the best in the world, our institutions perfect. Hence, cooperators should be on their guard right now not "to claim virtue for coop eration merely because it is their organ ization. We should be objective and criti cal of ourselves, in order to know the truth which is in itself a satisfaction, and in order to know where we should im prove. It may be well to admit, therefore, at the outset, that while there are many ways in which cooperation builds char acter, a brief survey of the movement may reveal limitations which should be stim uli to efforts to supplement its operation, by other activities that will round out its character forming potentialities. There may be gaps in the practices of coopera tives that should be filled by adoption of other or changed practices. What Is Character Building? "Character building" is a loose phrase, made up of "weasel" words. I shall not 18 Consumers' Cooperation February, 1941 Dr. LeRoy E. Bowman attempt to define it, because I do not be lieve definition important here, nor con ducive to harmonious thinking. There are several generally accepted attributes of human beings which are affected di rectly and vitally by cooperative prac tices. It is these that furnish the most fruitful basis for consideration. First and of greatest significance is the question: is character building essentially a function of consumers' cooperation? To maintain that the movement is a business and the job of building charac ter belongs to other agencies, is to pre clude any real opportunity to build char acter. For, it is in the direct connection, even the essential identity, of practical day by day affairs and ethical considera tions that character depends. To separate business methods from goodness, from unselfishness, and from ideals, is to rele gate these flowers of the human spirit to the vacuum of abstract considerations. Nothing happens to the character of those people who only in home, or church, or school are instructed to deal justly with their fellowmen, and who regard busi ness transactions outside the moral realm. Character grows in exercise of important functions. It may have been true in by- 19 gone days that personal relations were the important channels of ethics. In face to face contact one was just or unjust. But today, the welfare of us all depends on the business transacted in the country as a whole, not to say in the world. Virtue consists in doing the things which in their results bring most good to most people. Therefore, a business transaction that seems impersonal may be, and usu ally is, fraught with more significance of virtue, human kindness, unselfishness and even patriotism, than individual attitudes toward individuals. It is in the realm of consumption that life is enjoyed or suffered. We run co operative businesses in order to consume goods and services and social contacts (for they, too, are part of the area of con sumption). It is easy to see that virtue and its opposite are of first importance in the family where we consume the ele- mentals, and in the other social group ings where consumption is on a less phy sical basis. In other words, no matter what type of business we may be in, we produce and exchange in order to live the best lives possible in the realms where character counts most. How incon sistent and destructive of its own aim would be a system of production and dis tribution that ignored or destroyed char acter building in its own operations. Character building is no side line to the aims and operations of a cooperative, it is of the essence of cooperative business. Does Cooperation Foster Honesty? The principles of cooperative organ ization and control, if carried out con sistently, take away many of the incen tives of cheating and exploitation. If the members own the business obviously it is to their own interests to tell all the truth about the quality of goods or ser vices they sell themselves. The usual dis honesty of advertising fails to have any purpose in a cooperative enterprise. There is a social, democratic flavor to a coop erative that fosters a spirit of loyalty and fair play among the members. Much more might be said in high 20 praise of cooperatives as a wholesome chan nel of business relations between equals. But, after it has all been said, several questions present themselves. The first is : do consumers want to know the truth ? Are not some of them better satisfied, that is get more of what they want for their money, if they are told in glam orous advertisements of glories that ac tually do not reside in the articles they purchase? If there are consumers of that kind, is it ethical to deflate their expansive expectations and make them conscious of the cold, hard facts about cosmetics, for example? The answer is that in this respect the cooperative move ment is not merely giving to consumera just what they want. It is educating them. It is actually teaching them to want the truth, and in so doing, it is building character. The whole effort at grading and labeling is as much character build ing as it is a business effort to satisfy demands from cooperative consumers. Is There Morality in Buying Cheaper? In the matter of grading and labeling, however, the effort has come from the leaders in the movement. Perhaps that is the way it must come. But it raises the next question as to character building, and it is: to what extent are the prin ciples of cooperation the appeal to mem bers of local cooperatives, and to what extent, on the other hand, are these mem bers responding merely to the opportuni ty to get things more cheaply than from competitive enterprises. Those who are solely or chiefly motivated by the latter desire surely are not being bettered ethi cally by "buying co-op." To the extent that cooperative education is carried to each member, to that extent the prin ciples and practices of the movement haw an uplifting influence on the members. Learn to Demand Democracy Do the leaders in the cooperatives givt to the members the amount of democraq that the advocates of the cooperative movement say they do? Do the members demand and practice as much democrat« control as the statement of our prin ciples would indicate? The answer is ob vious: in most cooperatives, no, altho they vary greatly. Further, it takes time for democracy to develop in any group. Nevertheless the inescapable fact remains that the cooperative movement is given more credit for democratic organization than it deserves. And the effect on char acter of getting more praise than is due is negative; it detracts from character. Practically there are but two conclusions to come to: (1) to build character, all cooperators should be ruthless in telling the truth about the degree of democracy they possess; and (2) building character in cooperators in any given enterprise is necessary in the sense of using every means constantly to make the organiza tion democratic. To try once and sit back defeated because the members in other organizations have become habituated to the goose step, is to be untrue to the highest challenge of the movement. I would like to dig deeper. One of our essential principles concerns neutrality. We are all one family, all faiths, races, political persuasions. But are we? Do we believe in this principle? To answer one can say without fear of contradiction that the effect of cooperative experience is broadening. But we are not free of preju dice. That much could be taken for grant ed; if we are improving we can not be criticized too severely. The awful thought pops up, however, that we are not as neutral as we pretend. And pretending is not building character. Weed Out Prejudice There are cooperatives in which one kind of people predominate, whereas the community contains many other kinds who would profit from membership even more than those who belong. I speak of middle-class cooperatives which are suc cessful and satisfied, while workers are being exploited in another part of town. Lately I have heard, without great sur prise, of cooperatives, fearful, suspicious and exclusive in the attitude of their members toward Jews. The farmer co- operators and the town cooperators hard- Consumers' Cooperation February, 1941 ly understand each other in some essen tial points, to say nothing about coop erating in the big venture. It is not nec essary to give in any greater detail what a moments' critical thought will bring to the mind of any competent observer about smugness and prejudice within co operatives. Furthermore, the usual development of a local cooperative (which I am not ad versely criticizing here), beginning with a few and spreading to their friends, is quite often conducive of a closeness of understanding that is fine, but also a smugness that is bad. The fact is the modern world demands a positive reach ing across racial and other barriers in economic relations that is inadequately furnished by local cooperatives. Here, too, the question is not one of satisfying the consumer demands in the matter of com modities alone. Character building is needed in the extension of understand ing, tolerance, appreciation of common interests, even fellowship. Usually in the long view, cooperative business interests are to be served by the extension of group consciousness in cooperative members. Double-Edged Sword of Leadership Is the cooperative movement rigidly honest in one other particular, that of the reward given the leader? This is a two-edged sword. Sometimes the leader sacrifices much and is rewarded little. Sometimes a leader, even in the coopera tive movement, becomes entrenched. The emphasis has been rightly on "one-man- one-vote," but there needs to be a much more conscious and concerted effort to think through the problem of leadership. It is primarily an ethical one. The rela tionship of leader and group is contrac tual in nature, even though money never is mentioned. If a leader or a manager stays too long, and shuts off the chance of others in the local group there is surely going to be resentment, and lack of ini tiative on the part of those who might become more important leaders. Such a situation is stultifying, not character building. Some leaders are not growing 21 in character in their position any longer. For their inner ethical development often times a change, even a disappointing one, is necessary. The exhibitionism of most leaders is insatiable. They could listen to them selves make speeches forever and think the world was being led onward and up ward so long as they talk. There is more development of cooperative character in them and surely in the membership when speeches are few and short, as well as widely distributed, and when discussion is led well and is participated in generally. Is the Social Drive of Cooperation Intense Enough? Ethical evaluation of a person can be made not alone by seeing what he is, but how he relates his acts and himself to others. So, too, with a movement. Today cooperation faces the greatest responsibility it has ever seen in this country. It is the one unquestioned an swer to the need for a business system that is sound; that returns its benefits to the many consumers and not the few owners; that teaches an understanding of the whole economic process that has been stretched out and specialized beyond the imagination of 95% of those it serves; that trains individuals in democ racy; that helps spread things and ser vices to those who need them; that stabilizes business in a world in which crazy depressions follow cock-eyed peri ods of prosperity. These are days that demand courage, daring, initiative, na tional vision. We should be intense, we should be devoted, we should be single in our ef forts. Cooperators are taking their or ganization too casually. We should be relating what we do to the crisis we are in. We should be showing that in the philosophy, the effects on people, the economic results, in short, in its national significance, cooperation is of vital mo ment—NOW! We can't stop war per haps; it is already melting in this early stage some of the finest metal of our democratic ideals: But we could give co- 22 operation the place it deserves and build for the day when normal relations again must be established. I am urging less devotion to inconse quential organizations, and more to co operation. Sociability, recreation, culture, these and other things for which Ameri cans organize hundreds of good but in effective organizations that clutter u" communities, these should be built into the movement. We need to change our lives that they may count for the things that are important. To do so takes cour age. Not to do so in the light of what is happening in America and in Europe may mean that they will be changed for us. In substance I am saying that coopera tors cannot now live up to the demands on them from the times in which we live unless they do two things. One is to have the bearing of cooperation on national economics and national politics explained and discussed, with scientific charts and research experts, but discussed by every man, woman and child in the movement. The second is to concentrate our social contacts and our dispersed activities in two or three rather than a score of organ izations. One of the two or three is the cooperative. It is too often a store when it should be a community force driving at the establishment of a dynamic democ racy in the face of totalitarian threats. Does Cooperation Affect the Human Side of People or Just Do Business? For any organization or institution to gain a hold on its members, or to extend its influence widely and permanently, it is necessary that the organization relate itself closely to human or social drives of all the people it affects. It is in this re spect that competitive business fails most completely and makes its most farcical efforts to remedy its defect. To the cooperative on the other hand is open practically all the avenues of ap proach to people as humans, and all the opportunities of associating the membeis as active, interacting persons, interested in each other. To take advantage of thest opportunities in no sense lessens the ap prédation of economic advantages of co operation. It adds to such appreciation. It is impossible to build character except through vital, interesting give-and-take between people. Many will think immediately of the meeting. Usually the meeting can be hu manized a great deal. Give-and-take should be the ideal. Instead of a long and dry presentation of figures or a set of facts, discussion could be induced among all the members as to what they want in the matter in hand, and the facts and figures brought in to feed this give-and- take. Graphic material is social, believe it or not. The reason is that a chart, or a diagram, or a graph of any kind, maybe a picture, held up before a crowd gives a feeling of oneness, of something they all can look at together, of an object that is common for discussion. The important points in any meeting should be few. If they could be gotten across to all the audience it would lift the interest in almost every organization. A skit, or an original song, a poem said in unison, a Punch and Judy illustration might be more effective, use more people, spread the leadership, interest more of the audience and go deeper into the feel ings, than a meeting wholly devoted to reports and speeches. One human proclivity organizations learn to use to connect members with the organization is the universal desire to eat. To eat together is not pampering the dis interested. Even the wise old timers have cooperation driven closer into their in most selves by a meeting at a meal than by the same meeting in straight back chairs in rows. Is this character building? It is, if ever cooperation builds character, for it is con structed out of the responses we make rather than the words we hear. At a din ner everyone is served the same. Everyone responds. Any experienced leader will say that a feeling of equality and uni versal, active response is the best possible prelude to an important development in a meeting. For this reason community singing is often resorted to, or congre- Consumers' Cooperation February, 1941 gational reading. Perhaps it is wise to say that universal response on a basis of equality is the essential condition to be achieved before character can be built. A prominent organizer and educator replies to the question: what is needed most to get cooperators back of their or ganizations, by saying: (1) Get people waked up; (2) Get them working to gether, not just being dominated. Noth ing could be better then than an active game, a square dance, singing of well- known songs. It is easy; it is enjoyable; it always works. After there has been a feeling of common response, then the individuals will more freely take the ini tiative in discussion, in committee activity or in work in the business. Action, Creation— Even a Dash of Romance In the active, the social, the creative, and the expressive response, there will be a play of many of the wishes of people. Everybody will count as one, he will be recognized by simply taking part. Every one will get the satisfaction of others responding to him, in games, dances, dra matics, discussion. Friendliness, even a bit of romance for some, a chance to show ability for many who are silent in meet ings—these and other emotional responses are stirred. Many if not most people, per haps all, are stirred more deeply by active, social or aesthetic expressions than by mere talk. It is for this reason that coop eration must include expressions of the kind mentioned if it is attempting to affect at all deeply the individuals who form its membership. The deepest feelings and the universal appreciations have been the best impulses of artists to create in song, sculpture, painting, dance, drama, in prose or in poetry, the finest formulations of the spirit. In our movement we have the form, the logic, the economic interest. For them to take the place of beauty in our lives that they deserve it will be necessary that they be fo