Daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1859-1865, 1865-01-16

THR Edinburgh Repiev for October has
long and interesting article on the CO.
operative societies of Great Britain. These
associations are shown to be of the highest
value to the working classes, not merely as
means of securing economy and comfort,
but still more as promotive of intelligence
and morality and the extension of the right
of suffrage. There are 800 of these societies
in Great Britain, with some zoe, 900 mem
bers, and an aggregate accumulated capital
of FIVE million dollars. Their Operations
are not confined to trade, but there are
several .fourishing manufactures on the
same principle, and it is being tried in
farming and many other pursuits. The
associations generally maintain reading
rooms many of them evening schools and
courses of lectures, and all have fund for
the relief of their poor members. Thus
their scope is somewhat broader than that
of our trade-union stores. The improved
condition of the laborers connected with
these societies is thus described -
"They buy the purest sugar, and the
best tea. and grind their own coffee. They
slaughter their own cattle; and the finest
beasts of the land wsddle down the streets
of Rochdsle for the consumption of fan
mel. WeaYers and cobblers. When did COM
petition give poor men these advantages?
And will any man say that the moral
character of these people is not improved
under these influences? The teetotalers
of .RochdaIe acknowledge that the store
has made more sober men since it com"
menced than all theiS efforts have been
able to make in the same time. Husbands
who never knew what it was to be out OF
debt, and poor wives who, during forty
years, never had sixpeuce uucondemned in
their pockets, now possess little stores OF
money sufficient to build them cottages,
and go every week into their own market
with money jtngling in their pockets; and
in that market there is no disiTust, and no
deception; there is no adulteratian and no
second prices. The whole atmosphere is
honest. Those who serve neitker hurry,
inesse, nor fatter. They have no interest
in chicanery. They have but one duty to
perform-that of giving fair measure, full
weight, and pure article"
But the most remarkable evidence of the
material value of the cooperative system
is found in the fact that it has enabled the
Lancashire workmen connected with it
not only to go through the cotton famine
in comparative comfort, bnt to assist the
less fortunate outsiders. Daring the dis
tress the members of the SO societies in
Lancashire drew. about Gl35,oO0 from
their accumulated funds, but all The socie"
ties went through the trial and now stand
secure. 1t is TO be considered that the
money thus available for support, at a
period when there was little work, was the
accumulated savings by cooperation,
which under the old system of competitive
trade would have disappeared in the prot
its of the traders. The great results of the
cooperative system are embodied in this
brief statement, the members get best ar
ticles at the lowest prices; there is then q
profit of twenty per cent on the business,
one-fourth of which is distributed TO the
members, and the remainder used in the
support of reading rooms, schools, baths,
aud other objects of mutual advantage,
such as may be approved by vote. And
the amounts bestowed in charity by these
associations show that their tendency is
by no means to promote sel6shness in con-
nection with thrift. Says the ReVisr0:-
ait is enough to be grateful for, that q
considerable body of men and women nave
found the way to bridge over the deep ana
widening gulf which has existed between
the moneyed and the laboriug classes IN
our country; that they have proved that
the best things of life are at the command
of that laboring class; that they nave
checked that expenditure of millions year
| " in drink and smoking which has been
our greatest social encouragement; that
they have shown how moderate toll, a.
IIowinR leisure for intellectual culture and
moral enjoyment, viii! sustain the comfort
and independence of temperate and pru-
dent households, and above all, that when
The thing is set about properly, co-opera-
tion may be as productive as competition
while far less expensive in the use."
With the increase of comfort indepen
nence and intelligence in these CO opera
tive societies has naturally sprung up at
ambition to enjoy all the privileges of citi
zenship, and the most Influential demand
for.an extension of the suffrage now comet
from these co-operators. AT recent tea
party of two Thousand of these co-opera
tors at Manchester, one of,the speakers de
clared with confidence that it would o.
Impossible for the government to e1cluu'
much 5lopgsr from the franchise the nun
dreds of thousands of men trained to habit
r'.-.f', o,d infaIIi0anL tn nm oh