East Saginaw courier. (East Saginaw, Mich.) 1859-18??, 1865-05-03

damage, and are, now that a turn fol
the better has been experienced, max
} ing up for lost ground.
Next to Lancashire and Yorkshire
the greatest cooperative progress has
been made in Scotland. There, as in
J England, wherever skilled industry
and the intelligence that accompanies
it are found, the Cooperative Store is
also to be found. Throughout Ayr
shire, Renfrewshire, and Lanarkshire,
there is scarcely town or village
without its store or stores. In Fife
shire and Forfarshire they abound
Bannockburn is a town where the CO.
operative is a large and thriving bust
ness. In Edinburgh. considerable
success has been attained = Whilst in
Galashiels there is one store that does
business to the extent Of close upon
/ 7O.00OL q year.. !es
! 1t has already been stated that tho
! oldest store known is in G6van, near
Glasgow; and although Scotland cam
not show any individual success equal
to that of Rochdale, it is a question
whether the working people of the
sister country are not making quite
as rapid and satisfactory progress
as the same class in England.
! In London tho progress of co-ope-
ration has not been so great as in the
provinces; fact Which those who bost
know the working people of the me-
tropolis attribute to their want of
knowledge of each other. They live
more apart and are not mixed up
with each other in their employments
as in the provinces. Notwithstanding
this, however, stores are planted pref
ty numerously, and though some of
them are but weak, others are pro-
crossing rapidly enough. AS the prin-
ciple becomes better understood, too,
and the practice escapes from the
hands OF mere talkers into tlIvso of
practical men, cooperation, will no
doubt come to be widely practised by
the working people in London as else
where. ga hfin
1t is still farther sought to develope
the Cooperative Store system by adj
ding a great central Wholesale depot
at which all the goods needed by the
several stores may be procured. The
friends of this scheme argue that the
movement must be incomplete 50 long
as competing wholesale tradesmen do
the business and receive the profit Of
such an extensive trade. Besides it
is declared that 60 long as this is the
case; no sufficient guarantee can be
given Of purity or quality in many Of
the articles sold.
An attempt to supply this deficien-
cy was made in London some years
back, but it il believed to have failed
cooperative public nad not then be-
come alive to the great Importance OF
such step, and next, because hired
who buy and sell for
large number of the stores, gave II
their opposition, believing their trade
would cease under snch system
Rochdalo, however; through the ex-
tent Of its business in certain articles,
and in consequence of the skill and
integrity of those who manage its
affairs, is gradually stepping into the
position of a Wholesale centre for its
own neighborhood, and this after all
may be the natural growth OF the CO.
operative system of business.
But by far the most interesting part
Of the cooperative movement is that
portion which deals with manufactur-
ing industry--with the management
of capital, the employment OF labour,
and the manipulation of markets for
the purchase Of raw material, and for
tho sale Of manufactured goods.
In associations for the employment
of labor many qualifications are de-
manded hich are not needed in max
ing the ordinary purchases and sales
in the stores. The building and sur
nishing cotton mill with machinery,
its management in working, and the !
conduct of it's outside business are |
serious matters, and ut certain times
very difficult ones putting aside any
thing connected with the specialties OF
cooperation. In the majority of
cases, however, as mere trading con-
Germs, cooperative factories have been
successful. In one or two places they
have failed through bad management
and disagreement amongst the share
holders, but the most important ex-
periments have realised all that could
be fairly looked for,
IT is right to state, besides, that two
sets of opinions prevail, and are strong
ly contested amongst those who ore
engaged in this branch of the co.
operative movement. The largest Sec
ton refuse TO see anything in it beyond
an extension of the joint-stock princi-
pie. They invest their money, they
say, for the purpose of making profit
on It, their principal desire being to
make as much as they fairly. can, and
in some cases they have managed to
make their investments very protita-
bic. ilj e1ohi ngy9 .il. ss' = 4
in Baeup, it is said, that after thcy
had spent a considerable sum Of
MONEY in the erection Of a spinning
and weaving mill. they borro we'd ION
the security of what they had thus.
exponded) large additional sum, at
! five per cent with which to complete,
their undertaking. The shareholders
rand non-shareholders work side by
side in this mill, but when at the end
of tho quarter or the half year the
accounts are made up and FIVE per
cent. is paid on the borrowed capital,
a very larg profit, some fifty per cent,
sometimes remains TO be divided
amongst the shareholders. The or
dinary non-shareholding workerssim-
ply get their wages as they would in
any other establishment; the only dit
ference as far rs they are concerned
being, that they have a hundred or a
hundred and fifty masters instead of
y ono or fwc. : n circumstance not likely