The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-08-21
Ffoni lie Meto York Times.

EnEIand--Ups and Downs of the
Business In this Country-.-The PrEn
cipIes Necessary TO Success. o.
From ate Neto York Times.
The history of cooperation in Eng
land, Continental Europe and America,
respectively, presents marked but not
unnatural differences. In England CO.
operative stores have been the success
tnl pioneers of cooperative mnnufac-
turing, but original cooperative indus
tries are such mainly as have beensini-
tInted by the magnanimity or wise fore
cast of great employers. In America,
On the contrary, cooperative stores, al
though commenced about the same
time as in England, have achieved no
brilliant results, and, in large number
of instances, we suspect n majority,
have failed. The eXigencies of retail
trade are very different In this country,
the business is much more easily start
ed, hence more over-crowded, ,over-done
and irregular in its profits, and the pe-
culiar Accomplishments of the artisan
have been more readily successful in
departments of industry than OF com
merce. Hence ourachievements in this
kind some OF them among the most en-
couraging yet accomplished, have been
mostly of the industrial character hith-
erto, and the order OF progress is thus re-
Versed as compared with the mother
country, the workshop being here the
real pioneer of the store so far as general
| success is concerned, while in England
the store has introduced the workshop.
In France and Germany the conditions
have been of still another sort ;co-opera-
tion having taken almost exclusively
the commercial form, and that with
| narrower aims and results than in Eng
land, and together with any slight ap-
proaches made to the admission of op-
eratives to a share in the profits of man
ufacturing, having been mainly inltia-
ted by the benevolence OF philanthro-
pists or generous employers. In these
contrasts we see exhibited the inferior
enterprise of continental operatives as
compared with those OF the Anglo-SaX-
on race, the superior commercial quai-
ties of the British character, ana the
unequalled ingenuity and shttliness OF
the American mechanic. The differ.
ence in pressure upon the operatives oI
the Old World and the New, is per-
haps illustrated more especially than
any other condition by this compare
son. If the American mechanic had
been brought TO bay by the wolf at the
door, rs those over the water have been,
America might have been, even now,
far in the advance of cooperative or
| ganiZation.
The story of the great cooperative
concern of Rochdale, the successes OF
which has given the main impetus to
the movement everywhere, reads more
| like romance than sober statement
of facts. 1t is now nearly twenty four
years old, having been started in No
| vember, 1913, by a dozen poor weavers,
who organized under the prophetic and
soon after historic name OF ''The Roch-
dale Society of Equitable Pioneers" for
the following purposes: Establishing
ii store for groceries, provisions and
clothing materials, the building of
houses, the occupation of a farm or
| farms for the production of cheaper
| food and the employment OF members
| who might be unable otherwise to hnd
work, the education of their children,
and mutual assistance in distress or
difficulty with employers. The bold
genius foreshadowing itself in this
| name and these purposes-whosei it was
we were never informed; but it was
somebody's, tor we have no faith in the
| virtue of any circumstances or any
general qualities of human nature to
| produce direct results like those of
| Rochdale without the agency of "A mas
ter mind-Ihis bold genius has stamped
itself upon the progress of the enter
| prise from that day to this, as distinctly
as that of an Astor, IA Stewart, a Law or
/ a Vanderbilt has been revealed in the
fortunes OF those men. Only the name
| and the bodily preseutment of the man
is wanting.
The first step, as we learn, with other
facts, from a general history of coop
erative stores, lately published by Ley
poldt & Holt-was to lay up twenty
| pence each per week to form capital.
In one year, the twelve had become
| twenty. eight, and their joint saving,
! amounted to SlS5. With this money
they rented building in Toadlane, for
| which they were Obliged TO pay in ad-
vance, and after fitting it up in the
plainest possible manner, they had
| about S75 left TO invest in one package
| or so of flour, of butter and OF sugar!
| What score and n half of Americans, of
| any condition, or under any circum-
| stances, conld have been induced TO
| commence n cooperative store on that
| scale? or where could be found the man
| with faith and authority enough to or
| Ganize them and cast their capital on
the waters in the face of such discour-
agement, among the hootings of the
rude and the pity of the kind? 1a-t
The business of this second year--the
| first of active business-amounted to
| s., ,S45 III sales, of which about Sl6O-less
| than FIVE per cent.-was net profit. The
| capital savings, however, had become
nearly six times as much. In the sec
ond year the business increased 60 per
cent, and the profits $50 per cent; but
| in the third, with an increase of 20 per
cent. in the sales, there appears to have
been slight falling OFT in the profits.
Ine year llt DuSlueSS lhCIehseu
| but 16 per cent, while the profits rose
65 per cent; and in the fifth year the
! profits increased $50 per cent, ana the
4 business 300 per cent. Sixth year, the
business doubled again, and profits
rose 80 per cent. Eighth year, business
less than in the seventh, but profits
one-third greater, having now reached
the rate of nearly ~ per cent. OF the
sales. Thenceforward we note steady
gain in sales and profits, the latter in
creasing most, until in 1864, the twerti-
eth year of business, the sales were in
round numbers about SS45, 600, and the
profits $40, 500, -l2A per cent. In
1868 mot fully returned), the business
was at the rate of over million of dol
lars per annum.f l.uHr s- L4 Z
The principles of this wonderfully
success sful business are the following:
l. Invariable cash payment at the time
of purchase, from members and out
siders alike. 2. One price to all, fair
dealing, and fair profit. 3. Quarterly
dividend of profits repaid on all sales,
whether to members or outsiders, the
| whole profit proPer-that is, the net
gain found after paying per cent per
annum on the capital invested-with
the exception ,ot, 2A per cent reserved
for educational purposes, being thus
divided to the customers of the store,
| each in proportion to the amount pur-
chased by him. AT every purchase the
| purchaser receives tin ticket stamped
| with the amount paid, and good for the
| dividend on that amount at next quar-
ter day. II is optional with the holder,
/ if member, 10 receive this in money,
| or be credited with it on the stock book
| of the Society; but non-members OBJ
| tain it only as credit on subscription
| to the stock, unless they sell their tick
cts to members. 4. But to become en-
titled to interest as a stockholder, one