New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1867-07-03
THE Co-oPERATYTE MOVEMEYE.

|
Those people who imagine that the interest
in cooperative industry is a passing spasm of
excitement, due to such incidental causes as
high rents, costly living, expensive materials
of labor. or the failure of eight hour laws-in
other words, that it is but another kind OF
conspiracy against wealth-are profoundly mis-
taken. The movement is no local passion, no
momentary furry, but widespread and steady
revolution in the industrial world. 1t goes on
most powerfully in countries where society is
very differently organized from ours, and where
| our particular yexati0ns are not acuteiy felt.
| In England, for instance, the system spreads so
fast and takes such hold that the regular traders
are mcditating self-defensc. a year ago there
were in England AZ cooperative stores, realiz-
| ing all together some SG0O0000 of profits and
! dividing thirty five per cent Oh investments.
! In France RI" papers report still more wonder
ruI successes. aud on higher plane Of enter
| prise. The French are the best organizers of
industry in the world. No people are so
! thrifty, 80 quick witted 80 schening. so sa-
gacious, so pliable, so fond of experiment, so
scientific in procedure. They are entirely foot
loose and handy and they have TUNED over
so many theories, that ithcy have learned
pretty well what can be done aud what can
not They were not satisfied, rs the English
were and as many of our people seem to be,
with cooperative. shops, (which are well enough
| in their way, but which do very little
TO exhibit the principle of cooperative labor
but, taking the idea at once in its full scope,
applied il Immediately to the reorganization of
industry. The City of Paris has 30 industrial
associations, the prosperity of which is so I'M
| haf oil nrfo of afr il ipfo
Che s'stem; the small trades which require but
little capital, such as fast-making, spectacle
making chair-making, finding it especially
suite, to them. The busy City of Lyons has
80 stores conducted on the system the profits
of Which on the capital were 90 per cent! The
movement has attracted so much attention and
acquired so much importance i'll France that
the directors of the Credit du TraraH (the
Workngmen's Bank have invited congress
| of tie cooperative societies of all ma
tons to assemble in Paris on the 14th of
Angus for general consultation. 1t must
be remembered THAT these are strictly popular
movenents-movements of the working people,
raising their own capital by their own contri-
button; something entirely different from Sir
| France Crossley's great establishment in En-
gland, where the rich capitalist in the first
instano provides everything, and permits the
working people to buy shares in the concern;
something wholly unlike the noble experiment
of JOIN Bright to make wealth in every way
friendI to the working people, and labor a
manly educatlon something in no way resem-
bling such magnificent and magnfcently
humanting institutions as Prices Candle
Factory They are simply combinations
~ IL Al
the tanned abilities of the work
ing pe0le themselves. From such combina-
tons should expect great and good results
we findthem. The associations are purely for
the end of business There is no pretense of
! aiming the Improvement of the moral and
social condition of the members !" but the
moral al social Improvement follows. Testi-
mony gcs to show that the members become
more fngal, persevering, grave, temperate,
and donstic. Their influence on the general
class of working people is excellent. They
! form oecies of labor arstOcrpcy into which
it becoms privilege to enter. They raise the
standard of character among the working
classes, and do something to increase the num-
Der of shlled and conscientious mechanics.
Amongourselves the system of cooperative
| industry, though not very Young III years, Is
young inexpcrience and in method. 1t began
in Cincinnati as early as 1852, with the Cabinet
makers Union. Since then three companies
have ben incorporated in Cincinnati" The
Queen City Turpentine Company" 1.-The
Cincinnati Furniture Association and The
| Central Furniture Association"-the last with
$4,000 opital, the other two with $4,000.
| All three work well The first mentioned pays
ten per cent to the working stakeholder over |
and above the usual wages. In Chicago, we
ale tcia, the North-Western Manufacturing |
Company having adopted tho cooperative prin' |