The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1868-05-09
COOPERATION.

n
s. The cooperative system proposes simply
division Of the enormous profits Of trade
among those out of whom those profits are
chiefly made. 1t proposes that everybody
who has need to buy should combine into
associations fer the purpose Of selling,
whereby the buyers become the sellers, and
the expense Of middlemen, who stand be-
tweeE producers and consumers is avoided
with their enormous profits which make
merchant princes, as they are called, from
the great wealth these profits put, in few
years, into Their pockets.
These combinations, IN addition to saving
from twenty to forty per cent. to the buyers
are, when properly managed, savings bank
for the little surplus earnings Of working
men. As associations upon The cooperative
plan do not fill their stores for speculative
purposes, do not attempt any gambling con-
troll over the markets, the business is exempt
beyond most all others, from the fluctuations
and accidents leading to bankruptcy.
If working man happens to have saved a
few dollars Of bis earnings, "a difficult feat
we admit, under the present order of thingsl
these few dollars, il deposited in banks, may
contribute to the support of class and
their speeulations, whose interests are antag-
onistic to theirs; whereas the same money,
if used in the cooperative way, will bring to
their possessor greater advantages, and con-
tribute to the general benefit of the laboring
classes with which be is identified. The
system Of Co operation is only In ITS infancy;
when properly O. sanized and expanded 1t
will cover the whole field Of commerce and
trade. 1t must be remembered that labor,
and labor alone, has to pay the profits OF
merchants and middlemen. The greater
they are, the more labor ii requires TO pay
them, the more hours Of daily work, the less
time for recreation from exhausting toll, less
opportunities for study, fewer means for the
development of manhood.
The cost of living is the mortgage upon
labor against which no statute Of limitation
runs, which is never csncelled without the
payment of the last cent. OF course the
greater this cost of living, the more difficult
is the payment of this mortgage. If 9 laborer
pays from twenty to forty per cent. for al
he eats and wears, as profits, to the mer-
chant, more than he could have the same
thing for without the intervention Of the
merchant, then this twenty to forty per cent.
represent from two to four hours Of daily
work.
III, therefore, working men combine their
surplus earnings and constitute associations
for managing stores Of various kinds, they
will, to the extent Of these profits require
the labor necessary to pay them, have the
hours Of daily work shortened in spite Of
law. The principle Of cooperation and the
eight hour Law are joint movements for the
relief Of labor, both tending to the same end,
but the latter proposes the inteJpositioa Of
the strong arm Of the law 10 secure the time
needed for study, and for attention to per-
sonal concerns which elevate and dignity the
laborer while the former, b. reducing the
cost of living proposes to spread the COM
forts and conveniences Of life among those
now deprived Of them, and by rendering the
means OF living easy, dispense with the hard
necessity which now taxes all the powers
aud the energies Of the working man. We
look hopefully forward to near future when
laws limiting the hours Of work will be IN
necessary, and combinations against oppres-
sive profits useless but until that time
shall have come we must employ al measures
to alleviate present burdens. II lpital were
not allowed its present accumnlatise powers
BY law, If it could not absorb nearly all the
fruits Of industry as now, it vsuld then
seek combinations with labor in order to be
productive. The possessor 81 one hundred
Thousand dollars 10 endowed by the present
State law With an income Of ten thousand
dollars, and If be invest Il IN National Bank,
ing stock be can have yearly income Of
twenty thousand dollars. Bot if his one
hundred thousand dollars should gain only
three thousand dollars, land even this rate Of
interest 10 equal 10 all the products Of The
labor Of the cOuntry,) il is apparent that
capital would be diyested q its power TO OPP
press useful industry, and would be forced
to combine and cooperate with it. This b
the grand cooperation Atwhich We should
as,,, .,,d ,urhich "a a. ha reached rhrosa1h TIA