New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1869-08-13
MORE ABOUT ENGLISH COOPERATION

MORE ABOUT ENGLISH COOPERATION.
In Birmingham an aristocratic cooperative
store has been organized, which is called a
Supply Store. The sentiment in the higher
circles is so averse to the laboring element
that few workingmen find their way into It,.
It is composed of fashionable clerks with fam
lilies, of merchants, builders, artists, attorneys,
even representatives of the nobility seek its
economy as a means OF retrenchlng expenses.
No system of cooperation can be more simple
than theirs. Five hundred heads of families
organized themselves into society, secured a
central locality and put up handsome build
ing suitable for the grocery business, each con-
tributing sum prOportiOnate to the require
ments of his family. An excellent buyer was
engaged to purchase goods at Wholesale o.
course there is no need of a salesman, becanso
no person is allowed to purchase who does not
produce proof of his proprietorship IN the con-
Germ, and two or three clerks are sufficient
When q sbip-load of fine oranges or other choice
fruits arrives at Liverpool, the Supply Store is
sure to know if. A computation of the amount
wanted by the whole number of members is
hastily made, aud telegEaphed 10 the buyer,
who often takes the whole cargo at greatly
reduced prices. Delicious fruits of the very
best flavor are thus, of course, fur
nished tho co0perators at exactly cost
prices--that IS, wholesale prices, with
running expenses added When butter ia
the Irish markets falls a penny O pound on
its wholesale price, the Supply Store buys in,
and it's commOdious vaults are stocked with
the very best. Such as commands 10 pence
per pound in the shops of the great city is
often distributed among these wise economists
at and 10 pence. If a roll of cloth. silk,
linen, or other goods suitable for family use
happens to come into market at a sinking
figure, as is often the case, somebody is sure
to inform the Society, and greas bargains are
thus secured. Tailors and dreSsmakers are also
employed by the Society to cheaper manufac-
ture. The Society even gives its attention TO
education, and has organized school in which
the members children receive instruction in
both the ornamental and the useful branches.
The same plan has been adopted to some ex.
tent in London.
Cooperation is taking fast hold of railway
companies and their employees. In London these
companies have organized and established a
number of shops in which none but servants
of the roads are allowed TO participate These
are mostly grocery stores, and are found to econ
omize IL to lS per cent which is virtually an
augmentation of wages TO that amount; since
the employees generally spend all their wages
in maintaining their families A year ago
project for establishing an immense co6pera-
tive market at Remington, London, was set
on foot, and will doubtless be soon carried
through. 1t will drive out class of middle
men, whose profits will then be distributed pro
rata among its ten thousand members. 1t will
by its combination and magnitude afford facil-
tiles for cheapening wholesale purchases
None but members will be allowed
to sell or distribute, and all purchasers will be
treated with strict impartalty. Such princi-
Piles as these being the aim of cooperative
market, it of course meets with organized re-
sistance of the fiercest character; but it is
steadily and very quietly gaining ground, and,
once established, will be model from which
TO erect Others.
Southampton has recently become the thea
ter of cooperation in the shape of grocery