New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1870-07-19

Tie mr. she who receives 40 much per week is
st,onolv TAINTED 70 make this the amount OF
his or her weekly expenditure-to I'VE up 10 ni'
means. since he has no other urgent caii ioi
their employment. When his board is paul
and his clothes bought, the hirellng Is strongly
tempted to consider the residue OF his "aseS
q fnnd wherewith to purchase the gratih-
cation of his ignobler appetltes. MAKE 'iia'
Same man member of a Cooperative Associ-
alton. and he will be virtually constrained lor
voars 70 devote a fourth a third, in some cases
half. of his weekly earnings to the increase oi
the working capital of the concern anu 49,. .'a.
he will acquire, almost in spite OF niiiisoii '",
habit of saving which has made his soioo.
mate an employer, and presumptlVely zap
tolist In other words, we believe that' II 'nc
vorkinemen of this city were ORGANIZED il'o
Co6nerative Associations, they would save
and nut at interest at least halt Oh
the s5O.OOO.OOO per annum they now waste Oh
strong drink. and tobacco, and balls and tar
GOT excursions. and in still worse dlSslpatlons'
and that the fruits of this saving woulu soon
become manifest in their ownership not oniy
of the sbops and factories in which they WORK.
but also of the houses in which they nVe'
sucb is our idea of the chief merits ana ad-
vontaces of COOPERATION. We do not believe
that Labor is oppressed by Capital half as
much as il is debauched and Impoverished by
grog-shops, tobacco-stores, gaming houses anu
haunts of lewdness and infamy. 1t Is rom
these that it most urgently needs saving; anu
for this we look to Cooperation.
And why must voluntary Cooperative AS
"sOciations Of WOrkingmen succumb to vast
"private monopoles ?" WOrldngmen and
their families consume the largest part OF the
products of labor; the clothes, shoes, hats,
&C., which they are paid to make are mainly
bought of their employers by those who live
by labor-that is, by themselves Now the en-
ploying and shOpkeeping classes either make
exorbitant profits on the manufacture and sale
of these products or they do not. If they do,
let the cooperating tailors, matters, and shoe
makers. sell good articles at fair prices, and
thus secure all the customers. III they do not,
the men who make these goods and require
only the just recompense of their labor can
certainly sell them as cheaply as their present
EMPLOYERS can, who must not only pay for
stock and work, but add profit to cover the
cost of their own generous living. The only
practical question, therefore, would seem to be-
"Will workingmen buy directly of each other,
cat cost OF will they prefer to buy of capital
"ists, and pay profit in additionP This
question they must answer for themselves; II
they choose to buy of capitalists, they have
neither right nor reason to complain that Ia
Dor is either oppressed or degraded.
AS to the feasibility of COoperatiOn, there is no
longer an open question. After Columbus had
discovered America, it would have been too
absurd even for Spanish priests to have held
another convocation at Toledo and gravely
declared that there could be no Western hemi-
sphere because certain texts in the Bible for
bad it and it would have been just as absurd
after not less than one hundred attempts at
! Cooperation by worbingmen have achieved a
complete success, to argue that such success is
unattainable. Even if Columbus had sue
cumbed 70 the ecclesiastical magnates and
humbly admitted that his senses had deceived
him-that no America existed where he once
fancied he had found 1.-THE Old World would
still have chung to the New and refused to
! give il I'D,