Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1871-07-28


States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada
and the West Indies. This society had a
cash balance of s57G, ,7s5, and an annual in
crease of s3s0,000. All It's difficulties arc
settled by arbitration, and since 1850 strikes
are almost unknown. This is the rule
with the unions as they increase in size.
The amalgamated carpenters number 5000,
with fund Of s70,0O0 The operative ma
sons, $4,000; bricklayers, 10000; boiler
makers, 9000 locomotive engineers and
firemen, $4,000. BY far the larger portion
of their dues are applied to bencficent pur-
poses, the amalgamated engineers disburs-
ing in five years s2,443, ,5sj. Besides these
special unions, there are the federated unions
or combinations of various trades for a
common end. The "Miners' National AS
sociation" is one of these, representing
100000 members. In 1867 the wages earn
ing class of Great Britain had accumulated
funds to the amount of Si37 ,2lG, ,6GO, specie.
This immense amount shows that III the
workingmen of the world could only real
ize the enormous power Of the aggregation
of their small means, it would not be long
labor and capital would change; the for
mer would become self-cmploying, while
the latter would seek opportunity to invest
with it at moderate interest.
OF the Continental trades unions less is
known. Italy has a series composed of
about 10000 members, with fund of $780,
900. In France, Austria, Spain, Belgium
and oven Asiatic Turkey, they exist. The
grand result of all the labor unions, how
ever, has been the formation of the Inter-
rationale, which was, it is supposed, con-
ncctcd with the late Paris Communist re-
hcllion. Rochciort, considered the politi-
cal leader Of the labor movement in France,
was, as Garibaldi is, the honorary president
of the Italian movement. The Internation-
ale includes in membership, in France,
1879; Switzerland, q, 1926; Germany, lj0,.
900; Spain, 10000; Italy, 100000; with un-
known members in Holland, Denmark aud
Russia now organizing. Add to these the
American national labor union of over 2O0,-
600, and the sjO,0 900 of England, rart Of
which is included above, and the movement
is indeed formidable. The effect of such an
association upon the history of the future
must be powerful indeed. But as the pro-
letarian classes are tending toward com
munism, the capitalist classes are tending
to ultra individualism, especially in Eng
land, and thus accelerating the spread of
socialism. British legislation is monop-
oily of the landholding capitalists and a few
bondholders and manufacturers. The gov
ernment is essentially a plutocracy, the rule
of capital being administered to keep capi-
tai where it is. The leading economist of
Great Britain, j. Stuart Mill, is president
of a land tenure reform association, The
cardinal doctrine of which in relation o
land is as ultra as that of the Paris q M
munists. The theory of this associate /,
that land derives its value not in any con-
siderable degree from the labor or capiid
expended on it by its possessor or oN ser.
but from the effects of the aggregate m vc-
mcnts of society. This whole subic-t is
discussed ably and at length by the Wri,er
in The Bureau, and we hope to revert to- il
hereafter, but now pass on to the subject of
cooperation, only pausing to note the clicct
Of monopoly toward producing a tendency
To communism alike in all countries.
THE COOPERATIVE SYSTEM.
The cooperative stores of England md
the cor operative banks in Germany ar, !he
most advanced experiments in the efior tu
apply the principles of communism to ro.
ductive industry, disconnected from g-
ious enthusiasm. 1t is demonstrated "a
hOusand, or even a hundred, conSum, o. Of
groceries, dry goods or hardware ca ~
ganize without capital, and, by orgaLiza-
ton, obtain n power with all the force and
credit of capital. They can buy at the W.
est price, at wholesale, the goods they for
merly bought at the highest retail price,
and, after fairly paying for services, accu-
mulate large cooperative cash capital.
The lower rate at which the goods are OBJ
iained substitutes luxury for comfort and
comfort for squalor in every hope.
The secret Of the expanding availability
and power that cooperation may develop
lies in the fact that the sole use of capital,
when employed in business, is to effect the
cooperation of large bodies of men in the
bors incident to the business; that this cap
ital is in very great degree only credit;
that it is theoretically possible without the
capital through the cooperation, and that
where so obtained the capital is unnecessa-
ry. This in practice involves higher
grade of education and greater trustworth-
mess among managers among the working
.lasscs than usually prevails. But all class
- of mankind are steadily growing in their
lbility to substitute credit for capital, and
% manufacture credit by cooperation and
association. Cooperation might he inaug-
lrated in cities in the management OF house
holds, as of 80 houses in one block, so that
he food for 80 families could be prepared
IN one kitchen, at a saving in wages of at
east 30 cooks, of the rent of so per cent of
he kitchen room, or of the purchase of the
present kitchen furniture, as well as of one
bird of the present cost and waste of the
ood itself. Indeed, the cost of housekcep
ng might be diminished one-half, while
promoting its comforts. The same advan-
ages would naturally follow the establish
nent of Il common laundry, or tailoring or
iress- making shop. The practical benefits
If this are shown in the economy of the tu-
tion of children at school, compared with
zach family hiring its own teacher, And
by cooperation, humorously states The
Bureau, can we be preached to by Beech
,r, or Il Chaplin, or bishop, or archbishop,
'or less money per week than under the in
lividual system we can get our meat and
potatoes cooked by Bridget. Notwthstand-
ng some of the fantastic vagaries of Four
er, it is undoniable that the progress of the
present century has consisted thus far in
great part of the fulfiment of the ideal
which his Imagination projected. Men have
learned fully that one thousand men work
ing in cooperation, instead of merely pro-
lucing one thousand times as much as eli
her would produce alone, may produce a
million or a billion times rs much. The
problem Tor the future then, is how far hu-
man progress from henceforth Is to consist
in an increase of the power of the associa-
lion, and thus to work a relaxation in tho