The workingman's advocate. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1864-1877, 1874-08-01
COOPERATION.

Wv ~ StaV WV
Those who belong to them contribute
both money and labor. For their labor
they receive the current wages of the dis.
trict, for their money small fixed inter
est The profits are divided to both cap
ital and labor, and paId to the members,
added 70 the reserve or otherwise used as
the rules Of the society have determined.
Mosi of these societies are for the purchase
and distribution of provisions, clothing,
furniture and the like; some for produc-
ton, and others for both purchase and
production. Nine -tenths Of them carry
on the business of grucers, occasionally
combining with that the making or selling
or both If the following articles Beer,
bread, brushes, cheese china, cigars, clogs,
clothes, coffee, corn, drapery, drugs,
earthenware, flour, glass, haberdashery,
hosiery, iron ware, millinery, patent med
icInes, tin ware, wooden goods, &c. There
are cooperative cotton, WOODEN and silk
/ mills. manufacturers of worsted, horse
hair, elastic webbing, cooperative coal
mining societies, printers, photographers
and ookbnders, shipbuilders, frame work
kuitters, chair makers. builders, masons,
machinIsts, &c.
There are several cooperative farms.
One IN Assington, Suffolk county, has been
III operation about thirty-hve years. One
I If the first established and best known Of
the CO operative distributing stores is that
of the Rochdale Equitable pioneers, that
started>with capital Of f2S, and with 2S
members, about the year lS45. In l849,
a bank m ROchdale defrauded its deposi-
/ tors of over $40. 600. and was wound up.
/ No new savings bank has since been es-
4 tablished in that town. The year after
| thar, 1880. the business Of the co-opera-
tive store doubled, and since then, the
\ sparings of the people have to a very large
extent. been invested in the Rochdale
4 Equitable Pioneers
\ tine reason of the rottenness Of our saw
/ ings banks is because the funds in their
charge are for the most part invested in
real estate. and the bank have no control
7 ling influence IN any productive industry.
Y A savings bank should be the office of a
mill, for instance. where its deposltors
work, and the deposits should be invested
in the mill, the directors Of both institu-
tl"ns being As far as possible the operators
Z themselves.
As l. Is. the savings banks having in
vested IN real estate, feel compelled to
keep up the price Of such property, in or
der that they may consider their invest
ments secure.
They use their funds in building opera
tions which they often cannot get sufficient
return for, and then when there is the
least run upon their counters they have to
close their doors. 1t may be interesting
for you To know that the savings banks of
England though not such rotten institu
tions as ours, are still far from standing
on secure foundations The Rochdale
Equitable Pioneers, which has Just been
spoken of, organized under the Friendly
/ Societies act Of 1916, which permitted the
registration Of societies "forf rfrugar invest
ment Of the members for better enabling
them to purchase food, firing, clothes, or
other necessarles, or the tools, implements
or material Of their trade OF calling, or to
provide for the education Of their children
or their kindred BY the present laws
Of England the liability Of member is
limited to the amount Of his share, and to
one year after he has ceased to be mem
ber.
In many respects Industrial and Provi-
dent Societies are similar to corporations
D dS W pONtIS. uulltS anu lidDlilllcS, anu
differ principally from them in their me- l.
bership, which for the most part is taken
from the working people who conduct
them In all these efforts to attain greater
independence, the money is the main
thing, and not the labor This is necess-
arily so. As Lincoln said, Eve must run
the machine as we find it.
We shall perfect it after while, but it
must be run. A more perfect cooperation
would be where no dividend whatever was
paid to capital, but all instead of a portion
dividend to labor. To this end We are ap-
preaching. 1t is not difficulty to imagine
a cooperative enterprise where no money
whatever should be used. If the farmers,
to begin with, as they supply us with food,
the brick makers, masOns, carpenters, ma
chnists and 50 on, should determine to do
so, they could build cooperative or
other mill in very short time, with little
or no capital at all, and when they get
through, stand relative to each other, sim
liar to what they would have stood had
they used money. A COOK bookkeeper
would do Just as well as a bank. and on
accounts much better. The difference be-
tween the corporation Of to-day and that
/ VI blc lhtuAC 10, tldb nOW AoOOACh to-
leases himself from the Nominations of cap
ital only 81 far as he becomes a capitalist
himself. In the future the capitalist viii
release himself from a similar position, in
regard to labor, only 50 far as he becomes
a capitalist himself. In the future the cap
italist will release himself from a similar
position, in regard to labor, only 50 far as
he becomes laborer himself Still the
advantage under the present system are
manifestly on the laborer's side
1t lessons the profits paid to those who
are, as we claim, undeservedly the recip-
tents Of the greatest share, the ultimate
end of corporation, indeed, being the de-
struction Of the profit system altogether
1t saves cost in distribution, encourages
care in the consumption of goods, discour-
ages the credit system, and takes away all
inducement to adulteration. Jules Simon
says such associations are business schools,
that they remove the necessity Of strikes,
and exercise powerful influence in rails
ing wages, an well as offer means to the
provident of becoming capitalist himself
The man who invests his money in com
pany of which he is director himself, will
be a better man than he who puts il in an
| AnothSutiOH ONCA uC LAde IiO COHtEUA.
The annual congresses and returns to the
government Of these cooperative societies
in England, display business aptitude
keen intelligence, and a thorough know
ledge of this branch Of economical science
Coming now to statistics, E20, 900, ,OOt
Of f5O, 200, 900 deposited in one year il
the savings banks of Great Britain, wer,
traceable to the working classes. The sam'
year the amount invested in cooperative
societies was $4,000, 600, this with SO,
OOO, 600 invested in friendly societies mad,
total of 92S, 600, 600, or nearly half o
the 45S, 600, 900 deposited, or invested il
Provident Institutions. The investment
in cooperative societies is one-fourteentf
Of the whole amount invested by the work
ing classes for that year.