The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1876-01-12

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY IL, 1876.
H.H YOUNG, Publisher l. Editor.
Plan for Cooperative Societies.
The following is the plan for co,
operation which Master Adams SUBJ
mitted to the State Grange. 1t is
what is known as the Rochdale plan,
and has been in successful operation
in England for some forty years:
ADVICE TO MEMBERS.
l. All cooperative associations should
become Incorporated.
2. Care should be taken that all rec
ords, accounts, and vouchers are prop
erly kept.
3. Expose dishonesty and punish
fraud.
4. Buy as far as practicable from the
producer and manufacturer, and sell to
the consumer, if possible.
5. Never depart from the principle
of buying and selling for cash.
6. Take account of stock, and make
settlements, quarterly.
7. Neither fear nor court competition.
8. Choose only men of undoubted in
tegrity and ability for your officers, and
then give them your confidence.
PREFACE.
Practical cooperation does not neces.
sarillY imply buying at wholesale and
distributing at cost neither does it's sue
cess depend upon buying from the pro-
Queer and selling to the consumer.
These are principles of trade to be
generally commended. But successful
cooperation is based upon the policy of
investing the profits Of trade for the
benefit of the purchaser.
If number of persons, collectively,
buy stock Of goods and distribute
them to each other at wholesale or cost
prices, there is no substantial evidence
of profit, but an irvariable creation of
prejudice throughout the mercantile
community.
If, however, the same parties dispose
Of their wares to themselves and others
at usual retail rates, and invest the prof
its in favor of those who purchase, the
transaction is at once pronounced legitl-
mate and laudable, and rapid accumula-
ton Of profit is the result. Let us illus
trate:.
If one hundred dollars worth of arti-
cles be sold at wholesale rates, quar-
terly, for consumption during the year,
there will be nothing at the close Of that
year to present either as an evidence Of
economy or thrift.
But should that same amount be sold
during the first quarter at retail, and
the profits (that is, the difference be-
tween wholesale and retail prices) be
invested in favor of the purchaser, there
would at the beginning of the second
quarter be $40 to reinvest, if the
sales netted only ten per cent. This
amount, again invested in goods to be
sold the second quarter at the profit Of
ten per cent would yield $l2l to be in
vested at the beginning Of the third
quarter; AMI the same operation repeat
ed though the third quarter would in
crease the amount to be invested the at
the beginning Of the fourth quarter to
$3.50. Continue this operation dur
ing the fourth quarter, and there would
be, to begin the second year with, q
capital of $146.4l Or, in other words
an investment paying quarterly dividend
Of ten per cent. is more than forty-s
per cent annum.
1t is not an extravaganza assertion,
that in all mercantile transactions an
exchange is seldom if ever made for less
than ten per cent. profit. Hence sue
cessful cooperation is dependent upon
quick exchanges for cash and cash only,
and not upon wholesale buying or large
marginal profits to secure extended
credit.
RULES.
/. NAME.
This Association shall be called the
Cooperative Association, No:
-, of the order of the Patrons OF
Husbandry, in the State of -~.
0nIrnm