The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1879-03-27
COOPERATION.
what the Rev 5Oseph Cook Says in n
Leetare on the Subject.


Lecture on the Subject.
Go to the town of Rochdale near Man
chester, England, and you will find an
immense establishment called q CO.
operative store. You are an American
traveller, and do not understand what
this institution hiss done; and here is 8
poor English laborer who is ignorant as
to the results of cooperation among the
poor. You take him as your com paniOn,
and step into the establishment and he
looks about, and asks you in whisper
Was all this done by poor folks like
me 2" A clerk comes forward and an~
swers the question by saying: "An
that you see here belongs entirely to
working~men. The store which you
come to visit originated with the poor,
and with the poorest OF the poor"
We walk with the clerk from room to
room, and he points out the stragetic
quarters of the establishment. Here
comes a poor widow, and she buys s.
worth of -four and meat and cloth.
Yes" says the poor English laborer,
sc but I see that she has to Uay for
every thing in cash." :" So she does"
says the clerk; nothing is sold here
except for ready money, but wait and
watch the whole operation" The widow
/ mas paid So, or E1, tor goods at this
store. She puts that into her porte,
/ monnaie, and goes away. The clerk
| calls attention to the fact that there is
no credit given here. That may be a
good thing" says the poor man there
| is not much encouragement here to get
into debt" NO" says the clerk
" and we have no bad debts because
there is no credit. We can do a large
business on a small capital, for we turn
i the money over often" The labOTer
asks: Does that widow yonder, pur-
chasing her goods, obtain them at q less
cost than she could get them at the OTdi
nary shops % The clerk replies " We
save all that we should have to pay
middle-men to manage this business.
We save bad debts; we save an immense
amount in advertising, because our Gus
toners, especially il they are share
holders, are sure to come here; we save
all the profits that in ordinary manage
ment of business would go to the retail
trader"
Our poor man wants to know how he
can become a member of this institution.
and whether ne can at once have the
benefit OF this new arrangement of trade,
and the clerk tells him that by paying
a small sum he can be organized as a
shareholder, can have part in the man
asement of the business, or that If he
saves his tin tickets, representing the
amount of his purchase, and there is a
profit on the business, then, even if he
is not shareholder, he will get part of
the profit proportioned to the amount of
his purchases. This poor widow"
says the clerk, buys in the course OF
the quarter twenty-five dollars worth of
goods, and there comes a time when
profits are divided. She brings in her
tin tickets as proof of the amount of her
purchases, and she gets part of the
dividend even if she is not shareholder
If she is q shareholder she has the choice
to take her dividend and put it in her
pocket, or leave it in the establishment
as so much new stock to draw further
dividend in time 10 come"
The clerk informs US that the Roch-
dale cooperative store began with few
| weavers in 1874. The Rochdale pioneers
were merely weavers, who In q distressed
period of the flannel trade thought it
possible to club their means together,
twenty-eight OF them, and to buy tea
and sugar at wholesale prices, and they
sell to each other at retail prices and I'm.
adulteTated lApplause] Thank God
that the topic OF 2dultcTation of food has
lately been scientifically discussed in
Boston Espplausel, and that now we
know that when PRISONERS take their
places behind counters they Toison the
poor in preference to the rich, but by no
means wholly spare the latter. All
authorizations, believe, injuTe the poor
more than the rich, and that is not only
because the poor are obliged to buy in
small parcels, and can not be particular
about the quality OF their purchase, but
because they have less power to make
themselves heard In complaint.
This cooperative society, the clerk
tells Us, had in 1857 capital of SO, 600, :
900. 1t has for years had q wholesale
| department, and IL is has q business
worth more than SIC, 900 600 per annum.
! This department tTausacts business with
$50 subsidiary cooperative stores, and
| ia expanding more thsn SO 900 600 per
annum loses less than 5000 by bad debts.
| The cost of management, the clerk saws,
p" Is only one per cent on the returns !"
He asks US to notice that the number of
co Operative societies in England and
Wales is 10 and the number of mem
bers more than 100000 At the end of
1872 the share capital amounted to more
than SIS, 800 600. During that year
$55, 000, 600 were received and S50'0OO.>
600 expended for goods. The net profit
from all these sources was mere than
$4,000, coo. Compare BTassey, Lectures
on the Labor Question, London, 1873,
P 113, with Fawcett, Manual of Political
Economy, chap X
VIII you give me q document con-
corning this establishment" says the
poor lAbOrer, 8 wish to tell my friends
Of the results OF the ROchdale enterprise
and its imitation in England" And ],
as an American traveller. ask for the
same documents. ] say, America Is