, 1879-12-08
Cooperative Stores.

been SO largely instrumental in found
ing and carrying forward to success in
Great Britain. His addresses set forth
so clearly the manner of conducting
these stores, and describe SO we'll the
benefits they have conferred upon the
poorer classes, that public attention on
this side of the Atlantic will be certain
to be directed to the System, and some
effort to introduce it in our principal
cities will naturally follow. The fact
that the Rochdale plan has demon
strated its value by an experience of
twenty years, that hundreds of stores
are working under 1t to-day, and that
they have accumulated millions of cap
ital and divided other millions of profits
among their members, while furnishing
pure food at the ruling market rates,
cha lenges attention and the connected
fact that the system is the outgrowth
of the intelligence, business talent ard
integrity of the laboring classes. and is
not gift to them from men who have
no need of its advantages, must create
surprise and admiration. We had
heard in this country great deal Of
these Rochdale stores before, but here
,omes the man who has spent a large
share of lifetime devoted to philan-
thropy in working out the theory and
practice upon which their success has
been based, and who now gives us the!as-
surance that the theory is sound aud its
practical application feasible and ben
eticial. The words of such q man will
have vital interest for the American
workingmen. He shows them that it
is possible while purchasing needed
supplies for their families to be con-
stantly saving money in the direct ratio
of their purchases SO that at the end
of the year they may have fifty or
hundred dollars laid by at interest
where they now have nothing. He
shows, too, that by the joint effort of
many cooperative stores purchasing
agency may be created, commanding
the services of the best buying talent,
procuring goods of the Lest quality in
the best markets, and insuring to the
customers, no matter how small his
purchases may be, immunity from fraud
and adulteration. The cooperative
store, as described by Mr.. Holyoake, is
guarantee Of good weight. honest
measure and genuine quality, and is at
the same time savings bank in which
the profits on the articles sold accumu-
late for the benefit of the purchasers.
Cooperative stores are not wholly
unknown in the United States. A few
years ago number were set up in the
cities and large towns of the Eastern
and Middle States, but most of them
came to grief. In many cases they
were specnlations under the guise of
philanthropy in others they were
badly managed. If we ure not mistaken
they were all founded on the principle,
which has been abandoned as failure
in England, of selling close down to
the cost price, and thus underselling
the regular shops. They maintained
no general purchasing agency, and
could give their customers no better
opportunity for getting articles free
from adulteration than could the other
retail concerns. Their failure is no
argument against the Introduction OF
the system which has succeeded so we'll
in England. 1t may be that co-opera
tive stores are not as much needed here
as in the old country. The average
American takes 80 eagerly to barter and
traffic, and is so ready to abandon a
slow-going success on the farm for the
chance of a more rapid one in the cor
ner-grocery, that there is, we imagine,
greater competition here in most lines
of trade. and consequently smaller
profits, than in the Old World, where
shop-keeping is calling descending
from father to son, and an old-estab-
lished green-grocer's or haberdasher's
stand is valuable property in itself by
reason of the run of business which
comes to it from habit. We hope, at
all events, that the adulteration of food
has not been carried to such an extent
here as to place US in the condition in
which the cooperative stores found the
English working people, whose tastes
had to be educated to like genuine ar
ticles. When we offered pure flour" !"
says Mr.. Holyoake, why, the women
would not take it. They had never
seen it before they didn't like it; it
was not made white by ingredients
mixed with it for that purpose. When
we offered them pure coffee they
thought we were going to poison them.
1uey uai never Sceu IL, anu tuc aroma
they never knew"
But though the American retailer
may be content with smaller profits
than his British cousin, and be more
conscientious in the matter of the
quality of his goods, there is field
enough here for the working out of the
cooperative scheme which has proved
so remarkably successful in the Eng
lish manufacturing towns. We should
be glad to see the experiment fairly
tried. Those who are disposed to make
the attempt should realize, however,
that there is no magic in the name CO.
operative which will make unskilful-
ness and shiftlessness succeed, and
should understand that business sagaci
ty and strict integrity are essential
feat1,res of the Rochdale nlan.-N Y