The patron of husbandry. (Columbus, Miss.) 1875-1883, 1881-09-03


Manchester, supported wholly by
those retail societies in the north of
England, and its sales last year
amounted to 100000. This So
ciety keeps its buyers in all the best
markets in the world. 1t has one
(Mr. Gledhill) in New York to buy
cheese, lard, ETC., and his purchases
last year amounted to about ST.
900 1000.
AT Cooperative Congress, held
in Leicester, England, in 1877, a
clever little statement was circula-
ted which explains the advantages
a good Cooperative Store may con-
fer upon a community. 1t simply
states the facts accomplished by the
Co operative Society of Leicester,
but they are of common occurrence
in England.
1t says:
I. It has made it possible for
workingmen to obtain pure food at
fair market prices.
2. 1t has taught the advantage of
cash payments over credit.
2. 1t has given men knowledge
of business they could not otherwise
have obtained.
a. 1t has enabled them to carry
on trade of fI6o,ooo (equal to
$500, ooo) a year.
:. 1t has made them Joint propri-
etors of freehold property worth
10000 (equal to 500, ooo).
6, 1t secures an annual net profit
of fI6,ooos (equal to $50, ooo)
7. 1t has raised mems wages OF
5 shillings (equal to so or75 cents
per week, without a strike.
s. 1t has alleviated more distress
than any other social organization
The Cooperative Store move.
ment has, SO far, succeeded best in
Great Britain, and though there are
successful stores in Boston, Wash.
ington, Worcester, Philadelphia
and other places, it cannot be re.
garded as established among us yet
In the other branch of Co-opera
ton, however, which enables the
laboring man to become the ownel
of his own home, Philadelphia sets
an example to the whole world. BY
means of her building societies
which have numbered over 1900
and which have become the Savings
Banks of her people, there are now
in the city Of Philadelphia o,ooc
houses owned by her laboring
classes, in which they have invested
between 5000 900 and SIoo,ooo..
900 during the past thirty years.
This is the barest outline of what
Co operation has accomplished
while yet its bones are only in the
gristle. Let our American people
once take hold of this idea with the
faith and zeal and energy, which i.
their heritage and duty, and in thirty
years more they will have trans
formed the condition of the grea
majority of our laboring classe,
from hopeless, slavish toll, and az
old age of poverty, to fairly com
pensated labor and old age providet
for. And this brings Us to consider
ZHird.-WHAT MAY BE ExPEC
TED FROM COOPERATION.
1t is the way of deliverance from
the life crushing burdens of poverty
by enabling those who can save Z
triiEe weekly or monthly to invest i
safety at better than savings bank
rates The Philadelphia Building
Association have earned from ten tC
fifteen per cent on all the capita
that has been invested in them: auC
the total capital now invested in the
English and Scotch COOPERATIVE
Stores, earns annually over thitry
per cent net profit on the amount O
capital; that is to say, that on paid
up capital last year, aggregatine
$3o,ooo,ooo, the net profit distribu
ted among those who owned the
capital, in interest and dividends
amounted to over $4,000, 600. OF
thirty per cent on the amount O.
capital invested. This large prof
was made because of the frequen
turnover of the stock during the
year.
Now we have in Brooklyn proba.
bly, 100000 persons earning from
$40 to $50 week, of whom not one
in five perhaps not one in ten, at
tempt to save anything. The ma.
jority of them are a little in deb
70, the rrrncar and tla l,t-l,o- -.
probably pay not less than ten pei
cent more for all they buy than they
need to do if they bought all 70,
cash.
A very moderate economy, and
the adoption of Cooperative invest
ments, would enable all those PEG
pie, not only to keep out of deb.
but also to accumulate a provision
against the rainy day and the day
of old age. If a man saves fifty cents
a week or SIS year, and puts in
the savings bank, and could get :
per cent interest (which is larger
rate than he is likely to get from
any savings bank), but supposing
he would get 5 per cent end COM
pound the interest, it would amount
in thirty years to $I,5oo That is to
say, he will have saved $3.50, and
the accumulated compound interest
in thirty years would amount to as
much more. But if he were to save
the same amount and invest it in
Co operative Store Stock, and deal