Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1883-01-03
THE GAZETTE. WORTH. TEXAS. WEDNESDAY. JANUARY
Go to Keller's for your wagons, bug
giles and other vehicles. lO-l2-f
COMMERCIAL.
GAzrrrr orr1cr- Iaannrr }

GAzFrrE OYrIcs. Japuary 2. 1883.
The recent failure In New York OF the 90.
operative Dress Association, OF which Miss
Kate Field was the presiding gcniue, with
liabilities stated at si25OD and assets
an indefinable quantity furnishes AN
cooperative associations. which are ienor
antly supposed to Ice Invested and fortified
with 2 principle Of uDwavering solidity. and
certain iaila"ics In the theory on which
Theoretically IL supplies tho consumer with
goods nj their exact cost nj the place OF pur.
chase There are no proflts 20 be absorbed by
"a mis-rly merchant, though there X an appa-
rent profit charged ON the cost price oi All
goods; but AFTER dcducting all expenses from
the selling price, the remainder Ii distributed
among the purchasing stockholders In pro
portion Ia the amount OF their Respective
purchases. Manifcstiy, 1.-THE business TX con-
Quoted n;,on sound principles, producing a
bao,sce on the PRESERVE" side OF tho ledper
tcose who are entitled to participate ia The
pronis VIII Reta return equal to the usual ie-
tall proiit not only on their own purchases,
but on those Of others who are not partIcipa-
ting shareholders. The theory il very emile
Ing; In practice tue difficulty lies in fulfilling
the requirement that the business shall he
well conducted. Inusmuch as this hindrnnca
has been successfully overcome In numerous
Instances IN London, the New York associs-
might be equally fortunate.
The fact is that co operative societies are
nothing specially new IN either prinslplc or
practice. They arc simply Joint stosk com
panies for supplyinga variety OF necessary
articles The stocs holders are, perhaps,
more numerous than In most stock com
panies, and that IL al, All shareholders pre-
fer 10 trade vt the store OF the association be-
cause they thereby contribute 10 build up the
profits OF their own share. Even those asso-
Citations which are cooperative In the FUR.
ther respect of giving share OF the profits
10 the employees are paralleled In those pTi-
vate establishments which give percentage
on sales 10 the sales-psopic. IL IA evident,
therefore, that "A cooperative n ISOLATION ia
governed by exactly the same laws as those
which dominate, o private business. Ifnen
and women can be securcd To manage its AT
fairs with the same ability that they would
manifest under the autocratlc eye of Stew
art or III absolute control be
coded To such an autOcfat, and his
null capacity he brought out for the corpora
ton as thoroughly as II hn were working
solely for himself, then the concern will pros
sion among the managers, IL an extraysig an I
disproporilon be found between She working
capital and the amount OF business attesapt-
cd, ana IL the list of shareholders should con.
tain the names ofa great many Indifferent
people, who were simply sought out TO give
social prestige to the association, then IL
would be easy TO see how little hope 80 would
firms against which |. ~cuid have 10 rofu-
pete. II appears Is though III the uninvora-
able and none of Tie desirable conditions
existed In this experiment which has Just
come to GRIFFIN New YORK. IL is unnecessary
TO attribute It's failure 10 the high salaries
paid TO it's officers. the manager OF such a
business as was planned was III to hold his
place at all, he was worth more than $1,000 =
year. fha probabilities are that lac Tor She
was not ut to hold his place 81 all. N this be
be true, no further reason fer the failure need
be sought.