The examiner., 1885-12-19
SOME THOUGHTS ON SOCIAL PROBLEMS
By a Knight of Lnbor.
XIII.

Since Robert Owen commenced his eX- periments in communism in this coun' ry in 1924, and Horace Greeley and Albert Brisbane introduced Fourierism in 1S42, this country has been laboratory in which socialisms of all kinds have been expert menting. Owen with his nine hundred members on 30, 1000 acres made magnif- cent beginning that thrilled tue world, and they actually got foothold and influence in the great Democratic party. The main idea of Owenism and Fourierism was the enlargement of home, the extension of family union beyond the little man-and- wife circle to large corporations. It was a charming idea that caught the attention and stirred the enthusiasm of the American people.
 The great obstacle for the success of any socialistic experiment has been that while many noble and lofty souls, whose inn pulses are purely philanthropic, and who were willing to labor and suffer reproach for the cause that promises to benefit man. kind, there throng scores of persons-the conceited, the crochety, the elish, the headstrong, the pugnacious, the unappre- ciated, the played-out, the idle, and the good-for-nothing generally; who, finding themselves utterly out of place and at a discount in the world as it is, rashly con clude that they arc exactly fitted for the world as it ought to be.
 Socialism paved the way for co-opera- tion. Socialism is the application of the principle of combination to domestic ar engagements, while cooperation is the ap- plication of the principle of combination to the business of buying and distributing goods. The principle of cooperation is a sound one, and, when correctly understood and honestly carried out in the fullest sense of the term would be an aid in amel- iorating the existing conditions of our wage-system, and gives the most promising economic results as regards the condition of the laborer which have yet been reached in the long discussion on the relations of labor and capital. The joint-stock associ ation of capital and labor of Fourier, he peoples non-in crest bealing credit banks of Proudhon, the cooperative capital of Marx, the co operative stores of Holyoke, are but varying forms of one prnciple,- co-work for 8 common wealth, in whose brotherly product ca and distribution the good of each shlll be subserved by. the good of all.
 Cooperation does not want 10 pull down, but to build up. It is an element classes, as it encourages amongst them habits of thrift and honesty. The coop erative principle has man ;fested itself in several different forms, such as distributiye cooperation, by which goods already pro- duced are bought and sold to members without the aid of retail dealers; productive cooperation, by which associates are formed for producing and manufacturing goods for the market; partial productive cooperation, in the form of industrial partnership between laborers and employ CTS, without dispensing with the latter; and cooperative, and peoples banks.
 The results achieved in France, Germany and England, even though they do not fulfil the predictions of the earlier enthu- siasts, nevertheless, prove that industrial cooperation is a success. Progressive CO., operation has made the greatest progress in France; cooperative credit and banking in Germany; while distributive cooperation has achieved the greatest financial success in England. The British official report shows that, in 1883 there were 1 1928 indus trial cooperative societies with 691, ,961 members, and over $45, ,OCO,OOO working capital, whose sales exceed $14O,OOO, 1000, and whose profits averaged twenty-eight Ter cent, the average of Scotch companies