Bismarck weekly tribune., 1889-10-18
CO. -OPERAT ST ORES

y
Stewart, Their Ex-Secretary, a
i Tribute Of Respect.
Something About Co-O Operative stores.
North Dakota having adopted that cast
off old relic of New England fanaticism
prohibition as a part of her constitution,
& now comes a suggestion from neighbor-
ing township in Burleigh county that CO.
operative stores be established for the
betterment of farmers. To those acquainted
with the history Of "uni0n stores" as they
existed some thirty odd years ago in the
eastern states, it can but appear that the
mania for gathering up old garments with
an unsavOry record does not end with pro-
hibition in the economy of some well dis
posed but mistaken people. These institu-
tiOns known as t'union stores" and indi-
vidualized by numbers, as locomotives are
at the present day, were constructed on
the cooperative plan and almost every
village and crossroads corners had one
for a short time. Any farmer Of good
standing could become a member of the
union, and the few dollars that each mem
Der subscribed constituted the capital
stock.
A man was hired to be the .merchant"
who had no interest in the concern, unless
he happened to be stockh0lder. The
privilege of members was to purchase
goods at cost with freight added. Other
purchasers were:charged a uniform per
cent. on all goods purchased without re-
gard to kind or perishability. Ten per
cent. was the usual tariff. The st0ckhOld-
ers and their families were generally
shrewd purchasers and took good care
when a fresh stock Of goods was received
to be on hand for a first selection, so that
they became rival purchasers among them
!. selves, and there were no accommodating
assets from their purchases. The profit
paying customers usually had depleted
stock to select from in the way of such
goods as ordinarily sold for more than the
fixed per cent. advance, while certain
other articles which are always sold
tclOser" could be bought outside the
"UniOn" to better advantage. The result
was rapid accumulation Of unsaleable
shelf goods and no accommodation of pro-
fits with which to purchase fresh
tile or commercial agency expert to dis
cover that business carried on upon such
a basis must, in the end, and q short end at
that, prove disastrous to those engaged in
it, and. nine times out of ten, failure or q
wind-up by few solvent members Of the
vantage to be gained in the sale of produce
through the aid Of such a machine, for the
inevitable law of supply and demand is
always to be encountered. The manage
4 ment almost invariably turned out an illus
tration Of the old chestnut about stoo
members, followed by litigation and fees
for the lawyers, were resultant fruits of
this cooperative scheme for the protection
Of farmers. Such store may, for awhile,
injure the business of q regular, legitimate
merchant but in most instances it will in
jure more the place where one is estab-
lished.
AS a companion piece for prohibition
nothing could be better designed and when
they are united in any community it is
then the better time one can select to take
an easy-chair and read Oliver G0ldsmith's
deserted Village"
The picture is framed and before your
eyes-the poetry IS in the book. The
system of course was incomplete without
a purchasing headquarters, when expert
4 enced merchants sold to inexperienced
country farmer traders, and no one need
be told who held the vantage grOund-the
oily tOngued salesman or the honest, but
less experienced manipulation of "butter-
neggs."
Ii the farmer sometimes feels aggrieved
because the corner grOceryman will not
pay him the price he thinks the market in
which the trader sells will warrant, and
leave fair margin for profits. he should
/. which no one can deprive him, and sell
his products directly to the consumer, and
in this way he can soon ascertain whether
or not there is q profit that riRhtfully be.
longs to him that he Is deprived Of by the
merchant or grOceryman. But he must
trouble and uncertainty in looking fol
4 customers, which make a per cent. to be
deducted from the profits he expects to
derive over and above that to be realized
from the price paid fby the regular trader
at an established place Of business.
For reasons barely limited at, and fol
many others that might be mentioned, NO
cooperative store conducted by farm
ers ever has or ever can succeed for any
length of time, and observation will bear
out the statement that their wind-up has
\ usually been in the court calendar-ssJ John
Doe VS.. Union Store No. - Whatever
else the farmer my do to increase his pros.
perity Of all, let him avoid Investment in q
3 cooperative store, as he would buzz saw
Let his wife make s'crazy quilts" and in.
dulge In missionary needle work, but d0n't
put your eggs into q basket that everybody
IS to help carry, nor pool your butter with
not wash her hands before she milks the
cow. BUTTERNEGGs.
3.5as Voice OF the Territorial Press.
Sioux Falls Press: ..Just as r. j. Nc
I Bride, editor Of the Mitchell Mail, was
stepping on the train in New York to come
home to attend the election a telegram was
d handed him saying that his father -in-law
@ Gen. Sturgis, Of st. Paul, was low. Pre-
nare for the worst, This was the first in