Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-16
NEW In PITTSBURG.
A Colored Progressive Cooperative
Association Formed Here.
A GENERAL STORE TO BE STARTED.
The Charter Secured and Building Pro.
vided on Wylie Avenue.
THE METHOD OF OPERATION PROPOSED

A number OF colored people in this city,
| 100 or more men Of means, have organized
what will be known as the Progressive Co.
operative Association, place of business,
wylie avenue. 1t is not hastily formed
plan, but well-matured one. Meetings
have been held weekly for several months in
church on Arthurs street, and the details
of the plan debated until the projectors have
reached common ground, and are ready for
operations as soon as the legal preliminaries
can be arranged The officers are Joseph 81.
Smith, Chairman j. B. Walker, Treasurer
and man named Henderson, letter car
rier, Secretary.
The knowledge of the movement came to
q reporter several weeks ago, but not until
Yesterday could he get onto the plans or
scope. The last movement was an applica-
ton for charter by W. C. McEldowney,
Esq. The company is formed under an act
of 1887, under which two other associations
have been organized, one in Mansfield and
the other in McKeesport, both of which are
said to be doing well so far. The Progress
sive Cooperative Association of this city
has secured building ON Wylie avenue.
The charters under the act of 1887 do not al
low the giving or accepting OF credit Such
corporations are required to make quarterly
statements and declare dividends if there be
any earned. The capital stock of the Pitts
burg Progressive Cooperative Association
is S2O, 900.
THE STORE WILL BE GENERAL.
A trained business man has been engaged
to take the general management of the
store. The capital may be increased or di-
minished according as the exigencies of the
situation may demand. It is intended to
run general business house where custom
ers may get drygoods, millinery, groceries.
hardware, etc., anything likely to be needed
by all housekeepers.
While Caucasian patronage is solicited, it
is expected that the greater portion will
come from the colored population, which is
dense in the neighborhood of the proposed
store There are many people who do not
expect to receive direct benefit from the en-
terprise, who nevertheless look upon it favor
ably as an educational factor. There are few
avenues to lucrative employment open to
colored people in this section. While in the
South the colored man enters the lists gen.
orally, and aspires to be mechanic, store
keeper, lawyer. preacher, doctor, or what
ever he may feel best qualified for; in the
North he generally seems to be smothered
by his surroundings, and but few are able
to fight their way unassisted to prominence.
Commerce rules the world. and the man
who trains his sons in business puts power
into their hands. The trading nations rule
the modern world, and did much Of the an
cient, except during the domination of the
Romans. War nowadays is more matter
OF business than of bloodshed. A nation
whose finances are disorganized cannot put
armies into the field and sustain them ef-
fectively.
WARS NOT PROFITABLE.
As Louis XIV, of France, said, 'The
last piece of gold, or credit, wins" The
master spirits in the commercial world now
adays have learned that war is not profit
able, and they are more potent to bring
about that state of universal peace of which
philanthropists dream than are the masters
of diplomacy and statecraft.
To become>a member of the Progressive
Cooperative Association one must pay an
initiation fee of 81 a share on the amount of
stock he wishes to hold. Complaint has
been made by all lawyers who have
gotten charters for this kind of or
ganizations of the ruling of the At
torney General of the State. Ac-
cording to the act of Assembly governing
them, the charges for charter are 10 cents
per hundred words for transcribing at Har-
risburg, and the same amount for recording
in the county where the association exists,
but the Attorney General has ruled that an
additional of u Of per cent on the capital
stock must be paid, the same charged all
other corporations
The course of this cooperative store will
be watched with interest. So far white
Americans have not generally succeeded in
such enterprises, though the system has
worked well in England and Germany. 1t
is possible the colored brethren may be able
to give the whites pointers in this line.