The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1890-12-18
Co-Operative Stores.

The old idea Of cooperative stores
seems to be again in the popular
mind to some extent. Patrons OF
Husbandry and other Farmers
organizations from time to time have
made efforts to arrange for the pur-
chase OF commodities by wholesale
to avoid middle MEMS profits.
They have undertaken to designate
their own merchants and to do their
own distributing, but the results
were not what was anticipated.
Nearly every such undertaking has
failed, and occasionly the men who
have ayailed themselves Of the ac-
quaintance and business knowledge
thus attained, have managed to be-
come merchandise make Of them
selves middle men,"
This is natural, and, by those famil-
lar with such topics, was foreseen.
Had it occurred to the projectors
that unless middle men, rendered
service that some one wanted, no one
would pay them for their service,
much time and effort would have
been saved. The fact is, when CON-
petition is free, middle men" cannot
keep employed unless they are useful.
Nor can cooperative stores, in
which the customers are partners or
stock holders. be managed as effect
lively as private stores. While such
a concern is profitable, everything
goes on swi,nmingly, but, from some
cause let losses occur, and the man
ayers are blamed-perhaps removed.
The temptation. therefore constant
~ is to strengthen themselves, and to
this end the managers are liable to
secretly favor influential customers,
to accept commissions from whole
sale merchants to their individual
profit and to expense OF the concern.
The profits of middle men" are in
the main simply fair compensation
for the services they render and the
risks they run. A jobber, for instance,
spends his time in watching the
course Of trade, keeping himself in
formed as to the opportunities for
advantageous purchases, and he thus
relieves the retail dealer from the
need of spending time and labor,
which he cannot afford in this way.
The jobber can commonly supply at
once the retail dealer with what he
wants, for he has it. or knows where
to get it forthwith: and his .'profit''
is payment for his time and labor,
with premium for insurance against
losses on his purchases and reason
able interest on the money he has
invested.
The retail merchant undertakes the
labor Of procuring the articles his
customers need, Of bringing them
within their reach, and Of keeping
them safely till they are called for.
He also assumes the risk that they
may not be called for, or that they
may spoil on his hands. His prof
it's consists of payment for his labor,
premium on his risks, and interest on
his money invested. II he does not
succeed in getting these he cannot
carry on his business and must give
it up to one who can. Any business
conducted by Patrons of Husbandry,
knights Of Labor, or Farmers ALI
ance, must have these things pre-
cisely as pointed out above, or else
their cooperative business must fail.
The trouble is not that our mer-
chants and business men generally
are making too much profit on their
business, but that their purchases
are not made in market where COM
petition is the rule. Trusts, pools
and combinations provided for by
vicious legislation puts the retail
dealer and the consumer in the same
boat.