Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1894-12-13
THE COOPERATIVE CRAZE.


altruistic, or single tax communitie
by people disconnected with the socia
order de creed by law or custom ant
eager to make the attempt to put int,
practice the particular remedies 70
social and industrial ills in which the,
have faith. Some of the reports ar,
baseless or greatly exaggerated NJ
doubt, but there are enough such en-
terprises under way TO indicate very
interesting condition Of the public
| mind.
For example, within week the Chi
cago newspapers have reported the fol
lowing community projects: A com
munity of Pullman employees to be es
tablished in Baldwin county, Alabama
in which the single tax theory is to be
tested as far as may be in a single com
munity subject to state and national
taxation. a cooperative colony near
Chicago to be conducted upon the "Bel-
! lamyite" plan, to help along the revolt
yainst "the present cut throat cOmpe.
titiOn system of society" and 10 make
| ultimately, Of the whole nation a CO.
I operative commonwealth where mill.
ionaires and tramps will cease to exist
| and those will fare the best who work
| the hardest" Members OF the Fair.
hope Industrial association, organized
at Des MOines, Iowa, and gathered
from seventeen states, are now on their
| way to Alabama to establish q CO.
operative colony on a large scale. At
BeltzhoOver, Pa, the cornerstone of
the first building to be erected by the
Bellamy Co operative association was
laid last week. The object of the as
ISOLATION is to give work to its mem.
bers and the full value of the finished
product to the workers, eliminating
the factors of interest, rents and pro.
fits" In Salt Lake City the Credits
Clearance Beneficiary association, with
its purpose of establishing co opera
tive town in Tennessee, is reported to
be making headwav. These are but
the news items bearing on cooperative
or Socialistic schemes culled from the
Chicago newspapers in one week. A
vastly greater number of such projects
must be in process of development in
different parts of the country.
No harsh word of criticism may be
spoken against the aspirations, the
ideals which prompt those who have
embarked with sincerity in these en-
terprises-many of them unhappily
Utopian. Protest and revolt against
a system which leaves 5000 flats and
houses vacant in Chicago while women
and children live in novels or coal
sheds and men walk the streets at
night for lack of shelter /. not to be
contemptuously dismissed as idle folly.
Hostility to a system of mingled COM
petition and combination which shuts
down coal mines, closes wooden mills
and reduces wheat acreage on the plea
of overproduction, while children 20
cold, half clad and hungry, is not I'M
warrantable. But whether these eff.
forts to reform industrial conditions
in spots can ever bring anything except
disaster to those who join in them may
well be doubted.
There is grave danger, to begin with,
that many of these cooperative colo
MES are organized for mercenary, if
not indeed swindling purposes. They
may be adjuncts to land selling
scheme, or may have been devised for
the purpose of selling worthless bonds
or scrip. Instances of this kind have
been exposed in the past, and will
doubtless be repeated in the future.
But even when the originators and CO.
operators are sincere and honest In
their motives the chances for their
failure are infinite. The great world
surrounding them, their market in
which to a great degree they must buy
and sell, is not cooperative. BY seq
regating themselves they do not escape
the disadvantages of a system of un-
restricted competition, though they do
surrender its few advantages. They
do not protect themselves from the OK.
tortions of monopoly, though they
abandon the chance of securing a pro-
titable monopoly for themselves.
Cooperative colonies have succeeded
in the United States, but more have
failed. From the days of Brook farm
they have appealed strongly to men of
brilliant intellect and Impractical
thought. They are eminently ethical,
but painfully impracticable. The pres
ent mania for their establishment is
interesting rather as showing the ten
dency of public thought than as prom
Using the speedy coming of the CO.
operative millenium.-Chicago Times.
The Pains Of Rheumatism