The Ellensburg dawn. [volume] (Ellensburg, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1898-12-02
ON COOPERATION.
SUCCESS OF THE UNION STORES O.
NEW ENGLAND.

Extract From Report of the National Is
Dor Bureau Giving Results of an Inves~
tigation Made by Professor Edward w.
Bemis.
The recently issued bimonthly bulle-
tin Of the department Of labor, of which
Mr.. Carroll D. Wright is chief commits
sioner, contains the results of an inves-
tigation Of the cooperative societies Of
New England and other parts of the
country by Professor Edward W. Bemis.
Professor Bemis, after reviewing sever
al early experiments in cooperation, de-
Clares that the cooperative store had its
American beginnings with the so called
union stores in New England from 1911
to 1859. Limiting dividends and selling
little above cost these stores either
failed or were transformed into private
enterprises. None survives, yet 769 of
these stores were started, and $50 Of
them, mostly in New England, reported
in 1857 capital of 1891, 900 and an
annual trade of 81, 900, 900.
The next important effort was made
by the Patrons Of Husbandry, organized
in 1866. All their early grange stores
seem to have followed the methods Of
the union stores and to have met with
similar fate.
In 1864 the Rochdale methods of CO.
operative storekeepers were introduced
in a Philadelphia store by 23 members.
who had secured from Rochdale, Eng
land, the constitution and other docu-
ments of the famous Rochdale Pioneers
In the second quarter of 1866 the sales
were 81, 751.S4, and three branches were
too hastily established. The undue ratio
Of expense to trade, and especially the
lack Of interest in the movement, led to
its speedy failure in November.
The Oldest cooperative store in this
country at the time of its failure, in
1896, was the Danvers Cooperative I'm
ion society, with capital Of $500 il
the shoe manufacturing town Of Dan
vers, Mass. AT first, however, from
1865 to 1869, it sold goods exclusively
to its members and at cost, after the
methods of the other union stores al
ready referred to. 1t did not adopt the
Rochdale plan until 1869. The failure
is ascribed to incompetent agents, and
was so disastrous as to leave the stock
holders only rs per cent of their invest
ment.
The longest successful American trial
of the Rochdale plan seems to have been
by the Cooperative Store company at
Silver Lake, in the town of Kingston,
Mass, which began June IA, 1875. A
small store in q small place Of nearly
stationary population and with a trade
Of only $9,517.92 and a capital of ST.
$50 in 1866, or nearly the same as in
1856, its continued success under one
manager seems to prove the presence
there of what has been found far more
important than even the Rochdale
methods-a cooperative spirit, which is
thus defined in the copies of the bylaws
as printed in every edition for many
years: "a true co-operator has three
qualities-good sense, good temper and
good will-good sense to dispose him to
make the most Of his means; good tenn
per to enable him to associate with 9th.
ers, and good will to incline him to serve
them and be at trouble to serve them,
and go on serving them, whether they
are grateful or not in return, caring
only that be does good, and finding it
sufficient reward to see that others are
benefited through his unthanked exer-
tions."
This last enterprise, like eight Or nine
others still in successful operation, owed
its origin to the third wave Of co-opera-
tive enthusiasm which swept over New
| England and few others sections in
the seventies and which was chiefly fos-
tered at that time by the Sovereigns Of
| industry dnrinu its brief history frnrn