Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1902-07-30

ers2 When there are stores enough, let
them buy together, as the syndicate
stores do now, until each store can
take stock in wholesale store After
this Industries can be established and
ships bought to feed the stores"
This is the general plan except for
the small beginnings of that fascinat-
Ing Rochdale story, and small begin
nings are not at all out of place except
where large ones could just as well be
made. We are richer here. There are
business men who have proved their
ability who are only waiting for a man
like ]. S. Clark or for some one whom
the Boston society shall send out to
show this practicable plan to turn
their stores into cooperative stores
and work on salary.
The successful thing about this plan
of cooperation is that it appeals to self
interest and not wholly to some ideals
too high for any but farslghted eyes.
Coworkers, producers, consumers,
share the dividends just uniting their
consuming and producing power In the
businesslile ways of the twentieth
century, which we all like except for
certain cruelties
mistake which causes unpleasant
ness In some cooperating localities is
that the minds of some leaders get too
far ahead of the real business. City
people who don't object to cooperative
stores naturally do object to having
their real estate appropriated in fancy
long before dividends have enabled the
co-operators to offer the cash for the
real estate. Farmers, too, only need
markets and relief from trust extor-
tions at present. Farmers are not unit
ed in any way that is detrimental to
the public or that calls for interference
with their real estate from any med
dlesome cooperation. They are the
natural friends of cooperative stores.
They like creameries, and they need
very much cooperative ways of mar
keting their produce Most farmers are
not peddlers. But the appropriation of
farms or anything which sounds like
that should not be made pant of a
senseless programme. Special farms
for feeding cooperative stores-there
Is enough to do before that unneces-
sary task Is begun. To see this only
requires common observation and COM
mon sense and no taking notes by any
specialist The practical result of set
ting the community's nerves on edge
unnecessarily Is scare of coworkers,
members, stockholders, robbing the
work Of It's friends and its most careful
helpers. A leader who knows men
does not stalk away on ahead of them
all with his face turned heavenward.
A five days study of the methods
which have stood the test of trial and
of those which haven't has been ex-
tremely beneficial to the thoughtful.
The lawyer mayor of Norwich who got
municipal gas came with his two
friends.
He limited In his quaint way that Il
cooperative store would start In Nor
wich. a goodly number of business
and professional men came from Bos-
ton, a nucleus of what looks like big
movement beginning there. The most
beautiful address of the conference
was made by George Washburn, pro-
prietor of a department store and pres
ident of great Populist club. He ex-
pressed himself sympathetically for
the 800 men who even In this past year
of prosperity had quietly failed In Bos-
ton, Cruelty killed by their brothers."
falling out so quietly as to be unno-
ticed. "Oh, the broken hearts, the
ruined homes, the lost soulsr' This
large, prosperous man standing before
an audience In the city hall said, Go
operation shall have my lifeW From
so far west as Des Moines, Ia, came
an ex-congressman. General Howard
of Farm, Field and Fireslde spoke to
us. New Jersey sent some delegates.
Philadelphia Quakers, business people,
assured us that they felt 1t Il duty as
Christian people to begin cooperative
work. The Economic League of Con-
necticut, which has been electing may
ors on public ownership tickets, was
represented by more than one. Rev.
Mr.. Little1eld of Haverhill, Mass,
pledged his life to cooperation. Rev.
Karl yrooman is just home from study
in Europe. Hiram Vrooman presided
peaceably. The janglng notes usually
struck at such long meetings We're
sometimes sounded, but the presidents
tones were always musical and his
manners unruftled.
Mr.. George Il. Mcneil came from
Boston to represent union labor. He
explained that 1t was of little avail to
buy our victuals cheaper If we did not
cooperate with that great army, one
eighth of all the laborers, who cooper
ate to maintain clean conditions and to
keep down the hours of labor and to
keep up wages the barometer of civili-
zation. He asked that lines of union
made goods be kept In cooperative
stores
The literature printed In Lewiston
had not the union label, and "the
grand old man" of the labor movement
denounced it with fiery eloquence.
The printer explained that he had
tried to form union, but that he
could not get charter because the In
tprnatiOnal Inion reouirp1 cayan print-