The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-10-29
COOPERATIVE sToPEs IN dEE.
 s.c a. MANY.

.
 Co. operative st,,.s play perceptihle part in supplying the necessaries of life though they have not attained so large development as in England, where they originated. Systematic co-opera- tion was started by Schulze of Delitzsch in 1S4S, and the credit of inaugurating this form of social effort belongs, therefore, to Germany; but the. stores or retail distributiye societies, which were copied from the example of Lan- cashire. came many years ater, and have never formed more than minor part Of the movement which has de- veoped chiefly in other directions, whereas in Great Britain the opposite has occurred. The retail societies are there about ten times more numerous than the other forms of cooperation praetised-namely, productive and agri- cultural societies-and credit societies, which are by far the most numerous and important in Germany, do not exist at all. It is necessary to make this ex- planation because the term cooperation is very, loosely used, and some misap- prehension might be caused by mixing up the different kinds of societies, In the present connection, I am only con- cerned with the stores. @'..r
 They are very much In evidence in the industrial towns, and they appear to be chiefly engaged in the, sale of groceries. No doubt they have the effect, as with us, of keeping down the prices of the or- dinary shops in their neighborhood, and they are disliked accordingly. There is not very much exact informa tion avail- able about their activity. According to the figures produced at the last Co-ope- rative Congress there are in Germany 1,52S such societies; of these, 56S are affiliated to general association of CO., operative stores, and they have 522516 members; it is reckoned from this that the total membership is between a mill lion and million and half families
 The societies are regulated by statute, and may only sell to members. The Christian trade unions have been par- ticularly active in founding them. do not know if the foregoing figures in- clude the stores attached to individual works or not. There ares such at Bo- chum, Aachen, Essen, Oberhausen, Bielefed, Metlach, M. Gladbach, Lever- kusen and many other places, all in con- nection with large manufacturing con- cerns, and run for the benefit of the op- eratives. By far the largest is that carried on by Krupps; it includes huge establishment just outside the steel works at Essen and branch shops at all the workmen's colonies, the coal pits and other works belonging to the firm. In 1900 there were in all tifty-one shops, thus apportioned: Groceries twenty, butchers shops fifteen, clothing and drapery eleven, boots and shoes three, hardware one, wine, etc., one. This im- mense concern sprang originally out of a cooperative society carried on in Es- sen by workmen, chiefly employed at Krupp's steel works. It fell into diffi- culties and was taken, over, with its H. abilities, by the firm in 1868. At that time it consisted of three grocery stores. Its operations extended rapidly after 1S70 and again after 1895, particularly in the meat department; the number of slaughter houses and butcher shops nearly doubled between 1895 and 1900. The concern is carried on as an inde- pendent business, with its own capital and on business lines. Membership is open to other persons besides those em- ployed by the firm, but since 1890 the latter have enjoyed the advantage of an annual bonus on the total profits, reck- oned on the extent of their purchases, which are entered iii an account book. The average bonus paid to workmen members in 1899 was thirty-six shillings The result of this system has been a large increase in the membership of Krupp work people and falling off of ] outside members. Every personal and household requisite is sold, including all kinds of clothing, furniture, domestic machines and even ice; about fourteen | hundred blocks of thirty pounds each are manufactured every day. In two of the workmen's colonies markets are held for vegetables, meat and fish
 About seven hundred people are em- '