New-York tribune., 1910-12-18

size .he familiar sound of church bells
heard across a valley OF q quiet SUNDAY
morning, like the clean, free smell or the
new snow these winter days, the voice that
comes from Washington awakens DID, oiu
rner1ories-it is the voice of the Secretary
Of Agriculture putting the cost or living up
ia the middlenan. Now, the Busy Nan
IN, il I'D 10 the middleman before tlie
rreachers did: the preachers blamed MN
before the college professors 'ooh '.ieii
-rr-,. the college professors landed on him
many. many months ago, and since ,ilen
The dehating societies and the trade unions
have about finished the Joo- Ill Is no he""
10 blame the middleman-
But the Secretary goes further He names
q -,er1edv. .-Co-operative purchasing" he
calls il. Most of his recent report Is taken
IL, in showing how the farmer receives any
where from, so per cent down to 20 per cent
of what the consumer pays for his proouce
al the retail stores. OF course, the oeaiers
get all the rest. The Secretary goes on
..zvb, do not consumers buy directly from
the farmer? A distribution Of farm prod
.,cts in this simple way has already pesuli
IN ENGLAND where cooperative organiza-
,ions of farmers are selling by direct con-
signment to cooperative organizations Oh
consumers IN cities Farmers cooperative
selling associations are numerous IN ehls
country. but cooperative buying associa-
tions among people Of cities and towns are
few. Aside from buying associations main
.ained by farmers, hardly any exist In this
country 1t is apparent, therefore, that
.be consumer has much to do to work out
his own salvation with regard TO the prices
he PAYS for farm products"
Here the Secretary goes back to simple
remedy for the old-rashioned hard times
which has been rather lost sight or In the
shuttle Of brilliant analyses Of the cost OF
living problem OF 1910. England went
.hroueh q tremendous awakening IN the
wears between 1920 and 1885 Those were inc
wears of the repeal Of the corn laws OIL
the reforming of Parliament, OF the clean
sng III, OF the rotten boroughs' which were
rs rotten as superannuated, musty elecuon
laws could well make them
1t was in those years that cooperative
b,vins was first widely heard Of. 1t was
put forward by the great philanthropists OF
She day. men of immense imagination, who
.roposed nothing less than TO reform the
whole world out Of hand. Cooperative
.bons were organized by the hundred In
,,racrically all of them the shareholders
were workingrnen, who received their sup
niles at reduced rates from the shops and
.7raZy dividends on their stock like any
,otler capitalists. All sorts Of generous
schemes were mixed with the plan Not
the least famous was the Ham common
Corcordiuu." which regarded the use OF
meat sugar, salt and tea as SIN its
founder slept with his bare feet thrust ou'
of Inc from: window The colonists OF
Trenchman's Island planned society II
which children should be sucked by ma
chnery.
In 1910 cooperation was as dead as a
door nail. Most OF the shops simply
stopred from lack Of trade; some became
ordinary stock companies and prospered
and very few dragged on with decreasing
membership and vanishing profits Ihe
great phiIanthropists were mostly dead
Twenty-eight flannel weavers, OF Roch-
dale A mill town in Lancashire, met II
1874 and organized another cooperative
srfre Charles Howarth, a particularly
bard-headad and shrewd member, suS-
ges-cd that they should not sell goods al
cost. hut should divide the profits on the
store according 10 the value Of the goods
that each member had purchased Ihey
Were TO pay 3 per cent or the stock that the
members owned, but no more Moreover
they were 10 divide the surplus with pur-
chasers who were not members as well
giving each one-half the bonus that was