New-York tribune., 1910-12-18

The Sovereigns of Industry, founded IN
1874, tried TO do for the factory workers
what the Grange had done for the farmers.
The movement lasted only four or hVe
years. Later the Farmers Alliance estab-
Iished stores in the Southern States. and
was fairly successful for time. An exhaus-
tive report by Ira Cross, made for the
Wisconsin Bureau of Labor Statistics in
1905, shows that in that year there were
3l3 cooperative stores in the United
States OF these 10 answered the ques-
tions which were put to them They had
Sc. .2S6 members, S4OlOG00 of capital. did a
business of S10.500000 q year at expense
of $l.1S00C0 and employed 1,05O employees
The average dividends paid on the shares
was per cent. the average bonus on the
purchase of members was per cent and
on the purchases of non-nne embers per
cent. In other words, one-hdIf OF the CO.
operative stores of the United States saved
at least sS50OO0 to their purchasers in that
year alone.
OF late years the movement has taken
q new lease Of life in the Middle West
The Right Relationship League, with head
! quarters in Minneapolis. grew in the year
! 1908 from forty-six stores. with 2416 mem
bers TO seventy-four stores This year.
!
twenty-one new stores and turned twenty
| three old-fashioned country stores into CO.
| operative ones.
| In California. where cooperation has
fouIished like all strange things, the Roch-
dale Wholesale Company serves sixty CO.
| operative stores and GOes yearly business
| of s. O00.OG0 II has just consolidated its
| branches into a single buying agency. by
| which it hopes to save money handsomely
| Here, too the plan of cooperative pro-
duction has taken hold. and the "Roch-
| dale Brand Baking Powder, Extracts.
| Spices Syrups and Coffees-Purity Guaran-
teed' is advertised throughout California
1t would seem, then that cooperative
stores succeed in England, and that they
are shortIived in the United states Does
this mean that Secretary Wilson's sugges-
ticn will not work2 In the first place, 1t
should be noticed that in England the CO.
operative store has fiOurished principally
in the mill towns, and that it was estab-
Hshed first in the smaller mill towns In
America however, it has been almost
wholly an affair of the farmers Yet Sec
retary Wilson'S plan is that the towns
men should join to buy the products OF
the farmer.
In England the mill towns grew up sud
denly, on the sites OF small villages, anu
in general the commercial system of the
towns did not grow correspondence IL
one little shop was not enough. another
little shop was started. So, when the CO.
operators came and consolidated the bust
ness of a hundred little shops into one
store, the store prospered, if for nothing
else because it was a large, modern busi-
ness competing with small, antiquated
businesses.
In America, however, the department
store and the factory grew up side by
side. and goods were sold fairly. cheaply
and efficiently from the first Hence. the
need for the cooperative store was less in
American towns. The farmers, who did
take I'D the movement. are famous as the
most independent, Overworked people on
earth They might combine during hard
times as they did again and again. but
when prosperity came back there was al
ways the tendency to pull out" of the
combination and buy wherever il was most
convenient and where credit could be had
For the cooperative store can hardly live
except on cash basis. One other cause
has worked against cooperation in Amer
lea. the defect of business management. II
| q man in this country is capable of running
| a co-operative store successfully he can, OF
thinks he can, run store of his own in