Norwich bulletin., 1914-03-21

In not few cases the wives re
 l gard it as their inalienable right to do
 1 all the buying, and resent their hus- bands dealing with the cooperative In several cases "a husband has in sisted, only to find all his purchases so much found fault with that he had to give up in disgust"
 Some of the men are above carry ; ing packages and would rather pay more at a store which will send a wagon with their purchases In some goods Il has been almost impossible to secure from the whole salers constant grade. one which will not vary in quality from month to month. This variation is no great CT than is commonly experienced at regular retail stores, but there seems to be a curious unwiilingneSs to show as much consideration to the CO., operative as to the retailer The cooperative requires payment in cash on delivery of the goods. Some families actually prefer to buy on credit even when they know 1t is costing them more.
 And a few are too unintelEgent and improvident to take any interest, any way.
 But the obstacle most frequently encountered is that the family is al ready trading at some store where it has book" has fallen so far be- hind in its payments that 1t cannot
  yet is afraid to discontine trading on the book" till it has done so. Not one of these causes for lack of interest in a cooperative money-saV- ing scheme is new to those of Us who have been enga ged in anything of the sort.
 I have been connected for more than ten years with club of farmers who nuy their groceries in common, at wholesale rates, very much as this Worcester cooperative is doing. And ''snags'' mentioned above. Seems to me no one, calmly and
 reasonably considering them, will pretend that any one of them is sensi- bic or eVen~ defensible. But human nature. in it's rnultifarious varieties, must be taken as it is. and not as it ought to be.
 p. T. Barnum used to say,-and he made several millions by acting on it, that the American people liked to be humbugged. l think it is perfectly clear that some of them do: that they like it so well they will choose the humbug instead of the truth, when the truth is cheapest and handiest: that they like it so well they will even take trouble to humbug themselves, provided no outsider does it for them. But this can't be true or all, nor even of a majority,
 We have ''heern tell" also, of men so Shorted sighted that penny held close before their eyes would comDlete- ly hide a dollar farther away There are many men and women who cans seem to realize what 1t means to save few cents on one item of their living their expenditures and see the dollars which a cent saved here and a nickel there will come to in the course of a year.
 But neither can this be true of a majority
 This Worcester factory makes a highly specialized product, which calls for the selection of workmen having more than ordinary skill and intelligence. It has already been no ticed that, even in such a body, 1t is those of the higher intelligence and enterprise who are most active in CO., operation. MT. Mutt, in describing the plan and it's results, sums up a great fact in these words Intelligence, enthusiasm, the facul- ty of devotion to a cause. are pre- | requisite to successful CO., operation A man who can't realize the full significance of a saving of two cents on can of corn can't make a good
 /. cO-OpeTdIOF. SucB SdNlnS, nl2ue l proportionately on all a years pur- chases, would amount to so much as to be well worth while for any man, rich or poor. But the very people who most need the saving seem slow est to realize it's value.
 And devotion to d cause: Don forget that phrase. Cooperation will never be wholly a success to the men or women who go into it solely for the sake of their own pocket-books- For cooperation means working with others for their good, as much as having others work with you for your beneft-not each one exclusively for his own profits. but all for mutual advantage.
 In the case of the little farmers buying club of which l have personal