The Co-operative news. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1917-1918, 1917-12-13

AND WAR
(By katherine de'Selding)


Cooperation has stood the su-
prcmc test of War;
Professor Glide of Paris writes, in
his 1917 preface to his book ON
Consumers Cooperation, that the
region Of France which suffered the
invasion of the first days of the
war is precisely that in which the
Operatives were the most numer-
Gus and the most prosperous. He
states that the public authorities
obliged to provide for the feeding Of
the population, have been most
grateful to encounter, in this task
where they We're so inexperienced,
the disinterested assistance of Con-
sumers' Co-operatives. He describes
how the new Cooperative Federation
from the city of Paris the advances
and facilities necessary for oganiz-
ing the sale of cold-storage foods !;
how it has taken over the hundreds
of establishments of the Maison
Maggi, which was plundered in the
beginning Of the war, for the sale
of milk; how it has obtained from
the military authorities the means,
by the use of some automobile ba-
Zaars, of selling it's commodities at
the front and of thus freeing the
soldiers from the exploitation of the
merchants; and how it has created
permanent workshops, and shared in
the work of relief In the invaded
and devasted regions the co-opera-
tive stores have almost been uni
versally spared by the enemy.
Professor Stein writes from Ger
many:
where would we be in this war
in this beseiged fortress which is
Germany--if we did not have the
Co-operatives ?"
The number of cooperative stores
have increased very considerably in
Belgium, where, at Brussels, the cry
is: Communal Stores for the Brus-
sells Masses!"
Occasionally the refugees have or
gained co-operatives among them
selves, as the Belgium refugees in
Holland in the camp of Caasterland.
Senator la Fontaino predicts that
the speedy reorganization of Bel
GUM will be due chiefly to the
splendid spirit of brotherhood among
Co-operators.
In England, where the Co-opera-
tive Movement with it's four million
members means so much to the
workingman, the societies are lay
ing aside money to help recon-
struct, after the war, the co-opera-
tives of their enemy.
And in Russia the rapidity of de-
velopment of the Cooperative Move
ment with its twelve million men,
bers has surpassed that of all other
countries. In no small measure it
observes credit for the immediate
success of the Russian Revolution
and much of the ultimate success
depends upon it. The chief whole
sale societies of the world did a
trade in 1916 of nine million dollars,
an increase over 1915 of more than
two hundred million dollars.
DR.. James P Warbasse, president
of the Cooperative League of Am
erica, states in the October issue of
the Cooperative Consumer the Lea
CUES monthly organ that "Many
governments have placed food regu-
lations in the hands of the Coop
orators. Everywhere they have es-
tablished prices. They have been
the people who had the largest ex-
perience in handling big problems of
food supply, and their freedom from
the profit-making psychology has
made them invaluable in the time of
need.
All experience abroad tells the
same story of Cooperation helping
make the world safe for industrial