The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1918-11-08
COOP IDEA is
MAKING GAINS
ALL OVER u. :.

eraClNe STORES INTO the 1NaIloHai W.
Operative Wholesale will be the next
move of the American co-operators,
as decided upon at the first nation
al cooperative convention, held re-
Gently at Springfield, Illinois. At
this convention seven large independ-
ent cooperative wholesale grocery
and supply houses of the United
States united to form the National
COOPERATIVE Wholesale, which will
start business with a turnover of
$40 100000 from consumers coop
erative organizations, and nearly
$1O0,00O,000 from producers organ
izations in the Northwest and Pa
cific districts.
Dalton T. Clark, head of the Penn
sylvania, Ohio and West Virginia
district, was elected president of
the new organization; Carl Lunn,
head of the Puget Sound wholesale
district, was elected vice-president,
and Duncan Mcdonald, head of the
cooperative wholesale for the Cen
trail states and former treasurer of
the United Mine Workers, was chos-
en- secretary.
Many Coop Stores
About a thousand cooperative
stores are listed in the United States,
although the exact number of them
is not known They have sprung
up here and there; but most of them
have had no guidance, and have
been out of touch with successful
cooperative stores elsewhere. The
result is that about 10 cooperative
stores out of 20 have failed; and the
pressure of war prices is making
things more difficult for those which
have survived.
The National Cooperative Whole
sale is going to carry on stock
selling campaign among the coop
eratives which are not represented;
and if all the stores in the country
join, the wholesalers buying power
will be tripled. The wholesale is
to be organized on the Rochdale
plan, like the English Cooperative
Wholesale Society, now the largest
wholesale grocery store in the world.
Each retail store buying stock will
have one vote, regardless of the num-
Der of shares held.
A New Social Order
''It's new social order, if you
please said one Of the co-operators,
discussing the wholesale, "a nom
political, economic movement of the
people. It's quiet, it's slow but
sure, like the dripping water on a
rock or the wearing down of the
hills. The advocates of private
profit look at US two ways, accord
ing to their temperament. One set
would choke us by cutting off sup
plies. The other set figures that
labor has to have some kind of out
let, and this looks safe. Anyway,
they conclude they will be rich and
dead long before cooperation has
absorbed the old social structure"
Attacks by private interests on
the WHOLESALERS source of supplies
would be rather welcomed by some
co-operators, who declare that the
English movement would never have
had the success it has had if the in
terests had let it alone. Their plans
go beyond the WHOLESALERS develop
ing it's own sources, and include the
development of the social side of CO.
operation. They plan to develop a
fighting community spirit, so that
when the cooperative store is I'M
able to obtain a certain brand, and
offers it's own, the buyers will have
nothing to do with the advertised
article and will take what the CO.
operative has.
The Puget Sound district is going
ahead fast in cooperation. There
are now 81 cooperative single mills.
In Seattle cooperative laundry
does $4,000 worth of business a week.
There is a cooperative bakery with
three salesrooms. The co-opera-
tive market sold $4,000 worth of
meat last month, and the profits on
the $15, 000.-Tacoma Labor Advo-
cate.
There is a cooperative store in
Everett which is steadily but surely
growing in business and importance.
L.