The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-10-27

put it into Coop" His offer-well, Of
course it was accepted, ike those OF 9TH
ers who gave sums as high as $500, until
to-day the store has more money then it
needs.
1t is the Firms, really, who have made
the greatest success Of cooperation in this
country. In the textile town Of Fitch
burg, Mass, which now has the largest
Finnish population Of any town in the
country, and in towns around Boston,
they are running their own stores, board
ing houses and bakeries. In four towns
they run their own milk carts.
They have publishing house that has
grown from a nest egg of $40 TO plant
worth 100000. Four years ago-or was
it only twoi The Firms eooperatiVes
prosper so rapidly-they started bank
with $4,000. Now they bank half a
million.
The secret of Finnish success doesn't
lie only in enterprise and stubborn deter
mination, but in the conception OF coop
Grafton as new social order, a way Of
securing democracy. The Firms don't
take out of the cooperative many of the
pennies it saves; they leave them in to
enlarge the business and to provide clubs
and amusements. The pennies saved,
they say, are few when measured by IN
dividual savings, but make substantial
sim when measured collectively, especially
if they are kept turning over and over.
Firms Provide Education, Too.
A good illustration of this social spirit
is. to be found in the older Finnish dis
tricts Of the north Central States where
the business done through the long chain
of comparatively owned enterprises runs
into millions of dollars. The Firms never
neglect the educational side of the work.
They provide clubs and classes and publi-
cations going to keep the spirit of their
work growing. One Of their publications
is a monthly magazine intended to educate
their women IN suffrage and cooperation.
The way not to start coOperatives can
be illustrated by the 100 cooperative stores
Of California, most of which have gone to
pieces. They failed for the reason that
there was no social vision behind them,
merely the desire to save little on the
grocery bills. In the face of the preju-
dice created by former failures it took
the courage Of man like Ernest Ames, an
English minister and friend Of Tolstoy, 10
build another chain of stores grounded on
community life. His has perhaps been
the most difficult task OF any organizer in
the country. ..--
Dalton Clark in the tri-Stafes district
around Pittsburg has been putting the CO.
operatives on social basis. Backed by
the funds and enthusiasm OF the labor
men he has reorganized isolated stores un-
til to-day, together with the new stores,
they form chain Of seventy stores with
the additional leverage of a wholesale. or
ganization. .... 80.
1t is to help stores to start right that
the most important committee of the con-
vention was appointed, one on national
unity, of which Mrs. James Warbasse Of
Brooklyn is chairman. It's work is to Sc.
cure organizers, establish a school for
training store managers-for the business
of running cooperative store is very dif-
ferent from that Of the privately owned
store-and to provide pamphlets telling
new groups how to start a cooperative
store and the simplest methods Of ban
ding cooperative accounts. -,
49, = sa.@1 aff ~; a. efF