The Topeka state journal., 1919-12-16
= TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau .
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington, D. c.
THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT
H.-In Europe.


which planted the cooperative move
ment firmly on its feet in this coun-
try, also gave it tremendous impetus
! in Europe. In every country Coop
erative societies have multiplied by
! the hundred since 1916. In Great
Britain one-third of the total popula-
ton is engaged in cooperative enter
prises. In Russia there are over fifty
| thousand cooperative societies with
twenty million members which are go
| ing turbulently on their cooperative
| way. In Paris one cooperative whole
| sale is doing an annual business of
nearly fifty million francs. Every
| where, cooperative. ventures are in
| creasing about ten times as fast as
the population.
This is all the more surprising be-
cause at the outbreak of the war even
| the great leaders of the cooperative
| movement feared that it would suffer
serious check. Many were on the
| point of postponing cooperative
schemes until after the war, but
| events soon showed, them the wisdom
! OF going on with them. Every coun-
! try passed thru the same period of
raGeous speculation and soaring
! prices. And in every case it was the
| cooperative societies who came to the
rescue of the consumers.
| In Great Britain, where cooperation
had fought it's way slowly against
powerful opposition, it suddenly be-
| came popular. Every cooperative
store could have had the whole British
! public in its membership If it could
| have accommodated it. Lines of pros
| pective members stretched for blocks
around each store, voicing their ad-
| mlration of cooperative enterprises
and waiting patiently for a chance to
M out enrolment cards. This was
because the cooperative stores, having
no incentive to make profits out of
their own members. to whom they ac-
| tually belonged. kept their prices down
| to reasonable level when eyery-
| where else the tendency of prices was
rapidly vertical. As long as the sup
Plles IN the huge cooperative ware
houses lasted, there was no raise in
prices. Later. of course, when these
! became exhausted and it was neces-
| sary to go into the open market for
new ones, prices had to be raised
out even so, they were the lowest
prices to be found in the United King
com: Finally, co-operator was made
| Food Controller.
In France practically the same thing
occurred. The cooperative societies
were called into service by the govern
Inent to iced munition workers and
TO supply the civilian population with
meat, coal. potatoes and other neces-
slties: The Austrian government de-
manded the same service from Ans
| trlan cooperative societies.
Before the war. Russia had q moro
handful of cooperative societies, and
| those which did exist were bitterly
prosecuted by the government. The
| rapid increase of cooperative enter
| prises began with the revolutionary
| movement and continued until now
Russia is the greatest co-operativ
| country in the world. During the brief
kerensky regime the posts of deputv
! minister of agriculture, director of the
supplies committee, and the minister
| OF commerce and industry were all
! filled by leaders of the co-operative
movement. The co-operators have
I been equally respected by the BoIshe-
Wiki, altho tRe Rochedale system does
not harmonic with the Soviet's eco
| nomic principles. Lenine has used To-
cal co-operatives for the distribution
| or food supplies. while many of the
SoV1ets factories have been turned
over to well-organized cooperative So
cieties which were already operating
! similar establishments.
| During the war, the membership
| and trade of cooperative societies in
Germany more than doubled. More
1 than two million members were en-
rolled in consumers societies, while as
many more were enrolled in banking,
| agricultural and producers associa-
tions. in spite of the fact that most of
/ Germany's man-power was at war. In
! the third year of the war German CO.
| operative banks contained twenty-five
million dollars in savings deposits
Today. Germany possesses the larg-
est single cooperative enterprise in
the world. This is the "Produktion''
OF Hamburg, which was founded in
1900 and had membership of eighty
thousand when the war started. When
the armistice was signed the member
| ship had increased to over a hundred
| thousand, altho many of its original
members had been lost in the war.
Last year this society did a business OF
eleven million dollars, more than a
million of which was paid out in wages
to It's thousand employees in it's bank
ing. housing. insurance and manufac-
turing departments.
/ Austria-Hungary was another coun-
try where cooperation increased rap
idly during the war. altho since than il
has suffered severely by reason of the
dlvlsion or It's territory into several
small states. Before the war, Hun
gary contained more cooperative en-
terprises than any other European ma
ton, in spite of the fact that its gov
ernment was intensely opposed to
them. This opposition faded away
however. during the first year of the
war. when the government did not
hesitate to accept the services of the
Vienna Wholesale Cooperative. which
| organized the families of over five
| hundred thousand munition workers
into cooperative groups for the oper-
alton of their own restaurants and
bakeries.
The cooperative movement also
gained great momentum in neutral
countries during the war. In Switzer-
land. which has always been highly