The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-08-05
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM ALTON
BUREAU
FREDERIC J. HAKng, Dirocaox,
Wash1nEtan. d @
COOPERATIVE BUYING IN THE
NATIONAL, CAPITAL

7
established itself as the community of
them all in the United States in which
the cost of living is highest-the COM
| munity in which meats. for example,
| sci! regularly for 25 per cent more
| than they do in Baltimore, forty miles
away-the people have at last taken
the bit in their teeth and are organic
| ing a cooperative buying agency, to
be placed at the disposal of the whole
| community. which will purchase d.
rect from the producer and deliver
| direct to the consumer. many of the
staples of everyday existence.
So they have hit upon the idea OF
| forming a community food-selling or
| ganization which will enable them to
get food practically at cost. The pro-
posed plan is to eliminate the middle
| man in all food transactions; to use
| the public school houses distribute
] ing centers and to make every house
| wife in the District a member of the
organization without asking her to
subscribe a nickel
| This is the first instance in the his
! tory of the country where an entire
| city has undertaken to unite all the
| Inhabitants into one large, co-opera-
| tive agency. There are a number of
i small cooperative organizations in
| this city and elsewhere, but only those
who have subscribed for stock can
| trade in them. Such is the plan of
most cooperative agencies here and
| in Europe. The community organiZa-
| ton proposed for Washington will
| take in every family in the District.
| The whole scheme is nothing more
| than the enlargement of a plan that
has proved successful on a small scale.
/ For several years, John G. McGrath,
an employee or the treasury depart
| ment, has been acting the role of
i federal workers, helping them to pur-
| chase at cost much of the food used
| on their te bles. His plan was to go
into the territory surrounding Wash
| ineton and buy up foodstuffs from the
\ farmers and then sell it to his friends
and other people in the departments.
| He got nothing for his trouble, except
| the pleasure of operating his hobby.
| The only additional charge to the con-
sumner was the cost of transportation.
| The demand for such food was always
| greater than the supply, as the prices
/ generally ranged from ten to twenty
! five per cent below what it would cost
at the market.
In carrying on this business, from
| which he derived no profit, Mr.. Nc
| Grath made use of two public agencies
the parcel post and the schoolhouse.
The cheap parcel post rate of one cent
| per pound within a radius of SO miles
made it possible for him to have food
shipped into the district quickly and
/
ments he would dispose of the food
at schoolhouse, otherwise the sale
would be made at his home.
! These experimental food shipments
included potatoes. dairy products.
! poultry and fruits. Mr.. McGrath had
| an understanding with certain certain
| farmers that he would buy everything
! they could send him: So, in this way
| when he contracted with one producer
for his output of eggs and another for
1 hut -
| detail bargaining to be done. Likewise
was the wholesale problem for the
| farmer solved thru this one customer.
| The saving in dairy products and poul-
| try to the people who could take adj
vantage of the McGrath cooperative
| plan was very considerable. Last
| Christmas, Mr.. McGrath contracted
| for l, 500 pounds of turkey for 80 cents
per pound. and delivered to his people
| at this figure, while the market price
was from so to so cents.
Mr.. McGrath's experiments con-
WINGED him that his plan of co-opera-
tive buying and selling can be carried
| out on a>much larger scale so that
greater number of people can be bene-
| fitted by it. He recently explained his
| views to a representative meeting of
| the citizens and they asked him to
| work with a committee selected
from the various labor unions in the
District to outline a plan for a per-
manent community food-selling organ
ization. This is now being done.
The cooperative idea is not new
by any means. 1t has been practiced
in the British Isles and the continent
| of Europe for many years. The
| Rochedale plan of cooperation has
| been found to work most successfully
| in England. This plan is for a num-
Der of families to group themselves
together and operate a cooperative
store. They generally pay the market
price for what they buy at the store,
but the earnings of the business is re-
| turned to customers in proportion to
the total amount Of goods purchased.
During the past three-quarters of
a century, up to the outbreak of the
recent war, the membership in the
| cooperative societies in most of the
| European countries has practically
doubled itself each ten years. The cir
cumstances of the great struggle have
! caused 1t to grow at even a faster
rate. Economic adversely seems to
promote cooperation. Today the
movement has spread so phenomenal
ly over the British Isles and the con-
tinent of Europe that the movement is
said to have passed from a minority
to a majority of the total population.
Everything and anything has come
to be included in the cooperative
idea. Food, clothing, housing, fuel.
tainment are all provided by cooper
alive societies for their members. In
| Europe, great trusts have gone down
before this idea. In Switzerland it
| vancuished the beef trust, in Sweden,
the sugar trust, and the soap trust in
England. In these countries it has
4 accomplished for the worker greater
K victories than he has been able to at
tain thru the ballot box. The worker
has simply reached out to help him
self. and there seems to be no limit
to the extent to which he may go by
making use of the cooperative
scheme
One of the best results noted from
the cooperative movement by men
who have made close study of it is
the teaching of people to do things
for themselves without asking or ac-
cepting aid from the state. 1t is teach
ing the workers to administer their