The Topeka state journal., 1919-12-15

on the subject. The social intercourse
! incidental to a studying period will
eliminate this danger, for during your
many evenings together you will
| learn to know each other. When the
! time comes to elect officers and a
management committee, you will know
whom you can trust. The closer the
! members are knit together by social
! intercourse. the bigger are the chances
of success. That is why the small
| immigrant communities in this coun-
try have SO far been the most sue
cessful in cooperative enterprise;
they are much thrown together and
] know each other"
In choosing a manager for the en-
terprise, it is also well to remember
that experience has shown that work
! ing men are the most successful man
| ayers of cooperative stores. A CO.
| operative store is entirely different
from an ordinary store run by pri-
! vate interests. While practical judg-
ment and some knowledge of COM
mercial practice are necessary. the
typical smart business spirit is not
| one of the ingredients that will bring
success to a cooperative venture.
The time is now ripe for a wide
spread cooperative movement in this
country. For many years co-opera-
ton has been checked by many fac
tors-by the spirit of individualism
WHICH pISNd1lco dS IL Odi1 prevail Ollly
in a nation where there is plenty of
room. and by the presence of frontiers
to which the population could flee
from poverty Then came a period
of vigorous competition among pri-
vate tradesmen, chain stores and pow
erful monopolies. all of which tended
to obstruct co-operativ enterprise. 1t
was the new immigrant element from
Europe which gave the first impetus
to the cooperative movement here,
and it is this element which still holds
some of the first prizes of co-opera-
tive achievement. The farmers in the
western and northern states and the
foreign industrial workers in all parts
of the country carried the movement
forward until 1916. since when CO.
operation has proceeded everywhere
by leaps and bounds.
According to the league, over 5000
true consumers cooperative societies
are now operating stores. In some To-
cations the purchasing power of
groups OF societies has become SO great
that they have federated and organ
lied wholesale societies. In western
Pennsylvania a federation of seventy
societies, known as the Tri-State Co
operative society," whose membership
embraces many nationalities. includ-
ing Poles, Slovaks, Lithuanians. Uk-
| rainians. italians and Bohemians, is
croWding hard upon private business
I in the handling of groceries, meats,
dry goods, shoes, feed and automobile
supplies. This society maintains a
wholesale branch. with a warehouse in
| Pittsburgh but SO great are the de-
mands upon it that it can supply the
| local cooperative societies only with
in the radius of fifty miles. In Illi-
nois several cooperative societies op-
| Grated by miners are doing a business
| of three million dollars a year. In
Seattle the co-operatives not only run
| a store, but they operate their own
market, cold storage plant. slaughter
house and packing establishment.
| Thus. quietly, like a great river, as
| a member of the league POLITICALLY
| puts it, the current of cooperation
sweeps on. 1t is impossible to tell
where or when it will stop.