Pullman herald. [volume] (Pullman, W.T. [Wash.]) 1888-1989, 1920-06-11

surely SUN SdldtleS- maven
you had embezzlements, thefts?"
None of any consequence, none
can remember-in 60 years"
That publicity manager knew that
knew that any business institution
that has been a going concern for 60
years is fact. 1t was useless to
try any longer to prove that it WASH t
and couldn't be fact. 1t only re.
NAMED to try to understand it. as
well as capitalistic mind could CON
ceive OF big business without u
genius to run it,
DO you mean to say that you pay
no higher salaries than $4,000"
"Oh, yes, we pay higher salaries to
engineers, chemists biologists. Such
men are experts They have invest
ed a good deal of time and money to
gain their special knowledge. They
know things, and we believe in pay
ing them well for their wisdom.
Some of them receive as much as
five or even seven thousand dollars
a year. The rest of us merely man.
age other people-which is fun, of
course"
l returned to that engrossing
thought of no business genius, no big
executive salaries. Had not the
greatest men of England told me
that the absence of directing, dyna-
mic personality was the sunken rock
upon which the cooperative move
ment would surely founder, and
sink? Without a captain of in
dustry, without competition among
your societies, without big salaries,
big profits, how can you
But l tell you we have been do
ing it for 60 years"
There it was again, the simple, i'm
mutable fact. l must assume what
l can't believe and get on with my
Questions. please explain the mys-
terry"
There is no mystery to it. Our
substitute for organizing genius is
mass impulse. Ten men or a hun
dred may not be equal to an indus
trial genius, but 100000 men and
women are. AS far as our directors
and managers are concerned, their
cheerful acceptance of $4,000 a year
is merely proof that there are men in
the United Kingdom who are inter-
ested in something besides pounds,
shillings and pence"
It's beyond me, this mass i'm
pulse What is a mass impulse, any
way?"
1T simply Means said my in
former patiently, that some 10000
000 of the British people are very
enthusiastic believers in a funda-
mental but comparatively simple eco
nomic principle. 1t is this: We do
not aim to abolish capitalism, be-
cause we believe that capital is neces-
sary and useful We do belieXe,
however, that capital should be
treated like any other commodity
The possessor has a right to rent it
out and get good, commercial re-
turn for it. But he has not the
right, because he controls certain
sums OF money. to control the work,
the lives, and the destiny of the peo-
pie who use his capital Capital is
a commodity; it is not an autocrat.
There is no divine right in money "
This seemed reasonable For a
moment | actually fancied | was fol-
lowing him. And | found myself
wondering: Is this the healing truth
that our agonized world is in need
of; fewer expensive geniuses, the
scepter taken from capital, and mass
impulses for the production and dis
tribution of food and clothing? With
the tremendous momentum the CO.
gether, what will it do III the next
80, the next so years? Whittier are
these co-operators leading us?
7 again went forth, interrupted
and talked to other cooperative folk
I soon learned that there are many
forms of cooperation, but that in
Manchester there is only one authen-
tic, orthodox pattern Oh organization,
that originally instituted by the
'Rochdale Pioneers" 1t is briefly
as follows.
Anyone who will invest at least
one pound in the purchase of sin
gle share in a retail society becomes
a member of the cooperative move
ment and is entitled to profits from
the retail stores in which he makes
| his purchases. He and his other
ineighbor investors thus own the local