The Washington herald., 1920-09-13
BY II. c. FORBES.

I The people everywhere are angry.
They are angry over high prices.
/ The rank and file are extremely bit
ter. They don't know who are re-
/ sponsible, but they do feel that they
are being gOuged. There is a deep
suspicion that the business inter
ests" of the country are playing into
their own hands overmuch. There
is a tendency to conclude that the
men who run things are proving
themselves unfit for the job, that
they have bungled badly through
their greed. and that something
ought TO be done about it.
Among decent, law biding fami
lies the drift is beginning to be
toward cooperation. On all sides
one hears a desire to get together in
some way to eliminate the uncOn-
scionable profits that are charged at
some point of the journey between
the producer and the consumer.
I Housewives read, for example,
I that certain fruits and vegetables
are actually being allowed to rot on
the ground because they cannot be
7 SOlu dl any llllu- line d VI plldOit
price in city markets. Yet the prices
charged by retailers for the same
kind of fruits and vegetables are
outrageOusly high. The housewives
feel in their hearts that unfair
scheming is going on.
Already this cropping for Co-Opera-
tive action is becoming evident here
and there. Producers as well as con-
sumers are intensely dissatisfied
with the existing order of things.
( New York City alone has some
I thing like seventy "co-operative"
organizations. bat many of them are
/ not cooperative in the true sense
/ of the term. The fundamental prin-
Ciplcs of cooperation are thus he
/ scribcd:
| l. \ money contribution from
T each member.
I ,. One vote, and no more, to each
/ member.
3. No higher than the legal rate
| OF interest for invested funds.
4. Profits to be used for the So
I ciaI good or to be returned to men,
I bers in proportion to patronage.
). Business on a cash basis.
6. Goods sold at market prices,
and reserve maintained for emer-
genCies and expansion.
:. Education constantly carried
on in the broader aims of co-opera-
tion.
1t is significant that most of the
existing cooperative enterprises are
run by people of foreign birth. The
| Travelled person who comes to Amer
I lea is sstonished to find how little
figure cooperative trading cuts
here. In England and Scotland CO.
/ operative stores do a thriving busi-
/ ness in almost every town. Ger
many went in heavily for co-opera-
/ tton, and so did various other con-
| inental countries. In Russia the
co-operators were and are factors
of enormous, almost dominating,
Importance. Even in South Africa
/ cooperation is more than in the
United States.
Why is this?
Largely because Americans have
scorned to do anything that savored
OF rigid economy. Cooperation
! fourishes most where spare money
Is least plentiful and where pennies
count. Many Americans have a sort
o. naughty contempt for pennies.
| They don't want to be classed as
| 'pikers." They want to make a
show of opulence. In the past. thrift
has been confused with niggard-
ness.
But a change is setting in. I
nave been visiting a number of
cities, towns and villages. and on
every side the people are in an ugly
mood over what they regard as
shameful profiteering. They are no
| longer reluctant to confess how
they are scheming and contriving
10 cut down expenses. Rather they
are proud to explain how long they
nave gone without buying new
shoes new clothing, new hats, new
| snlrts. etc. The spirit of thrift is
abroad in the land. Necessity has
given birth to it in most cases.
NeVeftkeless, the spirit now rules
and is rapidly spreading.
what the people are looking for
is leader or leaders to show them
now they can get together to buy
co-operatively at lower prices. Near
ly every townlet has at least one
chaln store and the local folks hear
now by buFing in large quantities.
the chain stores can sell at lower
prices than any local merchant who
owns only one store. In many
places too, union labor officials are
preaching that unity is strength.
and exhorting the people to COM
oine to night capitalism. Anti-capi,,