The Connecticut labor press., 1920-11-13
UTICA HAS GREAT
 \ COOP BAKERY
Started by 92 Workingmen With $15 Each, Now Big
 Success.

With. the bakers of New Haven on strike and waging bitter war against the concerns which refuse to employ union men, the following item concern ing the possibilities of a cooperative bakery will be of interest," not that New Haven needs one at present for prac- tically all the bakeries are now enrolled under the union banner and supplying the goods:
 Up i'll Utica, New York, g working men got together in 1915 with an aver age capital of less than SIS each, pur- chased an old bakery, and remode1ed 1t into cooperative institution The first year their sales were $20O00, out of which cash rebate of 59o was paid to members in addition to expand ing the business and laying aside re- serve fund. By the end of 1919 the Utica Cooperative Society had over 300 members, was doing business of more than $72,000 a year, and besides paying rebates of from 63o to 10% to members, had banked surplus of $25,- OOO, bought new quarters, and built a modern bakery i'll conjunction with a handsome grocery store. Since January l, 1o20, the membership has increased nearly 30@o, business has doubled, and a paid-up capital of $27000 was estab- 1ished.
 The manager of this very successful bakery gives some sound advice for other groups who are planning similar enterprises:
 The most important thing III starting a cooperative bakery is that the bakers working in the co-op bakery are CO., sense of working for themselves and for hnc of f1os~ own accord see to 1t that nothing is wasted and that the baked goods are as good as can be made. And with qual- ity and right prices, you cannot help but get the trade and good will of your members and others.
 Whenever conditions permit, co-op bakeries should be established and con ducted i'll connection with grocery store. Both will help each other and keep down the overhead, thereby mak- ing the savings returns larger"
 There is only one way to cut the cost of bread: Farmers cooperation can eliminate the specu1ators and middle men at their end of the system, while the consumers can stop the leaks at their end through cooperative bakeries. There is no reason why every city in the United States should not support thriving cooperative bakery Bakeries are one of the commonest forms of CO., operation all over Eurpe. Inc Chris tiana, Norway, the citizens have just opened the largest bakery in Scandin- avia, capable of supplying the needs of 10000 people The Belgian co-opera- tors have built their political, fraternal, and cooperative activities around the bakery. For bread Is an article of such universal use that every citizen in town profits through membership in the CO., operative bakery.
 The grain barons and the wheat spectators are prophesying bread at 25 cents loaf before the next harvest. It is not the poor farmer who is getting rich, for he is now being so mercilessly squeezed by the banks and the specu- lators that he is compelled to sell his wheat at from 209o to 309o below the actual cost of production. A Congress siona1 committee Investigating the high cost of living ir the District of Colum- bia found that one of the big bakers made a profit of $315,058 during the preceding year, in addition to his own salary of $30000 not counted as profit. The farmer who gets four cents a pound for his wheat and the consumer who pays one cent an ounce for his bread are the victims of all the intervening middlemen who make their millions out of the staff of life
 The cost of bread ca nbe cut by CO., operation. While the farmers are CO., operating to slice off the juicy profits of the wheat spectators and the milling trust the city workers should combine to take the lake" out of their bakery bills by establishing their own bakeries.