Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1921-04-01
COOPERATION
ANDTHELABOR
MOVEMENT
uas Much To Do With
Curling Profiteers In
the Community
BY John ~. Walker,
,er.sident Central States Wholesale
Society,"


I'D under existing laws legally, 10 go
mt business for themselves as mer-
sbsnts bankers, and in production
,,rienltural and industrial tof every
inn on the basis of the cooperative
,,,o.ement which means common own
".'rsbin-eaeh member having voice
spd one vote in the management and
In every industrial plant which they
o,rn and operate on this basis. they
In he able to decide themselves
,,bs, the wages, hours. conditions and
treatment of the workers will be.
In every commercial enterprise
u,birh they own and operate on this
basis they will get the articles they
handle al Just what they should cost
for handling them.
In every bank they own and operate
y, this basis, they will have their
needs financed for just what IL should
cost them.
They can go as far in these matters
nv neaeeful methods as they can de
velop the knowledge, organization.
means and capacity themselves togo,
and they cannot go any farther than
,hat by any other than peaceful meth
DDS.
n all of the Trade Unionists of our
country were to go into the co-opera-
tive movement to the extent they can.
acquire a knowledge of it. and develop
the capacity to operate 1t and would
use what of their funds can be used
in a practical way to establish IL, and
increase those funds as they increase
their organization, and the capacity to
extend the work In these phases of
our life. in comparatively short time
we would have as much power in bus
mess life as the Chamber of Com
merce has now, and later the workers
themselves would have the determin-
ing power in all questions of industry,
commerce and finance, and because
we furnish the markets and do the
work ourselves and could then be in
a position if necessary to do il all for
ourselves, we could compel the pri-
yate corporation or individual in in
dustrial or business life to do the
thing that was just. by common hui
manity, or supplant their institutions
with our own,-we could live within
ourselves II necessary.
In the process of operating and
building up the cooperative move
ment, everyone involved acquires
knowledge of working economics as
they effect their everyday life that
they cannot acquire by theory in any
school, which enables them to act
more intelligently and more unitedly
on every question affecting their In
terests. than they possibly could
otherwise. This applies to the women
and grown children as well as the
men
II also establishes a relationship be-
tween the workers in the modern In
dustries tthe cities) and the workers
in the agricultural industry tine farm
er) which enables them to understand
each other, work to each others mu-
tual advantage, which in addition to
the immediate material benefits 1t
means. has also it's reflex in better
laws and better government of every
kind.
When it is established extensively,
II operates to compel the private cor
poration to do the thing that is right,
or almost automatically supplant them,
so that 1t will have almost as benefic-
ial an affect operating partially as
wholly.
But, before the cooperative move
ment can be made, permanent sue
cess of in the United States, 1t is going
TO require real fighters, men and wo-
men who are actually interested in
the cause of humanity, who are will
ing TO work and sacrifice as well, to
become members of It.
Usually the last effort of the en-
emies of the cooperative movement
when they have tried everything else
10 destroy cooperative society and
nave failed, is to reduce prices to a
hgure at which the cooperative store
cannot sell their goods and make ex-
penses.
This is done by the private mer-
chants contributing to a fund to reim-
purse the stores operating, at a loss,
IN order to accomplish this purpose,
ahu wnere men and women are not
real eo-operators, where they do not
hnoW and understand what the move
ment means. where they are only sum-
Her sololers, in the cooperative move
Hent Ior petty advantage, usually
sheh condition of this kind develops
sney quit the cooperative movement
dnu trade in the store operated by the
private individual OF corporation
tWnere the low prices obtain temper
driiy) until such time as their own
cooperative store goes out of business.
IN every such case when the cooper
auYe store goes out of business, the
prices at the private stores imme-
ulateiy go up. They do this on the
satne principle exactly as does the
non-union, labor crushing corporation
'na' Is trying to break strikes.
a corporation that is trying to
ofeaK strike is always willing to pay
. seao more for his work than the
Union anion man is asking for. They pay
ms TO the scab. not because they like
h lh' out because they need him to
uteak that strike Just as soon as that
S Suihe Is broken, they lower the wages
. vs,1W even what the union man was
n lining TO work for, and the scab
must accept these lower wages that
nc himself created. if he wants to
work there at all.
ana mat is the reason why the pri-
IrA6arr h.