The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1922-05-12

IN THE SILK CITY

Paterson, New Jersey, is the home
of one of the most successful coop
eratives in the East. In the city
where labor has been beaten time
and again in the attempt to better
its conditions at the point of produc-
ton. a remarkable organization OF
consumers has been perfected, which
has won much ground in its steady
fight against the profit system. Tw,
thousand consumers are members and
owners of the Purity Co-operatlv,
Society that is supplying $250,00C
worth of bread and 100000 worth
Of meat to the consumers of Pater-
son and vicinity.
The bakery of the cooperative is
large, three-story plant, equipped
with the latest machinery. The CO.
operative is the next to the largest
bakery in Paterson; it's property and
equipment is worth $150,000. The
great double ovens daily bake 5000
loaves of bread, and 1000 dozen
rolls. Gigantic machines automatic
ally weigh, sift and mix 500 lbs. of
flour at time. When a represen-
tative of the Cooperative League
visited the bakery he found a dozen
carloads of flour on hand, valued at
$4,000. House to house deliveries
of bread are made by the two
wagons and three auto trucks. A
branch store is maintained. where
bread and groceries are sold. True
to it's name, the cooperative turns
out the purest and most wholesome
of products.
In addition to it's model bakery,
the Purity Cooperative society oper-
ates the cleanest. and perhaps the
largest butcher shop in town. A
glance at the shop reveals scrup-
ulously clean store, with spotless til
ing. The butcher shop is doing a
business of about 100000 year.
Forty-two butchers and bakers are
employed at the union scale of
wages. The weekly payroll amounts
to 81 900. Though bakeries are usu-
ally sweat-shops, the cooperative
bakery is a sanitary and ideal work
shop.
The products of the Purity Coop
erative are sold at current prices,
and a surplus fund is therefore ac-
cumulated. A part of the surplus
has been set aside for the growth
of the society, until now all the re-
sources are worth $175,000, though
only $4,000 was invested in capital
stock of the society. Up to this time,
most of the earnings have been dis
tributed among the customers as
patronage rebates. The membership
recently decided, however, to abolish
patronage rebates. and to put their
savings to work for the social good.
They are now planning to invest the
earnings in a large vacation farm,
where the children of the members
may enjoy a vacation of two weeks
of good food, air and sunlight, free
of charge. The enormous bakeries of
Belgium, with the host of educa-
tional, recreational and insurance
activities radiating from them, are
thus being used as a model by the
Paterson co-operatorS.
The cooperative society is the
nucleus of all the forward-looking
groups in Paterson. Last year it
contributed $1,000 towards educa
tional work. There has never been a
strike in Paterson since 1905 that has
not been supported whole-heartedly
by the cooperative bakery. Only
last month. three tons of flour were
donated by the cooperative to the
mill strikers of Rhode Island
What is everybody's business is
nobody's business" says the cynic
who is opposed to collectivism in any
form But the two thousand mem
bers of the cooperative are the driv-
ing and directing force behind this
vast enterprise. They elect their
officers, and at their quarterly meet
ings. determine the policies that gov
ern their business. Group solid
arity and the technique of industrial
democracy are being developed by
means of this gigantic cooperative
enterprise. which is slowly but surely
displacing private business in
Paterson.