Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1922-09-01
Fighting in Capitals Territory
BY Credrie Long in Labor &c.

may be notorious for its lack Of or
/ ganization among the workers, but
/ few industries can boast of greater
solidarity among the workers ranks,
and cooperation has played no mean
part in building up and sustaining
this spirit. In addition to the work
done by these larger bakeries, thous-
ands of dollars have been collected
among the co-operators of textile
towns unaffected BY the strike.
Decades ago the little socialist co
operatives of Belgium rendered just
such service as this to their fellow
workers in distress, and upon that
foundation is built the powerful and
radical Belgian cooperative move
ment to which the cooperative world
looks for much of its Inspiration and
guidance.
The Wholesale Appears.
But has the movement developed
beyond the retail stage. Are CO.
operators everywhere still engaged
only in peddling food and other es-
sentials in small quantities to the
consumers In at least two parts
of the country respectable whole
salers have been established. East
st. Louis is the home of the Central
States Cooperative Wholesale Sc
ciety, which feeds scores of eo-opera-
tive stores all through the Central
and Southern Illinois mining re-
gions. Up in Superior, Wis, is the
Cooperative Central Exchange, which
does business principally with Finnish
societies, and which already has de-
yeloped a biscuit factory, the first
productive industry organized by a
consumers wholesale in this country.
In all sections of the United States
are smaller Productive works owned
and operated by the consumers-in
fact, wherever a cooperative bakery
is in operation or housing co-opera-
tive in action. Perhaps Roger Babson
is thinking even more of the workers
ability to own their small industries
and to produce directly for use, than
he is of the retail stores for distri-
button alone when he sends out warn
ing to the business men of the coun-
try to beware of the cooperative
movement, advising them that if it
once gets under way in America there
is no stopping it,
Groceries in Lead.
Of the many kinds of cooperative
enterprises, the grocery store is the
most popular. Bakeries and butcher
shops come next. These can be count
ed in the hundreds. Credit unions
and cooperative banks are, in certain
states, much more numerous than
stores, but few states have adequate
credit union laws yet, and the move
ment is therefore much restricted.
| not nc Il cir
societies, coal and ice distribution
housing ventures--these are still in
the stage of experimentation, cooper
alive schools, publishing houses, and
laundries are in the very early period
of development. Probably no other
country has at the beginning expert
mented in such a variety of co-opera-
tive activities. Yet if the cooperative
economic system is to supplant the
capitalistic, the workers must learn
to run all kinds of business. The
versatility of our co-operators augurs
well for the future.
Learning Corporations Meaning.
There is no more important side to
cooperation in the United States than
the educational. Without education
regarding the social significance of
the movement and the technical de-
tails of organization and administra-
ton, there can be no American move
ment. Capitalism here is still so
powerful and so well organized that
only those can compete successfully
with it who are fired with a real WIS.,
ion of a better world, are stirred by
a determination to help supplant the
profit system by cooperation, and
have the beginnings of an understand
ing of business methods. Ninety
nine per cent of the successful socie-
ties in the country have this kind of
leadership and instruction.
The educational work is being
pushed from many directions. There
are the local cooperative groups,
wiser and more cautious than in days
gone by. There are in many sections
of the country, District Educational
Cooperative leagues. These i1ake it
thei rbusiness to give technical adj
vice and assistance to local societies
and to warn them against the frauds.
The Cooperative League, with Off
ces in New York City does this same
work for the district leagues them
selves and for all co-operatives in the
country generally.
What Will We DO About It?
The record of failures and of fake
promotion schemes in America is a
long ard black one. But there is
no need for encouragement in this
fact. 1t is part of the education
which most labor groups require be-
fore they are ready to search for
help and advice. The co-operators
of every European country travelled
the same thorny road at first. There
is very real promise in the wide
social vision of the cooperative
leadership in all parts of the country,
in the developing interest of labor
organizations themselves, local and
national; in the courage and persever-
ance of these pioneering groups that
are forever reaching out to expert
ment and compete with capitalism lin
some new business venture. Per-
haps the greatest hone lies in the
fact that the city workers and the
farmers are going along this road
side by side--in the development of
these thousands of consumers So
cieties. For the economic progress of
the two classes has been very similar.
i At the present time the farmers
are catching up with the industrial
workers, and perhaps have already
surpassed them as successful Coop
orators. Labor must hasten the de-
velopment of its cooperative activi-
ties If it is to maintain its reputation
for leadership in the field of co-on-