The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1922-04-28

| of the industries and professions tC
the men who actually do the work
who know better than anyone else
how to operate them efficiently, and
whose purpose is not merely to turn
out the cheapest possible product for
the consumer, but the creation of
the best and finest product that
human ingenuity and devotion can
devise. Just as men find their souls
not in what they eat. but in what
they create, so Will men find the long
sought era of brotherhood not in
saving pennies on their purchases,
but in the dedication of their high
est abilities to the satisfaction of the
wants and needs of their fellow men.
This is the essence of producers CO.
operation.
In England and Wales there are
already VI thriving producers CO.
operative societies with over $4,000
members, share capital (raised by
the workers themselves) exceeding
$4,000,000, and an annual trade of
SIG, 100000. These producers coop
eratives fall into five main groups:
Textile mills, boot and shoe facto-
ries, the metal trades, woodwork and
building construction, and printing
establishments. Their report for
1921 shows that after paying $780,
1850 as interest on the capital hired,
they refunded to purchasers of their
goods $497 ,454, contributed $26 ,25o
to charities and social improvement,
S44 900 for educational purposes, and
divided $290.000 among the workers
themselves as their cooperative share
in excess of union wages. The work
ers in every cooperative productive
society in Britain are required to be
members of their respective trade
unions. Indeed. thousands of dollars
of trade union funds are invested in
itself is in some cases directly repre-
scented on the committee of manage
ment. Thus, the workers not only
own their own jobs and assure them
selves of standard wage for their
trade. but share with the consumers
economies of production and savings
or profits" in the operation of the
business.
The French Workers Productive
Associations, according to their 1921
report. are steadily growing and eX-
panding into new fields. Their rec
ord shows greater stability and
| length of life than either private en-
terprises or consumers associations.
Of the 215 workers productive So
cieties existing in 1908, over one
| half are still in business. despite the
industrial havoc caused by the wal.
One of the strongest forms of pro-
ducers' associations in France is
found in the printing industry.
| Although many of the cooperative
printing plants lost all but their old
est members in the war and were
handicapped by the dearth of paper
and type metal, yet only four OF
those associations existing in 1908
were not successfully operating In
| 1921
To the Italian workers, however
belongs the credit for the greatest
achievements in cooperative produc-
ton. There the producers own farms
| and ships and factories. They have
constructed comparatively and now
! operate a successful railroad. They
are now building a great canal to
connect Milan, the capital of Lom-
| hardy, with the River Pc, providing
| valuable outlet to the Adriatic sea,
Within the past month the strong
/ Italian Federation of Metal Workers
| Cooperative societies (Federazione
Italiana dele Cooperative Metallur.
giehe) has been formed to unite all
the workers cooperative societies in
the metal industry to purchase raw
materials collectively, to standardize
their products, and to market them
in an orderly and socially useful
manner.
The first requisite for successful
producers cooperatives in the United
States is the mobilization of the
power of the workers under their own
control. For those who control credit
control industry. Let each great
union of workers and farmers estab-
lish its own cooperative bank to
keep the funds of the producers out
of the hands of spectators. manipu-
lators. and exploiters, and use them
for productive purposes only, and a
new day in industry will dawn.
Producers cooperative societies
have no desire to do away with con
sumers' cooperation. In fact, they
wish to expand and strengthen the
present consumers organizations as
distributing points for their products