The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1922-11-10

Jail. For your money can be re-
placed But he who robs you of your
faith in a good cause, Injuries you
and your fellownen irreparably. 1t
is true that you are mercilessly ex-
ploitated as a consumer by a horde
of parasitic middlemen, monopolists
and spectators, who control the ma
TONS food and clothing supply. They
extort from YOU the last possible pen
ny of profit and give you shoddy
good in return. But why waste your
wrath upon them, especially when
YOU have yourself to thank for be-
ing thus picked and plundered ?
Whenever you wish to do so you can
organize comparatively with your
neighbors, as some thirty million peo-
pie around the world have now done,
and supply yourself with the necessi-
ties of life at cost without profit or
graft to anyone.
Better save your righteous indigna-
ton for the wolf in sleeps clothing.
The fake cooperative. run on paper
by a crew of slick-tongued stock
statesmen who take advantage of the
desire of the people to improve their
lot and rob them of their hard earned
dollars under the pretense of pro-
noting cooperation. The dictionary
contains no fit epithet for these
shameless swindlers. They steal not
only the peoples money, but what
is infinitely more despicable they also
fitch their faith in honest cooperative
enterprises.
There is no need for any sane per-
son beyond the age of infancy to lose
a penny in fraudulent cooperative en-
terprises. If one uses half as much
judgment as he would exercise in
buying a horse or a suit of clothes,
he can save both his money and his
regrets. There are certain definite
principles that determine the success
of every cooperative enterprise. You
cannot violate these principles with
out disaster any more than you can
ignore the law of gravitation without
suffering bumps and bruises. And,
conversely, the honest application of
these principles is equally certain to
bring cooperative success. True CO.
operation never fails. 1t cannot fail,
because it is based on memorable
moral and enonomic laws. On the
other hand, fake cooperation, whether
devised in ignorance or dishonesty, is
bound sooner or later to end in disas-
ter.
Four Reasonable Tests
Without becoming narrow or big
oted, there are certain definite coop
erative principles that can be laid
down, to which every honest and sue
cessful cooperative enterprise must
conform. The name Rochdale has
b.
because the original Rochdale store
embodied these fundamentals. In
brief, the foundation principles for
every genuine consumers cooperative
society, whether store, laundry, or
other enterprise, are devotion to serv-
ice, democratic control, sound man
agement, and educative program.
Q) Service. not profit, must be
the main motive. Indeed, there must
be no profit. The difference between
the total cost of goods, including cost
of doing business, and the total cash
received must either be refunded to
the consumers or else accumulated
in reserve fund to strengthen the
business, which amounts to the same
thing, since the consumers own the
business.
(2) The business must be demo-
cratically controlled. This means
that it must be owned by the many
and not by the few Therefore, a
limitation must be set on the amount
of stock any one member can acquire,
and every consumer in the neighbor-
hood must be permitted to join and
own stock on equal terms. The men,
bers should have the right to elect
the directors annually, to call special
meetings of the entire membership
to decide important issues, and to
have access to the books to see that
the business is honestly managed.
The lone man, one vote principle
must prevail, regardless of how many
shares Of stock a man may own. In
other words. human beings and not
money vote. For this reason. too.
proxy voting should not be allowed,
except in the case of husband and
wife. This is where cooperative en-
prises differ radically from profit
making business. Instead of capital
hiring men, the men hire the capital.
and pay it limited interest if there
IS a surplus. If there is not a sur
plus, capital gets no interest. This is
in accord with the first principle laid
down; serving mankind by providing
the necessities of life, and not the
gaining of money, is the primary
purpose of all true cooperative enter
prlses. This ideal can be carried out
only if the business is democratically
controlled
(3) Sound business methods must
prevail. Goods should be sold at or
very near the market price. and not
lat cost" No storekeeper can count
the complete cost of his goods until
they are actually sold, and the money
in the bank, with the months cost
delivery, etc. carefully computed and
OF doing business (rent, light, heat, |
added to the wholesale price of the
goods. The difference between this
total cost and the selling price must
either be rebated to all members an
nually, in the form of patronage div
idends at the end of every quarter,
halt-year, or year, or else placed in
a reserve fund to strengthen the mar
ket opportunities on quantity pur-
chases, to expand, or to meet the
stress of occasional slack times. In
any event. a full report of the finan-
clal condition of the business should
be made to all the members at the
end of every dividend period. what
ever the disposition of the surplus.
(D A campaign of cooperative ed !
ucation should be carried on. The
cooperative enterprise is not a selfish
It's goal is not to bene-
fit a favored handful, but all the peo-
pie of the community In its ultimate
ideal cooperation embraces the whole