Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-11-03

r~~~f !
is being manifested in a nationwide
plan Of cooperative buying, production
and distribution. Farmers. and fruit
, growers are perfecting marketing or
CARNATIONS to protect their interests,
and it is; urged that it is high time
something was done in behalf of the
CONSUMERS.
Whenever a project of this nature
is under consideration attention is di-
rected to the Rochdale Plan, which has
operated successfully in England for
more than three-quarters of a century.
This organization embodies what is per-
haps the largest rad most prosperous
cooperative system the world has ever
known and its advocates say there is
no reason why it could not be adapted
to this country.
The cooperative movement in Great
Britain started with the corn mills and
baking societies that were established
in thu tclosing years of the eighteenth
century and the first decade of the
nineteenth. 1t resulted from a millers
monopoly that had advanced the price
Of flour to an exorbitant level. Mills
and bakeries were operated on a ready
money. cost-price basis, and a little
later Robert Owen came along with
his c~ommunistic experiments.
1t was not until 1874, when the Roch-
dale Society of Equitable Pioneers was
founded. however, that the movement
attained real proportions. The objects
of this society were the sale of provi-
sions. ct cetra, the building and buying
of houses for members, the employment
of out-of-work members in manufac-
ture. TO establish a self-supporting
home colony of united interests" and to
start a temperance hotel. Doing bust
- ~AsIJx Aazs 49,. .-l g.
nishing goods of first-class quality
were principles of the original cooper
alive movement that were adopted by
the new society, but two new ideas
were taken up that were to prove
the foundation for successful co-opera-
ton. First of these was the abandon
ment of the attempt to sell at cost
prices.
While, it may not have been demon
strated that any cooperative plan on a
cost price basis was doomed to failure.
it is certain that the prosperity Of the
movement dated from the discarding of
that principle.
Profits on Purchases Shared
The second of the new ideas was the
system of dividing profits upon pur-
Echases. Instead of deriving their hene-
fits from cooperation through being
ANY " Dus Ut Sttuill Y IA p1I1FS
the members of the society and even
non-member customers were given
, shares in the profits of the enterprise
t proportoiinate to the amounts they
, expended.
Retail societies have been established
all over England and Scotland and
!. these in turn have formed wholesale
societies. The plan of organization of
the retail societies is substantially the
cc,4a a- that @E Sla nr,rTpof bnaE3ai1
-. society.
Membership is open to anybody, each
member being required to buy a fixed
minimum of one-pound shares-one to
ifive-which bear interest at a nominal
. rate of 4 to D per cent, and being
r limited to q maximum investment OF
300 pounds. The shares can be with
drawn but are not transferable and
hence are never quoted at more than
their face value.
The business Of the stores is carried
$ on in the same way and at practi-
, cally the same prices as N ordinary
= shops. Members and non-memhers
: are given metal tokens or paper checks
! registering the amount of each pur-
chase which are collected at stated
intervals and credited upon the rec
: ords of the society. At the end OF
the year. after the interest has beer
> | IdIl oI Liz SiidINS u JIG itiFltiDFt =
e the profits are distributed in the form
&. of dividends upon the total amount oil
purchases, non-members receiving one
half the dividend rate allowed mem
bers.
i Thus if the purchases made of the
s society totalel, for example, 100,
G 900 pounds AID the net profits fol
distribution amounted to 15.o0t
r pounds. each member should receive {
l.,,3n-I ~f IL nnns 1tunr thu mr.
gregate amount of his purchases dur,
ing the period. Out of the profits
e bonuses are sometimes paid to labor
and funds set aside for educational ant
charitable purposes.
y Wholesale Plan Similar
1t Two large wholesale societies. on,
c in England and one in Scotland. arr
organized and conducted on a siInilaI
l. basis. Only retail societies can b
l. members of the wholesale society
and each must subscribe to one five
y pound share for every ten of its in
dividual members, such stock beinl
transferable at par only. Goods ar,
II sold to the member societies at price
n representing only q slight advance owe
cost and the profits of the wholesal,
concerns are divided among the mem
It Der societies to their purchases.
The wholesale societies do not com
y pete with each other. but frequentl,
J. one acts as the others agent and the,
have numerous undertakings in con
mon. They own tea plantations i
% Ceylon and wheat lands in Canada, an
they have buying agencies in Ireland
!. Denmark. France. Spain, Germany
s. Holland, the United States and othe
al countries.
Buying and selling at wholesale i
! by no means the sole activity of tn,
te societies. They are manufacturers OF
"A a large scale and in England they pro
- duce boots and shoes, candles, woolens
as
q Ends 1O-Year Service