Twin city review. [volume] (Champaign, Ill.) 19??-1929, 1923-04-27
MINERS
CONDUCT TOWN ON
COOPERATIVE PLAN

A cooperative eaaI business which
has saved lie community Slooooo in
dealers profits during Ire past niGe
years grocery szaFe returning 90
Us PATROLS SO. &c ii eo-apefativt
dlVldends ssnee 1919. and q moving
picture house TN bg 3 uuian al COS.
tllce. show Whaf ere IIffle eanlmunit,
mas esHe Il real Ihe nfahieefs and
mlao.emen b cooperation StauHton.
typical mining tom IN lllinois. has
= population - .ooo which IS one
hundred per cent organized sixteen
hundred Of them are members az the
miners union which Aith the other
Stdits al. belong Il = Trades Counsel
tuees workers have organized yig0r-
Gus cooperative enterprises which n0t
only care for their reeds a. cost bat
nave taught them tie value of com.
dining for public service.
In 1912 the miners union built a
splendid meeting haIl Ter the benefit
Oh TIE community L Is a twa-stor
brick building - BY 100 feet. costing
>+3,Voo with a large auditorium seat
ing geo people. TINS auditorium Is
equipped WITH moving picture ma
chimes, ana on SIX nights a week IL
gives "a play time - the tired miners
and their families. So superior has
tHe entertainment proved that after
lhIee years e. competition the other
loeaiers in the village have had TO
clear cut, leaving the stage 10 the
non-profit making workers movie.
When the local coal operators
thought they would take advantage
OF their miners anu proiiteer in selling
them coal, the workers combined TO
start q yard Of their own. With
capital of only SO 10 start with, they
succeeded through cooperation in u.
duclng the price s0e per ton. despite
tremendous opposition from eomGe-
tltorS ana coal operators. The CO.
operative coal yard sells al cost plus
20 per cent TO cover expenses and 20
provide for increasing the business.
Ihls coal yard has saved the com
munity 100000 in less than nine
years. Il started out with $40 scales;
1t has just bought new ones costing
more than $1,000, all of which has
come out of the eo-operative's treas
ury. Competitors are unable 10 de-
feat this efficient enterprise, and have
now been practically driven from the
town.
Two poorly managed cooperative
ventures tried years ago in Staunton
made the workers timid of starting
another cooperative grocery and re-
tail store. When prices were soaring
during the war, a little group of fear
less co-opefators started buying car
loads OF potatoes, which they took
orders for, collected on, and then de-
Ilvered when the car arrived. When
potatoes were selling for Sl.25 on the
market, this little embryo co-opera-
tive was selling them for "a cents.
Then they started handlin0 apples,
corn, cabbage, and hay on the same
basis. Out Of this soon grew full
tledged retail cooperative store. or
gained in 1918 by 420 of these min
ers, each buying one share at $25.
In the five years $4,000, or 20 per
cent more than the invested share
capital, has been returned to the
members in dividends, despite the
heavy drains made by the strike last
year.
Staunton's prosperous co-operatives
have been built up through patent,
persistent effort. All over the coun-
try other communities have shared
the same good fortune of Staunton's
workers by the same method-co-
operation. They are re-discovering the
first law of present-day society, which
is that health happiness, and pros
perity come to those who help each
other in producing and distributing
the necessities of life.