The Connecticut labor news., 1925-01-03

1 washington, U. L., Jan. o.-COOp-
 eration's magnitude and its influence OH
 the lives of millions of workers are re-
 vealed in report on "Cooperation in I Foreign Countries" submitted to Con-
 gress by the Federal Trade Commission. The report is the result of an invest l igation in Europe made by Chairman
 Huston Thompson of the Commission and Dr. William Notz, chief of the Ex- port Trade Division. Fifteen countries were visited and an exhaustive study of investigators.
 "The cooperative movement Is of such
 magnitude and importance at the pre-
 sent time that it challenges attention, 7
 says the report, which goes on to say:
 More than 285,000 organizations in all parts of the world are connected with it. The total membership probably ex- ceeds forty million persons, but as some of these members are connected with more than one cooperative society, it is
 estimated that the total number of per sons represented by these organizations is upwards of thirty million. As in most cases each individual member represents
 family averaging four persons, it may
 be said that total or more than 12,- 100000 persons are linked up with the
 cooperative cause.
 Already strong in numbers and we'll organized prior to the war, the needs
 of the time and the stress of necessity i'll the course of the world war and sub sequently, have given such an impetus to cooperation that 1t stands out as one of the most prominent features of the
 economic structue of the world today.
 "During the world war the state au- thorities in a number of countries found in the cooperatives the best if not the only large-scale organization available for distribution of the necessaries of life and serviceable agency for pro- tecting the public against prohteers
 Moreover, in the postwar era the net work of cooperative societies stretching out over whole nations and tying to- gether all classes of society, formed in many cases the strongest basis upon which the reconstruction and develop ment of trade and industry could pro ceed, and without which certain eco homie reforms seemed impossible of achievement.
 "In Finland, the Baltic republics, Po- land and Czechoslovakia, where the world war destroyed most means of live lihood, the state authorities are avail ing themselves of the cooperative orga- nizations, established prior to the war, as the most serviceable means for re- construction.
 Tn some of the larger countries of Europe like the United Kingdom, Ger many, and France, the consumers CO operative societies rank among the lar! gest producers and distributors of nec- essaries of life In England and Ger many nearly half of the population IS affiliated with the consumers wholesale and retail societies. In Czechoslovakia it is estimated that about eight million people are directly interested in cooper ative enterprises.
 "The farmers of Finland owe their present economic prosperity primarily to cooperation. By establishing coopera- tive consumers stores throughout the rural districts, Finnish cooperators have performed valuable service to the far mers of that country. In that way they have brought vity and country life closer together, made accessible to the farmer the things which he needs for his house hold, and given him new facilities for marketing his cows and for the pur- chase of new materials for operating h1s farm.
 "In the new Baltic states the credit necessary for agricultural development was procured in the main through the agency of local cooperative credit socie- ties The hourishing butter, cheese, ba- con and eggs export trade of Denmark and Holland rests on the farmers CO., operative societies in those countries. The work of Sir Horace Plunkett and of the Rev. T. A. Finlay in Ireland for the uplift of agriculture through coop erative methods have attracted wide at tention The web of cooperative socie l ties which binds together the peasants of Russia proved the important factors which resisted complete economic disin- tegration in that vast country.
 !, While all classes have shared in the | of cooperation in the va rious countries of Europe, it is mainly l the urban wage earners' families and the middle classes generally as we'll as the population in the agricultural districts which have attached themselves to the