Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1936-12-24
COOPERATIVE
AID IS URGED
Church is Asked to Lead in
New System of Dis
tributiOn.
Wealthy Boston Merchant
Speaks Before Presby-
terrain Synod.

EXpT6SSlIlS USllSl lho' ShuiNhN'
should act as leaders in fostering the
Consumers Cooperative movement,
Edward A. Filene, wealthy Boston
merchant who fathered the credit
union movement, spoke before the
New York Synod of the Presbyterian
Church at Brooklyn on October Il.
MIR. Filene is throwing his business
ability and his wealth into fostering
this great new system OF distribution
developing in America Following
are some extracts of his speech before
the Church gathering as published
in 1.-The Cooperative Builder.
Modern science has proved, not on
~ that the human animal could not
survive without the cooperation OF
other human animals, but that only
in this group life could man de-
velop any of the characteristics which
are peculiarly human.
Take language, for instance. Imag-
inc a language so ruggedly Individual
istic that no one could partake of it
excepting its proprietor. Man could
not be human without some means
of communication. Man has to have
words; and yet if they remain his
own private property on mo Tres
pass principle, they are not words
and cannot serve as words. Only as
words are distributed do they have
any human value.
We Are One.
Art, science, industry, law, religion
l. ,,t; ,s-l
from brute-are social in character.
None of them could be developed by
an individual without the co-opera-
ton, not only of his contemporaries
but of the generations that have
passed away. We human beings are
one; and we can truly express our
selves only as we express our unity.
I'VE have found expression in the
past, to be sure, in little-group CO.
operation. The institution of the
family, based upon the principle of
all for each and each for all, was
probably our outstanding human
achievement; but the moment that
families could not live unto them
selves without the cooperation of
other families, larger human group
ings became necessary. Eventually
we developed clans, Kingdoms and
states; and in the interest of more
abundant human life, we had to learn
loyalty to these larger groupings,
even giving our lives if need be for
their defense.
Why We Went to War.
DXUa did NOT Lpou, what uo uara
doing, doubtless, when we went to
war; but we went because, at that
stage of our evolution, it was the
human thing to do. We were, first
of all, not individuals but a group:
and we could live as individuals only
as we lived in groups. But aliens
and outsiders were forever menacing
our group life, just as we were always
menacing theirs.
WAR then, was inevitable; and war
will always be inevitable so long as
we have aliens, or so long as we be-
lieve that other human groups are
alien. The basic cure for war is the
discovery, if it is true, that there are
no aliens; and that, whatever may
have been the case at former stages
of our human evolution, all human
life has now become one family and
the time has arrived to give passion
ate expression of our unity.
I'VE can't cure war by mere ne
gation-by merely refusing to fight.
War, whatever else it is, is passionate;
and if human beings are to express
themselves adequately against war,
at this stage of our civilization, they
must express themselves passionately.
No mere treaties, therefore, will do;
and no mere coldly calculated agree
ments by which men and nations seek
to avoid resort to arms; although, of
course, these have their place.
Cooperation, the Alternative
to War.
1.-The alternative to war is not an
armistice. The alternative and the
only alternative, is understanding and
sympathetic cooperation. 1t must be
cooperation, however, on a scale
which will leave nobody out.
There must be no forgotten man.
There must be no discrimination
against race, creed or color. There
must be no special privilege. There
must be no recognition of property
rights which will carry with it the
domination or exploitation of other
human beings. If we entertain any of
these notions, we cannot engage in
wise-that is, understanding and
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES on the
scale that is needed now-needed for
the very preservation of our human
social order.