Montana labor news., 1936-09-24
THE MASSES GO INTO
Big Business
Continued From Last Week.

building with storage space for 5000
gallons of gasoline at the back door.
Just up the street was the plant of a
large privately owned oil company.
That year the privately owned COM
pany had just completed the build
ing of a new $25O,0OO oil blending
and storage plant.
This oil company had been selling
the co-operatives its supplies of lu-
bricating oils. But, following the
completion of its new plant, the big
company severed its business con-
nections with the co-operatives, tell
ing the co-operators that their bust
ness was too small for them to
handle.
This forced the c~o-operators to go
further into the oil business. They
set up in North Kansas City the first
cooperative oil-blending plant in
the world. In 1885 the cooperative
wholesale, then serving over 300 re-
tail co-operatives, bought the plant
of the privately owned company at
a bankruptcy sale. This wholesale
was then doing a business of over
$4,000, 900 for the year. It was ship
ping a trainload of petroleum prod
ucts a day to its member retails. It
was one of four such plants that had
sprung up one after the other fol-
lowing the pioneer move by the
North Kansas City group.
These various oil c~o-operatives
were something more than mere
business organizations. They were
the visible results Of the appearance
of a technic of action in the hands
of farmers who were solving the
problem of distribution to their own
satisfaction. The figures of the
growth of oil c%o-operatives in reality
show the workability of co-opera-
ton and the readiness of the farm
ers to embrace a technic that ac-
tually saved them money.
All over the West cooperative
WHOLESALERS continued to spring up
and play an increasingly important
part in the distribution of petroleum
products in rural areas The farm
ers' Union of North Dakota set up
their cooperative oil wholesale in
st. Paul in 1928. In six years this
organization spread a network of
cooperative filling stations across
western Minnesota, through North
Dakota into eastern Montana. In
rural North Dakota it is the leading
distributor of oil and gasoline.
Figures showing the part played
by the Farmers Union in the COM
munities disclose significant facts.
In Lightweight North Dakota towns
in which oil co-operatives had been
organized there was sold during
1884 a total of 55,0OO,O 900 gallons of
gasoline, tractor fuel, and kerosene.
OF this total the c~o-operatives sold
100000 gallons, a far bigger total
than any other single company. The
average plant of the private COM
panies that year sold an average of
$4,000 gallons. The average coop
erative plant sold 10000 gallons.
The figures of other WHOLESALERS
throughout the West tell the same
story. When a cooperative is set up
in the average community it imme-
diately becomes the leading dis
tributor in the area. 1t is some
thing more than competition be-
tween organizations. 1t is the story
of distribution for service versus
distribution for profit.
With these c%o-operatives showing
large patronage dividends to mem
bers, the cooperative technic natu-
rally began to attract the attention
of urban consumers. At the same
time the wholesale organizations
were embarking upon programs of
education and publicity, carrying
the idea Of cooperative purchasing
to the cities and towns, intent upon
widening their field of operations
that their savings to members
might become greater.
Most Of the large towns and cities
in the Middle West are now hearing
of consumer cooperation. Hun
dreds Of them have their co-opera-
tive gasoline stations. And from
the gasoline stations there naturally
goes an impulse toward further CO.
operative %endeavor, toward more
and more wider savings. Madison,
Wisconsin, where a cooperative
gasoline station was opened in 1884,
is an example. This organization,
with a large share of its members on
the faculty of the University of Wis
consin, opened a gasoline station and
in their first eight months of opera
ton did a business OF $4,000.
Growing membership led to the
opening of two more gasoline sta
tons, the addition of a coal yard
and a fuel oil plant. In 1885 sales
jumped to over $4,000 a week.
The revolt was against profit
taking. Such a revolt had been
smoldering in the West for decades.
But it was with the coming of con-
sumner cooperation that the revolt
began to take real form. In Ohio
and Indiana the growth of oil and