Montana labor news., 1936-12-24
laboY's Interest in
Consumer Cooperation
Message to the Tenth Biennial Con-
gress Of The Cooperative League
By WILLIAM GREEN
President, American Federation
of Labor.

Labor's interest IN consumers CO.
operation dates from the early days
OF the cooperative movement. With
our first understanding of this new
way of organizing as consumers, to
save the middleman's profit and as
sure honest value in the goods we
bought with hard won union wages,
we grasped the idea with enthusi-
asm. In the miners unions through
out Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, scores of
cooperative stores were opened and
a strong movement built up under
trade union leadership. In the South
and elsewhere union executives
threw themselves Fundamentally
into this effort for cooperative buy
ing and spread the idea with a zeal
which paralleled their union activi-
ties.
In 1917 this interest was reflected
in the convention Of the American
Federation of Labor, which declared:
I'VE believe that the American
Federation of Labor should assist in
establishing, building up and
strengthening in every way possible
a legitimate organization of bona
tide workers in our country and
Canada as part of the great worlds
cooperative movement; so that after
the trade union movement has Sc
cured for the workers the wages that
they are entitled to for the labor
they perform, they may be assured
in spending those wages that they
will get for them their full value.
I'VE hold that it is just as essen
tial that a working mar should get
ten dollars worth of actual value
for his wages when he spends them
as it is that he should get the ten
dollars that he is entitled to for the
labor that he performs.
THE cooperative movement is the
organization that is designed to pro-
tect the workers in their relations
with the merchants and the business
men in the same sense that the trade
union movement protects them from
the employers. The two movements
are twin remedies"
Most of our efforts, however, met
with little permanent success. Co
operative stores were short lived
and after a few years hundreds of
them failed and went out of bust
ness. This has been true throughout
the history of the cooperative move
ment in America. Of 769 coopera-
tive stores organized in the first 9
years of the movement in America,
up to 1856, only three remained by
1861; out of hundreds of coopera-
tives set up by the Grange after
1870 nearly all failed or were taken
over by private interests; and today
in America less than one per cent
of our retail trade is handled by
cooperatives while in England the
movement has grown steadily and
now covers Is per cent of all retail
trade.
Today rapid growth in the last
few years has brought the move
ment again to the fore. With 2,000,-
900 workers and farmers already
members of cooperatives, it is as
Stunning new significance. Labor is
fully aware of the great benefit con-
sumner cooperation can be to the
working people Of America, but as
we look ahead to the future we
would sound a note Of. caution. Co.
operative members cannot afford to
let their stores fail as they have done
in the past. If the movement is to
succeed, we need to study our fail
ures and our successes and benefit
by past experience. There have been
many successes, such as the cooper
alive store started by the miners at
Dillionvale, Ohio, which has made
substantial savings and has served
the community for more than rs
years. Records can be had for a
number of such ventures which
would be well worth careful study.
l would point out three foundation
stones on which | believe the CO.
operative movement must be built
in this country if it is to succeed:
Sound business management, educa-
ton, and close alliance with the
trade union movement.
In a country where c~ooperatives
will have to compete with chain
stores under highly paid manage
ment, placing great emphasis on eff
ficiency and shrewd business dealing,
capable and experienced business
leadership is of the utmost i'm
portance.
Cooperatives must be run along
sound business lines if they are to
have the slightest chance of sue
cess. The success Of the movement
in foreign countries has been due in
very large measure to the caliber of
its executives and leaders and their
business experience and capacity.
The leaders in Sweden for instance,
rank among the highest in the coun-
try in character and ability. They
are leaders in thought as well as in
business management. American
cooperators can command equal
ability if they see it and they must
insist on it if their stores are to be