Greenbelt cooperator., 1942-03-13
Congressman VoOrhiS
LaudS COOperatives

cause they are the one means that
| know of whereby / am sure our
problem of poverty in the midst
of plenty can be solved" says
Congressman Jerry Voorhis in an
exclusive article for Consumers
Cooperation, the official organ of
the Cooperative movement in the
United tates.
"Why am | so deeply interested
in Cooperatives?
Because | know the economic
problems that have been destroy
ing democracy and freedom must
be solved. Because | know free
governments cannot live where
there are no free farmers. Because
| know that the unemployment
problem has not been solved and
that it must be solved before con-
stitutiOnal democracy as a form
of government will be safe. Be-
cause | know that men, in an age
that they know could be an age of
plenty, are not long going to en-
dure the misery and humiliation
of joblessness again-especialIy
not when they have just returned
from defending their nation in the
front lines of war. Because | know
that private monopoly in industry
and especially in finance means
the end of free enterprise and has
been the very basis upon which
NaZi and Fascist relationships
have been built in other countries.
Because | know that the solution
of all evil things must ultimately
be found in methods that are
good, in methods that partake to
a considerable extent at least of
external laws of God.
81 am interested in Coopera-
tives because they can and they
have restored to farmers in this
country and in many other coun-
tries the control over their own
economic destiny. | believe in
them because they offer a way to
make the dollar of the working
man buy more of the products he
and his fellows produce. | believe
in them because they can and they
have met more than one entrench-
ed monopoly on its own ground
and beaten it.
81 believe in them because the
more business they do the better
they profit, because never can
they be successful by a restriction
of production or distribution or
exchange. | believe in them be-
cause they are the only means ]
know of whereby these problems,
which must be worked out if de-
mocracy is to live, can be solved
without a vast control over the
lives of men by government.
81 believe in them because they
can only succeed as they improve
the welfare of others besides
themselves or their own members
because the success of a coop
erative therefore accords perfect
ly with the eternal principle of the
Golden Rule.
81 believe in Cooperatives be-
cause they are the one means that
| know of whereby | am sure our
problem of poverty in the midst
of plenty can be solved-and,
what is more, solved without re-
sort of governmental dictatorship
or to the development of a de-
pendence of millions of people
upon governmental support. Coop
eratives are true democracy in
the practical field of economic life
because each member has one vote
whether his financial contribution
be large or small. If we believe in
democracy sincerely we just have
to believe in Cooperatives.
"And last of all | believe in
them because they offer to the
common people something they
can do for themselves now with
their small resources, a great and
sound idea, a willingness to study
and to work, and a deep and
abiding loyalty. These resources
every group of people in the world
possess. And therefore the message
of the Cooperatives to a distressed
world is more fundamentally a
message of hope than any other
message | know"
The above article is featured
IN the February issue of Consu-
merS Cooperation a monthly mag
Gzine Isl gear published by
The Cooperative League of the
u. S. A., 167 West 18th Street,
Noa, Va,L T9f,I