Evening star., 1947-08-23
Co-operotives
Continued From First Page.)

early New Dealer and one Of the
fathers of Greenbelt, to the price
of meat in SafeWay Stores. From
the near-record appearance of 18
witnesses, h developments
emerged as the days hearings were
adjourned at IL pm:
An overwhelming majority of wit
neSseS, while protesting no opposi-
ton to co-operatiyeS, agreed Green
belt has outgroWn its facilities and
should be opened to private enter
prises, particularly food and clothing
stores.
George Bauer, Mayor Of Green
belt, declared the towns business
is in the hands of a coop" monop-
oily and that residents have no say
in whether the community shall
continue under its present arrange
ment.
Thomas B. Kicker, who served as
general manager Of the cooperative
from 1912 10 1914. testified that, in
1943, he was directed by Govern
ment authorities to purchase most
OF the groceries for the cooperative
grocery store from Eastern Cooper
ative Wholesale of New York. He
a fee to the firm and to invest in
stock
He said he believed the reason for
the order was that members OF
the board (at Greenbelt) were more
interested in furthering the cooper
ative movement in the country than
they were the welfare of residents" t"
Representative Patman, Demo-
crat, of Texas, ranking minority
member of the full committee, read
a statement from three members Of
the Greenbelt Town Council which
disclosed a split over the issue of
allowing outside business interests
to enter the town. This group, COM
posed of Paul Dunbar, who signed
himself mayor pro tem.,' and Allen
D., Morrison and Joseph l.. Rogers,
said the House Committee was def
nitely incorrect" in claiming in a
press release that the council was
an outspoken advocate of admit
| ting private business.
Earlier Mayor Bauer, who ex-
planned to reporters that he was
not running for reelection in next
months balloting. had testified that
four OF the five council members
had voted last September in favor
of admitting other businesses.
William J. Warmack, certified
public accountant hired by the COM
mittee to check the books Of the
cooperative, testified he was unable,
! from examination of annual state
mentS to members of the co-opera-
tive, to account for disposition of
the co-operatives' net earnings. Only
through a thorough search in its
books was he able to ascertain what
happened to earnings.
Mr. Ploeser and Mr.. PatmsIl
clashed on numerous occasions
throughout the day. During the
night session, Mr.. Patman started to
say: IF you are cunning for small
Eco-operatives 40 when Mr..
Ploeser interrupted with, Il dislike
monopolies of all types, and you
have your favorites.'
Safeway Stores came into the pic
ture when Committee Counsel w. j.
Ballinger submitted a survey of
prices in the chain store and the
co-operatives store. 1t showed that
Safeway prices ranged from to 8
per cent below those at Greenbelt.
Chain Sought to Enter.
Elisha Hanson. attorney for the
chain, testified that Safeway had
sought permission to open store at
Greenbelt but added that I'VE got
"a run-around.'
Mr. Ashelman claimed the price
survey was unfair in that compari-
sons were made on some items rarely
purchased by housewives. He also
charged that Mr.. Ballinger had re-
fused to supply list of witnesses
10 be called and to present "a bill
of complaint"
Others supporting Mr.. Ashelman's
stand that the cooperative was not
monopoly were Dillon s. Myer,
head OF the Public Housing Ad-
-ministration, and Mrs. Carnie O..
Harper, member Of the Board Of
Greenbelt Consumer Services.
Mrs. Harper brought loud applause
when she testified that, when the
board held its meeting and the
room was too small, the members
rnnued to larger room This had