Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1947-09-05
Washington
LaborReport
BY PAUL SIFTON
LPA Columnist

ANTIGONISH, Nova Scotia
This is the capital of the co.
operative movement up here
in this corner of Canada.
Here in the three Maritime
Provinces, coal miners, steel
workers, lobstermen, fisher
men and farmers together
have built a strong coopera-
tive organization that is worth
a look by the AFL and CIO.
now turning to cooperatives as
an escape from the wage
price-profit treadmill.
Maybe it is just a coinci-
dence - but certainly an in.
teresting one for labor men
and women pledged to replace
Taft-Hartley supporters with
better men and women in 194R
that the Glace Bay area, th
most cooperative spot in ea
ern Canada, is represented
the Dominion Parliament ]
Clarence ellis, UMWA me-
Der and leader in the Cooper.
tive Commonwealth FEEDER,
ton.
OF course, by definition co
operatives must be nonpartisan
in politics. That's the way it
is in England and here. But
one thing seems to lead to an
other. Once a group of wage
earners and/or farmers get to.
gether to worry about being
as powerful in spending their
money as in earning it, they
seem to go right on to wonder
what the government is doing
to or for their interests.
Once a wage-earner or
I armer gets smart about
BOTH ends of the pay en-
velope and joins with others
to go in business for himself
he tends to get smart about
politics, local, national and
international.
COOPERATION
Up here, Wage-earners, fish.
ermen and farmers have brush
ed aside the middlemen's let's
you and him fight propagan-
da and have gotten together in
credit unions, in producers and
consumers local cooperatives,
In area, regional and central
buying and selling WHOLESALERS.
THEY have their own news
paper The Maritime Coopera-
tor published twice a month,
and an educational service
that gives additional meaning
and richness to the savings
in dollars and cents.
1t might even be that, ap-
piled quickly, widely and wise.
ly enough, the Antigonish
idea could save the world from
recurring booms and busts,
the steady growth of mono
poly and totalitarianism and,
any year now, a rather final
atomic war.
] came up here to find out.
l talked to A. S, MacIntyre,
managing director of the Nova
Scotia Coop Union. He is a
coal miner, a former vice pres.
ident of UMWA District 26.
Like other cooperators here
abouts, he knew of the recent
AFL and CIO trend toward CO.
operatives. Like them, he
was pleased and hopeful. l
told him u. S. readers of LPA
Service would be interested in
his comment and best advice,
based on Nova Scotia expert
ence.
WARNING
ut would be mistake If
the whole 13 million members
of organized labor walked into
cooperatives tomorrow" Mac
Intyre said. In organizing the
Cape Breton Island Co.ops, we
started with one or two years
of educational work, study
classes and the like, to lay a
groundwork of understanding
of the principles of coopera.
ton.
(This pioneering work,
which continues with great
vigor and spirit, was under.
taken in 1923 by the Extension
Department of ST. Francis
University, under the
leadership of DR.. M. M, Coady.
Four years later it had re-
In 1898, 200 u. S, citizens
ceived international attention.
came to Antigonish and vicin-
ity TO study its methods,)
(In a later column | want to
set down MacIntyre's very di.
rect comments on "the labor
unionist who refuses to use
his power as a consumer (and
Who) enters into the conflict