The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1947-09-04
HERE'S ESCAPE FROM
IMITATION TREADMILL
BY PAUL SIFTON
LPA COlumnist

LII N SOluluuiSt
| n Antigonish, Nova Scotia - This
SlI the capital of the cooperative
movement up here in this corner
of Canada. Here in the three Mari
time Provinces, coal miners, steel
workers, lobstermen, fishermen and
farmers together have built a
strong cooperative organization
that is worth look by the AFL
and CIO, now turning to coopera-
tives as an escape from the wage
price-profit treadmill that has
turned out lower real wages and
higher prices and profits since W
Day.
Maybe it is just coincidence
but certainly an interesting one for
labor men and women pledged to
replace Taft-Hartley supporters
with better men and women in
1948-that the Glace Bay area, the
most cooperative spot in eastern
Canada, is represented in the DOM
inion Parliament by Clarence Gill
is, a UMWA member and leader
in the CCF cooperative Common
wealth Federation).
Of course, by definition cooper
atives must be nonpartisan in poll
tics. That's the way it is in Eng
land and here. But one thing seems
to lead to another. Once group of
wage-earners and/or farmers get
together to worry about being as
powerful in spending their money
as in earning it, they seem to go
fright on to wonder what the gov
,rnment is doing to or for their in
Z"terests. Once wage-earner or
farmer gets smart about both ends
of the pay envelope and joins with
others to go in business for him
self he tends to get smart about
politics, local, national and inter-
national.
1t may be that Antigonish
(heavy on the "nish"), the Glace
Bay coal miners and the Sydney
steel workers have more sound
light and leading, based on exper-
ience, to offer American organized
labor than can be found in Wash
ington.
Ditto for the Nova Scotian farm
ers and the members of the better
state Farm Bureau federation, the
National Grange and the Farmers
Union.
Up here, wage-earners, fisher
men and farmers have brushed
aside the middlemen's "let's you
and him fight propaganda and
have gotten together in credit un
ions, in producers and consumers
local cooperatives, in area, region
al and central buying and selling
WHOLESALERS. They have their own
newspaper The Maritime Coopera-
tor published twice a month, and
I an educational service that gives
additional meaning and richness to
the savings in dollars and cents.
1t just might be that what these
Ifpeople have learned by study and
Uhard work and experience might
save years for an AFL and CIO
newly determined to promote the
welfare of wage-earners by pro-
noting cooperatives to protect
their members as consumers.
1t might even be that, applied
quickly and widely and wisely
enough, the Antigonish idea could
save the world from recurring
booms and busts, the steady grow
tn of monopoly and totalitarianism
and, any year now, rather final
atomic war.
came up here to find out. | talk
ed to A. S. MacIntyre, managing
director of the Nova Scotia Coop
Union. He is coal miner, form
er vice president of UMWA Dis
trict 26. Like other cooperators
hereabouts, he knew of the recent
AFL and CIO trend toward coop
eratives. Like them, he was pleas
ed and hopeful. l told him US.
readers of LPA Service would be
interested in his comment and best
advice, based on Nova Scotia ex-
perience.
at would be a mistake if the
whole IS million members of organ
lied labor walked into cooperatives
tomorrow" MacIntyre said. "ln
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
of understanding of
ythe principles of cooperation"
(This pioneering work, which
continues with great vigor and
spirit, was undertaken in 1928 by
the Extension Department of st.
Francis Xavier University, under
the leadership of DR.. M. M. Coady.
Four years later it had received in
ternational attention. In 1888, 200
us. citizens came to Antigonish
and vicinity to study its methods.)
"The first co-ops were formed by