Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1949-01-28
How You Can Permanently
Lower Your Cost Of Living
BY ROBERT PICKUS, Organization Director,
Council for Cooperative Development

BY ROBERT PICKUs, Organization Director,
Council for Cooperative Development
Editors Note: The writer is the same Bob
Pickus who Sparked the organizing drives for
cooperative retail warehouses (supermarkets)
in Detroit, Pontiac, Flint, Saginaw, Lansing
and MuskegOn. He is giving as much of his
time as possible to the current Toledo Coop
campaign)
ToLEDOANS can permanently lower the
l. cost of living for their families if they are
willing to get together and do the job.
Too long we have talked about it. The plan
found to be so successful in Mchigan's indus
trial cities during the past eighteen months is
really the idea of group of CIO people from
Toledo. Michigan co-ops took it up, with the
result that their food prices were lowered as
much as and 10 per cent. Now the Toledo
drive is really under way. Let me explain
few points about it, and about co-ops in
general.
In the Toledo Coop you will be able to
buy what you need from yourself, and thereby
save the profits. You buy share in the store
for S25, and you can truly feel that it's YOUR
store, because that's exactly what 1t is.
The store is the Toledo Consumers Coopera-
tive Inc, and understand the first store will
be in West Toledo, with others soon to be
built in other parts of the town. You may join
the first one, then transfer to the one closest
to your home or place of work, if you wish.
Who can join? Anybody, regardless of race,
religion, job or anything else.
What kind of store is it? 1t will be
really good food store, with other departments,
such as appliances, drugs automobile supplies,
and it is quite possible that filling station
may be adjoining 1t.
When the profits are figured at the end of
the year you get your share, based on how
much you bought in your store. We call this
money patronage refund and we'll bet you
never got one at the Kroger or A & p You
won't, either, because that's THEIR store. not
YOURS
You do more than save money. You know
you get what you pay for because who's going
to cheat HIMSELF? You run THIS store.
There are 219 million coop store owners
in America already They love the idea, and
why shouldn't they So will you
There are other cooperatives, too, and some
of them 60 all the way back to production,
such as the oil co-ops that have been so sue
cessful There are farm co-ops, medical co-ops
CIeult unions, CO-OpS, ana even burial
co-ops The coop is out to do something where
1t is most needed. 1t seeks to give service 1t is
not for profit, nor for charity. It's business
for YOU to own and run.
Who thought up this way of doing busi-
ness? Some working people in Rochdale, Eng
land. l01 years ago And is has grown to
where now one-seventh of the worlds COM
merce is carried on by co-ops, following the
Rochdale principles.
What are these principles? They are: Open
membership, democratic control, patronage
refunds, limited interest on invested capital,
political and religious neutrality, cash trading
only, constant education, continuous expansion.
What do important people say about CO.
operatives?
Franklin ID. Roosevelt 81 look forward
to the contribution that cooperative organiza-
tions throughout the world will make to the
years of peace that lie ahead"
Philip Murray THE development of CO.
operatives is real step toward the protection
of consumer purchasing power"
William Green by organizing in con-
sumer cooperatives we use collective action to
assure good quality and fair price in the goods
we buy. Consumer cOoperatives supplement
the efforts of trade unions"
Walter p. Reuther THE coop method
of eliminating unearned income and establish
ing democratic controls over production and
distribution can take America a long way on
the road to true democracy"
Now how do you join the Toledo Coop!
It's simple. Write to Mrs Martha Gosline
Smith, secretary-treasurer, 1917 Wellesley
Drive, Toledo, or phone her at LA. 9813, If
you haven't coop committee in your place of
work
Finally, we have three-point program we
used in Michigan, and we found it to be good
one. Here's what your local union should do at
its very next meeting, If it hasn't done so al
ready, provided, of course, that you have the
money in your treasury to do this.
l. Vote donation equivalent to a dime per
member.
2 Vote to invest a sum equivalent to dol
lar per member in 3Po dividend-bearing stock.
That's more than your union funds will draw
from any bank.
3. Set up that coop organizing committee
in your shop or office, and get those $25 life
time memberships in.
Then you'll see what SIS can do for you
when you put II to workl