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Show : : Tl The Co-operative j Movement. i I II. IN ELTROFE. i ii ! By Frederic J. Haskiu. j . Ni:V" YORK. Pee. m. The war. v hie!i , i-lauttd the vo-o;ierat.ey movement imu-y imu-y on its fe-et in this country, uiso &:ar i :t tremendous impetus in r.urone. Iu , every country co-operative societies j!lv-' 1 n.uJtipiifu by the hundred since ll'lti, lui ureal trlritain one-t.drd o: the total pop- j nUuon is engaged in co-operative enter- prices. In Kossia there o er ;.l.eeu co-op-era. live societies, witii L'0.(""l0.eeii members, j wh:e;i are (imni, turbuiently on t.u-ir co- , operative way. In Paris one ro-oponmu' wholesale society is doing an annual husi- j ness of nearly C.Ooo.O'.mi francs. Kv ry- , where eo-operath c .ventures art- incivus- j iuir sbouL ten times as fasi hs the. poi'U-lation. poi'U-lation. TJiis is al! the more surprising because : at the outbreak of the war even t he j creal leaders of the co-operative mo e- i meiu feared that il would suffer a serious j check. Many were on the point of post- polling co-ouerati e schemes until after1 the war. but events soon showed thcni the wisdom of going on with them. I'ery country passed through the same period of food panic, of frantic buying, outrageous outrage-ous speculation and soaring prices. And in every ease ft was the co-operative, so- eieties that came to the rescue of the , consumers. In Great Britain, where co-operation has fought its way slowly against powerful power-ful opposition, it suddenly became popular. Every co-opera t Ive store could have had the whole iJritish public in Us membership member-ship if it could have accommodated it. Lines of prospective members stretched for blocks around each store, voicing their admiration of co-operative enterprises and wailing patiently for a chance to fill out enrollment cards. This was because the co-operative stores, having no incentive to make profits out of their own members, mem-bers, to whom they actually belonged, kept their prices down to a reasonable level when everywhere else the tendency of prices was rapidly vertical. As long as the supplies in the huge co-operative warehouses lasted there was no rise in prices. 1ater, of course, when these became be-came exhausted and it was necessary lo go into the open market for new ones, prices had to be raised, but. even so. they were the lowest prices to be found in the "Untied Kingdom. Finally a co-operator was made food controller. In -France practically the same thing occurred. The co-operative societies were called into service by the government to feed munition workers and to supply the civilian population with meat, coal, potatoes pota-toes and other necessities. The Austrian government demanded the same service from Austrian co-operative societies. Before the war Russia had a mere handful of co-operative societies, and those which did exist were bitterly persecuted per-secuted by the government. The rapid increase of co-operative enterprises began be-gan with the revolutionary movement and continued until now Russia is the greatest co-operative cbuntry in the world. During Dur-ing the brief Kerensky regime the posts of deputy minister of agriculture, director of the supplies committee and the minister minis-ter of commerce and industry were all fiiled by leaders of the co-operative movement. move-ment. The co-operators have been equally equal-ly respected by the Bolshevikt, although the Rochedale system does not harmonize with the Soviet's economic principles. Le-nine Le-nine has used local co-operatives for the distribution of food supplies, while many of the Soviet's factories have been turned over to well -organized co-operative societies soci-eties which were already operating similar simi-lar establishments. During the war the membership and trade of co-operative societies in Oer-many Oer-many more than doubled. More than '2, 000, 000 members were enrolled in consumers' con-sumers' societies, while as many more were enrolled in banking. agricultural and producers' associations, in spite of the fact that most of Germany's man power w-i- 'i: war. In the imru ycai ui i .e w-i'-;erman eo-ooerat ive banks eon-oo eon-oo Co in .-h vines deposits. Todav'Germany possesses t he largest iicle " co-op.-rative enterprise m the wcHd Tins is the " Produ kt ion" nMluin-; nMluin-; JU,-h was founded in 1HO0 and i.-uf't membersh.p of MMnn when the war ' p -tVd. Wh-n the annislico was signed membership had increased to over I ,m although many of us original nu-Mibe'-s ac been lost in the war. J.ast v,r t:.is societv did a hu-dness of $11.- ., more t.;:in $t.00--.0-" ol wnloh was iukl out in wages to its UH0 '''P'0 : it- bathing, housing, insurance and manuraeturine dr partnicnts. Av.. Ui-iri-t-llumrarv was another countiy wbe'-c ro-ouei-ation increased rupully during dur-ing tlu war. aUhougn since then it has sutfered severely by reason of tho diw--Hn of its territory into several small ,au.s Before the war Hungary contained con-tained nu.ro ,.o-operative enterprises than mv other Furopean nation. In spito of rie f-ici thai hs ni" eminent was Intensely Intense-ly opposed to them. This opposition taded -,'wav. however, during the first year o tiie "war w u n fie government did not ' hesitate 'to a. cept tiie serviees of the M-I M-I ,-.., wii'i ,.ile i "o-operative. w liicli or-: or-: ean'ved the families of over .'.00.000 munition muni-tion workers into co-operative groups :or tlic operation of their ow n restaurants and bakeries. X The co-operative movement also gained great moment uni in neutral countries during the war. In Switzerland, which has alwavs been highly co-operaiive. sev-, era! new ventures were started, including includ-ing an entire co-operative village of ISO houses, ea.h equipped with all modern improvements, including vegetable gardens gar-dens Tiie colon v is also to have cooperative co-operative stores, a co-operative restau-rmt restau-rmt a children's playground and school, and 'assembly hall and n gymnasium. Manv agricultural co-operative societies are 'operating co-operative dairies in ! Switzerland, and there also Is a large I number of co-operative cattle-breeding societies. Co-operative insurance also is a popular product. Denmark is another small neutral which speeded up co-operation during the war. There are now more co-operalors in Denmark Den-mark in proportion to the population than In flnv other country in the world. Everything" Every-thing" imaginab'e is handled by co-operative societies. There are agricultural purchase pur-chase and sales societies, co-operative dairies, bacon factories, slaughter houses and bakeries, and. in addition, there are co-operative distributive societies, co-operative insurance societies and many cooperative co-operative banks. This is merely a. brief outline of the co-opera co-opera live movement as it is sweeping 1'hirope today and even escaping into ancient an-cient a nd conserva th e Asia. ( Co-operative societies have recently sprung up in India and Japan,) All of this has been accomplished iu less than eighty years, for the first co-operative society Is only that old. 5j: I Tiie first co-onerative society was start-' start-' ed by twenty-eight poor flannel weavers, who, made desperate by their inability to provide for their families out of their small wages, started a co-operative store In a n empty storeroom in a back street of Rochedale, in the north of England, where they sold four different commodities. commodi-ties. The capital invested by each member mem-ber was ?5, and the members also provided pro-vided their own management and distributing dis-tributing service. On two evenings each week one of the members assumed the duties of storekeeper, doling out the provisions pro-visions to the other members, charging them the current retail prices and placing plac-ing the cash in the treasury of the society. so-ciety. At the end of three months the prof i ts of the business were returned to the members in proportion to the amount of their purchases, after a certain sum had been deducted for a sinking fund. Evidently these early pioneers felt the responsibility of establishing a valuable precedent, "for they managed this first store so cn refully that the rebates were very attractive, even during those first trying months. This caused a favorable impression on other Rochedale workers, who had formerly scoffed at the enterprise, enter-prise, and soon there were many applications appli-cations for membership. Each new member mem-ber contributed capital, and this enabled en-abled the business to grow and expand unui ii developed Into mj-rcum... csUbiiaCO.,, "i Todny onr-third or ih Hon iu Croat lirU 'r, ly Si.ooii.ntio.ooo ,v" kl ' their members even' . l' ' oral co-opcratlM, lu, . ','. us own stuamslups u) v houses. ns . ' , '-'-0ri?! latest in Grea, U; ,r:! ' m a Blunt neap ,,,iu "V It , week, it produce 4.0,H, j n''V every year. I, owa f ' 1'i-r.-and its own in inti,,,. , ? 'i . Hut one nilKht ko on",""-iK on",""-iK all the tlllnss ';V'r-., co-operators In Kuro i Ult he long before thev CV-. Hires to everybody V '-: tnoso who are keeping , !i -co-operative nioveme,,, e soon be doing thcm , Am,:. |