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Show English Cooperative Concerns Have Passed Experimental Stage Americans Ban4 Together for Better Wages, British Co-operate Co-operate for Lower Cost of Living By HILTON BRONNCa. LOMX)N. Aug. The blr thing In the life of the En Hah house holder that distinguishes him from tha Amerlcaa Is the fact that as a coniumr of food and clothing he joins with other consumers to try to lighten tha burden of living. In Amarlca we are familiar with workmen cooperating to gat batter wages; hours sod working conditions. condi-tions. We aio ara familiar with employers handln- together tore-aent tore-aent a common front to labor and to watch their Interests In legts-tsteres legts-tsteres snd congress. Hut American consumers of goo'la have not yet Earned to band together as the fca-gllnh. fca-gllnh. f The Kngllah eooparatlve move meat has paaaed the experimental, stage. It Is s huge snccesa It la a permanent feature of British Ufa. I KEARLY BVEJtr CITT. Practically evarr elty and btg town In England has Its cooperative coopera-tive retail aoclety. And they flour lh mlnhtlly la proportloa ia the population, with exceptioa of Legation. Lega-tion. Iondon Is so vast, shops are so many snd tha working claae ao scattered, that It Is only la the suburbs sub-urbs .where the workers live that the cooperatives make themeelvee felt. For up to now It tnuat be an deretood that aha cooperative movement move-ment Is still largely a 'working claaa movement- The big middle rlaas from snobbery and other ceueea has not as yet gone la for cooperation. The formation of a cooperative retail society has become slmost standardiied. When a number of consumers think of forming a society so-ciety they apply either to the Co-I Co-I operative Wholesale society or the ; Cooperative union for rules and a4-! a4-! vice. With facts and figures be-: be-: fore them theae organisations know uet about fuw many mem here ana how much capital ft Is neceasary to ralao before a cooperative store can be stsrted with a reasonable biismnvw itr luct rii, . Anybody csn tuy la the shop, but only those who are share owners can ss a rule get the prorata an are In the year's unexpended profit a Consequence Is most customers also buy shares In the cooperative society. so-ciety. To do so they pay 1 shilling (a quarter) for a book of rules snd a minimum of 3d per week shout cents for ths purrniM of a 1 -pound share of stock -worth about I. If they choose to pay In more than 2d per week .they are at liberty liber-ty to do so, But no member csn buy mors fnan $10e worth ot st or If ss a parliamentary law forbid for-bid a These shares usually pay per cent Interest. They are always considered at par and can always be cashed In at such uooa demand. The result Is that ths member consumer not only gets sn annual dividend upon his purchases If the year )iaa been successful but also draws per cent oa tha money be hae tnvased la shares. QKTI WHOLEIALB aPHRXIT. Ones the retail coopers trre society so-ciety has been successfully launched. Its next, steo Is to apply to the Cooperative Wholesale society so-ciety .for membership. It Is esse-) t la 1 for It to do this so that It can buy the gooda It needs from the O. W. S and thus svoid having to deal with ths manufacturers or wholesalers who sre mors or less hoatll to ths cooperative movement. move-ment. Tte retail society upon beeemmg a member of the C. W. B. must buy the 1-5 shares of the latter upon the basis of one share for every two members It has en its rolla. The retail society can buy these on time If It wants to, just as Its members mem-bers buy their shares bv weekly payments. Ths C. W. tf, shares also pay I per cent dlvtdenl. And the C. W. S after all expenses sre paid, divides' the unexpended profits by prorating them to ths retail societies so-cieties In proportion to their year ly purchase In a retail society ths direction of the affairs of the concern Is confined to a commutes sleeted by the members, sach havlag one vote. The retail societies In torn elect the dlrectore f the Cooperative W hoi sale society, each retail, society so-ciety having ons vote for ovary (09 members or fraction thereof. Of the 1191 cooperative retail societies so-cieties in K norland the largest are: london, J 00.000 members; Leeds. ?.!; Woolwich, M1S; Plymouth. M; Liverpool, 41.442. khplot ii, rcnuoxs. Ths retell societies' of England last year employed over lio.oue persons In their' shops. They ta1 a share and loan capital of over lfe million dollars and their sales amounted to ovsr S04,v00.eee per annum. - Jt is claimed by the cooperatlvee that the first thing that happens whea they start a shop in a new lewn I that all ths old shops immediately imme-diately revise their prlcee downward, down-ward, the consumers of ths whole lewn thus getting ths benefit ef th new opposition. Rut the cooperative shops do not seek to draw customers by msking extensive cuts as compared with the old line places. They try to give a satisfactory article for the price and to protect the customer from the tricks of the speculators In gret food commodities. |