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Show UTAH LABOR NEWS, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, MAY TOWN OF A COOFERATORS (Continued from Page 1) kitchen we talk about cooperation. Yes, of course they are cooperators: have been since the beginning of 1907. Why, the daughter works in the soda fountain of the branch store, which is the modern shop that introduced us to Maynard cooperation. The coffee we are drinking came from the p store. The cream in it was delivered by a co-o- p milk truck. The delicious coffee cake was bak-d- e co-o- in the coal co-o- own bakery. ps The for the kitchen range and the furnace, and the oil for summer cooking and the w'ater heater, the ice in the refrigerator, the seeds and fertilizer used in the backyard garden, are all cooperative purchases. This year the house was dressed in a slick cpat of white If they paint bought at the had a car, all its fueling would be p done at the gas station. co-o- p. co-o- Dividends Co-o- p coffee can on the clock shelf holds a growing accumulation of pink slips which stand for money stores. At the spent at the p these will go back end stubs years office and be totaled to the co-o- p up. A certain percentage of the years total purchase figure, how much depending on the decision of the p membership, will come back home in the form of a dividend check. Last year the check was for $32, which was a 4 per cent dividend 'on the $800 this family of three spent on food and the other A co-o- ELBERT D. THOMAS United States senator from Utah. He is doing a wonderful work in behalf of progressive legislation in the U. S. senate. lie is vice chairman of the Senate ciyil liberties committee, investigating needs the p had supplied. labor spies, sabotage and other imOne family does not make a portant questions. town. So up and down the streets of Maynard we go, paying calls. We claim only the quest of an inquiring reporter, not a thorough economic survey of all consumers in Maynard. But this report does represent forays into every type of street, calls at every type of home. In an attempt to strike the lowest and the highest income groups, we looked for slums and Neither for houses of the rich. seemed to exist in Maynard. We saw no hovels, and only one home with a garage meant for more ;han one car. There is a country club but its dues are modest and its membership is not drawn from one wealthy group. Behind the first doorbell we ring, we find a cooperator. She housewife, has is a with the never been connected mill, is a member of the Home demonstration club organized by he Extension Service of the Department of Agriculture Experiment Station at Amherst. I startshe said, ed buying at the co-obecause they kept their vegeta co-o- co-o- non-Finni- sh p, Give STANDARD Coal a Trial There is a dealer near you who Guarantees Your Satisfaction Mined and Distributed by STANDARD COAL COMPANY Continental Bank Bldg. Union Mined Salt Lake Gty, Utah 100 Per Cent Rail Hauled Best Wishes to Utah Miners 7, 1937. 3 bles nice and fresh. They were them from the old country and first in town to use that apparatus transplanted it to Maynard where that keeps spraying clouds of fine they represented the major bloc of vapor over the vegetables. Thats workers in the woolen mill. what Rtarted me buying there. I borne cooperators found everything else was good, belonged in the same group. One Yorkshireman who worked as a too, so I kept on. Cleanliness Uppermost weaver in the mill described Members of the next family through pungent pipe smoke what were just arrived. his dividend check meant to him. We havent had time to do much Its value was less as cash than as buying yet, they said, but weve a symbol representing the princiheard a lot, read in the Boston ples developed by other weavers in and so on, about the new the little town of Rochdale in his ranch store. Everybody seems to own England half a century ago. be pretty proud of it so I suppose He talked of the importance of these principles: Membership open well buy there some. Next door they had praise for to all, regardless of race, color, the dependable freshness of the politics; democratic control by the butter and eggs, though majority of the membership, with they had friends in the coal and one vote to each member regardmilk business and patronized less of the number of shares of The bakery was the first stock held; fixed interest paid on them. attraction for me, said the house- shares, and profits returned to No baked members not as investors but as wife down the block.' town can in compare with purchasers; and the need for laygoods the s. ing aside a certain amount of the A mother in a mill family said profits each year for an educashe started buying at the coopera- tion fund to teach the principles tive because they were the first in of cooperation to a steadily exI panding audience. But to most Maynard to pasteurize milk. non-Finni- sh rs, pa-er- s, co-o- ps co-op- wanted milk that was healthy for Since the children, she said. then Ive bought a good deal of But what I need from the I buy at the corner store, too. I think its our duty to support the little man. Dependable Quality I like the Finns, said a hearty mother of a large famof strictly pioneer - Yankee ily I used to work in the stock. mill. I always used to sit down and have a cup of coffee in the afternoon with the other workers. And they started me off on this business of joining the Since then Ive liked doing my business there. I know the boys in the store and when I call up they always send me just what I want. Another family found cooperative buying satisfactory because they could telephone the food order with confidence in the quality of the meat and groceries without taking time to shop for each item. Dependable quality not only in meat and bakery products but in such items as coal had kept them buying all they could cooperatively for more than co-o- p. red-cheek- co-o- p. non-Finni- sh 20 years. cooperators the patronage dividend had none of these implications. It meant merely a pleasant if unimportant windfall once a year. Does a Good Job Rounding out the inquiry we looked for opinion from such bodies as banks and chambers of commerce. The secretary of the chamber of commerce turned out to be one of the leading members of the board of directors of the cooperative. The position taken by local bankers was that any organization turning $17,000 of its profits back into the channels of local commerce in a year instead of sending it to outside interests does a good job for the town. Meanwhile we were accumulating first-han- d impressions of coThe branch operative shopping. stores soda fountain was conceded by the town to be the best place to eat. As slickly modern inside as outside, it is comfortable, Places hospitable, well operated. behind the counter are at a premium, not because of the wages involved, but because far from placing stigma on the waitress the iob carries certain social privi non-Finni- sh 69 East Fourth South St. Telephone Was. 1629. Headquarters for Safety Appliances and First Aid Equipment Holcomb Safety Clothing Safety First Shoes and Boots Respirators and Inlialators and Gas Masks Protective Hats and Helmets full-fledg- ed USE Pikes Peak SUPER QUALITY FLOUR o All types of Industrial and Welding Goggles Everything and anything in the line of Appliances for accident prevention can be obtained immediately. Order by hvail, telephone or visit our store. Over 200 new members in 1935 brought the total membership up to 975 by the years end. Figuring the towns 7000 population as 1500 families, the co-o- p was then repreof sented in almost two-thirthem. Of the new members who p in 1035, 170 came into the bought their shares with accumulated rebates and the other 42 paid cash outright. Plans for the future include many educational enterprises. One is a junior summer camp where the youth of the area may learn about cooperation while enjoying sport and recreation. A new pasteurization plant, housed in a expanding building The affiliated is on the cards. Womens Cooperative Guild boasts of selling almost the quota of shares required to start a cooperative beauty parlor. ds co-o- better-e- quipped, Getting Desperate Does my practicing make you nervous? asked the chap who was learning to play a saxophone. It did when I first heard the neighbors discussing it, replied the man next door, but now I dont care what hapoens to you. co-o- non-Finni- UNIVERSAL SAFETY APPLIANCES COMPANY $392,719. v Meat quality was mentioned more than1 any other merchandise lure to first purchases. Three old ladies, born of a family of first settlers in the gracious old house in which they still lived, said they were great meat eaters. They lad always shopped the whole ;own for the best cuts of meat. meat they had Trying the p They stopped shopping around. added other things to their marketing list and found them just as In accordance with satisfactory. their first $5 of patronthe rules, toward the went dividends age of stock one share of purchase which made them members of the cooperative. After that, they turned their dividends into more stock. They now own eight shares on which they get the annual 5 per cent interest paid on stock, apart from the percentage received on total purchases. Two Categories Co-o- p interviewed purchasers fell into two categories: Those whose original interest was primarily in the idea and ideals of cooperation; and those who bought because they liked the merchanp had to offer. dise the This line of demarcation in approach to cooperative buying tended to place the Finnish and members on opposite sides All the Finnish of the fence. members spoke first of cooperation as a traditional philosophy for solving social and economic problems. They had brought it with Ik Importance of tite Coal Industry in co-o- Announcing the opening of leges with it. In the evening, particularly during week ends, the soda fountain becomes the commuThe girls, nity gathering place. chosen from the families of apparently on the basis of beauty, health, and charm, are actually hostesses if hardworking ones to Maynards younger set. Daytimes their customers are varied. To one old lady they may talk in Finnish while they serve an ice cream cone to a member of the entirely Americanized youngest generation. Every child, no matter how small his purchase, invariably remembers to wait for his pink receipt and clutches it in a purposeful hand as he heads for home and the coffee can on the kitchen shelf. Established 30 Years History of Maynard cooperation ' goes back 30 years to the day when a few millworkers put $1600 together and sold themselves goods amounting to somewhat less than $40,000 the first year. Until 1017 the total sales never hit six figures. In 1935 they had come up to sh Utah There is paid daily to Utah coal mine employees, for each day Utah coal mines operate . . . i $35,000.00 The daily proportion of the railroad mens wages for hauling each days output of Utah coal to Utah markets is $15,000.00 Wages paid daily to Utah men for unloading, yard labor and trucking coal in Utah, for every working day of the year, an amount in excess of .... $3,000.00 QtlaeM Utialh! Made By The Older Flour Mills Utah Coal Operators Association |