UNCLE SAM: Mr. Laboringman has waited patiently to have his say about coöperation.
MR. LABORINGMAN: Yes, I have been biding my time, for I have something to say that ought to interest all of you, as a possibility at least, and if it is reasonable to do so, I hope that you will include some sympathetic laws by way of encouragement.
England was the birthplace of modern industrialism, as you all know. There, too, was started the great movement of modern coöperation. Small and insignificant was the beginning. In 1844 the Rochdale pioneers put all their little savings into the pot, and they amounted to only $140. With this they started a store. By 1845 they had seventy-four members and $900 of capital, and did $3,500 worth of business, by keeping their little business open only two evenings a week. They were an object of derision and all sorts of jibes.
S.P. Orth describes the situation as follows: Last year the British Government made a careful and complete report on coöperation in England, and found more than three million persons in the membership of the various societies, and over three times that number under the immediate sphere of coöperative influence. That means that one person in every five in the United Kingdom is now interested or influenced by this vast association of producers and consumers. During the past ten years, the increase of membership has been 55 per cent and the trade 75 per cent.
The productive and distributive business alone amounts to $640,000,000. The retail societies have $200,000,000 of capital. "Last year the sales of these retail societies totaled more than $352,000,000, or about $142.50 per member." It is most significant that the societies, in their own mills and factories, produced nearly 50 per cent of these goods themselves; that is, production and distribution are going hand in hand. They began by making boots and butter; now they make cloth, iron and all sorts of things.
The average profits for the last ten years have been nearly 15 per cent and there is now a serious discussion whether the cost of articles to the customer should not be lowered.
In some of the districts, notably some of the mining districts, the coöperative stores have a virtual monopoly, and their system of banking or keeping the surplus credits for the customer is a great boon. But in other very poor districts, keeping up the prices has worked some hardship. It is now proposed by some of the stronger societies to open special stores in the poorer districts and cut the prices.