CO-OPERATION. 



241 



tenant-Governor, John S. Kirkham ; Secretary 

 of Stute, Henry A. Bishop; Treasurer, J. Grif- 

 fin Martin ; Comptroller, Nicholas Staub. The 

 platform approves the national ticket and 

 platform, the tariff-reform message of the 

 President, the Mills Bill, and the fisheries 

 treaty, as well as the administration of Presi- 

 dent Cleveland in general. Upon State ques- 

 tions it says : 



The Democratic party again renews its demand for 

 that privilege to which every voter is entitled, the se- 

 cret ballot. Freemen will not readily accept the re- 

 cent promise of the party that has in the Legislature 

 repeatedly set aside their hopes, and defeated this im- 

 portant measure of protection against intimidation. 



We emphatically protest against the policy of ex- 

 tending to partisan boards, for party purposes, the 

 authority to issue and control liquor-licenses. These 

 boards, in justice to the people, should be non-parti- 

 san not, as now, mere political machines used for 

 the success of the Kepublican partv. Too frequently 

 the test of an applicant's fitness for license is meas- 

 ured bv the benefit to be derived by the party which 

 controls the boards. 



A fair choice of the voters of Connecticut expressed 

 through the ballot-boxes, in the election of State offi- 

 cers, should be respected in Connecticut as it is in thirty- 

 four States of this Union. Our Constitution should 

 be reformed and admit of an election of Governor and 

 other State officers by a plurality of votes, as presi- 

 dential electors are chosen in every State, so that a 

 candidate lacking more than 9,000 votes of a major- 

 ity, and more than 1,800 votes of the number re- 

 ceived by his opponent, may not be treated as duly 

 elected, and inaugurated. 



There was also a Labor ticket in the field, 

 headed by A. F. Andrews. At the November 

 election Morris (Democrat), received 75,074 

 votes for Governor ; Bulkeley (Republican), 

 73,059 ; Camp (Prohibition), 4,631 ; and An- 

 drews (Labor), 273 votes. Although the 

 Democratic ticket received a plurality of 11,- 

 415 votes, it did not obtain a majority over all, 

 which is necessary under the State Constitu- 

 tion for an election. The decision is therefore 

 thrown upon the next Legislature, whose 

 members were chosen at the same November 

 election. This legislature will consist of 17 

 Republicans and 7 Democrats in the Senate, 

 and 152 Republicans and 96 Democrats in the 

 House, with 1 Independent. The Republican 

 ticket will 'therefore be chosen. The vote for 

 President was as follows: Harrison, 74.584; 

 Cleveland, 74,920; Fisk, 4.234; Labor ticket, 

 240. The Congressional delegation stands 3 

 Republicans to one Democrat, against 3 Demo- 

 crats and one Republican in the last Congress. 



CO-OPERATION. Each country has its special 

 form of co-operative effort. In Germany it is 

 the credit-unions, sometimes called the peoples' 

 banks. These societies numbered 1,910 in 

 1883, and, in connection with nearly as many 

 more co-operative societies of various kinds, 

 had 1,200,000 members, with $50,000,000 

 share capital and $122,500,000 borrowed capi- 

 tal, and did a yearly business of $500,000,000. 

 The credit- unions resemble joint-stock com- 

 panies, having among others the important ad- 

 ditional features that the stock may be paid for 

 in small regular payments, that every stock- 

 VOL. xxviii. 16 A 



holder is liable for the entire debts of the bank 

 as in a simple partnership, and that the money 

 gathered from the stock and from funds bor- 

 rowed by the unions is loaned to their mem- 

 bers at 6 to 10 per cent, interest. This not 

 only encourages saving, but enables a poor but 

 bright mechanic to obtain at reasonable inter- 

 est money with which to begin busine-s. 

 These credit-unions, which were founded by 

 Dr. Schulze, of Delitzsch, Saxony, in 1850, 

 have also grown to large proportions in Aus- 

 tria, 1,129 such unions, or 74 5 per cent, of all 

 the co-operative societies of that country in 

 1881 being of this nature. 



In France, although many distributive socie- 

 ties are reported, and in Paris over seventy 

 workingmen's co-operative societies are en- 

 gaged in production, mostly on a small scale, 

 the greatest success has been in profit-sharing, 

 wherein the proprietors of a large manufac- 

 tory, shop, railroad, or insurance company, 

 give their employes, in addition to wages at 

 market prices, a percentage of the net profits. 

 Only a few of those that have tried it have 

 abandoned the plan, which arouses the work- 

 man's zeal and increases his efficiency in such 

 a degree as to restore to the managers, it is 

 believed, a full equivalent for the dividend. 

 Of the 98 firms in Europe, since grown to 104, 

 which in 1883 thus shared profits with their 

 help, 49 were in France, 18 in Germany, 12 in 

 Switzerland, and 8 in England. Twenty-three 

 had begun prior to 1870, and 33 more prior to 

 1880. 



In England the greatest success has been in 

 distributive co-operation or store-keeping on 

 the so-called Rochdale plan, to be briefly de- 

 scribed below, which was brought to public 

 notice by the Rochdale pioneers in 1844. At 

 the end of 1887 there were in England and 

 Scotland 1,348 such retail co-operative stores. 

 with 858,237 members, 8,461,888 share capi- 

 tal, 968,175 loan capital, sales in 1887 of 22,- 

 343,651, and a net profit of 2,940,337. There 

 were also 15 supply associations, selling at lit- 

 tle above cost, with 63,841 members, 642,360 

 share and loan capital, and a trade of 2,754,- 

 264. There were also an English and a Scotch 

 wholesale society, with a share and loan capital 

 of 1,120,874 and sales of 7,274,494 to the 

 retail societies. The 1,432 co-operative socie- 

 ties of all kinds in Great Britain- reported at 

 the last Co-operative Congress in 1888 had a 

 membership in 1887 of 945,619, a share capital 

 of 10,012,048, sales of 34,189,715, and prof- 

 its of 3,193,178. The growth has been steady 

 for a long time. To the surprise of all, 721 of 

 1,255 societies in Great Britain reporting in 

 1887 gave credit. 



At the twentieth annual Co-operative Con- 

 gress in England in 1888, 67 productive socie- 

 ties were also reported, with 22,480 members, 

 651,369 shares, and 207,718 loan capital, a 

 business of 1,574,145, and net profits of 59,- 

 500. There are no returns of the methods of 

 dividing profits, but this defect will be reme- 



