244 



CO-OPERATION. 



Co-operative Store No. 1, of Phillipsburg, 

 N. J. reported a trade of $32,983 in 1887. 

 Of the twenty stores, including twelve of the 

 fourteen given in the table above, which made 

 complete returns, only five reported a decrease 

 in trade. Excluding the large Texas store, lest 

 its size and success overbalance the rest, the 

 business of the other nineteen amounted to 

 $1,290,550, being an increase in one year of 

 24 per cent. If we include the Texas stores, 

 the remaining thirty-nine in New England 

 which did business amounting to more than 

 $1,000,000 in 1886 and the twenty to thirty 

 other successful stores in tlie country, we may 

 safely estimate the entire distributive co-opera- 

 tion in the United States in 1887 at between 

 $5,000,000 and $6,000,000. This is not a large 

 sum in comparison with the figures in Great 

 Britain ; but, if the present rate of growth of 

 24 per cent, a year continues, co-operative dis- 

 tribution will soon assume an important posi- 

 tion in our industrial life. 



It is the common opinion that the price of 

 goods to the consumer is raised by the retailer 

 from 30 to 100 per cent, over the wholesale 

 price. This is completely disproved, as far as 

 co-operative stores are concerned (and other 

 stores rarely charge over 5 to 10 per cent, 

 more), by statistics, gathered by the writer, of 

 ten large and successful co-operative stores, of 

 which five are in Massachusetts, two in New 

 Jersey, two in Pennsylvania, and one in New 

 York. In these ten stores, which sold groceries 

 and in some cases meat, and in 1886 did a busi- 

 ness of $420,494.20, the retail price was only 

 17'27 per cent, above the wholesale. The ex- 

 penses for wages, rent, teams, freight from the 

 wholesaler, depreciation of stock, insurance, 

 ice, water-rent, taxes, stationery, and all other 

 incidental running expenses, exclusive of inter- 

 est on capital, amounted to 12'74 per cent, of 

 the cost price, or nearly three fourths of the 

 entire increase in price. Interest at 5 per cent, 

 on the capital employed, which was returned 

 as $66,242 actually paid in, aside from surplus, 

 would be $3,312.10; this is almost 1 per cent, 

 of the wholesale price, leaving only an average 

 of 3'6 per cent, on the wholesaler's price that 

 can be credited to profits, and which admitted 

 in these stores of an average dividend of not 

 quite 4'5 per cent, on the retail price. 



The greatest cause of disaster in most co- 

 operative stores that fail, next to trusting, lies 

 in a high ratio of expense to trade. In eleven 

 successful co-operative stores especially studied 

 with regard to this point, the average percent- 

 age of running expenses to trade was only 7'7, 

 and in no case did it reach 10. Few stores can 

 succeed whose running expenses are allowed to 

 equal 10 per cent, of the trade. Lavish expendi- 

 ture for rent, teams, numerous employes, and a 

 " stylish " appearance, wrecks many a co-opera- 

 tive enterprise. The idea of co-operati on is sub- 

 stance rather than shadow the best and purest 

 goods not display. One of the greatest sav- 

 ings of co-operation comes from the fact that 



costly plate-glass show-windows, location on a 

 main street, employes enough to be able to wait 

 at once on all customers in the busiest hours of 

 the day, and teams to carry home every small 

 article, are not necessary to attract custom. If 

 such be necessary, the first steps in co-opera- 

 tion have not yet been taken. A good, clean, 

 wholesome store, in a convenient location, and 

 one or two teams to deliver heavy goods, are, 

 of course, requisite. But where a market is 

 already secured among those banded together 

 in a co-operative experiment, the need of the 

 expensive means of advertising just referred 

 to should no longer be felt. The very essence 

 of co-operative distribution is the dispensing 

 with the wastes of competitive business. 



Productive Co-operation. This is the ideal of 

 all thinking co-operators, and the goal toward 

 which their efforts are directed. But few 

 steps toward it have been taken. The idea of 

 its advocates is that the workmen in our 

 manufacturing establishments should save 

 money enough to establish factories of their 

 own ; should have the requisite knowledge of 

 human nature to select able foremen and su- 

 perintendents ; and sufficient moral fiber to co- 

 operate cheerfully and submit to the rigid dis- 

 cipline necessary in a successful manufacturing 

 enterprise. The first requisite, capital, is more 

 easily secured through the issue of stock in shares 

 of $5 to $25 each than are the other conditions. 

 But the few marked successes chronicled be- 

 low indicate that the prospects of success are 

 not as chimerical as has been supposed, and 

 that, especially in enterprises like the making 

 of barrels, boots and shoes, hats, watch-cases, 

 and iron castings, where the zeal and efficiency 

 of the workman count for more relatively to 

 the capital and service of the manager than in 

 other kinds of manufacturing, a considerable 

 growth of co-operation may fairly be expected 

 within the next twenty years. Through igno- 

 rance of men and methods, and lack of the 

 moral qualities necessary to prevent all serious 

 jealousies and dissensions, the vast majority of 

 wage-earners are at present unfitted for pro- 

 ductive co-operation. 



The greatest success in this country is that 

 of the co-operative coopers of Minneapolis. 

 The oldest of the eight co-operative shops of 

 that city, known as the Co-operative Barrel 

 Manufacturing Company, was begun in 1874, 

 and now has assets of $45,000, owned in equal 

 amounts, as the constitution requires, by each 

 of its ninety stockholders. Only one who is a 

 journeyman cooper, and known to be of good 

 moral character, can become a stockholder. If 

 he is unable to pay the full value of a share at 

 once, an assessment of from $3 to $5 is paid from 

 his weekly wages, when the shop is running full 

 time. Five per cent, interest is given on stock. 

 The men work by the piece, and divide among 

 themselves, according to their work, all the or- 

 dinary gains or losses of the business. But 

 gains or losses coming from fire, from non- 

 paying creditors, from changes in the value of 



