COOPERATION 



English manufacturing town of Rochdale, not 

 far from the city of Manchester, were in dire 

 poverty. They could not make both ends 

 meet. They sought in vain for betterment. 

 One day twenty-seven of them banded them- 

 selves together. They established the first 

 cooperative society — in the modern meaning 

 of the term — in the world. It was not so much 

 a blow at capital as it was a protest against 

 poverty. In a House of Commons debate, just 

 before the society was established, it was shown 

 that there were over two thousand people in 

 Rochdale living on forty-six cents a week, or 

 less, — indeed, in some instances, as low as 

 twelve cents per week, many families having 

 but a single blanket, and some with chaff beds 

 and no coverings at all. It was a case of life 

 or death, and the weavers chose life. They 

 transacted business, the first year they set up 

 for themselves, amounting to twenty-eight 

 pounds, — in round figures, one hundred and 

 forty dollars. I visited Rochdale in 1899 and 

 found the business of the first cooperative 

 organization in the world advanced from one 

 hundred and forty dollars a year to over one 

 million, five hundred thousand dollars a year, 



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