CO-OPERATION IN THE UNION. 21 7 



have fierce competition to meet. Other competitive stores 

 will put the price down on articles to a point, perhaps, 

 under cost. We cannot afford to meet their prices. Here 

 is where the trouble comes. We have started out on the 

 narrow and single plank that u it is best to buy where you 

 can buy the cheapest and sell where you can get the most." 

 We have made co-operation a side issue. We have failed 

 to impress the patrons with the idea that this is "our store, " 

 and that it is the means to loosen the shackles which bind 

 us to a false sytem of trade. The men whom we have 

 taught to "buy where they can buy the cheapest," and on 

 whom we depended for our patronage, go elsewhere to buy, 

 never pausing to think of the difference in the objects of 

 the two concerns. The object of the co-operative store is 

 to do a legitimate business; to furnish goods at living 

 profits. The object of the other stores is to break down 

 the co-operative plan and re-establish high prices. The 

 very fact that they offer to sell goods at, or below, ' 'cost, ' ' is 

 evidence of a sinister design, and the member that "bites" at 

 such a transparent ' 'bait' ' * 'sells his birth-right for a mess of 

 pottage." We must start out on a broader basis. We 

 must instruct our members that we are bound hand and 

 foot by a system of trade over which we have no control, 

 and no chance of control, except by being true to our- 

 selves, and through united action and individual effort. 

 Each individual forms a link in the chain of effort to throw 

 off this yoke. When he fails of his duty the force of the 

 effort is broken, and failure is likely to ensue. "Well, but 

 I save money in buying where I can buy the cheapest, ' ' is 

 the excuse for patronizing other stores. But it is not true. 

 You do not save money in the end, but lose. By with- 

 drawing your trade from a business that was established for 

 both your present and future benefit, you destroy the very 

 means which enabled you to save money in a single 

 purchase. You "kill the goose that laid the golden egg." 



