THE SUN. 



PROFIT. —DIVIDENDS. 



■But/' it is said, "if you reciprocate with the trade, and do not 

 sell at cost, you will meet with no (competition. '^ But that is jtist 

 the opposite of what we have set out to do. It is the profit-making 

 system from which we have fled. The whole of the laborer's cause 

 is wrapped up in labor.-cost. It is the secret of our economy, it dic- 

 tates the outward character of our store, and inspires its inward har- 

 mony. Cost is our begining and end, our anchor and destiny, the 

 only real profit to any individual, and the only profit for all. -'But 

 would not everybody come to the store ?'' 



"But outsiders Vould then get their goods as cheap as those wiio 

 first formed the pool ?'' True, but had we these outsiders to be- 

 gin with, we should have never needed to form any pool. They 

 are preserving the objects of the pool, to get their goods at cost^ 

 and we shall °oon need them to further the cause of co-operation.* 

 •'But should not the first contributors of money receive some divi- 

 dend?" But, the making of a loan is a separate aftair from the 

 selling of goods, and will be further treated under co-operative 

 bankhig. "Then are we to have no profit ?" cries our interlocuier. 

 So far from it, that unless, through the store, we can attack privi- 

 leged usury itself, "the savings of the store may prove a greater 

 cm-se to co-operators, than ootatoes have been to Ireland, or rice to 

 the Chinese. For then would the holders of land and money make 

 U{> the difference in wages. 



English Co-opemtion. — What is the .sole, economic and organic 

 secret of the English co-operator's success ? Nothing but having 

 his custom previously pledged. Why. then, should he discrimin- 

 ate against those wiio would help him swell that custom ? If the 

 dividl-nd of twenty five cents on a sack of flour behmgs to him, why 

 docs he not take' it, on the spot, when it is due, without the check 

 system ? And what about those other co-operators, who raist'd 

 and ground the flour ? Do they not deserve a dividend ? But 

 this would leave the purchaser twenty live cents out of pocket. 

 What, then, is the English co-operator's great weakness? This 

 nibbling at profit. How couhl he be expected to throttle the vam- 

 pires of his native Isle, while fishing for minnows from the mouth 

 of a shark ? For, is it not this very system which leaves (ill laborers 

 out of pocket ? ^ 



* 8ince,we do no advertising. <)'>r new custoiiiern will mainly come through the re- 

 ports of the old oncH. and will Hub^fcril^e to the i-riiK iplcH of a concern from which 

 they derive bcncfll. It ix the'luw, where nogooln .irr hoM for proiii, to cl;is8 it a» 

 a charitahle iuxtltnlion, requiring n o 'license.' 



