A SURVEY OP TYPICAL COOPERATIVE STORES. 9 



too small to admit of the type of efficiency which can be secured only 

 by having specialists charged with definite responsibility for certain 

 divisions of the work. In most cases the manager himself is com- 

 pelled to be a sort of business jack-of -all-trades. He is usually the 

 responsible head of the store, and at the same time must act as buyer, 

 head salesman, and bookkeeper. The man who combines efficiency in. 

 all of these kinds of work is rarely found, and is usually in business 

 for himself. It is unusual for cooperative associations to be willing 

 or able to pay the salary which will secure a man of this type. The 

 salaries paid to the managers in the stores under consideration varied 

 from $45 to $250 per month, making an average of $106 a month for 

 the 42 stores for which figures were obtained. This fact alone is suffi- 

 cient to explain why the majority of the stores were not more success- 

 ful than the tables indicate. 



From the tabulated results of the questionnaire on page 4 it will 

 be noted that only 7 stores report the employment of a man whose 

 specialty is to act as sales manager, 4 report a special buyer, 10 a 

 cashier, and 3 a stenographer. Thirty-one stores report the employ- 

 ment of a bookkeeper. Careful inquiry, however, leads to the con- 

 viction that all but a small proportion of these men are not capable 

 of keeping a satisfactory set of accounting records. It is the almost 

 unanimous verdict of the store managers that greater attention must 

 be given to the office end of the business, and that the auditing must 

 be more efficiently performed. 



FINANCE. 



The points covered in the section of finance bring out the essential 

 differences between the corporate and cooperative type of organiza- 

 tion. In general, it may be said that with the cooperative type the 

 shares of stock are smaller ; that these shares do not determine the 

 voting power of the member ; that paid-in capital stock usually bears 

 a fixed rate of interest, while dividends are based upon the business 

 and not upon holdings of stock; and that ^.ertain restrictions are 

 placed upon stock transfer. The laws of most States require that a 

 definite authorized capital be fixed in the charter or articles of asso- 

 ciation, while in others the amount of stock need not be fixed. The 

 latter practice corresponds with the cooperative laws of several 

 European countries and aims to permit an indefinite growth in the 

 membership and capital stock. 



For the 32 stores reporting the authorized capital, the average was 

 $45,437, while 41 stores giving the amount of capital subscribed 

 average $20,143, and 50 stores giving their paid-in capital average 

 $16,627. The shares of stock, as given in Table I, vary from $1 to 

 $100, with an average par value of $53. When questioned as to the 

 47614°— Bull. 394—16 -2 



