CO-OPERATIVE TRADING. 
25 L 
of occupation or general position in life, the greater is the tendency to effect 
by co-operation what they could not so well accomplish by their uncombined 
exertions. It is quite intelligible, therefore, that a class of men who, by education 
and the nature of their employment, are fitted for a position in society which the 
limited incomes derived from their occupations barely enable them to maintain, 
should endeavour to economize their means of living by obtaining the necessaries 
of life at the lowest possible cost. In this way, the Civil Service Co-operative 
Associations were formed, the numerous class of clerks and other officials in 
Government offices uniting together for the purchase of certain articles of 
food and clothing by wholesale, and afterwards dividing them for their indi¬ 
vidual use. Co-operative stores were the means adopted by such associations 
for distributing to the members, according to their wants, what had been pur¬ 
chased for them at wholesale prices. It was thus proposed to save to the con¬ 
sumer in the price of each article the amount put on by the retailer for interest 
on the capital invested by him, and a fair remuneration for his services. 
There is reason to believe, however, that the true character of this new 
system of retailing goods, ostensibly but not really without profit to the- 
retailer, will develope itself in clue time; that the expenses and responsibili¬ 
ties of trading will be found to affect these and other establishments for the 
distribution of goods to the public in the same way and practically to the 
same extent; that capital will establish its claim to interest, and that the 
knowledge and talent required for the management of trading affairs is as much 
entitled to remuneration as those applied to other pursuits. Under particular 
circumstances, and to a limited extent, the co-operative system of distributing 
goods may be found to present some advantages which may give permanence 
thus far to the system, but beyond this, its very limited applicability, it may 
be confidently predicted that it will die a natural death. 
One of the methods adopted for extending the co-operative system has been 
to appoint retail dealers as agents, by whom goods are supplied to members of 
a co-operative association at reduced prices corresponding with those at which 
similar goods are sold at the stores of the association. Tradesmen are thus fre¬ 
quently induced to give their sanction and support to a system which, if rightly 
considered, cannot be thought otherwise than injurious to the interests of their 
trades, by depreciating the value of their capital, including the knowledge and 
skill employed in their occupation. These co-operative agents are tradesmen 
who have two sets of prices, one for the general public, and the other for cus¬ 
tomers who present a card, stating that they are members of a co-operative 
association. In the latter case a reduction sometimes of 10, and sometimes of 
as much as 25 per cent, is made upon the prices charged to the former class. 
Thus two customers may stand side by side at a counter, and both be served 
with similar articles, but one of them is charged 25 per cent, more than the 
other. Yet both may be similarly circumstanced in life, and require the goods 
for similar purposes. What justification can the tradesman make to the high- 
priced customer against the charge of extortion or unfair trading? Should his 
co-operative clients increase in number, and his other customers at the same time 
fall off,—a very possible result of double dealing,—he would probably soon find 
himself in debt and difficulties; and from these he might be tempted to seek 
escape by resorting to a species of deception, the almost inevitable result of 
maintaining this percentage system, namely, that of selling inferior goods, or of 
first putting on the percentage to be afterwards taken off. 
This co-operative agency system appears to have been encouraged to some 
extent among dealers in drugs, and even dispensers of medicines. We could 
hardly have believed, had we not seen an announcement of the fact, that mem¬ 
bers of our body could be so regardless of the true interests of themselves and 
their brethren as to lend themselves to the maintenance of such a system, espe- 
s 2 
