5. Goods to be sold at current market price-not at cost. 6. Education in the principles and aims of Co-operation, with the view of expansion into the larger fields, always to be carried on in connection with the enjoyment of the immediate economic advantages.

7. Federation as soon as possible with the nearest Co-operative societies, with the ultimate purpose of national and world Co-operation.

The Co-operative Movement is an organized force moving toward the control of the necessities of life by the people in a free society. It aims to set the people working together for their mutual benefit. It teaches how they may be free from the exploitation of private interests.

It proceeds to do this through organization entirely external to the political state. Through their co-operative organization, the people become their own store-keepers, wholesalers, manufacturers, bankers and insurance societies. Co-operation teaches the people how to provide, own and conduct their own housing, recreations and educational institutions, and ultimately to supply all of their needs. Its purpose is to take these things out of private hands, which administer them through a competitive system for purposes of private gain, and install organized consumers in the place of private promoters.

It does this through methods which are democratic and founded on the principles of liberty and fraternity. It excludes none. It desires that all shall join. Its significant function is to substitute the spirit of co-operation and mutual aid for that of competition and antagonism.

This movement exists in all countries of the world. For seventy-five years it has been growing without ceasing. Its increase is ten times faster than the population is increasing. In Europe it now embraces one third of the population. In some countries a majority of the people are included in the Co-operative Movement. The organized societies in each country are federated in the World Movement through the International Co-operative Alliance. This is the strongest and most effective democratic international organization in the world.

Where does America stand in this great movement? The history of Co-operation in the United States is a story of idealism, blasted by failures. From a practical point of view the pioneers were not rewarded by the success of their enterprises.

But idealism never perishes, and today we are reaping the benefits of which they despaired.

The spirit of individualism, the newness of the country, the mixture of races and nationalities, the presence of frontiers into which a fluid population could be kept moving, and the not hopeless possibilities of escape from poverty, all contributed to inhibit the growth of Co-operation in the United States. In later times the strenuous competition among private tradesmen, the allurements through business advertising, and the great power of monopolies and vested interests have been potent factors against co-operative development.

Co-operation among the descendants of the Puritan and Pilgrim settlers of this country may be said to have failed. New England is the burial ground of Co-operation. To this day the most backward people in this movement are those of the oldest American stock.

The new life came with aggregations of immigrant people from countries which had well established co-operative societies. The farmers of the western and northern states and the foreign industrial workers in all parts of the country during the past decade have been making more successful experiments in organization than had ever before been attained. But it has been especially since the year 1916 that the greatest impetus to the movement has been seen. This has been due partly to a greater stability of industry, partly to the conspicuousness of profiteering and the obvious evils of the competitive system, partly to the better education in the fundamentals of Co-operation which has been promoted, and partly to the culmination of impulses to get together and do the thing which sooner or later had to be done.

All over the country the movement has developed. It has been sporadic. No center can be designated as the seat of the renaissance of Co-operation. The agricultural people of the northern states have been among the first in this new era. The Co-operative League of America has knowledge of over 2,000 true consumers' co-operative societies conducting stores. In some locations the purchasing power of groups of societies has become so great that they have federated and organized wholesale societies.

The Tri-state Co-operative Society is a federation of about seventy societies, mostly in western Pennsylvania. These societies are constituted of many nationalities; Poles, Slovaks,

Lithuanians, Ukranians, Italians and Bohemians. One of the typical successful organizations is that of Bentleyville, Penn. Here in a little mining town, it has crowded out private business, and handles groceries, meats, dry goods, shoes, feed and automobile supplies to the amount of $200,000 a year.

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The Tri-state Co-operative Society maintains a wholesale with a warehouse at Monessen, Pa. It has recently acquired another warehouse at Pittsburgh. The demands of the cooperative societies within reach of its motor trucks are great that it does not attempt to give service beyond a radius of twenty or thirty miles. It carries a stock of staple commodities, which are quickly consumed and renewed. It is growing rapidly. A single labor union contributed $5000 to its capital.

The Central States Co-operative Society is a federation of about sixty-five distributive societies. Its headquarters are Springfield, Illinois. It maintains a wholesale with a warehouse at East St. Louis. These societies are largely built up among the union locals of the United Mine Workers in Illinois. This is a group of about eighty of these societies. Their financial success enables many of them to return to their members a savings-return of from 6 to 12 per cent. quarterly on the cost of their purchases. The society at Witt, Illinois, may be taken as a typical example of this group. It has over 300 members. Its last quarterly report shows that for the three months they paid a cash savings-return to their members of 8 per cent., totalling $2,213; they added to their merchandise reserve fund $1,051; their sales to members for the three months were $27,685, and to non-members $3,354; and their total resources are $28,847. Its building is the largest in the town. They state, "Private merchants no longer look upon us lightly; some of them are beginning to wonder how long they will last. Almost all of them have reduced their help." This society like that at Danville, has an energetic committee on education and social features, and brings together the men, women and children in its educational and recreational activities.

The Staunton, Illinois, society has nearly 400 members, declares a 10 per cent. savings-return, does a quarterly business of $36,376, and has resources amounting to $35,000.

Many of these societies own their own buildings. They sell groceries, meat, hardware, dry goods, and clothing. Some conduct their own coal-yard. The Roseland, Illinois, Society has

400 members, and is doing a business of $130,000 a year. The Gillespie, Illinois, Society does a business of $140,000 a year. Here is a society with a large element of Scottish co-operators, who learned Co-operation in the old country. Their festivals and picnics, with their band of kilted musicians, is a glory of the movement.

The $3,000,000 annual business which these Illinois societies do is in the hands of working men who have come up out of the mines and taken charge of financial affairs. I have no hesitation in saying that their business is conducted with a higher degree of efficiency, more economically, more honestly, and with a smaller chance of failure than is the average capitalistic business which is in the hands of that paragon of astuteness, "the American business man."

Illinois is but an index of what is going on in the neighboring states. Strong groups of societies exist in Indiana, Ohio and Iowa. The Palatine Co-operative Society of Chicago with 1200 members conducts a school with 400 Polish students. This society has a capital of $500,000.

The societies in the northern states are growing up in the farmers' organizations. Their wealth, numbers, and the size of their membership is greater than in any other section of the country. These societies are largely connected with co-operative producers' organizations. Hundreds of them not only conduct stores where groceries, clothing, dry goods, and hardware are sold, but they do an enormous business in supplying seeds, fertilizer, and harvesting machinery to their members. These same organizations buy the farmers' products and dispose of them on a co-operative basis. Some of them own grain elevators, others are organized to sell live stock, and not a few conduct a meat-packing business. It is among these societies that the Co-operative Wholesale Society of America, the American Rochdale Union, The American Co-operative Association, the American Rochdale League, the American Co-operative Organization Bureau, and a large number of organization societies operate. One of these is organizing co-operative distributive societies at the rate of one every two weeks. other of these societies started in 1914 with $7,000 capital paid in. In 1918 it had 75 branches with over $700,000 paid in. It has a wholesale and has entered the field of manufacture. There are several such organizations which manage groups of distributive societies, and do their bookkeeping, auditing,

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buying, and generally supervise their work. One is developing a mail order business. One in Wisconsin does a business of between $700,000 and $1,000,000 per month. The expense of carrying on this business is 31/3% of the amount of sales. They put up in one year fifteen car loads of canned goods with their own label.

Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas, and Montana are, perhaps, more thoroughly permeated with the spirit of co-operation than any other section of the country. An example of the method of operation is the Silverleaf, North Dakota, Society. A small group of farmers subscribed $200 each. They bought out two merchants in the nearest town. One building was remodeled and used as a store, warehouse and creamery; the other is used as a community center. The same group of farmers are members of a co-operative farm-produce selling association; the interests of the two are combined. This is going on all through the northern States. The Non-Partisan League has given special attention to co-operative organizations and is promoting the movement, organizing not only societies to run stores, but banks and community centers.

The North-west has a vigorous movement around Puget Sound. The powerful labor organizations of Seattle have become interested in Co-operation. Things are happening rapidly. The Seattle society bought a store doing a business of $4,200 a month. They started in June 1918 and increased the business to $7,000 a month. They then took over the city market, and during the first 30 weeks did a business of $500,000. Now their meat business alone amounts to $70,000 a month. Their net profit in the first seven months was $20,000. All this business is on strictly Rochdale principles. During the past few months, they have gone ahead and organized their slaughter house where they kill the animals supplied by their own agricultural members. Most of their fruit and vegetables are supplied by their own members. Their market is a concrete building with its own ice plant and cold storage.

Among these Seattle Co-operatives are found a laundry, printing plant, milk condensary, several shingle mills, fish cannery and recreation houses. Behind them is the support of the labor unions. A single union contributed $12,000 to their total $41,000 paid up capital. The Puget Sound Co-operative Wholesale, a federation of the societies about Seattle, was organized in 1918. In the Winter of 1919 it fed the families of the strik