Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Co-operation

CO-OPERATION, when signifying social organization, and in its widest application, is the voluntary association of a number of persons for the attainment of certain economic advantages, as in the combination of farmers for the sale of their produce in such large volume as to eliminate parasitic middlemen. Specifically, however, the word signifies co-operation of the consumers, for the purpose of production and distribution of commodities for use, with the element of private profit eliminated.

The modern co-operative movement had its beginning in the now famous Rochdale co-operative society, founded by twenty-eight flannel weavers, in 1844, for the purpose of operating a foodstuff store on this principle. In the constitution of their society they first en n unciated those fundamental principles which are to-day the basis of the modern movement; one man, one vote; membership open to all comers; invested capital to receive no other reward than the current rate of interest; and the profits of the enterprise to be retained as collective capital, or returned to the purchasing members, to each in proportion to the volume of his trade with the society's store.

Beginning as small distributive enterprises, Rochdale co-operation attracted very little attention for over a generation. It was not till the numerous local food supply societies federated (1861 in England) and formed what was called a wholesale society, that the economic power of the movement began to attract public attention and aroused the alarm of the merchant class. Through these

central, or national, purchasing agencies, the local societies were enabled to pool their purchases and to trade in such a volume as to make their influence felt on the general market. This influence was further enhanced when the federations, with their organized market behind them, began to manufacture to supply the needs of their own constituents. This entry into the field of production marked their economic independence of private industry, especially when large tracts of land were acquired for the production of raw material needed in manufacture. As an instance, the English Co-operative Wholesale Society now owns and operates 30,000 acres of farm land in England, on which it raises fruit for its jam factories, vegetables for canning, dairy products for distribution among the store societies; and an equal acreage in Ceylon and India for the production of tea; vast areas of land in Africa for cocoanut and palm oil; and 10,000 acres of land in Canada for the production of wheat for its flour mills, the largest in England. All these vast enterprises, including factories which are the largest of their kind in the world, are owned collectively and controlled democratically by the members of the local societies, the directors and managers being the paid servants of the collectivity. Thus use, or service, is the stimulus, rather than private commercial profit.

It has been only within the past few years, since the beginning of the World War, that the Consumers' Co-operative Movement has been recognized as a significant social movement, presenting itself as a distinct and practical alternative to Socialism, Syndicalism, or any of the other purely theoretical collectivist movements. This development of its social significance was entirely due to its abnormal growth during the war period, a result of its efficiency as a source of food supply during the dislocation of private trade and production. With a general world-wide membership of about 8,000,000, in 1914, the membership in 1920 stood at 24,000,000, each unit representing a family, rather than one individual. It was in Russia that this growth attained most abnormal dimensions, the membership attaining 15,000,000 throughout the country in 1920. In other countries, however, the development has also been remarkable. In France membership rose from 800,000 to over 1,500,000; in Great Britain it rose from a little over 3,000,000 in 1914 to over 4,000,000 in 1920. In Switzerland, Denmark, and Finland a majority of the population already is involved.

In the United States, before the war, the development of consumers' co-operation had been least marked, though it had a history of effort stretching back through fifty years. In 1916 the Co-operative League of America, the educational federation of the movement in this country, had a record of only 600 co-operative societies in the United States. To-day, in 1920, its card index directory indicates 4,000 such societies, most of them in the Middle West. In Illinois these societies have already federated into a wholesale society, doing a monthly business of $300,000. Another wholesale society has also appeared in Boston, supplying local societies in New England, doing a slightly smaller volume of trade. A third federation is located in Superior, Wis., supplying a large number of Finnish societies in that region, while the Pacific Co-operative League operates a central purchasing agency in San Francisco.

Being of spontaneous growth, consumers' co-operation is not based on any social theory of organization, as is the case with the other collectivist movements. But the movement itself, by its own practical development, has now suggested certain laws of social evolution which indicate a system of social organization peculiar to itself.

Thus considered, it may be said that co-operation is distinctly a social movement, in contrast to a class movement; that it is representative of the people as consumers, rather than as workers. Thus, it holds that consumption is the motive behind all industry, and on this element in society only may a true industrial democracy rest. In method it is evolutionary, as contrasted to the revolutionary method of Marxian socialism or the industrial action of syndicalism, or militant industrial unionism. While co-operation does not hesitate to employ political action to protect itself against discrimination, as has been the case in Great Britain, it is essentially an economic, non-political movement, in that it has no tendency to establish its practices by legislation. Consult: Leonard Woolf, "Co-operation and the Future of Industry" (London, 1918); Emerson P. Harris, "Co-operation, the Hope of the Consumer" (New York, 1918) ; Albert Sonnichsen, "Consumers' Co-operation" (New York, 1919).