Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 17.djvu/763

Rh limited wants of a community, shopkeepers begin business in cities and towns where overtrading already prevails, and the consequence is loss to the investors and demoralization all round. Excessive competition has led to a system of giving credit, which supports dishonest debtors at industry's cost, and keeps multitudes of book-keepers, collectors, and lawyers employed at the charge of productive labor. Furthermore, under existing methods, the losses to society from adulteration continue and increase from year to year. The delusive appearance of cheapness is often bought at a ruinous price. Owen used to declare that an adulteration of pure long-fiber cotton with but one seventh of coarse short staple lessened the wearing value of the fabric one half, and, in the paint-trade, sulphate of baryta is largely mixed with white lead, yet the sulphate has no covering power whatever as a pigment, and absorbs much valuable oil. The standard of an article, such as coffee, sugar, or paint, once lowered by fraudulent admixture, can scarcely ever be raised again, as the common run of people are poor judges of what they buy, and hesitate to pay the price of a pure and sound article, instead of the current price for really inferior wares which look as well.

All this struck some needy flannel-weavers of Rochdale nearly forty years ago, and, by weekly subscriptions of twopence each, under the name of the "Equitable Pioneers," they began a small store for the sale of provisions and groceries; they did not attempt, at first, to sell dry goods or other merchandise subject to the caprices of fashion, or the equal caprices of a variety of customers, whose tastes might not be well judged by the managing committee. These Rochdale weavers plainly saw that all that keeps the big shops in a town from completely eating up the petty ones is the uncertain and fluctuating character of their custom; so they agreed among themselves to stick to their store for what it could sell them, which they could safely do, as they managed it honestly and well. Once, too, when their flour-mill went badly for a time, they kept on using the ill-made flour until they had all put right, showing their confidence in ultimate success by cheerfully bearing temporary loss. From two penny beginnings, the Rochdale store has grown until, at the end of 1878, it numbered 10,187 members, having transacted during the year a business of $1,450,000, with a profit of $257,000, the expenses being reduced by good management to two per cent. Although the "Equitable Pioneers" were by no means the first society formed in England for coöperative distribution, yet, as one of the earliest among existing societies, its preeminent success has made it the model for imitation wherever a new society is being established, or it is necessary to rectify the imperfect working of a society already in business. The "History of the Society of Equitable Pioneers to 1857," written by George Jacob Holyoake, attracted so much interest that a second era of their history to 1878 has been given to the world by the same author, who has also written