Page:The Masses, Volume 1, Number 1.pdf/9

 "As to whether stores or collective buying associations will be the form which the co-operative movement will assume in this country in the future, only experience can tell. For the present, it would seem that the buying association is often best fitted for the smaller cities and for relatively small groups of consumers, while the store is best adapted for larger centers and groups. Every buying association should, however, look forward to a growth of its numbers and buying power that will enable it to start a store."

"Is it your intention to establish small grocery stores in the industrial districts throughout the Eastern States?"

"Not grocery stores exclusively, for we aim at utilizing the purchasing power of the workers for their own benefit in many other commodities."

"Is is not true that the grocer is underpaid, and that he has to work long hours in order to make his store profitable?"

"Often, that is true, but the purpose of the co-operative movement is not merely the elimination of the grocer, but the centralization and the systematization of the purchasing power of the working class. In order to be of economic benefit to the working class, the co-operative movement must develop to a point where, through centralized buying, it will eliminate the middleman and commission merchant, as well as the small storekeeper."

"Does not an enterprise of that sort require a large capital?"

"We fully realize that, but we expect to secure all the capital we need."

"From the working class?"

"Why not? The workers in Europe are not as well paid as the American workingmen; yet they have raised sufficient capital to maintain some of the largest establishments in the world. A large percentage of present business enterprise is conducted with money loaned at from six to 7 per cent. from the banks. These banks usually get the largest bulk of their investments from the savings of the working class, to whom they pay from three to four per cent. As soon as the workingman begins to realize that it is safer to invest his money in his own enterprise, than to allow the capitalist to exploit him, there will be a different story to tell.

"A Wholesale Co-operative's capital is supposed to come from the sale of shares to the retail stores. Each store in our system is obliged to purchase one share at $25 for every fifty members. But the organization of the American Wholesale Co-operative preceded a general organization of retail stores, and so the capital had to be raised in other ways. At present, with but about 18 stores in operation, the capital from this source would be inadequate. Our capital has come largely from the sale of shares to individual members—people who are interested in the progress of the co-operative movement and determined to help it to the limit of their ability. FuthermoreFurthermore [sic], we have recently declared a $20,000 bond issue. These bonds pay 5 per cent. interest. They are secured by mortgages on our property, and are redeemable within five years. The sale of these bonds, which is now proceeding, will give us an ample working capital."

"Then the outlook is altogether favorable?"

"There is no other way to speak of it. Of course, hard work is necessary to build up the movement; and it is sometimes difficult to overcome pessimism so frequently found, regarding the success of an American co-operative enterprise. But all the while this pessimism is gradually declining, and new adherents are coming to us. The future looks more hopeful."    

OLYA took the hottest and most active interest in all the preparations for Easter. When Dasha, the maid, with up-drawn skirts and tucked-up sleeves entered the parlor and began to wash the window panes and to sweep the dust and cobwebs from ceiling and corners, it was not long before Kolya put in an appearance and began to meddle in the work.

"Dasha, Dasha," he shouted in his ringing voice. "You left a cobweb!"

"Where?"

"There! Look! There it is hanging, you blind chicken!"

"Say, mister, you'd better go away. Don't bother me."

"I'll tell mama, then."

"Well, where is it? Where did I leave it?"

"There, in the corner. Don't you see the spider? Take it off."

Dasha in exasperation thrust the broom into the corner that Kolya pointed out to her, and walked away.

"Stay here, stay here! The spider fell down," Kolya shouted joyously, noticing a little grey spider, which he wanted Dasha to put in his pill box.

"Oh, what a bother!" the maid cried angrily. "The things you get into your head! What do you want such trash for?"

"Dasha, how dare you? You are trash yourself. Put him in here."

Having gotten the spider, Kolya ran into the dining room pressing the box firmly in his little hand. In the dining room at the table covered with an oil-cloth sat his twelve-year-old sister, Natasha, and the old nurse, Mikheyevna, who had nursed them both and was now living in their house for the sake of auld lang syne. Natasha and Mikheyevna were completely absorbed in painting eggs.

"Natasha, Mikheyevna!"

"Well?"

"Do you want me to show you something?"

"What, Kolya, dear? What will you show us?"

"Here it is in my box," Kolya announced enigmatically, shaking his box.

"Show it to us, show it to us."

"Well, come here. Natasha, it's a trick."

Kolya put the box under Natasha's very nose, and opened the lid. Natasha was frightened, Mikheyevna also, and Kolya was in ecstasy.

"Oh you cowards! "I'mI'm [sic] not a bit afraid, not a weeny bit. Give me a little stick. Mikheyevna, give me a stick, I tell you."

"I have no time, Kolya, dear I must paint the eggs."

"You have time enough. I'll show you a trick. There, give me one of those matches."

Kolya took a match, made the spider crawl on it, and extending his hand began in a recitative:

"Spider, spider, make a web Spider, spider, make a web."

The spider let himself down from the match on a thin thread, and Kolya began to wind the thread around the match, and shouted with all his might:

"Look, look how he's hanging in the air!"

Natasha was seized with curiosity, and forgot her egg. Mikheyevna also bent over the children. Then their mother came in.

"What are you doing?"

"Mama, mama, look!"

"Spider, spider, make a web. Spider, spider, make a web."

"Ugh! Throw it away! Kill it!"

"I won't! It's a sin!" exclaimed Kolya, and quickly hid the spider in the pill box.

"So far from it's being wrong to kill a spider, Kolya, dear," said Mikheyevna, "you will be forgiven forty sins for doing it!"

The mother walked into the kitchen, the scene of the greatest bustle, and Kolya entered into a discussion with Mikheyevna.

"If you kill a spider, God forgives you forty sins?"

"Yes, my boy, he does."

"Nonsense!"

"As you please, Kolya, dear. But that's what they say. Forty sins are forgiven for killing a spider."

"And how many if you kill two?"

"Why, forty and forty again. How much is that? Count."

"Eighty," Natasha said seriously, putting a lock of hair behind her ear.

Kolya sank into reflection. He tapped his fingers on the box, and put it into his pocket.

"That's nonsense," he said incredulously. "Why did you fast that time, Mikheyevna? Tell me, why?"

"Why, child, I had to."

"You should have gotten a whole lot of spiders, and trodden on them. Then God would have forgiven you all your sins. Forty and forty and forty more. How many sins have you?"

"Oh, oh, you'd never get through counting them, my child.

"You can find a lot of spiders. You should have looked for them in the kitchen and the nursery, then you could have gone to another house."

Turning on his heels Kolya skipped off to the kitchen. He stopped in the hall and removed the pill box from his pocket. Then he looked at the spider, and again closed the lid. Kolya was wavering. It was a question of the life or death of the spider. Kolya felt sorry to kill it, but perhaps it was true that if you kill a spider, God forgives forty sins. Kolya wanted very much to fast during the last week of lent, like Natasha and Mikheyevna, but his mother would not let him. The day before, when Natasha had come from church, all had called her  