The question arises as to whether help is to be expected from
co-operative distribution, which has had such an extraordinary history
in England and been highly developed in a number of the other European
countries. There is always the temptation to recall the winter evening
in December, 1844, when twenty-eight weavers, of whom two were women,
opened in Toad Lane, Rochdale, Lancashire, a little shop, and began to
sell themselves the necessities of life. Their remarkable services in
England have not been confined to their business undertakings, but
have always included important educational activities.
In America there have for many years been a few co-operative stores,
some succeeding, some failing, most of them working out their plans
independently without connection with other similar stores from whose
experience they might profit. Within the last few years, however, the
number of such stores has greatly increased and the need for closer
union has been felt. This has resulted in the formation of the
Co-operative League of America. Education in co-operative buying is
its main purpose. At what appears to be the beginning of an important
period in the extension of the movement in this country it is worth
while to consider how far the existing co-operative stores in this
country are helping the foreign-born women.
Anything that assists her to lower the cost of living is beneficial.
Although sound practice dictates that consumer's co-operatives sell
their goods at prices current in their neighborhood, the profits to
the members appear in the return of a per cent of all purchases. In
proportion as the local stores are able to supply the housewife with
all her goods, the saving on the purchase of her daily needs will be
more appreciable. Her interest in the enterprise will make her demand
both greater variety and better quality of goods.
Moreover, there may be other than material gains to the foreign-born
woman from her contact with a co-operative. If it is one formed by her
countrymen, where her mother tongue is spoken, it may be her first and
for a long time her only contact with anything outside her home.
Natural timidity will readily be overcome if she can go around the
corner to a store kept by people who speak her language and understand
her wants. As confidence is established she may venture to other
neighborhoods or centers of distribution where more advantages can be
gained. But unless she gains the confidence which few immigrant women
have at first, she is an alien and isolated unit in a vast, strange
country. Eventually she may become a member of a co-operative store.
If she does this, perhaps the most benefit to the foreign-born woman
results. Her incorporation into this country may well be said to have
been started when she has become an active member of an institution
which is a part of American life. The benefits are those which result
to any individual from participation in a going concern. Sharing
responsibilities and evolving policies for a joint enterprise have
educational implications that no other activity can supply.
The question, then, may be raised as to the extent to which a
development of the co-operative methods in the United States may be
looked to as likely to become an important educational agency in
intelligent spending for the foreign housewife, enabling her to
develop in her task something of a technique. As to the possibility of
developing co-operative societies because the ordinary trade is
wasteful, it should be recalled that the retail trade in the United
States, while wasteful, is probably not less, but rather more
efficient than in other countries. Moreover, in the United States
there are often lacking those conditions that give rise to a sense of
a permanent division of interest between those who sell and those who
buy. In fact, when the foreign-language store exists, there may be a
tie between shopkeeper and purchaser.
In communities in which there is an apparent division of interest
between the foreign born and the native, or between two foreign
groups, the national bond may grow into a social bond that for a time
at least would serve as the basis for the collective action by one
group against the other group. If the dealers then belong to the
outside group, or if the dealers of the foreign-born group seem to
betray their fellow countrymen, there may develop a movement strong
enough to carry over into organization.
Among some groups, such as the Finns, the language constitutes a
permanent barrier for the adult members of the group, and with a
skillful and intelligent leadership the co-operative undertakings may
be expected to prosper for a very considerable period of time. The
immigrants have probably twice as many successful co-operative stores
as the native born.
In a community like a mining town, that is almost or altogether an
industrial community, with no leisure class, the pecuniary resources
of all are fairly well known to all, and the temptation to spend
conspicuously is therefore lacking. It will be recalled that these are
the communities in which the employers have specially abused their
power by forcing the employees to buy at company stores. In such
communities there are always considerable numbers of competent,
efficient, intelligent persons. Under a specially able leadership, a
special hardship through high prices, or a condition of special
exploitation, the co-operative store may be expected to develop. Then,
too, a sense of identity of interest may find its basis in trade-union
membership or in membership in a special trade, as was the case with
the miners in a store at Staunton, Illinois, where the union managed
the store for years at a profit.
With the exception of these few bonds, however, there are lacking in
most communities several elements present in the foreign experience
that have undoubtedly contributed materially to the success of
co-operative enterprises. There is, in the first place, the lack of
stability caused by the rapid movement from group to group. The older
people do not speak English; the children learn English and often do
not want to speak the language of their parents. They want to be
American and to buy as Americans buy. They therefore resent any
organization that tends to emphasize their foreign origin.
Also no sense of class consciousness among customers arouses
antagonism against retailers. In the cities, particularly where there
are large foreign colonies, the retail trade in those colonies,
especially the trade in foodstuffs, is largely in the hands of fellow
countrymen whose background is much the same as that of their
customers. Most of the stores are small, and the proprietors, who are
not skilled in modern business methods, do not make much more than a
living from their stores, so that there is no great contrast in
prosperity to arouse a feeling of antagonism.
On the contrary, the proprietor and his family usually live in the
district--often over the store--in much the same condition as the rest
of the group. They are friends of all, and by their knowledge of the
group can meet certain needs and appear to serve as a connecting link
between the separate group and the general community. How far the
desire of the more ambitious group members to open up a shop of their
own acts as a deterrent to interest in co-operation would be
difficult to estimate, but it seems probable that this has some
weight.
On the other hand, attention may be called to the fact that the retail
trade, and especially the marketing of food, has been so slightly
reduced to an art, it is still so empirically and wastefully carried
on, that there are many possibilities of reasonable success of
co-operatives. For a time, at least, this will be true if the
undertaking is on a modest scale and does not seem worthy of attack by
a relatively powerful group.
Among the obvious wastes are those connected with the transportation
(cross freights), the display and salesmanship, the marketing of
novelties, and the use of the indefinite measures. Besides these there
are the bad debts resulting from careless credit transactions, the
waste involved in deliveries of packages, the waste of the repeated
purchase of articles known to be regularly needed. Wherever any group
can be led to consider the wastes involved in these methods of doing
business, their good sense will make them perceive easily the folly of
persisting in those ways, and the practice of this minimum of
self-restraint will serve as a basis for a considerable balance, out
of which dividends may accumulate.
The use of the co-operative idea has, therefore, great possibilities
as the basis for discussing the wastes of the present system and for
deliberation as to the best or as to any possible way out. In other
words, experimenting in democratic organization in obtaining the
necessities of life is an important next step. As in the matter of
copartnership in relation to housing, co-operative distribution may
serve as a point of departure, an object lesson worthy of closer study
and experimental imitation. Especially would the experience of the
Women's Co-operative Guild be helpful in bringing the idea to the
attention of the influential women among the various groups.
The importance of doing this cannot be overestimated. For, as has been
so often suggested, the wastes of retail dealing, while probably not
so great here as in some other countries, are so enormous that great
economies are possible from even a slight rationalizing process.[43]
The development of a general consciousness of the nature and extent of
these wastes would in itself serve as a corrective. Moreover, the
experience of the co-operative enterprise may often be carried over
into legislative policy, and in this way give to the community the
benefit of the experiment tried by a group. Co-operators in England
have both initiated and backed such social legislation as the Trade
Boards Act, the provision for general maternity care under the
Ministry of Health, and other measures.