Cooperative Progress

...The Irish formula, Better Farming, Better Business, Better Living, still holds good among Irish co-operators...

...The Cooperative Reference Library can keep up to date with what has been done, but we find we need as well—so rapid and constant is' the progress in cooperation—an organization to be in touch with and exchange advice between the numberless experiments which cooperation is making, the world over...

...The improvement of agriculture depends upon better business, and better business is cooperation...

...but it has rapidly recovered and today there are twice as many members as in pre-war times—and notwithstanding lack of capital and credit and the weakened purchasing power of the members, the turnover of the movement is now up to that of 1914...

...In many parts of the Irish Free State, the societies are in a vigorous condition...

...It was undoubtedly hard hit by the crisis and suffered greatly during the period of inflation and unprecedented rise in prices...

...In Czecho-Slovakia and Bulgaria, the progress has been equally extensive and though I have not the space to describe their developments in detail, I can assure my readers that the growth will well repay study...

...The movement began, as in most countries, with the foundation of people's banks...

...His article in this issue of The Commonweal wilt shortly be followed by one by Padraic Colum on the hydro-electric project on the River Shannon in Ireland.—The Edttors...

...The government itself organized productive and farming societies and others, which in some countries are looked upon as having socialistic tendencies...

...With its assistance I have made the following outline...

...Future historians of the movement will record that the Irish Agricultural Organization Society led the way, as far as these islands are concerned, in the cooperative organization of agriculture, and that the educational value of work done by that society for Ireland and for other countries cannot be too highly appreciated by all cooperators...

...A "central" for the people's banks was established in 1903 as a government department and was given control of all the societies existing in the country...

...The Horace Plunkett Foundation, whose trustees have given it my name, opened in 1924, at the request of a conference of the English-speaking agricultural cooperative movements, a clearing-house for all of them...

...Though I know something of perhaps not the least important half of the movement, though thirty-five years ago I first joined in making a survey of all that has been done in agricultural cooperation, and then devised a method and a formula which, in its turn, has been found applicable wherever agricultural conditions were similar to those of my own country, not least in the United States itself, I could not have compiled the following record, had I not had at my disposal a unique department for obtaining information...

...There is also a central for urban cooperative societies, both distributive and productive, which has been created in post-war times...

...As most of the cooperative societies in the northern area were founded by the I. A. O. S., the parent body takes a very keen interest in the work of the new association, and the relations between the two are of the most friendly nature...

...In Switzerland, cooperative societies in all branches are flourishing, every side of the movement—consumers', agricultural, and credit—having its powerful unions and federations...

...The same useful activities may also be claimed as regards the agricultural cooperative societies, which are still more numerous than the consumers' societies in a great many countries...

...In the last report of the Irish Agricultural Organization Society, however, we see that figures were furnished from 270 creameries, 150 agricultural societies, 3 poultry societies, 14 flax societies, 10 miscellaneous societies, 2 federations, and 39 agricultural banks, i.e., 488 societies in all, and the aggregate business of these 488 societies was £6,559,657, or roughly, $30,500,000...

...But the chief feature in recent agricultural cooperation is the rise of cooperative credit societies in countries agriculturally undeveloped, and the amazingly rapid increase of cooperative sale societies for agricultural production...

...Its working capital is rapidly being reconstituted, which is due to the confidence of the members whose former savings were revalued when the monetary system was stabilized, at a much more favorable rate than that given by the ordinary banks...

...There are also many societies functioning which have not sent in returns, and the aggregate business of 608 working societies (which number includes 120 whose turnover is estimated) has been calculated at £7,725,072, or roughly, $35,500,000...

...Nevertheless, it must be allowed that the centrals have done good propaganda work and that in a country with such a backward peasantry, some outside aid and control was necessary to foster the movement...

...they do all kinds of cooperative business, but their chief activities lay at first in selling the grain crops of the members...

...new cooperative credit societies are being formed in various districts, under the auspices of the state, for the immediate assistance of small farmers who have been rather badly hit by sheep disease and other agricultural disasters, and on the whole, the outlook of agricultural cooperation is distinctly promising...

...There are also cooperative farming societies, where a large piece of land is hired and divided into plots...

...In the six counties of Northern Ireland, the Ulster Agricultural Organization Society is doing excellent work, in spite of the fact that the Northern government has withdrawn its direct assistance from the organization...

...Cooperative production, agricultural and industrial, has reached a very high level, and according to statistics, the cooperative societies with their respective federations are steadily increasing in membership and turnover...

...The Irish movement learned from other national experiments in agricultural cooperation, and has, in its turn, taught others...

...In fact, we are bound to admit that as an economic force cooperation has survived the war with greater success than most other forms of enterprise...

...In Roumania, cooperation is state controlled and fostered more than in any other European country...

...A permanent joint committee has been set up and has been operating for ten years, whereby many strikes have been avoided, as no strike can take place until the matter has been laid before the members of this joint committee and has been dealt with by them...

...The movement spread very rapidly and many other types of society were established, e.g., for the purchase of seeds, manures, selling goods in common, dairy societies, fishing societies, and societies for the exploitation of forests, which last are organized upon a plan peculiar to Roumania...

...nor can one overlook the work of the cooperative movement in Russia which succeeded, notwithstanding difficulties and mistakes, in linking up with the peasant population and becoming one of the most important of the factors which prevented the complete collapse of the Russian economic system...

...This fact, the constant necessity for the exchange of experience, led us to found the Cooperative Reference Library...

...And now, when the northerly situation of the country is considered, and its scanty population, it must be admitted that the results achieved have been remarkable and altogether worthy of admiration...

...With these two institutions, the library and the clearing-house, now housed together in the offices of the foundation in London, the movement cannot only be revived, but, we hope, also become conscious of its own direction...

...before the war there was practically no urban cooperation in Roumania, now there are many consumers' societies, all founded since 1918...

...Belgium, Holland, Italy, and Finland have long since embraced the cooperative creed...

...It was with the object of raising the condition of the people that the pioneers of the movement adopted the weapon of cooperation, on the initiative of Gebhard...

...In the year 1923, cooperative organizations were responsible for 90 percent of Danish agricultural undertakings, and 81 percent of pigs slaughtered in the country were slaughtered in cooperative establishments...

...Widely differing in form, they are able to adapt themselves to all kinds of rural necessities...

...while in France, although the most conspicuous success has been in the consumers' side of the movement, a large proportion of the necessary agricultural reconstruction of devastated areas was undertaken and successfully carried through by agricultural cooperative associations...

...Each has had its individual problems and difficulties to overcome and each one can point to some signal success in one or another direction...

...The pioneer work of the I. A. O. S. has not been fruitless...

...Since then the societies have continued their useful influence in this respect...

...for some decades before that the Finnish people had suffered great oppression at the hands of the Russian autocracy, and both intellectually and materially they were a very impoverished nation...

...Cooperation has been a very active factor since the revolution in world economic conditions...

...In all kinds of ways and on all occasions, by education and organization only, owing nothing to public authorities, rather lending them assistance, the German cooperative movement operated in the interests of the welfare of the general public...

...We can confidently assert that the present prosperity of Finland, from the agricultural, economic and commercial point of view, is due to the work and effect of the cooperative movement...

...In Norway, it is interesting to note that the cooperative societies have an agreement with the trade-unions to prevent strikes in their works...

...In the early days, we sent inquiries to various countries where kindred methods were being tried...

...November 17, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 39 COOPERATIVE PROGRESS By HORACE PLUNKETT (Sir Horace Plunkett has been one of the leaders in agricultural cooperation stnce i88g, particularly in Ireland, and is also the author of The Rural Life Problem of the United States...

...There agriculture is almost entirely regulated by cooperative organization, and there its economic prosperity depends wholly upon the export of agricultural produce...

...While I have said that cooperation in Ireland has fallen somewhat behind its former strength, it must not be inferred that the movement is moribund...

...In Sweden and Norway, reports show that both sides of the cooperative movement are in a satisfactory condition...

...But perhaps Germany is the best example of the wonderful work effected and the services rendered by the consumers' cooperative movement...

...They have played a very important part in the work of economic reconstruc40 THE COMMONWEAL November 17, 1926 tion throughout the world...

...each member farms his plot, and the crop is taken to a central place for threshing, etc...

...The I. A. O. S. and the Department of Agriculture are just now in the process of reorganization, and it is an encouraging fact that the Free State government has admitted that in the interests of the state, the organization of farmers is imperative and that it must be upon the cooperative principle and the cooperative plan...

...Readers, therefore, who are interested in the following review will realize that it gives only an account of what has been, and that to understand the direction and the future of so rapid a development, it is necessary to keep in touch with such a centre as I have described...

...During the war, in practically all the belligerent and many of the neutral countries of Europe, public authorities turned to the cooperative societies as being the best and even the only means of distribution, and of keeping down prices...

...Finland has only been a sovereign republic since 1917...

...It must be remembered that in recent years Ireland has been through three wars: the world war, the Anglo-Irish strife, and the unhappy civil war which devastated the country...

...National characteristics are not repressed, but-given their rightful opportunity to benefit civilization, in illustration of which I may note in passing that Bulgaria, a Slav country, has a natural leaning toward cooperative association and shows it in its organizations...

...However greatly the leaders desire more freedom of action for their movement, they recognize that the time is not yet ripe for removing the state props from the structure...

...In that year, too, Denmark exported 38 percent of the net export butter trade of the world, and 25 percent of the world net export of pigs came from the same country...

...In Roumania, the cooperative movement does not seem to have been hindered, but rather to have been stimulated by state control...

...The Minister of Agriculture has agricultural cooperation very much at heart, and when the present system of reorganization is complete for the working together of the department and the I. A. O. S., I am confident that the agricultural cooperative movement will acquire a fresh impetus and renewed vigor...

...November 17, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 41 After the war, the state policy toward cooperative societies was somewhat altered and the central was divided into sections, giving at the same time a measure of control to the societies themselves...

...The influence of the cooperative societies has been most noticeable in the countries most seriously affected by the economic crisis...

...We do not believe it to be "vain repetition" to stress once more that without better farming and better business there can be no better living...

...in Austria, the number of members of cooperative societies has been trebled since the days of the Austrian empire, as is also the case in Hungary and probably other European countries...

...With regard to dairy produce, Denmark is the bright particular example...

...I WONDER how many persons sympathetically interested in the cooperative movement in Europe, realize fully its immense ramifications and growth...

...This is amply proved by the place already occupied by these cooperative associations in the world market for certain kinds of agricultural produce for common use, e.g., dairy products, wheat, and even meat...

...Later we found that we required a centre where all the literature of this new and ever-changing subject might be constantly available to every student...

...The movement today features more than fifty countries, and there are more than fifty thousand organizations, comprising upwards of forty million members...

...Hannes Gebhard and the Pellervo Society of which he is the founder and which celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary in 1924...

...An elaborate system of cooperative organization has been built up, with central bodies of varied kinds, credit, consumers' wholesales, agricultural wholesales, butter export, livestock, egg export, forestry, etc...

...It is, of course, probable that Roumanian cooperation has not the voluntary and spontaneous spirit which is characteristic of true cooperation...

...For instance, during 1925 the work of the cooperative societies as price-controlling agencies was frankly recognized in Belgium, France, Great Britain, Austria, and Hungary...

...Cooperative organizations have been most efficient factors in economic and national reconstruction in Finland, in the Baltic states, Czecho-Slovakia, and in Poland...

...Finland has the cooperative vision very highly developed, thanks to the wonderful work of Dr...

...In the Far East, in China, and the Philippine Islands, these newly-founded credit societies will repeat what has taken place during the last fifty years in Austria, Czechoslovakia and Germany, and still more recently in most European countries, and they will become the foundation of rural economy and development...

...It is now generally recognized that these agricultural cooperative trading societies (marketing societies) are most effective in increasing and improving the quality of agricultural produce...