4. American Co-Ops' Expanding Frontiers

...Th* overall organisation is Amalgamated Housing Corporation, but various incidental features and service* are conducted by as autonomous consumer*' co-op composed ef the residents...

...by Jeho Daniel., atrther of "Cooperation: An American Way," and editor Of The fopeimr Kemeeter...

...Th* laet preceding article...

...Rapid current increase result* largely from ingenious ways of enrolling farmers and labor unionists in groups, with psinless collection of their payments...

...ve middle ground method*, it will be over whelmed by gereraaaeat centre...

...Group Health Cooperative of New York City is outstanding for realistic adaptation to conditions and problems, and for the prospect that it will soon expand into or be consolidated with a community-wide metropolitan program of complete medical service...

...Participation of all qualified phyticiana will be Invited on the batit of an open panel with pooling and equitable apportionment of fees...

...Membership hat grown from 4,000 in 1939 to about 20,000 now...

...Pioneer consumers' enterprise is Farmers Union Cooperative Hospital Association of Elk City, Old*, noma...

...And there are consumer-producer combinations...

...Their example stirred interest in other quarters...

...Pr*«»nt enrollment is about 10,000...

...An important aspect of this growing interest it that campus co-ops could become a medium for bringing up college men and women to be cooperative leaders in the community at large...

...a As yet the profession's majority attitude toward co-ops hoe not yielded more then grading toleration ef these—by necessity...

...American groups lacking immigrant, labor union or other cohesivextess have not yet done comparably well in cooperative housing, at respect* measure or durability...

...Meat ef the eccnpasrta are ¦ember, of the taker ntdon named above and of the International Ladies' Gartaeat Workers...

...There are producers' health co-ops, organised and controlled by doctors who jointly serve consumers...

...Urban Trial, Error...

...They arc cooperatives in spirit, but are so variously and often loosely formed and conducted that many of them should hardly be counted as such by definition...

...In another part of town it a companion development, separately incorporated but under the tame management, called Amalgamated Dwellings...

...It now an vide* span aaents for aeg families, is fully occupied and has a wag waiting list...

...As other related activities could be added, CCS ssey in due course become aa inclusive aa enterprise nt its nam* implies...

...The whole comprehensive undertaking hat been a notable success financially...

...Associated Hospital Service, Medical Expanse Fund, and "the splendid plan of the Group Health Cooperative, so ably administered by Winslow Carlton...

...K These orthodox elements denounce consumer coops far taking control of medical service away free* <*tt*Cs and endangering its standard...

...Moreover, the general trend in that direction is now so pronounced that it ia doubtful whether the few going co-op* con do much to stop ej atom it...

...There are only half-a-doten of notable sit* and success...

...counter with una* earns-* ftgnres ahem hag how far short this aVxaUea falls from misting people's needs and porkitboota - They warn that asthms *cthi*Oxy accept* cooper at...

...Practical and strategic value of nils recognised by having not only an o11-i4m.mm board but alto equal representation of doctors and laymen on the board of directors...

...By virtue of successful issue from its own ordeal it haa contributed much to th* status of heslth co-ops generally...

...They can damn doctors' gieeoa far violating traditions of private practice and direct relat mn*h i p between patient and physician...

...Medical service it supplied from an "open panel" of some 3,000 participating physicians...

...But individual doctors and medical societies of independent viewpoint are corning out Increasingly for cooperative and other forte* of group health' organisation...

...But numbers failed to materialise snd readjustments ensued, with a scale of increased charges for limited or qualified service, and admission restrictions...

...There are health co-opt of consumers, who want medical service at moderate cost and jointly employ doctors...

...It accomodates 23$ famines and is like an oasis in a desert of slums...

...Progress...

...In th* Into H2T* .aether largely laamlgra.t and mainly Jewish green, sates baa a of th* Amalgamated Oethhsg Wethers *f New York CMy...

...tial anils of what with later addition* haa beceme by far the largest aamed and iadipiniiat eeeperativo achietevent in America, nad resmtedly th* largest fat the world...

...Traditional co-op groceries are broadening oat...

...Some accept government control as inevitable...

...This organisation hat approximately 5,000 members and closed its twentyfourth fiscal year last summer with volume above $760,000...

...M**ting at Antioch College In Ohio last April, the Midwest Federation of Campus Co-ops decided to explore the possibilities of setting up a regional financing organization and to enlist the aid of campus co-op alumni...

...o • • OaM PUS co-op* of college students sre concerned with housing, eating, self supply of goods, or these things in combination...

...Outside of New York not many self-reliant undertakings have yet com* through...

...Certainly this project is broadly cooperative in spirit and serviceability, and draws upon cooperative methods and experience...

...Hottest front it health cooperation, one of many variant endeavorcs to get medical service more widely and economically distributed, especially among people not needy enough for charity nor moneyed enough for free spending...

...He mad* specific mention of employer and labor union provisions for health insurance...

...Auspices and personnel favor practical success of this somewhat novel setup...

...Today this co-op provides medical, surgical and dental care, with clinical and hospital service, for 10,000 people at cost much lets than they would have to pay at private ratee...

...Also in 1029 ths first producers' co-op waa launched in Los Angeles by a group of physicians aa the Rosa-Loo* Clinic, which now serves 27,000 employed persona with complete medical, surgical and dental care, plus hotpitalltation, at similarly low cost...

...Referring to "various systems of limited tick insurance now in operation" in New York, which have done useful pioneer work, he expressed th* hope that all of them would want to join in th* complete coverage now proposed...

...I hope it will be possible to start this plan not later than the first of the year...

...built th* i...

...Of course transient group* of students could not be expected and would not be able to bear th* whole coat of erecting co-op dormitories, hut each such group could help to create a building fund...

...A number of large so-called •'cooperativeapartment houses in New York City were built by contractors and sold profitably to families who cooperate some what among themselves in current operation...

...There Is also a credit onion...

...Theee two are going strong and others will be added a* conditions warrant...

...Th* present article will deal Brat with certain expansions of store co-ops and then with other forma of cooperation, not necessarily hat still mainly of urban character and decidedly premising...

...This it the fearth sad final ef a aeriss of artlelee aa Aaterieaa cceaerativ...

...There is an informal national conference or committee of student cooperatives, and at cloaer range regional federations are shaping up...

...It* outworking will be followed with wid* interest, and may well hare Important coniequence* la th* futare course of medical service in the United Stat...

...The prospective metropolitan program is sponsored by Mayor P. H. La Guardia, who in April 1943 appointed a distinguished committee of doctors and layman to formulate its basic features, and in April of this year, in a Sunday broadcast, submitted it to the city's people for consideration...

...With respect to housing on a straight-out cooperative plea without puttie or private subsidy, Finnish immigrants in Brooklyn merit citation aa pioneers...

...Biggest and moat successful of the first kind is Conaumers' Cooperative Services of New York City, which operate* seven higb-grsd* cafeterias, the latest and largest of which opened for business on December 1 In a downtown business district...

...These arrangements suggest potentialities...

...Recently It made * move which ia attracting widespread interest, by opening two up-to-the-minute food stores in localities where substantial numbers of its members live or do their marketing...

...Theee consist of food store, milk supply, electric generator, laundry, preschool nursery, and children'i camp...

...dealt with cooperative store ittesnpta try urban folk aa heretofore B wreck-strewn record bat now at leaf...

...Other major additions are coal, wood, paint, hardware, radios, household •Metric appliances, end a little clothing...

...last making headway, though \t yet results ar* email aa compared with th* magnitude of farmer*' cooperatives...

...Initiated in 1929 by a broad-visioned doctor of that rural community...

...Bock in IMP th* writer wont through on* of th* compact and ocoaontlral apartment bootee they were then building...

...Ia th* spring of 1941 it became a member of the Cooperative League, thus assuming responsibility as aa integral pert of th* Aaaeriean movement One of its leading units is the student coopers tire association of the University of Washington, which pioneered with its central cooperative kitchen where food wat prepared and delivered in heat-holding containers to five co-op living boose* where it was served in the respective dining rooms, piping hot...

...Two which contribute notably otherwise ar* Group Health Mutual and Group Health Association of St...

...An up-to-date hospital was built and equipped...

...Those which are governntentally or philanthroplcally initiated, assisted and controlled, are good in their way, but that Is not the fully cooperative way...

...Instead of fending for themselves as independent unit* they will be directed and supervised from the com mo* canter...

...Thit co-op grew out of a rather nebulous health association formed in 1988, was itself incorporated in 1940, and for a tints offered full medical service for $18 a year per person, with sanguine expectation* that a multitude of members would make that small charge actuarially safe...

...Only employed groups are accepted, with employera sharing th* membership payment...

...In numbers it rank* first Hero of • long, high-lighted legal fight against orthodox attempt* to cripple or destroy it, Group Health Association of Washington, D. C, formed in 1937, it confined to government employees, of whom 10,000 sre now enrolled...

...Betides store* and a scattering of miscellaneous seedlings, the other kind* of cooperatives which stand oat am thoa* concerned with three primary human needs, namely nutrition, housing and health...

...But they can blaxe trails, exert constructive influence, and keep on th* alert for new opportunities...

...There is crying need for leaders with broad educational equipment, grounding in economics, snd vision not too intent on consumers' cooperation alone...

...More and more stores are taking on fresh vegetables, fruit, aseat sod minor Incidentals...

...Paul, the latter functioning as consumers' cooperative matrix, and the latter aa agent between members snd a growing" number of doctors' private group clinics in Minnesota and Wisconsin This distinctive plan ssvet the joint co-ops from setting up their own group prsctice structure and enlist* the independent clinics' goodwill...

...We want your ideas, criticisms, and suggestions for the improvement of our plan," he concluded, "but we do not want delay 1...

...Now, however, other strong labor unions are becoming actively interested end National Cooperatives, business alter (go of th* Cooperative League, it definitely planning countrywide promotion of cooperative housing when the war ends...

...The largest of these is the Pacific Coast League of Student Cooperatives, which was organised about six years ago for constructive pooling of eiperience and plans among four thousand students of co-opt on a do ten campuses ia California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana...

...A growing number are adding gas stations and automotive supplies, whir* tome S* ape that start as gas stations, develop into stores...

...Several co-ope which began simply are small department store* now...

...The city-wide plan, he ktated, will be centered in a non-profit corporation governed by a non-political board of directors composed of outstanding representatives of all sections of th* community...

...and regimentation ef medical terries...

...New frontiers have been marked, new nolo* explored, eertpoata *et *p and eota* important galas eon—Hd*fd Today thit variation is taking peace a* rapidly that on* baa It leek feat to keep track of it Left get going...

...But all have faced hot opposition of orthodox practitioners and societies, from the American Medicsl Association down...

...They are the stout sake which without forcing have grown from acorns naturally, gradually and solidly...