THE COOPERATIVE MOVEMENT: FULTON LEWIS JOINS THE PACK
McMillin, Miles
The Cooperative Movement: Fulton Lewis Joins The Pack By MILES McMILLIN THE CURRENT DRIVE; launched by some of the short-sighted segments of private business groups to emasculate the cooperative...
...Repeating the shabby canard that co-ops are exempt from taxes, Lewis demonstrated that he hasn't paid much attention to the affairs of the two co-ops in which he claims membership...
...Another contradiction: Co-ops can sell only to stockholder members, says Mr...
...To become a member the consumer must make application for membership and a down payment on the stock share...
...For cooperatives do pay taxes—the same income, property, and license taxes paid by ordinary private business...
...Said Allen, "There's a whale of a lot of difference between profit enterprise and consumer cooperative enterprise and the co-ops ought to make it known throughout the country that there is a whale of a difference...
...Surprisingly enough, however, the opening volley came not from the big Kaltenborn cannon but from the small bore guns of Fulton Lewis, Jr...
...The Old Tax Canard The co-ops, said Lewis, after a preface in which he claimed membership in two cooperatives, must not pay their leaders more than $7,500 a year, but they allow unlimited expense accounts...
...This money is not considered income and the exemption can be claimed by any business which returns such overcharges to its customers...
...Attempting to give the impression that co-ops receive preferential treatment from the Government and that private business is being discriminated against, he charged Government subsidy of cooperatives through low cost of credit...
...Cooperators knew when the drive got underway that it would be only a matter of time before the subsidized radio commentators and daily newspaper columnists would soon hear the howls of the lynching party and join the pack in full cry...
...Evidently the Tax Equality Association is providing propaganda for both sides of the street...
...Anyone may buy at a co-op and anyone may join...
...In addition they pay corporation, sales, and excise taxes...
...In this connection, Lewis should be interested in a recent statement of Harland H. Allen, Chicago economist and investment counselor whose news letter service is subscribed to by some of the biggest business firms in the nation...
...launched by some of the short-sighted segments of private business groups to emasculate the cooperative movement, is picking up momentum...
...It was expected that when the news "analysts" took up the cudgels they would be led by Hans Kaltenborn, the Milwaukee boy who made good with a British accent and an uncanny ability to land on whatever side of any given issue his sponsors happened to be...
...This too is a falsehood...
...A Syllogistic Handspring After denouncing the co-ops because of their difference in operation from other businesses, the broadcaster and columnist does a syllogistic handspring and comes up with the observation that "there is no discernible difference between the private company and the cooperative...
...They do not pay income taxes on patronage dividends refunded to members...
...This, of course, is utterly false...
...But Lewis himself admits the falsity of the statement when he later says that the co-ops are supposed to take the name and address of any purchaser, "and when you have bought a certain amount, you get your share of stock...
...He doesn't even remember how he joined...
...If Lewis has proved nothing else by his anti-co-op tirade he has proved that he's not a very good member of a co-op...
...The facts, which he could have had by merely calling co-op officials, are that no salary limitation is set and all expense accounts are independently audited and are subject to review by the board of directors and the members of the co-ops...
...The facts are that co-ops may borrow from the Bank for Cooperatives at 2Va per cent interest, which is no more subsidy nor charity than private business receives through the Reconstruction Finance Corporation...
...Lewis' attack, chiefly notable for its lofty indifference to facts concerning the nature of co-ops, was apparently based on the propaganda now being circulated by the National Tax Equality Association, an organization started by the big grain elevator interests and carried on by several old Chamber of Commerce hacks hired for the purpose of lining up opposition to the cooperatives...
Vol. 8 • June 1944 • No. 24
