A SCRAP BREWS IN WISCONSIN

...Before they left that meeting they voted with one voice—these men and women who in the past have taken the measure of the railroads and utilities—to take the offensive against NTEA on the "educational, legislative, and political" front...

...This was a significant development, for co-ops are notoriously shy of politics...

...To this, A. J. Hayes, general manager of CCW and vice-president of the newly formed co-op organization, has replied: "The Dairyland News, like all enemies of the common man of the farm and of the city, is naturally concerned about any joint cause that could draw the rank and file of America together...

...And you will find here too, at least one political party unafraid to take a stand with them...

...Co-ops In Politics Meeting at Chippewa Falls, Wis., recently, more than 400 representatives of Wisconsin's cooperative movement formed an organization to affiliate with the National Association and get into the fight...

...It is known as the National Association of Cooperatives...

...Forgotten were their internal differences—the petty squabbles between the producer and consumer groups, which the reactionary politicians and press have encouraged to keep them divided...

...But just in case anyone raises this charge against them, George Tichenor, the very able editor of the eastern Cooperator, has given the definitive answer: "The question of whether or not cooperatives should participate in politics is academic...

...Progressives Go To Bat There is no indication that the editors of the Dairy" land News object to the ultimate aims of the NTEA, however...

...The co-ops have watched the development of NTEA and have gone ahead quietly to meet the challenge...

...What this would mean to the cooperative movement is not hard to imagine...

...In addition to this plank, Progressives advocate the-following in their plank on monopoly control: "We urge more extensive support of producer and consumer cooperatives and public corporations modeled on the Tennessee Valley Authority to provide a continuing yardstick by which to compel the adherence of monopoly business to a program of abundance and full employment...

...NTEA is the answer of big business to this threat...

...Certain powerful vested interests are attempting to curtail and cripple the development of the cooperative movement...

...Meanwhile, Wisconsin's Progressive Party, whose policies and program have given political expression to what Life calls the "indigenous radicalism" of this state, jumped squarely into the NTEA-cooperative fight...

...Yes, the editors of Life were right...

...However much the people of other states might resent being held up to the nation as examples of American "radicalism," the people of Wisconsin are proud of it...

...The patronage dividend principle is the foundation rock of cooperation...

...This was something Wisconsin farmers and workers could understand and cherish—a good knock-down, drag-out fight with their old enemies...

...Big Business' Answer This year a large section of Wisconsin farmers and workers, who have through the years built up one of the strongest cooperative movements in the United States, have put on their fighting clothes...

...Their principal objection to NTEA and its program is that it is driving the producer and consumer cooperatives together...

...city and country co-ops...

...The Dairy-land News, a reactionary farm throwaway whose tie-up with a large Milwaukee advertising firm handling utility and Republican Party accounts has been exposed, immediately registered some editorial doubt about NTEA's "ill-advised" anti-co-op drive...

...The NTEA goal is a simple one, but very dangerous for the co-ops...

...It is to the interest of monopolistic big business, in behalf of which the Dairyland Ne^vs obviously labors, to keep the common people divided...

...The solid unity of all the cooperatives and their determination to carry the fight to the enemy displayed at the meeting has already achieved results...

...Without farm backing 'private enterprise' (substitute monopoly control—Ed, note) doesn't stand a chance," the reactionary editor of the News warns...

...We are in politics because we are being attacked in politics and have to answer in that arena...

...Here is the Progressive platform plank on co-ops, the only co-op plank to be found in any of the platforms of the state'sthree major parties: "Genuine producer and consumer cooperatives have proved the most effective methods for farmer and consumer to help themselves...

...big, little, and middle-sized co-ops," reported a correspondent for the Cooperative Builder, alert organ of the mighty Central Cooperative Wholesale at Superior, Wis...

...William Hesseltine of the University of Wisconsin calls "soil and seminar," have gone on to make Wisconsin 'government the object of envy and respect throughout the world...

...Their phenomenal expansion and the example of concrete and lasting benefits they provide constitute a serious threat to the big • profiteers...

...While the Republican and Democratic parties were ducking any mention of cooperatives whatsoever in their recently adopted platforms, the Progressives not only-strengthened their stand in favor of cooperation, but specifically pledged themselves to fight efforts "to curtail and cripple the development of the cooperative movement...

...It intends to climax its present red-baiting campaign against the co-ops with legislation designed to bring funds used by the co-ops as patronage dividends under the income tax laws...

...Always willing, if not downright eager, for a head-on clash with the "interests," representatives of Wisconsin cooperatives flocked into Chippewa Falls in a fighting mood...

...There were marketing, purchasing, cheese, fruit growing, oil, grain, and grocery co-ops...

...They're going to take on the National Tax Equality Association, a disarming name hiding the activities of a reactionary gang of big business men out to crush the cooperative movement...

...A Scrap Brews In Wisconsin By MILES McMILLIN NOT long ago, Life Magazine, in an article devoted to Wisconsin's Progressive Party, spoke of the "indigenous radicalism of the frontier, whose goal is not merely peace, prosperity and slum clearance, but economic justice and individual freedom...

...Come to Wisconsin for evidence that the "indigenous radicalism of the frontier" still exists, and this despite the pressure of a reactionary GOP regime in the capitol...

...Progressives urge, as a means of building a sound postwar economy, "the strengthening and extension of the cooperative movement...

...Never before had so many different kinds of co-ops been represented together in one Wisconsin meeting...

...The marketing and farm co-ops have created a National Conference of Cooperatives to fight the NTEA and its vicious program...

...It is because farmers and consumers in ever increasing numbers have revolted against exploitation by profiteers that the co-ops have developed so rapidly...

...They cut their political teeth on the railroad trust at the turn of this century, and, combining the political elements of what Prof...

...Ignoring the fact that this money is not income at all but the reward for individual enterprise and diligence on the part of people who form and participate in their own businesses, the old Chamber of Commerce crowd running NTEA proposes to tax refundable overcharges as income on the same basis that business profits are taxed...

...Go to Wisconsin, Life advised, for evidence that this restless yearning—this "radicalism" of the frontiersmen still exists...

...In this Summer of 1944, you will find Wisconsin farmers and Wisconsin workers with their sleeves rolled up, ready to slug it out with the forces challenging their right to economic freedom...

...Another organization, which includes producer, marketing, and consumer co-ops, has been set up for the same purpose...

...Divide and rule is the principle of all oligarchs, economic or political...