DEMOCRATIC PATH TO PEACE'
McMillin, Miles
'A Democratic Path To Peace' By MILES McMILLIN IN an atmosphere charged with confidence in the future and pride for the great achievements of the past, delegates representing America's 2,000,000...
...The Congress marked the 100th anniversary of the founding of the cooperative movement and resulted in some of the most constructive, daring, and far-reaching planning the cooperatives have ever undertaken...
...Reporting on the greatest growth of cooperatives in any two-year period in all their previous years of development, Lincoln declared, "Our test flight is over...
...We have pointed the way to the end of the consumer exploitation...
...their courageous and effective defiance of the feed, seed, and petroleum monopolies ; their bold venture in new production fields, which in the last biennium brought $20,000,000 worth of mills, factories, and refineries in to the co-op enterprises and resulted in an estimated saving of $50,000,-000 to co-op members...
...Its keynote was sounded in the challenging address of the Cooperative League's able, alert president, Murray D. Lincoln...
...Neither can be prosperous if the other is depressed...
...We have' defeated monopolies on the economic battle front," he asserted...
...Progressive Tax Program The delegates adopted a broad program of progressive social and economic reforms, in addition to mapping out a greatly extended field for cooperative activity...
...RE A cooperatives were invited to join with the Cooperative League in matters oFvommon interest...
...Lawrence Waterway, and the Columbia River Waterway...
...A Stirring Record More than 1,000 enthusiastic delegates heard Lincoln recite the cooperative record of progress and achievements...
...We have gotten more goods to more people at less cost...
...The delegates also took a firm stand in favor of restoring the Rural Electrification Administration to its former status as an independent Federal agency...
...The farmer and the city man depend on each other...
...We have returned ownership of property to the common man...
...Progressive forces fighting for a program of taxation will be encouraged to know that the power of the cooperative movement will be with them in the fight...
...The co-op program calls for ability-to-pay taxes "based strictly upon the needs of the people to serve themselves adequately through their government...
...A Democratic Path To Peace' By MILES McMILLIN IN an atmosphere charged with confidence in the future and pride for the great achievements of the past, delegates representing America's 2,000,000 co-operators met in Chicago recently for what has been universally hailed as the largest and most successful Cooperative Congress in the history of America's cooperative movement...
...With pride that is amply justified on the face of the record, Lincoln recounted the successful assault of the cooperatives on the fertilizer trust...
...We have demonstrated our ability to stimulate purchasing power, the priceless ingredient of a prosperous economy...
...The farmers' excellent progress in building agricultural co-ops will not yield a full measure of prosperity and plenty unless the urban dweller also shakes off the shackles of repressive economic practices and organizes his own cooperative business enterprises...
...Public power also received a big boost from the co-operators...
...By coming out unequivocally against the abolition of corporate taxes, the co-ops let it be known that they will have nothing to do with the regressive plan of Beards-ly Ruml and others seeking after corporate tax relief...
...And we have, by the very nature of our enterprise, sharpened the awareness of the democratic ideal which bulwarks our American way of life...
...For a war-weary world, anxiously groping for a democratic path to peace, security, and abundance the Chicago meet-ting was a most Welcome note of encouragement...
...We must blanket the cities with cooperative enterprises" he told the conference...
...Specifically they called for the development of the proposed Missouri River Authority, the St...
...Hailing the "signal achievement" of the Tennessee Valley Authority and the public power and irrigation projects in the Pacific area, the delegates voiced this belief: "The extension of public power activities in the United States will contribute materially to the general welfare in providing irrigation, reforestation, navigation, flood control, and electric power, and also eliminate discriminatory freight rates, encourage decentralization of industry, contribute to full employment in peace time, and remove the economic shackles of monopoly capitalism and develop an economy of abundance...
...We must put the cooperatives into mass production...
Vol. 8 • October 1944 • No. 44
