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The Social Significance of Cooperation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2009
Extract
When the earliest cooperative units were formed, the members seem to have assumed that the step had relevance only for themselves and only for their economic good. At Fenwick in Scotland eleven men agreed in 1769 “to take what money we have in our Box and buy what victual may be thought Nessassar to sell for the benefit of our society.” The sole end was the economic benefit of the little group. Near the close of the century, “the poor inhabitants” of Hull in England set up a cooperative mill. The harvest had been lean, and the price of flour was very high, so that the people felt “much trouble and sorrow” in their persons and families, and thought they should take every care to preserve themselves “from the invasion of covetous and merciless men in the future.” They also asked the mayor to give something toward “this great enterprise.”
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- Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1942
References
1 See Kress, A. J., ed., Introduction to the Cooperative Movement, New York: Harpers, 1941, ch. 1. This is the best book of readings on cooperation and has good bibliographiesGoogle Scholar.
2 See Elliott, S. R., The English Cooperatives, New Haven: Yale Univ. press, 1937, ch. 1. This is a balanced and authoritative book, and is well writtenGoogle Scholar.
3 New York: Vanguard, 1939. A book to be read by everybody.
4 For England, see Elliott's book mentioned above; for Ireland, Paddy the Cope by Gallagher, Patrick, New York: Devin-Adair, 1942Google Scholar, a real and moving book, and Cooperation and Nationality by George Russell (AE), reprinted in 1940 by the Cooperative League, Chicago and New York; for Canada, Cooperative Today and Tomorrow by Mooney, G. S., Montreal, 1938Google Scholar; for Nova Scotia, The Lord Helps Those by Fowler, B. B., New York: Vanguard, 1938Google Scholar, and Masters of Their Own Destiny by Coady, M. M., New York: Harpers, 1939Google Scholar; for Belgium, Belgian Rural Cooperation by Ross, Eva J., Milwaukee: Bruce Co., 1940Google Scholar, a competent study; for Sweden, Sweden the Middle Way, by Childs, M. W., New Haven: Yale Univ. press, 7th printing 1936Google Scholar, a rousing book; for Denmark, Denmark A Social Laboratory by Manniche, Peter, Copenhagen: Gad, and New York: Oxford Univ. press, 1939Google Scholar; for the United States, Cuna Emerges (on credit unions) by Bergengren, , Madison: Cuna, 4th ed., 1939Google Scholar, Cooperation an American Way by Daniels, J., New York: Covici, 1938Google Scholar, prolix and popular but real, and The People's Business by Bolles, Joshua, New York: Harpers, 1942Google Scholar, a popular introduction.
5 The English Cooperatives, ch. 9, “The Law and the Profits.”
6 Warbasse, J. P., Cooperative Democracy, New York: Harpers, 3rd ed. 1936Google Scholar; esp. ch. 10, “A Democratic nongovernmental Substitute for the State”; Cooperation as a Way of Peace, New York: Harpers, 1939Google Scholar; and the Socialistic Trend as affecting the Cooperative Movement, New York: The Cooperative League, 1940Google Scholar.
7 Cooperative Democracy, pp. 116–7, 137–8.
8 Masters of Their Own Destiny, pp. 126–9.
9 Denmark a Social Laboratory, pp. 71–72.
10 See Inquiry into Cooperatives in Europe, 1937.
11 The best book on cooperation and the organic society and especially on the organic relationship of cooperation to land and to Labor is Boyle's, GeorgeDemocracy's Second Chance, New York: Sheed and Ward, 1941Google Scholar. In this connection, Elliott's book is good, as are all of Warbasse's books, and Cooperative Plenty by Ross, J. Elliot, St. Louis, Herder, 1941Google Scholar.
12 Among the best introductions are these: A B C of Cooperatives by Richardson, G., New York: Longmans, 1940Google Scholar; Cooperation a Christian Mode of Industry, by Schmiedeler, E., Ozone Park, N. Y.: Catholic Literary Guild, 1941Google Scholar; Cooperative Enterprise by Baker, Jacob, New York: Vanguard, 2nd ed., 1937Google Scholar; and Cooperatives by Goslin, R. A., New York: the Foreign Policy Assoc., 2nd revised ed., 1938Google Scholar, a graphic primer.