Saint Ursula Academy - Scroll Yearbook (Toledo, OH)

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What Are Co-Operatives? TRANGE, isn't it, that the phrase life, liberty, and the pursuit of happinessu never gets threadbare? In the pursuance of these God-given rights the things of the body go hand- in-hand with the things of the soul. So it is that in our modern economic life we are stressing the age-old Catholic doctrine of organizing for a common end. For what else is the Communion of Saints? The twentieth century economic ver- sion of the Communion of Saints is the co-operative with all its ramifications. According to the Rev, Edgar Schmied- ler, O.S.B., a cooperative society or or- ganization is a 'igroup of people who band themselves together to produce something, to sell something, to buy something, or to pool their Hnancial resources for credit or loan purposes. This unison of effort, which is one of the most important movements of our time, enables the wage earners to pro- tect their common interests by elimin- ating the excessive profit-makers in the intermediary economic activities, Early Beginnings The growth of the cooperative move- ment in Europe has been more highly developed than in America, where it did not make any too notable advance until after 1900. The hrst successful English adventure was as early as 1844. That year, in Rockdale, a small English town, twenty-eight peasant Weavers, dis- traught because of low wages, irregular employment, and high cost of living, banded together to do something to remedy their economic status. Finally, they conceived the idea of a co-operative grocery store, and the Rockdale Equit- able Pioneers, Society thus evolved. Twenty-eight members with a combined capital of S5140 was the small and in- -TESSIE BURNOR '45 -PATRICIA KENNEDY '45 -PATRICIA ROLLER '45 significant beginning of the seeming mustard-seed growth of the co-operative movement. Before the outbreak of the present Wo1'ld War, the Rockdale enter- prise had expanded to more than 43,000 members, with more than a correspond- ing increase in capital, Groups following the Rockdale prin- ciples soon developed in other countries, notably in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Belguim. The number of persons now affiliated with co-operatives is startling. Very significant in the Vvestern Hemi- sphere is the development of the move- ment in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, spon- sored by the Extension Department of St. Francis Xavier University. Begin- ning in 1921 with some 200,000 fisher- men, miners, steel workers, and farmers, from one of Canada's most economically unsound and socially backward areas, this movement, built on the ten-member study club idea, has succeeded in raising tremendously the cultural and economic level of the people. Credit unions, buy- ing clubs, saw mills, marketing associa- tions, on the one hand, bulletins, news- papers, recreational programs, debates, leadership college courses, libraries, on the other, have gone far providing a better life for both body and soul under circumstances exceptionally adverse. One of the first really successful co- operatives in the United States was the Central Co-operative Wholesale, found- ed in Superior, Wiscoimsiii, in 1917. Soon the Nlid-West farmers founded other co-operatives, especially in the fields of gasoline and oil distribution. Today there are in the United States alone about 2,000 gas and oil co-ops. Along with these came a whole gamut of or- ganizations: filling stations, grocery stores, department stores, bakeries, coal yards, dairies, groceries, agricultural 28 THE SCROLL

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6 lu 9 Blues USED to think good health was a wonder- ful gift. I remember I was in grade I envied every- one who never missed a day of school, be- cause I was home so uch with colds, mumps, chicken pox and all the rest of the so-called juvenile diseases. But I,ve changed my mind now -about being healthy. when About two or three weeks before Christmas vacation everyone was getting the flu. I was congratulating myself on not having it, when someone informed me that the afflicted would not have to make up the assignments they missed. Well, I began to think and I decided if I thought hard enough by the end of the day, I would have a sore throat. But I was not that lucky. Since the epidemic was becoming more prevalent, there were just a few of us in class. I thought this would be fun, and that we could persuade Sister to let us talk, play games, or tell jokes. But no, it was only worse, we couldnit get away with anything. It even caused me some embarrassment, for I was so used to hiding behind Barbara in English, that on one of these days I found myself trying to do that very thing-only Bar- bara wasnlt there. You see I wasn't as I was trying to remember the answer to the question Sister asked. As I couldn't, I unconsciously found myself sliding down in my seat. Of course Sister called on me, and I gave the dates of the Transition Period, only it wasn't the right answer, since the ques- tion was: f'In what century did the short story come into being? After that I thought something like a sore throat would come along, but again no such luck, We were going to have a Christmas party and because there were so few of us in school, those of us who were there had to stay after hours to decorate and practice for the play. I was hoping I would be sick so I wouldn't have to be in the play-but just as before, no such luck. In fact, on the day the play was to be given, the three leading characters were absentg so I found my- self playing the part of the hero, the villain, and the damsel in distress. First I was trying to grab myself away from myself-then I was trying to save my- self, and by that time I was so mixed up, I was praying and praying that 'I would faint. Not so, however. I had to see it through to the end, Finally the vacation I so ardently desired came. To bring this to its tragic end, before Christmas I went home with a sore throat-the sore throat I had worked so hard to acquire a few days before. paying so much attention to the vacancy -ROSEMARY GOUTTIERE ,46 General lIfacArthur Through the darkness a boat fame Do take him a-way, hle was sorrowful then for he wanted to stay, Yet leafve there he must, for supplies he did ldfk, But he whispered to his comrades, l'll be huh! Since that fatlal day, three long years have passed, Un the shores of the Phillipines troops now are massed, And they're led by no other than old grey-haired lllac, For he meant what he said when he said, I'll he hack. -IVIARGARET AFFOLTER ,45 THE SCROLL 27

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supply stores, hospitals, medical and burial associations, General Principles Nlost co-operatives today are organ- ized and function along eral principles as those the Rockdale Equitable ciety. These, in brief, marized: the society is controlledg membership the same gen- established by Pioneers' So- may be sum- democratically is voluntary through purchase of stockg business transactions are handled in cashg a good- ly portion of the profits are spent for educational purposesg goods and services are sold at prevailing market prices and dividends are distributed to patrons ac- cording to purchases. Have all cooperative activities been of the same type? Assuredly not. They have been developed to fit the whole gamut of economic life, hence we have the consumersb, the producers' and the credit co-operatives. Of the three gen- eral types the consumers' co-op is the most successful and most widespread. In this the members arrange to care for their own needs instead of buying from a retailer. It is truly democratic as it is conducted by and for member con- sumers. Producers' co-operatives, are, on the other hand, organizations in which the workers themselves own and control a productive enterprise. By merging profits with wages this system obviates the abuses of unjust wages. For the most part, this type has not been too success- ful in indutry, but has assured its great- est sudies in the field of agriculture. Credit co-operatives are something like small banks. lVIembers pool their funds to lend to members at a low rate of interest. The fundamental purpose of this group seems to be to hurt the loan-shark. Usually the credit co-op functions well in groups united by oc- cupational, professional, territoral or religious interests. The parish credit unions, numbering several hundred in the United States alone, are doing excellent work. In connection with this phase of co-opera- tive, the services of the Parish Credit Union National Committee or the Social Action Department of the N.C.C.VV.C. are always at the disposal of those seek- ing information. A Catholic Action So far there has been no explicit Papal pronouncement upon the co-opera- tives movement as a whole, but certain- ly Pope Pius XI in his encyclical, Re- constructing the Social Orderw, im- plicitly advocated the founding of such groups. Currently, in the October 13 issue of Amerira, we have presented several illustrations of functionary groups with a Catholic background. Among those cited is the little town of Westphalia, Iowa. There the guests of the Catholic Co-operative Committee picked apples, milked cows, and did the usual farm chores-together. They even carried over the idea of co-operation to their religious activities and the social side of parish life at St. Boniface's Church. At work, at play and at prayer whole families become vital parts of the co- operative ideal. Thus are the younger folks absorbed into the movement. For Catholics the co-operatives are not merely experiments, but something we have had for century upon century. For doesn't love of neighbor go hand in hand with love of God in Christ's pat- tern of life? Come In A while jmneled door H knob nzade of brass if bouquet in the windozt' :I smile from the lady Inside-as you pass. --SUZANNE STRAUB '45 THE SCROLL 29