CONSUMERS' COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES IN NEW YORK STATE _Published April 1922_ _by_ The Consumers' League of New York 289 FOURTH AVENUE NEW YORK CITY * * * * * This study was originally prepared for the Consumers' League of New York in 1921 by Mr. Cedric Long. It has been revised by the League in April, 1922. The Consumers' League wishes to express its appreciation of the valuable advice and assistance given by Mr. Louis B. Blachly of the Bureau of Cooperative Associations of the State Department of Farms and Markets both in the original preparation of the material and in its revision. * * * * * COOPERATIVE PRINCIPLES The principles established by the Rochdale Pioneers in England in 1844 and observed consistently by successful societies since that time are as follows: 1. Earnings of capital stock limited to legal or current rate of interest. 2. Surplus earnings to be returned to members in proportion to patronage. 3. One vote for each member regardless of amount of stock owned. No proxy voting permitted. In addition, the majority of societies adhere to the following principles: 1. Business to be done for cash. 2. Goods to be sold at current market prices. 3. Education given in the principles and aims of cooperation. CONSUMERS' COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES IN NEW YORK STATE The Extent of Consumers' Cooperation. The Tenth International Cooperative Congress, held in Switzerland in 1921, disclosed the fact that since the last Congress, in 1913, the number of cooperators in the twenty-five countries represented had increased from approximately eight million to thirty million and that cooperative trade had increased correspondingly. Today in Great Britain the cooperative societies number more than four million members, nearly one-third of the entire population being represented in these societies. Switzerland, in 1920, boasted three hundred and sixty-two thousand members and a third of the Swiss people bought goods through their own societies. Cooperation is still alive in Russia in spite of its unsettled economic conditions. In 1920 there were twenty-five thousand societies with twelve million heads of families. In the same year the German cooperative societies were two million seven hundred thousand members strong.