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The Co-operative news. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1917-1918, March 14, 1918, Image 1

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In Things Essential, UNITY—In Things Doubtful, LIBERTY- In All Things, FRATERNITY
6c per copy; 50c i>«t year.
THE SURVIVAL
OF THE FITTEST
The survival of the fittest la
as much a law of the Industrial
world as it ii of the natural
world. For a time an unfit
system may be maintained bj
force of arms, or through the
influence of some religious or
political fanaticism. Hut soon
or late, :. supreme test will coma,
and then whatsoever is essential
ly weak must fin!.
For four hundred years Feudal"
ism dominated Europe, It was
a weak system. It yielded poor
results, industrially, politically
ami socially; hut it was power
fully intrenched nrd seemed in
vincible. Then came the (real
crusades, which drained Europe
of her fighting men and of her
financial resources. Those long
wars against the Mohammedans
so weakened the feudal lords thnt
capitalism pot a foot-hold in many
parts of Europe, and being a
sVmnrer system, overthrew feu
dalism.
Socialism is a stronger system
than capitalism. In a direct
struggle between .the two sys
tems, on either the industrial
or the commercial field, there
could be no doubt of the result.
Put capitalism owns the means
' f production and distribution—
the basis of life. It control the
treat political, - social and re
ligious organizations of the world.
In short, capitalism monopolizes
human opportunity and la as pow
erfully intrenched as feudalism
■was at the time of the Crusades.
■ But now. this great-world war
has laid bare the weaknesses of
the capitalist system, and the
greater efficiency of organized
-ope rat ion has been clearly
shown. Here and there, strong
holds of capitalism have sur
rendered because they could no
longer maintain themselves in
this great emergency. The old
irresponsible, destructive methods.
and organized, constructive meth
ods are being brought into direct
comparison.
Will history repeat itself in
this crisis? Will the weak sys
tem parish and the strong one
survive? That depends on wheth
er or not we are ready for the
xtronjfer system.
It is obvious that for a more
highly organized system of so
c:ety. a broader basis of human
intelligence is required.
Feudalism succeeds only where
the masses are ignorant and
where there is no middle class,
flence feudalism flourished in the
decay of civilization and of hu
rr>an intelligence that followed the
down-fall of Rome.
( ';»i»it;tlism raqoirtM ■ more in
nt apper clan prwi ■ r>-.i
bly intelligent miilillt- i
hb« thai the dcvelo] ■
r eapitall m tendi to crush out
• Bourgeoise; bui it [a
■ ■ 'he middle i
• ■ >ra, capitali m will l>.-t
a narrow ai that will
■•' feudali m ai
trenjrth «.f capita
the i
■ intcllitfenl and
; li
ful i
the fou
a broadly intelligent and
EVERETT, WASHINGTON, THURSDAY, MARCH 14, 1918.
RIG MKKTING
The mosi responsive ami en
thii'.-M i!«■ audience thai ever
rathei "•'! in E> erett, was without
•ion, the one which jrirctn!
George H. Kirkpatrick lust Sim ■
i'jiv afternoon to hear his lecture
"The Rights of Man." For nearly
two hours Comrade Kirkpat i Ick
held his audience spell bound
without fo much as he slightest
movonent save for an occasional
spont.irie.oua outburst of applause.
Judging from tin* comments heard
on ever) de, it was the jfi'n-
■. • : . of opt, ion
"TK> Piffhta of Man" is Com
rade Kirkpatrick'a masterpiece,
Hut— we recall distinctly hearing
this sine remark on other oc«
rr.siors. This only proves our
contention that. Comrade Kirkpat
rick .stands alone, not only as an
orator, but what is far more
important to th" Socialist move
ment, as a teach
1 though thousands of his t-'">k.
"Think or Surrender" have been
■>M in Everett »t previous Rath
erinssi two hundred copies were
• ■<! «>f Sunday.
A viirorous applause went up
from the audience when it vm
Bnnounc d that an effort was be
• r made to secure Comrade
Kirkpatrii-k for a return date.
THAT INFORMATION
IH KEAI
At the S. P. SUte Convention
held last wei-k in Seattle, a con
stitutional amendment was pro
nosed but voted down, which had
for its at>j«ct the estaldixhmont
of a wift of Information Bureau
within the State Executive Com
mittee. While WOdh a proposition
ha-< merit, it would in fact be a
duplication of the work done by
organizations „{ a national scopo.
Statistics, to be of any u»« in
an international movement, must
embrace at least a whole nation,
if not a whole continent.
In this mornings mail we re
ceived a circular from The Rand
School of Social Science. New
York, announcing the publication
of THE AMERICAN LABOR
YEAR BOOK for 1917-1918. It
was compiled by Alexander
Trachtenberg, .director of the De
partment of* Labor Research of
the Rand School. He says in
regard to it: "The book is
brought out primarily for the
speaker**, writers and propagand
ists in the Socialist and • labor
movement."
Th« book may l,e had for B<te,
pap«r bound; doth bound,
plui 10c for mailing. Add i
Hie Ran. l I!<.ok Store, 7 Eas<
16th Street, New Vo,k.
Our boys should riot leavo home
without sitting for ■ photo at
MEYER'S STUDIO.
/—
, If you ha .<■ rfot yet read Kirk-
I natrick's latest book, Think or
Surrender, *enl 15 cents to the
Co-operative N wh, and one will'
Ibe mailed you. |
Leat'ier '.<>.,rK • ,'J'unkH and He.
»"ir»ni' Nt !;•-« i«:t 1/ . k Factory;
I 2H 1 .", Hor!u;jVl|.-r.
efficiently educntecl Proletariat.
Otherwise, Socialism is wenk und
! will 10-o In the struggle for
survival.—Peoplea 1 Collt'Ke News.
LABOR
NEWS
MORE WORKERS 111 W JOBS
SALT I. \KK CITY, Utah, Feh,
li. The state free employment
In pau reports iha( ttui i'n r i!)<•
fii t half "f Januai y 502 pei on
made :11>i lical lon for work and
'' '. ecu red employment.
\!I)I VC HIS EDUCATION
KKATTI.K—Mr-t. Gust. w. John
pon, v.■> 'tin" fiorn Randy, Ulith,
jjivps the Information that h"r
hußhnml was arrested on the
charge of being a draft evader,
! he encloses the following clip
ping from a Salt Lake paper:
"On the charge of being a draft
evader, Oust William Johnson
was at rented nt Sandy yesterday
by Deputy Sheriff It. If. MeDon
al! ami taken to the county jail,
where hi la held pending action
of the federal authorities, Ac
cordini? to the officers Johnson la
an I. W. W. and has been open
in his denouncement of the
<!-aft." Evidently the <-har«r»
agalnsi Fellow Worker Johnson
was groundless, as Mrs. John
son mills: "I t^ot him out today
anil he was told to try to get
that I. W. W. out of his head,
hut I think he will be worse."
CO-OPERATION IN
RUSSIA
Count Ilya Tolstoy, ion of the
' Russian. L*fo Tolstoy, call
ed on the Co-operator the other
flay. He was on his way from
Russia to New York. This \»
his SSeond HsH to us this yeur.
Ilya Tolstoy, who |g the Vice
President of the Moscow Con
sumers' Co-operative Union, tolls
us that the overturn of autoc
racy in Russia was only made
possible !>y the growth during
the last ten years of ro-npera
tion.
There are over 47,000 co-op
erative societies in Russia with
80,000,000 or more members For
several years they have been
quietly building up "a society
within a society." When the
crash came, and right up to the
present time, the only organised
lift- in the community was the
Federated Co-operative Societies.
The government depends al
most entirely upon the co-opera
tive movement to keep the eco
nomic life of Russia together. We
learn little of this, however,, from
the press. The astonishing th•■
about RuHßian co-operation is the
fact that nearly nil of its vast
growth has taken place within
the laßt ten years.—Pacific Co
operator.
Kirkpatrick Will Return
The committee that had charge of the Kirkpntrick
meeting is gla^l to he able to announce just as this is
sue is going to press, that there now remains hut little
doubt as to the possibility of securing Comrade Kirk
Patrick for a return date, near the end of this month.
Mis lecture will be, "1111: HYPNOTISM OF THE WORK
ING (LASS. The exact date will he announced in next
week's issue. Watch for ii. Tell your friends.
Admission ui!l he free.
Watch for the Date
S. P. CONVENTION
On March 0, 10, and 1 Ith, the
•Socialist Party of Washington
In M a convention of delegates
at the Finnish Hall in Scuttle.
The locals of ihe state were rep
resented by their most active and
energetic members ho there were
no dull moments or lack of in
terest. 'I In delegate's were gen
erally Kitting oh the front edge
of their peats, taking In every
thing and ready to take the floor
to give their views on the ques
tions before the jjoiiHe. There
was r.o letting George do it
when it came to voting; m'eas
uie.i wore ■ ■■■ can by a few
votes with the rest sitting mum.
as frequently happens in local
meetings; when a vote wan called
for it was generally answered
by a roar—some times of Aye 3,
low times Of Noes; wheh a
rising vote was called for every
body jumped up to register a
vote, pro or con, as the case may
be.
Sevenal timely and important
Resolutions were past by the con
jvention. Hut the chief work
I done mi on the Platform and
the Constitution. The delegates
were divided on the Platform and
two of them will be submitted to
| the membership on Referendum.
The radicals proposed a platform,
which some of the delegates re
ferred to as merely a Preamble
since no "immediate demands"
were included, although it id vig
orous and complete. The other
faction urged" that we must set
forth our various "demands" • in
our platform in order to compete
with the Non-partisan, the Na
tional, and the other parties.
Many chances were made in
the Constitution, some of them
being «of importance, some be-
mi? merely necessary technical
«4ianj»e«. These constitutional
■MUegVf, however, will go to the
memleiship for final decision.
Watch for the next issue of the
Party Builder, which will give
you complete information.
It was the pleasure of the dele
gates to hear speeches from Lenn
Morrow Lewis, Kate Sadler, and !
Hul.t M. Welis on the convention
floor; and blko to hear Kirkpat
rick at the Hippodrome, wlierv
the dlfMtet attended in a body, j
BUI HUBTLBBB
Goo. i.esich, Roolyn, \Vn. 4
LM S(|inre.s, V.uicouv.r, Wn. 2
Bert <;..,!,lard, Piumtnor, Ida. I
R«l I THINK OR SliKkl NDER
Thr author says that it is g a
hot a- he eon!,! make M without
burn! ig the paper. We have
M' :iii M anil we know this to be
the truth.
Number :;72.
CO-OPERATIVE
IS SUCCESSFUL
Roslyn Industrial Co-opera
tive Issues Its First Quar
terly Statement — Good
Business for a New Con
cern.
ROBLYN, WASH.- Stating that
th'ir purpose in making public
their first quarterly statement i-t
to --how (he working class the
benefits to be derived from co
operative* owned by the workers,
the auditing committee of the
Cfl3cade Industrial ..Co-operative
Association of Koslyn have jus.
declared- a 10 per cent dividend
for the firKt quarter. The divi
dend Will not be disbursed as yet,
but will be retained, in the treas
ury .is a reserve fund. The divi
dend in declared upon the total
an bunt of purchaHen made at the
nt< re. Careful account is kept of
each stockholder's purchases and
ea:h quarter* dividends will b«?
pa d on this total.
Ownership of stock in limited
to 20 shares, or $100, and no
stockholder may own less than
five shares. H. B. Joyner, for
merly of vWHkeson, has , been
manager of the store since it.*
establishment. Following , their
quarterly report, the. auditors.
William Morgan, recommended
that a dividend of 10 per cent
on all purchased be paid to cus
tomers; that r> a .sum equal to 5
per cent per • annum be 'set - aside
for ' payment of ' interest* on* capi
tal stock, and the remainder of
undivided profits be placed in a
reserve" fund. The financial re
port for the first quarter fol
lows :v • . ,
H e«mi rees "~"
Merchandise inventory .<• ~...,$ 7,818.3J
htiin.lu.,- an<i fixtures |,< 2.591 00
Account* . receivable .*. S9*>l^6
'■"»»*1 on hand by manur . . ' t,l9s!s'
C«i"h on hand by secretary ' 4l)'Ro
Cash in bank 2.059.54
("*ih in construction- fund ... '_' 7 T">
Unearned mil , 10
Total $15.971.«'.♦
■ liability. ' '
('H|iitnl clock $ 9,170.00
Membenhip fee* !« I no
Note* payable 2,023]16
Account payable 1.600.36
Snlarie* unpaid 99.05
Interest accrued on capital
stock H8 ■>•'
Telephone rent, unpaid 5.00
1-itrlit and water unpaid ... 9.50
Outstanding I coupons unpaid 10.15
Undivided profit* 2.635.JS
Total |tt,»7l IS*
THE RADICAL
i By Bart Goddard)
Economic necessity is the par
•nt of all revolutions in society.
1; i- the function of every revolu
tionary radical, whether indus
tial hi political to educate anil
organize the useful members of
society so the change can take
place from the old to the new
without civilization being engulf
ed in the black abyss of anarchy
and chaos. Th; is what is meant
by the statement, "We are form
ing the structure of the new so
ciety within th>> shell of the
old." Th# radical who today is
persecuted and annihilated on the
gibbet .Erected by the master
class,/is the beacon light shin
ing ■on the rock-bound coast of
a 'troubled world, pointing the
way to a Bafe refuge for human
ity. The stone rejected by the
builders shall become the ' key
stone of the arch.

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