“I’ve brought the documents in the case”
“First, let me introduce you to what I consider the most practical organization of practical women in the country——”
She held up a tiny button: “National Housewives’ Cooperative League” ran the inscription.
“And then to its very capable and practical president, Mrs. Joseph W. Ellms.”
And here she produced a photograph of a refined, rather intellectual-looking woman, face oval, mouth firm, eyes looking keenly through glasses, hair parted and waved over a fine white forehead.
“Mrs. Ellms, with our splendid secretary, Miss Edna O. Crofton, keeps the sincerity of this organization always alive. For cooperative buying needs sincerity, firmness and stead-fastness of purpose. No compromising with the corner grocer or a heedless servant if you want to be a real cooperator!
“Our League started in a very funny way. We had a typical organization of mothers known as the Hyde Park Colony Mothers’ Club, with meetings devoted to the conventional discussions of children, their care, feeding, education and discipline. One afternoon a member read an unusual paper on the increased cost of living, and especially the power which women control as the spenders of the family income. I think it roused what Mrs. Ellms calls our enlightened consumers’ conscience. I know that I saw for the first time my duty as the dispenser of my husband’s earnings.
“That was five years ago. To-day the League in Cincinnati alone is the buying power for three hundred families, and is growing steadily. No society of this sort can have a mushroom growth, because the cooperative idea does not appeal to emotional or impulsive women. Our Cincinnati membership is divided into three centers. Then each center is subdivided into groups of ten members, each having its own local director. All public meetings are held in the public library and its branches. Demonstrations (tests in foods, weights, measures, etc.) and distributions are made at the homes of the directors. These directors are the purchasers for the various groups, except when supplies in carload lots are to be bought. Such purchases are then made by the executive board, consisting of the president, the officers and the directors.
“None of these women are salaried officers. They are anxious to serve for the experience gained, the educational value of the work, and the benefit each gains for herself and her neighbors. No woman can do this work and not keep in touch with the many-sided question of economics. She corresponds with farmers, manufacturers, merchants big and little, government officials and professors of household economics and civics. She must know the true values of such supplies as soaps, cleansers, etc., as well as foods.
“To give you an idea of our system, last fall we bought flour at five dollars and fifty cents a barrel, wholesale, delivered to the homes of members. The market price then for a single barrel was six dollars and fifty cents. It is now seven dollars and fifty cents. So you see, the new member, paying her initiation fee of fifty cents and her annual dues of fifty cents, saved them at once on her one barrel of flour.