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Pringle Hist797 Thesis 2013 DOUBLE University of Nevada, Reno Future Commonwealths: Civic Identity and Economic Rhetoric in Cooperation, 1914-1924 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History by Brian D. Pringle Dr. Greta de Jong/Thesis Advisor August, 2013 THE GRADUATE SCHOOL We recommend that the thesis prepared under our supervision by Brian D. Pringle entitled Future Commonwealths: Civic Identity and Economic Rhetoric in Cooperation, 1914-1924 be accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Greta de Jong, Ph.D., Advisor Martha L. Hildreth, Ph.D., Committee Member Emily K. Hobson, Ph.D., Committee Member Carolyn L. White, Ph.D., Graduate School Representative Marsha H. Read, Ph.D., Dean, Graduate School August, 2013 i ABSTRACT This study explores the changing relationship between civic identity and economic rhetoric between the recession of 1913-14 and the years immediately following the recession of 1920-21 as represented by the main organ of the American consumer cooperative movement, Cooperation (originally called The Co-operative Consumer). Published originally by the Consumers’ Cooperative Union and later by the Cooperative League of the United States, Cooperation promoted a revolutionary political economy and culture against “the evils of private capitalism and private profit.”1 Targeted at cooperative organizers and members, the purpose of Cooperation was to facilitate cooperative organization and education, to report events concerning cooperatives, and to be a vehicle for cooperators, both nationally and internationally, to share ideas and strategies. Examining the ways in which this dialogue served to construct and refine cooperative thought in terms of revolutionary strategy and technique, this essay argues that cooperators’ thought ultimately transcended consumer organization and translated into an alternate conceptualization of civic and political participation that attempted to balance radical communitarianism with an ideal of commutative justice. 1 “Co-operative Recreations,” in The Cooperative Consumer 2, no. 1 (May 1915): 5. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to my committee members, friends, and family for their encouragement, support, and understanding. My sincerest appreciation to my committee chair, Greta de Jong, who generously provided me with her guidance and help. Very special thanks to my committee members, Martha Hildreth, Emily Hobson, and Carolyn White, for their knowledge, suggestions, and patience. I am also deeply indebted to Dennis Dworkin, Barbara Walker, Leah Wilds, Jennifer Baryol, Elizabeth Raymond, Jodie Helman, Marcia Cooper, Michael Coray, and Edward Schoolman. I would also like to thank my colleagues in the history department for their encouragement, camaraderie, and stimulating discussions. Finally, I am thankful to my family for their unfailing support and love. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... i Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1 Historiography ............................................................................................................................. 5 Sources and Methodology ......................................................................................................... 12 Outline and Discussion .............................................................................................................. 14 1. The Gospel of Trial and Error ............................................................................................... 19 Cooperation: Utopian and Scientific ......................................................................................... 24 The Awakening of the Consumer .............................................................................................. 33 The Cooperative Idea ................................................................................................................ 39 A National Movement ............................................................................................................... 44 2. Getting a Horse and a Mule to Sing in Chorus ..................................................................... 51 "Ye Shall Evolution, or Revolution": Theory and Agency in Cooperation .............................. 53 Revolution, Labor, and Socialism ............................................................................................. 58 “We Need Not Fear for Russia”: Cooperation and the Soviet Experiment .............................. 63 3. Madness and the “Morality of Material Things” ................................................................. 69 The Profit Superstition .............................................................................................................. 75 The Dangers, Uncertainties, and Disappointments of the Political State .................................. 79 Entrenching the Movement ....................................................................................................... 83 Conclusion: A New Patriotism ................................................................................................... 87 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................. 95 1 INTRODUCTION This study explores the changing relationship between civic identity and economic rhetoric between the recession of 1913-14 and the years immediately following the recession of 1920-21 as represented by the main organ of the American consumer cooperative movement, Cooperation (originally called The Co-operative Consumer). Published originally by the Consumers’ Cooperative Union and later by the Cooperative League of the United States, Cooperation promoted a revolutionary political economy and culture against “the evils of private capitalism and private profit.”1 Targeted at cooperative organizers and members, the purpose of Cooperation was to facilitate cooperative organization and education, to report events concerning cooperatives, and to be a vehicle for cooperators, both nationally and internationally, to share ideas and strategies.2 Cooperative theory, for the founders of the magazine, had to be rooted in collective experience and dialogue, such that the successes and failures of each cooperative could educate the others. At the turn of the century, debates over the relationship between civic identity and economic identity became more urgent. Responses to the questions of whether economic policy should revolve around the citizen as producer or as consumer, what specific claims or protections consumers should have, and the nature of the right to consume in relation to political and productive processes developed in a context not only of the expansion of the labor market in non-manufacturing occupations (e.g. white-collar and retail jobs), but frequent economic crises, 1 “Co-operative Recreations,” in The Cooperative Consumer 2 (May 1915): 5. 2 For the purposes of this essay, “cooperators” will be used not only to designate those who were members of cooperatives, but more specifically those who were philosophically committed to the cooperative movement and aided in developing its theory. This usage is in line with Warbasse’s definition of the cooperator as one who “has once had an understanding of the philosophy, history, methods, and possibilities of consumer cooperation, and taken a hand in cooperative action.” James Peter Warbasse, Three Voyages: The Story of an Inquiring Soul Exploring His Way Through Life and Living It as He Goes Being Fragments of an Autobiography (Superior, WI: Cooperative League of the U.S.A., 1956), 143. 2 extreme disparity in wealth between classes, and violent conflicts between labor and capital. The rise of monopoly capital and the corporatization of large-scale manufacturing by the early twentieth century provoked concerns among many that the extensive economic bargaining power of big businesses could undermine political democracy. With the limitations and exclusions of political representation, particularly for women and much of the non-white population, there was much controversy over whether strategies for amelioration should privilege strategies of collective self-help or legislative reform. In addressing the “social problem,” the Cooperative League of the United States opted almost solely for the former during the 1910s and early 1920s. Not only was the League committed to political neutrality, it insisted that economic revolution alone could produce a democratic, cooperative society. In other words, for the League, industrial democracy could not be legislated into existence. Rather, citizenship itself had to be reorganized on the basis of the identity of interests. In his 1919 book, Consumers’ Coöperation, Albert Sonnichsen, the editor of Cooperation, argued that political democracy, or majority rule, was too superficial and arbitrary to engender a democratic society organized on the basis of mutual interests. For this reason, the cooperative movement could neither be established on the basis of political legislation or on the basis of big finance. For Sonnichsen, because the “interest of the consumer [was] universal, all-inclusive, as broad as the earth itself,” civic identity and participation
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