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.

In the United States cooperation has had an erratic development. Within
the past seven years, however, there has been a rapid increase in new
societies until today it is estimated that there are about three
thousand with a membership of half a million. In number of societies New
York is far behind most of its sister states. It has one hundred and
twenty-five genuine consumers' cooperative associations, seventy-five of
which are among farmer groups and the remaining fifty among city
consumers. There are in addition some twenty cooperative buying groups
connected with large commercial organizations. No complete tabulation
has been made of the total business of all these cooperative groups, but
in 1921 the five largest cooperative societies among the city consumers,
with an average membership of 1,800 persons, all located in New York
City, did a total business of approximately one million dollars. These
societies and many others are prospering. On the other hand there are
many cooperatives which have failed. Whether they have failed or
succeeded more knowledge of practical cooperation can be gained from
their experience than can ever be learned from books.

The Consumers' League feels that the experience of these societies