you would be the friendly spirit of those back of the serving tables.
Before you paid your check you would observe further that the food had a
variety and flavor not found in the ordinary restaurant. If you were
discerning you would detect that a complex machinery was at work which
had nearly escaped you because of its smooth operation.

That genial spirit which infects the whole place and those subtle things
which appeal to your eye and palate explain the success of the
cafeteria. But there are some underlying causes for these things that we
must get hold of and to do that we must go back to the year 1919. In
October of that year a private cafeteria was started by two women with a
record of successful cafeteria experience behind them. The experiment
proved successful and the following April a momentous step was taken. It
was proposed that the persons who ate there become the owners. A
cooperative society was formed and in two weeks shares were sold to the
value of two thousand dollars. The new owners took over the cafeteria
and the former owners became their hired employees. This was the
beginning of Our Cooperative Cafeteria.

The cafeteria had from the outset advantages which are gained by many
cooperatives only after bitter and costly experience. They had skillful
and experienced management to which they immediately gave over all
technical control, holding them responsible through an active Board of
Directors and an accounting system devised by experts. The management
justified the confidence of the shareholders. On April 1, 1921, after
one year of operation they had outgrown the first plant and a new branch
had been running for two months. There were in all 379 members. The
year's business had been $96,000, of which $6,000 were net earnings. The
stockholders had received six per cent on their investment, a reserve
fund had been laid aside, and every month the member-patrons had