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Hokitika Guardian, 23 April 1920, Page 2

In the course of an address at the Cooperative Congress in Sydney some ten days ago, Professor Meredith Atkinson, M.A., in dealing with co-operation and social reconstruction, said it had been proved by experience that education was at the very bottom of the success of the co-operative movement. Unless the working class co-operator could convert the professional middle-class worker the scope of co-operation would be limited for an indefinite period. Again, with the development of foreign trade between the co-operative societies of different countries they had an almost endless opportunity to break down the power of commercial combines for exploitation. He instanced Russia’s cooperative work. Before the war the Russian co-operative societies were very powerful; and in 1918 15 million heads ; of families were co-operators, represent I ing, roughly, a population the size of the whole German population. The fact that before the war the Russian co. operative societies wore used for distribution and organisation purposes was a tribute to the strength and the efficiency of the movement. Lenin, leader of the ! Boslieviks, approached the co-operators ; with a view to persuading them to hand ' over everything they possessed to the ' Bolshevik commissaries. They refused, ' however. The reason why Lenin failed to win over the co-operators was that he dared not use force—they were too strong. The Bolsheviks knew better than to interfere with a system which provided the necessaries of life on such a large scale. They had also the conversion of Mr Lloyd George, who said we must reopen trade with the cooperative societies of Russia. The fact that statesmen were converted to the system showed that something more than doctrines was at the bottom of the movement.