The report of the " Kingsland Co-operative Association" for the year ending January 31st, 1886, shows the total amount of capital stock to be $1,990, divided into 398 shares, at $5 per share.* The "cash account" of the annual statement is as follows:

The "Fruit-Growers' Union," of Hammonton, first organized in 1867, was re-organized and incorporated under the co-operative law February 16th, 1884, and is now known by the name of "The Fruit Growers' Union and Co-operative Society." The paid-up capital at the time of the re-organization amounted to $2,800. The society deals in fertilizers, merchandise, coal, feed, etc. "Thus far," observed the president at the second annual meeting, "it has not been the aim of your officers to show a large net profit at the end of the year, but, on the contrary, to furnish goods to buyers on a margin as small as is consistent with safety." "We cannot expect to make the large percentage on sales as is shown in the reports of co-operative stores in cities, where they handle goods which bring a good profit, while our business must consist largely in feed, fertilizers and such goods as are handled at a less profit. The benefits of patronizing a co operative store are honest weight, good goods at reasonable prices, and no extravagant profits. It is your store; you own it and get all the profits accruing from the business. * * One of our members kept an account of his

*

*The par value of the New Brunswick association is $25; that of the Trenton, $5. There are 59 members.

* *

*

purchases for one month at one of our best stores; he kept himself posted on the prices at the union store, and figured up the difference. At the end of the month he found that he would have saved 20 per cent. on his purchases had he patronized his own store. He then borrowed money, and has since traded here. While the percentage on gross sales is not large, for reasons given, we find that the money invested in our business has earned over 30 per cent. during the year. We call that a handsome interest." * The total number of members is 233, who own 985 shares. Three hundred and seventy-nine dollars has been set aside for the sinking fund during the past two years; that is 5 per cent. on the capital stock. For this reason no dividend has yet been declared. The following statement shows the amount of receipts and disbursements at the store:

The laws of New Jersey allow any number of persons, not less than seven, to incorporate themselves into a co-operative society upon signing and acknowledging a certificate of association (charter), and recording the same in the county clerk's office and filing a copy thereof in that of the Chief of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.† The society is then organized and by-laws adopted. These provide for an annual general meeting of the members, at which a president and other officials composing the board of directors are chosen, who elect one of their number treasurer, and oversee the business affairs of the concern. A secretary, business manager and other employes are also selected by the board. All fiduciary officials must give bonds. The annual meeting of the members selects an auditing committee of three from their own number. No member has more than one vote. Regular quarterly and special meetings are also provided for. The general rule followed in business transactions is the cash system.

The following is a copy of the certificate of association of the Trenton Co-operative Society and may serve as a model for prospective organizations of a like character:

Secretary's report for 1885.

†Before recording the certificate must be indorsed by the Chief.

This is to certify that we * citizens and residents of the county of Mercer and State of New Jersey, and such as now are or who may hereafter become associated with us, do hereby associate ourselves together by the following certificate of association for the purpose hereinafter mentioned, under and by virtue of the provisions of an act of the Legislature of New Jersey, entitled 'An act to provide for the formation and regulation of co-operative societies of workingmen,' and to that end we do, by this, our certificate, designate and set forth :

"First The name of this society shall be 'The Trenton Co-operative Society.' "Second. The place in this State where the business of this society is to be conducted shall be in the city of Trenton, where the principal office shall be located. "Third. The object of said society shall be to engage in the business of trading and dealing in goods, wares, merchandise and chattels, and of buying, settling, selling or leasing, and improving real estate and erecting buildings thereon, and to divide the profits thus realized among its members and others, in proportion as they may have contributed to the production of said profits by their capital, labor or

custom.

"Fourth. The total amount of the capital stock is five thousand dollars ($5,000), divided into one thousand shares (1,000), of the par value of five dollars ($5.00) each, to be paid in installments of not less than fifty cents ($0.50) per week; the number of shares already subscribed for is one hundred and twenty (120), and the amount actually paid in cash on account of the same is one hundred and fifty dollars ($150).

"Fifth. Any person, whose name has been approved by the Board of Directors, may become a member of this society by paying an entrance fee of twenty-five cents ($0.25), subscribing for one or more shares of capital stock, and signing an agreement to abide by the Articles of Association and whatever By-Laws and amendments thereto may hereafter be agreed upon at any regular meeting of the society.

"Sixth Profits shall be divided in the following order:

"1st. Five (5) per cent. of the net profit shall be set apart as a contingent or sinking fund until there shall have accumulated a sum equal to thirty (30) per cent. of the capital stock of the society.

"2d. Interest at the rate of six (6) per cent. per annum shall be paid quarterly upon the share capital of the society on all shares fully paid up at the beginning of the financial quarter.

"3d. If, after paying the sums provided for in paragraphs one (1) and two (2) of this section, the remaining profits of the business of any quarter shall be sufficient to pay a dividend of one or more full per cent. upon the full amount paid as wages during the quarter and the full amount of sales for the quarter, such dividend shall be paid. In the adjustment of the dividend on sales, the non-members shall receive one half (1) the rate of dividend paid to members. Any amount of undivided profits on the business of each quarter shall be carried forward to the credit of the next financial quarter.

"Seventh. Alterations or amendments may be made to this certificate of association and to the by-laws of this society at any regular meeting of the society, provided ten (10) full days' notice be given of such intended alteration or amendments, and two-thirds of those present vote in favor thereof.

In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands and seals this sixteenth day day of March, A. D. 1885."

*Names of seven or more incorporators.

CHAPTER II.

THE LAW AND THE LABORER.

PROGRESSIVE LABOR LEGISLATION IN NEW JERSEY.

Distance alone lends enchantment to that view which gives the "good old times" an idyllic character, for the nearer we approach and examine them from the standpoint of what is now considered even the minimum of comfort, the more uninviting do they appear. The present world could not live that way now. The material progress of our time has increased the conveniences of life a thousand fold, and added to the happiness of a greatly augmented population; there has been a general forward movement socially, even though the rate of progress in individual cases has been disproportionate. And this has been most marked within a comparatively recent period. The time when there were no railroads, no telegraph, no sewing machines, no kerosene oil nor gas-the day of the "tallow dip," when even matches had not come into use, hardly yet belongs to history. The lumbering, but romantic, stagecoach ran far into our century, while there are still those among us who sailed on our first steamboats. That was the day of magnificent distances, when it took as much time to get over the ninety odd miles in our State, between New York and Philadelphia, as it does now to perform the journey between the metropolis and the Mississippi. The beginnings of our excellent system of free schools were witnessed by Jerseymen who have but just passed middle age. The newspaper reader is really a -creature of modern birth. In 1810 only eight weekly newspapers were published in this State; in 1885 New Jersey boasts of over two hundred local "dailies" and "weeklies," while many thousands consider as necessary as their cup of tea or coffee the regular budget of news served by the New York or Philadelphia press, arriving either by train or through the post office, which is one of the greatest of modern improvements. It was only in 1845 that an act of Congress led to the introduction of the present system of postal rates and stamps. The recipient of letters forty years ago paid the postage, which varied according to the distance and number of sheets of paper sent, the lowest rate being six cents for "every letter composed on a single sheet of paper, not exceeding thirty miles," and so on to four hundred miles, when twentyfive cents were charged; for double letters, double rates, etc. The expense was so heavy as to make correspondence a luxury for the great mass of the people, the number of letters sent being very small in proportion to the number of inhabitants. When the national government had got under way, only seventy-five post offices were in existence, and of these New Jersey had but six. Now nearly every hamlet in our State has its daily delivery. Yet less than three-quarters of a century ago the mail was considered "on time" when delivered once a week. Our mail," observes an enthusiastic chronicler of 1818, "is now transported with uncommon rapidity; daily

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between all the great towns and commercial cities; twice a week to the capitals of each State which are not commercial, and once a week to other places."

The main post road ran through a sparsely-settled country, passing not even all of the half dozen New Jersey towns, which contained but a few hundred houses each. The great bulk of our population then and long after continued to follow agriculture as a pursuit-" exclusively an agricultural State" is the expression frequently met with in official documents down to the '40's. The manufacturing enterprises were nowhere worthy of the name. At the close of the preceding century a few iron and shoe factories, tanyards, grist, saw and paper mills completed the infant industries of that day. The attempt which the "Society for the Encouragement of Useful Manufactures "made at the Great Falls of the Passaic, had proved a discouraging failure, because, as was said, "the whole thing was premature." This state of affairs continued up to the time when the restrictive commercial policy, pursued by our government during the years which immediately preceded and witnessed the war of 1812, almost entirely prevented the importation of foreign goods and necessarily stimulated home production. Here, as elsewhere, every effort was made "to encourage domestic manufactures," which, with the return of peace and the reopening of our ports to commerce, had a hard struggle for existence, in "a market inundated with goods of British manufacture," until relief came with the various tariff acts, culminating in the legislation of 1828-the famous "tariff of abominations," as it was called. But now, with the advent of railroads, which soon followed the introduction of labor-saving machinery, the magnificent inventions of Watt and Arkwright and Crompton and Cartwright, began the development of the factory system-the modern industrial period, although somewhat later in New Jersey than elsewhere.

A generation had not yet passed away since the time of which it was written, that "most of the [Jersey] families in the country and many in the populous towns are clothed in strong, decent homespun." That probably was a rose colored view of a superficial observer and referred only to the well to do classes. The condition of the artisan and laboring part of the population was anything but agreeable at the close of the *Paterson, 1792.

"An act to ascertain the state of manufactures in this state" was passed in 1814 and an incomplete census taken under it, the returns giving information only concerning cotton and woolen manufacturing establisments and sheep. Of the thirteen counties, which were inhabited by 250.0.0 people, Cape May and Hunterdon did not report. In the remaining there were 234,361 sheep. 20 cotton mills, 6 woollen factories, and 140 carding machines for country business;" the total spindles in use did not equal in number those now employed in a single one of our filty odd mills.

The act is interesting because it was the first attempt at an industrial census of New Jersey: "Whereas, it is of great importance that information should be obtained as to the state and extent of the manufacturing establishments in this state and the increase of the same, therefore, etc..

1. That it shall be the duty of the assessor of the several townships ** to take an account and enumeration of all manufacturing establishments within their respective townships working in wool, cotton, flax, hemp or either; all manufactories of glass, iron or brass wire and ironmongery, and all carding machines for carding wool for hire, which shall be used, owned or carried on by any person within this state; and the said assessor shall, in taking the account and enumeration aforesaid, procure, as far as practicable, information as to the amount or extent of the several articles manufactured as aforesaid in each manufactory with an account of the machines or machinery used in the same," etc.

From this time on many special acts were passed "to encourage domestic manufactures" by incorporating companies. The first general manufacturing act was enacted in 1816. but repealed three years later It allowed ten or more persons to form a company for the purpose of manufacturing woolen, cotton or linen goods, or for the purpose of making glass, or for the purpose of making from ore bar iron, anchors, mill irons, steel, rail rods, hoop-iron and ironmongery, sheet-corper, sheet lead or red lead." The next general law was that of 1846; the third was passed in 1:49, which does not vary greatly from our present "act concerning corporations

Gov. Dickerson's annual message, 1816.

Winterbottom's View of the United States of America, 1795.