Our trades unions ought to be the means of securing one of the great necessities of labor in this country—­accurate and generally diffused information concerning the state of the labor-market.  Were there any thorough combination in existence on the part of these unions in hard times, there could be diffused through the great centers of labor in the East regular reports of the labor-market in the different local centers of the country, such as would guide workingmen in their search for opportunities of work. * * *

Another action that our labor unions might take in the interest of the workingmen is in the development of co-operation.  The story of European co-operation is one of the most encouraging tales of our modern industrial world.  Germany, for example, had in 1877 some 2,830 credit societies; of which 806 reported 431,216 members; advances for the year, in loans to their members, $375,000,000, with a loss of one mark to every 416 thalers, or 23-4/5 cents on every $297—­an indication of soundness in their financial operations that many capitalistic corporations might well envy.  The rapid growth of these societies is bringing the omnipotence of credit to the aid of the workingmen in Germany.

We have within the past decade had a most encouraging growth of a somewhat similar form of co-operation in the building and loan associations, which are now estimated to number probably about 8,000 in the nation, with a membership of 450,000, and an aggregated capital of $75,000,000.

The co-operative stores have reached a wonderful development in England, with most beneficent results.  There were 765 stores reporting to the congress in 1881, which showed aggregate sales of $65,703,990, with profits of $435,000; while Scotland reported 226 stores in the same year, representing sales of $17,423,170, and profits of $113,665.

Against this showing our workingmen have comparatively little to offer.  We have, it is true, had a great deal more of experimenting in co-operative distribution than is ordinarily supposed.  Co-operative stores began among us between 1830 and 1840.  The Workingmen’s Protective Union developed a great many stores at this time, which together did a business in their best days ranging from $1,000,000 to $2,000,000 per annum.  In the decade 1860-70 there was an extensive revival of co-operative stores; plans for wholesale agencies being even discussed.  A few of these earlier stores still live.  Two great national orders have arisen, seeking to build up co-operative stores, among other aims.

The Grangers had in 1876 twenty State purchasing agencies, three of which did a business annually of $200,000, and one of which did an annual business of $1,000,000.  They claimed to have, about the same time, five steamboat or packet lines, fifty societies for shipping goods, thirty-two grain elevators, twenty-two warehouses for storing