The Harvard Co-operative.

The half yearly report of the Harvard Co-operative Society shows that organization to be enjoying the prosperity which its good service deserves. In the amount of its business and in the number of its members it has continued to grow so that this year gives promise of being the most active one in its existence. The following table briefly gives the history of its membership:

1883-84 884

1884 (Feb.)-1884 (Sept.) 488

1884-85 837

1885-86 704

1886-87 813

1887-88 771

1888-89 621

1889-90 763

1890-91 (Jan.) 957

In 1888-89 the decrease was due to an assessment made necessary by reason of the business not yet being firmly established. The membership of this college year up to January, as the table shows, is largest, and numbers President Eliot for the first time as a patron.

In regard to assessments, such as the one in 1888, following the reduction of the membership fee from $2.50 to $1.50, Superintendent Lyford states that unless some wholly improbable catastrophy should befall the institution it will never be necessary to call on the profit sharers again. The Co-operative has unlimited credit, owns its own stock, and has paid all bills due. Moreover the business has been constantly widening although it is not the aim of the society to compete for the patronage of people unconnected with the University. Not a little wholesale trade has grown up through orders from western colleges and schools for goods which the society is known to keep.

Last year about $70,000 worth of business was done, while it is understood that the Yale co-operative did but about $10,000 worth. On this basis at the retail prices of the regular trade a conservative estimate makes the saving to the college by the co-operative system about $10,000. How much more it saves indirectly, by making the extortion system of the old time trust system of Cambridge tradesmen impossible, it is difficult to say.

Last year the dividend was 43 cents on a dollar of profit, and when divided into shares proportional to purchases made some shares as high as $25.00. This was exclusive of the small sum appropriated to the sinking fund.

Since college opened about $4,000 more business has been done than at the same time last year, which is an increase of about $1,000 a month. If this growth continues it will be but a few years before the size and importance of the association will have surpassed the most sanguine expectations of the men who founded it.