this region. The statement that the earth and rock removed from the Minnesota ranges would excavate another Panama Canal every three years is by no means exaggerated, and suggests the vast extent of operations.

Considerable coal is shipped westward via the Great Lakes. Boats carrying ore and grain to Southern lake ports usually return with coal for a cargo. Where this procedure may be followed, the net operating expenses of a steamship are of course materially lowered. Running a freighter light for several days not only earns the owner nothing at all, but upkeep cost, overhead charges, interest on the investment, and insurance run into staggering expense. Fifteen million tons of anthracite and bituminous, valued at $50,000,000, came West by way of that inexpensive route last season.

The other major items from the 1912 "log" of the Soo include flour, manufactured and pig iron, refined copper and concentrates-the purest copper in the world is mined in the upper Michigan copper country lumber, salt, silver ore, building stone, and general merchandise. The diagram on page 906 shows the remarkable increase in the amount of freight carried since the opening of the locks. It is of interest to note the striking growth in recent years.

At present there are just two locks in active use on the American side, and one on the Canadian side, of the rapids. When the two new locks are opened, if the five thus made available are insufficient to cope with the increasing demand, the Canadian Government

contemplates the construction of at least one more. Think of it! Six of the greatest locks in the world all operating in multiple! It would indeed be an inspiring spectacle, and one that we are just as apt to witness as not before the passage of very many years.

Of course it would be ridiculous to compare the locks at the Soo and at Panama as to the relative distances saved to commerce because of their respective locations. So, too, would it be folly to make the comparison on the grounds of engineering achievement. On the surface, it seems quite feasible to weigh one against the other on the scale of actual industrial utility, ton for ton and dollar for dollar. However, the vital importance of Panama in the issue of war, when the mobilization of our meager fleet may mean the very safety of the Nation, quite overpowers the tons and dollars of the counter-argument.

Moreover, the locks of the Saint Mary's, although wonderfully distinctive in themselves, are vastly greater in what they symbolize and mean. For they characterize the stupendous means by which Americans of to-day are tackling and overcoming the formidable extremes. They are the pulse by which we can feel and accurately gauge the expansion and production of one of the wealthiest sections of the United States, a section which has come to wield a dominant influence in our daily life. For it is the veriest truth that the vibrant, virile Northwest is the bread-basket of the Nation.

A

BOUT thirty-four years ago there was, in the city of Ghent, Belgium, a boy, the son of a poor shoemaker, who wanted to see the world. The longing finally became so strong that he left his native city and began wandering all over Europe, paying his way by working at odd jobs. He finally brought up in England, and for a while he worked on the London docks as a longshoreman.

Among all the wonders he saw in the foreign countries through which he passed nothing impressed him so much as the Rochdale co-operative societies, those English workingmen's clubs which owned and managed their own food stores to save their members the profits of the retailers. Even in those days millions of pounds were accumulated in the treasuries of these workingmen's organizations, only to be distributed at the end of each quarter as dividends or rebates on the purchases of the individual store members.

When the boy, Eduarde Anseele, returned to Ghent, some time afterwards, his mind was full of ideas suggested by the English co-operative stores. One evening he gave a talk before the weavers' union of Ghent, and after he had described the co-operative

BAKED

movement in England he presented a proposition to the weavers wherein he suggested that they should bake their bread in common. But instead of frittering away the profits of the enterprise in penny dividends on purchases, he suggested that the greater part should be devoted to a collective insurance fund from which members might be helped in time of illness, unemployment, and other troubles incidental to a workingman's life.

Anseele presented his scheme so convincingly that the weavers advanced him a loan of two thousand francs, and with this initial capital he hired an oven and began baking bread for one hundred and fifty families. In this way the "Vooruit" was founded, in 1880.

The scheme was simple enough. Like the Rochdale societies, after whose pattern it was organized, the Vooruit Society carried on its business from the money advanced by its members in the form of membership fees, or shares. Each member was entitled to one vote in the control of the society's business, a board of directors being elected by them to carry it on. The bread was sold at the usual market price, and at the end of the quarter the profits could be returned to the

purchasing members, in proportion to their purchases, or otherwise disposed of, as the members themselves saw fit. But, unlike the Rochdale societies, the members of the Vooruit allowed the profits to accumulate and be used as a mutual benefit insurance fund.

From the very beginning the Vooruit prospered; at the end of the first year four hundred families had subscribed to the working capital and were getting their daily bread from their communal oven. The majority probably did not understand the theory behind this peculiar enterprise, and supported it only because they were made to understand by their leaders that they were helping the labor movement in some vague way. The benefits were not immediately apparent, for the prices were just the same as in other bakeries. With each loaf of bread came a ticket. The housewife collected these tickets because her man told her to do so. At a certain time, at the end of the quarter, she must bring these tickets to the office of the society, in back of the bakery. But then would come her first lesson in the value of co-operation; she would learn that these tickets had the value of money in buying more bread. A little leaflet entitled 66 Why Marie should be a Co-operator" tried to explain in simple language why she was entitled to these free loaves; that they were not given in charity. But Marie needed experience to be convinced.

Then would come a period of trouble; her man was out of work, and it was a question whether this new bakery would extend credit as the little bakery in the cellar around the corner had done before. Ready cash was no longer available, yet every morning the dogcart from the Vooruit appeared as usual and left a loaf of bread at her doorstep. Then Marie's man found work again, and the

problem of paying

up the arrears was before her. To her lively surprise she found that there was no overhanging debt to worry her; the free loaves during the family's distress were only a benefit included in a regu

lar membership to the society.

Next came a period when one of the children was ill; a doctor appeared, cured the child, and would take no fee. There was not even a bill for medicines. "The Vooruit pays me," he explained, smiling.

"But where does

the Vooruit get the money to pay for these things?" Marie would ask her man. Piet, having attended the regular meetings of the society, would be able to explain.

"We pay. When we buy our bread from a private baker, he makes a profit from us, which he puts into his own pocket. The Vooruit, being our own bakery, uses this profit for our benefit."

Naturally Marie would become an enthusiastic booster for the Vooruit among her neighbors. Other women would tell how they, too, had free bread for twelve days after their babies were born, with a big cake on the first day. One day, while the women were gossiping about these benefits, the priest would drop in, and, instead of showing pleasure at their good luck, he would frown, saying:

66

You must persuade your man to withdraw from the Vooruit. They are dangerous people there: socialists, agitators, enemies of the Church. I forbid you to deal with them."

That was the first big obstacle that Anseele and his associates came up against-the Catholic clergy. Not that the Church was opposed to co-operative baking in itself, for soon the parish priests were organizing baking societies themselves under their own control, to oppose the Vooruit. But Anseele and the other leaders frankly stated that their purpose was to extend the co-operative prin

ciple until it covered all the necessities of life for everybody. They were Socialists. As Anseele expressed it, "We are bombarding the bourgeois citadel with loaves of bread." And, of course, as the Church in Belgium is irrevocably bound to the political principles of the Conservative party, it could not assume a neutral attitude toward Anseele and his radical programme.

Here was Marie's first difficulty; to decide between her loyalty to the Church and the material benefits of the Vooruit. It was not only a question of faith. Nearly all of Marie's pleasures and those of the children were bound up with the Church. The parish priests organized their festivals and entertainments; while the men could go to the cafés, the women and children found all

the simple pleasures they could expect through the parish house.

"now we

"The priests have learned co-operation from us," said Anseele, when the Catholic baking societies began to appear; must learn from them. Without the women our bakery can never prosper. We, too, must give them music."

Shortly after, "Ons Huis" (Our House) was opened by the Vooruit-the first of those peculiar social centers famous in Belgium under the name "maison du peuple." Every tourist going through Belgium has seen the name.

But in those days Ons Huis attracted very little attention; it was a modest little clubhouse, rented from the profits of the bakery. Here the men could gather to read the