Central eight years later, while the Wright Cooperative Company was started in 1919 and joined the Central in 1926. The bigger enterprises, eventually, were the cooperatives at Kettle River and in Cromwell.

The Kettle River beginnings go back to a consumers' circle started in 1912, which did not manage to open its store, however, until 1914, only to suffer a severe blow in the 1918 fire, fromwhich recovery was very slow. In 1919, t joined the Cooperative Central, but within a few months it was still threatened with bankruptcy, chiefly because of too liberal credit poli cies, and disaster did follow in 1921 in spite of all efforts to prevent it. However, in the hands of receivers, and guided by Severi Alanne, a firm basis was finally established.

At the period of this recovery, another cooperative in Kettle River, a cooperative dairy, was begun on the initiative of local farmers. And because the first board of directors included not only Finns but also a Swede and a Pole, the cooperation of all farmers was assured. This meant later that, with the Finns less active in farming, other nationalities became more strongly represented in the dairy, and its board in the 1950s had but one Finn left.

Further, there was in Kettle River the C-A-P Cooperative Oil Association, started in 1929 and joining the Central in 1931. There was, finally, the Carlton County Cooperative Power Association (originally called the Northern Cooperative Power Association) which got its start in Kettle River and is basically a rural electrification project - begun under REA auspices, a Federal program authorized by Congress in 1935. The start was made at a meeting in 1935, with 82 interested persons present, at which Johan Manni appeared with a township map marked with the Finnish farmers who wanted electricity. With planning carried out farther, it was discovered that there were 1,541 farmers interested, and that 452 miles of power lines were needed to include them all. Washington approved the project and advanced $105,000 to help finance it. Actual work was begun in 1937, and

Raju Athletic Club band in 1926.

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