Cooperatives and business activity: The cooperative movement in New York Mills was greatly influenced by the fact that Otter Tail County was one of the outstanding farming areas of the Minnesota Finns. The region was once richly forested, thus providing work opportunities in the winter months, but when the forests receded and finally gave way altogether to cultivation, dairy farming became the mainstay: "Dairy farming must be maintained and promoted as much as possible. The dairies are the money mills from which the farmer gets his cash. Their expansion would be a blessed step forward," declared the Uusi Kotimaa.

As a first joint venture, a farmers' dry goods store was established in 1893 (possibly 1894). In Finnish-American business life enterprises of this kind formed a remarkable intermediate step, for they did not represent either individual initiative nor cooperatives in the full sense of the word. F. Tolonen has described them in the following fashion: "In 1895 a peculiar form of joint enterprise was in mode among Finnish-Americans. Although they spread through all areas of Finnish settlement and even though there were often more than one of them in some communities, very few of them have remained alive. Their lack of success was due to the fact that inexperienced men, completely unaware of business methods, were at their head. Men who were totally ignorant of business were frequently appointed to their directorates. It followed that such boards did not want to appoint business managers who had more experience than did the board members themselves. And if the business managers did happen to have the proper qualifications, it did not help either, since the boards wanted to manage the managers. Bearing this in mind, it is no wonder that one after another of these enterprises went into bankruptcy. Many who had subscribed funds to such businesses lost what they had invested and even remained responsible for substantial additional sums to liquidate indebtedness

incurred."13

The joint venture in New York Mills seemed to have some success in the beginning. It was first located south of the railroad, where later rose the apartment house and building block owned by Jack Kampsula. A few years later the business was moved across the tracks to what was then the Blowers block, where the city hall now stands. As the business flourished and expanded, the premises grew too small, and so the big brick

13. Liikemiesten ja Laualajien Suomimatka 1921. Hancock, Mich. 1921. p. 100

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