sold his company that same year to a Virginia workers' company, a Finnish enterprise just then organized. Although it was an incorporated endeavor, the Päivälehti claims that it operated from the very beginning as a cooperative enterprise.

Interest in such a cooperative undertaking had begun to gain ground as a consequence of the mining strike two years earlier. About $3000 in funds had been collected but merely held, waiting for an opportune moment, which came in 1909 and which led to the formation of the Workmen's Trading Company, a name which was retained until 1936, when it was changed to Virginia Cooperative Society. According to Toivo Merisalo, the first meet

Cooperative Store in Virginia.

ing of members in April 1909 elected the following board of directors: David Jacobson, Abraham Kajanus, Sam Lammi, John Nykänen, William Oja, Emil Ojanpää, John Perälä, Erick Sironen, Oscar Stierna, Henry Tamminen and John Tuominen. The first business managers of this new enterprise were Jacob Pauli and Axel Ohrn and, succeeding them, John G. Määttälä. Sales were encouraging from the first, with receipts of more than $50,000 during the first seven months of operations, representing a profit of 18%.

A slightly less rosy picture is given by Matti Mattson, one of the early settlers, who also served as chairman of the founding meeting, for according to him, "the sales were good, but difficulties immediately became apparent, for at that time goods were sold on credit, and bills were due once a month, but some did not pay. Pauli's firm had been purchased with bills outstanding, and

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