A new building was ready for occupancy the following spring, and according to the owners it was "the most beautiful and modern business building in all the Middle West." Although the building cost about $40,000, a steady increase in business made possible a continuation of the cooperative. Annual receipts, in 1963, reached the figure of $1,130,000. Long before this, it was estimated that only half of its members were Finns, and even on the board of directors, the original Finnish board of pioneer Finns of 1909 has given way to the younger generation: in 1952 there were six second generation Finns on the board with only three of the older generation still left. The enterprise has been a member of the Cooperative Central Organization since 1937.

Even earlier, however, the Virginia cooperative had become instrumental in the development of a more local grouping - the Range Cooperative Federation, which began as a league of fuel oil company services but expanded to include many other branches. From 1929, the affiliated oil companies did their purchasing of fuels jointly, and in 1933 the dairies began a joint program, with five of them putting in a total of $700 to purchase a truck, which enabled them to operate at a profit. Nine local firms banded together, production facilities were organized, and the federation incorporated. Success seemed to accompany every step, so considerable expansion was undertaken. To the activities were added automotive sales and service, farm machinery procurement, marketing of farm and lumber products, an insurance agency, and a funeral parlor. Gross receipts rose rapidly, from $123,779 in 1935 to $552,890 in 1937, and in the twenty-year period 19351954 were more than $30,000,000. It was not until the mid-1950s that difficulties began to appear: the Cooperative Central arranged direct truck delivery to its member cooperatives, depriving the Federation of a source of income; several dairies had grown so large that this Finnish cooperative could no longer compete with them, leading to the sale of the Finnish enterprise to the Arrowhead Dairy in 1953; automobile sales became unprofitable, so sales and service were separated from the Federation and incorporated separately in 1955. The insurance business was given up when the Mutual Service Insurance Company began to sell policies directly to clients, rather than through the offices of local agents. Only the fuel oil sales, the funeral home and a meat processing plant remained operative within the Federation. However, in 1955 there were 24 local cooperatives with 32 sales outlets still in the Federation. Kendall, in his study of the regional cooperative movement, cited their frequently remarkable

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