The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, December 1, 1919, Page 22

ADVERTISEMENTS Leadership Through Service generation ago leadership in A any industry was interpre- ted to mean the ruthless use of p(')wer. Today it is recognized that leadership in industry is attained and maintained only when, through efficiehcy, an organiza- tion is able to render superior service. A generation ago competition meant getting the business without regard for its effect on the industry. Today competition means friendly rival. ry in supplying the world ‘with superior products at a minimum cost, and getting the business through superior service. The Standard Oil Company (Indiana) enjoys a leading position in the petrol- eum industry, and is maintaining this leadership because it recognizes that this position can be measured only in terms of usefulness and service. It is the ambition of those responsible for the activities of the Company to strengthen this leadership. The Standard Oil Company (Indiana) believes that an organization can live and prosper only when it puts ideals of J service above ideals of profit, which is fi . exactly what the Standard Oil Company (Indiana) is doing. The profits earned are but a measure of the service rendered.” Thus does the Board of Directors of the : Standard Oil Company (Indiana) inter- pret its obligation to the public and to the 4649 stockholders, not one of whom B - owns as much as 10 per cent of the ! total stock. : Standard Oil Company : (Indiana) 910 S. Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Il TASCADERO, CAL., lo- cated on the coast line of the California state high- way, just halfway be- tween San Francisco and Los Angeles, is not a re- ligious or political colony. It is mere- ly a community which has been plan- ned from its inception and built ac- cording to a plan as a properly built house would be—this is what distin- guishes it from the ordinary communi- ties, which, like Topsy, “jest grow.” One of the most, probably the most, important feature of this foresight and method is the fact that the in- crease of land values as a result of im-~ provements to be made there was fore- seen, and inasmuch as it was seen that this value would be the product of the joint virtues and activity of the peo- ple of Atascadero, it was decided to take this value for the benefit of all Atascaderans., Of course the state laws could not be immediately chang- ed to bring this about—it had to be accomplished then by another means. What was done was to reason that, because a given lot or tract would be worth so much when these contem- plated public improvements should be made, therefore that amount should be charged as the price of the lot and then the amount so received should be applied to the construction of im- provements’ that weuld make it worth the price asked so that the purchaser would receive the full value of the price charged. The fact that his money was taken to make the im- provements was considered just, inas- much as he would have the lot and the value attaching to it, that is, he would get his money’s worth by having his lot made all he paid for it. By this means public buildings were provided that no other community of its size would ever be able to boast under the ordinary system. For ex- ample, Atascadero had in two years a better water system than large places nearby that were over 30 years old. As time has passed this advan- tage has become even more marked. ¢ Atascadero is mnot a Socialist or Communistic community. =Each per- son owns his own place in fee simple, | and owns his own home, and his earn- ings and his savings are his own. It is true, however, that its seizure of site value for public use has worked so well that Atascaderans favor the land value tax as a means of doing with all site value and for all communities what the Atascadero plan has done for Atascadero. : There is a large co-operative ele- ment in the life of the place. This was$ bound to be so, because the peo- ple that came there in answer to the advertisements were predisposed to co- operative effort, otherwise they would not have given favorable heed to those advertisements. It follows that team work comes natural to Atascaderans. (Continued from page 11) again, a resolution condemning the organization of political clubs on the basis of nationality was introduced in the Legion convention, but was not al- lowed by the resolutions committee to come before the convention. And in the meantime the labor the Republican and Democratic poli- talking about organizing a third party of their own. This threat may or may not force the old parties to put up more liberal candidates and more lib- eral platforms than the old-liners are counting - upon. If the old parties forces, slapped in the face by both- ticians, are meeting at Chicago and - _should go in the fight with standpat, How One City Shares Its Land Values California Town Takes Increase in Worth of Property for : Benefit of Whole Community .5 It is not at all strange, thewefore, . that they took quickly and unitedly to- the proposal to establish there a unit of the Pacific Co-Operative league, it- self a unit in the national and interna- tional Rochdale movement. The idea was methodically played up in the local newspaper, the Atascadero News, under the editorship of L. D. Beck- with, and was so heartily responded to by the people that a Rochdale asso- -ciation was formed to take over the food concessions in the one store there. Under the efficient plan of the new community there was provided but one commercial center and there one big store building was erected in which the departments are operated by their respective owners as separate stores, but all under one roof; which is a half-acre in expanse, and covers three floors and a mezzanine floor. In that building the separate merchants have common janitor, light, water, heat and elevator service, just as in a town separate merchants though in sepa- ° rate buildings have common police and fire protection and street car service. The Atascadero Rochdalers follow- ed the easy way so often selected by co-operators and chose to begin with- the food concessions. These concessions they purchased taking over grocery, meat market, _bakery and delicatessen departments, ~and opening up May 1 with 201 mem- bers and doing a business of $521:the first day. They have grown steadily in numbers until by the middle of; Oc- tober they had 310 members, and were doing over $760 per day on Saturdays. The first quarter they earned their members a 5 per cent dividend. The store is unique among Rochdale stores because it is the only store in the community handling food articles —having no competitor nearer than five miles, although Atascadero had in October, 1919, more than 280 resi- dences, besides many families that were living in made-over garages, or in parts of the completed residences while waiting for the construction of their own homes. Estimates of the families there run ‘all the way from 350 to 450. Owing to the big pub- lishing plant there and the big de- hydrator which works up fruit from the orchards of Atascadero and from the country round about, there are al- ways more families there than houses to accommodate them. . Already, under the impetus of the Atascadero Rochdale -store, a Roch- dale unit of the league has been pro- jected by the union men in thesrail- road town of San Luis Obispo,- 20 miles distant, and. another has been projected by the union men of the Or- cutt oil field;-50 milés farther along the highway. These, with that already operating at Maricopa, another oil field, .promise to make that part of ' California a conspicuous center of Rochdale activity. ‘Class Against Class—A Political Dodge anti-labor candidates, both declaring for compulsory military training, a third party might secure a phenom-- enal vote. ; e The lawyer-politicians of both old parties know this and they are watch- S ing the labor men and the organized’ . farmers very closely. While they are. “viewing with alarm” any tendency on the part of their opponents to “set clags against class,” they are consid- - ering very seriously themselves just how they are to manipulate these same classes, set the soldier vote against the labor vote, the Irish vote against the Scandinavian vote, the Catholic vote against the Protestant vote—so that they may slip into office once more.