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To Volstead, the Brewers, the Lynx and Cooperators!
If you missed the three-part Ken Burns and Lynn Novick documentary “Prohibition,” it was probably a case of unfortunate timing.
After all, it competed for attention and airtime with the Minnesota Lynx, who are in the WNBA finals, the nearby Milwaukee Brewers in MLB post-season play, and with cooperative leaders' national convention in Minneapolis. (We'll get to the co-op connection in a minute.)
For hardcore Twins fans, the salute to the Brewers is a bit tongue-in-cheek, considering the Prohibition series. But we do wish our neighboring National League team well just as we cheered for the Milwaukee Braves before the Minnesota Twins brought American League baseball here in 1961.
Now, a toast to Andrew Volstead, the Granite Falls congressman best remembered for writing the act that implemented Prohibition, the 13-year dry spell that is the poster child of public policies' “unintended consequences.” He was chair of the House Judiciary Committee and thus the committee bill carried his name. It was not what he wanted as a legacy.
Instead, Volstead was most proud of contributing to the Capper-Volstead Act. It overcame court interpretations of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act which had hindered farmers from banding together in “associations,” or cooperatives. This Act is fondly, if not quite accurately, remembered to this day as the “Magna Carta” for cooperatives.
In a run up to the "Prohibition" series, Pioneer Public Television, the TV station at Appleton, recently held public gatherings to promote the Burns documentary and its locally produced companion documentary, “Volstead Fever.”
One gathering was in New Ulm, home of the August Schell Brewing Co. that managed to survive Prohibition. The other was in Granite Falls, Volstead’s backyard, at Bootlegger’s Supper Club that traces part of its history to a speakeasy that operated during Prohibition.
Volstead’s importance to cooperatives was saluted at Granite Falls. As was noted at the gathering, Minnesota is now the most cooperatively organized state in the nation with 1,026 such enterprises having headquarters based here. These provide 42,000 jobs in the state and generate $33 billion in annual economic activity, and they now cover at least 16 different industry and service sectors of our economy.
Now that’s a legacy any member of Congress would want.
And that’s the economic and cooperative background of Minnesota greeting people from across the nation and world to the National Cooperative Business Association’s annual conference (Oct. 4-7) in Minneapolis.
Yes, the world. The United Nations has declared 2012 as “The International Year of Cooperatives.” It's an effort to bring awareness of how co-ops can help build economies from the ground and community up.
Looking forward, Minnesota business schools and policymakers must continue fostering cooperation in new industries and among start-up businesses, especially in the growing bio-business fields. That is certainly something leaders of today should consider making their legacy.
Posted in Economic Development | Related Topics: Business Growth Co-ops Minnesota Sports