The author describes his experience helping the lobstermen of Vinalhaven to form cooperative buying and marketing club, in 1938

Holmes, Edward M.

English

University of Maine

Maine History Volume 29 Number 1 Organizing the lobster industry Article 4 6-1-1989 Vinalhaven Lobstermen’s Co-Operative, 1938 Edward M. Holmes Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mainehistoryjournal  Part of the Labor History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Holmes, Edward M.. "Vinalhaven Lobstermen’s Co-Operative, 1938." Maine History 29, 1 (1989): 52-57. https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mainehistoryjournal/vol29/iss1/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Maine History by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. For more information, please contact um.library.technical.services@maine.edu. E D W A R D  M. H O L M E SVINALHAVEN LOBSTERM EN’S CO-OPERATIVE, 1938Edward M. “Ted” H olm es was born and brought up in M ontclair, N.J., a suburb of New York City. After graduating  from  college w ith a degree in English, he spent many m onths seeking em ploym ent, and intermittently working as a sales­man at M acy’s department store, as a runner in Wall Street, as a seaman and stagehand on a floating theater, and, un til he was fired, as a newspaper reporter.A t that time he looked upon President Franklin D. Roose­velt's New Deal w ith moderate approval but felt it was doing  little to alter the roots o f society's economic woes. The Com ­m unist Party (what there was of it) seemed hopelessly dog­matic, and the Socialists too weak. But members of the consu­mers co-operative movement were performing useful services, and at the same time were being practical and non-profit. He took a course in the organizing and managing of consumer co-operatives offered by the Co-operative League of the United States of America, and in 1938 worked temporarily at a consu­mers' co-operative store in Westchester County.Tow ard the end of July 1938, I received a letter from an official of the Co-operative League of the United States of America in New York City telling me that one Birger Magnu- son, on the Island of Vinalhaven, Maine, had written them inquiring  about the possibility of sending an organizer to the island to form a cooperative am ong fishermen. Having no professional organizers on tap, the official had written me at my summer-vacation address near Mt. Desert Island, suggest­ing that I drop in at V inalhaven to find out what I could create w ith those fellows. He knew I had recently taken a course in m anaging consumer co-ops, that I had time at my disposal (I was unemployed), and that I was relatively near Vinalhaven (a great deal nearer by water than by land, but that did not matter).52VINALHAVEN LOBSTERMEN’S CO-OPERATIVEI did not hesitate; I wrote Birger M agnuson, noting my time of arrival, and rode with my wife as far as Rockland. Here we tem porarily parted, she to return to the job in a Brooklyn public library that was supporting both of us and I to board the small steamer that plowed Penobscot Bay, daily, to Vinal- haven.M agnuson and I got along well at once and became long­term friends. A middle-aged widower, he had lost his only son overboard a year or two earlier. The youth suffered a sudden heart attack and a heavy swell tipped him off the stern of the boat. M agnuson dived overboard to save his son, but to no avail. Following this shock, he took his parents-in-law into his home — the man a fellow lobstercatcher (but one who rowed to his traps, having no powerboat), and the woman a provident housekeeper for all three of them.Birger M agnuson put me up and treated me like a member of the family — perhaps better. First we had long talks about our lives and careers. He had read about the fisherm en’s coop­eratives in Nova Scotia and wrote the League asking for an organizer. My experience, on the other hand, was with consu­mer co-ops, mostly retail grocery stores, and although I knew a few lobstercatchers, I really did not know the business well. We exchanged knowledge, opinions, hopes, even fantasies, some­times quite far into the night. I think it helped M agnuson bear his loss.Then the inform al meetings began, shortly after supper­time in M agnuson's modest parlor. His house was close to a sheltered, tidal inlet; lobster boat, wharf, workshop, and dom i­cile were nestled together, so that we were always close to the fishery. Usually there were six or seven fishermen present at the meetings; then the next n ight six or seven others would appear, with a few repeaters.I learned to listen at great length, hearing repeatedly the stark history of the decline of the lobster industry in the years of the Great Depression, the fall of lobster prices to fifteen, even to twelve cents a pound, the dependence of local buyers on the Consolidated Lobster Company that apparently controlled53VINALHAVEN LOBSTERMEN’S CO-OPERATIVElobster prices from Eastport to Kittery. I heard about the fishermen s indebtedness to the local buyers and, at least by extension, to the Consolidated Lobster Company itself. I always listened, trying to appear as if I were hearing it at least for the second, if not the first time.By means of telephone and a few signs in public areas, M agnuson announced a meeting of lobster fishermen in a local hall. It drew about twenty men, all of whom I had met at one time or another at M agnuson’s home. M agnuson conducted the meeting, and after lengthy and vigorous discussion the group agreed to form, as a starter, a lobster fisherm en’s cooper­ative buying club. They would order, direct from wholesalers, such items as ganging (twine for knitting trap heads), lobster warp (five-sixteenths inch rope — many fathoms of it), laths, paint, and other materials, then distribute them am ong them ­selves at cost plus a small charge to cover shipping expenses.Back at M agnuson’s home, which had become my office, I drew up a fairly simple constitution and bylaws, calling for one-member, one-vote procedures and regular election of the customary officers. A small membership fee would supply cap­ital; each fee would be returnable, but subject to a few safe­guards referring to time and cash available. T he net gain, if any, would be used as an “educational fund” (read public relations and prom otion). A few days later the document was approved by vote, and I, not w anting to impose on the M agnu­son household any further, took off for Greater New York.W ithin two or three weeks came another letter to me from the Co-operative League, saying that the Vinalhaven lobster- men wanted someone to incorporate them for cooperative m ar­keting as well as buying, and asking me to go back and help. It even included a check for $100 to pay my expenses.Off I went, hitch-hiking (we had no car by then) east on Route 1. The last driver on my journey was a lawyer who asked me questions about my destination. I answered willingly and in detail, and when he let me out in Rockland, a little before m idnight, he opened his briefcase and gave me a printed legal form for drawing up incorporation papers. He uttered not a54VINALHAVEN LOBSTERMEN’S CO-OPERATIVEword about practicing law w ithout being a member of the Bar, although years later lawyer friends of mine m entioned that point. I thanked him  most sincerely and, shouldering my knapsack, turned toward the waterfront, only to be appre­hended by one of those fellows wearing a blue suit and a visored cap.“Where you going, Bud?”“Vinalhaven.”“You can’t go there tonight.”“I know. But I can get aboard that little steamer and sleep on deck next to the funnel. I t’s cozy warm there.”“No. You’re going to come with m e,” he said, and calmly taking my arm, walked me off to the Rockland jail where I was supplied w ith a bunk in a cell. “W hat time do you want to be off in the m orning?”“Five o ’clock,” I said.“You’ll be called,” he told me. And he was right.Back on the island, I was greeted happily by my fishermen friends, and after long, uninform ed talks about what to do next, I returned to the m ainland and to the Knox County Court­house, where I was perm itted to read corporation charters and take notes. I focused on a legal docum ent founding a farmers’ cooperative, and, w ith pages of handw ritten legalese in my possession, returned to Vinalhaven, to Birger M agnuson’s par­lor, and to my typewriter. (Yes, I had lugged a portable typewri­ter with me.)I drew up many paragraphs suited to the legal form that kind and generous Rockland lawyer had given me, and at a meeting with the score or more interested lobstercatchers I attained agreement on certain principles and even on details. The meeting determined several issues: 1) the one-member, one-vote principle would be retained; 2) stock would have a par value of ten dollars; 3) the cooperative would buy and market lobsters for members only; 4) any licensed lobstercatcher would be eligible for membership; 5) the stock would yield, when it could, a modest dividend (in practice, no more than the interest on a note); 6) the co-op would buy lobsters and sell gear at55VINALHAVEN LOBSTERMEN S CO-OPERATIVEgoing market prices; 7) any net gain from the sale of lobsters would be distributed periodically to the members in exact proportion to the dollar-am ount each had sold to the coopera­tive; 8) any net gain from the sale of equipm ent to members would be distributed to those members in exact proportion to the am ount of their purchases; and 9) any net gain from the sale of equipm ent to non-members would revert to an educational or reserve fund.The document was ratified, signed, notarized — whatever — and sent off to the attorney general of the state, who, or perhaps whose assistant, made two m inor corrections and accepted the thing as a legal reality.At that meeting only one member of the initial organizing group voted against the document and demanded return of the fee he paid to the buying club. T he treasurer prom ptly pro­duced ten dollars and fifty cents. The w ithdraw ing member, who sounded none too rational (he seemed full of ethanol), protested the fifty cents, insisting it was not owed to him. The treasurer explained that it was, since the value of his share in the organization had grown by that am ount in the past weeks. Confused, shaking his head, the man left the hall with the ten-fifty, looking a bit embarrassed. He had supplied an excel­lent bit of local publicity for the co-op.By this time rum ors were all over town: ' ‘Yeah, you fellows sign up with that man if you want, but three weeks from now your bunch will get a bill for $600. See if you don’t!” “What does that man get out of this anyhow? I w ouldn’t trust him  for a m inute. You ever seen him  handle a deck of cards?” (I had sat in on a few rounds of poker.) On Main Street, some of the youngsters were calling me “Dynam ite,” and the local lobster dealers had lowered prices on gear. Some of them were even selling flour (of all things!) at a cut rate.So the V inalhaven  L obsterm en 's C o-operative was launched; it acquired a wharf, a lobster car, and a shed, relying on volunteer members at first to run the place. T he organiza­tion entered the risky business of m arketing that gourm et pro­duct, live lobster.56VINALHAVEN LOBSTERMEN’S CO-OPERATIVEAt this point in the narrative, I disappeared from the scene, going off to manage a health co-op in Maryland. I returned to Maine later, with help from a branch of the co-op movement, and tried to organize other fishermen's cooperatives on the Maine coast, but w ithout success.T h e  V inalhaven  L o b ste rm en ’s C o-operative lasted several years and then went out of business. Precisely why, I do not know, although I suspect its closing was the result of inadequate m anagem ent at the level of the board of directors. W hat is interesting, though, is the effect its existence had on other coastal com munities — at least I believe it was the co-op’s effect. Rum or works persuasively, even if not accurately, and m uch better than an uninvited organizer, or perhaps even an invited one. Word drifted from fisherman to fisherman; the idea of organizing and w orking together spread, and w ithin a few years there was a lobs ter catcher s’ cooperative at the island town of Stonington, about twenty miles northeast of Vinal­haven; then, one at Swans Island. Before long there were others, at Jonesport, at W inter Harbor, at O w l’s Head, at Boothbay H arbor, and at least some of them have m atured into stable organizations since then. Indeed, I heard recently that there is again a lobsterfishermen’s cooperative at Vinalhaven.Long may they, and their cooperative notions, endure.EARLY FAMILIES OF SANFORD-SPRINGVALE, MAINE by Frederick R. Boyle, C.G.A new book containing genealogies of 86 Sanford and Spring- vale, ME families w ith births up  to 1900, inc., Allen, Bedell, Bennett, Cram, Frost, Gowen, Getchell, H arm on, Johnson, Littlefield, Merrifield, M oulton, Shaw, Tebbetts, Thom pson, W itham. Sources include vital, census, land and probate records.H ardbound; fully indexed; 5 maps. Avail. May 1, 1988 from author: 16 Joy St., Springvale, ME 04083. Price: $47.25 inc. tax; $1.50 add. post.57

Vinalhaven Lobstermen’s Co-Operative, 1938

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Vinalhaven Lobstermen’s Co-Operative, 1938

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