"Mr. Brantford now wished to know about other banks and methods of exchange. Said Mr. Mathew, 'When this organization first started it used the currency of other banks together with the notes issued by the government. As you will remember, Mr. Brantford, in your time all business was transacted on a more or less speculative basis, and gambling of all sorts ran riot. The Cooperative Association of America adopted the one great watchword, Economy, to save wasted energy. In your day the larger cities were filled with stock jobbers. Promoters of windy schemes lived and thrived everywhere. These men laid traps with but one idea, to slaughter their brothers. Gold was their god. They did not exactly use the knife and pistol, as did the pirates of old, yet on every hand could be seen bleeding humanity, which had been robbed through the medium of tricky advertising, in the form of beautifully gotten up pamphlets, promising to the reader an investment showing where rich returns would surely follow.'"

-Bradford Peck, The World a Department Store: A Story of Life Under a Cooperative System (copyright 1900)