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Chronicling America
National Endowment for the Humanities

Newspaper Midland Cooperator (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1933-1981

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About Midland Cooperator (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1933-1981

In 1926, the Minnesota Cooperative Oil Company was organized as a Minneapolis-based, farmer-owned federation to supply petroleum and light oil products to its members at a reduced cost. By 1930, the company, renamed the Midland Cooperative Oil Association, had expanded to include 62 member cooperatives throughout the upper Midwest, and by 1938, it had grown to 201 affiliated cooperatives. Midland continued to specialize in oil products, but it added a variety of other farm and household supplies to its catalog. Besides supplying products that farmers needed, Midland offered its members a way of life that strove to build a society based on cooperation for everyone’s benefit.

Founded in 1933, the Midland Cooperator newspaper was published bi-weekly and sent to all Midland Cooperative Oil Association members, with the goal to “better further the interests of cooperative oil associations by affording them an opportunity to use the columns of their own paper,” as stated in the foreword of the first issue. The Midland Cooperator was first edited by Joseph Gilbert, a former socialist organizer and Nonpartisan League leader, who had served jail time in the 1920s for violation of the Minnesota Sedition Act of 1918. Gilbert’s stance in the Midland Cooperator was that for Midland, cooperation was no longer just about saving farmers money. He promoted the idea of a cooperative society distinct from socialist and communist economic systems that would also challenge corporate capitalism by creating an economic democracy for mutual aid.

The Midland Cooperator included articles about the economic policy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture; the oil industry and its regulation; and local, state, and international politics. It also regularly reported on affiliated state and local cooperative organizations across Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Iowa, including cooperative health groups, cooperative burial associations, and cooperative stores.

The Cooperator was just part of Midland’s massive effort to educate the public about the consumer cooperative movement.  Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, that effort expanded to include movie showings, picnics, member discussion groups, and a four-week cooperative training school that taught employees the history of cooperation, labor, and economics. In 1938 alone, over 18,000 people attended co-op meetings of various sizes in communities across Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Joe Gilbert retired as editor in 1940, but he continued to write a weekly column for the newspaper until 1953. During World War II, the Midland Cooperator’s tone and criticism of capitalism moderated to match the U.S.’s changing economic landscape. Midland’s aspirations for societal and economic change were revived again briefly along with other social movements in the 1960s, such as the Civil Rights Movement and the War on Poverty.

Over time Midland continued to grow its organization and operations, but it never lost its identity as a cooperative. The Midland Cooperator was published until 1981 and Midland Cooperatives Inc. (as it was then known) was merged into Land O’Lakes in 1982.

Provided By: Minnesota Historical Society; Saint Paul, MN

About this Newspaper

Title

  • Midland Cooperator (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1933-1981

Names

  • Midland Cooperative Oil Association
  • Midland Cooperative Wholesale (Firm)
  • Midland Cooperatives, Inc

Dates of Publication

  • 1933-1981

Created / Published

  • Minneapolis, Minn. : Midland Cooperative Oil Ass'n., 1933-1981.

Headings

  • -  Midland Cooperatives, Inc.--Newspapers
  • -  Midland Cooperatives, Inc
  • -  Cooperation--Newspapers
  • -  Cooperation--United States--Newspapers
  • -  Minneapolis (Minn.)--Newspapers
  • -  Superior (Wis.)--Newspapers
  • -  Woodville (Wis.)--Newspapers
  • -  Cooperation
  • -  United States
  • -  United States--Minnesota--Hennepin--Minneapolis
  • -  United States--Wisconsin--Calumet--Woodville
  • -  United States--Wisconsin--Douglas--Superior

Genre

  • Periodicals

Notes

  • -  Biweekly, Mar. 1, 1965-1981
  • -  Vol. 1, no. 1 (Aug. 1933)-v. 49, no. 26 (Dec. 28, 1981).
  • -  Title from caption.
  • -  Published at Woodville, Wis., September 1, 1933-January 16, 1939; Minneapolis, Minn., February 6, 1939-June 29, 1964; Superior, Wis., July 6, 1964-.
  • -  Includes supplements.
  • -  Available on microfilm from the Minnesota Historical Society.
  • -  Issued by: Midland Cooperative Wholesale, 1935-Oct. 26, 1953; Midland Cooperatives, Inc., Nov. 2, 1953-1981.
  • -  Cooperative builder 0010-8413 (DLC)sn 78001651 (OCoLC)1565047

Medium

  • 49 volumes : illustrations ; 45-50 cm

Call Number/Physical Location

  • HD2951 .M5

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 47042911

OCLC Number

  • 1640172

ISSN Number

  • 0047-7281

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Midland Cooperator Minneapolis, Minn. -1981. (Minneapolis, MN), Jan. 1 1933. https://aj.sunback.homes/item/47042911/.

APA citation style:

(1933, January 1) Midland Cooperator Minneapolis, Minn. -1981. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://aj.sunback.homes/item/47042911/.

MLA citation style:

Midland Cooperator Minneapolis, Minn. -1981. (Minneapolis, MN) 1 Jan. 1933. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, aj.sunback.homes/item/47042911/.