hundred Minnesota communities got their cooperatives, and which developed into important social factors in those communities, as the findings of Jokinen indicate. According to the latter, such an enterprise, and a society or organization which often was born as a result of it, were important factors not only to the economic well-being of the Finns but also contributed to their cultural and political life. This was particularly true in rural areas, while cooperatives in urban areas remained in a more isolated status.

At the start of many of their cooperative enterprises the Finns began to realize that the road was a difficult one. They lacked experience, and the possibilities of finding trained personnel was barely possible. In addition, there was much marking time because there was no cooperation between the various individual ventures in the various communities. In his study of the Cooperative Central Exchange, Erick Kendall noted that when to the lack of experience there was added a language difficulty, as well as the hostility of private business and the lack of any legislation on cooperative enterprises, the individual Finnish cooperatives at the beginning of the century were like helpless ships on the high seas. They were sadly in need of advice and mutual assistance.

William Risto was apparently the first to publicly cite the need for a mutual organizational body, if the abortive attempts in the East are left out of consideration : there had been a central association of eastern cooperatives for years, and they had attempted to establish a wholesale enterprise of their own in 1912 but were unable to raise the $100,000 capital they felt was required for such an undertaking. It was in Pelto ja Koti in June 1914 that Risto wrote, "I should like to impress upon my readers, particularly those living in the Lake Superior area, the necessity of broadened mutual effort. There are now active more than twenty cooperatives, as well as more than ten men's residence clubs with their restaurants. But there is no close cooperation between these different organizations. A central body should be established and a central warehouse be set up in Superior or Duluth. And the funds for such a project? We would have to begin modestly, dismissing the idea of a huge central which could fulfill all demands immediately, because hundreds of thousands of dollars would be required for that. We could begin, however, with grain at first, and potatoes, and feed for livestock." Risto's article went on to discuss the chances of success of such an undertaking as a purely Finnish project. According to Kendall (in an unpublished MS) Risto is also said to have made a proposal

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