RED BAY CO-OPERATIVE STORE.

It was during the winter of 1905-1906 and ten years after the launching of the enterprise and the opening of the store, that I drove into Red Bay with a train of dogs one cold afternoon.  Skipper Tom was my host, and after we had a cheery cup of tea, he said: 

“Come out.  I wants to show you something.”

He led me a little way down from his cottage to the store, and pointing up at the big bold sign, which Grenfell had nailed there, he announced proudly: 

“’Tis our co-operative store, the first on the whole coast.  Doctor Grenfell starts un for us.”

Then after a pause: 

“Doctor Grenfell be a wonderful man!  He be a man of God.”

As expected, there was a furore among the little traders when the news was spread that a co-operative store had been opened in Red Bay.  The big Newfoundland traders and merchants were heartily in favor of it, and even stood ready to give the experiment their support.

But the little traders who had dealt with the Red Bay settlement for so long, and had bled the people and grown fat upon their labors, were bitterly hostile.  They began a campaign of defamation against Doctor Grenfell and his whole field of work.  They questioned his honesty, and criticised the conduct of his hospitals.  They even enlisted the support of a Newfoundland paper in their opposition to him.  They did everything in their power to drive him from the coast, so that they would have the field again in their own greedy hands.  It was a dastardly exhibition of selfishness, but there are people in the world who will sell their own souls for profit.

Grenfell went on about his business of making people happier.  He was in the right.  If the traders would fight he would give it to them.  He was never a quitter.  He was the same Grenfell that beat up the big boy at school, years before.  He was going to have his way about it, and do what he went to Labrador to do.  He was going to do more.  He was determined now to improve the trading conditions of the people of Labrador and northern Newfoundland, as well as to heal their sick.

From the day the co-operative store was opened in Red Bay not one fish and not one pelt of fur has ever gone to market from that harbor through a trader.  The store has handled everything and it has prospered and the people have prospered beyond all expectation.  Every one at Red Bay lives comfortably now.  The debt to Doctor Grenfell was long since paid and cancelled.  And it is characteristic of him that he would not accept one cent of interest.  Shares of stock in the store, originally issued at five dollars a share, are now worth one hundred and four dollars a share, the difference being represented by profits that have not been withdrawn.  Every share is owned by the people of the prosperous little settlement.