The first of a series of exploratory meetings to consider the establishment of cooperatives in China was held on March 18, 1938. The minutes of the meeting reveal that a tentative proposal for the coops was presented to those in attendance. The proposal suggested that cooperatives in China could serve several practical purposes, including providing relief to refugees, keeping the nation’s economy functioning, and helping to maintain the Chinese resistance. While the group believed that the cooperative industry “had the germ of a really important movement” as a link between discordant political elements in China, it was agreed that political neutrality would be the ideal that would guide their action; cooperatives would serve the Chinese people in the interests of humanity and justice as distinct from serving any particular locality or government therein. From the very beginning, then, co-op supporters sought to divorce their program from any ideological label that would make it the focus of political agitation.
As the result of the meetings which followed, Ed and Helen were soon both on an 11- member “preparatory committee” for the creation of industrial cooperatives. In particular, the Snows were to put their talent and experience to work for the “Membership and Propaganda sub-committee” publicizing the co-op concept and eliciting support from wherever they could find it, but especially from America. Yet it was understood early on that the crucial step in the whole process would be gaining official approval and a promise of financial aid from the Chinese Central Government. “Night after night,” Helen claims, she would “lie awake, worrying about this matter.”④