The History of America's Credit Unions
In forming the Staley Credit Union, the organization’s founders hoped to shield their
employees and colleagues from the turbulent economic environment becoming commonplace in
their contemporary society. Credit unions offered Americans friendlier, more trustworthy
alternatives to distant and often unsympathetic banks. The Staley Credit Union was an endeavor
aimed at protecting Staley employees and the community of Decatur, Illinois—the culmination
of numerous other programs with similar goals. It thus reflected the charitable intentions of the
Staley Manufacturing Company towards its employees within the context of the larger,
progressive-minded credit union movement.
History
The Staley Credit Union’s story begins with the A. E. Staley Manufacturing Company and the desire of founder A.E. Staley's endeavors to maintain high morale among its employees and offer them a safety net in hard times. The Staley Fellowship Club sponsored baseball and football
teams, held dances and social outings and it even extended loans to club members.
Progressive-minded individuals, like Edward A. Filene, saw credit unions as vital
“instruments to solve great social problems.” In an era of extreme disparities in wealth, credit
unions appealed to the sense of mutual dependence of working-class communities. They
allowed for the extension of credit to working-class individuals while simultaneously
encouraging—or teaching—thrift. Seeing the need for this new concept in their own company, twenty-five employees of the Staley Manufacturing Company met in 1930. These
“incorporators,” as they came to be known, included A. E. Staley Jr., who reportedly “became
familiar with the work that credit unions do” and “decided that it was an excellent thing to
have.” Also among their number were the nine members who would comprise the Credit
Union’s first board of directors. When the A.E. Staley company-wide publication, The Staley Journal,
described the new Credit Union’s purpose, it explained the source of great enthusiasm, “This
offers Staley employees an opportunity to save money easily and gives them a source within our
own organization from which they may borrow when in need of money. As The Staley Journal published, the Credit Union had three founding principles: “(a) To promote thrift among the membership through a system of saving which specializes in the smallest units of saving, by a pay day saving plan”;“(b) To use the funds thus accumulated for the benefit of those who accumulate them by creating credit for the members at legitimate rates of interest for provident purposes”; and “(c) To educate the members in matters pertaining to the investment and care of their savings. The Credit Union grew out of the Staley Fellowship Club and replaced the Staley Fellowship Club’s prior practice of extending emergency loans.
By 1934, of the 1,500 employees of the Staley Manufacturing Company,
1,400 belonged to the company’s credit union. Just four years after twenty-five employees of the Staley Manufacturing Company met to incorporate a credit union of their own, this groundbreaking new type of financial organization had grown to be a crucial instrument to the working classes—in
Illinois and across the United States. The credit union movement and Staley Credit Union were providing the exact sort of
protection working Americans needed at the depths of the Great Depression.
