James Peter Warbasse

James Peter Warbasse (November 22, 1866 – February 22, 1957) was an American surgeon and advocate for cooperatives. He founded the Cooperative League of the United States of America (which later became the National Cooperative Business Association) and was its president from 1916 to 1941.

Early life Warbasse was born on November 22, 1866, in Newton, New Jersey to Joseph Warbasse and Harlett Northrup.

Early career Warbasse graduated from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1889. From 1889 to 1891 he interned at the Methodist Episcopal Hospital in Brooklyn, New York. Warbasse did postgraduate work under surgeon Franz König and pathologist Johannes Orth in Göttingen, Germany and in Vienna, Austria under Theodor Billroth. He established a private practice in 1892.

In 1898, Warbasse served as acting assistant surgeon in the Seventh Army Corps of the U.S. Army during the Spanish–American War in Cuba and Florida. The following year, he was captain and assistant surgeon of the 13th regiment of the New York Artillery. Warbasse married Agnes Louise Dyer, daughter of Henry Knight Dyer on April 15, 1903. Warbasse became chief surgeon of the German Hospital of Brooklyn in 1906. He was the editor of the New York State Journal of Medicine from 1905 to 1909.

Though born into the privileged class of early New England heritage, Warbasse was a tireless advocate for social equality and economic democracy. Warbasse founded the Cooperative League of the U.S.A. in New York City in 1916 with his wife Agnes, baker and author Alfred Sonnichsen and other progressive organizers. Warbasse, genuinely seeking a solution to the world's inequalities, ultimately rejected socialism, anarchism and radical unionism in favor of cooperative economics as the best model for creating an inclusive economy in the context of preserving personal freedom and political autonomy. The Kings County Medical Society apologized to Dr. Warbasse in 1930, rescinded his expulsion and expunged from their records all evidence of their having expelled him.

Warbasse officiated at his daughter Vera's wedding in 1937.

Death and legacy Warbasse died on February 22, 1957, in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He was inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame in 1976. The Amalgamated Warbasse Houses in Brooklyn, New York are named for him.