Centuries of oppression robbed them of any positive vision for their future. Unemployment was high and worker's unions banned. His countrymen were poor, undereducated and underfed.
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Instead of placing a new school under the control of the Catholic Church, Don Jose traveled around the town presenting a proposal for a school run by democratic control. He was a remarkably bad lecturer--people fell asleep during his sermons. Instead, he met them on the streets, in bars and restaurants. His strength lay in his convictions and his dogged persistence. He placed ballot boxes on street corners. Six hundred respondents pledged cash or other support for his proposed school.

In 1943, he opened a community owned and run school. Not only did he provide training in technical skills, but he also developed a base of young people capable of freethinking. Don Jose made community service part of the curriculum. He wove ethics and social consciousness into his lessons, questioning the conventional labor and social practices. After hours, he educated the adults. Upon graduation, students had 11 years experiencing cooperative ideals. This created a base of workers able to engage in the democratic control of the work place and capable of combating worker subordination. They became the foundation of his cooperative movement.
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They had no business plan. In fact, they did not even know what their new business would produce. Yet, on the strength of people's trust in Don Jose alone, they were able to raise $361,604 ($2 million in 1990 US dollars) and buy a simple paraffin stove manufacturing business. They named their new enterprise Ulgor, an acronym based on the initials of their last names. When butane arrived in Spain, they were first to convert and led the butane wave in Spain, setting the standard for Mondragon to be a trendsetter in Spain for the rest of its history.
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