LANSING, Mich.-Legislation enabling credit unions to be organized in Michigan grew out of correspondence between Bergengren and Robert Peden, who was interested in organizing a credit union for employees of the Mueller Brass Metal Company in Port Huron.
According to the Michigan league, Bergengren had an acquaintance serving in the Michigan Legislature, fellow attorney George C. Watson of Capac, who agreed to introduce a credit union bill, but the legislation quickly came up against a wall of skepticism, indifference and hostility, including from the state's bankers.
Soon afterward, however, a quirk of fate intervened. An influential lobbyist for the powerful Michigan Manufacturers Association, which had strongly opposed credit union legislation, had a purely chance meeting with Filene in Europe during an International Chamber of Commerce convention in 1925. The conversation quickly turned to credit unions, and the enthusiasm for cooperative credit of so eminent and successful a businessman as Filene deeply impressed the lobbyist. The Michigan Manufacturers Association dropped its opposition to the bill, and before the end of the year Peden's efforts were rewarded when the Michigan Legislature passed the Michigan Credit Union Act. Soon afterward, Mueller Credit Union received the state's first charter, soon to be followed by several others.
