SEVENTY YEARS OF COOPERATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16142, 3 August 1914, Page 10

SEVENTY YEARS OF COOPERATION

A FABIAN SURVEY OF VOLUNTARY

COLLECTIVISM

For all practical purposes the co-opera-tive movement in England began with tho "Rochdale Pioneers" in 1844, after which date it grew annually in volume and strength ; developing from retail to wholesale, from domestic to foreign supplies, from merely bringing and dividing to preparing, mending, manufacturing, and growing; from the production of material commodities to such services as banking and insurance; from a capital of a few pounds to one of 50 millions. Almost within the present generation it has taken firm root in the other countries of Europe; with the opening of the twentieth century, indeed, assuming the character of a ■worldmovement of ever-increasing magnitude. '' In the light of history," says the NewStatesman, " tho Rochdale pioneers will not rank merely as the picturesque embryo of a social movement subordinate to the main purposes of the age, but as the men who laid the foundation-stone of one of the main pillars of the future industrial structure of society." — Three Million Members.— After 70 years of co-operative development it was possible for the president to lay scone remarkable figures before the annual congress, just held in Dublin, and attended by nearly 1400 delegates, representing 3,000,000 members in Great Britain and Ireland. The total volume of their trade for the year 1913, he said, amounted to £130,011,066, which was an increase of £7,125,655 upon 1912. Their share capital for last year was £41,119,373, and their loan capital, two-thirds of which was held by members, was £13,800,000. In the former there was an increase last year over 1912 of £2,705,410, and on the loan capital the increase was £1,120,167. The trading results had been magnificent. The profits for the year had amounted to £14,260,414, an increase of £971,108 on the previous year. Their membership had increased to 3,011,390, "which -was an advance of 134,198 over 1912. The reserve now stood at £5,819,123. To carry on its business the movement employed 145,774 persons, and the wages bill for 1913 was £8,491,448. — A Fabian Survey.— On May 30 the New Statesman d*7oted a special supplement to a most exhaustive study of the achievements of co-opeia-tion. It was, in fact, the draft of the second report of the committee of the Fabian Research Department, which for 18 months has been investigating the subject of "The Control of Industry." The draft is given as submitted by Sidney and Beatrice Webb, and deals with the question, "Can the Organisation of Industry be Based on Voluntary Associations of Consumers, such as those of the Co-opera-tive Societies?"

" Ever since the industrial revolution," says the New Statesman, " the desire to discover a practical alternative to private capitalism as a method of organising industry has led to a countless series of experiments based on the idea of the democratic control of industry by the whole of the workers. That idea embodies one of the two obvious alternatives which naturally suggest themselves to those who for one reason or another are discontented with the competitive system. The other alternative is the control of industry by the organised consumer, organised either in a voluntary association, or through the central or local machinery of the State.

" The supplement referred to provides a comprehensive survey of the achievements of voluntary collectivism."

— Co-operative Manufacturers.—

la summing up the present operations of the Co-operative 'Societies, the New Statesman says: — !' Of the goods purchased by the stores for sale to their members some fiveeighths are bought from the English and Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Societies, to which the separate societies bear- the same relationship as individual members do to the stores. The Wholesale Societies themselves manufacture goods to the value of about 10 millions per annum. They have their own textile, clothing, boot and shoe, blacking, and other factories; they own and farm nearly oOUO acres of land in England; while the English and Scottish Societies combine to conduct tea plantations in Cf-ylon."

The president of the societies at the Dublin Corgress said they were not merely "tinkering with social problems, for cooperation stood to-day as the grandest and most promising social reform movement of our tiire. Hitherto the activity of co-operators had in the main been .called to the question of distribution. The time was ripe for heroic advance into the field

of manufacture. The control of industry in the interest of the workers had always been an article in the co-operative creed, and they appealed to the powers that be to adopt a more courageous policy along the lines of productive and agricultural enterprise." — The Trend of the Times.— And this is what the Fabian journal has to fay on this point: — " One of the most remarkable features of the evolution of this vast economic organisation is the way in which the societies, beginning by merely selling a few classes of goods in a humble shop, find thomselves going back, step by step, from retail trade to small-scale production, to co-operative -wholesale buymg and selling, to large-scale manufacture, and. finally, to the control of the extraction of raw materials from the earth itself. This de : velopment of voluntary collectivism seems to embody the trend of an inevitable economic movement corresponding to deepseated human necessitie3 in the sphere of economic organisation." — Democratic Control.— "In dealing with the obvious question, ' How does the co-operative organisation of indnstry differ in actual practice from its control by the joint-stock company?' it is argued that the two, most important principles on which the business is conducted are the dividend on purchases and the preservation of democratic control by the consumer. The simple device of dividend on purchases prevents capital from ever obtaining more than its fixed return of 4 or 5 per cent. The results of any improvement in organisation or cheapening of the cost of production within the sphere of the co-operative organisation inevitably find their way wholly into the pockets of the consumer, either in an increase of the dividend or in a reduction of price.

"The preservation of democratic control is secured by the fact that voting power at meetings of the individual societies does not depend upon the number ot shares held. Each shareholder is only entitled to one vote, and shareholding is bound up with active membership of the society as a purchaser.

— What Voluntary Collectivism Has

Proved.—

"Does the association of consumers offer any contribution to the solution of the problem of the organisation of industry in such a manner as to secure better and more human and independent conditions for the great mass of the producers engaged therein? We think that the voluntary collectivism of the co-operative movement, while not offering any complete solution of the problem of the position of the worker, has at least been able to further certain lines of advance. So long as the cooperative stores have to exist in the face of the competition of the private trader, it is not possible to raise the standard of life either of their employees or of those engaged in tho Wholesale Societies' productive undertakings far above the level of the workers engaged in corresponding occupations in the outside market. But it is possible to conform to the standards of the best private employers, and that, with few exceptions, has been done. And the movement is distinguished by the degree to which it has diminished the discrepancy between the salaries of its most highly-paid officials a.vA the wages of its hirmblert workers.

" Still, it mut be admitted that voluntary collectivism offers in itself nothing in the nature of a complete solution of the problem of the status of th« workers."