70 YEARS OF CO-OPERATION.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 143, 23 July 1914, Page 6

70 YEARS OF CO-OPERA-TION.

WHAT THIS VOLUNTARY COLLECTIVISM HAS ACHIEVED.

For all practical purposes the cooperative movement in this country began with the "Rochdale 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 fifty millions. 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 world mpvement of ever-increasing magnitude.

"In the light.of history," says the "New Statesman,'' "the 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 seventy years of co-operative development it was possible for the president to lay some remarkable figures before the annual congress just lield in Dublin, and attended by aearly 1400 delegates, representing three million members in Great Britain and Ireland.

The total volume of their trade for the year 1913, he said, amounted to £1:10,01.1,066, which was an increase of £7,125,655 upon 1912. Their share capital for last year was £41,119,373, and their loari 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,-110, 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 134,498 over 1912. The reserve now stood at £5,819,123. To carry or, its business the movement employed 145,774 persons, and the wages bill for 191.3 was £8,491,448.

A Fabian Survey.

On May 30 the "New Statesman" devoted a special supplement to a most exhaustive study of the achievements of co-operation. It was, in fact, the draft of the second report of the committee of the Fabian Research Department, which for eighteen months has beert investigating the subject of "The Control of Industry." The draft is given as submitted by Sidney and Beatrice Webb, ami deals with the question, "Can the Organisation of Industry be based on Voluntary Associations of Consumers, such as those of the Co-operative Societies'? JJ

"Ever since the Industrial Revolution," nays the "New Statesman,"] "the desire to discover a practical al-■ ternative to private capitalism as a I method of organising industry has led i to a countless series of experiments ! based on the idea of the democratic i control of industry by the whole of the j workers. That idea embodies "one of the two obvious alternatives which naturally suggest themselves to those who

sessed the country, when French-Can-

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.

In summing up the. present operations of the Co-operative .Societies the '' New Statesman says:— "Of the gqods purchased by the stores for sale to their members some five-eights 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 ten millions per annum. They have their own- textile, clothing, 5 boot and shoe, blacking, and other factories; they own and farm nearly five thousand acres of land in England; while 'the English and Scottish Societies combine to conduct tea plantations in Ceylon.''

The President of the Societies at the Dublin Congress said they were not merely '' tinkering with social problems, for co-operation stood to-day as the grandest and most promising social reform movement of our time. Hitherto the activity of co-operators had in the main been called to the question of distribution. The time was ripe for heroie 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 say on this point:—

"One of the most remarkable features of the eA'olution of this vast economic organisation is the way in which the societies, beginning l>y merely selling a few classes of goods in a humble shop, find themselves going back, step by step, from retail trade to small-scale production, to co-operative wholesale buying and selling, to largescale manufacture, and, .finally, to the Control of the extraction of raw materials from the earth itself. This development of voluntary collectivism seems to embody the trend of an inevitable economic movement corresponding to deep-seated human necessities in the sphere of economic organisation.''

Democratic Control.

"In dealing with the obvious question, 'How does the co-operative organisation of industry differ in actual practice from its control by the jointstock company?' it is argued that the two most important principles 011 which the business is conducted are 'the dividend on purchases and the preservation of democratic control by the consumer.' The simple device of dividend 011 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 of 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.

"Docs 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

j 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'-the ,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 exceptionsj lias been done. And the movement is distinguishedby the degree to which it has diminished the discrepancy between the salaries of its most highly paid officials and the wages, of its humblest workers.

"Still, it must be admitted that voluntary collectivism offers in itself nothing in the nature of a complete solution of the problem of the status -of' the workers."