CO-OPERATION.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14975, 23 May 1914, Page 4

CO-OPERATION.

SOME INTERESTING ENGLISH FIGUBES. (FBOM A CORRKSrONDENT.I LONDON, April 16. In this country, close on three million persons, representing not only the working but also the professional an" middle-classes, are members of cooperative trading societies. Here in its birthplace, if anywhere has co-operatian been weighed in the balance and not been, found wanting. About one-sixth, in fact, of the population of these islands have their jrante supplied in -whole or in part by cooperative stores, and in many sections of Great Britain, practically every shop that meets the traveller's eye is "coop." of either one of two varieties—i.e., shops which supply only those who hold shares in them, and those open to the community at large. Of perpetual interest to visitors, too, are the two great and famous co-operative enterprises in London, tho Army and Navy and the Civil sService Stores, each of the capacity of a great department store, but each carried on by and restricted to members of tho classes from which they derive their names. Every year,- moreover, ono reads the deliberations of the Co-operative Congress, representing over 1500 societies, with a membership of 1,414,158, with a share capital of £16,000,000. with sales £52,000,000, and a net profit of £5,000,000. Tho shores of commerce were strewn with tho wreckage oP co-operative societies that had failed when, in April, 1844. twenty-eight working men, weavers all, who called themselves the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers and had a combined of just £28, set up a small co-operative shop in the obscure Lancashire town where they lived and from which their epoch-making enterprise took its name. To-day those men, whose tiny initial capital was painfully collected by subscriptions of twopence, have their monument in the Wholesale Co-operative Society of Great Britain, assuredly one of the industrial triumphs of tho age, and in which the co-operative movement the world over sees its apotheosis. This colossal organisation, which gives employment under conditions which are described as "ideal" to over 22,000 persons, has palatini- headquarters in both London and Manchester, the city of its birth, as well as over fifty factories and other centres of production. It registers sales of over £30,000,000 yearly, and supplies with.its products over 1260 retail co-operative societies representing a membership of 2,272,496 persons. The ships it owns ply on many waters, it runs flour mills, woollen mills, tob.icco works, weaving sheds, soap works, flannel mills, print works, biscuit works, boot factories, and fruit farms, and its total of sales sine© its 1 ™ r?£ rc *>nt the huge total of £468,006,784. • vrnL myse, £, have . R ?en our business ¥°* f r°m three million pounds," said ?■,£. °ocks, the head °f the great establishment m tho East End. "What is the lesson*r>f our success? Why it represents the triumph of the root of co-operation, which is to enrich those who create the wealth." sso r wo deal with no private firms, only with co-operative societies, and these in every part of the world. These clients of ours now number 1267. and are located, besides in the British Isles, '" BpS, " ""- Denmark, the West Indies. British Columbia, Germany. Bermuda, Servia, America, Spain, China* and

>ou cannot begin a co-operative business on wholesale linos; you must first have the retail stores! 'How are these brought into being? Under English law, any number of persons over coven, can start trading after investing one pound each, and—selling at marked rates—are entitled to divide the. surplus after-paying, a. five per cent, dividend. Our own total sales of £93,731,356 16s on fifty years' trading represent a profit .of £7,819,000, after distributing dividend and creating a reserve fund. Our_present reserve fund is £1,700,000. One of the things in which wo take most pride is the fact that wo educate all our employees. Classes, in- all branches of knowledge aro open to them on evenings and Sundays. This was one of the innovations of the Rochdale pioneers, in whoso time, of course, thero was no such thing as free education. In those, days, such teaching as was done was mostly carried on by the Church of England, parents who could pfford it paying a few pence a week for having then- children taught. To appreciate the difficultiee that thoso twenty-eight men faced and overcame, by tho war oi?e must realise the conditions which prevailed in the England of their day. 'Wages were nothing like »what they are to-day. It was, too, before the era of steam had brought the products of the world practically to the artisan's doors. The luxuries of life were beyond tho reach of the workingman. A few graces for the eick room, for example, would have cost 2s 6d or move. To-day they can be ha<l round the: corner for a few nence."

Although dwarfed by this great cooperative society of the masses, that of the classes, the Army and Navy Coonorative Society deserves more apace than can be accorded to it here. Practically every visitor to London becomes familiar with its big headquarters on Victoria street. Formed in 1871 by officers of the two great English services, with a capital of only £15.000. its establishment was largely in protost accrfinst the. exorbitant prices charged by crocers' and other vendors of household articles in those days. During the first year its salioe amounted to £128.000, whereas its forty-first annual report, covering 1913, which lies before mc, shows sales amounting to £3.200 000. The net profit for tho year was, roughly. £130.000. Such, in brief, is the record of co-r operation in Great Britain. The Inst year for - which there has been an official report (1911) shows that the movement, in its various phases, represents a membership of 2.992.570. while the total assets of the societies reach a total of £68 000 000. or an addition of more than £4.800.000 during tho year 1911. The balance on the trade of the year in 2021 societies- resulted in a profit of £12.000.000. ard in 222 societies in a loss amounting +o £25 500. Of the profit the sum of £96,700 was applied to educational purposes..