A BISHOP ON CO-OPERATION.

Evening Star, Issue 10691, 2 August 1898, Page 4

A BISHOP ON CO-OPERATION.

The thirteenth annual Congress of the Co-operative Societies of Great Britain was held last month at Peterborough, and was attended by 900 delegates representing 400 societies. The Chairman (Mr D. M'lunep, secretary of tho Midland section of tho Co-operative Union), in opening the proceedings, said they were to have had representatives present from the Oxford University Extension Society and the Cambridge and National Home Reading Union. The failure which had attended tho University extension movement waß not duo to any inertness on the part of co-operators, at least in the Midland section. What had killed the movement in certain districts was overtime work. When a working man had, after doing nine hours and a-half of labor, to put in two hours.' overtime, working altogether eleven and a-half hours in a vitiated atmosphere, he was not afterwards fit to follow the teaching at University extension lectures with any degree of intelligence. Another cause of failure waß gambliug, and the facilities given for it. This vice had greatly spread. Footballing and other sports also took up the time of young men, to tho excluding of other matters, and they had no time to givo to educational pursuite. In endeavoring to remedy the evil they needed the assistance of the Christian Churches. He was pleased to say that they were receiving that tupport in a greater degree year by yaar. Bishop Creighton (of London), in delivering the inaugural address, said he proposed to pub before the assemblage some considerations on the educational value, in its largest sense, of co-operation to those who were engaged in it. They all know the proverb that "kuowledge is power." He thought, perhaps, thr.t tho converse of it waa more the truth, that "ignorance is impotence." After eolargiug on the advantages of knowledge, he said they could scarcely appreciate the enormous magnitude of the problem which the industrial revolution of the early part of this century brought forward foi solution. They scarcely made allowar.o3 foi the extraordinary rapidity of the change in the coaditiou of "life. The manufacturer oi old times war not sharply separated oil fron: tho?e in h : s employ. They lived aud inhered together ; they were connected in a defiuiti manner ; the products of their labor wen for a definite market, whoso needs could easily he foreseen. Above all, every workman understood aud tooli part in all the processes of productior which were carried on under the same roof

They might smile as they looked back upon the old-fashioned system of industrialism, but it was under that system that the Keglish character was formed, and that England became what she was. It had this advantage : that if life was simpler everybody understood it ; if there were fewer openings for enterprise they were more open for everyone. The introduction of maehinciy n cessitatcd the factory system and the conduct of business on a largo scale. The invention of the steam engine and the el ctric telegraph made the world one market, and ;>o gave a new value to Bhrewd forecast, while it mado employment uncertain. The workman's position was entirely changed in the respect-which is more important than all other—that he no longer could understand the conditio: s of his life or what effected them. He might bo better educated, he might teem more independent when he had no relation to his employer 3'ivn tl at of u money payment, but ho had sunk from b-ing au intelligent, to an unintelligent man. He could no longer know the conditions which regulated his employment; the conU'o! of his life seemed to have prised out of bia ban ir. Tnat was the great and abiding source of the workman's discontent. There w;ro in my nays of regarding cooperation. Thia cdueatidial work amongst the w: rking clause a did not necessarily eunlliet with hi* view thit co-operation was the product of fir-rcachirg economic theories. The impossib lity of maintaining the old re-lation-hip between employer and employed on an ample and personal ba is did not abolish all sense of relationship. The "hand" must be again converted into the man, on the broader base which the development of common life demanded. Co-opera-tion had been a powerful element in making that issue clear. It provi led a central idea around which the working cla3tcs could gather, and from which they could again enter into an understanding of the nature of industrial life and the extent cf industrial problems—the greatest of their grievances had been their exclusion frcm it. They were turned into appendages of the machines at which they worked. They no longer understood the entire process of the industry at which they labored. Tiie nature of tho markets, the causes which tie-

terminea the vatue 01 tneir iau:>r, uie methods and tho utility of the methods of production were beyond their ken. They suffered from that worst of discontent which sprang from a senso of helplessness. Cooperation restored their hopefulness; it restored the old spirit of association which had ever been strong in England. It was impossible for any Englishman to read the annals of industrial efforts such as trades unionism and co-operation and not feel proud of his fellow countrymen. It was the good sense in followiug a definite object, ard bringing it within the bounds of possibility, which had made co-operation successful, and commended it to evtryone. They were now recognised not only as a power, but as a beneficent power. This had done much to educate on economic principles others besides themselves. Co-operative production had been successful because it was soon possible to discover what was requisite for its success. A few days ago he was talking with one who told him that he had caked Mr Gladstone for hia opinion on co-operation. The answer was significant as showing Mr Gladstone's power of penetrating to the moral element involved in every question. "I greatly approve of it," he said, " for it teaches the working classes to pay ready money, and so tends to abolish the misohievous system of credit, and to encourage thrift." They would admit the truth of the general application, and they would see his point, that co-operative distribution was valuable as a means of intellectual and moral education. Its success depended on grasping the source of profit made by the distributor, and, consequently, of persuading the consumer to do away with the reason of it, and so be in a position to take the profit for himself. Co-opera-tion taught that no economic advantages were to be obtained except by a corresponding responsibility undertaken by him who hoped to obtain them. It showed the greater freedom was only to be won by subordination to a higher law which took into consideration larger elements of Eooial welfare. Co-operative distribution had succeeded. It was a great question if cooperative production cculd be equally successful. It could only succeed by making experiments, and Burely ia tho industrial world every promising experiment might be welcomed; but the experiment was certainly worth trying to secure for the wi r'cers by co-operation their share in the pr« fit of production. The educational value of such experiments was enorrrous. It trained up a body of men who must be equipped to grapple with tho facts of industrial effort. They must discover industries which were tolerably stable, and their attempt to do so must have the effect of iirpre*sing on all whom they could irflience the duty rf endeavoring to promoteby their own examp'e that stability which was so n- C33sary to the sound organisation of industry. In fact, the spread of real knowledge of industrial conditions was the chief object which they had before them. There was one truth which their annual gatherings most forcibly bring home to them: it was the truth that progress of all kinds, economic, social, political, rested upon a moral basis. Co-operation should create a higher view of proper conditions of industry, and inculoate a preference for goods whioh were produced under those conditions. It should never cease to pursue and emphasise the great moral conditions on whioh all their dealings were based.