A CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT

Evening Star, Issue 14178, 1 October 1909, Page 1

A CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT

The proposal to hold a public meeting on Monday next, at which the desirability of forming a co-operative society in connection' with the meat trade will be considered, is one that will- commend itself to those who have made themselves; acquainted with the benefits that have accrued, to workers in particular, from co-operative trading wherever it has been tried on right lines. During, the past few weeks the slump in meat has been the talk of the market-place. The prices realised for " fate " and cheep in the saleyards has given out cash butchers a chance to cut prices to an extent that has rejoiced the heart of the paterfamilias who has those depending on him possessing; healthful appetites, and meat has been auctioned in quantitieV suitable for family consumption at prices that have made the purchasing power of a sovereign go much further than housewives have been accustomed to for a very long time. The promoter of the movement towards co-opera-tion in the. meat trade are probably convinced that consumers are not getting the full benefit of this downward tendency in the stock market, and intend if- possible to give consumers the benefit of the middleman's profit. The outstanding advantage of co-operation is: that while it does not destroy the competitive system, it regulates it, and for that reason is to be commended. To those who have given any consideration to the subject, it has long been a cause of wonder that amongst' the intelligent body of well-to-do workers in the Dominion so much attention is given to the unattainable aims of the Socialist propaganda while the means for betterment through co-operation ■ are quite neglected. During the last hundred yearn communistic and socialistic schemes of all kinds have been devised, put to the test, and failed ignominioraly. The why and the wherefore have been written in many volumes, and yet the impracticable talkers continue to propound what they are pleased to call scientific socialistic means for uplifting toilers borrowed from Marx, Fourier, Louis Blanc, Bebel, and a dozen others. All the while, practical opportunities close to hand, needing only common sense for their initiation, are neglected or scorned. The successes achieved by co-operative efforts in other parts of the world should certainly stimulate New Zealand workers to enter the 6ame field in opposition to the capitalistic enterprises that it is the fashion in some quarters to denounce so lustily. If the spokesmen for Socialism really believe that Labor produces all the wealth, and consequently has a just claim to the whole of it, why, in the name of all that is logical, does not Labor turn capitalist? Statisticians tell us that the upper stratum of the British working classes possess capital amounting to close on £500,000,000, rfnd a large part of that huge sum is invested in co-operative undertakings of various kinds. These are the men who are in full sympathy -with the socialistic faith that aims at making the best use of the industry >u the people, by the people, far the people ; .but they work in a practical direction, and do very little platform talking, except to urge their fellows to go and do likewise. Take the case of the Glasgow United Bakery Society, the largest -bakery in the United Kingdom. In 1869 they .started with a capital of £338, and in their inst with a turnover of £5,081, made a profit of £23. Since then progress ha 6 -een continual r-.d rapid. In 1907 their nhares, loan 6, and reserve funds amounted ;o £385,400, their turnover Mas £529,641, choir profile £54.570. The value of agricultural co-operation i 6 very strikingly ohown in the case of Ireland, and is the more noteworthy because the reformation lias been brought about mainly through :he instrumentality of one man—Mr (now :>ir) Horace Plunkett—and that, too, in ipite of the opposition of Irish politicians, ind in the face of the fears of the farmers hempelves, who dreaded that if farming hould he n.adc more profitable to them 'and lords would demand higher rents. The Irst Co-operative Dairy Society was started ii County Limerick in 1889, and in its nitial year sold butter to the value of £8.500 for its fifty shareholders. Five ,-ears afterward the number of Irish creamrics had increased to thirty, with an annial butter production of 3,500,0001b. In 899 the creameries had increased to 171, nth fifty-six auxiliaries, and had an an,ual trade valued at £703,826. In 1907 here were 288 creameries in operation, ;iving a butter production 'of over :0.000,0001b, valued at £1,643,083. The -ame co-operative principle has been introluecd into rural banks, of which there arc it present 261 in operation, into agricultural organisation societies for lending harvesting machinery to farmers, poultry and "Sg societies, flax-growers' societies, and bacon-curing societies. The Litter sent an jxhibit to last year's London dairy show, ind carried off the first prize for smoked bacon. It is well to Tepeat by way of emphasis that these gratifying strides in productive rural industries were largely due Lo the initiative of one earnest man (Sir Horace Plunkett). who talked no socialistic nonsense, but simply helped people to help themselves.

There is scarcely a limit to the spheie of 00-operative enterprise. What are called co-operative works are going on in the Dominion under Government supervision, but in reality there is no Labor co-partner-ship in them, for there is no participation by the workers in the profits of the undertakings. Instances of phenomenal success attending co-operative undertakings in Great Britain and on the Continent might be given showing that these movements have long passed the experimental stage, and have succeeded in communities >vhero workers have a much more limited command of capital than their fellows in New Zealand. The start of th© Rochdale Co-operative Store by weavers who put by their twopences weekly for a year until they were able to make their humble start is historical. "Labor co-operation," it has been well said, "is on the highway of that "industrial evolutionary progress which is "expressed in Joseph Mazzini's phrase: "'From serf to hireling, hireling to free " producer.'" It is sincerely to be hoped that the initial step about to be taken in connection with one branch of trade will be but the forerunner to a more extended movement covering many branches of industry. There most necessarily be straggles for supremacy in trade, as in all human enterprises, but co-operation lifts

that struggle to a higher piano: it teaches workers the valws of each unit in the industrial hive, and th© responsibility that each man c&rries when striving for collective progress and "the smooth running of the 6ocial machinery.