CO-OPERATION

Greymouth Evening Star, 27 May 1914, Page 8

CO-OPERATION

SOME INTERESTING ENGLISH FIGURES. LONDON, April 15. In this country, close on three million parsons, representing not only the working but alhO the professional and middle elapses, arc members of co-operative trading societiesHere in its birthplace, if anywhere, has co-operation been weighed in the balance and not found wanting. About onesixth, in fact, of t' i population of these islands have their wrnts supplied in v--holc or in part by co-operative stores, and in many sections of Great Britain, practically even - shop that meets the traveller's eye is "co-op." of either one of two varieties —i.e.. shops which supply only those who hold shares in them, ar.cl those open to the community at large. Of perpetual interest to visitors, too, are the two great and famous co-operative enterprises in London, the Army and Navy and the Civil Service stores, each of the capacity of a great department store, but each carried 0:1 by and restricted to members of the classes from which they derive their names. Every year, moreover, one reads the deliberations of the Co-oper-ative Congress, representing over 15CC societies, with a share capital of £16,000 00J, with sales £52,000,0:0, and a net profit of £5,000,0C0.-

The shores of commerce were strewn with the wreckage of co-operative societies that had failed when, hi April, 1844 twenty-eight working men, weavers all, who called themselves the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers, and had a combined capative 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 cap-ital-was painfully collected by subscriptions of twopence, have their monument in the Wholesale Co-operative Society of Great Britain, assuredly one of the in dustrial triumphs of the age, and in which tins co-operative movement the world oyei sees its apotheosis. This colossal organ isatioii, which gives employment under condition.'; which are described as "ideal" to over 22.000 persons, has palatial 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,C03.C00 yearly, and supplies with its products over 12v.J letail co-operative societies representing a membership of 2,272,496 persons. The ships it owns ply on many wafers, it runs flour mills, woollen mills, tobacco works, weaving sheds, soap works, flannel mills, print works, biscuit works, boot factories, and fruit farms, and its total of sales since its' creation represent the huge total of £468.556,784. "I myself have seen our business grow from three; million pounds," said ,). C. Cocks, the head of the great establishment in the East End. '.'What is the lesson of our success? Why, it represents the triumph of the root principle of co-opor-

atioii, which is to enrich those who create the wealth. No, we 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 a>'e located, besides in the British Isles, in Belgium, Denmark, the West Indies, British Columbia, Germany, Bermuda, Servia. America, Spain, China, and Japan. "You cannot begin a co-operative business on wholesale, lines; you must first have the retail stores! How are these brought into bring? Under English law, any number of persons over seven, can start trading after investing one pound f.ach, and— selling at market rates—are entitled to divide the surplus after payin" a five per cent dividend. Our own

total sales of £93.731,356 16s on fifty years' trading represents a profit of Hi,819,000, alter distributing dividend and creating a reserve fund. Our present reserve fund is £1,700,000.

"One of the things in which we take most pride is the fact that we educate all our employees. Classes on all branches of knowledge are open to them on evenings and Sundays. This was one of the innovations of the Rochdale pioneers, in whose time, of course, there was no such thing a 3 free education. In those days, such teaching as was done was mostly carded on by the Church of England, parents who could afford it paying a few pence a week for having their children I aught. To appreciate the difficulties that those twenty-eight men faced ana! overcame, by the way, one 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 -r----tisan's doors. The luxuries of life were beyond the reach of the working man. A "few grapes for the sick room, for example, woud have cost 2s 6d or more. To-day they can be had round the corner lor a few oence." Although dwarfed by this great cooperative society of the masses, that of tha classes, the Army and Navy Co-oper-ative Society, deserves more space than can be afforded 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 whs largely in protest against the exorbitant prices charged by grocers and other vtndois of household articles in those dav'S. During the first year its sales amounted to £128,000, whereas its forty: first annual report, covering 1913 whicn lies before me, shows sales amounting to £3 20DCO0. The net profit for the year, was, roughly. £130,000. Such, in brief, is the. record of co-ope-*;an i, Great Britain. The las year fo u;ii( .h there has been an official leport (1211) shows that the. movement, ini£ -arbus phases, represents «. membership V pV'2 570 while the total assets of the •v. ettse eh a total of £68.000.000 or a: a dk;/of more than £4 800,00 du, i,.., the ve»r 1011. The balance on the fee of the vcar in 2021 societies result-. CMhe Jofit'the sum of £96,700 was anH of £12,000,000, «d»fflJ sr. c iaties in a loss amovmtmg to £25,5UU. pied to educational PJ^Pf^