Organised Self-help

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVII, Issue 4, 24 January 1912, Page 35

Organised Self-help

'The Marvellous Success of the Working Men Co-operators HOW NEARLY £160.000,000 WORTH OF GOODS ARE SOLD IN \ YF KR \ND A PROFIT OF OVER TEN MILLIONS MADE SHOPS. FACTORIES UND Bl Y ING AGENCIES WHICH GIVE EMPLOYMENT TO A HFNDRED TIHH SXND HANDS WORKING MEN WHO GROW THEIR OWN TEA AND COFFEE AND RUN THEIR OWN STEAMERS.

FOR my own part.” said Air. Gladstone in the House of Commons, "if ten years ago anybody had prophesied to me the success of the Co-operative system as illustrated in tlte towns in the north—if 1 had been told that labouring men would so associate together for their mutual advantage, 1 should have regarded the prediction as absurd. There is, in my opinion, no greater social marvel than tne manner in which these societies ilourish, combined with a consideration of the soundness of the basis on which they are built.” That was spoken two years before I was born —and I am getting grey. If Air. Gladstone’s deliverance was true at the time it was uttered, what could not -be said at this time of day of the propress of the Co-operative Movement? And of the good it has done? It was Air. Gladstones opinion that "there has not been a better thing clone in this country than the establishment of Cooperation.” The strange thing is that so few people know anything worth speaking of about it. There was co-operation before the cooperators, and there is co-operation now with which the co-operators proper have no connection at all. The first true cooperators saw that it was not enough for co-operation to enable people to buy

things cheaply. Unless the few shillings in the pound they gained were saved for them it would never l»e wholly saved. Therefore they would never fully realise what co-operation could do for them, and there would be no devotion to its cause.

such as was necessary to make the movement the success it has become. So cooperators’ co-operation differs from other kinds of co-operation in that it offers at its stores goods, not at a lower price than other traders sell them, but at the same price: ami the gain obtained by cash transactions, .by the provision of different classes of goods in one shop, and by the collective purchase of such goods in the wli<»lesale market, does not immediately accrue to the customers but is saved for them l»ehind the counter. As many people are ignorant of this essential principle of the co-operative store, ami the institution is not seldom the subject of unjust criticism localise it is wrongly supposed to sell goods at lower prices than other shopkeepers, thus competing unfairly with them, it is worth while to set forth the facts quite clearly. It is not necessary to ’believe either that there are too many general tradesmen’s shops or that a large pro-

portion of the shopkeepers with which the householder has to deal do not conduct their business on lines which enable the lowest prices to Im? charged, in order to appreciate the advantages of co - ope ra ti v e t rading. What is ordinarily involved in being a member of a Co-operative Store is explained as follows in •’Working Men Co-operators,” by Messrs. A. H. Dyke A< land and Benjamin Jones. The wouldbe member goes to the office of the Society and asks for an application form which she tills up with her name, address. and occupation, and then hands it back to the secretary or shopman along with I or such other sum as is fixed by the rules as an entrance fee, and practically becomes a member at once, for the store is open to everyone from any class who may wish to belong to it (essential point No. 1). The member, or one of the family, goes to the store, which may be a building worth £40,000 or one rented at £5 a year: in either case the methods are just the same. She buys goods at the ordinary market prices of the town or village (essential point No. 2). handing readv monev over the counter (essential

point No. 3). When she has done .buying, the shop man gives her tin or paper tokens.

stamped or marked so as to show how much she has spent, whether it be (id. or several pounds. These tokens are retained till the end of the quarter, and then returned to the shop to show how much has been spent during the quarter, for it is on tin* amount of her purchases at the shop that her dividend or share of profits is declared (essential point No. 4). whether that dividend be 1/ or as much as 3/ on every £ that she has spent. Suppose that it is her first quarter’s dealing at the store, that the amount

of her dividend for this quarter is 10/, and that she only paid 1/ when she became a member. May she withdraw that 10/? Yes, with the exception of an amount equal to 3d. pet week per share, which must be contributed because every member must be a shareholder to the amount of at least a £1 share in order that the store may have some working capital of its own (essential point No. 5). After she has got her £1 share, she can withdraw all future dividends as often as she likes. If she is wise, she will let it accumulate in the store, which will be her savings bank and will pay her 5 per cent., and she may after a time find herself with £5O or £lOO in the store, as hundreds of working people do, simply as the result of no other effort on her part than that of paying ready money for her daily supplies. After this account of the methods of the Co-operative Store, it is possible to understand the story of the woman cooperator with a large family who said that her children had eaten her into a large house! There are now no fewer than fifteen hundred retail societies—most of these have, of course, a number of stores—with a membership of two millions and a quarter. They make in a year a profit of close on £ 10.000.000 on sales to the amount of £01.000.000. The last yearly profit of two wholesale societies was £035.000 on sales to the immense figure of £27,725.000. The 141 productive societies made a profit of £200,000

on sales of £3.180,000. There are four supply associations, the profit of which was £53,000 on £2,000,000 of sales. Since 1880 the annual sales by retail societies have trebled. But the most vivid notion of the strength of the cooperative movement is gained perhaps

by looking into the work of the great Co-operative Wholesale Society. the headquarters of which are to be found in some of the most imposing business premises in Manchester. Its sale for the one vear, to the amount of nearly

£21.000.000. were an increase of nearly a million on the preceding year. Of all the goods handled as much as four million and a half’s worth came from their own factories. This wholesale society is a banker on its own account, with deposits and withdrawals to the amount

of £52,000,000 in the half-year, it carries its own insurance and its own printing, and it has its own architect and does its own building. It is difficult to give an idea, without 'photographs, whitjh are readily available, of the impressive character of the great co-operative factories which are to be found all over the country With its five flour mills, the Co-opera-tive Wholesale Society must soon take rank as the largest miller in England. Putting aside flour, it makes its own bacon, its own brushes, boots, and furniture. It sells its own corsets and its own cucumbers. Millinery, drapery, soaps, sauces, jams, confectionery, biscuits are its own products. It manufactures its own tobacco and cocoa, and sells tea of its own growing. A large proportion of the butter and eggs it offers come from co-operative creameries and egg depots, and two co-operative fruit farms supply frudt. When recently certain wholesale chemists combined to refuse to supply various pills and lotions to the ‘’C.W.S.,” it promptly set to work to manufacture its own remedies. 1 he most remarkable thing about the £21.000.000 of trade which the ’’Wholesale does is that, if not an absolutely cash basis like the trading of the retail stores, it is for cash in a week. “In ease of goods not paid for in fourteen days. says a tersely-worded rule of 18<0. ”no more goods to be delivered until such overdue accounts are paid.” Price lists are issued weekly and monthly. rhe monthly list, before me as 1 write, us a closely-printed production of some three hundred pages. I bad lately an opportunity of going over the chief offices of the “Wholesale” in Manchester, and some of jta

factories in that city, and could not but compare with these establishments that little store opened by-the “mad weavers” of Rochdale two years before the Corn Laws were repealed. That little place was the product of a Sunday School Debating Society and £lO of capital, whipped up by 3d a week payments and invested in butter. bacon, and Hour only, and was open for two nights a week. Evervbodv who heard

of it laughed at it, but when Ann Tweedale took down its shutters on tinopening December evening she inaugura ted the movement which brings £20.000.000 of trade to the Co-operative Wholesale Society in a year, and sup plies 8,000,000 persons annually with co-operative store goods. One hardly need to be told that it was due to so many societies being hampered in their purchases by the boy cotting tactics of manufacturers, instigated by shopkeepers, and by the difficulty of getting the fullest advantage for their cash payments, that led to the first attempts at wholesale cooperative buying and co-operative pro duct ion. It is ever the opponents of a movement who do it most good. The margin of profit made by the •’Wholesale” is only about fourpence in the pound, which goes back in dividends to the retail societies who are its-share-holders. Of the goods it sell, about £4.500.000 worth are produced in its own factories. Of how much service such an organisation is one may realise

by remembering that it is supplying the necessities of “people whose bread and butter are their chief expense.” FACTORIES WHERE THE WORKERS ARE CARED FOR. Between trade unionists and co-opera-tors there is, of vouiso, solidarity. So long ago as ISS3 the Trades Union Congress passed the following resolution: — ’’The interests of our two movements are absolutely identical. Co-operation is essentially a labour movement; the Hower of our workmen are its supporters. and many of our prominent unionists are among its trusted leaders. Year by year co-operation becomes a larger employer of labour . . . It is undeniably a movement for the elevation of the working people. Duty and selfinterest should therefore alike prompt the unionists of the country to do ail

they can to assist its progress and shape its policy by becoming its active coadjutors and associates.” In the many factories of the co-operative movement the wages paid are never at less than trade union rate*, and the cond'itions in which the workers labour are better than common —“better in more ways,” as I was assured, "than one can easily put on paper.” In the history of co-operative production there

have been very few strikes, but in most cases the workers went out without the authority of their unions. When 1 inquired about hours in the factories 1 visited 1 found they were never more than fortv-eight, and in some -cases less. 'Hie shirt factory 1 went through is called "the best-paid shirt factory in Manchester.” No work goes out. In the large printing works there was neither the danger nor the noise of oxerhead pulleys, etc., ail the power be ing supplied by electric motors. 1 haxe never been in a cleaner or more airy printing works, nor one in which the workpeople were of a more decent class. In the dining-rooms on the premises well-cooked dinners xvere being supplied at cost price—Cd for men and 3d for girls. 1 was struck by the perfect cleanliness of the glasses, and the neat baskets provided for waste paper. 1 found that out of all the compositors probably not half a dozen go out for beer. Those who have practical acquaintance with the beer-drinking propensities of some London printers will realise what a step in advance this is. As 1 passed through factories where hundreds of hands were making cloth ing and other necessities of life for the xvorking class under excellent conditions, one could not but be impressed by the statement that they xvere "all being paid xvith the money of xvorkers like themselves, if not poorer.” My guide might well pronounce co-operation "the finest genuine thing of the day.” "In many x\ays,” as he said, "it has done more for the xvorker than the trades unions. The trades unions have raised the wages of the masse, but co-operation has increased their purchasing power immensely.” THE FUTURE OF CO-OPERATION. What is to be the future of this impressive co-operative movement xvhich, if not spreading so rapidly as ten years ago, is more than keeping pace with the increase of the population? One of its best friends, John Stuart Mill, had a clear opinion: — “There is no fear that •co-operation xxill spread faster than co-operators improve. It is not an easy thing. If lit had been people would not have waited until this period for it. It cannot advance further than the minds and morals of the people engaged in it, nor faster than honest and competent men and xxomen can be found to manage its con cerns.” In endeavouring to cover so xvide a field, this article has necessarily been somewhat scrappy; but if it serves to interest some of my readers in the won derful achievement of the working men traders of this country, and to consider some of the potentialities of the move ment they have set going, the shortcomings of my pages may be over looked. \mong those, potentialities are, as 1 noted at the lieginning, the poxver of doing useful work in connection xvith rural industries. So far the farming and fruitgrowing ventures of the English and Scottish Wholesale Co-operative Socie-

ties have not resulted in a profit. Commercial success will no doubt come xvith greater experience. There are. hoxvever, agricultural co-operative selling and buying societies which have a balance on the right side. And so at the la*t congress of the Co-operative Union a committee xvas appointed “to consider xvhcther ordinary distribution can be combined in rural districts with the co-op-eiat’ive supply of agricultural require-

ments; and if so, to suggest to the Co operative Union and the Agricultural Organisation Society a plan of joint action for the simultaneous promotion of agricultural and distributive co-opera-tion.” In directing its attention to this new Held of operations, •co-operation may conceivably be destined to achieve in time success as notable as that which it has already accomplished.