Page 109 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

The Thickets of Bonus.
were recommended to sanction the purchase. In this case no
real opposition was raised. Mr. Stott, of Oldham, even asked
for " central soap works on the Mersey, as well as these works
in the North." The latter, it was explained in reply, could be
regarded as a branch for supplying the Northern Societies, and,
therefore, necessary in any case, and the recommendation was carried
unanimously. After an initial loss the Durham works became so
successful that extensions were begun, but with less happy results.
Candlemaking was undertaken and afterwards dropped. Difficulties
such as were experienced at Crumpsall thickened around the
enterprise. Loss followed after loss until it seemed as if the lean
years of the late seventies would swallow up a C.W.S. department
also, but this fate was averted, and better years followed.

It remains to clironicle an extra difficulty which was ever with
the hard-worked executive of the Society during the first few years
of manufactm-ing effort. At the epochal meeting of November 16th,
1872, Messrs. Neale, Greening, and Rutherford, with the support of
Henry Whiley, induced the Wholesale delegates to accept the principle
of bonus to labom". The meeting plunged into the thicket with
a cheerful ignorance, for " after a slight discussion the principle was
heartily affirmed." A method of applying the rule was drawn up by
the Committee and submitted at the next Quarterly Meeting. Faced
by the fact of a complex business now employing three or four
hundred workers in varying occupations, from feeding boilers at
Leicester Shoe Works to buying butter in Ireland, the Committee
stopped short at a simple scheme. The main bonus on employees'
wages was to be in proportion to the dividend paid. If the latter fell
below 2d. there would be no bonus, but 2 per cent on wages with 2d.
dividend was gradually to reach a maximum of 4 per cent with 4d.
distribution. Other percentages, based on total annual sales, made
it possible for the aggregate bonus to reach nearly Is. 5d. in the £.
This was not satisfactory to Mr. Greening, but the chau-man
explained that the arrangement was tentative and would hold for
two quarters only.
The Committee's minutes show them as puzzled how to fit bonus
into the Wholesale's economic frame, and continually they adjourned
consideration, or decided to go on for " six months longer " or for
"three months longer." In the meantime, Mr. E. 0. Greening
moved for a committee to report upon " placing the relations between
the Wholesale and its manufacturing establishments on a sound
79