Page 121 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

The Attack from Within,

dividend accruing for the quarter to societies in the district was less
than £154. An excellent summary of the position of the branch
was given in the C.W.S. Annual of 1880. The outcry against
civil service co-operation was at its loudest.
Notwithstanding the
prestige of the C.W.S. in the markets, some large London fu-ms would
have nothing to do with the Wholesale.
Inside the branch the costs
of distribution were high because orders were small and societies
scattered, and the average of prices paid was low.
The flour trade of
the branch was slight. Home bakuig, so common in the North, was
and is unloiown in London; the ovens do not admit of it. Yet
co-operative bakeries then were rare, and outside London the
Southern societies drew their flour supplies from their own agricul-
tural districts. To keep the branch stocks fresh and at market
prices was not easy. Particulars of other obstacles were not given
in the Annual, but it may be added that many societies, havmg
grovra up in isolation, were no less distrustful than ignorant
of federal action. A representative of the branch visited one
committee from whom ready help might have been expected. He
talked them into friendUness, and considered his case prosperous
until he got to business. Then a peculiar smile of scornful contempt
spread over the face of the chairman as he closed all further
discussion with: "Oh, Mr. , we can go and buy stuff in
London quite as well as you can." It needed years to persuade
some societies to come from behind their waUs and speak with
their own servant in the gate. The lighter side of a troubled
existence was found amidst the everyday details of the business
in relation to London carters and London poUce. The conditions
of these bodies of men have changed in forty years hardly less than
the branch itself, and there is no disrespect to a bygone generation
in saying that some of its individuals helped to make life
interesting for the few employees of this intrusion from the provinces
into the Minories. Under all these circumstances it became almost
a habit for at least one of the chiefs of the tiny band to get the last
Manchester despatches into the G.P.O. just before midnight, and
plod home in the wake of the last 'bus.
A committee of seven members for the London Branch was
elected previously to the general Quarterly Meeting of December
19th, 1874, and, under the chaiimanship of Mr. Clay, of Gloucester,
the branch held its own Quarterly Meetings thereafter. Coming
from places perhaps a hundi'ed miles from London, the travelUng
expenses of Committee-men were considerable, and even in 1879
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