Page 126 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

•
The Story of the C.W.S.
As committee-man he had taken office \^hen the annual sales were
about £100,000. They had reached half-a-miUion and over when
he accepted the presidency in 1870, and he now bade farewell
with the yearly turnover easily within sight of two miUions.
" An immense total," the Co-operative News styled it. " Viewed
from the working man's standpoint, with little experience and
only a few shillings to start the Wholesale with," said Mr. Crab tree,
" it must be an admitted fact that it has been a hard, but well-won
After reviewing the new developments, he continued: —
struggle."
I take the liberty of pointing out to you the magnitude of the undertaking.
It will be important that you should forget all party strife, and go
. . , .
in for men of business capabilities, with just sufficient time to devote to its
requirements, and then the future growth of the Wholesale will far outstrip the
past, and in ten years from this let no man enter the regions of prophecy and
predict what its limitations will be.
A resolution of regret and appreciation was proposed by Mr.
Morrison, and an amendment for more substantial recognition
immediately moved. In the result an illuminated address was
decided upon. Three months later the address was presented.
It testified to the " unwearied zeal " and " patience, temper, and
tact " displayed by the late president, " which had never failed to
obtain for him the goodwill of everyone present." Some twelve
years later Mr. Crabtree for a short time again appeared on the
Committee, while in 1913 he has the distinction of being the only
person Hving whose official connection with the Wholesale reaches
back so far.
He was succeeded in the chairmanship by J. T. W. Mitchell.
The new leader took office quietly. The first meeting of delegates
under his headship produced no comment upon the change. Yet
his determination, his entire faith in the Wholesale as an instrument
for the people's good, and his complete confidence in its taking
charge of more and more irons in the co-operative fire already
were recognised. One whose memory goes back to this period
recalls how in a stormy meeting " he rose hke a Hon and would not
be put down," and how from that day his leadership morally began.
He had won appreciation also in a different way. At the Birming-
ham Congress of 1871 a delegate hotly attacked the character of
"
the Rochdale Pioneers' Society, because of " want of sympathy
in a particular case. Mitchell rephed quietly that there was another
aspect of the case, but, concluding that the whole question was local
and irrelevant, he would not be a party to further discussion. In
94