Page 153 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

—
—
—
The Annual Appears Before Princes.
abundantly generous. In other cases material interests were
involved, as in a subscription of £1,000 in 1882, and further suras of
£500 in 1883 and £500 in 1884, toward the expenses of promoting
the Manchester Ship Canal. For similar reasons money was granted
to oppose a bridge over the Humber, likely to impede navigation to
and from Goole.
In 1880 the C.W.S. first issued its Annual. At first it adopted
the simple device of buying two thousand copies of Whittaker,
and binding its own additional pages.
In 1882 Wilham Nuttall
was asked to edit the Annual as a special pubhcation, and three
thousand copies of a book of nearly six hundred pages were
circulated in 1883. The cost was over £900, and this was dulv
questioned. The chairman's defence that the expense represented
money spent by the co-operative community in its own service
and well spent — proved successful. In 1884 the Annual readied a
record size of nearly nine hundred pages. This was considered
a httle too informative. On December 27th, 1883, WilUam Nuttall
sailed from Tilbury to settle in AustraUa, and the Committee decided
that under the new arrangements the next issue should not exceed
five hundred pages. It numbered few more, while including, for
the first time, signed articles on social and industrial subjects.
Among nearly twenty contributors were A. H. D. Acland, Thorold
Rogers, Professor Marshall, Hughes, Holyoake, George Howell,
Dr. Watts, and Messrs. Burt, Bolton King, and George Hines.
In 1887 the " harmony and perfect good feeling " existing between
the Enghsh and Scottish Wholesale Societies enabled the latter to
share the pubhcation. A copy of the first special issue of 1883 was
sent to Queen Victoria, and another to Edward VII. as Prince of
Wales, and both produced unexpectedly full repUes. Sir Henry
Ponsonby wrote :
The Queen is glad to learn of the success of a movement which not only
encourages thrift, but which also teaches the habits of business and promotes
education among so large and important a body of her people.
By command of the Prince, Lord—then Sir Francis—Knollys
wrote :
I am further directed to assiu:e you that the Prince has read with tlio
greatest interest the details of the working of the Society with which you have
supplied him, and he is anxious to express the extreme gratification which lio
experiences in finding that so large a body of the working men of this country
are united in a determination to benefit themselves, both morally and
physically, by endeavoiu-ing to carry out a scheme which his Royal Higlmesa
conceives is admirably adapted to raise the standard of their knowledge and
117