Page 170 - 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.
contracts, were handed over. The majority of the employees
concerned, ashore and afloat, passed over to the company; places
were found for others, and honorariums were granted to all who had
seen more than five years' service. The time was also felt to be
opportune for retiring from the Goole and Calais trade, and the
Federation was sold to a Hartlepools company. So, after thirty
years, the C.W.S. brought boats to dock no more under the shadow
of the tall spire of the parish chiu-ch of Goole. The work on the east
coast had served a purpose—it had helped to build up the Society;
and the record of it served as a reminder that, if conditions once more
demanded it, what had been done could be done again.
We now turn to the west coast boats. When the Pioneer began
this service, in 1879, the C.W.S. were served at Garston by an agent.
For various reasons the Society in 1881 decided to take the work
into its own hands. Very soon afterwards the shipping department
learned that negotiations were proceeding with one of the chief
Liverpool shipping companies for a Garston and Rouen service.
Influenced by hopes of large and easy profits, which otherwise might
go to a Glasgow firm, the company was showing a willingness to
move in this direction. The C.W.S. took the first opportunity of
pointing out that while there was trade for one Une two would be
starved, and then of mentioning the C.W.S. American traffic, which
could be diverted from the Liverpool company. Nevertheless the
rival boat was started, but her voyages were few, for the owners
soon found the gain to be illusory. However, yet another company
was induced to sail in search of the promised Golden Fleece; but
with the same ultimate result. And in two or tliree years' time the
C.W.S. was left to work the service undisturbed, in harmony with
the only other company permanently concerned. During this period
the cutting down of rates had involved the Wholesale Society in
losses, but, so far as the west coast was concerned, in the main these
ceased with the return of normal conditions.
In these early eighties a movement was already afoot for a
port much nearer than Garston to the manufacturing districts of
Lancashire, West Yorkshire, and the North Midlands. The severe
trade depression of 1879, renewed in 1881, produced much reflection
in Manchester. A deep waterway to the sea was advocated. The
claim was that it would create new markets and new industries in
the city, through adding the advantages of a port while reducing the
excessive railway rates from Liverpool. It was by no means a new
idea, but under the circumstances of 1882 it took root and grew.
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