Page 19 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

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Ideals of the Owenites.
labours." The statement went on to declare that tlie splendid
advances already made in the arts and sciences were useless without
a corresponding advance in moral and social science. It objected
that existing arrangements did not provide even for a majority. It
asserted that individual competition and private accumulation had
produced excessive inequalities of wealth and glaring contrasts;
and it affirmed the power of mutual effort to supply all the neces-
saries and comforts of life. Then it outlined the sure Utopia
towards which the fortunate readers might immediately place
subscriptions with a firm of bankers. In this new world (within
fifty miles of London) there would be found voluntary, varied, and
attractive work, an eight-hour day, private and public apartments,
equality for women and freedom (through a co-operative sub-
division of labour) from domestic drudgery, common nurseries for
children, and common care for health, together with education, arts,
and amusements for all.
This London Society renounced individual profit, and abhorred
the shop counter, its object being " not trading and accumulating,
but producing and enjoying." Other societies also under Owen's
influence, as the Halifax Society of 1829, were content with more
modest aims. The Halifax co-operators desired " to unite to raise
a capital by subscriptions, to purchase food and clothing as low as
possible for ready money; to retail them to themselves and the
public for ready money only, at retail prices, and to add the profits
to the stock." A Liverpool Society stated that its objects were
" The acquisition of a common capital for the mutual protection of
its members against poverty; the attainment of a greater share in
the comforts of life ; and the diffusion of useful knowledge and moral
improvement." One fatal weakness, however, was shared by all
these societies. Owen declared that " the natural standard of value
is human labour." Holding to the further dogma that " labour is
the only source of wealth," almost every society, communistic or
co-operative, extreme or moderate, began to attempt manufacturing.
In the labour-power of any Uttle group of people they saw a sure
spring of weU-being, sufficient and complete, and the mirage led them
on until they perished in the desert.
Yet it was largely through this idea of production that what
may be termed the first co-operative wholesale society came into
existence. Even this—The North-West of England United Co-
operative Company—had a predecessor in the bazaar for the sale
or exchange of co-operative produce at 19, Greville Street, Hatton
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