Page 207 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

Ideas of Progress.
chairmanship of Mr. George Hawkins, were the Rev. (afterwards
Canon) S, Barnett, together with the then sub-warden of Toynbee
Hall (Rev. T. G. Gardiner), Professor Foxwell, Messrs. Nealo,
Holyoake, J. C. Gray, E. O. Greening, W. Lister (of the Civil Service
Supply Association), and, of course, the entire C.W.S. Committee
and the heads of departments. Mr. Maxwell was there with other
Scots, for, as the Scottish chairman said at the Ipswich Congress,
" the two Wholesale Societies were so closely allied that he seemed
to be almost as much connected with the English as the Scottish
Wholesale." George Hawkins said " it should be their aim to make
this beautiful building a common home for all the various move-
ments having for their object the interest and advancement of the
working people." But although conferences of many bodies, and
upon many subjects, have been held at Leman Street, the full sense
of these words for various reasons was doomed to remain unrealised.
The chairman of the C.W.S. made a vigorous and characteristic
speech. Some passages in it had more than passing value, for they
embodied the ideas which then were in the flesh and blood of the
federal leader, and through him were influencing the policy of the
C.W.S. Said Mitchell—
He did not come before that meeting with an orthodox form of address,
prepared and written for the occasion. His duties and engagements left him
Httle time for that sort of thing. The history of the past showed very clearly
that power followed the possession of capital and property, and when they
became possessed of these they would become powerful too. The system of
co-operation was not a negation, but an earnest and determined attempt to
regulate the commerce of the world for the benefit of the many instead of the
few, and it had become a great power in this country. It was the best system
for securing the greatest good of the greatest number, and formed the only
means of practical reformation for the people. . . . There was another
question in which they were much interested. As co-operators, they had the
greatest possible interest in good government and in peace all over the world.
He wovild not trench on politics, for co-operators belonged to no party or sect,
but to that great class called humanity, and will strive to do that which will
aid the distressed and the unemployed everywhere. He thought the time
would soon come when our movement will exert a beneficial influence on our
relationship with all other countries. He thought so for this reason. Their
business with other countries was large, and growing fast. They wanted their
representatives abroad to know that co-operators cannot have their interest
in this trade interfered with, and that our diplomatists should be required to
cultivate cordial relationships all over the world. ... In this vast city of
London there was very much they had to learn. They needed better municipal
and parochial institutions. In a town where the poor pay high and the rich
pay low rates there should be an amalgamation to equalise the public burdens.
It was no wonder that under such a system as existed the poor were numerous.
M 161