Page 210 - 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.
in giving. The productions, he considered, were not those demanded
by the co-operative market. Zealous for the new society, Holyoake,
in the Co-operative News, then charged the C.W.S. with buying
" largely from mad potters who had recourse to sweating." This
was strongly resented, JVIr. Rhodes in his reports declaring that
"
the working people are my own people, . . . their welfare is
as dear to me as to Mr. Holyoake." Neither proof nor apology,
however, was obtained by the C.W.S. Committee, who, after many
letters, allowed the matter to drop. Meanwhile, a prolonged
"
correspondence with the Guild Pottery and its " chief worker
had proved barren of result, and the Pottery was at odds with the
Society during the years immediately following. But early in 1896
negotiations were reopened by the C.W.S., to such purpose that the
Society now became sole agents to co-operative societies for the
Guild Pottery. The latter made efforts to meet the co-operative
demand, and from 1896 until 1900 a steady and considerable
support was lent by the Longton Depot. . . . The co-operative
wine, however, if so we may call it, was being put into an old
bottle. An alteration of the Pottery rules had taken place in
1895. A management committee of employees, with Mr. Brownfield
as manager for life, had been superseded by a governing body drawn
from shareholding distributive societies, potters' trade unions, and
employees, and empowered to appoint a manager. The step proved
unavailing. A year or two and the Pottery was in Uquidation, with
shares worth only 6s. in the £. A meeting of delegates from
co-operative societies to effect a reconstruction was held at Cobridge
on November 26th, 1898, and they Ustened to a narration of various
reasons of failure—all of which, however, were details compared with
the outstanding fact of the Pottery being unfit for re-adaptation.
This was proved when, in the summer of 1900, the business failed
finally and completely. The lesson, of course, was the old one—to
build up from the consumer rather than to anticipate the command
of his (or, more generally, her) adhesion.

Still confining ourselves to the constitutional and mercantile
growth of the C.W.S. during the years immediately following 1884,
we find ourselves, in 1886-7, at the begiiming of the direct importa-
tion of dried fruit. From September, 1885, to September, 1886, the
total sales of dried fruit amounted to £56,971. The C.W.S. officials,
however, were not satisfied. At a joint meeting of English and
Scottish C.AV.S. buyers, under the chairmanship of Mr. W. Maxwell,
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