Page 216 - 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.

years later the C.W.S. acquired land and erected the present
extensive building, in which some six hundred persons, under Mr.
W. J. Piper, are employed during the season in picking, packing,
and shipping fruit.
From 1887 until 1890, after a long period of failing prices, a
temporary rise took place. Yet in 1890 prices were lower than
tiie present level. The absolute figures of C.W.S. trade, therefore,
were below what would be their equivalents for the same volume of
business now. Nevertheless, their total had begun to appear
huge. From £4,675,371 for 1884 it had risen to £7,028,944 for 1889.
The profits had risen from £54,491 to £101,984, and the average
dividend on sales from 2|d. to 3|d. in the £. The capital embarked
(£1,251,635) had almost doubled. In addition to its business
operations the Society iiad become a liberal donor. Colliery
disasters, like those of Clifton Hall, Silkstone, and Longton, were
followed by donations; seasons of unemployment and distress were
considered, and disasters like the earthquake of 1886 in Greece;
and the hospitals steadily received their share. Of particular
grants, £300 went to a Neale scholarship at Oxford, £100 to the
cost of a Manchester meeting of the British Association, £100 to
the Rutherford Memorial College at Newcastle, £50 to the veteran
Henry Pitman, and £50 to the Holyoake annuity. The Manchester
Jubilee Exhibition was guaranteed to the extent of £1,000, and a
mining and engineering exhibition at Newcastle up to £500. The
Co-operative Union scheme of propaganda at last received support,
to the extent of £2,000. Away from money matters the Society
had to lament the loss of Richard Whittle (of Crewe), Samuel Lever
(of Bacup), and WilUam Hemm (of Nottingham), all famihar workers
in the growing Society and members of its Committee. In 1886
also came the death of Lloyd Jones. Owenite, chartist, associate
of the Christian SociaUsts, pioneer of wholesale co-operation and
co-operative leader, he was lamented by J. M. Ludlow as " for
strength of lucid exposition and argument as a business speaker
only and scarcely excelled among his contemporaries by Peel and
Cobden," and " in his own peculiar Uno, one of God's truest soldiers
in his generation."

168