Page 236 - 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. —
re-introduced it into their departments in the same spirit. The
precise particulars of their scheme, as revised in 1886, will be found
printed as an appendix to this history ; and it is sufficient to say here
that it took the form of a small percentage upon increases of sales,
with a larger payment upon decreased expenses, all after providing
for a minimum profit. The greatest payment under this head was
£909 for the year 1885, the total wages then paid in the depart-
ments concerned being £6,346, compared with a total of £9,038 in
1887 for the same departments after the abolition of bonus. In
1886 the question arose of whether this system should be extended
to other departments. The London meeting of February 27th
voted for this by 68 to five; Newcastle opposed the idea by 105 to
12, and Manchester adjourned its decision, but at the June meeting
finally rejected bonus altogether without discussion.
Appeal was made to Congress. At Carlisle in 1887 Judge
Hughes came out of retirement to battle for the lost cause. He
never fought better than now for the principles that, through Ludlow
and Maurice, he had derived from the French Socialists of 1848.
He declared " the great strike at Leicester " (of 1886) at a works
" "
nominally co-operative the saddest of many sad things in the
past year to him as an old co-operator of fortj^ years' standing.
Holyoake said it was " a misfortune to co-operation that the Whole-
sale ever went to Leicester." The resolution carried at Carlisle
caused the subject to come up again at Dewsbury. This, indeed,
was the battle of the campaign. Four prize-papers covered the
general question of the Wholesale Societj^ its productive depart-
ments, and the productive societies, and two sets of resolutions
followed the papers. The first set was from the North. It sup-
ported production through the C.W.S., and affirmed profit-sharing
only " whenever the profits . . , can be divided with
equity." Five ex-presidents of Congress, Messrs. Holyoake, Hughes,
Neale, the Marquis of Ripon, and Professor Sedley Taylor, were
responsible for the second set, which em.bodied the principles of
independent federated worlcshops returning to their workers (in
transferable shares) " not less than half the net profits." The
half-profits Avas a diplomatic concession, for no consumer's right
was admitted when, in the heat of this conflict, Holyoake went
" the whole hog." Using figures highly unofficial, he said:
In 1886 the workers in the Wholesale Shoe Works at Leicester numbered
090. The profits made were £9,500. That would have given an addition of
£9. 10s. to each worker's wages. Now, who came and carried away that profit
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