Page 238 - 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.

very much like that of 1874. This report was entertamed to the
extent of the C.W.S. promising an inquiry. It took the form of a
circular to co-operative societies m 1890, asking particulars of
payments as " bonus on wages." Only 282 replies resulted from
881 requests, and only ninety-four of these societies paid bonus.
Amidst such indifference the minority proposals died a natural
death. Yet the issue was not finally settled. In 1891 the Norwich
Society joined battle bj^ moving a resolution at the C.W.S. Quarterly
Meetings requesting the C.W.S. Committee to prepare a plan of
profit-sharmg in all departments of the C.W.S. in accordance with the
resolutions passed at the Dewsbury and Ipswich Congresses; and
at Manchester this resolution secured a powerful seconding from
Bolton. Moreover, at NcAvcastle (on June 13th) the Norwich motion
was carried by 86 to 71, at London by 52 to 49, and at Nottingham
by 35 to 31 ; it lost at Bristol with seven for it and 15 against.
Manchester remained, and Manchester proved, overwhelmingly
hostile. The delegates' meeting at headquarters rejected the
proposal (on June 20th) by 406 to 43. The national figures thus
were 223 for profit-sharing and 572 against.
A week later the Spectator lamented what it supposed to be the
fall of the mighty. Co-operators had become " simply capitalists
writ large." The Wholesale had a right to trade " hke any other
joint-stock company," for profit-sharing was " a counsel of perfec-
tion;" but the vote had "deprived it of all claim to call itself
co-operative." And the Spectator prophesied that in consequence
of the vote " other joint-stock companies " would arise, " caUing
themselves co-operative," and with these " rival agencies .
all the hopes originally built upon the substitution of co-operation
for competition will be destroyed." Thus, with a reall)'' sincere
grief, this great Enghsh journal mourned the defeat—like a man
wretched over the burning of some great city when he has seen only
a glare of red sunshine upon all its windows ! For the C.W.S.
of 1891 was precisely the Wholesale Society of 1869 over which the
/iSpecta/or had exulted, and the "purely selfish policy," the "good
thing," and the "no intention of sharing it with anybody else"
meant nothing more nor less than the " benefit . . . to everyone
who deals with them," eulogised by the Spectator correspondent
in the sixties ! In 1869 the C.W.S. shared not one penny
of its profits with its employees as employees; in 1891 it did the
same. In 1869 the federation divided all its surpluses among
the uiu'estricted body of co-operators as savings to themselves;
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