Page 239 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

Ideals for Consumers.

in 1891 it had become convinced of the justice of its method,
and that is all.
One cannot help feeling it to be a pitj'' that the real nature of
this conflict between the " republic of consumers " and the supporters
of independent workshops was not seen. Certainly the result of
supposing a quarrel simply between principle and practice was to
range the noblest minds in the co-operative movement against
common sense, to bewilder and silence thought, and, finally, to bring
idealism into contempt. Yet the actual problem was one capable of
winning respect from both sides. With all its appeal of unity to the
ideahst, and of economy to the man of business, the collective
method has its dangers. Institutions too confidently founded upon
it may end in neglecting individuality and fostering bureaucracy,
the stream of their vital force running dry in deserts of officialism
and enslavement to routine. Hence the not unreasonable criticism
which collectivism meets in our ov,!! day from individuaHsts at one
extreme to syndicalists at the other. And so much the better it
would have been, therefore, if the leaders of co-operative idealism
generously had forced their spirit into the great federation; for
already it had become the largest and most substantial embodiment
of a co-operation wide enough to include the most disinterested
efforts. They need not have feared a stifling by commercialism.
To increase the spending power of the hungrj^ millions, to inform
and inspire its possessors, to strengthen in its workshops the idea
which the federal system embodies of direct service for the common
benefit of a fraternal, democratic, ever-expanding community, to
enrich that system with every right and liberty not inconsistent
with its own unity—all this scope and more (without trenching
upon the ground of trade unionism) is offered by " the co-operation
of consumers." Again, one feels it a pity that so many leaders did
not work withm rather than against the developments of the
eighties, for we are the poorer by the loss of the high tradition
they would have bequeathed.

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