Page 250 - 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. —

stores." Reminding his hearers of their " task of removing every
intermediary . . . that interposes himself between the producer
at one end and the consumer at the other end of our commercial
system," he spoke of commencmg with the retail agent first, " not
because he is the only agent that we have to deal with, but because
he is the collector of charges for all the rest " :
The retailor is the great social tax-gatherer to-day, and we have found it
comparatively easy to deal with him, because he looms large in the imagination
of the consumer. But as our movement progresses and co-operators mn, one
after another, the strongholds of exclusive interest, we shall come into contact
with antagonists more subtle and powerful than the retailer has been, and then
you will find out the value of a great organisation such as we commemorate
here to-day.
The celebration on December 21st practically repeated the earher
one. Mr. IMitchell was in the chair, supported by Messrs. C. Fenwick,
M.P., W. Crooks, Wallace, G. Hawkins, J. C. Gray, and others.
Touching upon the then newly launched " Darkest England " scheme
of General Booth, IVIitchell declared at this meeting that " the best
way of helping the poor, in his opinion, was to cause the profits of
the business of the nation to flow into the pockets of the people
instead of to a section of the people." . . . On December 26th
a third gathering took place, exclusively of employees, their wives
and sweethearts. A tea and conversazione was held in the same
hall Avith Mr. H. R. Bailey in the chair, and Mr. George Scott,
Mr. Bmney, Mr. W. J. Howat, and others present.
The second and similar occasion was the twenty -first anniversary
of the London Branch, in the first half of 1895. By this time the
big Leman Street warehouse, Avith its proud clock tower, had been
overtaken by the trade of the branch and become congested. The
tea department was a twin brother, on the best of terms with the
branch ; nevertheless, its room was wanted rather than its company,
and the teamen were on the eve of departure to a new home on the
other side of the street. Bacon stoves had gone up, with satisfactory
results, and production on a small scale, by the manufacture of
brushes and bedding, had quietly been entered upon by the furnishing
department. A corn mill and a jam works in the London area were
asked for more and more. In the twenty-one years the employees
of the branch, exclusive of the tea department, had increased from
the original half-dozen to over 370, and the trade from some £100,000
to nearly one and a half millions stcrhng—reckoned on the basis of
the century's lowest prices. Where the London district had accounted
for one-twentieth of the C.W.S. trade in 1875, its proportion
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