Page 251 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

Achievements and Hopes in London.
for 1895 was one-seventh. This meant a progress which the branch
felt justified in celebrating under holiday conditions, an environment
more easy to obtain in the metropolis than in Manchester. " The
Orient " was showing at Olympia, and upon its scenes of Eastern
splendour was obtruded the aesthetically sombre but enthusiastic
gathering of co-operators, met to celebrate an achievement of
freedom and the West. Mr. Hawkins presided (on April 24th, 1895)
over a meeting and luncheon at which, in these early days of the
Women's Guild, few ladies were present, but that other\\ise was
hugely attended by co-operative delegates; while, on the Saturday
foUo^^ing, the employees of the London Branch and of Southern
co-operative societies were entertained by the C.W.S., an emploj'ee,
in the person of Mr. Ben Jones, being in the chair.
Solid, however, as the success of the branch had been, the
Committee could not shut their ej'es to the weakness of the
movement under its very waUs and throughout the vast shopping
area of greater London. Hence, in June, 1893, they came forward
with a proposal to set aside £3,000 in furtherance of metropoHtan
co-operation. The money was not to be granted away but invested
in a movement to consolidate certain weak and strugghng associations
into one powerful metropolitan society. Lancashire and Yorkshire
delegates, however, were hard to convince, and it was not imtil
March, 1894, that they could be induced to agree -n-ith the rest of the
country. The Co-operative Union were to share with the Wholesale
Society in the new effort; and, the money being voted, in due
course the People's Co-operative Society arose. It was worked
from Leman Street as a centre, with a committee dra-v^Ti from the
Co-operative Union and the C.W.S. A London Co-operative Baking
Society also was taken over (March, 1895), and worked in conjunction
with, the grocery departments at Leman Street, for the supply of
bread to all those societies in the metropolitan area which had no
bakery of their own. ]VIr. George Hawkins, the then chairman of
the London Branch, was keenly interested in the new attempt to
"
irrigate the co-operative desert," and certainly the effort did not
lack ofi&cial backing. And gradually the People's Co-operative
Society established branches over both sides of the Thames rnitU at
its ninth quarterly meeting, in August, 1897, it was able to announce
a membership of 3,387 persons. But the diWdend had already
declined from Is. in the £ to 9d., and the next year, AWth sales
amounting to no more than £5,355, the di\idend fell to 6d. In
August, 1899, the society went into voluntary liquidation, in order,
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