Page 252 - 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.

it was said, that the branches might become independent societies.
The People's Co-operative Society thus proved to have no real unity,
no core of its own. Co-operation in London did not fail with it,
but it has grown since upon a precisely opposite plan. Separate
societies have taken root vigorously in fairty compact suburbs and
outer districts, and thence have spread toward the yet unconquered
central area.
The developments that had trebled and quadrupled the
Wholesale Society since the critical seventies had very much more
largely added to its financial reserves. Thus, from less than £20,000
in 1879, the Insurance Fund had gro-woi in 1892 to £218,534. Not
even compound interest had accounted for this accumulation; it
had been swelled to the extent of nearly £100,000 by additions from
trading profits. This fund and the policy which had built it up
were now challenged. Heckmondwike was a quarter from which
financial criticism had come to be respectfully received, and the
Heckmondwike Society was foremost. It did not propose to check
"
or limit the grov/th of the fund, but out of its " vast amount
immediately to allocate £170,000 to the separate federated societies.
Each was to possess shares in the fund in proportion to its purchases,
and each was to be credited with interest, and was to enjoy the right
of drawing upon the credit by transferring the shares in case of
need. Further allotments were to be made every five years. Other
societies followed with other resolutions. These critics did not wish
to individualise a common capital that Robert Owen would have
rejoiced to see, but they desired to prevent an indefinite increase
of the fund from trading profits. The C.W.S. Committee also
brought forward a counter proposal. This was to allow a more
liberal maximum (£350,000) before denying to the fund any benefit
from large profits, but after that point to credit it with premiums
and mterest only.
Each party issued statements in support of their resolutions,
and all the latter ultimately came before a special meeting held on
April 9th, 1892. Mr. Barnett, of Macclesfield, argued that a fund
of £200,000 was ample for all risks; and Mr. Redfearn, of Heck-
mondwike, urged that the Wholesale Society was creating a capital
" that would make it independent eventually of the retail societies."
But the Committee, having gone already further to meet the
agitation than Mitchell approved, was resolute for a policy which,
in Mr. Tweddell's words, would put the Wholesale "in a position to
do its own insurance, without the assistance or intervention of
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