Page 255 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

Employees^ Purchases Again.
had been regulated through a Co-operative Furnishing Society.
From 1888 there had been direct purchases at wholesale prices,
plus l^per cent to cover clerical labour, the dividend being credited
to the Reserve Fund. On behalf of the London employees it was
claimed at the London meeting that the Anchor Society had been
formed with the encouragement of the Committee, who, as we have
seen, wished to advance co-operation in the wilderness of London.
The C.W.S. chairman, at the last Quarterly Meeting over which he
presided, treated the matter jocularlj^; it was "this very awful
state of things," at most a business of £10,000 in £10,000,000. The
Committee, as a whole, proposed to discontinue direct purchasing
in the grocery department, while continuing the privilege elsewhere.
But this course was refused. Two resolutions intended entirely
to prohibit this " illegitimate trade " were carried overwhelmingly
at all the meetings. Societies not purely distributive, and societies
not occupying busmess premises of their own, were to be refused
supphes. This severity, however, was more than the rules allowed.
Objection was raised immediately the Committee attempted to
enforce the resolution. The opinion of counsel was therefore
obtained, when Sir Richard Webster declared the action of the
delegates to have been ultra vires. In consequence the Committee
contmued to supply all societies in membership, without question as
to their methods and composition. On the basis of this compromise
the employees concerned then made their OAvn local arrangements,
but not without being affected, however, by further and sometimes
subterranean agitations and results.
The hand of death was heavy upon builders of the C.W.S. during
the years 1890-5. Of nearly thirty members of the Committee
who have died in office, seven names were added to the roll during
this short period. James Hilton, of Oldham: Samuel Taylor, of
Bolton; J. Atkinson, of Wallsend; Wilham Green, of Durham;
James Lo\\Tids, of Ashton-under-Lyne ; Emanuel Hibbert, of
Failsworth; John Thirlaway, of Gateshead; and J. M. Percival,
of Montreal, were among the number. Mr. Percival had been
secretary and treasurer as far back as 1868, IVIr. Thirlaway had held
the Newcastle Branch secretaryship, and ]\Ir. Hibbert's thirteen
years on the Committee had been full of strenuous action for the
federation. Yet these losses were overshadowed by two others,
one indirectly affecting the C.W.S., one m direct connection. On
September 16th, 1892, twelve months after his retirement from the
general secretaryship of the Co-operative Union, Edward Vansittart
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