Page 260 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

CHAPTER XX. —
Under a New President.

A jMitchell Benevolent Fund and a Widening of the Rules—The New Chair-
man—Placing a Jam Factory—Middleton Works—New ]\Ianagement at
Crumpsall—Back to the Land—Roden Farm and Roden Convalescent
Home—]Marden Fruit Fai-m—The Tea Department in a New Home
Pension Tea and Bonus Tea—Estates in Ceylon—Advertising and tho
Wheatsheaf—Shadows of War and Famine—Years 1895-1900, and to 1912.
THERE is a question which is always put by some visitors at
Balloon Street, especially Americans. Whose was the master
mind ? they ask. Who was the great organiser of this business ?
They will not readily believe that somewhere behind the scenes
there has not been all along One Big Brain. Those who have followed
this history so far will be less expectant of a superman. Even
Mitchell was not among the founders of the Wholesale Society ; and
during his twenty-one years of chairmanship he was the elected
leader, but not the master. The organisation continued to be the
work of many men and many minds. In the year after his death,
indeed, the growth exceeded that of his lifetime. Productive works
multipHed ; new ventures were undertaken ; meetings increased in
size; responsibihties grew; and the trade of the Society trebled.
Yet the fruitful tree owes much to its planting, its training, its early
protection; and witnessing in 1895 and 1896 the sudden new increase
that lifted the C.W.S. well above the point at which it had seemed to
halt during the three previous years, the members of the federation
were not at all disposed to undervalue the work accompUshed under
the presidency of J. T. W. Mitchell.
A memorial committee was formed. This committee proposed
to create a IVIitchell Benevolent Fund, with which to purchase or
endow beds in convalescent homes for the benefit of co-operators,
and to mamtam and educate co-operators' orphan children. The
C.W.S. Committee fully endorsed these proposals, and, " in view of
the enormous part IMr. Mtchell has played in the remarkable progress
and success of the Societj'," the delegates were asked to sanction a
grant of £5,000 as a nucleus for the fund. With large sums being
regularly voted as benevolent gifts, no opposition seemed likely to
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