Page 29 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat
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A Depot in Lancashire*
it was not a federation of societies. It was not the societies' own,
and they felt no vital interest in it. One able and wealthy man,
backed up by equally disinterested workers, could do much, but he
could not fill the place of a collective and democratic movement.
On the business side, also, the agency was too far removed
geographically from those whom it was meant to serve. Yet it did
not fail without doing its full share towards attaining future success.
The business difficulty had led to the establishment of a branch at
13, Swan Street, Manchester. Mr. Lloyd Jones, who is still
remembered as one of the keenest and most eloquent of co-operators,
was put in charge as a missionary for the agency, and for co-operation
in the North generally. J. M. Ludlow, on tour in Lancashire and
Yorkshire in October, 1851, wrote to the Christian Socialist, trusting
that the branch might " yet become the real centre of co-operative
business throughout Lancashire and Yorkshire." Ludlow further
reported that " the idea of a provincial wholesale depot is in the
minds of all the Lancashire co-operatives. . . . that the plan
for its estabUshment is aheady drawn up . . . and that the
only question respecting it is whether it shall be set up in Manchester
or Rochdale." As a matter of fact a co-operative conference had
met in the Commercial Buildings, Bury, on Friday — presumably
Good Friday—April 18th, 1851, to resolve that " it would be
advantageous and beneficial to the various co-operative societies
if there were a union of action established for the furtherance of
mercantile transactions, and therefore this conference recommends
the establishment of a central trading depot." A committee was
appointed, and another conference held in Manchester on June 13th,
when a committee of ioui was chosen to draw up a prospectus and
invite financial support for a general depot in Manchester.^ This
effort proved to be premature, but it was certain that the successful
depot, when it came, would be in the closest possible relation with
the retail societies of Lancashire and Yorkshire.
In all big matters the right method is usually found by exhausting
all the wrong; and another than the federal system of co-operation
was yet to be tried. During the course of its good work for the
important Industrial and Friendly Societies Act of 1852 (championed
in the House of Commons by Mr. R. A. Slaney, M.P.), the Society
for Promoting Working Men's Associations held two co-operative
conferences, in 1852 and 1853. The first was in London, the second
in Manchester. The London conference appointed an executive,
'A plan was drawn up by Lloyd Jones. See Appendix I.
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