Page 299 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

An Adjustment of Interests.
about the same time a strike was in progress at a large private mill
in the North, and the employers there, in asking the men to state
the conditions at other mills, expressly excepted the big co-operative
mill. " They were not prepared to accept the conditions obtaining
at the Co-operative Wholesale Society's Dunston Mill, the C.W.S.,
in their view, not being a competitive firm."
We must now go back a few years, to the time when develop-
ments by Tyne and Thames still left the metropolitan area of
the co-operative state unprovided for by the C.W.S. From toward
the close of 1896 until the summer of 1900 the " delicate question "
of filling the gap was debated by different meetings of committee-men
and buyers within the Society's inner circles. Various reports,
adjournment, and resolutions led at last to open action. Special
conferences were called by the C.W.S. at Manchester, Nottingham,
and Dewsbury. At Manchester Mr. Lander gave the result of some
inquiries by the C.W.S. Committee into the co-operative flour trade,
and the power of the existing co-operative corn mills to supply the
ascertamed demand. The inquiry proved the existing co-operative
supply to be insufficient by more than ten thousand sacks weekly.
A long discussion failed to alter or obscure the logic of this state-
ment, and upon a show of hands there was a substantial majority
in favour of a new C.W.S. mill in Manchester. A similar conclusion
was reached at Nottingham, but at Dewsbury a feeling in favour of
a C.W.S. arrangement with the existing mills was strong enough to
cause a postponement of the expected action. Conferences of
C.W.S. and federal mill representatives were now entered upon, as
the result of which, in June, 1901, the Wholesale Society's Committee
announced an agreement whereby the national federation would
become the agent of the local bodies. But this could only be a
half-way step. Lancashire, Yorkshire, and other societies outside
the Oldham and Halifax areas continued to ask for a mill of
their own through the general union. From Burton-on-Trent to
Masbro' societies asked for a corn mill in the Midlands. A Mersey
district committee of Liverpool and Cheshire Societies was formed
to press for a mill on the Mersey estuary. The Hull and Grimsby
Societies, backed by East Yorkshire generally, made out a strong
case for a mill beside the Humber. North Lancashire Societies, with
other propositions, swelled the chorus. And the irresistible argument
from surplus demand did not diminish with the yearly increases of
co-operative trade. But the existing suppliers, fearing the advent
of a new, big C.W.S. mill, desired to secure prior consideration for
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