Page 303 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

CHAPTER XXII. — —

From Irlam to Pelaw.
On Cleanliness—And the Profit of it—Goodwill and the Consumer—From
Durham to Irlam—A Working Arrangement by Soap Makers Punch and
"
the " Soap Trust —Results at Irlam—Silvertown and Dunston—Sjdney
Tallow Factory—Lions in the Path—The Defeat of a " New Monopoly "
Tobacco and Cigars—Lard Refining at West Hartlepool—The Pelaw
Worlvs—The P.A.T.A.—Years 1889-1912.
UNLIKE the decent wearing of clothes or the writing of a
language, the habit of cleanhness does not distinguish the
civilised human being from all the million varieties of animals.
Many creatm^es take pains to cleanse their skins, and man simpl}^
has sought for more effective means. To record the success of tlie
search would be almost to wTite the history of domestic civilisation.
Yet in one point of importance the progress is incomplete. The
naked African, who uses sand and water or oil or fat mixed witli
wood ash, still has one advantage over the ordinary consumer who
skips the soap advertisements in his halfpenny newspaper to-day.
The untutored African may supply himself with the cleansing
material of his simple use. He is dependent upon no soap lord,
pays no toll of profit to the rich, and need not increase the inequahty
of his state every time he conforms to the standards of his tribe.
Early in its history the C.W.S., as we have seen, set out to
remedy this defect. By the starting of the Durham Soap Works
it restored to the modern consumer some control over his (or her)
source of supply. And at the end of 1893 the old candle works
which the C.W.S. had acquired in the cathedral city was producing
about thirty-four tons of soap weekly, and yielding profits, quarter
by quarter, of a few hundred pounds. Yet. remembering that the
members of co-operative societies then numbered some 1,300,000
persons, the Society could not pride itself upon its achievement.
These small totals did not compare with the published figures of
the popular soap makers. The London Star of June 27th, 1894,
commented upon two prospectuses of soap companies then recently
239