Page 308 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

The Story of the C.W.S,

systems of private soap makers. But before the year was out they
were to be in a very different position. On October 11th, 1906,
it was announced that " a working arrangement " had been entered
into by twenty great soap manufacturers, controlling a capital of
£12,000,000. According to his own statement, made during his
subsequent libel action against the Daily Mail, it was in July,
1905, that Sir William (then Mr. W. H.) Lever, proposed to certain
soap makers that they should "exchange shares in each other's
companies and so do away with jealousy and strife." The
immediate recipients of the suggestion agreed, and were joined by
other firms, until the " brotherhood of manufacturers " reached
the number alread}^ named. The agreement, it was stated, was not
to be against the public. Impelled by the increasing prices of
raw materials and the costs of competitive advertising, the arrange-
ment was made, said Sir William Lever, " with the view of avoiding
the raising of prices to the public." But in this case the innocence
of the soap makers' motives failed to find recognition. Whether
concerned about the prospective loss of advertisements or not
(and Sir William Lever said that his firm had spent £500,000 with
the press of the United Eongdom), the pubhc press, v/hich had
suffered the formations of other combinations in silence, now woke
up. As Mr. Chiozza Money pointed out at the time, the economy
of combination is in itself a social gain. Every successful trust
demonstrates the possibility of less wasteful commercial methods.
The trouble arises from such combinations being reserved to the
possession of a few. Like a new machine, the good or iU of a
monopoly depends upon whether it is owned by the pubhc and
worked in the public interest or is a private property. And since
even soap makers are human, the press and the public refused to
believe themselves safe in the hands of twenty soap firms united in
controlling the main soap trade of the country. The volume of
the outcry may be gauged by a reference to the pages of Punch
during the months of October and November, 1906. Cartoons,
satirical verses, and comic dialogues—all were directed against
"
the soap trust." One well-known soap became " Lever's loathed
lather," and a future " Earl of Sunlight " was pictured, a grandson
"
of the first earl," grown fabulously rich since a corner in soap,
and in 1966 bent upon circumventing the only man in London
society who preferred to go dirty rather than pay his price. And
when, in consequence of the raging and tearing campaign of the
newspapers, the dissolution of the working arrangement was
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