Page 319 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

''A Somewhat Auaacious Claim.'^

The plaintiffs, lie added, had "obtained at least as much as, and I
think more than, they were legally entitled to." In other words,
the C.W.S. might have obtained their costs. Lord Justice Fletcher
Moulton concurred that "the Judge treated the plaintiffs very
leniently when he said that neither side should have costs." Lord
Justice Buckley began his judgment with the statement: "This
action was an attempt to establish a new monopoly; " and after
touching upon the " extraordinary proposition " arising from Sir
Wilham Lever's evidence, and re-stating the points of judgment, he
concluded with the opmion, " the learned Judge did not only what he
was entitled to do, but a good deal less than he was entitled to do, in
disposing of this action."
So ended the war. The remaining thirty-six cases fell with the
appeal. All of them were withdra^^ai, on terms satisfactory to the
victors. Shelley told the masses, in their issue with their rulers
?.fter Peterloo, to
Let the laws of your own land.
Good or ill, between you stand.

Trade unionists, in recent historic instances, have complained of the
laws being interpreted against the workman's sense of justice.
Co-operators in this, the largest and most daring attack upon their
Uberty, had no reason to complain either of the law or its adminis-
trators. And the fact that the co-operative store movement,
although a workmg-class institution of which Lords Justices were not
hkely to have experience, yet withstood so successfully the horse,
foot, and artillery of a vastly rich, powerful, and recently triumphant
Utigant, was no mean evidence of the strength of the co-operators'
citadel, the C.W.S. Some share in the result, also, is to be credited
to the long and intimate connection between the Wholesale Society
and its Manchester soUcitors, Messrs. Tatham, Worthmgton, and
Co., originally Messrs. Darbishire, Tatham, and Worthington.
Important as the matter was to co-operators, however, it received
no large attention from the general press. The tall headlines, the
editorials, and the sketches in court which made the big libel action
known, were all absent. No doubt the latter deserved space
because of the pubhcity of the original libel, yet it resolved itself
into a quarrel between two private parties, and ended with a decision
as to damages. The " somewhat audacious claim to a monopoly,"
on the other hand, directly affected the entire co-operative move-
ment, with its thousands of stores and milhons of customers and its
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