Page 379 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

'' Exploiters '' and ''Adventurers/'
which the C.W.S. itself was not responsible; yet, mixed with some
misunderstanding and a good deal of pugnacity, it afterwards became
in other hands a most explosive material.
The I.A.O.S. (which for
some years enjoyed a Government subsidy) are the publishers of
the Irish Homestead. Written with imagination, vigour, and spirit,
its notes and leaders were (and are) excellent reading. No one
could doubt the journal's stimulating purpose of good for the Irish
agricultural producer, and for Irish literature, arts, and crafts also.
But during many years it was relentless towards the C.W.S.
Limited companies had their creameries by the dozen and passed
unscathed. English multiple shop firms, in keen competition with
co-operative stores, secured a hold in Ireland and sat down in
comparative peace. The special attack was reserved for the
C.W.S.; they were "the exploiters"—they, the careful and homely
co-operators, were " the adventurers." They, the millions of English,
Welsh, and Irish consumers, formed a right body to be whipped
for capitahst misdeeds. They, as represented by the C.W.S., were
especially to be driven out of dairy-farming in Ireland !
Extreme republicans, it is said, are logically bound to hate
a good king much more than a bad one. A similar necessity must
have inspired the opposition to the C.W.S., for it was by popular
invitation that the Wholesale Society continued to extend its
Irish dominions. The advance was most marked in the Limerick
area under Mr. Stokes. Petitions frequently were received from
farmers askmg for C.W.S. creameries to be opened in this or that
district. These petitions still are on file at Balloon Street.
Usually the names of the signatories cover three or four sheets of
foolscap. Each person claimed the ownership of from two to perhaps
twenty cows, and all pledged themselves to send in the milk should
the creamery be erected. When the C.W.S. suggested the farmers'
own co-operation the petitioners urged their lack of capital and
mutual distrust. Father Finlay, of the I.A.O.S. (as quoted by
Mr. Mc.Guffin in his Irish conference paper of October, 1908), has
told—with disgust—of tenant farmers taking a further step.
Almost from an I.A.O.S. meeting they had gone to their landlord,
begging him to grant a site for a C.W.S. creamery. Because of the
appeals from the farmers, therefore, more and more creameries were
opened. In 1902 the Society possessed forty-one main creameries
and fifty-two auxiliaries, representing an expenditure in land,
buildmgs, and fixtures of over £100,000. In that year more than
sixteen milhon gallons of milk were received. To their constituents
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