Page 380 - 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.
at home the Committee from time to time explained their
policy. Where the farmers showed themselves able successfully to
form and work a co-operative dairy society they would not bar the
wa)^ But in the absence of independent co-operative effort they
claimed the modest right of receiving milk, separating the cream,
and making butter. And at the C.W.S. Quarterly Meetings the
extension of the creamery business, in its earlier stages, was rarely
or never questioned. The accounts were not discussed at all, for
the reason that returns from the creameries did not appear
separately until after 1903. In March of that year Mr. T. Redfearn
raised the question, and on the motion of the Worldngton Industrial
Society later the Committee agreed to furnish special returns. But
until shortly before then there would have been little in the
figures to discuss. Small absolute profits arose in 1897 and 1898;
then came losses of comparatively small significance, since they
amounted to very much less than the fixed charges for interest and
depreciation.
It was not until 1902 that the heavier deficits became absolute.
From that time onward to 1909 there was a series of losses that
sounded formidable in round figures. But again it should be said
that, taken altogether, they amounted to less than the fixed
charges already named. For the iU results the absence of winter
dairying was put forward as the chief reason. The cessation of
milk supplies in winter necessitated, of course, the locking up of
premises just when prices were at their highest. Attempts were
made to overcome this difficulty, even to the point of keeping
creameries open ready to receive milk throughout a winter, but with
rather costly results. Another cause of loss arose from the failure of
milk suppHes, either from bad seasons or other causes. In this
connection a system of loans to farmers grew up after the first two
years. Scanty suppHes would be attributed to loss or failmre
of stock, and a loan would be suggested enabling the suppher to
buy more cows. Most lenders of money are suspect in the land of
the gombeen-man ; but these loans were freely granted at a moderate
interest—indeed, with less generosity on the part of the management
the " exploiting " would not have been so financially ineffective.
The chief condition of lending was that borrowers should pledge
their milk in repayment. The money itseff came back in course of
time to the full total of the very large sum advanced—nearly haff a
miUion sterhng—and with some proportion of interest in addition.
But the coming in of the milk according to expectations, or even its
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