Page 40 - 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.
"representative" would hold in trust for his society perhaps £50
worth of shares. By retaining the documents the society could
prevent any ' ' representative ' ' from privately withdrawing the holding,
but it had no legal power to compel a surrender of the claim.
And in addition to this obstacle there were other legal disabiUties.
While the operations of the collective bodies thus were confined, the
liabilities of their individual members were unlimited. And whereas
the C.W.S. to-day owns eight hundred acres of land at Wisbech
alone, no society then might extend beyond one acre. These were
limits upon a nascent collectivism imposed chiefly because legislators
considered it foolish to trust working men very far ; but even these
did not exhaust the list of handicaps. Through one of those
accidents by which the law sometimes proves itself to be an ass,
it had recently become impossible for societies to provide by rule
for educational grants. All these barriers called for something like
a mild revolution.
So the second meeting of the Jumbo friends was duly held at
Oldham, and organisation was begun by William Cooper being
appointed secretary, with power to convene a conference at Rochdale.
This third gathering was held on October 7th, 1860, when Messrs.
Henry Hewkin (not Hawkin) and William Marcroft, of Oldham,
William Cooper and Abraham Greenwood, of Rochdale, James
Dyson and Ed^vard Hooson (not Hodson), of Manchester. Charles
"
Howarth, of Heywood (the constitution-maker " of the Pioneers),
and John (not James) Hilton, of Middleton, were elected as a
committee to act further. With these names there should be
included those of James Smithies, Samuel Stott. and Thomas
Cheetham, of Rochdale, and J. C Edwards, of Manchester, all of
which appear in the minutes of the committee's subsequent
proceedings. Meeting again at Jumbo, and afterwards at Middleton,
the committee drew up their charter, Avhich contained five points.
The one-acre impediment was to go; the acquiring of property was
to be unrestricted; power was to be given for investing in other
societies or companies; limited liability should be possible under
the Industrial and Provident Acts; and educational grants by rule
should be legaUsed. The committee reported to a conference held at
"the Temperance Hall," Hewitt Street, Knott Mill. Manchester, on
Christmas Day, 1860. Fifty or sixty delegates attended. It was
a heroic way of spending Christmas. The conference was called
for " two o'clock and six o'clock p.m." on a day when trains ran as
on Sundays, and at a period when the thii'd-class railway journey
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