Page 403 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

The New Constitution.
as committee-man or chairman of their own local society.
They
were not to be debarred, however, from acting within reasonable
limits on pubHc administrative bodies or as magistrates. "
Great
confusion would ensue," said the committee of inquiry, "and
irreparable injury would be done " by separating the distributive
activities of the federation from the productive. Therefore,
with the provision stated for sub-committees, the enthe institution
was to remain under the control of the General Committee.
Notwithstanding differences on detail, the report was signed by
all the twelve members. Two Saturday afternoons of a fine and
hot July were occupied— ^the first by seven branch and divisional
meetings and the second by the final general meeting—in considering
the report, and the amendments which gathered around it like
summer flies. The Newcastle meeting, on the 14th, showed the
spirit of early days by spending five hom-s upon its discussions and
decisions; but the remainder were less devoted. Unexpectedly,
every amendment except one was defeated on this fii\st day, and
only a handful of some 471 delegates appeared at Balloon Street on
the 21st to end the hopes of the siu-vivor. The report, therefore,
was adopted as it stood, and new rules based upon it subsequently
were accepted eii bloc by general agreement.

New headquarters marked the further transformation of the
C.W.S. into the present-day Society. At Manchester the nine
hundred or so delegates long had been in a state of rebelUon against
the crowding of Quarterly ^.leetings into what is now the old
dining-room. Various efforts had been made to rent better quarters.
The Central Hall, in Oldham Street, twice was used in 1895 and
the Town Hall in 1897, and, although the delegates returned to the
discomforts of Balloon Street, in desperation they migrated again, to
the Association Hall (Y.M.C.A., Peter Street) in 1901, and to the
classic Free Trade Hall in 1902. Each experience proved, however,
that even v/hen jammed together there was no place like home.
Still, there was no reason wdxy the home should not be comfortable,
and in September, 1899, the Committee completed the purchase of
nearly five thousand square yards (4,942) of building land, fronting
on Corporation Street, with a view to providing a new meeting-room
and larger business premises. The total cost of the purchase was
£95,587, and the properties w^ere subject to five diiTercnt chief
rents amounting in all to £378. 19s. 7d. Six lesser consolidating
purchases were made later, two in Hanover Street, two in Dantzic
X 321