Page 41 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

—
The Work and the Workers,

from Manchester to Halifax occupied at least three or four hours.
Possibly, for the benefit of delegates from a distance, the second
resolution of the meeting was that " the discussion be kept open to
half-past six before taking tea." The late Mr. Thomas Hayes has
added that the " Hall " was an adapted raiLvay arch,^ that its stove
smoked, and the tea, when the delegates got it, Avas cold. However,
the proceedings were harmonious, and no doubt everyone felt that
on earth peace among men was not a long way off. Tlie committee's
points were adopted, and societies were requested to pay one
farthing per member toward carrying the objects of the conference
into effect. William Cooper, Abraham Greenwood, and Samuel
Stott were appointed as a sub-committee to correspond with
E. V. Neale regarding the proposed legislation. This was for the
future. For immediate purposes two resolutions were passed, which
had effect in the following notice, printed first in the Manchester and
Saljord Society'' s Almanac, and afterwards in the Co-operator:—

As a step towards the formation of a Central Wholesale Dei'ot it was
resolved that buyers for co-operative societies attending the Manchester
market should meet at Mr. Crossley's Temperance Hotel, 9, Green Street,
Tib Street, near Smithfield Market; and that the butchers should meet at the
Salford Branch of the Manchester and Salford Equitable Co-operative Society.
Every arrangement will bo made to promote the comfort and facilitate the
business of those attending.
Thus, with the close of 1860, we see the idea of a general federation
of co-operative societies for wholesale business purposes brought
down from the air and embodied in a definite organisation and in a
movement. It is a convenient point at v/hich to notice the slow
and patient builders themselves. In the booklet that narrated the
struggles of the Rochdale Com Mill, William Cooper gave this vivid
and typical picture of some of their circumstances:
We have said the husband would be from home while attending meetings,
and maybe the wife had put the children to bed, and would be waiting with no
one to speak a word to her luatil the husband came home from the meeting.
All would be silent except the constant tick of the clock, the rain battering
against the windows, and the wind whistling and howling as if it had risen in
revolt against the restraints imposed upon it by nature. To the wife, alone,
minutes seem as long as hours; she thinks she is neglected, her husband
attending meetings or anything else rather than home. At another time little
Elizabeth has been sickly some days, and father has been at work all day;
and now, when his work is done, has gone to the meeting. The mother cannot
'The arch may still be seen, as shown in our reproduction of a recent photograph.
For a verification of the exact recesfj the writer is indebted to Mr. C. Davies, of Seedley,
and !vlr. Caminada, of Grcenheys, Manchester. Both gentlemen attended courts of
the R.A.O.F. at this meetingr-place.
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