Page 432 - 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.

accountant before 1884, and still an auditor of the Society's accounts,
as chairman and senior director of the Insurance Society, now
moved the C.I.S. amendment. It was a militant speech, broken by
minutes of uproar ; and speaker succeeded speaker afterwards in an
atmosphere tense with expectation. Forty minutes of concentrated
debate sufficed, for the meeting was impatient of triviaUties, and
" get agate o' sayin' summat " was the sort of interjection always
likely to come swiftly out of the gathering. When the hands went
up there was a fair show for the amendment ; but the almost sohd
mass against it was overwhelming. Reduced to figures, the voting
showed a rejection of the C.I.S. proposal by nearly six to one, the
totals being 148 and 847, whereas the previous meetings had
yielded a proportion of httle more than two to one. Altogether, the
amendment was lost by 617 against 2,039, and the Committee's
proposal was carried by assent. Subsequently the meeting was
declared special for an alteration of the rules enabhng the C.W.S. to
undertake life assurance, and also health insurance under the Act of
1911, and to this proceeding there was no opposition.
As already stated, at Portsmouth in the following May the
Congress approved a recommendation of the Co-operative Union
endorsing the decision of the C.W.S. December meetings, the
delegates declining to accept Mr. Wood's dismal suggestion that this
was the end of co-operative democracy. Meanwhile, the Committee
of the Scottish Wholesale Society and the committee of the Insurance
Society obtained powers to negotiate; and, during the summer and
autumn months of 1912, meetings of representatives of the three
bodies were held to arrive at terms. Offers, counter offers, and
prolonged discussions resulted eventually in a provisional agreement
by the Wholesale Societies to take over all the engagements, business,
and funds of the C.I.S., and to pay over to the society-shareholders
a sum of £120,000, in addition, of course, to the amount of the paid-up
capital. From this latter sum each of the latter was to receive
£2. 10s. in excess of each £1 share, or a total return of £3. 10s.
for every share, and a balance was to go toward paying a special
dividend on other than life assurance premiums received from the
shareholders during the previous nine years. At the independent
suggestion of Mr. James Odgers, the C.W.S. Committee further
agreed to pay an additional £3,000 in compensation to the
retiring directorate. There were guarantees on both sides also:
the C.VV\S. promising three years' service to every employee
not guilty of misconduct, and salaries or annuities to the chief
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