Page 433 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

The Settlement of the Issue.
servants; while the Insurance Society undertook to iiiiiko a
willing transfer and carry on the business in the interests of the two
Wholesale Societies until the completion of the transaction.
In December, 1912, the agreement came up for ratification by
the members of the Enghsh federation. To the general terms no
exception was taken; but the provision for the directorate aroused
an instant opposition. The sum was equal to ten years' fees, whereas
the rules of the Insurance Society obhged each member of its
committee to seek re-election every two years. To recognise any
interest in the position beyond this period was felt to be contrary to
democratic principles, as was a proposed apportionment of one-half
the sum according to years of office. So strong was this opposition
at the branch and divisional meetings that it threatened entirely to
block the transfer. Adroit action by the C.W.S. Committee, however,
at the following general meeting, immediately pacified a threatened
storm. They proposed so to modify the terms as to pay over one
sum of £123,000, without reference to directors' compensation,
leaving the settlement of the latter to the members of the C.I.S.
The movers of amendments at once sought permission to withdraw,
but the fact of all the meetings constituting simply so many sections
of one meeting made this impossible, and the delegates spent ten
minutes in steadily voting down their previous decisions, not less
mechanically than members of Parliament go through a series of
divisions. This over, within thirty-five minutes from the opening
of the meeting a great burst of applause marked the ratification of
the agreement in England, and practically the end of a five years'
agitation. Subsequently the amended terms similarly were endorsed
in Scotland, and also by the members of the C.I.S. , who, however,
cut down the £3,000 compensation to the sum of two years' fees,
£600. The decision of the C.W.S. left room for different methods of
effecting the transfer, according to legal advice; but it is not
too premature to foreshadow a joint insurance department of the
two Wholesale Societies, carried on by the Enghsh and Scottish
federations under a legal partnership, after the manner of the joint
tea department.
Thus the movement for unification succeeded. It had involved
a determined contest, and hard things had been said on each side.
At different times the existence of the issue had been regarded in some
quarters as almost a scandal, and at any rate a reflection upon
co-operative fraternity. But a sentimental agreement, or pretence
of it, that would preclude a healthy outspoken discussion of
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