Page 434 - 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 CW.S,

differences, would be a stifling thing. One may quote the humorous
remark of a man about to be married: " Quarrels ? Of course, we
shall have quarrels ! We don't want a dull monotony." Our main
business in this world is not to conceal our natural differences, but
to provide against inhuman modes of settlement. And in all the
issues between the C.W.S. and the societies which it has taken over
democracy on this ground may claim a victory. Practically the
business of the C.I.S. was respected all along, and left uninjured by
competition. Its employees never were in fear of being thrown on
the streets; the full-time agents were provided for; and it may not
be too much to say that not a single person suffered any real
hardship. Yet the forces employed in deciding the issue were not
essentially different from those used in commercial competition or
actual war. Battles are won by big battalions ; business rivals are
crushed by the weight of superior capitals ; the miHtary commander
and the business organiser both strive to bring to bear a more
effective strength of numbers. The leaders in these issues between
co-operators did the same, with the difference that the hands held
up in support or opposition were not shot away, or thrown into
idleness, but remained to grasp the right hands of adversaries.
It has not yet been said that the settlement of the co-operative
insurance question received an unexpected impetus from the
introduction and passage into law of the National Insurance Act.
Not being represented in Parhament, co-operators as co-operators
took no direct part in shaping this measure, and were unable to
pronounce for or against it. The Joint Parliamentary Committee (of
the Co-operative Union and the two Wholesale Societies) could only
watch its progress and exert such influences as the leaders of the
Women's Gufld also exercised in the interests of married women
co-operators, not quite without effect. The official report to the
Congress which met at Portsmouth in 1912, however, included a
careful study of the scheme in its relation to co-operators, together
with reasons for believing the two Wholesale Societies to be " the
only existing co-operative agencies through which this scheme could
be satisfactorily worked." " The only alternative," said the Parlia-
mentary Committee, " would be the formation within the movement
of an entirely new organisation." But against the latter course the
Congress already had pronounced. At Bradford, in the previous year,
the appointment of a committee to deliberate upon a Co-operative
Friendly Society was advocated by Mr. Alfred Wood, with the
result of a majority deciding against his proposal. At a time of
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