Page 444 - 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. —
The writer then described the dining-room at Broughton.
A high, airy, -well-lighted place, with brightly-tiled walls, plain but cheerful.
There are chairs and tables for seven hundred girls, and equal provision for
men on the lower floor. A t\'pical week's inenu gives the choice of roast or
boiled mutton and beef, fish, and foiu" entrees, at a charge of 3d. to women
and 4d. to men. Another copper procures either boiled or milk pudding.
Those who bring dinner from home may have it warmed, and tea or cocoa
costs Jd. or Id. Is not such a place a very real health insurance ? But it is
one of the many details which cannot be reckoned statistically by figures of
wages.
Wilham Morris sang of a day to come when every man would
be happy in the security of his hvehhood
And this I tell for a wonder, that no man then shall be glad
Of another's fall and mishap, to snatch at the work that he had.
In the present world security is the least of two evils. Young,
strong, and clever workers may reckon it no advantage. Life under
a systematic security of tenure may seem to them a dull afiair,
tender to the slow, while oflfering few opportunities to the able.
They will be tempted to yearn for the fall that cuts down the years
of waiting. Yet, where insecurity is systematic, success is always
dogged by anxiety. The victor of to-day is destined to be the
vanquished of to-morrow ; the power of discharge may at any moment
be abused ; and the men who remain grow old under the fear of
the sword that hangs by a thread. A reasonable security also may
be abused; nevertheless, it will mean less anxiety, less fear of the
future, less scope for unscrupulous action by subordinates, equal or
superior—in short, an advantage in comfort to a whole body of
employees. The fact of this being a real benefit has been confirmed
recently by a skilled observer, well known to the writer, and
exceptionally able to speak of C.W.S. and other conditions. He
says : " You feel at once a difference of atmosj)here. In the C.W.S.
factories the workers are more comfortable. It is human nature to
get used to comfort quickly, and after a time the difference won't
be noticed by the workers themselves. But it's there, and it's
because everybody is sharing to some extent a security and freedom
that in the private factory only belongs, as a rule, to the higher and
more privileged workers."
Along with a security akin to that of government or municipal
service, C.W.S. employees possess a right of which the Civil Servant
is deprived. The latter may not assert his citizenship to the full
by taking an active part in pohtics. But as a co-operator, the
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