Page 45 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat
P. 45
William Cooper and E. V. Neale.
report they tendered to the conference that met on Christmas
morning in the newsroom of the King Street Store in Oldham:
Your committee wish to note that there has been no real opposition to the
Bill, another proof that when the working classes are earnestly bent on
measm-es for improving their condition the higher classes, as they are called,
do not oppose them, but give them a cheerful helping hand.
With a co-operative eye for statistics, the committee also stated
that " one thousand six hundred postal communications, including
letters, petition forms, circulars, money acloiowledgments, &c.,
have been sent during the two years' effort." The correspondence
committee consisted of Abraham Greenwood (who had quickly
become the regular chairman of all meetings), Wilham Cooper, and
Samuel Stott, but the bulk of the work fell upon Cooper. Besides
having a small manufacturing stationer's business of his own, he was
then employed as cashier for the Pioneers' Society, a position he had
held since its commencement. He conducted the Pioneers' office
business, spoke at other societies' gathermgs, filled the part of a
co-operative union in answering innumerable letters of inquiry, and
Hterally worked night and day. His efforts were not bounded by
the co-operative movement. An Owenite in his earty days, and a
back-to-the-land advocate under O'Connor's influence, he remained
a staunch radical and secularist. In pursuance of social and
political reforms, he communicated with all sorts and conditions
of men—the mere deciphering of the handwriting of some among his
distinguished correspondents must have been a labour The papers
!
still surviving from those he left afford a revelation of the width
and variety of a Rochdale working man's interests during the third
quarter of the nineteenth century. Cooper died in harness in
1868. Holyoake spoke at his funeral. " I have been accustomed to
regard him," said the historian of the Pioneers, " as the drudge of
co-operation."
Equally responsible with the Lancashire committee for the good
work done were the friends in London, of whom the foremost was
E. V. Neale. He it was who drafted the Bill, who drew up the
petitions, who lobbied Lords and Commons, who personally
conducted the correspondence from London. Had he charged a
minimum of 6s. 8d. every time he put pen to paper in their
interests the cost of the legislation vastly would have exceeded the
£44. 19s. 7d. (less £19 balance in hand) which was the total expense.
It is pleasant to think of these two men, Cooper, the Rochdale
worker, secularist, and ex-chartist, and Neale, the London barrister