Page 457 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

The Issue of the Congress Scale.
another matter. It meant laying down a fixed and equal scale
for at least a score of trades, with no provisions Uke those attached
to the Trades Boards' scales serving to modify the narrow inflexi-
bility. It required 17s. where even in those trades legally protected
the Society's competitors were obhged to pay no more than 128.
or 13s. on the basis of a 48-hour week. Moreover, these private
employers were free to put their girls upon piece rates, and " speed
up " at least beyond the capacity of 15 per cent of the employees,
thus commercially testing and selecting then- workers. But for
the C.W.S. to adopt this general method would mean an unaccus-
tomed harshness of discipUne, and cries of victimisation, and appeals
to working-class sentiment, and " exposures " in the press, and
possibly strikes just as damaging to win as to lose. As for the
alternative of raising prices, the entire fabric of the Society rested
upon the trade of the mass of consumers — people unable continuallj'
to pay more, even if willing, and, by all reckonings of average human
nature, not likely to pay. . . . Such considerations were those
which the Committee had to advance—mundane, unsentimental,
negative considerations; and it was bound to be a thankless task,
made more arduous by the fact that the full weight of the case
could only be appreciated properly within the boardroom and the
different offices of the managers of the works.
To the report of the C.W.S. Committee the Central Committee
of the Women's Guild issued a vigorous, but unsympathetic and
not altogether consistent, reply. It claimed that to the employees
the minimum would bring " a feeling of security and independence."
"
At the same time it declared that the employment of inefficient
workers is not business," and added that " our movement is not a
home for inefficients." This contradiction of unfolding a brighter
future for all C.W.S. workers while casually referring to the com-
mercial possibiHties of a minimum wage lingered throughout the
controversy, and it was not surprising that the girls and women
actually concerned, Uving between hope and fear, remained
absolutely silent, leaving the agitation to proceed over their heads.
Other articles and letters in the Co-operative News followed,
and at the December meetings the issue was for the time being
decided. The Leicester Society proposed, and the Enfield Highwaj'
Society accepted, a deletion of the quaUfication " where no trade
union rate for women exists." Thus the scale was to be general.
The first meetings gave mixed results, leaving a bare majority
just possible for the minimum wage at the Manchester general
361