Page 458 - 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. —
meeting. And (neatly begging the question) " will the flag of
human rights be raised in the citadel of co-operation ? " asked the
" first charge
Guild. Their claim was that labour must be the
upon industry," said Mr. Perry, of Stockport, in moving the
adoption at Manchester. " If this was an agitation for better wages
against the private capitalist, and by increasing wages they could
reduce his profits," replied Mr. Penny, of Sheffield, " I would say,
' Go ahead with all speed.' But in the co-operative movement
things are not the same. There the consumer is an employer and a
worker in the co-operative factory at one and the same time, and
the difficulty is to strike an exact balance." On a vote complicated
by it being out of order for Enfield to withdraw at short notice in
favour of Leicester, the C.W.S. Committee, in their united attitude,
were supported by a majority at its smallest by over a thousand
votes.
At this meeting Mr. Lander had emphasised the sincerity of the
Committee as a body and its genuine desire to decrease hours and
increase wages to the greatest extent possible. The campaign
for a binding resolution, however, continued. Certain factors
were on the side of the agitation. There was the precedent of
the minimum for men and the circumstance of 1911-12 being a
period of universal good trade. Miss Llewelyn Davies, the leader
of the Guild upon this issue, argued that " as the dividend is
equalised, wages should be equahsed, too," and, assuming such
a communism, together with continued general prosperity, it was
easy to prove the cost a comparative trifle. Societies hke Pendleton
came forward to say they were paying the scale for 850 employees
men and women—and (said their Portsmouth Congress representa-
" Naturally wishiag that
tive) it had been to their advantage."
the C.W.S. should faU into line, the general body of co-operators
rapidly were coming to believe the difficulties exaggerated. At
the Portsmouth Congress of 1912 an attempt to find a via media
through the estabhshment of district boards, after the practical
manner of the new Miners' Minimum Wage Boards, proved belated.
And in December, 1912, the C.W.S. Committee announced that
the wages of a fairly large number of girl and women workers below
the scale had been improved, that, as a further step, the scale
was to be apphed in the distributive departments, and that the
more difficult problem of the productive works was receiving
attention. It only needed the fact of the C.W.S. Jubilee being
at hand to quicken the desire for going all the way. On behalf
362