Page 463 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

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The Question of Compulsion,

December, 1907, upon a motion for a general trade union label.
The motion came from the Parkstone and Bournemouth Society.
Had it been adopted the C.W.S. would have been called upon to
approach the executive of the Trade Union Congress, asking for a
label to be devised and placed upon all goods made under trade
union conditions, the C.W.S. undertaking that all its factories should
conform to the label requirements, and to " undertake to sell onl}^
goods bearing that label as it becomes operative in the various
branches of trade." Such a bargain would have been rather more
than one-sided, since the federation would have forfeited its
independence, and the proposal was rejected decisively. At the
same time, short of bartering its birthright, the C.W.S. ever has
been willing to help in improving conditions beyond as well as within
its borders. Many an inquiry has preceded orders, and in response
to representations of weight more than one account has been closed
frequently at a loss to the Society. A pertinent illustration of this
poUcy appeared at the Quarterly Meetings of December, 1912, and
March, 1913, in the facts then disclosed concerning the C.W.S. and
certain firms in the furniture trade.
We come to the question of compulsory trade unionism for C.W.S.
employees. It is one upon which the history of co-operation bears
"
very closely. They had laid it down," said Mr. Perry, speaking
on the union label issue in 1911, " that any man or woman could
join the movement, and no question would be asked as to poHtics,
religion, or union, and they could not adopt the proposal of the
label unless they were prepared to depart from that principle."
Civilisation moves forward wavering between the rival magnetic
poles of Uberty and obhgation; and of late years the stronger
power has been obligation. From compulsory education to
compulsory insurance, and from compulsory mihtary service to
compulsory trade unionism, the present generation either accepts
or contemplates forms of constraint which the democracy of an
earHer period would have abhorred. And the difficulty for
co-operation is less in its voluntary character than in the practical
fact of it being unable to use compulsion in its own direct interests.
Forcible methods still stop short, and no doubt always will stop
short, of any point at which they might be of co-operative avail.
A few years ago the committee of a local society questioned the
un-co-operative use of the purchasing power which every week it was
putting into the hands of its employees. Quickly the tyranny was
denounced, and the Truck Acts successfully were invoked in defence.
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