Page 465 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

The Society and its Officers*
Open co-operative discussions on the relation of the Society to
its employees rather naturally have been concerned with the
general body of the wage-earners. At the same time, the "republic
of consumers " includes amongst its employees those who by
reckonings of income and position are of the middle class, a body of
" civil servants " differing from Government or municipal officers
in many important conditions, and yet employed by an institution
which is much nearer to a commonwealth than to a private business.
And remembering that the ultimate rulers of the Society almost all
are of the working class, it will be seen that a problem arises.
Bluntly, the general method of private industry is effectively to
subordinate its routine workers and less-commercially-minded
servants, while discoverino; and rewarding the initiative ability of a
profit-earning character. The favour of individual owners and masters,
with special bonuses and private opportunities of investment, leading
to partnerships and directorships, are the prizes that glitter before
the eyes of capable business men, simply as rewards for commercial
ability, untrammelled by democratic considerations. Thus the
English middle class has been created. . . . The co-operative
manager, buyer, or aspirant to like distinction is in a different case.
With the quaHties of an efficient manager he must include an
understanding of co-operative principles and methods, and the mind
and temper of the working class. His position is not without advan-
tages. The marketable goodwill which has to be captured by the
private firm, here, to some degree, is given in trust; and he may
count upon the reasonable security of tenure and freedom from
anxiety. On the other hand, the equahsing spirit of co-operation
produces a more restricted scale of rewards, while it is a fact to be
reckoned with that most co-operators, by reason of their circum-
stances, always will be more able to understand and sympathise
with the working lives of the rank and file than with the officers.
Differing essentially from private trading, the store movement
largely has depended, therefore, upon an emergence from the ranks
of a new type of business head. In the early days of the C.W.S., as
Ave have seen, the dehberate preference of an honest and intelligent
co-operator who might have his business to learn more than once
proved to be the best pohcy. With the extension of the number of
the Society's employees, the field of choice among those already
connected with the Society has extended, and heads have been
found amongst clerks and salesmen and workers growing up with the
federation. On a topic like this one is necessarily confined to general
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