Page 471 - The_story_of_the_C._W._S._The_jubilee_history_of_the_cooperative_wholesale_society,_limited._1863-1913_(IA_storyofcwsjubill00redf) (1)_Neat

—
Standing on the Hill of Time.
in 1913 have given the possession over which the co-operators of
England and Wales will then rejoice.
With aching hands and bleeding feet
We dig and plant, lay stone on stone;
We bear the burden and the heat
Of the long day, and wish 'twere gone;
Not till the hours of light return
All we have built do we discern.
The diggers and the planters—the men of the rough, strenuous,
early days—for the most part, are no more. All that has arisen
on the ground where they built they cannot discern. Another
generation has entered into its inheritance. Yet in their day the
pioneers were sure that something from their hands would serve a
future hour, and they were content. Standing on the hill of time,
it is easy to look down upon them, to see what was crude and
mistaken, to smile and be satisfied. It is then that we are arrested
by the thought of how in fifty years our own lives and deeds may
appear. What story will there be to teU in 1963 ?
That the co-operative movement will go on is certain. Like
every other steady expression of the working-class spirit, in the
last reckoning it lives, not through the force of arguments in its
favour, but because it is an essential part of the working-class effort
towards a larger life. Fifteen hundred years ago the barbarians
broke upon ancient Rome, and, from the welter, the rude order of
feudal Europe slowly arose. To-day, in this case not from outside
but from below, there are forces in all lands pressing against the
poUtical, social, and economic restraints of the estabhshed world.
Vast changes appear imminent; and, while some fear anarchy,
others look toward a better social state beyond the confusion of
these days. It is in such a time that the Jubilee of the C.W.S.
witnesses proudly to a measure of reconstruction, to a real achieve-
ment entirely worth celebrating. And yet, in regard to all except
a foretaste of co-operation triumphant, we are stiU in the days of
beginnings. Strong, therefore, we must be with that inspiration of
the future which quickened the leaders of the past; and strong
those wUl become who hearken to the call from the unseen years
"
to be, a clear, resonant morning-call of *' Pioneers ! pioneers !
Far, far off the daybreak call—hark ! how loud and clear I hear it
wind .
Pioneers! O pioneers I

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