Page 36 - 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.

before the co-operative world. " Sooner or later we shall be com-
pelled to import articles for consumption, as well as for manufacture,
and a union of the various societies in existence will best enable it to
be done." In the same number a Sunderland operative shipwright
asked for a " wholesale stationery establishment coupled with a
paper mill to supply co-operators with the paper they are using."
In December, 1860, apropos of a big purchase by the Bacup Society,
the editor again asked, " Why not estabhsh a central wholesale
depot, and the various societies provide the necessary capital ? We
have the power; we lack the Avill." A month later, a correspondent^
"wTote from Berry Brow to say that thirteen Huddersfield and
district societies had joined to form a general and wholesale
depot in Huddersfield. " Our rules are now before the Registrar,
and we expect to commence early in the new year. W^e are going
under the Limited Liability Act." Then a Hawick co-operator
proposed an importing agency ; and a wholesale society was further
advocated by correspondents in Manchester, Hull, Leeds, and Oxford.
From the town of Hyde came the sound advice to develop wholesale
dealing before attempting to manufacture. Among these many
suggestions of the idea, the most striking anticipation of the actual
C.W.S. is to be found over the name of WiUiam E. Bond, secretary
of the Reading Industrial Co-operative, who wrote under the date
of January 23rd, 1861 :—
But the grand, tho glorious object I want to see achieved is that which you
have alreadj' advocated in No. 5 of tha Co-operator: the estabhshment of
wholesale stores to supply the various societies with the best goods at the
lowest prices. 'NMiy not do it in this way ? Let a wholesale co-operative
society be organised by all the stores at present in existence; and let the shares
be, say, £20 each; then each store could subscribe for one, two, or more shares
towards tho capital, up to as many shares as it may bo thought fit to limit it.
The society could be worked by a committee chosen at the annual conference
from the various representatives of the stores, in the same way as for an
ordinary store, and participating in tho profits upon the same principle. By
this means all the lesser stores would be enabled to obtain goods as pure and as
cheap as those who have the largest capital.
As the hub of the co-operative universe, Rochdale felt from the
first the pressure of this circle of new interest. At a general meeting
of the Pioneers on March 7th, 1859, William Cooper read a paper
suggesting a reopening of the Rochdale wholesale department, in
'William Cockshaw. Mr. Cockshaw, in 187 7, became tho C.W.S. representative
at Liverpool. Mr. Prentis, of tlie Iluddersfleld ludustrial Societj-, states that " the
' frenoral and whole.-^ale depot ' reiorrcd lo in the Co-operator of January, 1861, was a
joint-stock compiiny for the supply of groceries, &e. They also had a small corn mill,
but our society was not connected with it."
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