The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-02-17 00:00:00

Nonconformists asked the common sights of citizens and
parishioners. The compromise proposed was that they
should bury their friends in the churchyards as they buried
dogs, or else that they should have provided for these sepa-
rate burial places. He was disposed to accept no compro-
mise that would get rid of their rights to a share in the
churchyards.
The discussion was continued by Mr. Walter, Mr. Cawley,
Mr. NPArthur, Mr. Cubitt, Mr. Young, and Mr. I'. S. Powell,
after which Mr. I 1. Morgan replied.
The House then divided—For the second reading, 179;
against it, WC; majority, 71.
The bill was then read a second time.
_

On the motion of Mr V. Uarcourt, the Registration of
Borough Voters Bill was read a second time.
On the motion of Mr. Gladstone the following were noml-
nattd the Select Committee on the Thanksgiving in the
Metropolitan Cathedral :--Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Ayrton, Sir
Thomas Bayley. Colonel French, Mr. Ellice, Lord John Man-
ners, Viseoant Crichton, Mr. Winiam Henry Smith, Mr.
Beresford Hope, Lord Ernest Bruce, and Sir Graham Mout-
gomery.
Mr. Banter, obtained leave to bring in a bill to abolish
the office of Accountant-General of the High Court of
Chancery of England, and to amend the law respecting the
investment of money paid into that court, and the security
and management of the moneys and effects of the suitors
thereof.
Mr. Thomas Chambers obtained leave to bring in a bill to
regulate Sunday trading in the Metropolis, and the House
adjourned.

and even luxuries, at a more reasonable price than they
could do by dealing with the ordinary grocers, chandlers,
hosiers, &c.
The main principles of the association are prompt pay-
ment before delivery, the discharge of all executive duties
by servant. mild by salaries and not remunerated by n share
in the profits, and federate returns on the capital invested
or the outlay Incurred. There are no exorbitant proats and
no bad debts.
Of the vast boon which the association has conferred on
the poorer members of the Government service it is need-
less to dilate. Nor am I dWare of any reams, rule of law
or equity, or mercantile consideration which should compel
gentlemen and ladies of Independence and comfortable in-
comes to buy goods at a profit to the seller of 30, 40, or even
foyer cent.
By a carotid comparison of my former with my present ex-
penditure, since I have dealt with the association, I find that
I get the same articles at 20, 50, and, in some rare histauccs,
100 per ceut cheaper than before.
The real reason for the outcry against the association Is
that tradesmen fled their custom falling off, and a percep-
tible decrease in those outrageous and inordinate profits
which enabled them to rent or purchase handsome villas to
the country, and to maintain luxurious equipages.
The audacious assertions made in the interests of the
National Chamber, to the effect that the association paid no
income-tax and took out no licences were, happily, refuted
on the spot. Possibly, the insinuations as to the with-
drawal of large sums from "legitimate trade," and as to
the official information which placed the directors in a posi-
tion of superiority to others may have no better f minds-
thm.
The question of the employment of their leisure or spare
time by the servants of Government is another matter but
I apprehend that so long as official men keep proper hour.,
work continuously, and maintain a due degree of efficiency,
it matters little to the head of the department whether they
write plays or whether they attend them, whether they keep
a margin for contingencies by buying in a cheap market or
whether they recklessly spend their means in purchasing
what they do not want or what they could get elsewhere at
one-half the price.
But, granted that these indignant taxpayers could per-
suade Parliament to pass a law forbidding any Government
official to belong to any co-operative society or union of per-
, the
whatever, on pain of instant dismissal for contravening
same, I can assure the deputation that there are scores
of independent gentlemen and retired Civil servants who
could be safely touted to start a similar association to the
" injury of society," to the "detriment of private interests,"
, and to the discontent and dismay of that used, lint some-
what td runniest body of persons, the tradesmen of the
metropolis, for whose sake all this outer/ Is raised.—l am,
&c., A CIVILIAN.

I am a civil servant and a member of the Civil Service
Co-operative Stores, I receive from my country £6OO per
annum for my services. I have a wife sad five children.
Before the establishment of the co-operative store my house-
hold expenses amounted to £5lOO. weekly, they now amount
to £4 3s. For my £6OO per annum I give daily seven hours'
work; the bargain I consider stair cue. lam not under an
obligation to my paymasters, nor are they under an
obligation to me. My day, however, with the excep-
tion of them seven home which I have sold, belongs
to me, and I have a perfect right to unite with my bi-other
clerks in an endeavour, not indeed to increase my
means by trade, but to diminish my expenses by
buying in the cheapest market. To say that I may not
coalesce with them in purchasing amines of household
goods for our own use at wholesale prices, because we deprive
retail dealers of our custom, appears to me a proposition as
outrageous as if we were told that we must not ride two in a
carriage for the sake of the cab-drivers who are our pay-
masters The tradesmen who interviewed Mr. Lowe based
their complaints against the co-operative system, avowedly,
on the ground that one co-operative store was conducted by
civil servants, who were paid for their supervision. I, myself,
see no objection to this ; but, Sir, if this is really the only
ground of complaint. it might at once be remedied by the con-
cem still being carried on without one single, civil servant
deriving a salary from it. Slay I be allowed to ask Mr.
A'Beckett, the Secretary of the National Chamber of Trade,
whether this would satisfy the body which he represents?
Many of the objections to civil servants belonging to co-
operative stores were disposed of by Me. Lowe. The only
charge which was not met was, that two Civil Supply Asso-
ciations were formed under the provisions of the Friendly
Societies Act, which was passed to relieve the physical
wants of the poorer classes. This I admit to have
been an error. It may, how ever, be altered without
in any way interfering with the efficient working of the
system of co-operation. The views, however, of the dif-
ferent members of the deputation do not seem to have
been in unison. Mr. Simpson said that they would
not object to the civil servants associating together with a
view to their own convenience, but they did object to
wealthy persons from the outside being taken in. Mr.
Daniel, on the other hand, said that the deputation did not
desire to enter a protest against the formation of co-opera-
tive associations on a fair and reasonable basis, but against
the practice of persons who were paid out of the taxes being
able to earn by trade salaries of £2OO to £6OO a year. An-
other member of the deputation suggested that Government
clerks should be made to work eight hours a day; another
observed that £500,000 a year was displaced from legitimate
trading ; another, that the stores did not use receipts, be.
cause, as some one observed to him, they sell for ready
money.
Now, what does all this mean? It means that retail
dealers are losing customers, and that the customers whom
they lose are proportionately gaining by their loss. To hope
that Parliament will interfere to prevent this, is to hope that
we shall go back to the exploded fallacy of guilds I have
nothing to say agaiust any of the tradesmen who waited upon
Mr. Lowe, but surely they hardly can suppose that they have
an undisputed monopoly in buying goods wholesale, and sell-
ing them to the community retail. That they should feel
annoyed at a loss of business is perfectly natural but that
they should waste their time in protesting against a system by
which the public are large gainers, and against which they can
only allege that it does not suit their pockets, appears to
me to lie somewhat foolish. The co-operative system will, I
trust, before long, extend beyond groceries, haberdasheries,
and fancy articles. We shall have co-operative butcher sand
bakers. It is a system which puts an end to long credits,
had debts, and fees to servants. By trading on a large scale
it prevents money being expended by keeping up separate
stalls of employes, and paying for the rents of tab eon shops
where one is sufficient. It boa been tried, and it has proved
eminently successful ; and if I ought venture a suggestion
to the traders who are losers by it, it would be to advertise
that they give no credit; to unite together instead of
keeping up separate establishments ; to give no fees to
servants, and to adopt the system of large sales and small
profits —Your obedient servant, A CIVIL SERVANT.
Feh. 9.

"A Clerk of Inland Revenue" writes to The
Times :
When a considerable section of the community are wrong
it is your mission to set them right. Pray, therefore, point
out to the retail traders of London how entirely incorrect
is the premiss upon which the recent speeches of their re-
presentatives to Mr. Lowe were based—that civil servants
are competing in trade with those retailers and, to enable
you to do no, allow me space for the following simple facts
—which are, probably, not generally known—as to the con-
stitution and working of at least one of the two Associations
complained of—the screened "Civil Service Supply Associa-
tion—of which I am 's, member.
I believe that oar proceedings are entirely misunder-
stood, and that the misunderstanding has arisen solely from
our use, for mere verbal convenience, of the terms "profits,"
and " shareholders." As a matter of fact, there are neither
profits nor shareholders at all in the concern. It was
necessary to include in the price of articles a small per-
centage for working expenses. This percentage was found
to be more than was required for the purpose. But it is
continued for the present in order that out of the excess a
capital fund may he formed. When this has been done the
se-called profits will cease, arid all articles will he sold at
the cost price. Not a penny hoe been paid to shareholders,
and never will be. The creation of a shareholding lmdy is
a verbel fiction, and amounts to nothing more than an
arrangement by which civil servants, as the originators of
the Association, are allowed a privilege over other persons
to the extent of becoming life ncembers by payment of a
final sum of les.—unf ortunately dignified with the name of a
"share" while their friends have to pay a small subscription
annually.
Subject to this arrangement, all members, whether civil
servants or otherwise, are on precisely the same footing.
The committee act in the interests of all. The goods are
purchased on behalf of all members and there is not the
elLaitest pretence for saying that the shareholders sell to
other members as their customers, or to the general public.
The nareber of members is limited, and no person can oh-
from the stores any article, however small, without show-
ing his membership by writing his name and producing his

ticket. _ _
The Association is, in fact, nothing more than a body of
persons who have combined together to buy—not to Bell;
and, as all are buyers, there can be no profits.
I quite agree with all that was said to and by Mr. Lowe
as to the undesirability of civil servants engaging in trade;
but the above, I submit, is not trading. The primary con-
dition of trading is that there should be both buyers and
sellers. But the essence of a co-operative store ia that the
members are buyers only : and I hope I have conclusively
shown that the Association to whick I have referred is a
co-operative store, pure and simple.
As the civil servants are only a fraction of the entire body
of members, it Ins co-operative store of the general while
rather than of the Civil Service. Its connexion with that
service is a mere accident, and quite beside the real ques-
tion at issue, which Is simply, whether the retail traders
are to dictate to any community of persons that they are to
buy their goods in the retail and not in the wholesale market.

_
write these lines were it otherwise 1 Iyluggage has already
been destroyed, I believe for they will make sure work
about me. On account of the trouble that will arise to you,
dear sir, through my sudden death, I am exceedingly sorry,
because a good many things I had in my mind only to ex-
plain ; but I hope you will grant me pardvu when you see
that I am Oxus cut off all, 0 God everything that could
have naide me happy. Farewell, I lear sir, Lam punished
hard for my mistake of men, but I have the knowledge, at
least, which gives me strength to endure all. I shall, at
least, not die a villian !--Farewell, for ever, "L. R. BAUER."
The above letter wag enclosed in the following :
" 2,2, II

" Sir,—The foolish author of the enclosed brief has in-
formed you right ; he is dead. our safety forbids unto send
pu your property—to wit some papers, which have been
burnt. —We are, sir, "A SUFFICIENT NUMBEII."

In connection with the foregoing, The Times of
Tuesday has the following : --
We learn train our Birmingham correspondent that no
trace boa yet been found of Mr. Bauer, the Russian
gentleman who so mysteriously disappeared in London
on the 20th ult., hut that some slight additional light
has been thrown upon the case by letters since received
by Messrs Blews from the young man's friends. Mr.
Bauer's father states that during the summer of 1870, when
his sou was in St. Petcralmnr, he became affected by what
the Russian doctors term " wanderdnaduess," and wandered
about aimlessly until he fell down in a state of exhaustion.
The immediate cause of this attack was said to be mental
and bodily fatigue, and as young Bauer underwent great
fatigue and anxiety on his recent journey from Riga ent
Hamburg to London, it is surmised that the same
muse in this instance may have induced the same malady.
If so, it is to he feared that the patient has fallen this time
Into leas charitable bands than on the previous occasion. It
Is stated that he net out up, n the journey with gloomy fore-
bodings, which were repeatedly renewed in the letters he
despatched to his betrothed at every stage, tile last Doing
dated from the Charing-cross Hotel on the 20th of January,
the day of his disappearance. Messrs. Mews, while ills
crediting the story id the assassination, refuse to believe
that Mr. Bauer has intentionally abaconded, for the simple
reason that there was no discoverable motive for the step.