The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-05-26 00:00:00

BIRMINGHAM.

(Siourtniby Oberhr

SATURDAY, MAY 26, 1888.

CO-OPERATION.

MAY is the season of the " meetinses," or
annual gatherings of the friends of religions,
charitable, philosophic, and ameliorative
societies of every sort. London is full of
provincial clergymen and serious looking:
laymen for weeks from the end of April to
the beginning of June, all bent on hearing
the yearly report of the work done by the
various philanthropic bodies in whose opera-
tions they are interested, and delivering
addresses, or hearing speeches in advocacy
of this or that scheme for meking men better
belayed, or improving the soeial surroned-
info of the human race from Mina to Peru.
After the Mission champions have reviewed
their year's good work, then comes the turn
of the benevolent and friendly bodies, whose
annual sessions are held in various laree
towns of the country. Each recurrence. Whit.
snntide, coincidently with the meetings ol
Druids, Oddfellows, Foresters, and other
similar combinations of toilers for succour
at times of sickness and deeth, there also
comes round the annual Co-operative Con-
gress, an association of industrials for pro-
ducing and platting into the market for
purposes of profit all manner of necessities
without the intervention of the middleman.
The movements of the co-operative people
are watched with a good deal of interest and
some sympathy by all who wish well to the
working classes. Political economiits and
reflective tolk generally have for some time
been looking to co-operation to produce the
remedy for many of the ills which oft-
returning periods of commercial depression
bring to the poor. This year's Co-operative
Congress has been appropriately held at
Dewsbury, a town situated in the heart of a
" Co-op." district, and the proceedings wer•
stimulated by the presence of the Marquis
of Ripon, who for many years, even in his
old Earl de Grey days, has been a warm
friend of the movement. By the side of the
lord of Studley Royal sat clever Mr Thomas
Hughes, Queen's Couneellor, and creator o 5
immortal "Toni Brown," of scholastic aesi
Oxonian renown, another staunch co-opera-
tor of longstanding. These two distingniehed
apostles of the movement, and others of lesser
note, took a leading part in the deliberations
of the Congress, and an encouraging report
was discussed in a hopeful and enthusiastic
manner, which aagurs well for the future
success of co-operation as an active commer-
cial principle in Britain. The President of
the Congress at the opening WO the veteran
Mr. Vansittart Neale, and his inaugural
address was a robust restatement of the posi
tion of those who have held all along that
the vital point of the Movement is that profit-
sharing should be the basis of productive
co-operation. Dwellers in Lancashire and
Yorkshire and the North of England gen-
orally need no telling of the importance to
which the co-operative system has grown in
almost every branch of production and dis-
tribution, and co-operatien is gaining greater
vigour and 'seaming vaster proportions all
thromeh the Midlands and in many southern
localitios. The gigantic "Co-op." and " every-
thine shop' that may be found in almost
every district of the manufacturing towns
of the Wait Riding of Yorkshire, through-
out the County Palatine, and in many places
elaewbera which we need not here attempt
to enntnerate, is gradually disestablishing
the r tail -grocers, drapers, and kiedred
tradesinets The "Co-op." has a bigger and
be ter stock of fresher goods than its older
ant lcssvr ; and the immense parse
ennianded by Co-operation enables the
"Stores'. to buy sod sell at c:msiderably
cbei:per rates than those who held the field
before the advent of the " Co-op." system.
Mr. Vansittart Neel) stated at the Congress
that there are now somewhere about a
thousand Co-operative Societies in active
existence, And that their aggregate annual
turnover is no less than twcnty-five millions
sterling. The Co-operative Wholesale Society,
a tremendous universal provisien concern,
alone does a yearly business of over five
millions, and that almost exclusively with
co-operative distributive societies up and
down the country. It produces or purchases
everything the customer of the retail co-
operative stores is likely to require, and acts
also as a banking establishment ; and its
ope ations are so well managed as to earn
enhetantial profits for the shareholders. The
Co-operators have tremendous works, ware-
konses, and stores in Manchester, in New.
castle, and alPo in White,chapel, not to m.n-
tion ra.ny of minor magnitude Where the
profits accruing to the working of the smaller
soostitaent steres Of these mammoth estab-
lislamente are more than antlicient for the
(17.er:tents of the bu-,incss, there is a ditt-
y isitio.l to inv:st in freenola land and in
(JrLcks and mortar, to thil eat that the thrifty
co-operators may ultimateiy become proprie-
tors of their own dwellings—a frrition of
th-,•r&)vetnent svhici doge V. *3 every approval.
The magnificent EllICCO6ii of the ideal so far
e.outoletP.anewer. to the glut:only fore-
wee LO4 v • bait,/ Nir .1%,0 Lii prlttdiCited