The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-21 00:00:00

THE CO-OPERATIVE SYSTEM.

On Tuesday evening a meeting was held at Bristol to
celebrate the sixth anniversary of the local Industrial and
Provident Society. About 200 persons wore present. The
chair was taken by Mr. Commissioner Hill.
The CIIAIIMAN, in his introductory address, said he had
for many years of a long life been intimately acquainted
with the class to which his hearers belonged, and which ho
also claimed to belonged to—he meant the class of workers;
and he believed that during his life he had established some
little claim to be a member of that body. (Applause.) He
knew that among the workers of this country, male and
female, there were many, many sound hearts and excellent
heads. They had heard much of late in praise and in dis-
praise of the working men—some had been eloquent in
their praise, others had been bitter in their criticisms. For
his own part, ho should neither praise nor criticise, for he
thought, from a very long acquaintance with that body,
that they wore wonderfully like other people —(laughter)
—that there were many who were good, and that there
were some who were not quite so good as one could wish,
and that might be said, he thought, of every class, from
the highest to the lowest. (Hear.) He was delighted that
they should be assembled there that evening, because they
were assembled in the prosecution of a good, and, he would
add, of a great design—(applause)—a design to make the
working man's income go as far as it could for the truo
comfort of his family. But that was only one part of it.
They were not each for himself, but each for all and all for
each. They were truly a brotherly society, for none of
them desired to gain at the expense of others—(hear)
but they desired that the general interest of the whole
should be promoted as far as possible. After their society
had been in action for nearly seven years, it would be a
waste of their time to go into any description of it; they all,
knew what it was better, no doubt, than he did himself
because they had more experience. They knew that the
principle of co-operation was not only thoroughly esta-
blished in their society, and in the other society which
flourished in Bristol, but that it was making its way
throughout the whole of the country. Throughout the
United Kingdom they were awakening co the advantages
of co-operation, and not only in this country, but abroad.
He had conversed in France with members of co-operative
societies there, and had heard from the lips of members
the advantages which they derived from co-operation. He
knew also that it was rapidly extending in Germany, and
reports from the United States told them 'that working
men there were sending over to England, and Germany,
and Franco, and Switzerland to obtain information upon
the subject, in order to turn it to their own advantage in
the United States. (Hear, hear.) Ho found that within
the last few days a congress, as it was called—a largo
meeting of deputies from co-operative societies through-
out Europe, so far as they were established—had assem-
bled at Geneva, in Switzerland, to discuss how they might
be best carried:on, how any defects might bo removed, how
improvements might be advanced. He should tell them
that the most respectable meeting at Geneva came to the
conclusion that strikes are not the best means, the true
means, of removing the evils of which the working classes
complained. (Hear.) He had not a word to say against
working men who combined in strikes, just as he had not
a word to say against masters who thought that they could
only meet strikes by lock-outs. (Hear.) He only mourned
that there should be such differences, such want of har-
mony between the two classes, which, to his mind, were
equally necessary the one to the other for the good of
both. (Applause.) He did not presume to say that strikes
must always be unnecessary, neither did he presume to
say that lock-outs must always be unnecessary, but this
ho did presume to say, that when he heard of a strike or
lock-out he felt the deepest regret, for ho knew that a great
calamity had fallen upon a large portion of his fellow-men,
because, whether successful or unsuccessful, the expe-
rience he was sure of many in that room would corroborate
him when he said that they worked a great suffering to
those who were prosecuting them, ofton most conscien-

tiously 1:111 their part, believing they were performing a,
duty to themselves, and to the body to which they be-
longed. And so, again, the masters suffered, and were
sometimes brought to ruin ; but whether they were brought
to ruin or not, the whole of the country suffered from the
enforced idleness which was the consequence of strikes or
Lock-outs, and was tantamount to taking so much money
from the public and throwing it into the sea. (Hear.) Ile
found that the masons had spent half a million in strikes.
He supposed that meant that they had partly spent the
little property which they had, and partly that they had
lost the opportunity of earning their wages, till the two
losses together came to that great and appalling amount.
However, they were not engaged in co operation of that
kind which sought to gain income; their society was one
of that class in which they sought to learn how so much of
their income as must necessarily be expended for the sus-
tenance and comfort of their families was best expended,
and they also learnt a most valuable lesson how to dispose
of the part which they were not necessarily obliged to
spend—they had the means of employing it so as to pro-
duce them a return for the money they invested. He had
pleasure in informing them that he had gone over the
statement of their accounts. He had compared each of the
three first quarters of the year 1865 with the three quar-
ters of the present year, and he found that in each of the
quarters that had expired of the present year the amount
of sales was greater than in the corresponding quarter of
the last year. (Applause.) Having congratulated the so-
ciety upon the fact, and upon the manner in which the
executive performed the duties intrusted to it, the learned
commissioner observed that the society had had prosperity
and it being nearly seven years old, they had a right to
feel that their position was a permanent position ; they
had a right to feel tha► if there were ups and downs, yet
if there were downs there would be ups again, and that
they might go on for their whole lives with the full confi-
dence and proof that the co-operative principle was not a
vague speculation but a great reality. (Applause.) Ad-
verting to some of the advantages of being connected with
such a society, the speaker remarked that such a course of
life was just the course of life—he did not mean to say it
filled up the measure of all human duties, but so far as it
went it was just the course of life—which was most likely
to conduce to their happiness in this world and the next.
He also dilated upon the advantages held out by such so-
cieties of forming acquaintances and friendships which
were likely, he would not say certain, to preserve them.
from temptation instead of leading them into temptation.
The learned commissioner concluded by alluding at some
length to the advantages of the co-operative system in
manufactories, where the men shared to a certain extent
the profits of the business wall their employers, and were
thus induced to energy and economy, to the advantage of
all connected with the concern.

A sanguinary encounter took place a few days
back at St. Tro.nd (Belgium) between some citizens
and soldiers. One of the former had his head laid
open with a sabre cut.

A woman made an ineffectual attempt to com-
mit suicide at about two o'clock the morning before
yesterday, by jumping from the Pont des Invalides.
She was rescued by a boatman, and sent home on
promising not to repeat the offence.
A fire broke out yesterday in a range of stables
and granaries in the rue Bercy St. Antoine ; the
premises were consumed. The damage is estimated
at 10,000 fr.

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