The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1867-12-11
Progress of the Cooperative Movement

| The co-operative movement has attained such
strength aud Importance in England, that Par
lament has taken up the subject in earnest
and passed laws framed with special view to
promote the prosperity and good government
Of the societies which have sprung into exist
euce. The aumber of these societies is rapidly
increasing. The "North of England Co-ope-
rative Wholesale Industrial and Provident So
ciety" has ifty societies in the organization
There are CO operative societies, also, by which
any community can make great saving in
Purchasing food and clothing. There is in
Sheffield England, cotton mill, called the
Sun Mil," which has been put in operation
by working men on the cooperative plan, and
which has sixy-nins thousand :pindles and
carding machines, tended by about three hun
dred men and girls, using up forty thousand
pounds of cotton in q week. The building is
six-story brick building, about three hundred
feet long and one hundred wide. The enter
prise was started about eight years ago. by
workmen who had become convinced Of the
wisdom of using the advantages of combined
skill and experience to their own benefit, in
stead of selling them at low rate to capital
ist. A foreign correspondent of the Boston
Journal gives an interesting history of the
progress and success of this undertaking. The
capital Was put at $780, 1000, in shares of S25
sao3, and the shareholders were at liberty to
pay in small insalments, SO that portion Of
their daily earnings might be set aside for that
purpose, thus from the outset making the en-
terprise sort Of savings bank, which would
not however, return any dividend till the mill
was in operation. The building was erected
oy sh ,reholders, and one of their number was
selected as agent to carry on the operations,
but they burthened him with too much work,
and this and other mistakes resulted, in 1854,
in bringing in balance sheet with $4,000 on
he wrong side. Enlightened by this severe
lesson, the directors made division of labor
in the management, and with success which,
since then, in little more than two years, has
made good the loss, enabled the company to
declare two semi annual dividends of four per
cent. and two of five per cent, while .he shares
have been carried up to a premium of sixteen
per cent. The largest shareholders, at the
outset, had S2500, while many held only S25.
The largest holder, at the present time, is one
of the workmep, who has $4,000. Nearly two
thirds of the shares were originally paid at the
rate of one to fve shillings o week. Vari-
Gus cooperative societies have taken up the
stock, investing in it their surplus funds
Among the rules rigidly adhered to in the es-
tablish ment, and which are deemed absolutely
essential to success, is, that in no case must
there be any speculation, that there must be
perfect system and division of labor, and that,
as entirely Indispensable, there must be good
managers. Awonderful change is said to have
| been wrought in the condition of the working
classes in England by these IN ,vements.
Facts like these are Of interest to our own
| people, as similar n movements are commencing
in the United States, md the whole country,
but especially the South, feels its own pros
perity dependent upon the elevation and well
fare of labor. ANY instrumentality which can
accomplish this end, and which, ut the same
time. removes the antagonism between capital
and labor as these associations are said TO do,
is not only of advantage to workingmeu, but TO
tue country, which, in the improvement and
content Of The industrial classes, finds increased
security for the general prosperity and order