Year: 1873

Mr.. Nuttall read a paper, entitled Pro
ductIve Cooperation, and how to promote
it, written by Mr.. John Watts, of Man
chester. The paper contended that coop
orators need not trouble themselves to
stimulate the growth Of ordinary JOINT
stock companies, nor pay undue attention
to industrial partnerships, for the double
reason that their aid Is not needed, and
that these Institutions do not even tend to
remove the mlddlemen who operate be-
tween the producer and the consumer Of
commodities, except SO far as the share
holders IN the irst and the workpeOple III
the second class uf institutions are con
cerned. Nor do they, anymore than midi
vldual employers, produce for known
demand but they Just throw their goods
upon the home or foreign markets, to take
their chances of competition, and are sub
Ject, therefore, to all the temptations to
cheating which surround any ordinary
firm NJ doubt. where the workmen are
Interested in the profits of a concern, their
productions Will stand first in the market
but the very extension of the industrial
partnership princI PIE will in every success
slve year lessen these advantages The
retail stores have been Confederated bv the
wholesale, and have thus reduced distrib-
utIve cooperation into a system, which
only needs extension III order to abolish
retail shoPkeeping, and to save large
portion If the expenses Of wholesale deal
ing. The practical question now before
as is, whether the existing organization.
founded on the stores, shall, in their con
federate capacity, seek to utilise their rap
idly growing capital, by producing for
themselves the staple articles of their
own consumption, and thus reduce the
risk of loss on those articles to it's lowest
elements or whether they shall induce
their well-to-do members to withdraw
their dividends from the stores and to set
up Independent companies, which will seek,
like any ordinary manufacturer or whole
sale dealer, to get the highest possible pr
ces for their goods from such stores as
choose to deal with them IL the first
plan be adopted, then it becomes necessary
to decide whether such productive opera
tons shall be undertaken by the wholesale,
or whether an independent confederation
Of stores stall be formed for the purpose,
whose capital shall be subscribed after the
manner of the wholesale or whether,
thirdly, the modified plan proposed by
Mr.. Howard os seeking One-third of the
capital Of any establishment amongst the
workmen, with two-thirds from the whole
sale, shall be adopted. Personally, /
should prefer the first or second plan to
the third But if none Of these plans be
approved, and it be, on the contrary, de-
clded to encourage members Of stores to
withdraw their dIviden Is and to speculate
in Independent joint-stock companies, then
let us fairly understand that in future our
motto is to be Competition for produc-
tion, cooperation for distribution The
question is narrowed to this position
Shall the confederated stores become man
ufacturers, or shall rich stores do it for
themselves, and compete with each other
to supply the poorer stores and the out
side public


Mr. George Jacob Holyoake also read
paper on THE Industrial Policy Of Co
operation" from which the following is an
extract Our societies are made up Of the
rising men Of the working class, but they
are not all of one sort. Some members
have kangaroo peculiarities. Their minds
are all pouch, and their sole aim Is to fill 1t
with dividends. The kangaroo co-opera-
tor is a very useful creature in his way he
makes the society pay but he does not
know how to make it permanent. There Is
also higher order Of members known as
the open-eyed co-operators, who observe
that co operation is living, growing thing,
capable of great extension and new apPll-
cations. The kangaroo men only feel CO
operation, the open-eyed members see it.
They are the working power of the socie
ties. and if any one can show them What to
do they may be counted upon to do It.
Those who find out what it Is they should
do, are known as cogitative co-operators.
They are mostly very lean, and entirely
unaware Of the purpose Of dinners. They
give all their time to thinking what coop
Grafton ought to be, and might be. The
kangaroo men think them crotcheters, I"
and the open-eyed men are afraid they are
not practical. But they both listen to
them, and get a good deal out Of thSm-
and 50 the great movement goes on. These
cogitators have laid it down that the policy
Of productive societies ought to be the
same as that of distributive stores. They
They Iegard every customer as a member


and the profit made Is mainly shared with
him, which secures his interest, his pa
tience, and, what is more important still,
his custom. In productive societies the
customer is not recognized except as per
son who pays bills. The prudent policy is
to accept him as partner in the concern,
entitled to a certain share of the profits


made. This secures his orders, saves the


expenses Of advertising for him, and trav-


ellers employed running after him, and


loss through credit given him. think the


true cooperative policy is -. To regard
capital not as the natural enemy of any