The Co-Operative Movement in Great Britain

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1895 edition. Excerpt: ... of the Lancashire Co-operative cotton factories, the inference is clear. The individualist theory was abandoned as unworkable. Clear-sighted and honestminded Lancashire folk awakened from their dream of "each man his own master" to find themselves on the horns of a dilemma. While government by the workers proved a potent cause of commercial failure, commercial success promptly destroyed this peculiar form of government, together with the allied method of profit-sharing, by substituting (with or without the workers' leave) the outside capitalist for the working shareholder. Joint-stock association--its compass and its limits -- is not my theme. The Working-Class Limiteds, which centre in Oldham, and are scattered throughout the Lancashire valleys, are neither associations of producers, nor associations of consumers, and belong therefore as little to the democratic as to the individualist form of Co-operative industry. But despite the fact that, like all other joint-stock companies, they are organized exclusively for the benefit of the capitalist, these working-class associations have materially forwarded the democratisation of industry by practice and precept. It is needless to point out the untold value to trade organizations of the commercial and technical knowledge gained by astute Trade Unionists as shareholders and directors, combined with the lever afforded to trade union pressure by the open publication and criticism of the profits and loss accounts of various concerns. The admirable organization of the cotton spinners of Lancashire, the sliding scale of the Oldham list, whereby the improvement, or "speeding up " of machinery is equally advantageous to the worker and to the employer, the common action in face of common enemies, the...