“ROCHDALE CO-OPERATION.”

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2487, 30 September 1922, Page 3

“ROCHDALE CO-OPERATION.”

At the Masonic Hall on Wednesday evening, Mr Harold Wf Tedman gave an interesting address on the above subject. Referring to the local Co-operative Society, Mr Tedman stated that probably few of the citizens, or even the members of the Society, appreciated either the history behind it, or the grand objective in front of it. The movement, of which the local Societyformed a very small and' a very humble part, was launched by 28 poor working flannel weavers in Rochdale (England). These poor, but shrewd workers determined no longer to suffer the burden of low wages, high prices and adulterated foodstuffs, but to formulate a scheme which should ultimately bring the powers of production, dis-. tribution and exchange under the collective control of the people. With a courage and devotion unsurpassed in the annals of hitman achievement, these 28 working men started saving twopence a week to finance the mighty project, After a while the number of subscribers rose to 40, and the rate of subscription to 3d per member per week. When £2B had been accumulated they opened a shop in a dingy store in a dingy Lancashire lane, in premises leased at a rental of 4s per week. The original Rochdale rules were quoted, showing that these working flannel weavers wero equally concerned in improving social and educational facilities as they were in carrying on a trading enterprise. The movement rapidly spread to other centres, particularly in Lancashire, Yorkshire and the lowlands of Scotland, until in 1863 the total sales of the then existing societies had reached over two and a-half millions per annum, and it was decided lo invest some of the surplus savings in a Co-operative Wholesale Society. This Wholesale Society has likewise grown with the movement, until to-day its banking institution alone is putting through its coffers 655 million pounds per annum. The “C.W.S.” owns factories for manufacturing everything that can be manufactured, also farm lands, coalfields, tea estates, steamships, and its own insurance and banking institutions.'

The movement has spread beyond the borders of Great Britain into every country under the sun. In Vienna, for instance, there is a retail Rochdale Co-operative Society under precisely similar rules as Foxton, but with a membership that sprang last year from 141,000 to 152,000, and whose annual turnover jumped from 20 million pounds to 47 million pounds. In Hew Zealand the growth of the movement has hitherto been slow, but the possibilities can be appreciated by the ..evidence of the Runanga Society, with a membership of only 240 miners owning a business worth £7,000, doing £25,000 worth of trade per annum, and which has returned to its members as savings during the last ten years £22,510. “The best interpretation, however, that I can givt you of Rochdale Co-operation,” said the speaker, “can be given in one word' — Gomradeship.” He said he desired to emphasise both to the public and to his fellow-co-operators, that Rochdale Co-operation would never be a party, to a mere transfer of power and wealth from one class to another class. Heitlier would it ever be a party to a combination between employee and employer to keep the present discredited system intact. He was not there to indulge in personalities. Some of his dearest friends were in private enterprise, but as an economic 7>rinciple production for private profit was unsound, and from the human point of view had proved a ghastly failure. The Co-operative movement was out to establish production for the people’s use, and distribution in the purchasers' interests. An International Co-operative Wholesale Society was now being established with the great and grand object of equitably distributing the surplus products of all lands, and it was confidently believed that this, together with the encouragement that the. movement is giving to the study of the world language, Esperanto, will do much to break down international misunderstanding and strife, and usher in a new civilisation based on brotherhood and love.