CO-OPERATIVE WHOLESALE SOCIETY.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 June 1920, Page 9

CO-OPERATIVE WHOLESALE SOCIETY.

■, THEIR AIMS AND OBJECTS* Those dairymen who have attended any meeting at which, a scheme was propounded for joining hands with the Co-operative Wholesale Society of England with the object of that Society becoming the purchaser of the whole of the Dominion's butter, as well as a very large proportion of the cheese, and distributing it to the consumers in Britain through the medium of the Society's retail stores, have possibly a mftre or less accurate conception of the Society's aims and the methods it employs. At the same time, there may be a large number of those engaged in the dairying industry in Taranaki and elsewhere In New JSealand who are comparatively uninformed as to the real nature of the Society, and as that is a matter which has a very pertinent bearing on the question as to whether it would be prudent or otherwise to entertain this 1 new scheme, they will doubtless be interested in a reproduction of some of the information contained in a pamphlet issued by the Society last year, entitled "Our Fields, Factories and Workshops." As throwing some light on the aim of the Society—a matter of prime importance that dairymen will do well to grasp thoroughly—the following excerpt should tell its own tale:—

,f We can, through the C.W.S bank, through its factories, its warehouses, its fields and forges and what not, consolidate the magnificent forces of the working classes into one vast purpose of common ownership of the requirements of life and happiness. It is a justly proud thing to be able to control one's facilities of life, and the enjoyment of life provided by nature, by science, by art, by social intercourse. But we—we workers of the world—can do it only through the ownership of fields, factories and workshops such as the C.W.S.—our C.W.S. is establishing from month to month, from year to year." The constitution and plan of this new commonwealth by collective ownership is cairied out on a soundly democratic principle. The C.W.S. is an amalgamated body of local co-operative societies It is registered under the Industrial and i rovident Societies Act—the national charter of working-class development 011 co-operative principles; it includes I*o2 societies, had three millk. members in 1918, its shareholding societies having 2,834,554 members, so that counting the families of these members .... c ' e 'y rna )' he said to cater for ten million people. Among the objects of the C.W.S. (according to its rules) are the following: To carry on trades or businesses of wholesale dealers, bankers, shippers, carriers, manufacturers, merchants, cultivaI tors of land, workers of mines, and insurers of property and persons." Besides doing the wholesale .business of merchant, the Society also builds factories for the manufacture of goods which are sold in the shops of the retail societies. The C.W.S. does for the worker, in the things named, what an amalgamation or federation of trade unionism does for the local trade union societies in trade unionism. While the trade union looks after the interest of members' wages, hours, and general conditions of labor, the C.W.S. directs its attention to the furnishing of the local co-operative stores with commodities; which are either purchased on a great, and consequently an advantageous scale, or provides: 'fields, factories and workshops wherein these commoditrns may be grown or manufactured. It will be noted that the Society is out to purchase on an advantageous scale, i.e, in the cheapest market. Will that help our dairymen, who want to get the best market price?

Next in order of importance to the scope of this Society, is the matter of how the organisation is financed and carried on. At the end of 1918 the financial position was as under:— Share capital £3,195,737 Loan deposits and capital £12,521,884 Reserves £2,965,547

Total capital claimed £18,683,168 The gales turnover in the same year are set down at £65,596,433, out of which goods manufactured by the C W S were valued at £17,596,438, the number of the employees at home and abroad, being 32,353. The expensive na* ture of the Society's operations is evidenced by the fact that it owns and controls 33,000 acres of agricultural land m England, 20,000 acres in India and Ceylon and 10,000 acres in Canada, while it possesses four ships. This i iistrial concern claims to be tlie greatest and most powerful workingclass trading and manufacturing body in the world. . This explains its deßire td thrust forth its tentacles to grasp the dairy produce of New Zealand, in accordance with the policy thus expressed: Yea, we are getting on; we are getting at the source of supply. We must grow all we need, manufacture all we need, distribute all we need. That is, we must do these things ourselves, tor ourselves, and we are doing them." The way in which the capital is provided is extremely simple. The members of the local societies take up shares and this share capital, together with deposits, is passed on to the C.W.S.; banking, insurance, and trading do the rest. The Society's bank evidently plays an important part in its operations, for tl\e pamphlet states: "You can do more than insure yourselves and your goods and chattels with the C.W.S. You can do your banking with the C.VV.S. Your trade union can do its banking with the C.W.S. Do you know our C.W.S. bank has a turnover of £383,000,000?" It will be noticed that no mention has been made so far of the expenditure side of the Society's business, for the reason that we are not in possession of the figure relating thereto. The matter, however, is one that does not concern the scheme for acquiring the Dominion's dairy produce, except in one particular to which attention may be directed. Assuming, for the sake of argument, that the scheme materialised, who will have to bear the cost of remunerating the member? of the directors, or the Price Fixing Board? It will be essential for the three Dominion members to reside in London and be paid large salaries exclusive of expenses. Although the managing executive of the C.W.S. doubtless receive full value for their services it by no means follows that they would favor any portion of the Society's funds being devoted to paying representatives of the Dominion's dairying industry, or allowing such payment's to be added to the price of the produce. They are out to get their requirements at the cheapest rates, so that the producers would have to pay this toll. Reverting to the aims' of the Society, it will have been gleaned that the nationalisation and control of all commodities in daily use is the fundamental principle animating the C.W.S, The ibortag* of tuppliat twins to the war.

has brought home to the management of the Society the obvious fact that, even with its extensive ramifications, the demand cannot be met without "getting at the sources of supply," and that is doubtless accountable for the presence in New Zealand of representatives of the Society. How they came to be invited here need not be discussed. There is always a way of finding the means to an end, and in this cases the end in view is controlling the sources of supply. It is claimed that the "sound principles on which the C.W.S. has been built are the sound principles 011 which it can be expended as men and women realise its power of social and economic welfare." There is no spirit of philanthropy about this C.W.S. movement. It aims at "consolidating the magnificent forces of the working classes into one vast ownership of the requirements or life and happiness." These "workers of the world" have a definite object in view; they arc organised for specific purposes, and one of those purposes is to obtain control of food supplies. What that means any sixth standard child could tell, for if once the C.W.S. got the dairy produce of New Zealand in its control it would be able to name, its own price. Where would the producers be then? That, is one of the many phases of the scheme they will do well to consider.