CO-OPERATION ABROAD.
INCE it dawned upon the Foreign Office that " her Majesty's
representatives abroad" should be asked to supply informa- tion useful not merely to diplomatists, but to the mass of their fellow-countrymen, Parliamentary Papers have become quite interesting. Among others of this kind, there has been recently published the Report we are about to discuss. It consists of a series of papers, some of them of real ability, upon the" System of Co-operation in Foreign Countries." Considering the importance of Co-operation in this country, and the desire in many quarters to promote it as an experiment which might mitigate some of the evils of our present system of trade, the publication of this Report is entirely justified, and it ought to be widely read. The first thing that will strike the reader will be this, that in the matter of co-operative distribution we are well ahead of all foreign countries ; while in co-operative production we have little to show that can at all compare with the establish- ments of Leclaire, Joubert, and Godin, in France, or the Somerset, Rochester, or Beaver Falls Foundries in the United States. As, therefore, we can only give a very slight indication of what this interesting Report contains, though it does not consist of one hundred and fifty pages, we shall pass over what it has to say on Co-operative Distribution, Building Societies, and Savings-banks, with one or two isolated remarks stating more fully what there is to be noticed as to co-operative production as it is applied to trade and agriculture abroad. In France, "Stores," to give them their familiar name, do not succeed. In Paris especially they are neglected. In Paris, as in London, "neighbours are little acquainted with each other," and "the influence of women in Paris is against Co-operative Stores, as no credits are given to them, and the attraction of bargaining is absent." In Belgium, on the other hand, co- operation seems to be making good progress, and has in its distributive form received a considerable impetus from the Socialist movement. The Vooruit Society in Ghent, in particular, counts on its rolls 2,700 heads of families. It was started as a bakery, but has now added a clothing store, a pharmacy store, and two newspapers, "and has already very seriously crippled the small retail dealers." In Germany, the co-operative movement started by Schulze-Delitzsch in 1819 has developed both in the direction of distribution and production. Co-operative Stores, or Consumvereine are successful and increasing, and, "as in England, the more developed Societies are gradually undertaking the production of their own goods." In Austria, " Stores " seem to have been very successful at Vienna, and to exist in Tyrol ; but not to flourish very greatly. In Italy, a great impetus has been given to Co-operative Stores by the new code of commerce, and "People's Banks" are exceedingly success- ful. In the 'United States (and at the first glance this is a very surprising fact), the " Stores," in our sense, are a dead failure. "The causes of this want of success," says Mr. Helyar, "are chiefly to be found in bad methods, in a misunderstanding of the objects sought, and in American impatience at results.
Only a slow-thinking, penny-counting, frugal, and painstaking people could bring Co-operation to a success. The average American has thought it beneath him to consider the details of dimes, and experiments in co-operative distribution have generally miscarried through carelessness, inattention, and neglect."
The gist of the reports on "Co-operative Production" is in the practical accounts they give of successful or unsuccessful working of particular schemes. In France, indeed, the writer goes through the well-known history of the co-operative move- ment of 1818, which began with a State grant of three million francs, only half of which, strange to say, was lost. Without following the history in detail, the general experience in Frawe seems to be that there is great difficulty in starting associations for co-operative production on a large scale, and a large scale is necessary to their ultimate success ; but that when once, by the energy and discipline of a few, an association has been started, a great number of members may be admitted. No one will doubt that "really good men are required at first." The Co-operative Societies in France have steadily continued to the present time (not without their ups and downs, of course) ; but neither the war of 1870 nor the Commune seems to have much affected them. In 1880, the syndicates of the workmen, or, as we should say, the Trades Unions, started a number of them, some very successful. In 1883, a Commission sat on the subject, and their Report, published by authority, is said to be most full and interesting. But the evidence points to the fact that, besides the older difficulties, co-operation has to contend in France, as well as in Belgium and Germany, with political theorists who want to "destroy capital."
To come to practical schemes started by employers of labour, nearly every one who is interested in Co-operation has heard of Leclaire, the Paris house-painter, who, starting as a workman, turned his business into a Co-operative Association. There is a good account of his scheme in the Report. It is so graduated as to leave the management in the hands of the most experienced workmen. The "liaison Leclaire" is undoubtedly the most suc- cessful of co-operative schemes, for the Familistere of M. Godin at Guise has never yet tried to do without its founder. The name of M. Laroche Joubert is less well known ; but he is a most ardent co-operator, and has started a very successful paper-mill business, though, like M. Godin, his workmen have no real voice in the management of the business, and the graduated divisions of the profits are matters of favour, and not of right. His opinion is that, "given two mills with equal capital, and similar in every respect, if one gives shares of profits to its workpeople, it is bound to beat the other out of the field, as it will have the pick of the workmen." This, the Socialists might say, shows the spirit in which masters start such schemes. But whether the spirit of the master is good or bad, the practical benefit to the workman is great. M. Godin, as is well known, has constructed "enormous buildings" for his workpeople to live in. His scheme will be found at length in the evidence given before the Com- mission in 1883. One point is worth notice, that the patents invented by the workmen have greatly increased since the co- operative system was applied, although the profits of them go to a common fund. Beside this fact may be put the following : that co-operative workmen do not ask for a Monday holiday, as do others ; that there has been no case of a strike for an increased share in the profits ; that the workmen of the" Maison Leclaire worked fourteen hours a day during a strike without the slightest complaint ; and, finally, that, in "a silk-dyeing co-operation," during a crisis, the members took 25 francs a week, instead of 36 to 46, the ordinary price for their labour. Experience in Germany, on the other hand, seems to show that not only is it difficult to secure the workmen's confidence when losses are made, but that whereas the ordinary master can get rid of his hands when he wishes, the co-operators are unable to do so, and when better times come, the admission of new members is looked upon with disfavour lest bad times should come back. Co- operative production has also received discouragement from the inclination of workmen to believe in State Socialism, which they imagine would save the trouble of attending to such matters as personal economy, discipline, and energy. It has also received a considerable shock by the failure of Herr Borchert, a man with a vast fortune, to carry it out successfully in conjunction with his workmen. His opinion, after having tried several schemes, is that such experiments can be looked upon only as exceptional, and cannot at present be expected to stand the test of bad times. He did not observe any improvement in the character of the workmen or the work during the time he was carrying on his business as a co-operative one. There are some other experiments mentioned in the report from Germany, but nothing more encouraging than this. From America there is along list of Companies, whose fortunes have been extremely various. There are, at the present time, ten Associations in Massachusetts, to which the Report chiefly refers. The oldest is the Somerset Foundry, before referred to. It was started in 1867, and the shares are nearly all held by workmen. Between 1870 and 1875, thirteen co-operative manufacturing corporations were organised, of which only two now survive. Beside these there are the Beaver Falls Fouudry and the Equitable Foundry of Rochester, out- eide Massachusetts, both of which are doing a good business.
There is another branch of co-operation, as to which Lord Rosebery asked for a special reply, and that is co-operation as applied to agriculture. At the present time, when it seems not unlikely that some attempt will be made by one party or the other to create or encourage small proprietors, this is of the greatest interest and importance. It does not appear that anything beyond an abortive attempt in 1846, which came to an end in 1863, has been made in this direction in France. Thera are, however, Loan Societies to assist the peasants in buy- ing seed, ezc., and such Societies, at any rate, might prevent the enslavement of the small proprietor by mortgagees. But, as elsewhere, this branch of co-operation is in a stagnant condition. Dairy-farming, both in Germany and Italy, seems to lend itself very well to the requirements of co-operation. It requires little capital, as the proprietors send their milk to the market which the Association supplies, and take their profit at the end of the month, or, in the case of cheese, at the end of the season. Breeding and the hire of agricultural machines are also extensively carried on in Germany on co-operative principles. Besides these Associations, Herr von Thilnen, at Tellow, and Herr Jancke, in Brandenburg, have succeeded in carrying out the co- operative system on an ordinary estate. Herr von Thiinen's scheme has been going on since 1847, and was originated by the grandfather of the present proprietor. Their share of the profits is not paid to the labourers in money, but is credited to a savings account, and the losses of one year are paid out of the profits of another. Since 1847, the profits per head to the labourers have varied between 20 and 152 marks a year. The labourers only begin to share when the profits have reached 180,000 marks. It will be seen by this that the 'scheme is a very paternal one, and that it does not admit the labourer to any substantial share in the profits, as Mr. Bolton-King is trying to do in Warwickshire. It is also on a very small scale, the shareholders only being twenty-one in number. In fact, both Herr von Thiinen and Herr Jancke apparently aimed only at encouraging the labourers to lay by something for their old age, not at making them gradually part-pro- prietors of the estate. Whether the latter experiment is likely to succeed with the agricultural labourer or not, it is an interest- ing one. He is not so intelligent or quick as the workman of the town, and he is slow to change his settled habits. But that very stolidity and conservatism which seems to be against him at first, and which seems as impossible to alter as the shape of the land he cultivates, might, if co-operation once took hold in a country district, save the labourer from many of the sins and failings which have kept back the success of co-operative pro- duction in the town, and in that case might solve the land question, and stop that migration into towns with which at present it seems impassible to cope.
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