CHEAP NECESSARIES.
WE are happy to find that the principles which we have advocated for the last six weeks are beginning to make way. V In Lambeth, a club has been formed, not organized on precisely the same plan, but the ob- ject of which is the same as that we have proposed,—namely, to reduco the enormous profits of retailers, by bringing the consumer and the wholesale dealer into more immediate contact. In Leeds, a society has been recently formed with a similar view. The members of built of these are common tradesmen, and their expenditure is only fifteen shillings a week ; yet the savings that will accrue to two hundred per- sons so associated, it is calculated will amount to nearly a thousand a year,—an immense sum, if we look to the rank and numbers of the parties effecting it. This is not more matter of speculation, for co- operative societies on a smaller scale in various parts of the country have already succeeded, not to the same amount, but in a similar ratio.
Since last week, we have been informed by a respectable trader in the City, that some of our estimates in our first paper were too low. He specified cloth as one. We have only to repeat, that we have seen most excellent cloth (though not the very finest—which is manufactured for curiosity rather than use, and is hardly to be found in the shops) bought in quantities,for ready money, at 16s. a yard. We estimated the yard at 184 But, granting our informant to be right and ourselves wrong, the difference amounts to only a small part of the overcharge customary in expensive shops. Our correspondent "W," whose very sensible suggestions we ad- verted to in a former number, asks us " if we are not slumbering over our club ;" and demands of us why we do not call a public meeting. Now we must observe, that as public journalists, we have fulfilled our task when we have directed the public attention to our plan, and fur- nished them with at least sufficient facts from which to form a correct opinion of its soundness. To call public meetings, does not fall within our province ; that is for the public themselves, or some at least of those to whom the public are in the habit of listening. But we shall not retard what we have so successfully begun, from any scruples of etiquette; and though we cannot call meetings, we shall give every facility to those who can. In the first place, it is intended to collect all the remarks which we have made on this subject, and to publish them, with an introduction, additions, and corrections, in the shape of a pamphlet for general distribution. This will put in every one's power and in every one's hand the materials for judging whichat pre- sent lie scattered over seven or eight of our numbers, and which are accessible to few but our own immediate readers. The pamphlet will be published, if it can be got ready in time, some day next week. This is the first step towards realizing the wishes of our correspondent, and we are willing to go somewhat farther in the track of his suggestions. After the pamphlet has been published, we shall have a subscription- paper laid in our office, 4, Wellington Street, where any gentleman who is willing to act as member of an interim committee, in order to make arrangements for a general meeting, may put down his name. When the general meeting has been held, our object has of course been accomplished, and all that we have to do is to watch over and re- cord the society's prosperity. For prosper it must. It is impossible it should fail. Bad management may make it less valuable than it ought to be, but no management can altogether neutralize its advan- tages.
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