THE LATE CO-OPERATIVE CONGRESS.
THE Co-operative Congress lately held in the Ade1phi must have appeared to those who personally followed its proceedings to have united the largest amount of practical common-sense, and a certain amount of the most impracticable folly, that were ever jumbled up together. It must, however, be said at once that the common-sense was characteristic of all the delegates from British co-operative bodies who were present, and that the folly was the privilege of those who took upon themselves to give the working co-operators the benefit of their advice ; and, in particular, that of a handful of visionaries who through defective arrangements were enabled to foist themselves upon the Congress, and waste its time with their outpourings. Among the papers read two deserved especial notice—one by Mr. Morier, on the wonderful system of Mutual-Credit Banks established in Germany, chiefly through the exertions of the well-known SchulzeDelitzsch ; the other by Mr. Archibald Briggs, embodying his views as to Partnerships of Industry ;—views presented certainly, as was observed, in such a shape as is likely to make the system most attractive to the employer, but which, in proportion as they aim more and more at satisfying every claim of his selfinterest, are likely to commend themselves less and less to the employed, since under their latest form they amount only to a premium on the results of any extra exertion on the part of the latter, while seeking to make them share the burthen of losses, for which perhaps they may be in nowise morally responsible: Mr. Hare, too, contributed a suggestive and bold proposal for throwing open those " public lands " (as he terms them) of the country—the extent of which his experience as a Charity Commissioner has probably impressed With peculiar vividness upon his mind—to co-operative enterprise.
But the interest of the Congress did not lie in the papers read, still less in the grand plans proposed by some social reformers ; but in the discussion either of the practical grievances of the working co-operators of this country, arising from the state of the law or from its administration, or of those further plans of self-help by mutual effort which they feel to be almost, if not altogether ready to their hand,—the connection of trade-societies with co-operation,—the extension of co-operative production,—the establishment of bazaars or depots for the exhibition and sale of the articles produced, —the establishment of a co-operative banking system,—the general organization of the movement. Although the attendance was never very numerous, men more thoroughly in earnest on one or other of these various points,—many on all,—were never brought together, nor yet shrewder wits, nor minds more self-reliant. To an observer of men, the field of study was a most interesting one. Never, perhaps, was such an opportunity offered in London of viewing in its most characteristic forms that Northern type, which embodies so many of the best features of our Anglo-Saxon race, —keen, ready, resolute, rough when crossed, self-assertive, impatient of all outer control, yet endowed with the most tenacious perseverance, and the most admirable powers of self-sacrifice, for the carrying out of those ends which it holds dear. Side by side with these, however, though fewer in number, were men of the best Midland and Southern types,—from Nottingham and from Warwickshire, from Smnersetshire and from London itself ; men who might avow that they could not talk so fast as their Northern brethren, and that they had learnt at their school,—that they perhaps had gone to Lancashire in the time of the cotton famine to give alms, and had brought back co-operation with them, —but often evincing a quiet determination, powers of patient work, and a capacity of dispassionate insight and foresight into the present and the future, which contrasted by no means unfavourably with the more go-a-head Northern type. And whilst some of these delegates were men who belong no longer to the working-class (a Nottingham delegate employs four or five hundred persons), still the proportion of actual workingmen was large enough to convince any observer bow completely the working-class through its true self-trained leaders has
reached to self-reliance and to self-government, how irrevocably past is the day when it could be expected to obey dictation or accept opinion without proof. Not the least remarkable feature of the debates was the revelation it gave of the new spirit which is abroad among the younger generation of trades' unionists, and which in some cases chafes and frets visibly against the class-Toryism of older office-bearers.
A very interesting adjunct to the Congress has been a little exhibition of co-operative productions of all kinds, up three pairs of stairs at No. 337 Strand. Although quite incomplete as a representation of British co-operation (though, indeed, not of British co-operation only, for a German co-operative association of corset-weavers had sent samples of its goods), it yethas sufficed to show at a glance the wide range over which its practice already spreads,—from the block of coal of Messrs. Briggs' Methley collieries, and the farm produce of the Suffolk associated agricultural labourers to whom Mr. Gurdon of Assington has leased his farms, to the admirably wrought furniture of the London Cabinetmakers' Association, or the exquisite frames of the London Framemakers and Gliders. Here co-operative Paisley shawls, co-operative Nottingham hosiery, have realized a ready sale, at prices which ladies declare to be fabulously low. Highbridge sent up most tempting Cheddar cheeses, various flour mills samples of their flour. Lye, near Stourbridge, contributed sacks of wrought nails ; the Wolverhampton plate locksmiths specimens of their admirable handiwork, which holds its own with that of the most eminent firms in the trade, and the cardmakers of Rochdale their beautiful wire cards ; whilst some Lancashire " clogs " have given visitors an opportunity of seeing a specimen of foot-gear known only by name in the South ; and a Manchester Co-operative and Building Society, not being able to send its houses, sent models of them.
When all is told, however (and we have by no means exhausted the list of the exhibiting societies), the most striking fact remains that of the appearance of agricultural co-operation through its products in the heart of London ; and scarcely less striking is the letter which accompanied them, and of which the following, barring misspellings, is a copy :—
" DEAR S112,—I beg to say that the Committee of the two co-operative farms at Assington has mot, and considered about sending a few samples of the produce of the farms to the Exhibition as requested, and have decided to send a few ; but sorry to say that some of the produce is sold out for this season. We don't exhibit for sale, or anything of the kind, but just to substantiate that wo are in existence, and let our brother co-operators know that a farm can be managed by agricultural labourers. We will pay the carriage up, and have no wish to have them sent back, but leave them in your hands to do what you please with them. Trusting the Congress will boa success, I am, Sir, yours
truly, (Signed)
J. DEAL. "Assington, Sujiolk, May 25, 181;9." The samples comprised, amongst other articles, some firstrate barley and oats. Verily John Clod's day seems coming at last.
Meanwhile, it is evident from Mr. Morier's statements that in the way of general organization German co-operators are far ahead of English. Co-operation is in Germany united, though in various shapes, district by district, but all district unions knit together in one general federation, having its daily journal, its central administration, publishing at its own cost a yearly report of the co-operative movement (as complete as the official reports of the Registrar of Friendly Societies with us, and far more interesting), and which has been actually able, out of its contributions, to buy up the services of a man like Schulze-Delitzsch. Yes, this acknowledged leader among the Liberal party, both in the Prussian and the NorthGerman Parliaments, is the paid servant of German co-operation. It is, on the contrary, a common reproach against English co-operators (we need tell no tales of Scottish), that they do not know the value of a man when they have him, and consider £200 or £250 a year the Ile plus ultra of cooperative reward for services, for skill, for integrity, for selfdevotion, which the competitive world would pay thousands for. If they mean to enter upon wider fields of action, they must learn to take wider views in these matters.
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