The twenty-first annual Co-operative Congress was opened at Ipswich on
Monday, with a rather viewy speech by Pro- fessor Marshall. His most solid points were that Co-operative Societies utilised the great mass of unused ability among 'workmen; that the Societies should adhere to those businesses which require strict attention and honest management, and not attempt those which demand exceptional power of generalship; and that the Societies should as far as possible federalise themselves. He mentioned in the course of his speech that the co-operative sales of 1887, the last year for which he had statistics, reached 04,000,000. The note of the discussions which followed was a desire to utilise the great numbers of the co-operators, now 896,000, in political work, and to extend their action to the Colonies and the Continent. A unanimous resolution was passed con- demning the Sugar Convention Bill, as likely to cost co- operators £500,000 a year ; and it was resolved to bring pressure to bear against any Treasury order restricting Civil Servants from managing Co-operative Stores. It was also maintained that the reason why Co-operation did not succeed in Ireland was not want of the power to combine, for she ex- hibited that power as against the law, but the condition of "social thraldom " in which Irishmen had been kept. It was re- solved to inquire into the practicability of starting an inter- national co-operative journal ; and a paper roundly condemning the practice of sending shoddy to the Colonies, and proposing co-operative colonisation, was greatly applauded. The co- operators must take care that they are not utilised by wire- pullers for political purposes, and we rather dread the extension of their principle into foreign trade, not seeing how customers living abroad are to get their share of profit. Mr. G. J. Holyoake, who was present, may, however, have solved that problem by his admirable advice, to acquire foreign trade by making all co-operative goods so excellent that their trade- mark should of itself be a warranty to customers. That is the true way, if competition be an evil—which we doubt—to make competition hopeless.
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