Aneurin Williams

“ CO-OPERATION, a term used particularly both for a theory of life, and for a system of business, with the general sense of “working together” (con, with, and opus, work) . In its narrowest usage it means a combination of individuals to economize by buying in common, or increase their profits by selling in common. In its widest usage it means the creed that life may best be ordered not by the competition of individuals, where each seeks the interest of himself and his family, but by mutual help ”

“ It is not profit sharing where an employer takes something from his profits at his own will and pleasure, and gives it to his employees. Strictly such gifts in cash are gratuities, while, when they take other forms, such as better houses, libraries, recreation rooms, provision for sickness and old age, all given at the will of the employer, we have paternalism. Such benefits thus taken expressly from profits and varying more or less with the amount of profit certainly approach true profit-sharing: they are sometimes called “indeterminate” profit-sharing. ”

“ It is important to say agricultural co-operation and not co-operative agriculture, for in spite of some customary mutual help in farm work, in spite of several attempts, and some small successes, in co-operative farming, the actual cultivation is almost everywhere individualistic. The farmer or peasant cultivates alone, or with his family, or servants; when he co-operates with his fellows, it is to manufacture, or to market, the products of his farm, or more often to obtain the things he needs for his farming, to raise stock, to own expensive machinery in common, or insure against risks. ”

“ The end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries were the culminating days of the industrial revolution, when the old organization of domestic industry had given way before the factory system, and the population of the factory districts was suffering a martyrdom, with ruin of body and degradation of character, from unbridled competition, long hours, women’s and children’s labour, pauper apprenticeship, great fluctuations of trade and employment, dearness and adulteration of provisions, the truck system and insanitary homes. ”

“ On the other hand, there is some working together for the production of wealth which without being competitive, or based on service, is not strictly voluntary: thus in primitive societies there is much customary help, combined with customary division of the produce; and in advanced societies we have state and municipal socialism. These are indeed sometimes included in co-operation, but at least they are not voluntary co-operation, since the individual has no choice but to take part in them; they depend on the power of the ruler to coerce the ruled, or of the majority to coerce the minority. ”

“ The Mutual Aid Society is a registered body, and is a limited partner in the firm, the liability of the two managing partners being unlimited and the control resting entirely in their hands. The benefits of the Mutual Aid Society, and of the profit-sharing generally, are enjoyed in the main by all the employees of the business, but certain advantages are confined to a limited number of permanent employees. ”

“ Harm has undoubtedly been done in certain cases by forcing co-operative societies, whether from political motives or merely mistaken policy. Yet even as to money subventions, good authorities, while admitting the great dangers, remain convinced that the advantages overbalance them, self-help being evoked, and helped over initial difficulties which would otherwise be insuperable. Experience in fact shows that governments can do a very great deal, at least for agricultural co-operation, but only on condition that they encourage, and do not undermine, self-help and private initiative. ”

“ They contend, moreover, and it is indeed admitted that, in spite of the great advantages which consumers’ production has in its command of a market and of abundant capital, only a small part of industry can ever be carried on by associations of the persons who actually consume the produce. Outside this small part, therefore, voluntary co-operation is impossible except as some form of co-partnership. ”

“ Profit-sharing, in the loose sense, must be of untold antiquity; the first great example of profit-sharing in the strict sense is that of the Parisian house-painter, Edme-Jean Leclaire, “The Father of Profit-Sharing.” In 1842 he was employing 300 men on day wages. By greater zeal and intelligence and less waste, not necessarily by harder work, he reckoned they could save £3000 a year ”

“ In the same way if a Workman is employed on the basis that if in doing a particular job he saves something out of a stipulated time of labour, or a stipulated amount of materials, he shall receive in addition to ordinary wages a proportion of the value so saved, that is technically gain-sharing, not profit-sharing. Even where the bonus depends strictly on profit, it is not reckoned as profit-sharing, if it is confined to the leading employees. ”

“ Since 1895 the co-operators and co-operative societies of many far-distant lands—almost of the whole world—have been drawn together by the International Co-operative Alliance, a body which, without attempting to interfere in their differences, collects information from all, and distributes it to all, keeps them all in touch, and every few years calls their delegates together in congress, to discuss their problems, and to remember their common ideals. ”

“ The present extent of profit-sharing, though in itself considerable, is but small in comparison with the vast extent of the world’s commerce and industry, and except in one of its developments, co-partnership, it can hardly be said to be making progress. In 1906 there were in the United Kingdom and its colonies 65 ordinary firms practising profit-sharing in its strictest sense, and 17 others known to have adopted and not known to have discontinued it, making 82 in all as against 92 in 1901, and 101 in 1894. ”

“ Nothing is paid on the shares as interest or dividend, all profit being voted once for all to the ordinary reserve and the indivisible reserve, the latter the backbone of the system. In every large district the Raiffeisen banks are federated in a Union, and these Unions culminate in a General Agency. As an intermediary among themselves, and between them and the money market, the banks have also a central bank with a capital of £500,000, and with ten provincial branches. A great deal of agricultural co-operation has arisen from these banks as centres, and with the money they have supplied. ”

“ The consumers’ theory maintains that all profit on price is abstracted from the consumer, and must be returned to him; while to him should also belong all capital and control, subject to such regulations as the state and the trade unions enforce. This theory is fully exemplified in the English Wholesale Society, and in some of the smaller federations for production, which employ workmen, whether co-operators or not, for wages only, and admit no individual, but only co-operative societies, to membership. ”

“ Though the societies are non-political, and have refused to join the labour representation movement, they are usually centres of “progressive” ideas. There are of course many defects, and of their two million members a large, and many fear an increasing, proportion, attracted by the prosperity of the societies, think chiefly of what they themselves gain; but the government of the movement has, hitherto at least, been largely in the hands of men of ideas, who believe that stores are but a step to co-operative production, and on to the “co-operative commonwealth.” ”

“ Thus while voluntary association is sometimes advocated as a step towards, and sometimes on the other hand as a substitute for, and bulwark against, state socialism, we find in practice these two forces working each in its own sphere, and in ways complementary one to the other, while underlying and essential to both is the force of individual action and self-help. ”

“ It is little more than a generation since a few men, turning to account the strong national feeling aroused by the defeat of 1864, started a great educational movement which has left its mark on all strata of Danish society. After the People’s High School, technical schools arose in various places; and to these, and to the excellent continuation schools in the country districts, the Danes are beholden for the regeneration of their agriculture. ”

“ At almost every point agricultural and credit co-operation touch; yet the most perfect example of agricultural co-operation is not concerned with credit co-operation in any form. The farmers of Denmark practise co-operation in almost every variety, except for raising capital. The commercial banks have provided money to start dairies and other co-operative societies; so that, it would appear, the need of credit co-operation has not been felt.
The Danish farmer is almost always a freeholder: it is little more than a century since his ancestors were serfs. ”

“ The popular individualistic philosophy of that day taught that the good of society would be achieved by each individual seeking in his business relations the interest of himself and his family; but Owen maintained that the well-being of the social body could only be served if each individual made that his conscious aim. For this reason he and his disciples were called Socialists. He taught further that a man’s character depended mainly upon the circumstances which influenced his life ”

“ It is indeed only when we come to federations of co-operative societies, and above all to production, with its large number of employees, that the educational side of the movement and its power to promote industrial reform are most seen. The Co-operative Union, Limited, for instance, is a propagandist federation of all the chief co-operative societies in Great Britain, and some in Ireland. Its income of £10,000 a year is contributed by the Co-operative Societies. ”

“ In many successful societies even more is paid, but the average is falling. Where dividend is high, prices are often fixed above those current in the neighbourhood, so that the members, in addition to saving the retailer’s profit, use their Society as a sort of savings bank, where they put away a halfpenny or so for every shilling they spend. In addition to retailing, a store often manufactures bread, clothes, boots and millinery, sometimes farms land, or grinds corn; usually for its own members only, but occasionally for sale to other societies also. ”

“ The world has 30,000 co-operative credit societies, not counting building societies; and though they are organized in many groups, especially in their native Germany, for local reasons, or because of some modification, or some compromise between the two systems, the two types really include them all. There is, however, a strong tendency to introduce limited liability into various offshoots of the one type and the other; even into the orthodox Schulze-Delitzsch banks themselves, when they grow big. ”

“ The co-partnership party answer that labour at least helps to make the profit, and that competition, as yet almost insignificant between their societies, can be avoided by federating them (a process long ago begun) for buying and selling in common, and for other common purposes, while leaving each the control and responsibility of its own internal affairs. They further advocate the eventual federation of the productive wing of co-operation with the distributive, for settling prices and all matters in which their interests might conflict. ”

“ In co-operation, meaning voluntary co-operation, there may also, it is true, be frequent overruling of the minority by the majority, but only so far as the minority have, when joining the association, voluntarily agreed to permit, and subject always to an effective ultimate right of secession. ”