William Reid

“ The world must have been a terrible place for the human race in those early days. On land, in the sea, and in the air it was peopled with monsters, against whose attacks the unaided strength and skill of a solitary human were of no avail. ”

“ It is scarcely possible to conceive conditions under which the work of bread bakers will be other than laborious, but the strong efforts made by the directors to inaugurate a natural working day for the bakers—efforts which failed because the general body of the public were more concerned about suiting their own convenience than they were about making a baker’s working life more bearable—showed that the directors had the interests of their employees at heart and desired to make working conditions as tolerable as possible. ”

“ Everywhere there had been societies which were weak, but in Ireland, as elsewhere, those who constituted the membership had struggled heroically. Under difficulties and discouragements, before which many would have gone under, they had endeavoured to hold fast that which they had, and taking encouragement to themselves from their belief that the principle of associated effort for mutual benefit, which they represented but feebly, would ultimately be grasped by their fellow-countrymen and would work for their common good, they had struggled on. ”

“ He was a man of boundless energy and enthusiasm, and was filled with a lofty idealism which caused him to look ever ahead beyond the petty difficulties of the moment. Unfortunately, his abounding faith in the possibilities of Co-operation caused him to overlook sometimes the immediate and practical difficulties in the way and, reversing the position of the men who are unable to see the wood for the trees, his gaze was fixed so firmly on the beautiful vista ahead that he failed to observe the rocks in the pathway on which he trod until he had stumbled over them. ”

“ In men whose faith in this principle was great and whose work for its enthronement in the councils of the world was arduous the United Co-operative Baking Society has been rich. They have all of them been men who believed that Co-operation was the true principle of progress, and in their own way and time each one did his best to further the cause he had at heart.
GABRIEL THOMSON. It is peculiar that of the man who played perhaps the most prominent part in the work of establishing the United Baking Society little has been placed on record. ”

“ There was a time in the history of these islands when practically all the food consumed by the people was grown in the country; but during the lifetime of the last generation this position had gradually altered until Britain was dependent on wheat imported from abroad for four-fifths of the bread supply of her people. There had always been pessimists who foresaw, as a result of a war with a maritime power, a danger of interruption to the steady supply of seaborne food which was necessary if the people were to be saved from starvation, and who uttered warnings which passed more or less unheeded ”

“ THE EFFECT ON CO-OPERATION. The Co-operative movement in general is profoundly influenced by conditions of unemployment, which is our excuse for what has been written above. The vast majority of Co-operators depend for their incomes on their being employed in ordinary industrial undertakings, and when the machinery of industry breaks down their spending power is affected. Those in fortunate positions can carry on economically for a longer or shorter period on their investments in their societies, but those fortunate individuals constitute but a small proportion of the whole membership. ”

“ One or two societies in the neighbourhood of Glasgow, which hitherto had always stood aloof from the Federation and had done very little trade with it, now approached it for supplies; while a rapidly growing city society, whose members had consistently refused to give the Federation the whole of their bread trade, were now prepared to do so. Notwithstanding the fact that the capacity of the bakery was fully taxed, an endeavour was made by the committee to supply the wants of those societies who had brought home to them in this manner the value of federation in the day of adversity. ”

“ The growth of a great organisation may be likened to that of a river. Away up in the mountains where the river takes its rise every stone has weight to turn it aside. It trickles down the hillside with noisy babble, here almost stagnant, there going forward with a rush; ever gathering strength as it is joined by other streams. ”

“ The workers could not afford a tour round the world, nor a University course, but it was within the power of the educational committee of the Society to appoint several of their employees to make a tour of some of the most prominent concerns on the other side of the Border, and so learn their methods of doing business; how they provided for the housing of their employees, the relation of the employees to trade unionism, recreative societies, conditions of labour, hours, etc., and he suggested that such firms as the C.W.S., Cadbury’s, Lever’s, and Rowntree’s might be visited with profit. ”

“ That Co-operative tearooms can be made a success, even in Glasgow, the Drapery and Furnishing Society has proved, but it is questionable whether Co-operative tearooms anywhere, which are not conducted as an adjunct to other businesses, and very near to central drapery or similar premises, have ever proved successful, and there is no place in Great Britain where the ordinary tearoom is so good as in Glasgow, and, therefore, where a Co-operative tearoom which is called to stand on its own legs, so to speak, has such strenuous competition to face. ”

“ The story of the cruel treatment of these poor little mites, who were often chained to the frames of the looms and whipped to keep them awake, is one of the blackest pages in the whole history of the growth of the capitalist system in Great Britain. ”

“ At the same time, it must be admitted that when a man is working for a principle as well as for a livelihood, his work is likely to be better done. There are still workers in the movement, however, who, while professing to work for it, treat it worse than they would be allowed to treat a private employer, by denying it the efficient, loyal, and painstaking service which they would be compelled to render for wages alone. No more was heard of Kinning Park complaint. ”

“ There was a community of thought and action in the Co-operative movement which was bringing out much that was noble and sympathetic in human nature. The social gulfs which lay between the various classes in society would never be bridged over by the competitive system, because that system was the cause of these gulfs. ”

“ When an educational committee breaks new ground, as the Baking Society’s committee did in 1913 with their deputation to works of prominent firms in England, interest is stimulated, and even the stereotyped work takes on a new freshness. In the future we may hope to see the good work already done by the Baking Society’s educational committee broadening out in new directions, and acquiring fresh vigour with new successes. ”

“ They reasoned that, if a number of people by combining together could procure the goods they needed more cheaply than any one of them alone could do, there was no good reason why a number of societies by combining together could not do what no one of them acting alone was strong enough to do.
It is to Mr Gabriel Thomson of St Rollox Society, then treasurer of the newly formed S.C.W.S., that the honour of first bringing the idea of a federated bakery publicly before the co-operators of the West belongs. ”

“ Gentlemen, our aim and earnest desire is the prosperity of the Federation and its component parts; we lay these considerations before you and leave the matter in your hands, being confident your united wisdom will be well able to direct the path which will earliest and best lead to better and happier times for the United Co-operative Baking Society. ”

“ A NEW VENTURE. In September, after the new bakery was opened, the Society began the baking of morning rolls, a branch of trade which immediately became popular with the members of the societies. For this trade two light vans and two fast horses were purchased, and the result was that not only was a large trade in breakfast rolls done, but the bread trade increased rapidly also. The baking of rolls had, as a matter of fact, cut the last link which chained some of the societies to the private baker. The bakers did not surrender the trade of the societies without a struggle, however. ”

“ When an unemployment crisis comes it means distress to a large number of Co-operators, for those who have large savings to fall back on are usually in more or less important positions in the concerns by which they are employed and are amongst the last to be dismissed—are, in fact, 193rarely out of employment at all. Sales of Co-operative societies go down, while working expenses continue. In this respect, however, the Baking Society has always been the last to suffer, for people continue to buy bread when they have almost ceased to be able to purchase anything else. ”

“ The perishable nature of bread and the ease with which it is injured by crushing make carriage by railway impracticable, while combined with these difficulties is the fact that the majority of bread customers desire to have it as soon after it is baked as possible. All these disadvantages combine to limit the distance within which a bakery can operate successfully to a radius of about twelve miles, and even on the outer edges of that radius it is doubtful if the cost of delivery does not counterbalance the saving caused by larger production. ”

“ Since then he has conducted the business of the Society wisely and well, and his advice is eagerly sought after in matters connected with the trade. He is very popular with all with whom business brings him into contact, for he is recognised by all to be a man of high principle, who is incapable of stooping to anything mean. To this aspect of his character is probably due the remarkably good terms which have always existed between the Society and the employees, for he is kind and considerate to those whom fortune has placed under his charge. ”

“ One cannot help but contrast this willingness of the men to help the Society in a difficulty with incidents which have occurred at later dates, when the bakers could not be induced on any terms to work extra hours in order that difficulties might be overcome. The first attitude rather than the second one is that which makes for the avoidance of friction and the creation of a fraternal spirit between the directors of a Co-operative concern and their fellow-members who carry on the work of the Society. ”

“ He would have liked to linger with the old-time enthusiasts who laid the foundations of the Society, to have made himself as familiar as possible with the times in which they lived and with the thoughts in their minds, so that he might be able to present to his readers a picture of their times as they saw them, and of their difficulties as they had to encounter them. ”

“ Indeed, so long as Mr Borrowman continued secretary of the Baking Society, the committee continued to meet frequently in the Wholesale’s premises, although the sub-committee usually met in a small room, 10 ft. by 6 ft., fitted up in the bakery premises at St James Street. At times the full committee of sixteen met here also, packed together like herrings. Such were the conditions to which those heroes of the Co-operative vanguard accommodated themselves in order that the cause they had at heart might prosper. ”

“ If one was inclined to moralise much might be said about the mentality of a people who continue content to endure such straits in a country where wealth abounds in superabundance, and also about the mentality of statesmen who could find no remedy for such a constantly recurring cancer of the body politic; but this is hardly the place for that, and all that can be done is to suggest that in a country in which the Co-operative principle was predominant a remedy would be found. ”

“ It was in a city in which the conditions of the people were such as the figures quoted above reveal that, on the last Monday in January 1869, what was destined in the course of fifty years to become the largest business of its kind in the world opened its doors for trade. For six years the idea of the federation of Co-operative societies for trading purposes had been occupying the minds of the Co-operators of Scotland, keenly interested as they were in the progress of the North of England Co-operative Wholesale Society. ”

“ They have the ever-increasing urgency of the transport problem to deal with, and on them falls, also, the duty of counteracting the ever-present tendency on the part of societies at the outskirts to break off and begin baking for themselves. That is to say, they have ever before them the problem of making the huge organisation which they control more and ever more efficient, while maintaining those good relations with their employees which have been such a noteworthy feature during the long life of the Society ”

“ A suggestion was made by Paisley Provident Society that the discount allowed to the societies be reduced from 10 per cent. to 71⁄2 per cent. in order to cover losses in working, but no action seems to have been taken in this direction at the moment. In order to find remedies for the continuous complaints about the quality of the bread and its delivery, a rearrangement of duties took place; the stable foreman being made responsible for the delivery, and the foreman baker for the quality of the bread, while the manager continued to act as cashier and bookkeeper. ”