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THE HISTORY
OF
\ WT
Co-operation in Halifax;
AND OF SOM^I
OTHER INSTITUTIONS AROUND IT.
BY G. J. IS©W@AKE.
AUTHOR OF THE “HISTORY OF THE ROCHDALE EQUITABLE PIONEERS,” “MORAL
ERRORS OF CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES,” ETC.
“All to whom want is terrible, upon whatever principle, ought to think themselves obliged
to learn the sage maxims of our parsimonious ancestors, and attain the salutary art of con
tracting expense: for without economy none can be rich and with it few can be poor.”—
Dr. Johnson.
NF?
' z
“LONDON BOOK STORE,” 282, STRAND, W.C.
�LONDON:
DIPROSE & BATEMAN, Printers, 13 & 17, Portugal Street, Lincoln’s Inn.
�TO HORACE GREELEY.
THE
EMINENT AMERI:CAN^OURSA|#,ST,
WHO HAS EVER WELCOMED IN THE UNITED’ STATES OF AMERICA
SYSTEMS OF SELF HELP EOR, THE PEOPLE,
WHICH HE HAS HIMSELF ADVANCED BY A GENEROUS ADVOCACY
AND ILLUSTRATED BY AN UNRIVALLED CAREER:
Sistorg is EnscribeU
BY HIS FRIEND
GEORGE JACOB HOLYOAKE.
�<•
PREFACE.
The publication of this History in a separate form has
been encouraged by the opinion expressed of it, by one
whose lightest approval is a warrant of usefulness—Professor
Prancis William Mewman, who, when the facts of this
narrative were detailed in a paper read at the Social Con
gress, held in York, in 1864, said“ The description of the
successes of the Halifax Industrial Society makes one
long for the time when workmen will be enlightened
enough in all our towns to imitate it. If the publication of
such facts do not stimuHje them, no voice of economists,
philosophers, or preachers will move them.”
Halifax has other Institutions besides its great Co
operative Industrial Society, conspicuous for social useful
ness and advancement, and .all the “region round about”1
it is instinct with features of popular progress.
A brief
sketch, therefor^ of some of these illustrative instances
seems due to the reputation of the town, in a Book, which,
judging from the results of the “ Paper ” above mentioned,
may have the effect of drawing new and distant attention
to a community more distinguished than known.
Gr. J. H.
�CO-OPERATION IN HALIFAX.
. «THE INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY’S BUILDINGS.
CHAPTER I.
As often as Co-operation attains to< the dignity of being criti
cised, it is confounded withbKommunism,which never had an
English existence. Speculative Communism takes a very
ancient shape in Russigte an entirely different one—more intellectual and militant—iijjthe hands t^Bahcduf mJFrance ; in
Germany it is a silent quantity; in England it has been
theoretic to feebleness., and always pe3?SMasi«vse. The Organiza
tion of Labour under Lowg| Blancwas neithe^Simonianist
nor Eourierist. Some criminal mixturWand medley of all these
species, to which very few English politicians efe paid any
attention, or ever took the trouble,f^'&ndbrstand separately,
constitutes the idea in the minds of most public critics.
However, Co-operation is essentially distinct from Com
munism in this wise. Co-operation is concerted trading—a
scheme in which the resulting profits are proportionally
divided for individual uses. Communism is concerted living.
It . implies common labour,,’ of hand or brain, <and fcommon
enjoyment of all prescribed wealth produced. Since, how
ever, all that tends to equality tends to Communism, Co
*
operation, by raising the lew and increasing the means of
the common people, and.giving them a Common interest in the
success of their trading1 and manufacturing societies, imparts
to them Cornmuni sti^,habits and introduces features of that
mode of life. A gentleman's club, where the dining-hall,
reading-room, library, and smoking-room are common to all—
to the worthless and the worthy, the modest and the vain, the
parvenu and the gentleman alike—is more essentially an ap
proximation to Communism than any ^©-operative society.
Communism is something which can never be invented.—it is
a state of morals and social mean^, ofsxommon eyertion and
good-will, to which society maty attain in some diamond age
as yet unknown. It is Utopia; its place is in the millennium ;
it will be realised about the time when humanity attains to
�6
CO-OPERATI(^|lN HALIFAX;. '
The Communism of Civilization.
Perfection; and it is decidedly premature to identify itRutlS
Co-operation, which is the first round of a ladder to which
there are a thousand steps.
In an incoherent way civilization certainly tends to com
mon privileges. Theoretical Communism is a disagreeable
scheme, since in it it is concerted that every body shall
do something, and everybody enjoy something; whefbas
we have hitherto lived in a far more convenient state of
things, where those who- receive the least do the work, and
those who do nothing get the enjoyment. However, innova
tory people, who will not let well alone, are altering all this.
The high roads now are everywhere being made not only
spacious but pleasant, which is the Communism of TownComfort. The regulated Parliamentary train and emigrant
vessel are part of the; communism of travel. Public buildings
and parks, palaces, galleries, and museums, belong to the
Communism of . srecreation. Working men’s clubs, baths,
wash-housed; national schools, schools of design, post office
savings’ banks Mr. Gladstone’s device of Government annui
.
*
ties, model dwelling houses, are so many forms of the Com
munism of comfort^ of cleanliness, of education, of art, of
economy, and health—recognitionslof the right of the common
people to a . high condition of competence and enjoymentj
Oppression is now considered a discredit to a ruler—the
existence of extreme inequality a disgrace to statesmen—
suffering the juvenile population to grow up in ignorance, a
municipal ©Mm©. The poverty of the workman is regarded as
a scandal to thfe employer. It is beginning to be recognised
as the lousiness of the physician to prevent disease, of the
clergyman to prevent. crime; and we are confessedly ap
proaching that stat|<j foretold by Morelly, in which “ it shall
be impossible for^a man to be depraved or poor.” The first
practical step to this, is plainly, Co-operation.
Co-operation, .considered as to its eccentric appearances,
is a most ins®giitable thing that transpires among the work*
* In the discussion which followed Upon the Paper “ On the Growth of
the Halifax Store,” read at the Social Science Congress at York, 1864, in
which this passage occurred, some speakers Understood me to mean
that the causes of the success of Co-operation were “ inscrutable.”
On the contrary, the conditions of Co-operation are well known.
They are three It Good Sense: 2. Good Temper: 3. Good Will. In
many towns one or other of these qualities exist. It is only where they
exist together that success is achieved. An active, intelligent, self-sustain
ing care for the good of others is the source of Co-operative inspiration.
�*
THE INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY’S BUILDINGS.
The Town of Halifax.
7
phg<|S;Tsses. Nobody can tell under what local conditions it
will arise. Why it flourishes where it does, and why it does
not flourish where it should, are alike inexplicable. Why
should it succeed in Rochdale, Blaydon, and Sowerby Bridge,
and never take root in Birmingham, Sheffield, or Glasgow ?
There is no place in Great Britain so unlikely as Sowerby
Bridge to produce co-operators. There are ho places so likely
as London, Manchester, L^erpud^Leeds:, and Sheffield. Yet
co-operators make no Wore'progress1 in some of these places
than a society of Punch's Naggletons. In Sheffield the
Socialists have tried Co-operation; the Methodists have tried
it—the Catholics have tried it; buWeithef Owen, Wesley,
nor the Pope have any success in that robust town, where
mechanics have more advantages, independence, and means,
and as much intelligent, as any town in England. Judging
from the demonstrJfiveness of‘attachment displayed among
them any one wouM. ®hy that the Scotch would succeed in
Co-operation better than the English, and the Erench better
than the Scotch; yet neither nation has done anything notable
in it.
Rochdale has hitherto bedn thd Mecca of Co-operation.
There are reasons why sWfdl pilgrims should find their way
to Halifax. This town, which has acquired new political dis
tinction by sending Mr. Stansfeld to Parliament, has achieved
results in Co-operation of whid^-thfi public havb not yet heard.
The visitor wh® enters Halifax by way of the Town Hall—
the prettiest, brightest-, mo‘st cheerful building Of the kind
erected of late ye’ars—Uomesfipon Northgate, the ttest street
in the town, where he finds a stone block of buildings, lofty,
extensive, and particularly weBbAMLjmls iwffie property of
the Halifax Industrial Socfcty, and occupied by Ifchir stores.
This building was erected and stocked at an expanse of
*
*
£15,000. The basement cbntsists of
swns and offices, a
butcher’s, a provision a boot and sho^a ’linen drapery, a
*
grocery, a woollen drapery and trflor’il shop. , The walls are
wainscoted, becafflse paint is cleaner than paper, and the
[ceiling of the flour shop is covered and cased with wood, so
that no plaster may ever drop intd the bins. A commodious
wharf—a miniature Pickford’s, is fitted up with cranes, gallery,
and landing ranges, where waggons are loading and unloading
all day, delivering goods fdr the store,1 ©r.Oarrying them out to
its seventeen branches; a steam-engine is at work on the
�8
CO-OPERATWT IN HALIFAX.
The Commercial Features of the Great Store.
premises for raising goods, turning a gigantic chopping
machine, and grinding tons of coffee; vast underground cellars
are filled with all sorts of costly stores. Hogsheads of sugar
roll ponderously over the floors, and mountains of hams and
flitches of bacon give the vaults the pleasant flavour of
breakfast time. Up-stairs, in well-fitted rooms, are magazines
of valuable goods and dainty edibles, where the aroma of
coffee, the scent of tea, and th© sweet fragrance of malt meet
you in successive rooms. Anon you come to coffee rooms for
men and women^a dining., room, a smoking room—fitted up
with middle-class elegance. The board room is as dainty as a
committee room at the Beform Club. The secretary’s offices
are as substantial and convenient as a banker’s. Hot water
pipes, perfect in regulators, run through every room, from the
geocer’s shop on th^ ground floor, to the shoemaker’s and
tailor’s under therroof. Ventilation ,ds everywhere provided
for. The cigars supplied in the ^smoking room are meant to
be good, which is more than , can be said of most places.
Merry girls prepare and supply the refreshments. The food
comes up from a well-furnished kitchen, into which you can
walk, and where eyew joint is good and the coffee genuine.
The present author has eaten in Numberless restaurants in
London, and never had food purer? in any house than he had
through an entire week, that he lived among the Co-operators
in these rooms, Dickens has said that he has seen poor
women go about in thin, flappy, brown shawls, looking like a
large tea-l.eaf that had been re-boiled t© make London tea. In
the Halifax kitehen they only boil 'the t©a-leaf once. If the
Social Science Association.! should hold a meeting in Halifax,
its members could not do better than take tea at the Industrial
Society’s stores. Throughout the whole of their extensive
buildings there is no sign of poverty or makeshift—nothing is
mean or second-hand. It is a pride z to go about the place.
Everything is as stately, as complete, and as opulent as a
railway or Government office^. Several thousand families are
supplied from this place., ylt has 6,000 members. When it is
remembered that this great store has. sprung up, and all this
comfort, convenience and wealth were, created since 1860—
during the cotton scarcity—mo more satisfactory answer need
, be given to the question, often asked—How di,d Co-operation
answer during the great commercial famine ?
Last year the buildings in Northgate had to be increased,
�THE INDUSTRIAL SOCMET'TS BUILDINGS.
Letter from Signor Mazzini.
0
Kind a valuable plot of ground was secured on the west side
of the present stores. The total capital in January this year
(1866) amounted to £46,882.
On the day after New Year’s Day 1865, these great Stores
were formally opened. It was necessary to engage two large
Halls in which to entertain the members. The Odd Fellow’s
Hall was so crowded by guests at the Tea Party, that dancing,
which was intended, was impossible. The mdmbersfcrf the Society
amounted to 5,429 ; so1 that if each member represented only a
very small family, an aggregSe meeting wonM inWde 20,000
individuals. A heavy snow prevailed that night, and happily
they did not all com^^'The' large Hall ,at the Mechanics’
institution was found'filled. " The Report was read by the
President, Mr. Joseph Greenwood, and Mr. Abel Heywood,
Ex-Mayor of Manchester, presided. Mr. Lloyd Jones was
one of the speakers on this^Hfeeasion. Mrs; Law, who hap
pened to be present, was invited’ also tt? address the meeting.
Letters were read from Dr. Watts, Mr. ^fmmissiOner Hill,
the Rev. Dr. Burnet, and one from Mr. Thomas Bayley Potter,
the present M.P. for Rochdale. Mr. HolyOake read the follow
ing letter from Sighor Mazzini, who had gen linvited to be
present. Mazzini wrotei “ No. There is not the least chance for me-gyer being able
to accept any invitation for a public meeting. I am labouring
under a severe cold and coughing a great deM^and generally
[the state of my health and the impossibility of speaking loudly
and long without severe effort, are a p'erennial obstacle. Pray
convey my heartfelt thanks to oust friends in Halifax for their
very kind thought, and a deep sense andsympathy for the
.work to which they hav© devoted] themselves. I have been
earnestly and anxiously watching the "spread of the Co-operative idea as the beginning of an immens© revolution which
will do more for the brotherhood of man to man than all the
eighteen centuries of G^pimtionAhavewdone^ and, provided
they avert every danger of material[egotism by taking up the
whole of the moral, intellectual, and economic problem, and
sympathising with all its different manifestations, I look to
the working classes of England a®d Europe ah the prominent
element of the future.”
It is a characteristic of Co-operation, that it looks out of
itself and thinks of the world, and how workmen shall be
benefited. The shopkeeper necessarily looks behind the counter,
�10
CO-OPERATION IN HALIFAX.
Letter from Professor Newman.
and is apt to have his soul in his till. The Co-operator has
higher aims which he strives to realise. It was owing to this
feeling that Signor Mazzini was invited to be present at this
celebration, and also Professor Francis William Newman.
The following is a copy of Professor Newman’s reply to
Mr. Joseph Bairstow, Secretary to the Society.
“ I read with deep interest the striking account given
of the rapid growth of your society. The warm sympathy
*
which I feel in its objects and my high satisfaction that
working men are learning the way to self-dependence and
mutual aid, would make attendance at your public meet
ing (to which you kindly invite me) a sincere pleasure if
circumstances permitted;. There is (to me) every indica
tion that in the near futuee the nobleness of labour,
,
*
proclaimed recently by Mr. Gladstone^ shall be the creed ofj
the nation ; and that with the intelligence of the millions will
come their personal, social, and pecuniary elevation. The
past history of the world, even when brilliant for the few, has
been very often dreary and poor for the many. This is among
the things which' the future must alter: such industrial
societies appear to be the first necessary step in a long series
of improvement which is to be hoped for.”
* The paper read at the Social Science Congress at York, 1864.
Society’s Transactions* York; 1864.
See
�THECO-OPEBATIVE BA PM.
High-Sunderland Farm.
11
THE CO-OPERATIVE EABM.
CHABTEB II.
Mb. Vandelettb, of Ralahine, solved the problem of the
possibility of applying Co-operation to agriculture, as Mr,
Craig, the historian of that experiment,-has oft related; and
succeeded where success was least to be expected—in Ireland:
at a time the most unfavourable, and with persons the.most
unlikely in the world. But nobody imitated, or ffieeded, or
■honoured the experiment. Mr. Guerdon, in England, accom
plished a notable and uffiwm success; but English workin gclass Co-operators have been prevented attempting agricultural
Co-operation, so long as dn Act of Parliament forbad the
holding more than one acre of land. Halifax has been the
first society to avail itself of the removal of this restriction.
This Industrial Society has one possession which no other
Co-operative Society in England has. It rents a farm of sixty
acres. On a misty 'flay^stgad
the MsStor- -discerning, as
he would in Manchester, a cloud of smde at the^ftttom of a
long street,making it appear likd^ihe entrance Wthe bottomless
pit, the eye shoots thwigh?
®
*|
Openings andterevasses of
Halifax town into a gorge of mist, in which towers a sombre
mountain side throwing a dark glory over the streets. On a
spacious plateau, about a mile from the town, in the midst of
noble scenery of valley and hill, “ High^Sunderlandv” the farm
of’the Co-operators, is situated, from which you get just
sufficient glimpse of the town Mmake you?-glad®pu are out of
it, and so much offitherough splendour of nature as to make
you glad you are in its midst. »TW farmhouse is a large
quaint stone building, three centuries old, ornamented with
old figures, in. all that ;gfotes|[ue Egliness^ seen in old
cathedrals. Smiling cornfields and slopes of ^trotting sheep,
welcome the Co-op eraser's on their visit to the farm. The
families of the members amount tp» 20^000 souls,, and they can
all be regaled at a picnic in a single field. Ear away from
the external clatter of loeitis^tlte dust and heat of mills, the
*
Halifax Co-operator can si|a$own iH the sunshine# the peace
and fresh air of nature^1 and taste the pleasure of that sweet
*
possession which his good sense and wise thrift have given1
him. The society has made an offer to purchase this and the
�12
CO-OPERATION IN HALIFAX.
The Old Farm Mansion.
two adjoining farms, and either these or some others the
society is destined to possess. One Sunday morning in 1864
eleven fine horses, looking as compact and sleek as though
*
they had just returned from the Royal Agricultural Show at
Newcastle-on-Tyne, were pattering on their way to Trimming
ham Well, near Halifax. They had been newly shod the day
before, and were ringing their feet on the granite road as
though they werejproud of thpir new shoes. The cottagers
on the road came out inquiringly as the noble beasts passed
along. “ What horses are these—are they going to a fair
to-morrow » asked a woMnASj Why doesn’t ta know,” said
her husband in an exultant tone, “ they are ours, they belang
to t’store, lass.” These were^e.Go-operative horses employed
during the week in conveying ‘.coal. The society has also
twenty railway waggons, fpr which they have paid £1,300.
They sell £10,000 worth of coal a year. This society numbers
6,000 members. It does bp-siness to an amount estimated
this year at £166,000, and fi$s , profits amount to £13,000.
When it is remembered (it dc§gr,yes,to be repeated) that the
whole of this Halifax progress was made in the panic period,
it is no mean proof of thdipower of Co-operation to hold its
own in the days
o
*f
severest trial.
The Rev. Gr. Watson, M.A., in his History and Antiquities
of the Parish of Halifa^Kb^XMaon. 1775, gives some
interesting particulars of the High-Sunderland Farm, which
were re-printed in a mepSy maga^ne. entitled the Northern
Star, No. 12, May, 1818.
“High-Sunderland,” Mr. Watson says, “is situate about a
mile north of Halifax, between the Bradford and Wakefield
roads; and was so calledas being .perhaps, in ancient times,
a farm which the Anglo^Sayns called by the name of Sunder
or Sundor-lond^orrt might be/se,parated or set apart for some
particular pu^ppse Or privilegaJ|fe knowledge of which is now
lost; for in that case they would give it this name, as being
sundered or di^dedqfrom the lands about it. It is called
High because situated at the flop g^hill.
“ When the present fam^jaitf&iglFSunderland was erected,
does not appear by any inscription upon the building, but it
was either the wo^k of Richard-Sunderland, who married
Susan Saltonstall, about 1597, or of his son Abraham, who
married Elizabeth Langdale; but more probably the latter,
because we meet with the arms of Saltonstall and Langdale
�THE "CO-OPERATIVE FARM.
Interesting Inscriptions upon the Farm House.
13
impaled with those of Sunderland, in the windows. This house
seems once to have been well ornamented; there are still
sotne statues and busts remaining of tolerable workmanship.
In a chamber-window, under the arms of Saltonstall, Langdale,
and Thornhill, of Fixby, may be read these lines,
Felix quem virtus generosa exornat avorum,
Et qui virtute suis adjicit ipse decus. L. S.
*
These letters, L. 8., stand for Langdaie, Sunderland, but I
think them not so old as the housMbe.Ghn.se in another place
the arms of Saltonstall and Langdale (as above) are impaled
with those of Sunderland, which it would belong to this Lang
dale’s father to do. This Langdale also appears to have lived
a good part of his time at Coley Hall, and to have sold the
Instate so late as the interregnum. Over the north door is
written, .ZVe subeat glis serdus, (filet no dumb dormouse enter”)
a mistake for surdus ,■ and over a door on tlfentt side, Ne
intret amicus hirudo (“ Let no horseleech enter as a friend”).
At the back part of the house are four English lines, too coarse
to be admitted here. In the hall, over the fire-place, is in
scribed,
Maxima Domus utilitas; et pernicies, Ignis et Linguaf.
Over the south door ar^fedmlgl5
Hie Locus odit, amat, punit, conservat, honorat
Nequitiem, pacem, crimina, jura, probos ; J—
which also is on the Town House at ©^Iftfdn^Holland, and
also on the Town House at Glasgow, in Scotland, with bonos
instead of probos. Below the abovewhesP Confide Deo, Difipde
tibi. (“ Trust in God, distrust thyself.”)
latter part of
this advice would not do io^b-operatioM®
On a pillar on the left hand
south door, Patria
Domus. (“ My country is ray A©me.’W| On a pillar on the
*
right hand of the same,
@
* ^wnWOteZi?bn.
On the sbuth front,
Omnipotens faxet, stirps Sunderlandia sedes
Incolet has placide, et tueatur jura parentum,
Lite vacans, donee flucrus formica marinos
Ebibat, et totumMestudb perauibulet orbem ! ||
* Happy is he whom the illustrious virtue of l®s ancestors adorns, and
who, by his own virtue, adds lustre to theirs.
t Houses when large, yield comfort: fires and tongues carry destruction with them.
± This place I
hates
loves punishes preserves honours
+
p
1 profligacy peace crimes
justice
the good
I) The Almighty grant, that the family of Sunderland may peaceably
possess this mansion and preserve the. rights of its ancestors, till the ant
drink up the waters of the sea, and the tortoise traverse the whole world !
�14
CO-OPEBATION IN HALIFAX.
“ How vain are our wishes, and how uncertain the con
tinuance of earthly things, may hence be seen, when either
the writer of these, or his son, alienated this very estate which
the then owner so earnestly wished might continue in the
family for ever! Over the principal gate stand the words—
Nunquam hanc pulset portam qui violat aequum ! *
On the same is a cherub sounding a trumpet; and in a scroll,
Fama virtutum, tuba perennis.f
“ Arms belonging to, the pedigree: For Sunderland, Parted
per pale, Or and azure, three lioncells passant, counter
changed : thus jf.is in a window at High-Sunderland; but the
coat is generally depicted with the lioncells guardant. For
Langdale, Sable, a chevron between three estoils argent. For
Saltonstall, Or, a bend between two eaglets displayed, sable.
Thus it is at High-Sunderland, and *
thjis I saw it borne, in
1766, by Samuel 'Saltonstall, Esq.? aiderman of Pontefract;
but Thoresby, p. %36
h
*as
given us a coat of this family in
which the bend is gules.’
Nothing. could be more applicable to the present uses to
which High-Sunderland is put, than Some of these inscriptions
which still remain. Qne is a prayer?—“ Never may he who
violates justice seek to enter its gate! ”—and of the other let
us make onp, and hope that this place will ever hate profligacy,
love peace,4 have no crimes to punish, preserve justice, honour
the good, (and, may we add, save the quaint old mansion and all
its carved adornments from the hands equally of “ improvers”
and destroyers.
* Never may he who violates justice Seek to enter this gate
t The fame of virtuous deeds is1 a perpetual trumpet.
�EAEWjAND TiATER YEARS OF THE SOCIETY.
Nativity of the Society.
15
EARLY AND LATER YEARS OF THE SOCIETY.
CHARTER m.
The present Industrial Society commenced in the latter end
of 1850, under the name of the^ Halifax Working Men’s Co
operative and Provident Society.”! It began "in a,cottage house
in Back Foundry Street, occupied by a Scotch weaver named
Richard Horsfall. Members attended at night. after their
wvork was over to sell the stores? The first name on the list
of members was that of Benjamin Aaron., The profits declared
in its first fifteen weeks’ balance-sheet were 12s. 2d., and
though their balance-sheet showed more, it is doubtful whether
the society made this. In 1850 it removed to Cow-green,
where it acted like the cow—ruminated, ‘looked wise, but made
no progress in wisdom. It hardly grew, and never thrived.
During ten years it simply vegetated.y It wa’Afiot until 1860
that its great progressrae^’itf. In 1855 it lost £81 by a dis
honest treasurer, in whom everybody had such confidence that
no sureties were taken with him. This event’produced a
panic in the society. The Board-room, one night, was stormed
by a crowd of alarmed members; Sixty gave notice at once
to draw out their shares. A local Cromwell headed the excited
insurgents, and Mr. Foreman, oho of the directors, with the
genius of a constitutional minister, refused to deliberate
K under pressure from without ” moved the adjournment of
*
the board, and refused to announce to the insurrectionists
when or where they wOffd meet agaiii. Ik those days these
societies had no legal1 protection against fraud. Distrust was
sown, the society was split up, and a; courageous Socialistic
moiety, who never lost faith in the principle, held on as they
always do—as they ®d in Rochdale—as Mr. Jacob Waring
and others have done in Burnley since.
When the panic to which reference has^fist been made
occurred, there were that, year (1855), 316 members of the
Society, so that the loss which produced the local revolution
*
only averaged 5s. a man. The defaultitfg /TreasuTer was put
in the County Court. He however engaged a lawyer, who,
aware of the legally defenceless state of members of these
societies in those days, got the trial removed to London; the
�16
CO-OPERATION IN HALIFAX.
The early Leaders of the Society.
members, unable to follow him there without further cer
tain loss, and uncertain redress, abandoned the matter.
The published reports of the early society bear many names
which recall memories of devotion to Co-operation, when it had
few friends and no repute as now. Joseph Foreman, Abraham
Baldwin, Benjamin Aaron, David Crossley, are instances!
Mr. Wrigley, Mr. Olive, and others whose names do not occur
in publisht d reports, were no less devoted to the “ cause.”
The 1852 Beport acknowledges the service rendered to Co-ope
ration by the Journal of Association, The Northern Star, and
The Leader.
The early history of unfriended struggles after ideals of
honest social life, is always interesting and. wholesome reading.
The Halifax Working-Men’s .Co-oppmive Society was enrolled
under
and^ T cap. 11 5, and former Acts relating
*
to Friendly Societies, and very little protection they afforded
as we have seen. To “ counteract adulteration as injurious to
health, and fraud in trade as injurious to the pocket,” was one
object announced, and to advance “ one division of Social
Science ”-^|the word .Som^^^nce. was a Utopian word then]
“the distribution of wealth.” The first President was John
Swift; the first Trustees, Benjamin Aaron, N. Dobson, John
Chaffer; the first Treasurer, John Dennis (the subsequent
defaulter) ; thcnurst^Auditors, C. Barker, John Dobson ; the
first Board .of Management, ^Messrs. Kendall, Crowther,
Buckle, Bwan, Wood; the first Store-keepers and Salesmen,
D. Coton, J. Foreman; the first Secretary, John Culpan, junr.;
the first Offices of the Store announced, No. 18, Cow Green. J
Dennis, appears tA beJhe treasurer who came to grief in
1855, and when asked for the deficient 3681, he pretended not
to know anything about it. But he had some sort of excuse,
seeing that thefSpcietv never paid him any salary, an omission
the old Co-operatqrs often made, and very naturally, since they
regarded Co-operation more as a propagandism than a business.
Willing to give their own labour for the good of the causey
they expected others who had not their enthusiasm or faith, to
do the same., .
The profits made in the early history of this Society were
not, it must be ownecLvery alluring. Mr. John Sturzaker,
one of the early scho.ql of Yorkshire Co-operators, hands me
his certificate orders for profits, which show delicate results.
The first order is worth reprinting in full; it runs thus:—
�EARLY AND LATER YEARS OE THE SOCIETY.
Primitive Profits.
17
HALIFAX WORKING MEN’S CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY.
(Established September, 1850.)
To the Secretary of the Halifax Working Men's Co-operative Society.
July 30, 1851.
Place to the credit of John Sty/rzaker, No. 97, the sum of
Two Shillings 3d. being the Apportionment of the profits on
Trading due to him for "the half-year ending May 3, 1851; and
for so doing, this shall be your ®uffi(<ent Warrant
*
•Aligned) ' C. BARKER.
Purchases £1 14 8
Profit
£23
Further certificates indicate thefqSowing particulars:—
To whom given.
J. Sturzaker
99
99
99
Amt. of
Purchase. Profit.
£4,
9
12
5
14
7
12
3
1
16
0
10
11
2
II
8
0
0
4
3
1
1
3
3
Period. Date.
11 Yearly. ! 1852
9|
1853
1854
6
99
2
1855
&
8|
1856
1857
2
»
Signer of Order.
Sami. Thompson.
Wm. Gordell.
Sami. Thompson.
J. Foreman.
— Eovsmim.
J.F.
The profits in 1854 were manifestly feeble. The declarafconof profits in 1851-2 were probably erroneously made. These
items are not quite reconcileable with the general table, inclu
ding the same years, which follows u but approximate figures
are the nearest that the existing documents furnish.
* These alarmingly legal and sonorous terms were the invention of Mr.
Barker, a Scotchman; no Halifax mind could have attained to them.
These forms lasted until 1856, when Mr. Foreman came to replace them, the
new order stopped, simply and English, thusPlace to the credit of —
the sum of---- being the Apportionment of the Profits on Trading due to
h—, for the half-year ending
�18
CO-OPERATION IN HALIFAX.
Present Profits.
TABLE OF FIN A N CIA L GROWTH OF THE H A LIFA X INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY,
LIM ITED.
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�EARLY AND LATER YEARS OF THE SOCIETY.
Notes on the Table.
19
The Society bore the name of the “ Halifax Working Men’s
Co-operative and Provident Society,” from its commencement
until 1860. In 1861 it was re-constituted and took the name
it bears now, of the “ Halifax Industrial Society.” In 1862,
it under a new Act, added the word “Limited” to its name.
The preceding table commences with 1851. The famous
Cow Green Store really opened as we have said in 1850, and
with fifty members.
, The examiner of the preceding table can trace himself, and
judge for himself, of the sudden rise in 18’60 and amazing
results of this great Co-operative Store since.
The, lower line of the table being founded on the Report
for the first six months of 1866, has the amount of business
and profits put in larger figures, to show that they are con
jectural; being put at exactly double the firsthalf-year’s returns
the amount set down is less than it is expected the true returns
will prove, when presented in January 1867.
*
In<1860 the Society made neatly £800 of profit, which gave
lOd. in the pound the first half-year. Next half-year it made
£1,200, which gave Is. in the pound > with these results came
the sudden increase of new members, which has carried the
Society on to its present opulence and success.
The Society commenced dealing in coal in 1860, buying a
single horse and cart, at a cost of £58. In 1861 they bought
a boat on the canal, at £69?!115s. Id. In 1863 they possessed
twenty railway waggons, for which they paid £1,300, and
their eleven horses were worth £450.
The redemption of their fixed stock is so rapid, that twenty
eight ton railway coal trucks, for which they, paid the £1,300,
were reduced at the end of 1864 to one shilling, when they
were worth £1,100. Their present rule is to allow 10 per
cent, for depreciation of fixed stock, and 20 per cent, for float
ing stock, besides retaining in reserve certain^'Undivided
Profits,” which accrue from selling coal or goods to the public,
or through the non-produetion of cheques given to purchasers.
The Society possesses now twenty-five coal trucks and
sixteen horses. Live of^'tho trucks were purchased last
winter. The cost of the twenty-five was £1,616 15s. 2d;
they stand on the last balance-sheet at £273 4s. The
horses, drays, carts, etc., cost £975 17s. 6d., and stand on
the last balance-sheet at £549 Is. 7d.
�20
CO-OPERATION IN HALIFAX.
Fewer Of Parliament to promote Economy.
THE STEPS AND CHARACTERISTICS OE THE
SOCIETY’S PROGRESS.
i
CHAPTER TV.
It is usual to call Parliament the collective wisdom of the
nation. Let us hope it something less than that, for it has
not been particularly bright of late years. When, however,'
it first took into its head to put facilities in the way of the
working classes . to save money, the “Provident Societies’
Act” fixednupon £100jas thelbighest amount that a work
man could, or would, or had right to save. When it was
induced to extend this permission to £200, it doubled the
power of Co-operation, and enabled societies, wise enough to
take advantage^ it, to increase their resources in an unex
pected way. £Ehe .usual amount which Co-operative Societies
fix upon to be contributed by each member, is £5, in shares.
But families unaccustomed to save find this difficult to do,
and workmen sjflt more. - unaccustomed to have confidence]
don’t like fe’ However, £5-wasA®bliged to be exacted and
kept as capital, in order to work the Society. The Halifax
Co-opCrators, however, in I860 reduced this amount, so that
a new member has only £ljLtopontribute to the capital fund,
and it has since been found from the increase of capital con
stantly coming into theaSociety, by persons who are enabled
to save £200,.thaipthere’always plenty of money to work
the Society with.
By the rules of all In'dustrial Societies, all persons intend!
ing to withdraw their ^capital must give due notice of their
intention f three weeks| nopepto draw out £5 • twelve weeks’
to draw out £40 to £100. The Halifax directory adopt in
practice the plan of paying everybody on demand. The mem
ber has only to step into the^pffice, as he would into a bank,
and ask for £5 or £100, and it is handed to him on signing
his name to say] that he has it. This policy converts the
Society into a Banks and gives the directors a command of
money, as members are willing to place money at the disposal
of those who can be depended upon to return it without
troublesome notice or delay.
�STEPS. AND CHARACTERISTICS OE THE SOCIETY’S PROGRESS. 21
Important Proposal of Lord Chancellor Westbury.
The credit system existed in the Society until May, 1861,
tub .to two-thirds of the amount of paid-up capital by each
member. The confusion, trouble, waste of time, vexation, and
moral harm of even this' system was immense. When the
Lord Chancellor abolishes small credits altogether among the
people, the poor will become rich enough and grateful enough
to put up to his memory in every town< a statue of gold.
The Industrial Society acts on the ready-money system,
without which there is no financial salvation to the poor. Dr.
Johnson said “ all to whom want is ferribleprpon whatever
principle, ought to think themselves obliged to learn the sage
maxims of our parsimonious ancestors, and attain the salutary
*
art of contracting expense: forf wi-thoiit economy none can be
rich, and few with it can be pdor. The mere power of
saving what is already in our hands; must be of easy ac
quisition to every mind.” Easy it would seem in the eye of
sense, but most difficult and generally impossible in ’practice,
as experience proves.
The normal condition o^ a workman whoJs' not a Co
operator is to be in debt. Whatever his wages are, he has a
book at the grocer’s and he is a fortnight ^bfehind tne world.
If any one benevolently cleared him of debt and gave him a
week’s money to pay his way with, he would not know what
to do with it, and
Never resf^till he was in debt again.
Such is the blindness
demes with habitual poverty, that
a man who first begins tb piay ready money believes he is losing
by it. Debt seems to him economy. Th^power ’of saving is
an art, an act of intelligence, and Gb-operation has imparted it.
By its aid 5,000 families in Halifax are acquiring this profit
able habit. Even if members dealing at a store really paid
more for an article than at a grocer’^, tha|P surplus coSt, as
well as the entire profit made, is paid back1 to them. It is
merely a sort of in direct’taxation which increases
saving,
which otherwise they would not make.
A family belonging to this Society has about it visible
trophies of its benefits. One wife has a wringing machine to
diminish the labor of the washing-day, bought out of store
profits; another has a sofa; some who have musical children
possess themselves of a pianoforte; those who have voracious
children buy a pig. Perhaps the result is seen in a new suit
of clothes, the admiration of the whole Neighbourhood. Many
have in view, at no distant day; to put up a small house through
�22
CO-OPERATION IN IT AT,TV AX.
Peril of Porcupine Members.
these means. Cobbett used to advise a young man before he
married to observe how his intended wife employed herself in
her own family, and unless she was thrifty and a good hand
at household duties not to have her. Had Cobbett lived to
these days, he would have advised young men to give the prefer
ence to a girl who belonged to a Co-operative Store. A young
woman who has learnt never to go into debt, but to buy with
money in hand and* save the profit made at store, is
literally worth her weight in gold. Many a gentleman would
save £500 or £1,000 a year had he married a Co-operative girl.
In many parts of the country now no sensible young woman
will marry a man who does not belong to a store.
Greenwood is a wholesome name in connection with Co
operation. Lord Brougham (who never omits an opportunity
of generously mentioning those who rise from the people, or
work for the people) named one in his inaugural address at
the Social Science Congress at York, 1864. In the two great
est stores in the country it is honourably associated. The
president of the Halifax Society is Joseph Greenwood, a
type of that hearty geniality which you find nowhere among
the people as you find it in Co-operative societies. A business
watchfulness which never sleeps, and a pleasantry of manner
which never fails, are qualities above all value in a Co-operator
in office. His smile is a public gift, the. tone of his voice is an
act of friendship. A hard man, with a sharp tongue and a
short temper, is a local misfortune, diffusing discomfort whereever he treads. I know entire towns which never had a genial
man in them—where every speech is an attack, every sugges
tion a suspicion, and every meeting a conflict. Co-operation
in these places is always rheumatic and unhappy—labouring
under a sort of suppressed social gout. Not that I object to
grumblers; if they have any sense, they are an uncomfortable
kind of benefactors. No English society would do without
them. They act as a sort of Spanish muleteer: they prick
slow animals with long ears over rough places. It must be
confessed they are rather apt to overdo it, and make the
patient, steady-working, good-natured animal bolt, and then
they ruin everything.
The business done yearly by the Halifax Industrial Society
amounts to £166,000 and the total expense of doing it, includ
ing wages, interest, rent, rates, repairs, gas, insurances, horse
keeping, coals, coke, licences, printing, stamps, cars, stock.-
�STEPS AND UHABACTEBISTICS OF THE SOCIETY’S PEOGEESS. 23
Important Suggestions of Professor Newman.
taking, depreciations, is about 10|d. in the pound, or less than
five per cent.
Yet the rejection of the balance-sheet is still moved every
half-year. Some sturdy financial critics cannot make up their
minds that all is right; and though they fail to show what is
wrong, or how the business could be recorded better, that does
not prevent an opposition vote being demanded. It is well
that there should be vigilance and scrutiny into the affairs of
the Society, it denotes vitality on the part off the members.
But criticism which is unfounded is hurtful, and tends to pre
vent the executive acting with that liberality to their own
officers, which should set an example to private employers.
Co-operation should be as distinguished for the liberality of
its acts as for the morality of its principles. Barren goodness
is rather insipid.
The Society makes some votes that deserve to be recorded.
It subscribes to the Town Infirmary#. It gave to the York
shire Belief Bund during the Cottofi Eamine—it has voted
money to its poor members .
*
There is to be noted one defect of this Society—it sets
aside no part of its profits for an Educational Bund for its
members. This feature, it is to be hopedt, willjnot be imitated
elsewhere—it being a want of foresight, axtd will prove in the fu
ture, wherever the omission is made, to be a want of economy.
The manner in which public men look«to Co-operators as
being the foremost of their class, was shown at the Anni
versary of the Opening of the Halifax Stores, when the
following letter of suggestion was received! by the present
writer, from Professor Newman, .of University College, and
read to the meeting:—
“I do not know whether the Co-operative Steres in
Halifax have become purveyors of their own meat. I have
wished to call their attention, and I may in part do it through
you, to the alleged advantage, in humanity and economy alike,
of disusing the butcher’s knife, and killing cattle for food by '
carbonic-acid gas. Death is instantaneous, without Convulsion.
All the blood is saved, as in pheasant or venison, which saves
8 to 10 per cent, of solid food. I should likete put into your
hands a pamphlet on the subject by Dr. JWCormack, of
*
Belfast.
There is a Jewish prejudice among us which keeps
* Published by Longman & Co., 1864.
�24
CO-OPERATION IN WAT.TFAt^B
Density of Impediments to Improvement.
up the cruel and wasteful practice of butchers. They will not
give it up, but a Co-operative Society dealing with itself.’ would
find, I think, large gain from the opposite method.”
Dr. M'Cormack has demonstrated that cattle might all be
slaughtered without pain, and with great advantage to succulency of the meat. As much as ten per cent, in the
weight of the saleable meat would be gained by the process,
besides an incmasw in nutriment. Humanity and economy
both recommend the improvement, but, as yet, no great Store,
*
nor, indeed, any-, small Store, has ventured upon the change.
Who would ca^effor -Co-operation i^it proves to be as sluggish
in improvement, or as timid about change, as ordinary compe
tition ? No gentleman nor workman
humanity can relish
a mutton chop or. a beefsteak, if he once happens to reflect
upon the horrid way in which it has come to him through the
butcher’s hawfs,, Nobody ventures to refer to the process in
the household,, or the natural-Msensibility of women would be
painfully shocked by. the thought.^’'Butchers generally are
not given to philosophic reflection or scientific experiments,
and few of ’^them can be expected to commence an improve
ment in this respect. Even those who have been made
sensible of its practicability and ofifits economic advantages,
are afraid to attempt the. experiment; iest ignorant customers
should take alarm, and fear to eat the meat. But co-operators
who turn butchers have a terrbr^of the trade, and mostly
shrink from it. One would think that they would adopt with
eagerness an improvemenMsvhich at once saved their feel
ings and doubled their p^^fits. But no one can fathom the
dense stolidity of. English prejudice. The people cling to an
old way, even when they see it to be a barbarous and brutal
way. Any one would say that the hard-living, hearty, robustminded Lancashire or Yorkshire workman would not hesitate
to adopt an improvement in diefe although it was new; yet,
as an Oxfojrd pSclamation puts, so it is.”
Now, a Co-operatiSi Society could accomplish the change'
needed by a stroke of audacity, and make a profit by their
courage. A proposal'io^Mcattle onrthe new system would
attract more attention than Dr. Dauglish’s system of aerated
bread. Pub™c intelligence and cultivation are ripe for the
change. The Press wo®d support it The opinion of eminent
medical authorities, could at once be obtained, which would
satisfy the dietetic scruples of the most uninformed of the
�diEPS and<characte5istics
of the society’s pbooeess.
Silver ^hange.
25
'
public. The Society could erect new abattoirs, such as Eng- *
"
i land has never seen, and such as Napoleon I. never dreamt •
of,< who was the first monarch who attempted improvement
in this matter. The Press would give publicity to so great
and creditable a change; for nearly all the sanitary nuisance
of' - slaughterhouses is occasioned by the present vile and
uvasteful modes of killing. The great Co-operative Stores of
the north and midland counties could rear their own cattle,
and Co-operative cattle might be an improved breed, as Co
operative houses will one day be of an improved style. There
is great room for improvement? in Cattle-breeding for the
market, over that kind whichr the ■ dgifforant predjudice of
butchers now keeps up.
As yet an experiment so-'advantageous and an example so
humane has not been attempted! An
w
* ninent
Veterinary
Surgeon in Halifax of practical scientific Attainments, was
willing to give suggestions as to the best mode of carrying out
the plan advised by Professor (Newman. Let us hope it may
be realised in the near future. The’ reason why eminent
public men take an interest in Co-operators they do not take
in mere shopkeepers, is that they believe Co-operators to be
animated by motives hot entirely mercenary, and to have the
courage of progress as well as economy.
The Messrs. John Crossley & Sons are, as all the world
knows, a very wealthy firm. Their Brobdignagian works
■increased their huge proportions year by year, while the
Lilliputian Co-operative Society® was for ten ^ears hardly
visible by their side. At length it has grown tall enough to
have pleasant relations with its gigantic neighbours.
The Messrs. Crossleys require a large amount of change to
pay their numerous hands with weekly, and the working men
at the Industrial Society supply that firm with £1,400 of
• silver weekly. The Messrs. Crossleys import from the Leeds
EBranch Bank of England £300 a. week of new silver in addition
to that taken from the Industrial Society | so great are the
operations of this firm. The Messrs. Crossleys used to allow
2s. for every £100 of silver. This allowance is discontinued
now. It is yet an advantage to take the change to this firm,
since the Bank will not always receive so much silver. The
Crossleys will take £1,400 a week all the year round.
One of the Banks which, a very few yearn ago^svhen the
Society aspired to open an account with £ declined to have
*
�26
CO-OPERATION IN HALIFAX.
Dreariness of Figures.
anything whatever to do with it, has lately solicited its
business and offered a very important increase in the rate of
interest they were receiving.
There are curious names about Halifax. There is Cow
Green, which stood firm if not fruitful. There is Gibbet
Lane, which has nurtured many Co-operators; and pioneers
have hailed from Shrogg’s Bottom. In 1848 Co-operation in
Halifax, which had twice existed, and had lingered thrice ten
years, died a natural death. It was not only dead a second
time in 1848—it was despised. Chartism was disappointment
and despair. The working classes were sullen and dispirited.
If any one had predicted then that in a few years there would
be a social society of working men in Halifax 6,000 strong,
who would possess £25,000 worth of property, hold a large
farm, and make £13,000 a. year profit, he would have been
voted a greater dreamer than ;aiiy poet who ever sang of that
brighter day of which nobody Relieved in the dawn. The few
who alone maintained its possibility were derided in pulpit
and Parliamenf, by politicians and political economists, except
Mr. J. 8. Mill, Lord Brpugham, and Mrs. Martineau. In those
days, Co-operation as we now know it, was proved to be con
trary to human nature; and not one glimmer was discernible
to the common eye of that splendid success which now lights
up the town. Nobody foresaw what was coming out of Cow
Green and Shrogg’s Bottoms
THE SOCIETY’S BUSINESS AND BLANCHES.
CHAPTER V.
Tables are not- usually interesting things, and popular
readers have a terrdr of figtires. If a numerical result is ex
plained td them, they7 do not Understand it. Englishmen are
constitutionally weak in arithmetic. They suspect that Eve
was tempted with the multiplication table, and are sure that
decimals came in with the Ball. However, the results of Co
operation in Halifax are so well Set forth in the lucid tables
prepared by this Society, that the reader may take heart and
pore over them for a few minutes. The following table shows
what is made by grocery sales, by drapery, and boot and shoe
business, and by meat dealing
b
*y
which so many societies
make nothing, or lose—-by tailoring and coal selling, by farm
ing, and at the Central Stores. Manufacturing does not
prosper much as yet.
�271
THE SOCIETY’S BUSINESS AND BBANCHES.
15
i>
<D
CENTRAL STORES AND B B A N O H W -T H E IB BUSINESS AND GAINS.
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�28
Ctf-OPERATWN1 IN HALIFAX
Co-operative Farmers.
Looms were bought in 1865, and weaving commenced.
The loss appearing in the table just given arose thus, i jhe
stock of manufactured goods at the close of last half-year was
somewhat heavy, and was taken into account, of course, at the
then market price, the value of these goods afterwards fell
considerably, and hence the loss; the goods now being made
realised a profit which affords encouragement to prosecute the
business. The Society have now got a market for their goods,
and are working only to order, and therefore know their profits
as they go on.
In the first half-year of 1864,' butchering made a profit
of £134. Th(g second six months, butchering is joined with
farming in the reports, and prcgas set down at £145. The
first half-year of 1865, gives butchering at £130; farming
profits, at £23. The second six months of 1865, gives butcher
ing profits at £217 19s. 2d.; farming a loss of £24. But the
July repontiof this year, y 66. rai^^arming profits to £52,
and butchering no higher than-£52, being less by £165 than
the previous/b^lf-year.t' /The board say pathetically, as any
farmers might, //'This department has been to us a source of
anxiety an'd.care,- p'artly^n account of the cattle plague, and
the consequent.,regulations and restrictions which have been
in operation during/the/a^ few months; and also the high
price whic^W® have hadtofeivffwh live stock, which has left
us little margin for profit in retailing the meat.”
The Halifax Central Store has seventeen branches. There
is room in the ffieighb’ourhuod for more. Before opening a
branch smelts necessary jto ^asc^frain that the business
done will amount to £60 weekly -; with this amount a store
may be opened sufe£ssfullyg Acting-upon this estimate, the
Central Society has opened the specified branches, with the
excellent Wesglts set forth in the finaKcolumn of the preceding
table.
The distribution ofESfofits is now arranged in a very
business manner. The half-yearly report for July 2nd, 1866,.
states that the contributions for the six months amounted to
£11,969 3s|Tl|iH and the withdrawals to £3,348 17s. 6d.,
leaving a total capital of £55,503 Is. 9d. The net gain for
the six months was £6,973 8s.|T3dJ which will allow for bonus
Is. 8d. in the pound, which will be paid as follows:—
�THE SOCIETY’S BUSINESS AND BEANCHEsI
29
Systematic Payment of Dividends.
BRANCHES.
Monday, July 23rd.
Akroydon
.......... 12 to 1 p.m.
Ovenden.......... ... 1-30 to 2-30.
Illingworth .......... 3 to 3-30.
Moor End
.......... 4-30 to 5.
Pelion .................. 5-30 to 6.
Wheatley
.......... 6-30 to 7.
Tuesday, July 24th.
Korthowram.......... 9 to 10a.m.
Sid dal
.................... 11 to 12.
Eiland .................. 1 to 2 p.m.
Greetland.......... ... 2-30to 3-30.
Skirtcoat Green ... 4-30 to 5-30.
King Cross .......... 6 to^aoH
CENTRAL STORES.
No.
»i
99
99
99
99
99
Thursday, July 26th.
1 to 400 from 9 to 10a.m.
400 to 800 ,99 10 to 11 ,,
800 to 1200 99 11 to 12 „
1200 to 1600 99 12 to 1p.m.
1600 to 2000 99
2 to 3 „
2000 to»2400 99
3 to 4 ,,
2400 to 2800 99
4to 5 „
2800 to |200 99
6to 7 „
3200 to 3600 99
7to 8 ,,
Friday, July 27th.
99
99
99
99
99
}
99
3600
to
*
400i
4400‘
4400 to 48001
to 5200
5200 to 5600
$600 to BPM
99
99
99
99
99
9 to 10a.m.
10 to 11 ,,
11 to 12 ,,
12to 1p.m.
2 to 3 „
3 to 4 ,,
Members who cannot attend at the Central Stores, accord
ing to the above arrangemgo are requested to apply from 6
to 8 p.m., on Friday evening, the 27 th. The-notice prudently
adds—“Arrangements have been made for receiving‘contribu
tions at the Branches, at the time the bonus will be paid.”
The importance and extent of the Society’s operation, as
well as its capacity for initiating business, is shown by the fact
that on occasions it dispenses with going into.- market, and
actually summons a market around it. There was a Con
ference of Delegates held Dec. 13th, 1862, at the Central
Stores of the Society, Northgate, for the purpose of com
paring Samples of Tea Coffee, Sugar, Butter, Laird, Currants,
*
Figs, Raisins, Rice, Syrups, Cheese, ooap„ Tobacco, supplied
by 46 London and Provincial firms. Nine different Societies
were represented from Halifax, Cragg, Mytholmroyd, Triangle,
Stainland, Brighouse, Batle^ jQarr, Bradford Industrial, Brad
ford Provident and Mirfield Lanej'but without samples. Mr.
John Shaw, then President of the Halifax Industrial Society,
was in the chair. The following gefiilfe'men were elected
judges: Mr. John Jeffery, Manager of the Halifax Industrial
Society; Mr. Joseph Hucjagn, Bradford Industrial; Mr. Jessop,
Brighouse; Mr. William Inson, Bailey^’Carr; Mr. John
Bentley,, Bradford Provident, and decided on samples before
them.
�30
CO-OPERATION IN HALIFAX.
Provincial Co-operators’ Attendance to Business.
The Directors of the Halifax Industrial Society announced
then that they were prepared to buy goods for any Co-operative
Society at one-half per cent, on the cost of the article, or One
Hundred Pounds worth of Goods for Ten Shillings, provided
that they be all original packages; or if any manager goes to
the Stores to select his goods, they can be supplied at market
price. Terms, present Cash. This proceeding was a striking
proof of the influence Co-operation puts into the hands of the
working class. It is not long ago that leading provision
dealers would have nothing to do with Co-operators, and many
of them proclaimed their determination to that effect. Here
however forty-six houses attended personally or by proxy,
upon a purchasing Conference of Co-operative working men. ,
The faithfulness with which provincial Co-operators attend
to the direction of their business is worth showing ; in London
you can get nothing like it. The boy who never went to
school, except on one • afternoon, and that when his master.
was not there, is a type of the attendance of some Boards or
Committees in the Metropolis. Constant attendance is so vital
to Co-operative success, that the following records’ hung up
daily in the Board Boom of the Halifax Society, and pub
lished with their balance-sheets, have interest.
In 1862 the Society commenced to publish in its reports'
the attendance of its officers. After doing this twice, it oc
curred to some ^Logical member to insert the “ expected
attendance,” and then by its side the “ actual attendance,”
which then became intelligible, and clearly to the credit of
the most constant. In the last report of July 2nd, 1866, it
stood thus:—
Eifty-Eight Board Attendances.
Expected
Attendance.
Mr. Joseph Greenwood (President)
Mr. Thomas Leach (Vice-President)
Mr. Beniamin Wilson (Director) .. .
„ William Eletcher
j,
•• .
„ William Thompson
99 '
•• .
„ Bichard Greenwood 99
*
•- :
„ Joshua Tetlaw ...
.
99
„ Gibson Walton
99
•• .
„ John Walter Hoyle
»
•• .
58
58
58
58
58
58
58
58
58
Actual
Attendance.
58
58
56
57
47
57
55
54
54
�btheisucietBs business and branches.
31
Mr. Job Whitely’s Plan—Mr. Storey’s Table.
Expected
Attendance.
Mr.
„
„
„
„
„
Mr.
John Greenwood {Director)
Abraham Potterton „
Joseph Nicholl ...
„
Isaac Craven
...
„
James Heginbottom „
James Sutcliffe ...
„
Joseph Bairstow {Secretary}
58
58
58
58
58
58
5$
Actual
Attendance.
58
48
58
50
58
52
56,♦
THE BOOK-KEEPING- OE THE SOCIETY.
CHAPTER VI.
The bpok-keeping of the Halifax Society is one of its strong
points. In lucidity, in publicity and completeness jpf detail,
it is in no Store ^celled. It is no mean proof of the confidence
and boldness of Co-operation, that while all private firms make
a great secret of resources and gains, the Co-operators pro
claim the amount of their business, and publish to all the town
their profits.
The tables elsewhere in this little book—those alone in
which the business of the Central Stores and Branches are
set forth, are sufficient to indicate the perfect manner in
which the financial progress of the Society is recorded.
When branches first began to^be opened by^thelCentral
Store, a record was kept which showed,
course, what goods
were delivered to the Branch Store-keepersy but as these
were debited at the cost price, and” sold at the retail prfce, no
means existed of knowing what amount of money each Store
keeper should return quarterly. Mr. Job Whitely, to whom
the Society is indebted for many4 -valuable business improve
ments, devised a plan of debiting .the goods sent out at'the
retail price, so that it could be seen at'i!a glance'-what amount
of cash (less any stock on hand taken at the retail price) each
Store-keeper should be able to produce.
The following table contains a list 'compiled by Mt. Storey,
of the cost, depreciation, and valuation of each lot of property
belonging to the Society up to Hee. 31st 1866, arranged in the
order in which the branches were opened. Some of the houses
were purchased just before last Midsummer, and others are
now in course of erection—there is no depreciation taken from
these;—
�32
CO-OPERATION IK HALIFAX.
Magnitude of Co-operative Profits.
DATE.
Half-yearly
Depreciation.
Total Pay
ments to date.
£
December, 1866, Northgate .. .. 11,987
Nortbowram.. ..
t.-06
700
Ovenden................
665
Akroydon .. ..
99
99
913
King Cross .. ..
99
99
Greetland .. ..
639
766
Cow Green .. ..
3i
99
1,401
Prescott Street ..
B2;i 60
Skircoat Green ..
1,660
Mount Pleasant ..
5?
„
660
Lee Bank
.. ..
99
99
Slaughter House >
608
99
99
and Stables
j
Fixed Stock .. ..
3,679
99
Railway Trucks ..
1,616
Horses, Carts, >
1,065
99
99
Drays, &o.
J
s.
11
11
8
14
12
19
14
13
14
2
11
3
3
15
12
d.
04
7
4
8
3|
74
8
4
8
8
6
6
9
2
6
Total De
preciation
to date.
Net Valua
tion at date.
£
s. d. £
s. d
1,010 13 74 10,976 17 5
598 19 11
7 11 8
700 8 4
597 7 1
68 7 7
106 10 74
807 1 8
639 19 74
757 3 0
9 11 8
1,401 13 4
998 0 7
1,162 14 1
78 19 10 1,581 2 10
660 11 6
523 5 10
84 17 8
1,362 17 9J 2,316 5 114
1,370 17 9
245 17 5
574 18 111
490 13 7
2ftk33 9 34 5,753 15 10| 23,379 13 5
•
There is a business Capacity and spirit of commercial enter
prise about the Directors which L’have not seen exceeded
anywhere. There are efficiency, completeness and finish about
their buildings $there, is tasteful expenditure without waste;
their stores are as substantial in -appearance, as well as in finan-l
cial security, as a bank; and there is impressed on all their
property an appearance of respectability equal to that of any
commercial establishment in the jcountry.
The accpunteyof the Halifax So'ciety are kept with a skill
and completeness worthy of high praise. Mr. Leonard Story,
usefully, supplies the walls of the Board-room with wellconstructed tables, which show in one line the total amount of
business donejm each department^of the Central Store, and in
each branch every week, and entrance fees, rent, rates, wages,
interest, profits.
The books of the Central Store show in parallel columns
the date when goods are received, the description of the goods,
their quantity, their cost price, their retail value, the amount
received for Bales, the leakage in selling, the stock remaining.
It is thought a great thing, and it is a great thing, when a
wealthy manufacturer builds a church, or presents a park to
his neighbours. The W-operators of Halifax, if they proceed
as they have done the past six years, will soon be able to build
a church quarterly, and present a park to their neighbours
every half-year.
�OTHER SOCIETIES IX AND AROUND HALIFAX]
The Originality of Mr. Akroyd’s Plans.
33
OTHER SOCIETIES IN AND AROUND HALIFAX.
CHAPTER VII.
THE AKROYDON INSTITUTIONS.
Halifax is fortunate in the possession of more than one
. eminent manufacturer distinguished for considerateness of
the' welfare of workmen, who take an evident pride in their
social progress, and who display originality M^their modes of
promoting it. Mr. Edward Akroyd, M.P., has erected several
blocks of houses at Copley, near Halifax, for the accommoda
tion of the work-people employed at his
m
* il®
Requisites of
comfort.and convenience have been studied, and, what is rarer,
a picturesque outline has been adopted, The dwellings are
situated on the bend of the Calder, and the Tfcontgw of the
houses actually look upon the river. There are old English
mansions in the neighbourhood, and the styles o# the houses
is in harmony with mansion and river, and intended to be
so. On the bank of the river the village school-house, with
its separate play-grounds, is placed. To; contrive that the
work-peoples’ houses shall look on the glory of a river, is art
and taste; thoughtfulness and kindness as unusual as credit
able to the designer. Mr. Akroyd has erected near Halifax
a villagetwhich honorably bears his name; it is called “ Akroydon.” A workman who builds a single house ineurs^osts and
disadvantages which are very serious. By co-operating with
others great economy of construction is attained, and a better
class of neighbours is secured. Mr. Akroyd has done memo
rable things for the work-people, of his neighbourhood. He
supplied ground in a good situation, he procured good designs
for the houses, of undoubted excellence of construction and at
a fixed cost, and guaranteed that, the workmanship should
equal the promise of the architect, and that the price should
not exceed the estimate. The Halifax Permanent Building
Society would advance three-fourths of the cost to any pur
chaser, and, as few workmen were in possession of the other
fourth, Mr. Akroyd suggested that the repayments by the
purchaser should be made to extend over fifteen instead of
•twelve years, and he would guarantee the payments for the
first three years. This original and generous proposal enables
a.poor man to hold a house who has no money, and for which
he pays eventually by the rent which he would otherwise pay,
�34
^CO-OPERATION IN IT AT,TP AX.
Want of Style in the Attire of Workmen.
without having anything in return. Thus he has a well-con
trived house, a well-built house, a well-situated house, a healthy
house, whose value cannot be deteriorated by the erection next
door to him, or in front of him, of some hideous or unwhole
some structure, which will offend his eyes or outrage his nose
for ever. Mr. Akroyd guarantees him against this by a wise,
a merciful and generous foresight. The Halifax Co-operative
Industrial Society have a large and commodious Branch Store
in one of the blocks of buildings in Akroydon.
Mr. James Hole, in his valuable and practical volume, the
“ Homes of the Working Classes,” which is deservedly in
scribed to Mr. Akroyd, gives a very interesting account of the
erections to which reference is here made, accompanied by
illustrative plates.
There exists a small volume entitled the “ Handy Book,”
of the “Institutions of Haley Hill and Copley.” The insti
tutions exceed thirty in number, all founded and more or less
supported by Mr, and Mrs. Akroyd, in conjunction with
other ladies and gentlemen and promoters, who co-operate in
the almost" inexhaustible work. These are infant-schools in
which little children appear to be wisely and kindly cared for.
*
Mrs. Akroyd has the good taste to give the little people
uniform, blue check blouses and pinafores, which impart
modest .'distinction and inspire decent pride in dress. If
factory hands would adopt some uniform dress, as French
workmen do with their pleasant simple blouses, how much
better English workmen would look than in the hideous
variety of ugliness in which they usually attire themselves.l
Soldiers, volunteers, policemen, firemen, railway servants,
and some engine smiths are attractive and decent by uniform-!
ity of attire. Even in the House of Commons, workmen in
long coats, in short coats, in jackets, and oiten in shirt sleeves,
wearing caps of many patterns, flit about the place looking as
though they had escaped from a tailor’s Pandemonium. How
much more dignity and decency these workmen would display
if they had the taste to dress uniformly, simply and cleanly.
Trades Unions do little to promote the personal appearance
of their members, or to revise their social habits. The Order
of Industry, the most honorable of all Orders, might be the
most effective and attractive, if Trades Unions cultivated the
splendid opportunities which the intelligent generosity of the
more wealthy classes have placed before them.
�OTHER SOCIETIES IN AND AROUND HALIFAX.
The Genial Christian Sentiment expressed, by Mr. Akroyd.
35
The boys in the school at Haley Hill are provided with
brown holland blouses and leather belts, which make them
worth looking at. Another institution at this place is a
Working Man’s College, of the nature of the London one
founded by Professor Maurice, where a young man may
acquire the education of a gentleman if he have ambition
and persistence in devoting his evening^ to study. There
are also the Haley Hill and Halifax Scientific Classes, Literary
Classes, a Library, a Penny Bank,, a Becreation Club, an
Akroydon Building Association, a Choral :afid£ Horocultural
Societies, a News Boom, and Clothing ®d Cricket Clubs. In
the Copley Mill, a vast dining-room, clean, .well warmed, capable
of dining 600 weavers, who, coming from surrounding villages,
need such accommodation. Mr. Akroyd has invested industry
with charms it has never possessed on so complete. a scale
since the days when the Prince of Manufacturers, Eobert
Owen, was the inspiring genius of New Lanark. Excepting
in the wisdom and kindly spirit pervading Mr. Akroyd’s plans,
there is no similarity of principles between thqse eminent
industrial benefactors of the working^lass. ' One sentence
taken from the clear and modest preface to the “ Handbook”
previously named, will explain the genial Christian sentiment
with which Mr. Akroyd’s arrangements have^been insured.
“ Let it be understood then [that the Institutions comprise]
chiefly, secular plans for social improvement, and do no,t touch
upon the parochial Sunday schools, or upon purely religious
associations. Not that any hard line of. demarcation is, or
need be, drawn between these divisions; since from the
Church, as from a common centre, should emanate ^spirit of
Christian kindness and charity towards all men, irrespective
of Sectarian distinctions, or divergence of opinion”
The “Handbook” itsel^which, excepting th© preface, is
slightly composed, and is chiefly ricflp|llapt andCwell-chosen
quotations, is yet a book of remarkablfeiinterest, and should be
known in every manufacturing centre. One of its sentences
from Swift explains the secular inspiration of these educa
tional schemes. It is this “ Although men are accused for
not knowing their own weakness-, yet, perhaps, as few know
their own strength. It is in men as in soils, where sometimes
there is a vein of gold, which the owner knows not of.” The
insurgent and sagacious Dean, who so perplexes Stella and
Vanessa, never wrote a happier sentence
�36
CO-OPERATION IN HALIFAX.
Factory Girls trained by Mrs. Akroyd to cook.
One other feature of the Haley Hill Schools deserving
special mention, is a cooking kitchen. Sixteen cooks (i,n
weekly sets of. four) consist of girls in the Day School, who
are thus initiated in the wholesome art of preparing food.
Mrs. Akroyd devotes the produce of their skill to poor sick
persons who need restoration to strength. This is genuine
benevolence; but a yet greater mercy to their future hus
bands and children, to teach these factory girls how to cook.
There lately passed away from us one whom no poor man
ought to fowet; who was a king in his way; though his throne
was in a kitchen. I allude to Soyer, the celebrated cook of
the Reform Club, who bent his wholesome genius, which
never failed to tiba^the palates of kings and dukes, to teach
ing thf$lahour^MSSpi how to cook a dinner out of the cheap
est materiap^iwhtch het husband should find dainty and her
children be able to digest.
..
One woman who can cook, cbditofibutes more to the peace
of society than twenty who can’t. I believe the social advan
tage of possessing food is continually neutralized by not know
ing how to cook it. Temperance people very properly tell us of
the immense sums annually wasted by injudicious drinking:
but the: amount is hardly more than that wasted by bad
enoking. Of every million of money spent in food, not a
quarter of a million’s worth is cooked fit to eat. Three-fourths
of all the food bought is spoiled by those who dress it, and one
half Wasted, and worse than wasted, as far as pleasure, health,
or nutriment is concerned.
We are all of di in possession of somebody else. When we
*
are children, we are at the mercy of the nurse; when we are
youths we are in the hands of the schoolmaster; when we court
we are in the hands of the tailor; when we marry, we are in
possession of the syren who has done us the honour to enslave
us ; if workmen without a reserve fund, we are in the posses
sion of the capitalist; and when we die we are in the posses
sion of death. In the mean time a number of people have
a snatch at us. The doctor gets'hold of us ; the lawyer gives
us a turn; bitt the cook lies in wait for us three times a day:
and it goes hard with us if we happen to fall into the hands of
one to whom it has never occurred that we do not live to eat,
but eat to live. We1 have enough to do to struggle with
outward ills—‘but the cook can afflict us with inward ills much
more serious. She can convert us into machines for earning
�,
OTHEB SOCIETIES IN AND ABOUND HALIFAX.
The Degree of the Gridiron.
37'
money which, is wasted, and for swallowing food that no animal
created can expect to digest. Why have we palates given to
us, if we are not to have them consulted? We must not be
sensualists—but we need not therefore be rodents and eat
without discrimination or delicacy. There are always people
around the poor man who will “ mortify the flesh ” enough,
without his having it done three times a day at his own table.
Soyer would feed a poor family daintily upon half what it
usually costs to do it badly ; and his “ Shilling Cookery Book,”
was written to teach labourer^] wives how to. effect this;. This
*
knowledge alone would be equal to doubling the wages of the
workman. As I would not give the vote t© any man who
could not read, so I would make it a law that ne>y®ung woman
should be deemed eligible for marriage until. she possessed a
certificate of having cookedj a mutton chop to the satisfaction
of the clergyman of the parish—and if he were educated at
Oxford, you could not possibly have a better judge.
JOHN CROSSLEY AND SONS, LIMITED.
Halifax is also distinguished as beifig the first town in
which a great manufacturing! firm
d
*©nvertW<ife
busiwss into a
Co-operative Company of a mitigated kind. This Halifax
Co-operators, after their fourteen years’ struggle, and before
they were conscious that the value of their principle had been
perceived to have commercial, and business value in the world
outside them, were astonished, one morning to read an adver
tisement in the newspapers beginning:—
“ John Crossley and Sonsf. Limited, Carpet Manufactories
at Halifax and Kidderminster. ■ To be incorporated under
‘ The Companies Act, 1862.’- Capital £l,65&©0^ in 110,000
shares of £16 each, of which it is intended to call up not more
than £10 per share, with power to- create additional'capital by
new shares. Deposit 10s. per share on application, which
must be made on or before the 14th November 1864, after
*
which time no further application will be received. It is
intended that the allotment® shall be made on the 21st day of
November, 1864, the Company being previously registered;
that the first call of £3 per-share shall he paid on the 1st day
of December, 1864 ; aftirthesh call' of £3 per sharb on the 1st
day of March, 1865 ; and a further call of £3 10s. per share
on the 1st day of June, 1865. Int®rest~at five per cent, per
annum will be allowed on. all calls and pre-payment of calls
�38
co-operation
nr Halifax.
The Co-operative Carpet Manufactories of Messrs. John Crossley and Sons,
*
from the date of payment until the 1st day of June, 1865 (and
six per cent, will be charged on all instalments in arrears),
after which date all shares will participate in the profits made.”
The credit among the master class, of being first to set tfl
example of improving the relations of Employer and Producers,
is due to the eminent firm of John and Sir Francis Crossley,
names distinguished for local munificence to the town of
Halifax. Their carpet works cover eighteen and a half acres
of flooring, and represent a million and a half of capital. This
great private business they have converted into a public Com
pany, and have made all their work-people, amounting to
4,500 men, w®men, and children, even minors and married
women, all eligible to invest their savings as shareholders; thus
giving to every iproducpr an opportunity of exchanging the
servile position of a Hired labourer into that of the dignity of
a joint possessor of the mill floor on which he treads, and
sharing the renown and profits of the firm to which his toil and
skill contribute. This great example is entitled to honour.
*
Mr. John Crossley followed Mr. Akroyd’s example, and
erected a series of houses named “West Hill Park Model
Dwellings Ji The site in., the suburbs of Halifax is eligible!
though bounded ion one side by the ominous thoroughfare
entitled Gibbet Lane. The mound of the ancient gibbet is
still preserved. A Spacious and splendid scene of hill and
dale met the nye of thie malefactor who took his last view of
this world from this unhappy spot. West Hill Park is close
to the fine public park given to the town by Sir Francis
Cross^fc Bapt., M.P. ■ The object ” of Mr. John Crossley,
was, Mr. Bolt states, “to encourage thrifty artisans, clerks,
and others to obtain fj’edhohhdwellings for themselves and in
the place of streets, the design of the houses, the selection of
material the attention to ^ventilation in every room, and
affluence of Conveniences, West Hill Park is unsurpassed.
BUILDING AND QUARRYING COMPANY.
Co-operation has beem applied in Halifax also to Building
and Quarrying. The Society was commenced in 1861, and
contrives to make very promising profits. It is a Limited
Company; its formation cost £30. In the first year they built
and roofed eight cottages. The first report was signed by
* Vide “ Partnerships of Industry,” p. 7.
�39
OTHEE71 SOCIETIES IN AND ABOUND HAL®AX.
Needy Companies, and Skill-and-Will Companies.
^Henry Capstack and Thomas Hartley, Directors; Richard
Oates, Auditor, and John Walker Hoyle, Secretary. The first
year’s receipts were £888.
COTTON COMPANY.
There is also a Cotton Company in Halifax, managed by
a working-class proprietary. It lets off a portion of its mill
at a rental of £1,600 a year, costing the Company £800, but
all profits are paid to capital, and none to labour. This is
something, so far as it shows the capacity of the wQ®king class
to manage mill property and ^onductlmai^factiireJ But it
is not an example of Co-operation.
a case of
working men who had attained to be masters, and retain what
they used to stigmatise as ^he vices of master^; that incon
siderateness which gathers all profits in thei®A©wn hands and
does not trust the good-will of the workman npnacknowledge
his right of labour to be treated as. capital. The ordinary em
ployer buys the mere strength of a servant, and gets no more
of effort or thought out of him than the necessity .©wetaining
his place tempts him to give. Buttin a Co-operative Manu
facturing Company the employers buy the skill and will of
the men by the concession of a share of the surplus profit
created by their skill and will. The Co-operative Employer
causes to be created new profits, of which he;. gives one-half
to the men, and obtains anew share, the other half, for himself.
The Skill-and-Will Companies, beat the l^ee'dy ,Companies in
the race for wealth as they do in respect forfasi^yjj
YEAB ENDINGS DECEMBEB. 1866.
NAME OE SOCIETY.
Bolton Brow .. ■•............
Cleckheaton .................................
Triangle ........................................
Halifax Elour Society...................
Heckmondwike.............................
Luddenden Foot..........................
Mytholmroyd.......... ......................
Queensbury....................................
Sowerby Bridge Industrial .........
Stainland and Holywell Green....
Brighouse .. ..................................
Sowerby Bridge Flour Society....
Hebden Bridge.............................
Capital. ,'2
Sales.
Profits.
s.
£ s. d.
£
s. d. k £'
1,522 10 10}
7,413 19 3
793 15
13,462 11 3}
IHMMl 5 II
744 14
1,064 15 BUM
3,448 9 ®r? ■fe-lOMfet
9,147,
•• 94,251-7 3 ’ ' 6,173 13
1 9,180 14 11
2,374 5
38,312 17 2
4,1'34 12' 4 ■82.130 1'2 0
1,148 1
1,679 18' 3
8,669 4 7
807 18
■6,2115 7 8 ■g349 16 3
1,292 15
18,532 0 1
50.923 0 4
5,W 6
1,390 19 10}
8,516 6 0
*
484 19
' 5,963 9 2} 21.924 5 8
1,929 8
30,665 4 4 132,285 8 101 Kfe393»7
6,302 7 9
22,900 1 10j 1,700 14
d.
4}
7
71
8}
8
0
5}
8
7
1
4}
6
74
�40
CO-OPERATION IN HALIFAX.
Success and Policy of the Halifax Building Society.
These are but a few of the Co-operative Societies. Details
concerning these, and the balance-sheets of others, are not to
hand at this present writing. The above Societies, as well as
others, are within seven miles of Halifax; the Societies of
Huddersfield and Bradford are on the verge of the seven miles
circumference.
THE HALIFAX BUILDING SOCIETY.
Halifax is an animated place. It has in it, and around it,
and arising out of it,; as we have seen, several valuable
institutions, well designed and well managed. There is a
flourishing Building Society on the permanent principle
(dividing its profits among its members), whose head office is
in Central Buildings, Waterhouse Street, and which has
eighteen branches,;in Sowerby ifeidge, Thornton, Queensbury,
Brighouse, Hebden Bridge, Stainland, Luddenden, Todmorden
Vale, Todmorden, Eiland, Shibdgn^ Huddersfield (where Mr.
Erank Curzon is agent), Ossett, Benholme Gate, Holmfirth,
Clayton-, Dewsbury, and Cullingworth.
The Secretary of. the Central Society, Mr. J. D. Taylor,
supplies to the publa^Nsuch explicit information as to the
progress, position, and principles of the Society, that intelli
gent confidence can be reposed in it. Among its promoters
are the names of the Bight Hon. Lord Halifax M.P., Sir
Erancis Crossley^ Bart., M.P., James Stansfeld, Jun., Esq.,
M.P., Sir Henry Edwards, M.P., Samuel Waterhouse, Esq.,
M.P., Edward Akroyd, Esq., M.P.
The Halifax Permanent Benefit Building Society was
established, injfanuary, 1853, under the provisions and pro
tection of the Act of Parliament 6 and 7 William IV., c. 32.1
A short summary will testify that the Society has been
making gradual but %afe and sure progress in all its depart
ments of business.
The result at the end of twelve years is, that the Directors
have been -able not only to meet all the obligations due to
investors and depositors, but also to accumulate profits to the
extent of £6,697 6s, 3d. Of this sum £3,000 has been
placed to a Reserve Fund and £3,697 6s. 3d. given to the
members ofthe SodiMtav. whether investors or borrowers. And
in addition, it is satisfactory to state that to this time no loss
whatever has been incurred on any mortyaye or investment made
on behalf of the Society.
�OTHER SOCIETIES IN AND ABOUND HALIFAX.
I Remarkable Co-operative Success in Sowerby Bridge.
41
For the safety of investments in this Society there are the
following guarantees:—
The business of the Society is confined strictly to receiving
money and investing it on good mortgage security, and is not
extended to speculation of any kind.
The utmost care is exercised in ascertaining the value of
property received as security, and an ample margin left be
tween that and the amount advanced. All property is kept
fully insured, and every precaution is taken against loss.
The unusual advantages offered to borrowers enable the Society
to obtain the best securities^ and the amount owing being
gradually reduced, the risk
advance constantly di
minishes.
SOWERBY BRIDGE.
There are many important Co-operative Societies in the
immediate neighbourhood of Halifax. One of these societies
. is in Sowerby Bridge, a rough, rambling place, which looks
as though it wanted to wfflLawaWj and ought to be allowed
to do it. At the commencement of theKcotton scarcity,
Co-operation suddenly shot up here like a rocket, and did
not come down like the stick, but remained fined, star-like
and luminous. This Society began at once with a crowd
of members. It put itself up wildings. In 1864 it owned
£15,000 worth of property, made £4,000 a ydar profit, and
has paid all along the highest dividend of any Society in
the kingdom. In the worst year of the scarcity, 1862, it paid
2s. 6d. in the pound, and gave£25 to the distressed operatives
out of work. The first year of its existence, 1861, it
made 2s. 2d.; in 186^
6d.; in 1863, 2s. 4d j in 1864,
2s. 4d. Within a year-and-a-half of establishing the Society,
£2,728, more than half the capital invested by the members,
had been realised as profits. Two shillings and sixpence in
the pound, paid in 1862, is the largest dividend ever paid by
a Co-operative Society. The Halifax Society’s Beport for
1866, gives Is. 8d. in the pound.
Nobody walking through Sowerby Bridge, or indeed having
a general acquaintance with its people, would suppose that
there existed the sense, spirit, or ability, to found and sustain
�42
CO-OPEBATIOITIN HALIFAX.
Singular Publicity of Co-operative Societies.
a Co-operative Store. Rochdale and its success, Sowerby
Bridge knew. Halifax and its ten years’ efforts had taken
place near them, Ripponden at their very door had had for
thirty years its flag floating in their sight, but Sowerby Bridge
stirred not; when at last the Sowerbyites became incensed at
being imposed upon by the grocery goods sold in the town.
They were obliged to buy and eat anything the grocers offered
for sale. They had no help and no choice. Happily this
stung some of the families into self-help, and they set a Store
going. Co-operation broke out very much like the Irish
Rebellion, ten thousand strong, when no one expected it. It
commenced in 18®., when thejcotton panic had already cast its
cloud over Yorkshire. They subscribed and spent upon the
building of their store house £1,363 4s. ll|d. and upon its
internal fittings £2^8 10s. 4d. in all £1,641 15s. 31d. This
building was completed in 18’6>. The members then amounted
to 1,800.
The habit of finari'cia;l publicity t© which reference has been
made in Chapter VI. as a cffihmcteristic of Co-operation, was
curiously exemplified in Sowerby Bridge. The Society pub
lished a detailed statement pf all their expenditure, and who
had it, and What for, landowner,, lawyers, architects, builders,
masons, every person-far and ne'ar whose services they engaged
or from whom they purchased, or in any way dealt, was named,
what he did or soldspecifieJ, and the price he charged. Every
person in the town and villages around could procure a copy,
the eighteen hundred members bf the store had each one and
carried them everywhere
^
*©
that all the world knew or could
know what the Co-operators.had got, who they got it from,
and what they paid for it. Le Sage made his Devil upon Two
Sticks entertaining by taking the roofs off the houses of
Madrid, and showing his visitor’tne hidden life of a great city.
Co-operation, hkeshlsmodeus,takes its own roofs off and exposes
the counting-house to the shopkeeper^’ view, distributes its
invoices over the town, and publishes its ledger in the news
papers just as the& Americans, instead of encasing their
shop treasuries in bolts and bars, place their most valuable
property under glass plate exposed to public view, and turn
on the gas, and find in perfect publicity the best protection.
The following is a copy of the curious document referred
�43
OTIIEB SOCIETIES IN AND ABOUND TTAT.TFA™
Curious Document of the Sowerby Bridge Society.
Kffiiilea Statement of the Cost of the Industrial Society’s New Stores, Sowerby
Bridge.
£ s. d.
£ s. d.
Land.—James Crossley, Esq................................ 300 0 0
Messrs. Sutcliffe, conveyance and deeds
8 15 0
308 15 0
Masonb’ Work—Messrs. Greenwood & Wormaid 402 0 0
„ J. Wild & Co. and others 4 3 5
406 3 5
Joiners’ Work—Mr. Samuel Fox ' .............. 235 9 0
,, Robert Riehardson
30 0 0
Plasterers’ Work—Mr. George Hds$M............. 60 2 5
Slaters’ Work—Messrs. Amble^ Taylor X,
4 0
348 6 5
Ironfounders’ Work—Messrs#. Berry &' Sons 3 3 0
,, Firth, Bros., crane
beam, &©.
w 6
39 9 6
Plumbers & Gas Fitters’ ^ork—Mr,_ W. Fox ..............
95 10 0
Painters & Paper Hangers’ Work—Mr. Edwin
Whithead
...
...
...
...
.........
33 4 0
Messrs. Burnett & Co.,
Patent Iron
Curvilineal Shutters..........................
... ...
A.
99 7 4
Messrs. Roper, and others, Locks, grates, «?. ... 16 5 10
Mr. Horsfall, Plans, drawing
...
...... 6 9 6
D. Lawson, and others, watching, &c. ..............
6 19 6
Sundries
.....................................
......
2 * life
4
32 9
£1363 4 11|
INTERNAL IITTIM&S.
Mr. Edmund Richardson, Counters, shelving,
office furniture, bins, &c.
...
...
... ’’§7 0
Messrs. Roper and others, stoves, ranges, safes, r
andironmongery
...
...
...... 40 6
Messrs. Z. Parkes and others, coffee-mills, stands, .
sugar choppers, &c.................
...
S3 31 19
Messrs. Griffiths and Browett, canisters, coffee
boxes, scoops, and! tiifwar'e ......... 25 7
Messrs. W. & T. Avery/ Birmingham, scales,
weights, beams, &c............................................. 26 3
Messrs. J. H. Hopkins & Son, tin and copper
checks.....................................
-jj 46 10
Gas meters, clock, chairs, &A ...
...... 9 16
Si dry Expenses .............
...
...... 1 6
Cost of New Stores, brought down
Total Cost ...
0
9
6
0
;
It
2
10 4
...
1363 4
...
£1641 15~3j
Committee Room,
JAMES WOOD, Secretary.
Sowerby Bridge, Jan. 21,1862.
�44
CO-OPEBATION IN HALIFAX.
The Perils of Purity in Food.-
The first Report of this Society makes a point of assuring
the members that the goods are purchased at the “Fiest
houses in the United Kingdom, and are” the most “genuine.”
goods which these houses can supply, “ and that the Society
has no interest in their admixture or adulteration.”
Such of the people who had taste and smell were pleased
to get pure articles : but it was not all plain sailing with the
Store. The promoters soon found that what they thought so
important the town did not. The people, unaccustomed to
pure articles, did not know them when supplied, nor like them
when they tasted them; and it was not until the Co-operators
had educated the taste of their members that their provisions
became popular. This Experience is not confined to Sowerby
Bridge. A friend of the writer’s once opened a coffee shop in
Lambeth, out of compassion, in order to supply to Cockney
natives pure coffee. But, accustomed to molasses, chicory, and
burnt corn compounds they did not know the flavour of pure
*
coffee, and would not drink it; and the shop had to be closed.
THE FLOUR SOCIETY.
There exists also a sowerby Bridge Flour Society, which
in 1864 made and sold 60,000 packs of flour and meal
readily, Its working stock amounted to £21,000, and it
distributed among its members, £4,000 per year. Charles
Crowther, one of its proposed Directors, in 1864, was
a weaver at Shrogg’s Bottom. A local writer has contributed
to the Halifax Guardian several interesting particulars of this
Society, which the present writer has amplified in some
instances and abridged in others; but the following useful
and explanatory passage is nearly entire.
“ The amount of business done is about 1,000 sacks per
week of different kinds of grain; seventeen carts leave the
mill every day, taking on the average 10 packs each, which
makes about 170 packs per day. The whole of the mill cost
the Society £12,000^ and the capital required to work it in a
steady market is not less than £6,000. The mill and every
thing about it stands free of debt. Shortly after the oponing
of the mill an event of considerable importance occurred, in
which the prosperity or downfall of the Society was involved.
The mode of distribution through the district had been by
agents, who numbered about 80. These alone could buy at
the mill, and members were compelled to make their purchases
�OTHER SWEETIES IN AND AROUND HALIFAX.
The Institution of Co-operative Societies as Agents.
45
from some of the agents, at a cost of something like five per
cent; and the Society recognised nobody else as dealers. Co
operative Societies made frequent applications to be admitted,
so that they might purchase at the mill, and retail flour as
other goods. But this was not done until the formation
of the Industrial Society, when a change occurred. A meeting
was held in Halifax to take into consideration the propriety of
adopting some mode by which the Industrial Societies could be
collectively recognised as individual members of the Flour
Society, and be enabled to purchase as agents. The meeting
resolved to alter the rules accordingly, and atKan adjourned
half-yearly meeting the proposition was su^tf^ed; but such
was the great prejudice against ij^jmat it was rejected by a
*■ large majority. An indefatigable member offihe Society, convinced of the benefits which must accrue by the alteration,
determined to try again; and in Apr^l86^| after an angry
discussion,the principle that Co-operative Societies should have
the same privilege as individual nfembfers aibd agents, was
carried. The Flour Society, which up to that time had only
two or three Co-operative Societies^ agents
s
*oonincreased
to
upwards of 30, and as a pro|f©f the advantage which kt secured,
the business increased from £50,000 a year to £80,000, which
it has averaged ever since, (^g^of the directors, connected
with the Society since its formation, recently afeted had they
turned over upwards of half a million of
the profits
had realised upwards of £20,000; and they had not made a
single bad debt. The directors^an^managers of the concern
had been all working men; and there) had not been a single
H case of dishonesty amongst the servants from the commence„ ment. The Society had paid in wages about a ^L,000 a year.”
The Society originated in a desire on the $art of a number
of working men, not only to buy and sell the best articles, but
also to divide the profits. A flour society combines two
methods of Co-operation—productive and distributive. The
promoters were encouraged by the^^fts O^the Halifax Flour
i Society, which had then been in existence seven years—so
successful indded, that the shares increased in value from £1
to £2 10s. On the 14th September, 1854, a meeting was held
and the Society was established. Member's were enrolled,
parents even entering their e&Ldren as members of the Society,
which commenced its. operations at a mill at Mearclough,
which had been previously used as a corn mill. No sooner
�46
CO-OPEBATION IN HALIFAX.
Influence of Co-operation on the Price of Land.
was the mill in operation than one of the members (John
Fielding, a weaver), who possessed practical knowledge of the
working of Co-operative Societies in Lancashire, proposed that
profits should be given according to consumption instead of
according to shares held, after allowing a reasonable amount
for interest on capital. This was the first bone of contention,
and the first real difficulty the Society had to contend with;
but in the following year a public meeting was held at Halifax,
when the old system of dividing profits upon shares was
abolished, and it was resolved to divide them according to
purchase, and half-yearly meetings of the whole body were
substituted for delegate meetings. Up to the 20th of January,
1855, more than £2,000 had been paid up; and on the 14th of
the following April, the first load of flour left the mill, and
was given to the poor people of the neighourhood by Mr. J.
Fielding. In June the first balance-sheet was issued, showing
that the profit realised, from April to the 30th June, was £197
8s. 2|d. The Society grew rapidly,, and up to 1861 the halfyearly average sales were about £24,000.
The next important question in the Society’s history was
the resolution to terminate the lease of Mearclough Mill at
the expiration of seven years, and at this time the idea of a
new corn-mill was first suggested. A building committee was
appointed to select a site for the new mill, and the site on
which the present mill now stands was chosen. Knowing
ones at Sowerby Bridge shook their heads at this effort of the
Society, and especially that they should have purchased land
up the Holme, which was said to be simply quicksand, and
totally unfit for building upon. Since the Flour Society’s mill,
however, has stood so well, the price of land in that district
has risen three-fold. The new mill was completed in about
two years, being finished in April, 1862, when the business
was removed from Mearclough. The mill, is a substantial
structure, so much so that, it is said, not a single rat as
yet has been seen about the premises; every part being so
closely built that holes in the walls cannot be made by this
sharp-nosed operator. The building is five stories high and attic,
15 yards by 30 yards, with a chimney. The area occupied by
the premises is 3,000 yards. In the rear of the mill stand the
cart sheds, stabling for fourteen horses, and the boiler house,
with room for two boilers. In front of the mill are the offices,
committee rooms, and a cottage for one of the men. Provision
�OTHEB SOCIETIES IN AND ABOUND HA UTE AY.
The Quaint Co-operators of Bipponden.
47
was also made for having a siding for unloading corn and coal,
which, on being submitted to the railway company, the charge
for the construction of a siding communicating with the third
story of the mill, was fixed at £600. This being considered
too much, the work was delayed for some years, but ultimately,
through the efforts of Mr. J. Wood and others the company
agreed to do the work for £300. The advantages of this
communication are so great that corn can be purchased in
Wakefield and in two hours afterwards be run into the mill.
THE ANCIENT SOCIETY OF RIPPONDEN.
At the foot of Blackstone Edge, about two miles from Sowerby
Bridge, lies the old, quiet, and tame Village of Rip^onden. The
very tower of the church is stunted, nothing appears t@i have
grown in the place until Co-operation crept into it. Six years
after the South of England was a^gt^fewitfe dreams of Co
operation, the idea found its way into Ripponden, where a
*
small Society was established in 1832; and,, un-d'^tmeloddest
rules and regulations in the world, it has made steady pro
gress since the year of the Reform Bill.
The Sowerby Bridge Co-operators speak of Ripponden, in
their Report of 1862, as the “ birth-place of Co-operai|on,”
as.it no doubt seemed to them; yet they had lived by.its cradle
thirty years without ever noticing the baby. jglffldee^tRipponden was forgotten for years, and it was only when Co-operation
revived, or fell down from thekmoon, as many people thought,
that it was recollected that there existed a Society inRipponden,
which seems now as old as though it had been formed before
the Deluge.
This Ripponden Society was enrolled by Mr. Tidd Pratt in
1848. Its rules, printed in that ^ear,,contai5i«several very primi-‘
tive passages. With the industrial good sense which Socialists
always displayed, they saw the great waste of the eld methods
of industrial redress., and said expressly in their preface, “We
do not mean by strikes and turning out . for wages to better
our condition, but to strive and begin work for ourselves.”
The members had also a sound idea of Co-operative integrity
and equality. They state in their first rule.that “the capital
and stock-in-trade of this society, whether raised by subscrip
tion or profits made ~by honest tra^^j any description, shall be
the joint property of the whole hody; and that every member
shall have an interest therein, according to the subscription
�48
CO-OFiJRATION Hr HALIFAX.
The Co-operative Star Chamber.
he has paid and the time he has been a member.” The mem
bers display a very grave conception of the necessity and self- •
submission of democratic government, and commit themselves
to it with circumstantial deliberation. They say in the second
rule—
“ 2. To keep in order the affairs of this Society, and that
its interests may be conducted with decency and safety, we
agree to be governed by a President, a Vice-President, Secre
tary, and Treasurer, and a Committee of seven members.”
There is an air of despondency and sense of sacrifice about
this rule which renders it very amusing.
It is difficult to determine what was the conception of Co
operation which animated this Society. Its bond of interest
could not be pecuniary, for up till 1848 they appear to have
had the faintest possible reliance upon that. One would sup
pose that the first business and intention of a Co-operator
would be to buy at his own store, where he could himself
determine the quality of his foods, and derive profit from
every purchase he made. Whether the Ripponden store was
kept open as a public curiosity, does not appear, and the idea
of making their purchases at the store appears not to have
occurred to them; and the most extraordinary resolution was
come to'to bring this about. Their 16th rule was one of the
most remarkable Mr. Tidd Pratt ever certified. It established
a Domestic Inquisition, a sort of Ripponden Star Chamber,
with power to interrogate storekeepers as to the marketing
habits of the members; and these judges had authority “to
cite before them ” refractory members, who are first to be ad
monished as to their purchasing heresy, and a period of time
allowed them for penitence and improvement, and if no amend
ment took place, then “heir Wndemnation was to follow in
solemn form and with penalties of loss and ignominy. The
reader shall peruse the rule, and judge ■ for himself. It was
this:—
“ 16. As the accumulation of capital depends in a great
measure on the quantity of business done at the stores, it is
therefore agreed that every member shall purchase as much
(both of food, clothing, and every other article in which the
Society deals) at the Society’s stores, as possible, according to
the state and circumstances in which he may be placed; and
in order that this rule may be kept inviolable, the committee
shall inquire frequently of the store-keepers how the various
�OTHER SOCIETIES IN AND ABOUND HALIFAX.
The Energy of Ripponden.
49
members act in this matter, and if it be ascertained that any
member does not comply with the spirit and meaning of this
rule, the committee shall cite such member before them, to show
cause (if any) for such neglect, and, if the reason given be not
just and satisfactory, they shall urge him to amend, and give
three months’ time to improve in, but if he does not amend in
three months the committee shall pay such persons the amount
of their subscriptions, with five per cent, interest on the same
but no profits, and discharge them from the Society.”
There is one-advantage of a secluded antediluvian village
like Ripponden. When an idea gets Mho its head, there is no
means of its ever getting out again, and it has never got out
of Ripponden ; and Co-operation was dealt with with a
desperation which must have amounted to a small kind of
terrorism. In 1856 the village had attained to the idea of a
Co-operative Cotton Mill, but this conception did not originate
in Ripponden, but was imported into it by an enterprising
stranger, Mr. Paterson. Graved ^numerous, and protracted
discussions occurred at meetings in and surrounding the village
when this proposal was made, but the idea was at length
adopted with a determination whi'ch did, honour to the sturdy
village of Ripponden. A small estate and mill was purchased
at £1,000 in the names of Bamford, Stott, Holroyd, Atkin
son, Eastwood, and Firth. Mr. Horsefall, architect, of Halifax
was engaged to erect a new mill, and a cotton-spinning factory
was opened in 1857 with engines and boilers at a cost of £3,000.
The company this year included 170 shareholders. The “ con
cern” fluctuated with the times, but at the mid-summer of
1860 a premature dividend of 25 per cent, was declared. The
result of this was that a new mill was resolved upon—new
funds were subscribed. Mr. Horsefall was again called in and
a great mill with walls of solid masonry arose. Messrs, Bates,
of Sowerby Bridge, supplied two 50-horse-power engines; a
total cost of £30,000 was incurred, and provision made to run
60,000 spindles. But Jefferson Davis stepped in, and the
American War, and annihilated cotton profits, and since 1860
there has been £30,000 of paid-up capital on which no interest
has been paid. The days of recuperation have happily now
arrived. A good illustration of the energy of the men in
Ripponden Vale died about six years ago, who began life as a
mumble weaver.
When he had finished a few pieces
ready for the market (his wife wove as well as himself) he
�£0
CO-OPERATION IN HALIFAX.
Rearing Co-operators in Brighouse.
would trudge off all the way to Manchester, on foot—a distance
of 20 miles— with nothing but a piece of oatcake in his pocket,
to sell the produce of his industry. He had seven sons, and
it was his ambition to possess himself of seven mills (mills
were small in those days), that he might leave one to each of
his children. He lived to accomplish his object, and died the
owner of seven mills, and was worth altogether about £20,000.
BRIGHOUSE.
The Brighouse Co-operators have opened the best place of
business in that.active little, town. Their store has cost some
£2,000. At the top of it is a spacious lecture room, which
ought to be found in every store.
The buildings^comprising the central stores are of a very
good descriptiom an^situate near, the St. Paul’s Wesleyan
chapel. They mcftde, as we have said, a large room for the
purpose of holding public meetings, 45 feet long by 38 broad;
draper’s shop 3'0 feet by 20 feet ^grocer’s shop 28 feet by 27
feet; corn shop 26 feet by 27 feet, and warehouse 45 feet by
28 feet. The stores were formally opened on Monday, the
26th January. 1865, when about 400 persons partook of tea in
the large room, decorated with evergreens. At one end of the
room was the motto g| Co-operation, the. working-man’s friend/’
in large letters. After tea a public meeting was held, when
Mr. Joseph Greenwood, president of the Halifax Industrial
Society, presided. At this meeting Mr. D. Crossley read a
Report which included the early and interesting history of
this Society; hesaid “In the summer of 1856 a few Co-opera
tors from Queensbury came to Brighouse to purchase flour at.
Mr. Sugden’s Perseverance Mill. These Co-operators, being
horticulturists, found their way to Mr. Wm. English’s greemhouse, whOr^ the conversation turned upon Co-operation.
After some discussion it was concluded that Co-operators
might be grown Brighouse quite as well as cucumbers, and
Mr. John Holdsworth was sent for. This gentleman, being of
an enterprising turn, joined heartily in the proposal to raise a
Society in Brighouse • but many of the promoters had their
hopes somewhat damped by being told that Co-operation had
been tried in the district before, and had failed. They, how
ever, called together a number of friends and held a meeting
in Mr. Brown’s'chamber, Bird’s Royd, at which gathering it
was resolved to call a, public meeting in the Odd-Eellows’ Hall,
�OTHER SOCIETIES IN AND AROUND HAUTE AX.
Mr. David Crossley.
51
on the 12th August, 1856, which meeting was held. Matters
afterwards progressed so rapidly that a shop was opened on
the 7th January, 1857, but for the first few years of the
Society’s existence very little progress was made. The weekly
sales at the store during the first month of the existence of
the Society averaged £37 19s., and in the corresponding
month of 1858 they had fallen to £27 8s. 8d. In January,
1859, the average sales were only £2419s. In 1860 they rose
to £33 6s. 9d., in 1861 to £80 12s., and in November of the
same year they jvere £207 11s. 4d. In January, 1862, the
sales fell to £150, and in January, 1863, to £120. In Janu
ary, 1864, they were only £121 3s. 4d.; in November of 1864,
had reached an average of £150, and in the week previous to
this celebration were rather oyer £200, only taking into
account what was received at the ©entral store. The branch
store averaged a little over £50 per week. From the com
mencement of the Society in 1857, to November, 1858, the
loss had exceeded the profit so much. as to reduce the £1
shares down to 8s. 10d., but by December 26th, 1859, the
profits of the business were sufficient to make them worth
20s. again.
Mr. David Crossley, whom during the last twenty years
I have always found to the post in Halifax or the neighbour
ing towns of Yorkshire wherever sensible counsel was required;
or patient unrequited work to be done. In Brighouse, he has
rendered important services, and I believefI do noinjustice to
Mr. Eastwood, and some other sensible workers in the town,
by reciting the nature of the efforts made by Mr. Crossley,
and a friend of his which appear to me to have had a beneficial
influence on the fortunes of the Brighouse Co-operative Society.
Mr. Crossley was president of this Society nearly two
years, and over two years previous, a meinber of the com
mittee. When he joined the Society it was in a sad Condition.
Being a member of the Halifax Co-operative Society, from
whence he procured some of his family groceries, he had less
inducement to join the Brighouse Society ; and not being per
sonally acquainted with any of the Brighouse Co-operators,
he did not join the Society till the beginning of 1862. At the
end of 1861, becoming at tha^time acquainted with Mr. John
Aspinall Bobinson, a member of the committee, he was induced
fedjoin the Society, having heard from his friend that it was not
in agood condition and that thebusinesswas done very much on
�52
CO-OPERATION IN HALIFAX.
Dangerous Errors of the Brighouse Co-operators.
credit, both in buying and selling. There was a desire on the
part of some of the more intelligent of the members to abolish
the credit system if possible; but they could not see their
way to accomplish it. - At the annual meeting he urged them
to abolish the credit system at once, and read from “ Self Help,”
passages in support of his advice. On attending the halfyearly meeting of the members, when the Report and balance
sheet for the latter half of 1861 were submitted, he was sur
prised to learn that the stock up to that time had been taken
•^retail price, and the profit upon such goods, when unsold,
was declared ns profit made, and divided as bonus. This rather
startled him, and he feared that it had gone so far that it was
perilous to retrace the fatal step thus taken. Satisfied however
that it was yet more perilous to continue in such a course, he
did what he could to persuade all present to reverse their
policy at once and bear it manfully. A committee was appoint
ed to retake the stock, and to take all at invoice price. The
question of credit also was discussed, and at length it was
decided to abolish it. The meeting was adjourned to learn
the state of the Society after the stock had been retaken. It
was a serious meeting that, For instead of a good bonus on
the half-year’s purchases, £138 had to be deducted from the
previous bonuses. Then came the “ tug of war.” It was hard
up-hill work for a long time to get the Society on the sound
basis. However they persevered, and at the latter end of
1862, they began to get their firkin butter from Mr. Hayes,
and, acting on his advice, they stocked their store pretty early
with butter both cheap and good. This gave what in York
shire is called a “lift,” for it not only induced members to
purchase more at the store, but enabled a tolerably good profit
to be made. They had at that time a manager that managed
very badly, and it took a long time to master him and the
business.
They had to dismiss him at last, and the one they appointed
to succeed him did not do much better. The manager was
allowed to buy, and no proper check was kept against him.
What was called leakage was Very heavy (amounting to as
much as lOd. in the pound). Leakage is the loss sustained by
goods drying in.ior by drafts in weighing out in small quanti
ties. Unless leakage is looked to, the profits of the Society
leak out dlso. The new manager was allowed 3d. in the pound,
and bound to make good all deficiency above that. The
�OTHER SOCIETIES TN AND AROUND HAMFAX.
The Difficulty of Managing Managers.
53
Society allows the manager a pound of malt at every twenty,
' to make up for leakage in that and other things, and to
compensate him for sixpences he has to allow to members who
purchase their flour by the pack. The manager got careless
and wanted to rule the committee too much. He neglected
to keep the new premises tidy and clean, and was uncivil to
the members (customers). Mr. J. Aspinall Robinson and
Mr. Crossley resolved to use all legitimate means to get a new
check system adopted, the same as that used at the Halifax
Stores, and, if possible, to get the said manager removed also.
They happily succeeded in both cases, and gotaiinstalled as
manager, Mr. Stott Abbey, who had been book-keeper and
assistant in the store some years. He was taken from the
looms, and as he proved a good servant, he at length was
I Appointed sole manager of the whole business. The com
mittee controls the buying, with his assistance to judging the
quality of the goods bought. He has hitherto given complete
satisfaction, and has reduced the leakage to nil. This saves
the Society 3d. per pound on the total sales in the grocery
department. He works hard and does his duty well and conI scientiously for the welfare of the Society, and much of its
success is attributed to his ability and assiduity.
The Society has two Branch Stores, one at Rastrick and
one at Bailifie Bridge. They built the one at Rastrick, and the
opening day or birthday (Co-operators celebrate the nativity
of their Stores) was Shrove Tuesday, February <3th, 1866.
i The Society had a store in a cottage there since February 23rd,
'1861. The business done at Rastrick is nearly £100 a week.
This is a good sum for such a comparatively thin and poor
population, principally weavers. Some of the earliest members
in Rastrick had to fetch their goods for two or three years from
the Central Store—a distance of two miles. Mr. D. Crossley
says—“ I think this a matter worth naming, because I believe
by thus persevering when there was no bonus at the end of
the half-year for several half-years together, the plucky
members saved the Society from failing, like one which had
been started twenty years before.”
The Society has purchaser, a plot of grpund adjoining the
Store, and erected a butcher’s shop upon it. Its butcher now
kills two beasts, four sheep, and two pigs a week.
There are, “ says Mr. Crossley,” two drawbacks to our
present rapid growth and permanent prosperity.
�54
CO-OPEBATION IN HALIFAX.
Sound Criticism on Co-operative Progress.
The first is, we do not get many of the better-educated
working men to join the Society. I believe Brighouse is rather
deficient in that class of working men; but I don’t think we
get an equal number in proportion to those it contains, that
some other societies do. And consequently there are fewer can
didates fit for office, and therefore muchless choice. The second
drawback which I think militates against us is, that there is tio
remuneration for service on the committee. This prevents us
gettingthe best men for the committee, because, after afew years
of office, the generous enthusiasm of most men cools down, and
they begin to think that as they get no more pay or profit than
those who do nothing, they will let some of those who have
not done anything have a share of the labour as well as profit,
and hence they resign the office very often to those who are
quite incompetent to manage well. I think that all Co-opperative societies after getting well established ought to
give some remuneration for the services of committeemen,
and be more circumspect in electing them. I laboured hard for
four years, and neither expected nor wanted any pay ; but I
know some others won’t give their time for nothing who would
be useful on the committee. I resigned notwithstanding the
increased pressure of my avocations, until I thought I had seen
the Society well established on a firm basis. Our working
expense, including 5 per cent, interest on the capital, has now
been reduced to 9d. in the pound. I believe the Halifax
Society is higher, and our check system is as good as theirs,
and I think rather < gainer ’ (more manageable).
The faculty of observation, the shrewdness and good sense
of these remarks cannot fail to commend themselves to every
reader. Co-operative Societies, commencing by poor men who
earned little, they naturally, but unwisely, begrudged every
body any higher income than their own, and their Societies ate
generally conducted by charity, that is, by unpaid directors.
As they grow into business Societies this must be amended.
Mr. Eggleston, of Leeds, deserves notice in connection
with the earlier days of the Halifax Society, who sent an
earnest letter reporting the success of Co-operation in Leeds
and Bochdale, and personally encouraged the Halifax members
to persevere when the disaster of 1855 so nearly produced a
total disruption. Mr. Moores, of Bipponden, who is one of the
�OTHER SOCIETIES IN AND AROUND HAUTE AX
Inevitable Omissions.
55
communicative Co-operators, rather scarce in Yorkshire, and
not numerous anywhere, has promised me information which
may find place in an Appendix to a future edition, as may other
matters which vigilant and communicative readers may find
unwittingly and unwillingly omitted now.
Though aiming at and seeking absolute correctness in
every detail, and under-stating rather than over-stating any
fact, this book is chiefly concerned with the History of the
rise and growth of the Halifax Industrial Society, which
sprung into magnitude and held its way to greatness during
the years which were predicted to be fatal to all these schemes.
It therefore may be said to illustrate, if not to prove, the
vitality of Co-operation to withstand the vicissitudes of trade.
Yorkshire and Lancashire live on cotton. When the American
“Slaveholders’ Rebellion” cut off the usual supply, a cotton
famine occurred, and people who regarded Co-operation as a
Great Eastern ship, too bulky for industrial navigation, pre
dicted that it would founder in the Southern storm. The
cotton scarcity, instead, however, of destroying Co-operative
Societies,
- brought out in a very conspicuous way the
soundness of the commercial and moral principles on which
they are founded. Mr. Milner Gibson’s Parliamentary returns
of 1863-4 showed that Co-operative Societies had increased to
454, and that this number was in full operation in the third
year of the scarcity in England and Wales. The ambunt of
business done by 381 of these Societies was upwards of
£2,600,000. In Lancashire there were 117 Societies, in York
shire 96. The'number of members in 1863, in the 381 Societies,
was 108,000. The total amount of the assets of these Societies
was £793,500, while the liabilities were only £229,000. The
profits made by the 381 Societies (excluding 73 Societies which
made no returns) were £213,600; and this in the third year
of the great cotton scarcity ! It may be therefore safely con
cluded that Co-operation has established its place among the
commercial and social forces of the country.
No moralist or politician ever foresees the whole of that
ethical or political change which his maxims will generate. No
railway inventor ever had any adequate^dea of that omni
present system which has grown up in our day. Mr. Bright
and Mr. Cobden, when they first addressed the people in
favour of the repeal of the corn laws, never anticipated that
one result would be that they should make English girls
�56
CO-OPERATION IN HAMFAX.
Mr. Cobden and Mr. Bright aid the Comeliness and Weight of the British Race.
prettier and the English nation heavier. Every man you meet
in the streets now is stouter and heartier, and twiee 101bs..fatter,
than he would have been but for Mr. Cobden and Mr. Bright.
Calculating from our present population, it may be said that
these eminent c®m-law repealers have increased the weight of
the British race by 130,000 tons. And the humble Co-opera
tive weavers of Rochdale, by saving twopences when they had
none to spare, and holding together when everybody else
separated, until they had made their store pay and grow great,
set an example which Halifax and so many other places have
followed, and created for industry a new power, and for the
working-classes a new future.
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES.
Some Yorkshire Correspondents to whom these pages were submitted
in proof, have supplied some financial reports and suggestions in time
for use before going to press.
Emphasis, I learn, ought to be given to the services of Mr. John
Holdsworth (Secretary for several of the first years of the Brighouse
Society) to Mr. John Kaye, Edward Brearley, Abraham Sharp, Thomas
Walsh, referred to in connection with the name of Mr. Eastwood. The
■v
* 4” Sowerby Co-operative Society does not return profits upon flour, and I
believe not upon sugar. This may make their “ bonus” to appear larger
by comparison with other societies.
A practical test of good management is attainable by comparing the
working expenses and leakage/ The ninepence in the pound of the rates
of the Brighouse Society includes interest on capital, wages, rates, depre
ciation of stock, taxes, leakage, and all other incidental expenses. But
this Society is rather apt to pinch the Reserve Fund to increase the divi
sion of profits—an error which endangers all profit. Not many societies
in the kingdom know exactly what their working expenses really are—
including leakage. A great point, in a financial view of Co-operation, is
the lowest or minimum of working expenses in proportion to business
done, providing the business be done properly and all parties reasonably
remunerated for actual services rendered.
The business of the Brighbuse Society for the closing half-year, 1866,'
has just been declared to be £12,029; Capital, £5,978; number of
Members, 690.
Too little has been said of the Halifax Flour Society mentioned in the table
on page 39. For the six months ending December, 1866, its receipts from
agents, Industrial Societies and shopkeepers amounted to £54,422; new
*
share capital and investments £1,486 ; including a balance at the bank of
£1,461. There has been paid for grain £49,894, and after payment of
■ management expenses and .other accruing liabilities, there results a clear
�SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES—(continued).
57
gain for interest and division of £3,918. The Directors unanimously
recommended that Is. 3d. in the pound be awarded upon all purchases.
The Sowerby Bridge Flour Society (see pages 44—7) of which Mr.
Samuel Moores is President, has just announced to its Members, that the
total sales for the last half-year of 1866, reached 41,153 packs, and the
cash received for goods to (a sum unprecedented with them) £67,633.
The investments for the half-year have been £4,296, and the withdrawals,
£2,347, leaving £1,949 to add to the share capital, and making a total of
£30,665. The nett profits after allowing £739 for interest upon Members’
shares at the rate of five per cent, per annum, was £4,350. The Directors ;
awarded Is. 3d, in the pound be paid on the Members’ purchases. They
last year sent out 84,802 packs of goods, being an increase of 11,878 packs
over last year. These goods represent in cash value the sum of £132,185;
being £32,503 in excess of the year 1856.
In 1845 Mr. Samuel Moores, a Member of the National Land Company,
was appointed Secretary for the Sowerby Branch ; he transmitted several
hundred pounds to Mr. Feargus O’Connor, as the Treasurer. As a
Member of the Flour Society he, in February, 1857, proposed a resolution
in favour of building a new mill, when he was laughed at<by a portion of
the meeting, and on adding that if all where of his mind they would not
only grind their own corn, but grow it—that they would manufacture
clothing as well as wear it—he was met with derisive cheers. His neigh
bours’ minds have changed since then, and they will ere long do both
things.
The Storekeepers of the Halifax Industrial Society make their reports
half yearly, not quarterly, as stated on page 31. The reference on page
52, is to Mr. Hayes, of Dublin.
The capacity of Co-operative manufacturing has received a splendid
illustration in the Annual Report of the Directors of the Company of
John Crossley and Sons, Limited, by which it appears that they recom
mend a dividend equal to twenty per cent, for the year 1866. The
Directors have secured on very favourable terms the whole of the mills
and machinery from the assignees of Mr. Henry Ambler, Ovendeia. The
mills are fully engaged in worsted spinning and manufacturing. The
subscribed capital is £1,092,840, reserved fund,£11,284; liabilities, book
debts, £191,381; balance of profit for the year £244,408. 13s. lid. The
total assets are stated to be £1,539,911.
Fcbfwxryi 1867.
��
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Title
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The history of co-operation in Halifax and of some other institutions around it
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Holyoake, George Jacob
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Place of publication: London
Collation: 57 p. : ill. (tables) ; 19 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Printed by Diprose & Bateman, Lincoln's Inn, London.
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[1867]
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G5210
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Co-operative Movement
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Co-operative Movement
Conway Tracts
Halifax (West Yorkshire)
Socialism