11'II.Olll @I)lltiftble KO-Opi. - Lincolnshire Co-operative Archive

The Lincoln Co=operative Quarterly Record
74 K'tXT SKR I KS.
IT is wonderful how many people there are who confuse
Co-operation with joint stock enterprise, although there is between
the two a clear and definite distinction. The joint stock princip'. e
is essentially investment of capital in a company with the sole object
of making profit by the company's operations. Co-operative
Societies, on the contrary, are not established to make profir by
trading, but to obtain by association the economic distribution of
the necessaries of life; in some cases extending their operations in
the production of a portion of the necessaries which they require.
The produce of our Society's farms, for instance, is not sold to
make profit, but is consumed within the Society. The workers on
the farms, being members of the Society, participate in the economic
advantages. The produce grown merely passes from one part of the
Society to another, and the pr, fit shown yearly is simply nn
appraised profit. Some Co-operative Societies, realising this, do nni
go to the trouble of keeping selarate accounts for their farming
departments. There is no sucn thing as profit, in the ordinarr
commercial acceptatinn of the te m, in a Co-operative Societ;,
except on that portion of its trade which is done with non-members.
This is usually a very limited aniount, and a large proportion of ihe
nett profit upon it is returned to the purchasers. What appears:iprofit
in the balance sheets of Societies is simply a surplus on ihe
members' own trading, and it would, if so designated, tend to prevent
misconception in the minds of those who have not studied the
principles of Co-operation. When a manufacturer sells to us he g.ts
a profit over and above what his goods have cost to produce. By
manufacturing or growing for ourselves we obtain goods or raise
produce at cost price. Part of the output of our mill we sell to
outsiders, but the bulk produced is for our own consumption. All
that goes outside has to be sold at marl-et price. Nobody gives us
more per sack than they would pay to a private miller, for there is
no such thing as sentiment in business. The greater part of the
work of our building department is done for ourselves. On that
part of it which is done for others, as we have to gain it by public
tender, we are subject to the keenest possible competition from employers,
some of whom do not give their employees as good conditions
of labour as ours experience. As far as milling is concerned,
this is specially noticeable. Our hours of labour and the wages we
pay are higher than those of any other similar local undertaking. .
In the allied trades conducted at our workshops in I'anners'-lane we
accord trades union rates and conditions prevailing in the district.
When private employer's and workmen mutually agree to work under
these conditions, their obligations towards each other end. In our
case more important elements come into operation. Co-operative
principles demand that the workers shall provide part of the capital,
take a share in the responsibility of management, and participate in
the results, whether there be profit or loss. All these added conditions
are present with us. Our productive departments are the
only undertakings in this district where the employees, who are
simply our own members, have a voice and vote, as well as a
monetary interest, in the business in which they are employed. All
our accounts, all our work, the management of all our departments,
come up for 'discussion, absolutely free and unfettered, at our meetings,
under a chairman and directors of our own appointing. No
businesses could be conducted on lines more democratic than our
own. It is satisfactory to learn that among our productive employees
are mony intelligent Co-operators of long standing, and others who,
although pounger in years and inembership, have an active, abiding
interest in the Society's work. The main thing to be striven for by
them is permanent employment under just and equitable conditions.
To secure this the Society must be able to compete successfully with
outsiders, and must do good work as well and as cheaply as others
The emplopees can do much towards securing this end by their
good-will, by' checking waste, and by honest, faithful service. Our
connection with the Co-operative Wholesale Society's Bank will
always give us access to and command of cheap capital. If a body
of worlnnen„ impelled by a common spirit, engaged in their own
workshops, possessed of cheap and abundant capital, provided with
good machinery and appliances, cannot hold their own, if properlv
handled, against all comers, the future history of industry is
without hope for the workers. The difference between our producirig
sktitkshops and others is, that in ours men are worl ing for the
emitinent benefit of themselves and their fellows, whereas in others
they, ase working to earn interest on capital for many who do no
work at all. If the producing class here and elsewhere realised that
all work except that done on Co-operative lines produces wealth,
mainly for idlers who 6nd it hard to devise methods of dawdling
away their time, whose very poodle dogs, even, grow fat on dainties,
there would be more heart and more determination in promoting
Co-operative production in this country.
The quality of the work done by our Building Department
can be regarded with pleasure and satisfaction. Wherever
work has been carried out by the building stafF in
the enlargement and re-building of Branch Stores, there is a
marked difference in the quality between it and that which it has
replaced. Our Society's great fault in the past, until we built the
High-street Stores, was that we did not look far enough ahead.
There, however, for the first time, ive went on sound lines, and,
purchasing a site of ample dimensions, we built premises large
enough to do five times the amount of trade we were then transacting
at the old High-street Branch. Last Quarter, in the Sub-Central,
the total takings amounted to +4,96o. The turnover, exclusive of
the butcher's shop, was +4,r66, being an increase of gfie4 over
' that of the corresponding quarter last year. The furnishing and
grocery departments show the largest increase. It will surprise many
of our members to learn that no less than sixteen tons of wall paper
was dealt with at this Branch during last house-cleaning season.
The whole of our property in High-street, namely, the Sub-Central
premises, the workshops and appurtenances, cottages and builder's
yard, and the old Store premises lower down, now let to a draper,
' stand in our assets at pro, 6op, after depreciation. Judging by
prices of properties in the vicinity that have recently changed hands,
and realising that when the Sub-Central was built seven years ago,
prices of material and labour were much lower than now, we are able
to sap with confidence that the unearned increment caused by
enhanced values of land, labour, and material upon our High-street
properties is an asset which, akhough intangible, imparts an element
of strength to the Society's finsncial position that should not be
overlooked. Our building staff are now engaged in erecting an extensive
General Store and Butchery in Ripon-street. At this centre
large and varied stocks will be held, and from it, as soon as necessary,
a van delivery of goods will be instituted. Experience has
shown that this course is preferable to and more economical in working
than that of multiplying small branches with small stocks within
a circumscribed area. The next branch developments of this character
are to be at Burton-road and in Newland.
The enhanced land values of our High-street properties have
been alluded to as an isolated instance where the unearned increment,
caused by increase of population, passes into the hands of the people
for whose benefit really all unearned increment should be utilised,
instead of passing into private hands. In the opinion of some men
the people of England simply exist for the benefit of the owners if
the soil. The difficulty this Society experiences in obtaining sites
suitable for workmen's houses is much increased by owners keeping
land out of the market to increase its selling value; and they are
able to leep it out, because so long as it is unoccupied it cannot
bc rated. If building land in Lincoln had for the last twenty pes s
been rated at four per cent. of its selling value instead of on its
pastoral value, or instead of paying no rates at all, if unoccupied, it
would not have paid the owners to keep it out of the market. The
Ropal Commission on the Housing of the Wor4ng Classes, fifteen
years ago, recommended rating on selling values, but no Government
has as pet seen fit to take up this most pressing reform. Whp should
a landlord make a profit at the expense of the rateearners because,
through no merit of his or fault of theirs, room is wanted for the
growth of a neighbourhood? We heat a. good deal at times of
"ratepayers' associations, " or "brick and mortar idolaters, " as they
have been termed. What we really want are "rate-earners' associations.
" Land compulsorily bought even, as matters stand, has to be
paid for at ten per cent. more than its value. There is no reason
in this, because, unless such land is imperatively needed in the best
and most pressing interests of the community at large, it cannot be
purchased fmm the owner without his consent. Meanwhile, the
evils of overctowding are terrible and urgent; they are injuring the
health arid poisomng the morals of the community.