CO-OPERATION 113 



by co-operative societies and cultivated for their exclusive benefit, 

 for the distinct purpose of supplying independently the produce 

 which is to be sold at the stores. Something of the same sort has 

 already happened in connection with the " Co-operative Dairies " 

 in Ireland, owned at the time by the Co-operative Wholesale Society, 

 and managed so as to supply butter for industrial co-operators in 

 England. 



Now undoubtedly co-operative distribution has a very large and 

 most important part reserved for it in rural regeneration — not 

 alone, but above all things, for the benefit of small holders, allot- 

 ment holders and village artisans, whose modest household economy 

 urgently calls for such a beneficent cheapener and improver of 

 articles concerned — more particularly at the present time, when the 

 economic aftermath of the War has still to be gathered in with other 

 hardships and privations. There is no other agency which can reduce 

 prices, while at the same time guaranteeing quality, like co-operation. 



The other benefits of distributive co-operation hitherto so much 

 appreciated, as serving as a highly-effective savings bank, may 

 become ostensibly reduced, as time goes on — more particularly 

 if anti-co-operators should succeed in inducing the State perma- 

 nently to levy a tax upon those over-payments which have most 

 improperly been dubbed " profit." 



There is, in truth, not a vestige of " profit " in those accumula- 

 tions — any more than there is in that overpaid income tax which 

 the Inland Revenue Commissioners return to payers. The full 

 shop price has thus far currently been charged for goods at the stores, 

 out of consideration for " the trade," which was apprehensive of being 

 ' undersold." The stores would have been perfectly justified in 

 underselling, and in all probability will have to do so, if they are 

 pushed to it. Their dealing without any necessity of advertising, 

 of operating with artificial allurements to buyers, without shop 

 credit allowed to purchasers, and therefore with no possibility of 

 bad debts, and with an assured, dependable custom, is by its very 

 nature so much cheaper than that of the dealer that the goods 

 sold will stand a lower price. The shop prices actually charged, as 

 a matter of course, leave a goodly margin over at the end of the season, 

 which has generally been found to figure at about 10 per cent, of 

 the money paid in. In the early days that margin, misnamed 

 " profit," paid in the shape of a " dividend to custom," served as an 

 attraction to members, who had not yet fully apprehended the co- 

 operative idea. There were people who foolishly rated the value 

 of their society according to the figure of " dividend " paid. There 



R.R. I 



