120 RURAL RECONSTRUCTION 



and 6 tons of tobacco. And not only so. Within a month after the 

 declaration of war it was the Wholesale Society which supplied 

 10,000 suits of uniforms per day to clothe, not British only, but also 

 Indian, Belgian, and American soldiers. The Government was per- 

 mitted to make use of much of the society's ample warehouse room. 

 Throughout the war the society helped to keep prices down, dis- 

 posing of pre-war supplies at pre-war prices, sugar at 3s. less than 

 market rate, and maintaining the b\d. loaf. All this constituted a 

 large-scale object-lesson of a most striking description, demonstrat- 

 ing the superiority of co-operative trading methods and showing, 

 not only how well consumers can, when properly organised, cater for 

 themselves, but also how very much more capable are private ven- 

 turers to conduct business of this sort than a Government with all 

 its " departments," its rationing and " controllers," by means of 

 " nationalisation." 



Mr. Clynes who, in his late capacity of Food Controller, had ample 

 and indeed exceptional opportunity for observing services rendered 

 by the co-operative societies, writes in The People's Year-Booh : 

 " The great services rendered by the co-operative movement in 

 connection with food difficulties, especially during the earlier years 

 of the War, and during the time when the competition of co-operative 

 societies with private interests did something to keep down prices and 

 steady supplies for the benefit of the consuming public throughout 

 the kingdom, were at the time rather tardily acknowledged by some 

 responsive spokesmen on behalf of the Government. But they were 

 well understood by those who took any active part in dealing with 

 the food difficulties which the war created." 



The services rendered by the Scottish Co-operative Wholesale 

 Society are on much the same lines. The Government has freely 

 made use of the advice and active assistance of its highly skilled 

 experts, placed at its disposal for Government Committees and as 

 Government agents, and has benefited much by the supply of goods, 

 to the extent, in all, of £1,084,870, delivered to it at the old cheap 

 prices for the service of the forces. It scarcely needs to be mentioned 

 that both establishments have also supplied several thousands of 

 their employees to the forces, keeping open their places for them, and 

 making good out of their funds the difference between Army pay and 

 the salaries received in the service of the Wholesales to the enrolled. 

 Both societies gave up large buildings in their possession to war 

 employment. Thus the Scottish Wholesale surrendered its mag- 

 nificent mansion Calderwood Castle, to be used as a refuge for 

 Belgian refugees. 



