ORGANISATION. 169 



to be superseded. Economically the explanation of the 

 process is simple enough. The homely illustration of the 

 bag of raisins which our humble housewife buys for her 

 Christmas pudding, and for which she pays, let us say, 

 eightpence, is familiar. Those raisins cost only fourpence 

 in producing. They are to be bought for that in Spain, 

 where they are produced. The freight to this country is a 

 mere nothing. However, there are four or five toll-takings 

 upon it by intermediaries, each of whom naturally claims 

 to be paid for his pains. There is the agent in Spain, the 

 wholesale house, the shipper, the wholesale house in England, 

 and there are one or two more through whose hands the 

 little bag passes — of course as contained in a large consign- 

 ment. Now that the great Co-operative Wholesale Society 

 has stepped in — buying the raisins through its agents on 

 the spot, shipping them in its own vessels, and then passing 

 them on, all at cost-price only, to the local store, the price 

 comes to be reduced to the purchasing housewife, let us 

 say, to five pence, for what used to cost her eightpence. 

 Here is a proof of what consumers may do for themselves, 

 once they organise such supply — which, in its perfected 

 state, includes independent production, in the place of pur- 

 chase only — for sale by the society. Supply or Distribu- 

 tion accordingly became the main point in the co-operative 

 programme of to-day. Its success is practically certain. 

 And its benefits are very apparent in the surplus accumulating 

 to the co-operators' profit. Except for the comparatively 

 small section of the co-operative community which still 

 places the conversion of the wage-earner into a self- 

 employer and the corresponding raising of the status of 

 Labour to an equality with other callings foremost, and 

 production for the consumers' own use, as an alternative to 

 purchase. Production is put aside. Let the wage-earner 

 remain a wage-earner ! That appears to have been accepted 

 as an unchanging ruling of Providence. Even in the employ- 

 ment in the productive departments of the great co-operative 

 organisations — which have grown to erst undreamt of 

 magnificence — the workers remain wage-earners still — wage- 

 earners well paid, well accommodated, well considered, but 



