736 REPORT— 1903. 



Friendly Societies proper increased from 557 in 1891 to 1,308 in 1899, and 1,449 

 in 1901; the number of memljers from 241,446 in 1891 to 010,264 in 1899, and 

 649,491 in 1901 ; and the amount of funds from 594,808^. in 1891 to 1,528,064/. 

 in 1899, and 1,686,656/. in 1901. Here, again, great allowance has to be made for 

 the want of completeness in the returns of the earliest date. 



Allied to Friendly Societies, but having special regulations under other Acts, 

 are shop clubs and workmen's compensation schemes. In a vast number of large 

 industrial establishments the men have their own sick club, sometimes assisted by 

 the employer ; and in a few the employer makes it a condition of employment that 

 every workman shall join the club. Where this is done it is now enacted, not only 

 that the club shall comply with the requirements of the Friendly Societies Act as 

 to registry, but also with other conditions of more stringency. As yet only a tew 

 clubs have been able to satisfy all the requirements of the Shop Clubs Act, 1902. 

 The workmen's compensation schemes provide an alternative to the general scheme 

 of compensation to injured workmen contained in the Act of 1897, and have en- 

 abled the employers and workmen in several large industries to enter into mutual 

 arrangements by which the workman gains an equivalent to the compensation 

 which the Act would give him, and enters into partnership with the employer 

 for obtaining other benefits. According to the returns, these schemes have hitherto 

 resulted very favourably to the workmen, and it seems a pity there are not more 

 of them. 



The sentiment of which I have spoken, that it is desirable to extend the benefits 

 of the Friendly Societies Acts to societies for good objects, even though those 

 objects may not be purposes of provident insurance, is expressed in the statute of 

 1884, which allowed of ' any purpose which is not illegal,' and in that of 1848, in 

 which the definition of a Friendly Society was made to include the frugal invest- 

 ment of the savings of the members for better enabling them to purchase food, 

 tiring, clothes, or other necesaries, or the tools, implements, or materials of their 

 trade or calling, or to provide for the education of their children or kindred. Under 

 these Acts the Rochdale Equitable Pioneers and a number of other Co-operative 

 Societies were registered, and in 1852 an Act was passed specially dealmg with 

 tliese bodies under the name of Industrial and Provident Societies. They were 

 made corporate bodies by an Act of 1862, and are now regulated by the Industrial 

 and Provident Societies Act, 1893. The societies that may be registered under that 

 Act are societies for carrying on any industries, businesses, or trades specified in or 

 authorised by their rule.*!, whether wholesale or retail, and including dealings of 

 any description with land. 



" This definition indicates pretty clearly the manner in which Co-operative Societies 

 have worked out their own evolution. The expression ' Industries ' denotes the 

 productive form of society, a form which has always embodied the ideal of co- 

 operation when the combined labour of the members should be engaged in the 

 production of commodities. The expression * Businesses ' indicates the recognition 

 of the Legislature that Co-operative Societies ought to cover a wider range than was 

 allowed by the words ' labour, trade, or handicraft ' in the Act of 1876, and includes 

 banking, assurance, and the like. The expression ' Trades ' denotes the distribu- 

 tive form of society, a form in which co-operation has gained its greatest successes. 

 The permission to carry on these functions ' wholesale ' as well as retail points to 

 the system of super-association, or co-operation between societies, which has at- 

 tained phenomenal proportions in the co-operative wholesale societies of Man- 

 chester and of Glasgow, and exists in a smaller degree of development in other 

 societies. The authorising of ' dealings of any description with land ' relates not 

 merely to a considerable number of land societies, but is also an indication of the 

 great e.xtent to which societies for other purposes have applied their profits and 

 some of then- capital to the excellent work of providing homes for their mem- 

 bers. It is also to be observed that many societies are both distributive and 

 productive. 



What have these societies done for their members ? They have reduced the 

 price of the necessaries of life and have thus enabled persons of limited means to 

 enjoy some of its luxuries ; they have provided a remuuerative investment for 



