606 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 
close home to the worker, making him take a greater interest in his work and 
bringing foith the best results of his labour, In order to show fully how this 
principle appears in actual practice, a number of illustrations were given of its 
actual application to a variety of trades. These indicate the way the principle is 
applied and the results accruing. The relationship of co-partnership societies to 
trade-unions has always been of an amicable character, because co-partnership 
societies set out with the determination to pay at least the trade-union rate of 
wages and conform to the trade-union conditions of the district in which their 
workshops are established. In several instances they have set the pace in better 
wages, better conditions, and shorter hours of labour, some societies already 
working forty-eight hours per weel, and others forty-nine and fifty hours per 
week, while the ordinary working hours are fifty-four. The good feeling existing 
is shown by several trade-unions investing their funds with co-partnership societies. 
That co-partnership principles commend themselves to captains of industry is 
proved by the application of the principle to several ordinary companies and firms. 
Representatives of these firms say the economic results have been good. This 
view is emphasised by the results of the South Metropolitan Gas Company. 
The approval of the co-partnership principle is shown by the opinion of the 
Times newspaper, of the Review of Reviews, and of Mr, Mosely, of American 
labour commission fame. The general conclusion arrived at was that the rightful 
aspirations of labour can only be met by this system of co-partnership; also 
that its acceptance would largely do away with the friction between capital and 
labour, while the result would be to widen the outlook of the workers, elevate 
their characters, give them a better business knowledge, and thus increase their 
efficiency. 
3. The Co-operative Oryanisation of Consumers. By T. TweppEtLt. 
Co-operation is an appropriate theme for discussion in Leicester, a town of 
co-operative enterprise. It exhibits two phases in its development: (1) Co- 
operation organised in the interests of the worker as exemplified in the inde- 
pendent production workshops ; (2) Co-operation organised in the interests of the 
consumer as exemplified in the ‘store’ and the ‘ wholesale.’ 
The stores originated in the ‘hungry forties,’ and were based upon the 
principle of ‘profit upon cost,’ the influence of which upon early co-operators 
was discussed. The Free Trade agitation naturally gave prominence to the 
interests of the consumer. The economic basis of the ‘ Rochdale Pioneers’ was 
considered together with its important and far-reaching consequence, and the 
progress of the movement up to the present day was sketched. The constitu- 
tion of the ‘wholesales’ was necessarily dictated by their parentage. These 
organisations have met with remarkable success and developed into widespread 
ramifications. 
The causes which have contributed to the growth and progress of the 
consumers organisation are as follows :— 
1. It represents the highest socia] interest, viz., that of the consumer. 
2. It satisfies most completely the conditions imposed by modern industrial 
progress. 
3. It provides the most effective system of thrift ever devised. 
4, It is in harmony with modern social and economic tendencies. 
~ 5, It has in it the elements of unlimited expansion. 
4. Economic Theory and the Formation of Trusts. 
by H. W. Macrosty, B.A. 
The theorist describes as ‘normal’ combinations unions of representative firms 
to realise external economies of the market. The representative firm, however, is 
hardly discoverable, and combinations of representative firms are very few and 
weak, being exposed to the destructive competition of the weak firms outside. 
