PROPAGANDA IN IRELAND.
The first attempt to do business with Irish societies was made in the summer of 1898, when Mr Petrie, traveller, and Mr Hamilton, director, visited a number of societies in the North, with the object of inducing them to do business with the Baking Society. This visit proved to be an eminently satisfactory one. Several good orders were secured, and at the Irish Conference, which had been attended by Mr Hamilton, it had been agreed that the president of the Baking Society should be invited to read a paper on “Federated Baking Societies” to a later conference. This conference took place on the 27th of August, when, in addition to Mr M‘Culloch, Mr Deans of the Scottish Section was present, and, at the request of the delegates, gave a report of the position of the boycott in Scotland. In the course of his report, Mr Deans pointed out that Mr Robert Walker, the organising secretary of the Traders’ Defence Association, had already turned his attention to Ireland, and had held in Belfast a preliminary meeting with the merchants of that city. He had received an invitation to address a larger meeting at an early date, but Mr Deans expressed his confidence that, if an attempt was made to introduce the boycott there, the Co-operators of the North of Ireland would know how to deal with the situation.
The address of Mr M‘Culloch was published in full in the local Wheatsheaf of the Lisburn Society, and from that report it appears that he began his address by quoting from Ben Jones: “If Co-operation is to be as rich in benefits to working people as its advocates have always expected it to be, it must be successfully and universally applied to the production and manufacture of all the commodities that are used or consumed by the human race.” With this as his text he proceeded to develop his theme by pointing out that bread was the safest and best commodity with which to begin production, for it was the most important of all commodities. In times of dull trade they could do without everything which might be considered a luxury, but they could not do without bread. “The question which was before the conference that day,” he proceeded—“Is it possible or is it desirable to have a Federated or United Bakery?”—depended so much on local circumstances that he was sure they would not expect him to give a definite answer, and what he proposed to do was to tell them what had been done in Scotland. After describing the progress of the U.C.B.S. from its inception, he examined the position in the North of Ireland. There, there were five societies—Belfast, Lisburn, Portadown, Cullybackey, and Londonderry—with an approximate membership of 919 and a trade of £5,930 a quarter. Of these societies Londonderry was 101 miles distant, and it might be better at present not to consider that society, but, if they took the other four, they found an approximate trade in bread and smalls of £720 a quarter. This represented a trade of 20 sacks per week to start with. Their distributive expenses, if they decided to start, would be greater because some of their trade would be 7, 25, and 32 miles away; but on the other hand the possibilities of Belfast itself were so great that he thought they need have no difficulty in answering in the affirmative the question which they were considering, and saying that a Federated Bakery was both possible and desirable. Continuing, he said that if they decided to begin he would advise them to lease a small bakery with two ovens or more. They would thus require so much the less capital, and would gain time to acquire experience and confidence in themselves, and to inspire their members with the necessary confidence to invest their capital. If, on the other hand, they could not get a bakehouse, or preferred to build, he had prepared a plan for a bakehouse with two ovens, a barm cellar, flour store, stable, and van shed, which would cost approximately £600.
After some more practical hints had been given by Mr M‘Culloch, the paper was thoroughly discussed, and the conference committee recommended that the paper should be read and discussed at a general meeting of each of the societies. This paper is of very considerable interest in a history of the United Co-operative Baking Society, for it may be claimed for it that it was the foundation of that bond of unity between the Co-operators of the North of Ireland and the U.C.B.S., of which the magnificent building at Ravenhill Avenue is the outward and visible token.
Meantime Londonderry Society had become a member of the Baking Society a week or two before this conference was held, and was followed a little later by Lisburn Society. Belfast Society did not join up until the end of 1900, and was followed by Armagh in June 1901.