STILL MORE EXTENSIONS.
The year 1890 was the year in which the Co-operative Congress was last held in Glasgow. There had been an earlier Congress held in the city—in 1876—but it passed without much note being taken of it, and seemingly without having had much influence save on those who were in close touch with it. It was different with the Congress of 1890, however. It gave an impetus to Co-operation in the city which was felt by every society, and the effects of which have not died out even yet. It was like that first strong push which overcomes the inertia of a snowball at the top of a steep slope, and sends it rolling down hill, ever increasing in speed and in size as it rolls on. To some extent the ground had been prepared for the Congress by the Wholesale Society in its erection of the buildings at Shieldhall; an evidence of the life of Co-operation in the city which could not fail to appeal to the imaginations of a commercial people like the Glaswegians; and by the opening of the new bakery at M‘Neil Street, and the big Co-operative demonstration which accompanied that opening. Shieldhall and M‘Neil Street might be likened to the gentle rain which watered the feeble plant of Co-operation in the city, and the 1890 Congress to the sun, the warmth of whose rays caused it to blossom and grow strong.
Co-operation made itself manifest in various ways during Congress week. The Bakery was thronged with visitors; flags floated gaily from the tops of the buildings, and a grand Co-operative procession took place through the city, during which the lifeboat “Co-operator” was launched on the Clyde. The directors of the Baking Society were not slow to take advantage of all this enthusiasm for Co-operation. They took a stall at the Congress Exhibition of Co-operative productions, and attracted much attention by the high quality of the goods shown. The result was that the trade of the new biscuit department received a send off it might not otherwise have secured. Many orders were booked during the Exhibition week, and others came flowing in for weeks afterwards.
At the 85th quarterly meeting, held just at the close of Congress, the chairman made the new biscuit factory the text of his opening remarks to the delegates, pointing out the facilities which the Society now enjoyed for carrying on this trade, and impressing on them the desirability of fostering it in the societies by every means in their power. The result was that the trade developed at a rapid rate. At first the committee had been in doubt as to whether sufficient trade could be secured to keep the one travelling oven which they had erected fully employed, but almost from the start these doubts were resolved. Another source of gratification was to be found in the fact that the societies were well pleased with the quality of the biscuits which were being made, and that a fair return was being secured on the trade done. Arrangements had been made with the Wholesale Society at the beginning of the new department, whereby that society became agents for biscuits, but some misunderstanding seems to have arisen, for towards the end of the year the society wrote to the Baking Society’s committee, complaining that the terms of the agreement between the two societies with regard to the biscuit agency were not being adhered to. This led to meetings between the two boards, as a result of which all the difficulties were removed, and an immediate increase in the trade in biscuits amongst the societies in Scotland followed.