THE SOCIETY’S PROGRESS.

In all its branches, with the exception of the tearooms, the progress of the Society during these four years had been remarkable. In 1913, however, the London Street tearoom was closed, and as soon as the lease of the Union Halls expired they also were given up. At the beginning of the period the output had averaged 3,820 sacks per week, while at its end the average output was 4,648, an increase of 848 sacks per week in four years. The aggregate sales for the year which ended in July 1914 were £692,600. Truly, the Society had travelled far from the days when a small two-oven bakehouse sufficed for all its output. The membership now consisted of 201 societies; which was also a contrast to the eight small struggling societies which had banded themselves together in the last days of December 1868 to form the Federation.

The time had now arrived when the Federation was to be put to a more severe test than ever before since it had attained to years of maturity. Like a thunderclap the war storm which had been gathering over Europe during the month of July burst on an astonished world which had almost come to believe war on such a gigantic scale impossible, and many were the doubts expressed, even by sincere wellwishers of the Co-operative movement, as to how it would weather the storm. The next chapter will tell how one federation kept the Co-operative flag flying and added to the laurels it had gained by its devoted and loyal service to the interests of the common people.

CHAPTER XVIII.
BAKING UNDER WAR CONDITIONS.

THE EARLY DAYS OF WAR—KEEPING DOWN PRICES: THE DIRECTORS’ VIEW—HALF-PAY TO SOLDIER EMPLOYEES—ARMY CONTRACTS—HORSES AND MOTORS COMMANDEERED—PRICE OF BREAD ADVANCED—DEATH OF BISCUIT FACTORY MANAGER—MORE ARMY CONTRACTS—EXTENSIONS AND ALTERATIONS—M‘NEIL STREET BLOCK COMPLETED—BUSINESS ORGANISATION—TEABREAD AND PASTRY SHOPS—THE PRICE OF BREAD—INCREASING OUTPUT—BISCUIT AND TEABREAD TRADE—THE SOCIETY AND ITS WORKERS—DELIVERY DIFFICULTIES—DEATH OF MR DUNCAN M‘CULLOCH.

On the fourth day of August 1914, Great Britain entered on a new era. There are not awanting cynics who declare that Great Britain is hardly ever out of war, but however that may be, there never has been in the world’s history a war which seemed in its early days to be fraught with so dire consequences for civilisation as did that into which the nations of Europe plunged in those early days of August 1914. For the first few days it seemed as if chaos had suddenly developed. The people seemed to go mad with panic, and rushed to purchase goods wherever these could be procured, careless of the prices which they were called on to pay. To the traders, large and small, it must have seemed like the beginning of a trading millennium, and they took immediate advantage of the position in which they found themselves. Prices doubled, trebled, and quadrupled; yet the eager rush to buy continued. The poor bought what they could, but they soon reached the end of their meagre resources. Not so the rich, however. Amongst them, the panic seemed to be even greater than amongst the poorer sections of the community, and they provisioned their houses as if for a siege, careless as to who must want if only they had plenty in store.

EDUCATIONAL DEPUTATION TO ENGLAND

EDUCATIONAL DEPUTATION TO ENGLAND

The bakers of Glasgow were also the victims of the profiteering craze which had suddenly enmeshed the trading public, and at a meeting which took place on the afternoon of 3rd August, they proposed that the price of bread should be raised. Mr James Young, manager of the U.C.B.S., had been present at this meeting and had opposed the proposal, with the result that it was not carried out. This action of his was homologated by his board at a special meeting which was held the same evening, while at another meeting, held three days later, the committee decided that they would not raise the price of bread in the meantime. The Baking Society found itself in a very favourable position at this time. In M‘Neil Street there were supplies of flour which would keep the bakery going for nine weeks, while Clydebank had supplies for six, and Belfast for seven weeks. They were thus in a position to view the situation with more or less equanimity. The S.C.W.S. were also in a good position so far as supplies of flour and wheat were concerned, having some nine or ten weeks’ supplies either on hand or on board ship at the outbreak of war, and the rapidity with which the German fleet was bottled up within its own harbours gave security of passage for the time being to food-carrying vessels. Nevertheless, the general panic of that first week of war affected the wheat and flour trade as much as it did many others, and it was not long before flour was selling at a price which had never been asked for it in the whole course of the Federation’s history.

These were conditions under which the two great Co-operative federations were able to show to advantage, and they were conditions also which proved the wisdom of the Wholesale Society in establishing its own purchasing agency in Canada; for while outside millers were asking as much as 65/ a sack for flour in the first week of the war, the highest price quoted by the Wholesale Society was 37/, and ordinary flour was sold by them at 1/6 per sack advance on normal price. Thus the two federations were in a position to see to it between them that on this side of the Atlantic, at least, no undue advantage was taken of the circumstances created by the war. At the meeting of the Baking Society’s board, which took place on 1st September, the committee placed on record their appreciation of the manner in which the crisis brought about by the war had been met by the manager, heads of departments, and employees generally, and desired the manager to convey this expression of the board’s appreciation to the heads of departments and employees. At the quarterly meeting of the Society, the directors had a similar compliment paid to themselves; Mr Shaw, Cambuslang Society, moving, and Mr Glasse, S.C.W.S., seconding a motion which received the unanimous endorsement of the delegates, thanking the directors for the splendid lead which they had given to the purveyors of bread in the city and far beyond. Mr Shaw drew attention to the importance and magnificence of what had been done, and thought that the nation was entitled to recognise what the Co-operative movement had done, not only now but at all times, in keeping down prices and in keeping goods pure.

Perhaps the position in which the Federation was placed by the war and the view of it taken by the directors can be explained most clearly in the words of Mr Gerrard himself. Addressing the September quarterly meeting, he stated that the profits for the half-year which had ended in July had been a little better than usual, but [[3]]“the future was so indefinite that no one could foresee with any accuracy what would happen. They had been blamed, and were still being blamed in certain quarters, for not increasing the price of bread, but they had resolutely refused, thinking it their duty as a Federation to keep the price of bread and other commodities as low as possible. Notwithstanding, he understood the price of biscuits had been increased in some quarters, and this had brought them some trade that they should have had before. The way in which prices were rushed up at the commencement of the war had seemed to the board most unseemly and unpatriotic, and seemed to show that everyone was trying to make as much as possible out of the war. It was unfortunate that the price of bread would require to be increased before the war was over, but until that step was absolutely necessary they would not increase it, and then only as far as was necessary. They had received several contracts for bread, and the manner in which the manager, heads of departments, and the general body of the employees acted under the stress of these circumstances was worthy of all praise.”

[3]. (The Scottish Co-operator, 25th September 1914.)