THE YEARS OF WAR.
At first the war did not make much difference to the work of the educational committee or of its agencies, but as more and more of the younger male employees were called up or joined voluntarily, there was a perceptible falling off in the membership of the various agencies. The rowing club had to suspend operations altogether, and the band was hard put to it to maintain the balance of instruments, new players having to be brought in to take the places of those who had joined up. Meantime a senior choir had been formed, and did much good work, not only by providing concerts in St Mungo Hall, but by singing at concerts organised in aid of war charities and to provide entertainment for convalescent soldiers. In work of a semi-military character, the band also took a full share.
The educational committee also took charge of the funds organised by the various departments to provide parcels for employees serving with the Forces, and in this way a constant stream of parcels went from the Bakery to distant comrades. The provision of lectures by prominent men and women in the Co-operative and kindred movements continued to be a feature of the work carried on by the committee each winter, while it was usually arranged that some prominent Co-operator should give an address at the quarterly meeting held under the auspices of the committee, such addresses being generally on matters of current interest.
The work of an educational committee is usually arduous and somewhat discouraging. In commercial work the results of a policy are generally forthcoming immediately, but educational work is somewhat like scattering bread upon the waters. Doubtless good results accrue, but time must elapse before they show themselves, and the intervening period is one of faith and hope. Then, also, educational work is work in which a departure from stereotyped methods is necessary occasionally. There is a monotony in doing the same work year after year, which tends to “grooviness,” and this is a danger which must be avoided at all hazards, for from “grooviness” comes staleness and with staleness comes satiety. When an educational committee breaks new ground, as the Baking Society’s committee did in 1913 with their deputation to works of prominent firms in England, interest is stimulated, and even the stereotyped work takes on a new freshness. In the future we may hope to see the good work already done by the Baking Society’s educational committee broadening out in new directions, and acquiring fresh vigour with new successes. The educational committee has been in the past a welfare committee in the best meaning of that word, and without any of the prying, sometimes nicknamed “spying” by the employees, it has done much to promote the physical and mental wellbeing of those for whom it works. As the years pass, fresh outlets in this direction for its energies will also manifest themselves, and these it will take advantage of as readily as it has done in the past.
CHAPTER XXI.
MEN WHO WROUGHT.
GABRIEL THOMSON—JAMES BORROWMAN—DAVID SMITH—ROBERT CRAIG—WILLIAM BARCLAY—THOMAS SLATER—ANDREW BROWN—ALEXANDER FRASER—JOHN FERGUSON—DUNCAN M‘CULLOCH—JAMES H. FORSYTH—JAMES YOUNG—PETER GLASSE—DANIEL H. GERRARD—JAMBS BAIN—THE BOARD AT THE END OF FIFTY YEARS.
The Co-operative movement has ever been rich in men and women who have given to it devoted, whole-hearted, and able service. There have always been men with sufficient faith in the principles on which the movement is based to spend themselves, their energies and their money, in furthering it, from the days when Robert Owen, working to better the conditions of the miserable creatures who were helping to pile up wealth for himself and his partners, discovered that it was through striving to help others that man could best help himself, and devoted his wealth and the remainder of his life to the promulgation of this doctrine. In men whose faith in this principle was great and whose work for its enthronement in the councils of the world was arduous the United Co-operative Baking Society has been rich. They have all of them been men who believed that Co-operation was the true principle of progress, and in their own way and time each one did his best to further the cause he had at heart.