THE FIRST MOTOR VAN.
For practically the whole of the nineteenth century the power-driven road vehicle had to struggle against the bigotry of the people and the interested opposition of the proprietors of other systems of locomotion. Steam-driven road cars and wagons were in use long before Stephenson had designed and completed his first railway, but they met with strong and unreasoning opposition on the part of many people instigated by the owners of post and passenger coaches, who saw in the new method of locomotion a menace to their welfare, and also by other horse owners, who found these steam-driven, noisy vehicles intolerable nuisances which frightened into panic the high-strung horses unfortunate enough to meet them on the roads. This opposition translated itself into Acts of Parliament which imposed heavy taxation on the newer mode of locomotion, and culminated in 1836 in the famous “man with the red flag” provision in the Act of that year, which was the means of clearing practically every “faster than walking pace” power-driven vehicle off the roads. This Act, passed at the instance and in the interests of the railways, had a most detrimental effect on the development of road and also of canal traffic, and left the country completely at the mercy of the railway companies until the “red flag” restriction was practically laughed out of existence in the last decade of the century by the development of petrol-driven motors, and the prohibition was removed in 1896.
After 1896 the development of power-driven vehicles for road traffic made rapid strides, but it was not until some seven years later that the U.C.B.S., on the instigation of the makers, put a bread motor van on the road for a trial. After working for some months, the committee decided to send a note of their experience of its working to the makers, and at the same time to point out some defects which they had discovered. Gradually, however, the new means of delivery superseded the old, until all the Society’s long-distance work was done by means of motor vans. For many years, however, the construction of the motor engines placed a serious obstacle in the way of the adoption of motor vans for short journeys or for journeys which entailed frequent stops. The engine, from its nature, requires that the cylinder should be charged and the charge compressed before ignition can take place. Drivers were therefore faced with the alternatives of putting the engine out of gear and leaving it running—at a considerable expenditure for fuel which gave no return in work done—or of having much laborious cranking for the purpose of charging the cylinder and compressing and igniting the gas, the latter plan, particularly in cold weather, often entailing considerable expenditure of time as well as of energy. Nowadays, however, most up-to-date motor engines have a small electric engine for doing this work.
A BREAD EXPERIMENT.
For a long time it had been the wish of the manager and directors of the Baking Society to introduce a natural working day into the bread trade, and they had done their best some years earlier to have the matter taken up by the societies and the public, but without success. Now, in the autumn of 1905, another attempt was made, a squad of bakers beginning work at 9 a.m.; the bread thus baked being delivered on the following morning. A number of the societies in Glasgow and neighbourhood were induced to take up the sale of this bread, with the result that the sales speedily rose; but after a trial which lasted several months the scheme was abandoned, as the directors found that instead of helping the general work of delivery it was proving a hindrance to that work.
This decision of the committee met with a considerable amount of opposition from delegates to the quarterly meeting, but the directors were not in a position to do other than they had done. The real obstacle was to be found in the fact that the public insisted on having new bread, and with a number of the bakers beginning work late in the day for the production of “natural working day” bread, as it had been named, there was not labour enough in the early morning to meet the demand for new bread by ten o’clock. Thus the second attempt of the Baking Society directors to introduce a natural working day into the baking trade came to naught, through no fault of theirs, but because of a public who would insist on having bread steaming from the ovens.
PROPAGANDA AND PUBLICITY.
During these years the directors continued to adopt every reasonable method of keeping the Federation and its productions before the public. They took advantage of every opportunity offered by exhibitions to show the quality of goods which were produced by the Society; they exhibited also at shows, and were occasionally successful in securing prizes, although the rush conditions under which their bread had to be produced in order to cope with the ever-increasing demands of the societies did not provide the conditions necessary for producing bread of show quality.
At the same time the entertaining of women’s guilds, conference associations, and other Co-operative organisations was further developed, and many Co-operators who before had but a very hazy idea of the size and importance of the U.C.B.S. were enlightened as a result of these visits. The cake shows, also, held annually, were excellent propaganda. Here, inside one hall, were to be found specimens of all the productions of the three bakeries; and these productions came latterly to include many novelties which were not to be found in everyday use, as well as the more common specimens of cakes, buns, bread, etc., and a large variety of biscuits. Thus the cake show came to be regarded as the annual exhibition of Bakery productions, which indeed it was, and it was one of the most eagerly anticipated Co-operative functions of the year.