The first report of the educational committee was issued in December 1896. From this report it appeared that the nucleus of a library had been brought together, and that the library had been opened with 180 volumes; the literary association had had a membership of 105, and the women’s guild a membership of fifty. A musical association had also been conducted under the auspices of the committee, which had secured forty-nine members, and the choir had given a concert in the Wellington Palace. They had also sung at a mass meeting of Co-operators held in the City Hall, and had supplied the music at a propaganda meeting held at Blairdardie by the Glasgow and Suburbs Conference Association council. A swimming class had had a membership of sixty, and an ambulance class had a membership of thirty-five on the roll. A physical drill class had been started for the younger lads in the factory, and a Christian Association with twenty members on the roll had been started, and carried on a service every Sunday in the Society’s hall. Altogether the committee had done a remarkably good year’s work for a beginning, and had reason to congratulate themselves on the success which had attended their efforts.
The members of the educational committee had not been long at work before they came to the conclusion that the Society owed a duty to its younger workers which it could not afford to neglect. The Society employed over a hundred young people under eighteen years of age, and it was the wish of the committee that they should find some method by means of which they could assist these young people. Their first step was the convening of a meeting of the young people in the London Street tearooms, where they were addressed by Dr Henry Dyer and Mr James Campsie; and, as a result of this meeting, eleven of the young people joined the Glasgow continuation classes. It was during the second year of the educational committee’s existence that the Society’s band was formed, and the educational committee lent valuable financial aid in establishing it, with the result that in the years which have followed the band has proved itself a most valuable Co-operative asset. Mr James Campsie, M.A., was also commissioned to write a booklet for the children, which was entitled “Glimpses of Co-operative Land,” and of which some 22,000 copies were sold.
The committee and the various agencies under its control also took an active part in the work of the Homes bazaar, with the result that they were in the happy position of being able to contribute £480 to its funds. The members of the committee also took an active part in the elections to the various local governing bodies of the city and in the work of the Ward Committee. In 1899 a holiday club was formed, which in its first year of existence disbursed £220 amongst the members at holiday time. New agencies were continually being added, and new methods tried of influencing the younger members amongst the firm’s employees and of providing recreation and education for them. In 1903 a junior musical association was started, and continued to do well for a number of years, as did also an offshoot in the form of a kinderspiel choir, which gave each year successful performances of operettas to large audiences. A rowing club also became an immediate success until the war brought to many of the members another form of outdoor exercise of an even more strenuous nature.
In 1905 a series of lectures was organised; such well-known men as Mr Will Crooks, T. P. O’Connor, M.P., and David Macrae being the lecturers engaged. Annual festivals of the employees also became the rule, and later, annual excursions in the summer, which proved very successful. A whist club and a football club were next formed, and in 1908 a beginning with a holiday camp was made, twenty-five young people being sent to the Y.M.C.A. camp at Ardgoil, with the assistance of the educational committee. From time to time the committee paid the fees of employees who attended classes at the Technical College, and in 1912 they came to the unanimous decision that in future the fees of all employees, irrespective of age or sex, who devoted their spare time to attendance at technical or continuation classes, should be paid for them, provided the attendances they made satisfied the committee. They also decided that all junior employees who attended the Technical College for a session should be allowed to attend day classes at the college, time so spent to be accounted as part of their day’s work. This admirable decision, arrived at long before any steps in this direction were taken by the educational authorities on either side of the Border, is an evidence of the value which the committee set on education.
A NEW DEPARTURE.
During these years one or more prominent lecturers were engaged each quarter to deliver lectures to the employees. Amongst such lecturers, there were in later years, Mr Andrew Young, Miss Margaret M‘Millan, and Mr Philip Snowden. The Society’s kinderspiels continued to be very successful, as did the other agencies, but there was a sameness about the work of the committee which made for monotony; and in 1913 Mr James Young came forward with a suggestion to the committee which met with their hearty and unanimous approval. Mr Young pointed out that, while with some people education ceased as soon as they left school, with others it did not cease until they had had a University course and a tour round the world. The workers could not afford a tour round the world, nor a University course, but it was within the power of the educational committee of the Society to appoint several of their employees to make a tour of some of the most prominent concerns on the other side of the Border, and so learn their methods of doing business; how they provided for the housing of their employees, the relation of the employees to trade unionism, recreative societies, conditions of labour, hours, etc., and he suggested that such firms as the C.W.S., Cadbury’s, Lever’s, and Rowntree’s might be visited with profit. On the return of the deputation, short papers might be prepared by the members in which they would give accounts of what they had seen.
He pointed out that civic and other bodies believed in the value of deputations as necessary in enlarging the outlook and in helping the development of education.
THE DEPUTATION.
The deputation, which consisted of three male and two female employees, the manager, the chairman, and Mr Cadiz, spent the last week of June 1913 in visiting the premises of several English firms, for the purpose of getting information on the points mentioned above, and recorded their experiences and impressions in a pamphlet which was printed and issued to employees and members of the Society. The principal points dealt with were superannuation schemes; training of youth schemes and technical classes; wages and hours of labour; discipline; piecework, etc., of female employees; conditions of workrooms, costumes, baths, dining facilities, etc., of female employees; wages, hours, and working conditions of men employees and their relation to trade unions; social activities in factories; bands, athletic clubs, holidays and holiday arrangements; and housing schemes; each member of the deputation being responsible for a paper on one of the groups of subjects. The net result of the visit of the deputation was the collection of a considerable amount of valuable information respecting betterment schemes: information which, no doubt, had an influence on the directors when the plans for the erection of the last section of the M‘Neil Street premises were being considered. It had the subsidiary result of showing also that, while so far as wages and hours of labour were concerned, the Co-operative societies were decidedly in the front, in provision of outlets for the social activities of their employees and in housing and environment schemes they were far behind the best which was being done by private firms. It is interesting to note, in view of the fact that since then both the delegates to the Scottish Wholesale Society’s meeting and to the Baking Society’s meeting have refused to adopt superannuation schemes for their employees, that in every one of the firms which were visited, including the C.W.S., a superannuation or pension scheme was in operation; in some cases non-contributory and in other cases contributory. It is noticeable also that, in two of them, housing schemes of an elaborate nature were in operation, and that, in each case, a town on the most up-to-date garden city lines had been erected. It is perhaps also worthy of note here that, as this book is being written, these firms have been placed first and second respectively in a competition as to which firms in Great Britain are the best employers, while no Co-operative society is even mentioned.
This pamphlet, “Education By Impression,” which was edited by Mr Young, must have been of some value in opening the eyes of the more farseeing Co-operators to what they had yet to do before the Co-operative movement could claim to be in all respects a first-rank employer. On the other hand, Mr Young, in his editorial note, pointed out that it might be possible to carry organisation, even the organisation of an industrial heaven, that far that the independent character of the Scot might rebel. As a result of what he had seen, Mr Young recommended certain modifications which he thought could be made at M‘Neil Street with advantage. Some of these have since been incorporated to a greater or lesser extent in the methods of works organisation in use at M‘Neil Street.