A SECOND DEPUTATION.
So successful had the first visit to English factories been, and so great was the information acquired, especially on points affecting the welfare of the employees, that in the following year a second deputation was sent, which was equally successful in its results; and had it not been for the coming of war, doubtless others would have followed. Like their predecessors, the members of this deputation placed their impressions on paper, and these were also incorporated in a pamphlet which was issued under the title, “Seeing Is Believing.”
On this second occasion, the deputation consisted of three ladies and six gentlemen, including Messrs Buchanan and M‘Auslane, directors; and Mr Miller, distributive manager; and as on the previous occasion each member of the deputation was given a special subject, points in connection with which he or she had to note and report on. These points included housing; holiday camps; rest homes, etc.; profit sharing and bonus to labour; general conditions of female employment; superannuation; factory equipment; shop organisation; apprentices and conditions of employment of female employees. In connection with the housing investigation, which was carried out by Mr Buchanan, Letchworth Garden City was visited, as well as several other garden villages of a more or less satisfactory character.
VALUABLE WORK.
There can scarcely be anyone who will question the educational value of such visits as these. Not only are they of great value educationally to those privileged to take part in them, but the results of the investigations carried out, when made available as these were, in book or pamphlet form, convey much valuable information and become the means of imparting many new ideas to people to whom the larger books in which such information is to be found are not available. If they should have served, in however small a measure, in penetrating the veneer of complacency with which the average untravelled and uninformed Co-operator regards his own movement as in all things the last word in perfection of organisation and treatment of those employed, they would be worth far more to the movement than the few pounds which each trip cost.
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.