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Untitled Article
depreciated its value ; has caused ] a glut in the market ; what ' then ? Become Capitalists ! do not combine to raise wages , btft go out of the market , till labour shall again bear a premium . ' * Good . The working classes desire nothing better than to write themselves capitalists . But alas for them , if they have no more efficient guide than the < Working-man ' s Companion / Excellent as is its intention , various and elevating as is its information , its
conclusions are weak and unsatisfactory in the highest degree . Let us then see what the working men can do by their own combined efforts . And shall it be said that these efforts are injurious , or opposed to the well-being of society ? Scarcely ; inasmuch as they imply attention to economy , improved moral conduct , and advanced mental cultivation . Are they a subject for ridicule ? Scarcely ; inasmuch as they are intended to effect what governments and wealthy individuals have failed to produce .
It appears then by the * Report of the Congress' before us , or rather by the statistical table thereto appended , that there exists one co-operative society of 29 members , established two years , whose capital is nearly 200 £ . and whose entire number is already employed in working for their united profit . Another of 3000 members , capital 4000 / ., gives employment to 150 of its members , who reside in a species of community on an estate for which they pay rent 600 Z . per annum . A third , of three years ' standing , consists of 150 members , capital 300 / . —a fourth , two
years old , 140 members , capital 250 / ., nearly all working for common profit ;—a fifth , three years old , 40 members , capital 330 / ., many employed , and so on . Many of these societies have schools and libraries , and are fast advancing in the formation of institutions and arrangements for the exchange of their commodities , one with another .
We further find ( Report , pp . 85 and 108 ) that it is resolved speedily to establish a co-operative community as a sample or trial . How ?—namely , by the advances from one hundred or two hundred societies , of the sum of 30 / . each , as capital or outfit for a single member from each society . Land to be taken , dwellings erected , and cultivation and manufactures to proceed with all possible rapidity , on plans laid down by Mr . Thompson , of Corkno dreamer he . It also appears that Mr . Vandeleur , a
benevolent gentleman of Clare , in Ireland , and last year high sheriff of that county , has , on a farm of his own , of 600 acres , effected to a certain degree the beneficial establishment of such a community , in which after twelve months occupation and well-directed labour , * each for each and for all , ' the members have realized and continue to realize sufficient to keep themselves comfortably clad and fed , and have abundant leisure for mental cultivation ; that the use of ardent spirits is abjured by common consent { Potheen forsaken by Paddy !) ; that quarrels are unknown and es-? Working Man ' s Companion .
Untitled Article
Co-operatibn . 525
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1832, page 525, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1818/page/21/
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