Christian Communism, and may at the same time prove their sincerity to others, and to the whole world; and that is by all such persons as possess property voluntarily divesting themselves of it as individuals, in obedience to the precept of Christ, and in compliance with the example of the first Christians, and forming therewith a common stock or community of goods, with others, who can show themselves to be influenced by the same spirit, or whom they can believe to be influenced by the same spirit.

(To be continued.)

ROCHDALE CO-OPERATORS IN SEEMING RETREAT.

THE Co-operative Manufacturing Society of Rochdale has lately taken a step, which, to those little acquainted with the subject, may seem to indicate, that it is weary of wearing the honours it has so well won. For many years past, good men, and thinking men, too, have been lamenting the frequent occurrence of strikes; but neither philanthropy nor intellectuality seemed able to point out a remedy. It was a difficulty which appeared insurmountable, until it became known that a few unpretending men in Rochdale had brought labour and capital together upon new conditions.

The Rochdale Manufacturing Society, after paying 5 per cent. per annum to capital, and wages to labour, divided its profits between the two interests. This arrangement enabled labour to look upon itself as something more than a mere instrument in the hands of capital, and it served to show, that capital, in the hands of co-operators, had a conscience, which individual speculation has never given to it. This novel arrangement had attracted the attention of men in all parts of Europe. Statesmen had expressed their approbation and even their admiration. The wisdom of a few artizans in a provincial town, among the bleak hills of Lancashire, had given new hopes to those who have grown grey in the service of the people. Rochdale was quoted-Rochdale was pointed to, in the Senate and in the Assembly, where the most learned and the most philanthropic men of modern times met to devise plans of social regeneration, and to promote the common interests of all classes in every country. A decision lately come to by the Rochdale Manufacturing Society has changed this to some extent. For some time past, many of the members have been dissatisfied with the sensible regulation alluded to, and have done all in their power to destroy it. Some months ago, the attempt was made, but at that time was defeated; in February last, however, the attempt was renewed, and this time with success.

It is necessary to pay some attention to this result, because, if unexplained, by many it may be regarded as evidence that the principle is not a sound one. Those who hear of this decision from a distance, and do not become acquainted with the causes which have led to it, will be induced to believe, that this new hope of the operative has proved an abortive one.

It will be easily understood that all are not co-operators who reap its profits and share the advantages it can confer. When co-operation was struggling for existence, the men who aided it were real co-operators. When it had become a success, and had pecuniary gain to offer, many availed themselves of its benefits, without being much acquainted with its principles, and without feeling any of the loftiness of its aims. It is by this class of co-operators that the principle of sharing profits between capital and labour has been struck down in Rochdale. The principle has lost no ground in reality; none of its founders have lost faith in it; none of them have abandoned it. They have simply been out-voted by the immense numbers who never appreciated it, and who care for co-operation from it only when immediate gain is to be got.

It may be supposed by some that this decision has been brought about by men who are not of the operative class; but it is asserted by those who are in a position to know, and whose testimony is not lightly to be doubted, that it is another instance of shortsighted and suicidal policy among the operatives themselves. Those who advocate the principle of " participation of profits," and who laboured to keep the law unchanged, are among the largest shareholders in the soccety. The principle would have been safe, if the operatives concerned had not been pitifully blind to the future welfare of their order.

The arguments made use of by the malcontents seem to show, beyond question, that it is mere selfishness that has brought about this temporary disaster. The only reason assigned for seeking this change of the law was, that all could not be employed at the mill, and that until this could be done, it was wrong to give the worker any share of the profits. If this is to be taken as a true index of cooperative wisdom, there is nothing of which anyone can justly boast. Co-operation, throughout all its proceedings, supposes that the balance has been unjustly held between capital and labour, merchant and customer; and its object is to secure a more equitable adjustment of conflicting interests. This is entirely ignored by the men who have struck down the best feature of co-operation in Rochdale, and every enemy of the working classes will exult over the work they have done, and, if shrewd, will turn against the operative the arguments which Rochdale has furnished, whenever he complains that justice is not done to him. It is consoling to know, at this time, that the wisdom of the old pioneers of Rochdale has not been defeated before it has spread to other places. In Manchester there is a thriving society, by which this important principle of "participation" has been adopted. Surely the friends of enlightened co-operation in that city will make some effort to educate the co-operative mind, and to sustain the principle which Rochdale has so recklessly rejected, until it has been fairly tested by time and experience.

The quiet way in which many of the Rochdale pioneers are submitting to the destruction of their best hopes is a proof that they have profited by the study and devotion they have given to the subiect of co-operation. At this time they would have greatly embarrassed the society, had they resolved all at once to withdraw their capital. This is not their policy. They intend, we are informed, to wait until a revival of trade shall make it possible to withdraw, without damage to the present society, and then to form another, in which their highest principle shall be embodied, without the possibility of its being again destroyed by uninformed selfishness.

When Rochdale can make such a mistake, and sacrifice all principle to mere selfishness, it is manifest that the co-operative movement needs guidance and direction everywhere.

J. J.

NOTICE TO CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES.

WE have been requested to insert the following :

The Bill to amend and extend the laws relating to Industrial and Provident Societies is expected to be before Parliament for the second reading shortly after Easter, and societies are requested to be in readiness to forward their petitions to M.P.'s at the time of, or when notice is given for, the second reading.

Societies that have not been furnished with petitions, are desired to copy the one from this number of the "Working Man."

About 140 societies have, up to the present, made returns; such as have not yet obtained forms, are particularly requested to write immediately for the WILLIAM COoper.

same to

Oldham-road, Rochdale.

MANY were the prognostications, whilst he was at school, that George Angus would turn out a keen man of business. He was the best hand at figures in his class, and would at any time rather work out a whole page of Walkingame, than construe a single line of Virgil. His school-fellows nick-named him the pedlar; for he was always dabbling in small ventures of toffee, gingerbread, and marbles, which he retailed to his less provident companions, at profits which he adopted, with rare cunning, to the risks which he ran of payment on the following Saturday. His bargains at the village shop, drove the old dame, who kept it, very nearly to destraction. The rigour with which he exacted the turn of the scale, and the odd one over. The way in which he talked about the allowance on wholesale orders, and his reference to discounts and cash payments, put her, as she said, "in a perfect warrill,' every time he came into her shop; and yet he had such a good tempered cannie way with him, and always paid, as he said, ready money for everything, that though she feared, she at the same time could not help liking her best but most troublesome customer. George inherited this intense appreciation of a bargain from his father, a snug mercer in a small country town in Scotland, who was well known by all the commercial travellers on the road as their shrewdest customer north of the Tweed. Every one sought the Baillie's custom, for he was known to be a safe man, and dealt largely, but the settlement of an account was an affair which invariably put the keenest faculties on each side to the test. The following story was narrated with great zest in the commercial room as an instance of the Baillie's sharp witted skill in getting the advantage of a southern dealer. A traveller having called and presented his account, which was rather a heavy one, it was closely scrutinized by the wily Scotchman, and after every possible allowance and deduction had been arranged on the score of errors and defects :

66

Weel," said the Baillie, "ye may just tak off the discount, and I'll settle wi' ye at once."

The discount was subtracted and the receipt written, when, instead of handing over the cash, the Baillie very coolly told the exasperated traveller, that he "might draw a bill upon him at twa months."

But, said the latter, I have allowed you discount for cash, and not for a bill, and you must excuse my taking such a mode of payment..

66

"Oh! weel" said the imperturbable Baillie, if ye dinna like to settle the

account, ye can just let it stand over till next journey, or may be ye'll draw the bill at sax months instead of twa, and we'll say nothing about the discount."

Finding that remonstrance was of no avail, the traveller reluctantly drew the required bill at two months, which the Baillie signed, and handed back, and the traveller took his leave; but just as he was quitting the shop the Baillie called him back, and assuming a tone of confidential sympathy, observed, that "he wadna trouble his gude friend to carry the bit of paper to the bank, may be he wadna object to gie him (the Baillie) the trifle of commission he wad hae had to pay at the bank for cashing it, an he'd een gie him the siller himsel."

The traveller could not help laughing at this shrewd trick for obtaining the extra discount, and he therefore allowed Baillie Angus to cash his own bill for a trifling consideration, as he modestly expressed it.

Trained under such influences, it was not surprising that George Angus should early have learned to regard the acquisition of money as the object of paramount interest and importance. His father's comment on his studies and amusements at school, generally comprising some practical reference to the main chance. Thus, when little George came home one day full of excitement about the story he had been reading of Archemides rushing from his bath to announce the discovery of the king's problem, for the detection of the goldsmith's fraud, " Aye, aye, Gordie," said his father, "yon chiel was a great feelosopher, nae dout, but he could na solve one problem that auld Baillie Angus has speered thro' lang ago-he said he could move the world gin he could find a fulcrum for his lever; but he couldna find it Geordie, he couldna find it. Hoot lad, he never thought o' the siller-gie a man money, and he'll move the world in the blink o' an ee."

To do the Baillie justice, however, though he pursued business with such eager and absorbing interest, and held every other acquirement cheap compared with the art of making a good bargain, yet he was neither miserly nor uncharitable. He could higgle stoutly over a halfpenny, when he made his weekly purchases at the market, but when winter came, and work was scarce, many a poor body found her meal chest replenished from the Baillie's bounty, and none could speak a word of kindlier sympathy to the lone mourner in the hour of her bereavement and deep sorrow. As his son grew up the same qualities were largely developed in his character; with intense and unwearied devotion to business he combined a frank, hearty, and good nature, that preserved to him the respect and goodwill even of those who complained most of his tight dealing.

Such was the man who through many gradations, had at length worked himself to the head of one of the largest outfitting and ready-made clothing establishments in the city of London. The extent of business transacted by the firm, and the profitable nature of the trade, were mainly owing to the energy and close calculations of Mr. Angus. "To buy in the cheapest market and sell in the dearest," had been his ruling maxim, nor had any misgivings ever crossed his mind as to the right he possessed to use the power afforded by his rapidly accumulating capital for his own advantage, in whatever channel it might be employed. He bought the stock of a broken-down bankrupt, and the labour of a broken spirited family on the same principle; they were offered cheap, and he had never thought it necessary to look beyond the amount of discount involved in the transaction. Thus he had scores of workpeople, whose necessities drove them to his warehouse, and he seemed to think that the certainty of his work and of his pay justified him in adopting a scale of prices, governed solely by the alternative, which he knew to exist, of employment on his own terms, or the humiliating and precarious resource of the parish. This he called availing himself of the state of the labour market, nor had he ever thought it necessary to inquire whether the

THE AMERICAN LABOUR QUESTION.

(From our own correspondent.)

BEGINNING with the declaration, that all men are created equal in natural rights, it makes a subject of useful enquiry how a Government, avowedly made for Freedom, was broken up by the power of Slavery.

Passing over the distinctive characters of the men who respectively peopled the Northern and Southern States; passing over the external circumstances that increased the divergence of their characters; passing over the motive power which impelled the _Revolution of 1775 among the Eastern States, and which opposed it in the Southern, we come to the day of the Declaration of Independence, the culminating glory of the struggle for freedom, and the spirit which gave it light and secured to it success. That Declaration was the work of earnest men; in fact, though not in form, it was the work of persons upon whose individual responsibility rested the enunciation of a truth that they might secure a cause. Jefferson wrote it, Franklin mainly corrected the rough draft, and it was adopted by the Continental Congress, without hardly an alteration, as thus presented. This explains why the Declaration of Independence is so masterly a document; how the universality of its application grew out of the oneness of its conception; and how its individuality of birth was necessitated by its universality-the end being in the beginning; for no man can enunciate half a truth, nor a congress of men, as a congress, patch together pieces of one great truth. The thing has been tried again and again, and been a failure. The entire conception must lay in one mind before it can be spoken in the words which give it currency. The elements lay about, that is the universality; and the all-in-one, the great chord of universal harmony. The Declaration, then, was the standard for a new people; it was raised by the brain and heart of the country; and in the moment of its enunciation it was received with acclaim as the great needful of the people who were waiting for it.

Passing later, comes the making of the Constitution of 1787. Here began a retrogression. The Constitution was an attempt to bring the Declaration into a practical shape for the governing of states; but the very effort to realize it was to set it aside as a motive power, and leave it as a tradition, to be handed down from generation to generation, till the day of education should come when its teachings became the knowledge of the people, instead of their profession. It is one thing to admit a truth, but quite another to practice it. The Constitution was made, ostensibly, for the regulation of a continent consisting of individual states, in some of which the most antagonistic needs were developed; it, therefore, tried to reconcile these conflicting interests; but, in practice, it had to give the preference to one interest or the other: in this case Freedom or Slavery. The making of the Constitution was no longer the work of industrial men; in fact, though not in form, it was the work of states pitted in conflict, each moving with all energy to secure its own-and more, if possible. The result was a concession of principle on one side, and a supposed concession of privileges upon the other, which pleased neither party. There was no unity of design, for it was not the work of a unity of interests, or even a unity of feeling; and the proof of it is in the debates of the Convention, which nearly resulted in a disruption full of bitterness.

In that Convention, upon the question of imposing a tax upon the importation of slaves, Mr. Routledge, of South Carolina, said: "The true question at present is-Whether Southern States shall or shall not become parties to the Union" and, in the heat of the discussion, Mr. Pinckney, of the same State, with more boldness, said: "South Carolina can never receive this plan (of the Constitution) if it prohibits the slave trade." So the slave trade was protected for twenty years, and the Fugitive Slave clause of the Constitution adopted. With such beginning for union, the result could only be that the conceding party gave away its power, and the secret of the wonderful unity of the Southern States is revealed: their policy was made the active ruling power.

(To be continued.)