4 the Conservative.
Harper Brothers
L.AIIO11 CO- have
' recently published
PAKTXHllSIIII' .
lished a volume of
350 pages entitled "Labor Copartner
" . D- . This
ship" by Mr. Henry DLloyd.
book , from all wo have read about it ,
should , in the opinion of THE COXSKKVA-
TIVK , be in all the public libraries of this
country. It should be generally read.
The public library of Nebraska City
shall not long be without so practically
philanthropic a volume. Reviewing Mr.
Lloyd's book recently The Nation says :
"Few persons in this country are ac
quainted with the term 'Labor Copart
nership. ' This system constitutes the
latest outgrowth of cooperation in Great
Britain. "What is commonly understood
by cooperation is the cooperative store ,
where the cooperators furnish the capi
tal for the store and receive dividends in
proportion to their purchases. Labor
copartnership is an evolution of the co
operative store. It is production on the
partnership principle. It is not confined
to any particular industry. It embraces
farming and butter-making , as well as
weaving , printing , house-painting , ho
siery , silk-making , shoe-making , gas-
making and other manufactures. There
are now in Great Britain 152 societies of
this description , having apaid-up capital
of more than one million pounds , and an
aggregate animal profit of 112,991 ,
after paying all expenses , including the
usual rate of wages in their respective
trades. Some of these are managed
wholly by the workingmen concerned.
Others , like the South Metropolitan Gas
Company of London , are conducted on
the capitalistic plan , but the sharehold
ing is so arranged that a large part of
the profits go to the coal-stokers and
other men who perform the manual la
bor. There are almost as many differ
ent varieties of labor partnerships as
there are different occupations , and the
distinguishing feature of the whole is
that they are all on a paying basis al
though they did not all get there at the
first attempt. The chief significance of
the movement is that , so far as it has
progressed , it has realized all that so
cialism ever promised to the working
classes , and has done so without any
social disturbance , without encroaching
upon any other person's rights , and
without asking any special favors from
the government.
"Nearly all of these enterprises have
begun in a fortuitous , unpremeditated
way. A few men have contributed a
few shillings or pounds that they had
saved as capital and applied it to some
kind of work , and , having confidence in
each other , and being mutually faithful
and industrious , their business has
grown. They have taken on now hands
as required , each new one becoming a
partner as well as an employee , and so
they have gone on adding to the com
mon plant by diligence , honesty , intelli
gence , and thrift. For example , the
'Equity , ' which is a cooperative boot
and shoe factory in Leicester , began in
1887 in a little , insignificant shop in a
back street of that city. It now has a
building so large that the hall in the top
story which is devoted to the social and
educational purposes of its members ,
will seat 250 people , and there are be
sides a library , a reading room , and a
piano. This society owns the building
and the land on which it is situated.
'There has never been a strike , ' says Mr.
Lloyd , and why should workmen strike
when there is nobody to be injured but
themselves ? As a general rule , the la
bor copartnerships do not favor high
wages. Cheapness of production and
low prices in the market are the ends
they aim at. They think that labor
gets its surest and best reward by the
abundance of goods placed within its
reach , differing in this respect from the
silver men in the United States , who
consider high prices the best thing for
the poor.
"One of the most remarkable institu
tions described by Mr. Lloyd is the Irish
Agricultural Organization Societywhich
owes its success chiefly to the labors and
genius of Mr. Horace Plunkett , M. P.
Mr. Plunkett first addressed himself to
the task of establishing cooperative
creameries among Irish farmers that is ,
creameries owned and operated by them
selves. The task was not an easy one.
The farmers had no faith in it , but Mr.
Plunkett persevered. His idea was that
a saving could be affected by making all
the butter of a dozen farms in one place
and by one set of rules , that the highest
scientific skill could thus be brought to
the farmers' aid and the greatest savings
of the raw material effected , and that
these savings might be and ought to bo
realized by the farmer himself. By the
end of 18913 he had thirty cooperative
creameries going , and it was found that
the cows yielded an increased profit of 10
to 85 per cent. Not a penny of capital
had been contributed by anybody but
the farmers themselves. This was only
the beginning , however. The creamer
ies joined together to form a society for
disposing of their products , and another
for buying their seeds and manures , thus
saving an additional profit.
"The success of this society has been
very great , and it has contributed more
than anything else to the pacification of
the country and the subsidence of Irish
unrest. The subordinate societies , which
in 1893 numbered 80 , have grown to 181.
There are 8,750 shareholders. Their out
put for 1896 was $1,417,290. Perhaps
the most surprising resiilt of all is found
in one part of Ireland , where the farm
ers by co-operation in the first year
were able to save in the cost of their
material more than the total rent paid
by all the members of the association.
The total profit and saving to these farm
ers arising from the co-operative
creameries and the co-operative pur
chases since the experiment began in
1889 , has been $2,150,705. And it all
grows out of the initiative and intelli
gence of one man , who took for his
keynote the saying that "the Irish farm
ers must work out their own salvation. "
What a contrast is this with the fuming
and vaporing of Carl Marx , and his en
deavors to set class against class by talk
ing about the exploitation of labor by
capital. Along conies a man named
Plunkett , without writing any books or
having any theories except the precious
one of self-reliance , and puts $2,000,000
into the pockets of Irish peasants and
contentment into their hearts in the
course of ten years , without doing any
harm to any other living creature.
"Perhaps the most interesting chapter
in Mr. Lloyd's book is his story of the
of workmen-owner
gradual engrafting -
ship iipon the South Metropolitan Gas
Compairy of London , which has a capi
tal of $35,000,000 and annual earnings of
§ 3,800,000. This company has 3,000
men in its employ. It shares its profits
with them , and has during the present
year admitted two workingmen to its
board of directors. This great work has
been built up and conducted on the plan
of labor partnership by Mr. Thomas
Livesey and his son , Mr. George Live-
sey. It was nevermore flourishing than
it is today. The history of the company
is as interesting as a novel far more so
than Mr. Bellamy's 'Looking Backward'
because every word of it is true and
can bo verified by any onlooker who will
take the trouble , as Mr. Lloyd did , to go
and see for himself. Wo do not look for
the millennium very soon , but we do
think that it is more likely to come by
the road followed by Mr. Plunkett , the
Liveseys , and the men who are working
along the same line with them than by
any other now visible. "
"Alphonso Daudet in Private Life" is
the title of a very interesting article in
the November Pall Mall Magazine , by J.
F. Raffaelli , a life long friend of the
famous novelist. M. Raffaelli , who is
an eminent French painter , himself il
lustrates the article , which includes a
few selections from one of Daudet's pri
vate note books , in which he recorded
everything that came into his mind con
cerning the character and intelligence
of the personages who were to figure in
a projected work. M. Raffaelli asserts
that Daudet's nature was essentially
childlike , and that in consequence of
this feature of Daudet's character , the
books in which ho best shows his ori
ginal qualities are those where we find
the best and the most of this childlike
attribute of imaginative story telling ,
namely in the three "Tartarins. " "Tar-
tarin , " writes M. Raffaelli , "is Daudet
himself" ; "he is our Southerner large
and good hearted , a great dispenser of
justice , a great dreamer , whole-souled
and blessed with a joyful imagination. "
M. Raffaelli says that Daudet , curiously
enough , never liked to hear any one
speak of the "Tartariiis" with special
admiration , and that ho preferred
"Sapho" to all his other novels.