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Consolidation and Steady
Advance—Grahamston Branch—Dovecothall Branch—Boot and Shoe Shop—First Barnes
Street Property—Smoke-boards and Swees—Neilston Extensions ; Branch or Build
?—The Seven Years’ War—Main Street Branch—Tailoring—Dressmaking-—
Fleshing-—Purchase of Bourock No. 2 Property—Succession of Foremen—Cross
Arthurlie Property—George Street Property—Hardware Branch—Permanent
Officials—Relief of Distress—Semi-Jubilee —Gas Company Shares—Annual Soirees
Discontinued-—Directors Fees—Prominent Workers.
“Do the Duty that lies
nearest thee—that which thou knowest to be a Duty ! The next Duty will
already hecome clearer.”—Carlyle.
IF experiment and rapid
progress were the features of the years 1871-81, we may declare the
outstanding characteristics of the ensuing ten or fifteen years to have been
consolidation of the powers and capacity of the Society, and steady
advancement along the lines which experience had shown to be safe and sound.
This, of course, is precisely what we might expect to happen. It is
essentially in the nature of things that the first steps in the performance
of a task such as co-operation had set itself to accomplish should seem
great and wonderful, because of their new and original character, whereas
later advances along the same lines should present rather the qualities of
steadiness and surety.
GRAHAMSTON BRANCH
Having proven its ability to
organise and manage such undertakings as the bakery, the coal trade, the
erection of houses for its members, and the handling of a branch department
in Neilston, it was only to be expected that the growing desire for other
branches and further building would demand satisfaction. We accordingly find
the proposal for a branch at Grahamston (defeated in May 1880) revived in
February of the following year. This time there is no opposition, and not a
single dissenter to the instruction given to the committee for the opening
of a branch grocery shop. The directors evidently lost no time in facing
their commission, and within a month they had taken a lease of a shop in
Cross Arthurlie, in a new property adjoining the bridge over the Iyevem.
Arrangements were pushed quickly forward, and on the 14th of April 1881 the
Shop was opened for business.
DOVECOTHALL BRANCH
It will be recalled that the
original motion for a branch at Grahamston included also a clause demanding
a branch at Dovecothall. As in defeat, so also in acceptance they were not
divided, and before the end of the year 1881 the Dovecothall branch is
arranged for and opened. Grahamston achieves a fair measure of success
almost at once, but Dovecothall takes longer to settle down into a
satisfactory condition, and its slowness in this respect is ascribed chiefly
to unsuitable and rat-infested premises.
BOOT AND SHOE SHOP
When the Society opened (in
April 1882) a separate branch for the sale of boots and shoes, it realised
what had been one of its very early hopes. A small stock of boots and shoes,
mostly for house wear or of a light make, had been held in the grocery shop,
along with some drapery goods, almost from the beginnings of the Society. In
1868, when the drapery goods were housed in a distinct department, boots and
shoes naturally went with them, and this arrangement continued in force for
many years. In May 1880 the directors recommeuded the alteration of a house
in the central property, so as to permit of the formation of a boot and shoe
department; but this proposal, it will be remembered, was one of the many
innocents cruelly murdered by a callous membership at the memorable meeting
already spoken of. Like the Grahamston and Dovecothall proposals, it was,
however, destined to a speedy resurrection ; and at the quarterly meeting in
February 1882 it was unanimously agreed that a part of the central shop
should be partitioned off for this purpose. Mr Benjamin Gray, a former
member of committee, was appointed salesman and cobbler, and under his
management the shop was duly opened.
FIRST BARNES STREET PROPERTY
The next advance which falls
to be noted is the erection of the first Barnes Street tenement. The board
had agreed to recommend this to the members in July 1881, but on second
thoughts it withdrew the recommendation. A year later, in August 1882, the
subject was laid before the members, and power was granted to the board to
proceed with one or two tenements as they thought advisable. The directors
inclined to the side of moderation, and instructed the preparation of plans
for one tenement. When these were submitted, the cost was declared to be
much too high, and they were returned to the architect for adjustment on
more economical lines. To those who have reached middle life or are over it,
the year of grace 1882 seems comparatively near in point of time ; but how
much our domestic arrangements have altered in that period is vividly
suggested by a phrase in the minute-book to the effect that the building
committee be instructed to put in “ smoke-boards and swees." The; builder
who now put in these at one time universal adjuncts of a Scottish home would
be regarded as a survival from an ancient period. The Barnes Street (No. 1)
property was completed and ready for occupancy in May 1883.
NEILSTON EXTENSIONS
After the final defeat, in
1880, of the proposal to separate Neilston from the parent stem, we hear
nothing of the position of the shop in the village until the quarterly
meeting in August 1881, when a motion to give the committee power to build
was defeated. This formed the starting-point for a war which raged
intermittently for several years, and was not concluded until 1888, when
building was commenced. During that long period the active members of the
Society were divided into two strongly partisan groups—those who favoured
and those who opposed building in the village. The pages of the minute-books
for these years literally teem with motions and counter-motions on the
subject. The shop first taken had now been occupied for nine years, and as
it' was inadequate to meet the increased trade, a new one had to be rented.
By the year 1884, a continuous agitation on the subject had sufficiently
impressed the members as to cause them to grant the committee power to look
out for a still more suitable shop, or to procure ground for building. Two
months later this is changed to a suggestion from the general meeting that
the board should retain the present shop and rent another as a branch
establishment at or near Holehouse.
BRANCH OR BUILD
No definite action is taken,
and again, in January 1885, the members are tested on the question of “
building ” or “ branching.” This time victory rests with the “builders,” by
38 votes to 29. The “ branchers,” however, refuse to " take it lying down,”
and at the following board meeting a largely signed protest is lodged
against the feuing of ground for building purposes. The directors —rendered
timid, doubtless, by the keen division amongst the members—decide to take no
action until after the quarterly meeting in February. Those who-can recall
the activities of that time and the fighting spirit then abroad in the
Society will know what pulling of strings and beating of drums would precede
the quarterly meeting. At the meeting itself the chairman—Mr John Naim—must
have been in sore straits to see his way through the maze of motions,
amendments, and counteramendments with which he was assailed. Finally, he
got them straightened out into the plain issue “ build ” or “ branch,” and
now the “ branchers ” had their day of triumph with 91 votes against 40 for
their opponents. The now familiar “Are we downhearted ? ” had not yet become
a popular battle-cry, but the “ builders ” were evidently full of its
spirit, for they at once retorted with a requisition to the board, signed by
Neilston members, and urging that there should, be no branching for grocery,
but only for boots and drapery. Again the directors proved themselves
weaklings in the face of the storm. They replied that they could not
over-ride the decision of the members, but that they would delay action
until after next quarterly meeting in May. How much excitement there was,
and how high the feeling of the moment ran, may be guessed from one fact,
reported to the committee. It was stated that a mass meeting had been held
in the village to discuss the question, and that it had been called by the
town bellman in the name of the Society; but the president, on being
challenged, disclaimed all knowledge of the meeting or of those who had
authorised it!
END OF THE SEVEN YEARS’
WAR.”
This game of battledore and
shuttlecock continued over the next two years; but finally, in the end of
1885, it was agreed to rent a shop from Mr Patrick Crilly, for the purpose
of establishing a branch for the sale of boots, drapery, and hardware. For
the time being, the honours of the fray rested with those who opposed the
building scheme; but in February 1888 building became an admitted necessity.
Ground was secured for this purpose, and on the first. Saturday of June 1889
a grand open-air demonstration was held to celebrate the completion of the
premises. This closed one of the most protracted and most sternly fought
conflicts in the history of the Society. Perhaps it may be of interest if we
add that the opposing leaders in this long struggle were Mr Robert Murray
and Mr Robert Campbell—the former for branching, and the latter for
building. Both of them with the gift of expression, both eager Radicals in
politics and ardent co-operators by conviction—these two men yet appeared to
approach many questions from entirely different standpoints. As a result, we
find them often opposed to each other; and for years at this time the most
frequently recurring entry in the minutes is to the effect that " Mr
Campbell combated the statements of Mr Murray,” or that “ Mr Murray
challenged the conclusions of Mr Campbell.” In face of this, it is always
refreshing to find that, should a motion be made for the granting of money
to relieve distress, or for the purpose of extending the boundaries of
co-operative activity, the two antagonists are at once side by side in its
defence and support.
MAIN STREET BRANCH
The foregoing note on what we
have called “ the seven years’ war ” has brought us forward from 1881 to
1888, and we must hark back again to 1885, when the committee sought to
obtain power for the opening of a branch about the middle of Main Street,
“so as to relieve the pressure, both at Dovecothall and on the Central.” On
the 16th of March a sub-committee, which had been appointed to look out for
premises, reported in favour of a shop belonging to Mr William Taylor, and
at that time occupied by a private grocer. This was the shop now occupied by
the Main Street fleshing department. The shop was accordingly taken, and
business started in May 1885. At first the premises were not regarded as
very satisfactory, and before the end of the year the board recommended the
purchase of a tenement in the vicinity with what was thought a more suitable
shop. This proposal, however, the members almost unanimously negatived, on
the ground that they objected to any more money being sunk in property
meantime. In the circumstances the directors thought the best thing to do
was to take a seven years’ lease of the shop they had so recently entered,
and this was accordingly done.
TAILORING
The spasmodic efforts at
tailoring and the makeshift arrangements made from time to time had never
given satisfaction to the members, and at last, in March 1886, it was
decided to fit up a workshop in the new property in Cross Arthurlie Street,
and appoint a foreman tailor. Within twelve months of the establishment of
this branch the trade had grown so considerably that the workroom had to be
enlarged to accommodate the additional hands employed. For a year or two
thereafter the business appears to have gone on satisfactorily, if slowly;
but by 1890 certain troubles, which had been gathering with the foreman (Mr
R. Pollock), reached a head. The complaints recorded against him included
disdbedience to the orders of the directors, carelessness in his work, and
the giving of unauthorised credit. On these grounds he was dismissed from
his position of authority, but was offered, strangely enough, a place at the
working board. This he accepted, and a rather curious situation was created.
The directors sent for one of the workmen (Mr Goudie), and asked him to
become foreman. This he declined ; but the directors were insistent, and at
last he agreed “ reluctantly,” the minute-book states, “ to do so.” Ten days
later he appeared before the committee, and begged to be relieved of the
duties they had imposed upon him. There was nothing for it but to comply
with the request, and the committee tried to put as good a face on the
situation as possible by “ ordering ” the deposed foreman back to his former
position. Such a situation was, of course, too strained to last, and a
fortnight later the first foreman was dismissed; but the committee insisted
that he should go round the members to whom he had given' credit, and
collect the outstanding sums before they would pay him his security money.
This does not appear to have been a very successful effort, and some time
later it was decided to pay over the security rather than be troubled any
further with the matter. With the appointment of a new foreman things went
on smoothly and successfully for a considerable time. At a much later
date—namely, in 1899—the present foreman, Mr Morrison, entered upon the
duties which he has successfully performed ever since.
DRESSMAKING
Unlike tailoring and other
branches with which we have been dealing, dressmaking was a section of
business which the earlier committees do not seem to have thought • of
taking up at all. The first recorded suggestion in this way was made by Mr
William Braidwood in October 1887, and at the November-quarterly meeting
power was given to the board to begin dressmaking in the following spring,
should they think fit to do so. The committee was commendably prompt in its
attention to this decision, and by February 1888 a dressmaker had been
appointed, and the business was started. Within a month a second hand and
two learners were engaged; but it is apparent that the committee were by no
means favourable to the usual rule of this trade—namely, that learners
should work for the first six months without
NEILSTON PROPERTY. Erected 1SSD.
wages. They circularised
other societies on the subject, and at a later meeting agreed that the wages
of learners for the first six months should be 2s. 6d. per week. This is a
rule which is still observed by the Society. At first a fair measure of
support was accorded to the new venture, but later on we hear a good deal of
complaint on the score of neglect by the members. In the winter of 1890 much
dissatisfaction had been generated in regard to the position of this branch,
and in January 1891 a special general meeting was called to discuss the
subject. Mr John Martin contended that the loss in the department and its
failure to secure the loyal support of the members was due to the
mismanagement of the person in charge, and not to any special difficulty in
running such a branch. Mr R. Murray argued that it was impossible, in the
present stage of co-operation, to make dressmaking pay, and advised that the
branch be closed. Messrs Braidwood, Campbell, and Gavin Mackinlay saw no
insuperable difficulty in attaining success ; and Mr Campbell, in
particular, emphasised the appearance of weakness which would result if they
dropped the effort. A motion remitting the subject back to committee, and
with power to add millinery if they thought this would help the dressmaking,
was finally carried. At the quarterly meeting in February, and at two
subsequent monthly meetings, the debate was continued along the same lines ;
and eventually those who alleged mismanagement as the cause of the meagre
support carried their point, and secured the dismissal of the
head-dressmaker. As in the case of tailoring, so in that of dressmaking, the
appointment of a new chief brought with it a period of quiet progress.
FLESHING
The supply of butchermeat to
the members forms one of the longest sections of the Society’s story. The
earlier arrangements with local butchers have already been mentioned. These
arrangements underwent frequent alteration, but continued more or less in
force until 1883, when a contract was entered into with a Glasgow firm for
the supply of beef rumps, etc. These were sent out to the various grocery
departments and retailed there. In the interval the subject of branching on
their own account had been repeatedly discussed, and more than once definite
instructions on the point had been given by the members. Finally, in
November 1888, a committee, consisting of John Naim, Gavin Pinkerton, and
John M'Corkindale, was appointed to look out for suitable premises. The
committee recommended the purchase of the property at the head of Main
Street, belonging to Mr John Clark, flesher ; but at the general meeting of
the members in December sanction was refused, and it was remitted to the
committee to rent a shop, and have it opened for business as soon as
possible. After much discussion as to the relative merits of a Main Street
and a Cross Arthurlie shop, the committee finally returned to their first
love ; and in spite of the members’ decision not to purchase, they asked Mr
Clark to name his price for his Main Street property.
PURCHASE OF BOUROCK NO. 2
PROPERTY
It was a somewhat bold thing
to do ; but notwithstanding their rebuff in December, the committee again
came forward in February with a recommendation that Mr Clark’s property
should be purchased at the price of, £1,150, and to this the members
unanimously agreed. The shop was opened on Friday, 1st March 1889, and in
June of the same year a killing-house was, after much opposition on the part
of neighbouring proprietors, erected on ground in Barnes Street.
SUCCESSION OF FOREMEN
The fleshing department was
opened during what may justly be regarded as the stormiest period of the
decade now under review. It was just about this time that excitement was at
its highest in regard to the tailoring and dressmaking departments. It is
not surprising, therefore, to find the new branch involved in the same
circle of disturbance. The profits are not up to expectations, the van
service gives great trouble, the Wholesale Society’s supply of cattle does
not please the foreman or the committee, and both committee and foreman are
upbraided by general meetings for want of loyalty. The minutes of the period
read like the records of a succession of battles. All the old fighters are
there, dealing mighty blows at one another ; and, in addition, many of the
newer men take a hand in the melee. The excitement culminates in the
dismissal of the first foreman. His successor soon follows in the same way,
and within a short period the same thing happens to a third, a fourth, and a
fifth, until the appointment of the present foreman, Mr William Ross, in
December 1891. From this point the excitement of the first years subsides,
and the branch gradually settles down into the condition which it retains
to-day.
CROSS ARTHURLIE PROPERTY
In detailing the foregoing
succession of new branches we have got somewhat beyond the time when the
next step in building was determined upon. The Grahamston grocery branch had
been opened less than three years when (in November 1884) it had become the
feeling of members and committee alike that better premises were a
necessity. Building was accordingly decided upon, and, from a number of
sites offered, one at the comer of George Street and Cross Arthurlie Street
was ultimately chosen. Plans were immediately prepared, and were approved at
a special meeting on 1st May 1885, and the building was completed in the
following year.
GEORGE STREET PROPERTY
No time was lost in
completing the block of tenements thus begun, for in June 1887 plans for the
George Street property were accepted, and this section was finished in 1888,
two years later than the first portion.
HARDWARE DEPARTMENT
In the beginning of 1889 it
was suggested that an empty shop in No. 2 Bourock property should be fitted
up as a hardware department. This was confirmed at the quarterly meeting in
August, and in November of the same year the branch was duly opened.
PERMANENT OFFICIALS
We have now touched upon the
chief items which enter into the composition of the years 1881 to 1891, but
there are one or two minor matters which are not devoid of interest. It was,
for instance, during this period that
the Society first attained to
the position of appointing permanent officials. From the beginning of the
Society in 1861 up till 1882, the duties of the secretariate had been
faithfully discharged by Mr Robert Stark in his spare time. His first small
salary of £2 per year had been increased from time to time during that
twenty-one years, and at last, after the matter had been thrashed out at
several successive meetings, he was appointed permanent managing-secretary
on 9th November 1882, at a salary of £80. The treasurer, like the secretary,
had been a spare JLime official from the start of the Society, and this
arrangement continued for close on five years after Mr Stark’s permanent
appointment. At the quarterly meeting in February 1887 it was agreed, on the
motion of Mr Gavin Pinkerton, that the office should become a full-time one,
and Mr James Williamson, at that time treasurer, received the appointment.
RELIEF OF DISTRESS
One of the most notable
features of this time was the readiness with which the Society responded to
any appeal made to it on account of disaster or distress. To quite a number
of mining accident and other funds it subscribed handsomely, and when in the
winter of 1885-6 the district was passing through a period of hardship, a
sum of £50 was, on the motion of Mr Angus Wyse, granted towards the relief
of distress. A very different decision this from that of 1863, when the
committee was rebuked by the members for voting £1 in similar circumstances,
and it plainly indicates that if our modern co-operation has lost some of
the ideals of its founders it has developed other and no less admirable
characteristics to which perhaps the pioneers were strangers. In the winter
of 1890-1 there was a repetition of unemployment and consequent misery in
the district, and on this occasion Mr R. Murray proposed a grant of £85. Mr
Robert Campbell bettered this by suggesting £100. His proposal was agreed
to, and a representative committee was appointed to administer the fund.
SEMI-JUBILEE
The semi-jubilee of the
Society fell just about the middle of this time, namely, in June 1886. A
special committee was appointed to make arrangements for a, great open-air
demonstration on Saturday, 29th May, to be followed by a free social meeting
in the evening. In connection with this it is rather amusing to find that Mr
Stark, in writing up his minutes, had apparently been at a loss as to the
proper name for the celebration. When referring to it first, he somewhat
ludicrously calls it “ the silver wedding of the Society,” but in later
minutes he makes a closer but still more ludicrous shot at it as “the
anti-jubilee of the Society!"
GAS COMPANY SHARES
In 1886 a proposal was made
by Mr Gavin Mackinlay which, if it had been taken up, might have proved a
very good thing for the Society and the district. He suggested that the
Society should aim at obtaining as large an interest as possible in Barrhead
Gas Company, and as a beginning moved that 100 shares in that company be
bought. This was agreed to by the members; but when, some months later,
forty shares were offered to the committee they decided that the price was
too high, and from that moment there is no further mention of the subject.
ANNUAL SOIREES DISCONTINUED
From the year 1862 right on
till the very end of this period the Society’s annual soiree had been held
almost without a break. In the years 1888, 1889, and 1890, however,
opposition had been offered, but in spite of this it was decided on each
occasion by a majority to proceed as in former years. In 1891 a great deal
of additional opposition was offered, and it was agreed, on the motion of Mr
Charles Cattanach, to “drop the annual soiree, as it was a great financial
loss.”
DIRECTORS’ FEES
Another of the advances made
during this time was the decision to pay fees to the directors. From the
commencement of the business the services of the directors had been given
freely and ungrudgingly, and without fee or reward. Even stocktaking was at
first carried through without payment, but latterly it had been agreed to
pay the stocktakers two shillings for their services. In 1871 it was
proposed to pay committeemen five shillings per quarter, but the members
indignantly dismissed the proposal, and even the directors were by no means
favourable to the suggestion. At intervals during the next eleven years the
subject was mooted, but always the members would have none of it, and
dismissed it by large majorities. The idea was not easily killed however,
and at last, in November 1883, it was carried that directors be paid eight
shillings per quarter, the president twenty shillings, and stocktakers
ninepence per hour. These rates continued until August 1888, when by a small
majority it was agreed to advance the fees of directors to twenty shillings
per quarter and that of the president to twenty-five shillings.
PROMINENT WORKERS
Throughout the years 1881-91
a number of the prominent workers named at the close of the fourth chapter
continued in active service. One of the most noteworthy of these was Mr
Alexander Johnstone, who had been three times president, and who was
presented with a testimonial from the members when in 1888 he resigned to
begin a laundry business on his own account. It may be added that, at a
later date, when the societies were busy raising money to start the Seaside
Homes, Mr Johnstone, then in Pretoria, South Africa, proved his continued
interest in the co-operative movement by sending a donation of £5 to the
fund for the Homes. Amongst the newer names prominent in the minutes are
those of Messrs John Naim, Robert Campbell, Gavin Mackinlay, Archibald Todd,
Andrew Anderson, James Gilchrist, David Hutcheson, Anthony Gallocher, Peter
Milligan, J ohn C. Shaw, William Birtwell, John Martin, Gavin Pinkerton,
Charles Cattanach, and Peter Baird Grandison (auditor). Mention of the last
named (now Bailie Grandison, and secretary of Messrs Shanks & Co. Ltd.)
prompts us to a recognition of the fact that, whilst acting as assistant
-secretary and as auditor, he did a great deal towards putting the
bookkeeping of the Society on a systematic basis. It is a fact, we believe,
that to this day some of the methods he introduced are still adhered to in
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