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III.—CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES.
bonus which they received mounted on the average to an
addition to their wages of 7'6 per cent. By far the most
important among these three profit-sharing Consumers’ Productive
Societies is the United Baking Society of Glasgow,
which is a federation of 178 Societies, and employs .1,255
persons. The amount of the bonus distributed in 1910 by this
Society to its employees was equivalent to 8T per cent, on their
wages and salaries for the year. The bonus received by the
employees of the United Baking Society is invested in
a “Bonus Investment Society” formed by them; this Society
in turn invests the capital so raised in shares of the United
Baking Society, and so acquires the right as a member to send
delegates to the General Meetings of that Society. In this way
the employees secure the power of voicing their opinions on the
affairs of the Society by which they are employed, the number
of the votes to which they are in this manner entitled being 25.
For the most part, the amount of control exercised by the
employees of the group of Societies now under consideration
(the Consumers’ Productive Societies) whether as shareholders
in the Societies by which they are employed or as Committee-men
may be considered tol)e insignificant.
(2) Productive Associations of Workers.
Unlike the Societies dealt with in the previous section, which are
formed and managed primarily in the interests of consumers, the
productive associations of workers are formed and managed
primarily in the interests of the persons employed. They are in the
main an attempt by the workers in various industries to substitute
for the ordinary conditions of employment by an individual
capitalist or a Joint Stock Company a system under which the
members of the Societies work in a factory or workshop either
rented by, or belonging wholly or in part to themselves, under
conditions of labour decided upon by the members, and carried
out under the direction of a manager and committee elected by
them, the profits of the undertaking being distributed as the
members, in general meeting assembled, may decide.
In 1910 there were at work 96 associations of this general
character, of which 11 were in Ireland. With one exception (a
bacon curing factory) these 11 Associations are of a somewhat
different character from the English and Scottish Societies, being
known as Home Industries Societies. Of the 10 Home Industries
Societies two only in 1910 allotted out of their profits any sum
(£7 and £3 respectively) as bonus on wages to their employees.
It is believed that the number of employee-shareholders is not
large, and that it is not at all common for employees to be members
of the Committee of Management of these Societies.
The remaining 86 Societies (which may conveniently be termed
“ Productive Associations of Workers ”) are mostly in England,
where 82 were at work: of the remainder, three were in Scotland
and one (the bacon-curing factory above referred to) in Ireland.
