80 
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’ Pro 
ductive 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.