But this friendly feeling, among the members generally, must not be left to chance and accident. It must not only be recommended as an advantage; it must be enforced as an imperative and paramount duty and obligation.
In the Society, he has insured himself against all these things: he cannot be ruined unless the Society be so too: and the ruin of a Society of labourers is an impossibility.
Co-operation removes the almost insurmountable obstacles to friendship, namely—self-interest, rivalry, jealousy, and envy.
A family is the place where we are to look for the purest and happiest feelings which man is permitted to enjoy upon earth. A family is a community as far as it goes.
It is no crime in the master to wish to pay as little as possible for wages, nor for the workman to wish to get as much as possible : but it is criminal in either party to endeavour to obtain their end unjustly.
The subscription which has already been made, for the Kidderminster Weavers, would have made them an independent body of men, working on their own capital, for themselves exclusively, had they united themselves into one body
The working classes should begin by having shops of their own. These shops should belong to a small number, who should form themselves into a society for that purpose. They should pay a weekly subscription, to go to form a common fund. They should deal as much as possible with their own shop.
It is evident from these, that however valuable capital may be, it is not necessary for BEGINNING Co-operation—but that the basis, and secret of Co-operation is LABOUR.
If a number of workmen were to join together, upon these principles, their capital would be greater, and they might do greater things. They might have a shop of their own, where they might all deal, for everything they wanted.
The power of making themselves independent : the power of rising above want : the power of commanding all the comforts of life: the power of spending their old age in peace and plenty: the power of bringing up their children in industry, virtue, and religion.
The whole secret of the business lies in this, that the WORKMEN DO NOT WORK FOR THEMSELVES. The workman sells his time, strength, skill, and labour, all his ingenuity, all his cleverness, all his industry, all his health, to his master.
Everybody else has plenty. But the man who grows the food, or makes the cloth, or builds the houses, can scarcely get any food, or clothing, or a house to live in!
We believe that this idea is quite new to the working classes. They think that their wages are the whole value of the work which is done by them. This is their great mistake: and it arises from their IGNORANCE, of which it is the natural consequence.
CO-OPERATION is a subject entirely for the WORKING CLASSES. The RICH have nothing to do with it. A large class of mankind, are born to LABOR, and expect to labor all their lives.
Why do people become paupers? —because they must either go to the parish, or starve.
