most part members
may at any time withdraw their shares in cash at par. A record of each
member's purchases is kept by means of metal tokens or otherwise, and at
the end of each quarter, after paying a limited interest (never more
than 5%, and in very many societies less) on shares, and, in some
societies, paying a proportion of profit to the employees, the surplus
is divided to the members in proportion to their purchases: non-members
also usually receiving half dividends on theirs. Thus the members in
effect obtain their necessaries at cost price. The dividend on members'
purchases averages about 2s. 6d. in the L. In many successful societies
even more is paid, but the average is falling. Where dividend is high,
prices are often fixed above those current in the neighbourhood, so that
the members, in addition to saving the retailer's profit, use their
Society as a sort of savings bank, where they put away a halfpenny or so
for every shilling they spend. In addition to retailing, a store often
manufactures bread, clothes, boots and millinery, sometimes farms land,
or grinds corn; usually for its own members only, but occasionally for
sale to other societies also. Their productions in this way exceed
L5,000,000 a year. They also invest large and increasing sums in
building cottages, to let or sell to their members; and they lend still
more largely to their members, to enable them to buy cottages.

Outwardly these stores may look like mere shops, but they are really
much more. First, they are managed with a view not to a proprietor's
profit, but to cheap and good commodities. Secondly they have done an
immense work for thrift and the material prosperity of the working
classes, and as teachers of business and self-government. But further,
they have a distinct social and economic aim, namely, to correct the
present inequalities of wealth, and substitute for the competitive
system an industry controlled by all in the common interest, and
distributing on principles of equity and reason, mutually agreed on, the
wealth produced. With this view they acknowledge the duties of fair pay
and good conditions for their own employees, and of not buying goods
made under bad conditions. The best societies further set aside a small
proportion of their profits for educational purposes, including
concerts, social gatherings, classes, lectures, reading-rooms and
libraries, and often make grants to causes with which they sympathize.
Their me