t on price is abstracted from the consumer, and must be
returned to him; while to him should also belong all capital and
control, subject to such regulations as the state and the trade unions
enforce. This theory is fully exemplified in the English Wholesale
Society, and in some of the smaller federations for production, which
employ workmen, whether co-operators or not, for wages only, and admit
no individual, but only co-operative societies, to membership. It is
also exemplified by the great majority of the stores, though in their
case the employee may become a member in his capacity as a consumer. The
co-partnership theory, on the other hand, maintains that the workers
actually employed in any industry, whether distributive or productive,
should be partners with those who find the capital, and those who buy
the produce, and should share with them the profit, responsibilities and
control. The consumers' party contend that societies of producers make a
profit out of the consumers, and thus are never truly co-operative,
while as they multiply they must compete against each other. The
co-partnership party answer that labour at least helps to make the
profit, and that competition, as yet almost insignificant between their
societies, can be avoided by federating them (a process long ago begun)
for buying and selling in common, and for other common purposes, while
leaving each the control and responsibility of its own internal affairs.
They further advocate the eventual federation of the productive wing of
co-operation with the distributive, for settling prices and all matters
in which their interests might conflict. In this way they say the
co-operative system may extend indefinitely without sacrificing either
individual responsibility and freedom, or a general unity and control,
so far as these are necessary to secure the common interest. On the
other hand they hold that the opposing system tends more and more to
centralization and bureaucracy, and divorces the individual workman from
all personal interest in his work, and from any control over its
conditions. They contend, moreover, and it is indeed admitted that, in
spite of the great advantages which consumers' production has in its
command of a market and of abundant capital, only a small part of
industry can ever be carried on by associations of the persons who
actually consume the produce. Outside this small part, therefore,
voluntary co-operation is impossible except