The Thirty - second Annual Co - operative Congress, 1900. Edited by J. C.
Gray. (Co-operative Union, Manchester.)—We cannot pretend to give anything like an adequate account of this very important document. Its figures are certainly impressive. Individualism in the shape of the huge concerns managed by private persons in their own interest, or, what is much the same thing, in the interest of bodies of shareholders, is spreading on the one band; and the Co-operative system is enlarging its borders on the other. Between the two the small distributor is
likely to be crushed. We must be content with giving some aggregate figures. The trade of all the Co-operative societies in the Upited Kingdom in 1899 amounted to £69,835,000, showing an increase of £4,374,129 over 1898 ; the net profit to £7,823,272, showing an increase of £657,579; the number of employes to 78,096, and the contributions to educational and charitable purposes to
83,335. The Civil Service Supply Association appears in the list, but the Army and Navy does not. The litter pays 250 per cent. on its capital.—The Inaugural Address, by W. H. Brown (same publishers), may be briefly noticed at the same time. Mr. Brown's recommendations as to the taxation of the land practically amount to much the same thing as Mr. George's. They may be right or wrong, but to put them in the disguise of a return to a past system is scarcely fair. " We go back to the principles of former times—gradually reimpose on all land a large portion of the taxation of the country." Land bore the greater part of the taxation of the country when it was the greater part of its wealth.—With this may be mentioned the Jubilee History of the Derby Co-operative Provident Society, by George Jacob Holy- cake and Amos Scotton (same publishers).
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