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PREFACE
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THE chapters of this little History were commenced
to be inserted in the Daily News (in 1857), as the reader may infer
from note to Chapter I. The breaking out of the Mutinies in India
absorbed all space in that quarter, and prevented the completion of the
publication in those columns; otherwise, the subsequent chapters might
have had the advantage of notes of the Editor of the Daily News
(Mr. William Weir), who had great knowledge of, and interest in,
Co-operative Associations, abroad and at home.
When the chapters appeared as a book, it became known to many
persons, interested in social ideas. Mr. Horace Greeley of the
New York Tribune had an edition printed in New York. This was
the first reprint. Next, Fernando Garrido, a Spanish dramatic writer
and publicist, made a translation in his "Historia de las Asociaciones
Obreen Europa." Professor A. Talandier published a translation in
Le Progres de Lyons. Great impetus, the translator reported, was
thereby given to Co-operation in Lyons. The Emperor, who had social
ideas, commended Co-operation to the Lyonnese, and mentioned it in an
Imperial speech. M. Elie Reclus, editor of L’Association,
told the moral of this story of the Pioneers to the Parisians, in his
fable of "The Blind Man and the Lame Man." Mr. John Stuart Mill, by
quoting passages from this little history in his "Principles of Political
Economy," did more than anyone else to call attention to the proceedings
of the Rochdale Pioneers. Mr. Joseph Cowan read chapters of this
narrative nightly to pitmen and other workmen who were his neighbours,
which led to the formation of the Blaydon-on-Tyne store, now occupying a
street, and owning a considerable farm. Mr. Henry Pitman reprinted
the book in the Co-operator. Mr. M’Guiness of Paris made a
translation of it in the French Journal Co-operative.
The first principal translation in book form was one in
French by Madame Godin
(under the name of Marie Moret), for the information of the workmen of
Guise.
Professor Vigano of Milan published an Italian translation in a quarto
volume. M. O.
Cambier, a magistrate of Paturage, Belgium, issued a complete translation
of 283
pages at Verviers and Paris, including the prefaces of 1857 and 1867, and
a
biography of the author. Later, Signor Lorenzi Ponti published in Milan a
translation
from the French of Madame Godin. Herr H. Hantschke published a translation
in
German with engravings of the old store in Toad Lane and of the present
store in
Rochdale, of which a presentation copy was sent me in ornate Berlinese
binding.
The last translation has been that of Dr. St. Bernat of Buda-Pesth into
the Hungarian
language. The Sociological Society of America issued a small Manual of
Cooperation.
This epitome, excellently executed by ladies, included some of the
following chapters. The Manual was popular, I judge, as a share of profit
from it was
sent to me. Foreign translations on a subject new to the public do not at
first allure
readers, and the translators generally lose money by their generous
labour. I
received no profit from any, nor stipulated for any. On the contrary, I
felt under
obligation to the translators for being at the expense of introducing to
their
countrymen an English method of industrial self-help, which otherwise
might have
remained much longer unknown and unregarded.
"Self-Help by the People," here first used, I believe as a title, has been
employed by
Dr. Smiles to designate his popular book of brief biographies. In 1860 a
condensed
edition of this History was issued in Paisley, purporting to be "Abridged
from the
Original Publication," but what, or whose publication, was not stated. An
article
contributed to "Chambers’s Journal" contained passages purporting to be
original,
taken from the Rochdale story. The correction was at once made by the
editor.
Afterwards I was sorry I mentioned the matter, as other writers might have
gone on
quoting as their own, passages which would have advanced the knowledge of
Co-operation.
The Quarterly Review of 1863 had occasion to include this "History" in the
list of books reviewed, in a very remarkable article on Co-operation, but
it
suppressed the name of the author. The writer of the review suggested that
a single
book of nameless authorship had an odd look among others that enjoyed
paternity.
The editor adopted an extraordinary mode of removing the singularity—he
omitted
the names of all the other authors reviewed, though among them were
writers of the
most perfect "regulation" type of thought, and the result was the only
article that
probably ever appeared in the Quarterly in which only authorless books
were
reviewed.
There remains, however, the satisfaction of knowing that this book has
been useful.
Mr. William Cooper of Rochdale, writing to the Daily News, December 1863,
stated
that of 332 Co-operative Societies then on the Registrar’s Returns, 251
had been
established since 1857 when "Self-Help" was published, and he adds, "I
have heard
several persons ascribe the origin of their now prosperous Society to
reading the
History. Not fewer than 500 or 600 copies were sold in Rochdale. It was
bought and
read by a few working men in many towns in the United Kingdom." This
History is
now revised, enlarged, illustrations added, and brought down to the
Rochdale
Congress of 1892.
The Italians have a proverb of unusual sagacity for that quick-witted
people, namely:
"They who go slowly go far". Co-operation has gone both slow and far. It
has issued
like the tortoise from its Lancashire home in England; it has traversed
France,
Germany and even the frozen steppes of Russia; the bright-minded Bengalese
are
applying it, as is the soon-seeing and far-seeing American; and our own
emigrant
countrymen in Australia are endeavouring to naturalise it there. Like a
good
chronometer, Co-operation is unaffected by change of climate, and goes
well in
every land.
G.J.H.
EASTERN LODGE,
BRIGHTON
September, 1893. |
