[Illustration: CENTRAL PREMISES ] HISTORY OF THE UNITED CO-OPERATIVE BAKING SOCIETY LTD. A FIFTY YEARS’ RECORD 1869–1919 BY WILLIAM REID [Illustration: Logo] PUBLISHED BY UNITED CO-OPERATIVE BAKING SOCIETY LIMITED M‘NEIL STREET, GLASGOW 1920 [Illustration: SCOTTISH CO-OPERATIVE WHOLESALE SOCIETY LTD. PRINTERS BOOK BINDERS & STATIONERS] PREFACE. The chief advantage of prefaces is the opportunities they give authors for making apologies and for returning thanks. In the present instance the hurry with which the book has had to be written did not allow time enough to do many things which the writer would have liked to do. He would have liked to linger with the old-time enthusiasts who laid the foundations of the Society, to have made himself as familiar as possible with the times in which they lived and with the thoughts in their minds, so that he might be able to present to his readers a picture of their times as they saw them, and of their difficulties as they had to encounter them. For this there was no time, and so he has had to content himself with telling a plain, unvarnished tale of difficulties met and overcome, of a faith which refused to be dismayed, and of a triumph which is visible to all. Unfortunately, there is no one alive to-day who had any active part in the inception of the Society. This increased the difficulty of presenting a true picture of the beginnings of the Society, but some help in this direction was got from the “Year Book,” which had been written by Mr Lochrie in 1896. The writer is also very much indebted to Mr David Brown, of the office staff of the Society, who prepared synopses of the various minutes of the Society. These synopses, by indicating the salient points in the minutes, greatly lightened the labour of selection; but, in addition, every minute has been carefully read at least once, and many of them much oftener, so that complete accuracy might be secured. Great assistance in dealing with the history of the last thirty years has also been given by Mr James H. Forsyth, cashier of the Society, whose knowledge of the transactions of that period is unparalleled. W. R. CONTENTS.