The directors early recognised the value of a social meeting as a means of advertising the Society and its goods, and in December 1894 a large number of the ladies of the movement were invited to inspect the premises of the Society and were afterwards entertained to tea. From that time it became a practice of the Federation to entertain branches of the women’s guild, conference associations, etc., while they were generous in grants of bread to persons who were suffering from the effects of unemployment, whether caused by dullness in trade or strikes. During the winters of 1892–3 and 1893–4 large quantities of bread were distributed to those in want from the former cause, while during the continuance of the miners’ strike and the engineers’ strike further quantities were distributed and, in addition, a grant of £100 was made to the strike fund of the engineers. In 1895 an incident took place which at one time seemed likely to lead to friction between the two big Scottish federations. The Wholesale Society brought before its members a proposal to start a biscuit factory in Leith, with the result that the committee of the Baking Society sent out a circular to all the societies in the larger federation, protesting against the proposal as one which would set up competition between the two federations, and pointing out that it was in a position to meet all the needs of the societies in biscuits. Fortunately, the proposal went no further, and thus what would have been a bone of contention between the societies disappeared.