It is difficult to see that any great harm was done by the course which was adopted. The growth of the three societies has been so great that each of them is large enough to maintain a bakery of its own, and although the Federation had one or two temporary setbacks, none of them was serious enough to affect its stability or its efficiency. It is possible, therefore, to argue that either decision would have had equally good results. There we may leave what was undoubtedly a stirring controversy while it lasted, the importance of which at the time forms sufficient justification for the space which has been devoted to it. CHAPTER VI. ST JAMES STREET: DEVELOPMENTS. IMPROVED MANAGEMENT—PRIVATE LOANS—IRREGULARITY OF ORDERS AND OTHER DIFFICULTIES—A NEW FOREMAN BAKER—SHORT WEIGHT IN FLOUR—DELIVERY DIFFICULTIES CONTINUE—UNINFORMED CRITICISM—AN ECHO OF THE IRONWORKS FAILURE—NEW MEMBERS—AMENDING THE RULES—EXTENSIONS—MANAGER RESIGNS: SECRETARY APPOINTED—OAKMILL SOCIETY—APPEAL FOR FUNDS—TRADE AND FINANCIAL POSITION IMPROVING—ANDERSTON SOCIETY’S FAILURE—GOOD NEWS—MACHINERY INSTALLED—BECOMING RICH—TEN YEARS’ WORK. In tracing the development of the agitation for and against the establishment of a branch bakery we have been running ahead of the calendar. A new cashier, who was virtually manager of the business, had been appointed in the last days of 1872, and during the next two and a half years he carried on the business with as much success as the conditions under which he was compelled to work permitted. In these two and a half years he inaugurated a system of private loans to the Federation for the purpose of increasing the working capital of the Society; the smallness of the capital having been until then the greatest difficulty under which the Federation laboured; and so successful was this venture that by April 1875 the Society was in a position to deposit £500 on loan with the S.C.W.S., while six months earlier he was in a position to recommend to the committee that the acceptance of private loans except from those who had already deposits with the Society, and from the employees, be discontinued; a recommendation which was put in force by the committee a month later.