shall make the balance standing to the credit of any person less than the amount required for permanent share of stock (£20), she shall at once begin weekly payments in the same manner as a new member, and shall continue them until the balance to her credit shall equal the amount required for a permanent share of stock (£20).
Article IX.—Returns.
Whenever a housekeeper's share has doubled itself, and reached the amount of £40, its holder shall receive, three months after the settlement next ensuing, the sum of £20. When a housekeeper resigns, not transferring her stock to a new member, the full amount of her stock shall be paid to her, if her resignation is caused by any urgent necessity; but if otherwise, 25 per cent. of her stock shall be retained to the society's capital.
Remarks on the foregoing Articles.
Several of these provisions, it will be seen, have special reference to guarding the permanent capital of the association from diminution. Consisting, as it does only of the twenty-pound admission fees of its members, it is so small (for an association of fifty families being only £1000) that these precautions will commend themselves to the good sense of everybody. The seventh and ninth articles, containing the rules for the disposal of the profits of the association, provide that no money shall be paid over to the co-operative housekeeper until her dividend equals the amount of her share (£20). This is in accordance with the expressed object of the society as laid down in the last clause of Article I., "to accumulate capital for each housekeeper out of the profits of the business." If the dividends were paid over to the housekeeper in small sums as fast as they came in, she would be likely to spend them, as she went along, in gratification of her needs or fancy. Whereas, receiving them always in sums of not less than £20 would dispose her to turn them towards the formation of a steady capital, to be invested for her own support in old age, or for the benefit of her husband and children, should they survive her.
