CO-OPERATION. 



CORDAGE. 



247 



the credit of 20,755 depositors, and 3,797 per- 

 sons representing nearly 20,000 souls had bor- 

 rowed this sum for aid in erecting homes. The 

 growth has been over twenty per cent, almost 

 from the opening of the first co-operative hank 

 in that State in 1877. Premiums are low in 

 Massachusetts, but the returns to depositors 

 average fully six per cent. The first series of 

 the first bank matured in 1888, after just eleven 

 years. The payment of $132 in monthly in- 

 stallments of one dollar thus enabled depositors 

 to draw out at the end of the time an increase 

 equal to five per cent, (of the entire $132) from 

 the beginning. In October, 1886, there were 

 37,730 depositors and 8,562 borrowers in the 

 151 building associations of New Jersey, the 

 assets of which were $9,300,705. In Hamilton 

 County, Ohio, in which Cincinnati is situated, 

 there were in 1888 340 associations with 60.000 

 shareholders and $15,000,000 assets. The week- 

 ly deposit was $167,000, and three fourths of 

 all the mortgages recorded in the 'county are 

 through these building associations. In 1886 

 there were eight of these associations in Minne- 

 apolis and forty in St. Paul. All were success- 

 ful, and in fact not a single failure in the past 

 five years has come to my notice, though a tew 

 must have occurred; the percentage of success 

 is certainly higher than in most forms of pri- 

 vate business. In Buffalo, N. Y., great good 

 has been done by these wonderful promoters of 

 thrift, and hundreds are the homes that the 

 wage-earners of that city have obtained by 

 their means. This might be said of hundreds 

 of other cities and towns in this country. 



But the greatest results are naturally to be 

 found in Pennsylvania, and especially in Phila- 

 delphia, the birth place of the movement. In 

 1886 there were over 90,000 shareholders and 

 15.000 borrowers of the 400 building associa- 

 tions in Philadelphia. The assets of 120 were 

 nearly $8,749,339.17. It is safe to say that in 

 the more than 1,200 co-operative building as- 

 sociations of the State there are over $50,000,- 

 000 assets owned by nearly a quarter of a mill- 

 ion depositors, and borrowed by over 40,000 

 families representing 200,000 persons, who are 

 thus enabled to buPd and pay for homes which, 

 without these invaluable banks, they would 

 have been forced to rent. 



Only one thing seems needed to secure their 

 safe as well as rapid growth. The Massa- 

 chusetts legislation, which carefully provides 

 against recognized dangers in management and 

 which requires full reports, as in the case of 

 the no more complicated or important savings- 

 banks, should be everywhere adopted : although 

 a few minor changes would be needed to pro- 

 vide for those associations already doing busi- 

 ness on systems different from that prescribed 

 in Massachusetts. All new associations might 

 be required to conform to the Massachusetts 

 plan. Reports to the bank commissioners of 

 each State should be required for subsequent 

 publication. If this be done, the future of this 

 peculiarly American form of co-operation will 



be secured. But if such legislation is not speed- 

 ily had in some States the collapse of many as- 

 sociations will surely follow, and work great 

 hardship to thousands. 



Co-operation is so useful in diffusing a knowl- 

 edge of business methods, in giving the discon- 

 tented masses an insight into the difficulties 

 that capitalists as well as laborers must endure, 

 and, finally, when successful, in elevating the 

 condition of all participants, that the present 

 needless obstacle of defective legislation in the 

 way of successful co-operation should be speed- 

 ily removed. Only Massachusetts has as yet 

 made much progress in this direction, and she 

 has not gone far enough. As in savings-banks 

 and building associations, the State should pre- 

 scribe methods of procedure. 



Bibliography. See Annual Reports of the Brit- 

 ish Co-operative Congresses, and the English 

 Parliamentary Report in 1886, on Co-operation 

 in Europe ; Report for 1886 of the Massachu- 

 setts Bureau of Labor Statistics; the "West- 

 minster Review ? ' for October, 1885; "Work- 

 ingmen Co-operators," by A eland and Jones; 

 "History of Co-operation," by Holyoake; 

 " Co-operation in the United States," edited 

 by Profs. H. B. Adams and R. T. Ely, of Bal- 

 timore, and written in 1886 and 1887 by five 

 graduates of the Johns Hopkins University, 

 who divided the field among them ; and the 

 Massachusetts Labor Bureau Report for 1886 

 and the New Jersey Reports for 1886 and 1887. 



CORDAGE. Twisted fibers of any material, 

 when less than one inch in circumference, are 

 known as cords, twines, threads, strings, yarns, 

 lines, and the like. When several of these are 

 twisted or laid together, forming a line more than 

 one inch in circumference, it is called a rope. 

 In the trade and with sailors, the size of a rope 

 is always designated by the measure of its cir- 

 cumference; with landsmen and non-experts, 

 it is designated by the diameter. It is easier 

 and more accurate to measure the circumfer- 

 ence than to measure the diameter, owing to the 

 depressions between the strands ; hence the for- 

 mer method is preferable, and in this article, 

 when the size of a rope is mentioned, it will 

 be understood that the circumference is meant. 

 In modern practice, vegetable fiber, iron or 

 steel wire, and, to a limited extent, animal fibers 

 are used in the manufacture of rope. In com- 

 mercial parlance, many substances are called 

 " hemp " which are not really the product of 

 that plant. Thus "manila hemp "is from a 

 species of banana. Sisal hemp is from the 

 leaves of the Central American agave, etc. The 

 following list describes many of these sub- 

 stances in detail, but the word hemp must be 

 taken in a commercial sense, as usage has in 

 many cases decreed its application to fibers 

 that merely resemble those of the true hemp. 



Coir is the outer fibrous covering of the co- 

 coa-nut. It is less used for cordage than for- 

 merly when rope cables were more commonly 

 employed, but its lightness gives it certain ad- 

 vantages over hemp and manila. A rope made 



