458 



CO-OPERATION 



COORG 



Maurice, and Kingsley. Messrs Neale, Holyoake, 

 Hughes, Ludlow, and the Marquis of Ripon have 

 also powerfully aided in promoting it. 



In the United States of America co-operation 

 has not made such progress as might have been 

 expected from the energy and spirit of initiative 

 prevalent among the people. Though co-operation 

 had previously existed among the fishermen of "New 

 England, the Brook Farm (q. v.) experiment may.be 

 regarded as the starting-point of the movement. 

 Co-operative business in New England may in an 

 .average year reach the following figures : In dis- 

 tribution, 600,000 ; productive co-operation, exclu- 

 sive of dairies or creameries, 200,000 ; creameries, 

 150,000; banks, 800,000 in all, about 1,750,000. 

 In Philadelphia, co-operative building societies have 

 provided the workmen with from 80,000 to 100,000 

 homes. The same form of co-operation nourishes 

 in other parts of the country. A notable and 

 thoroughly successful effort in productive co- 

 operation has been made in the coopering trade 

 at Minneapolis since 1874. In 1882 the students 

 of the university of Harvard formed a co- 

 operative society for supplying themselves with 

 books, stationery, and other articles. 'The move- 

 ment has been a success, and has been imitated 

 by the universities of Yale and Michigan. The 

 general result, however, of a study of co-operation 

 in America is that while the experiments have 

 been numerous, varied, and in many cases success- 

 ful, its influence has been on a limited scale. 

 The rewards offered to every kind of exceptional 

 capacity in private enterprise are so enormous, the 

 scope for the development of individual energy in 

 all directions is still so great, that the workmen 

 have not yet widely realised the necessity for 

 industrial association among themselves. Many 

 important firms have, however, successfully intro- 

 duced the system of sharing profits with their 

 work-people. Complaints are made that the laws 

 of some of the states do not offer reasonable facili- 

 ties for the formation of co-operative societies. 



In France the industrial partnership system, by 

 which the capitalist gives his workmen a share in 

 his profits, has made greater progress than the 

 co-operative movement properly so called. At 

 the revolution of 1848 the government gave some 

 scanty subsidies to co-operative production, but 

 only a few of the societies prospered. Even yet co- 

 operative stores, co-operative hanks, and societies 

 for co-operative production have only had a limited 

 success. See PROFIT-SHARING. 



In Germany co-operation has flourished greatly 

 in the form or people's banks. These originated in 

 1849 under the auspices of Schulze-Delitzsch, at the 

 little town of Delitzsch in Saxony. In 1885 there 

 were 3822 societies belonging to the Schulze- 

 Delitzsch system, of which 1965 were credit 

 societies, 678 for distribution, 493 for the pur- 

 chase of raw material, &c. The societies had an 

 aggregate membership of 1,500,000, a share and 

 reserve capital of 15,000,000, a loan capital of 

 25,000,000, and did an annual business of 

 150,000,000. Since 1859 they have held annual 

 congresses. Schulze-Delitzsch was salaried coun- 

 sellor (anwalt) or general manager of the 

 societies till his death in 1883. In 1885 there were 

 145 productive associations in Germany. While 

 there were in 1873 only 6 co-operative dairies in 

 Germany, there were 226 of them in 1885. In 

 addition to all these, in 1884 there were 800 societies 

 (called after Raiffeisen, their founder), whose 

 function it is to provide mutual credit for the small 

 farmers of Germany. In 1895 there were (including 

 the last-named) in all Germany 11,141 societies, o 

 which 647 were credit societies. Austria had in 

 1894, 2050 associations, besides some 500 in Hungary. 



In Italy co-operation is making great progress, 



chiefly in the form of people's banks. In 1883 

 there were 250 such banks. At the end of 1885 

 their number had increased to 423, with 2,500,000 

 of share capital and about 13,000,000 of loan 

 capital. In 1895 there were 950. Co-operation in 

 other forms also is rapidly making way there are 

 co-operative dairies, and besides there are many 

 co-operative bakeries, established with a view to 

 checking the ravages of Pellagra (q.v.) by the 

 supply of wholesome bread. Such institutions re- 

 ceive the support of the Italian government. 



In Belgium the co-operative movement has estab- 

 lished itself on a very considerable scale at industrial 

 centres such as Ghent, in stores, bakeries, and in 

 co-operative fisheries. 



In Denmark co-operative dailies have recently 

 been making wonderful progress ( see DAIRY ). 



The various Professional and Civil Service stores 

 are simply a result of the application of the 

 co-operative system for the supply of the wants 

 of the middle classes, especially the professional 

 classes and clerks, begun in 1864 ; and these stores 

 now do a very large business, the largest being the 

 Army and Navy Stores in Victoria Street, London. 

 The salient difference between this middle-class co- 

 operation and that of the working-men is that the 

 former admits of the system of privileged share- 

 holders, whereas all the benefits of the latter are 

 open to every one who pays an entrance fee of one 

 shilling. 



From the above facts it will be apparent that the 

 purpose and tendency of the co-operative move- 

 ment is that the workmen, through the principle of 

 associated industry, by means of a joint capital, 

 should equitably manage their own affairs so far as 

 they can. Such management, we have seen, has 

 been applied on a large scale to distribution 

 and to people's banks, and has had a considerable 

 success also in various forms of domestic produc- 

 tion, as in corn-mills, bakeries, boot and shoe 

 factories, dairies, &c. In the large and staple 

 branches of manufacture it has as yet done veiy 

 little. But so far as it has gone, the move- 

 ment has been a real and effectual training for 

 the intelligence, business capacity, and moral 

 character of the workmen. It has taught them 

 thrift, foresight, self-control, and the habit of 

 harmonious combination for common ends ; and it 

 has opened up an unlimited field for peaceful, 

 hopeful, and successful effort in the future. 



See Holyoake's History of Co-operation (2 vols.), and 

 his Self-help a Hundred Years Ayo ( 1888 ) ; the reports 

 of the Co-operative Congress ; Working-men Co-operators, 

 by A. H. I). Acland and B. Jones (1884); Reports on 

 Co-operation in Foreign Countries, a blue-book issued in 

 1886 ; English Associations of Working-men, by Dr 

 Baernreither ( 1888 ). See also History of Co-operation in 

 the United States, published under the auspices of Johns 

 Hopkins University ( Baltimore, 1888 ). 



Cooper's Hill, a ridge on the borders of Berks 

 and Surrey, commanding a beautiful view of the 

 Thames valley. It was the scene of a famous 

 poem by Denham (q.v.), and is now known in con- 

 nection with the Cooper's Hill College, an import- 

 ant institution established in 1870 for the education 

 of engineers for the Indian Works Department, to 

 which a forestry school (1885) is attached. 

 Co-ordinates. See GEOMETRY (ANALYTICAL). 

 Coorg (a corruption of Kodagu, 'steep moun- 

 tain'), a province under the government of India, 

 on the eastern slope of the western Ghats, and 

 bordering on Mysore. Area, 1583 sq. m. ; pop. 

 (1881) 178,302; (1891) 173,055 a decrease. The 

 capital is Merkara (pop. 8500). Coorg is mainly 

 within the basin of the Kaveri River ; great part 

 of its area is 3000 feet above the sea. The yearly 

 rainfall is 122 inches, and hence the temperature 

 is humid. Nearly the whole of this rugged 



