Chapter 17

In Ireland stores have not hitherto flourished, though a few exist. Irish co-operation is agricultural, and dates from the foundation of one co-operative dairy in 1889. Thence has grown a movement already of great importance, still advancing and comprising from eighty to ninety thousand members, belonging to some hundreds of societies--dairies, agricultural supply societies, banks and so forth, formed on the Danish model. To form a dairy the small working farmers of a district register a society and take up shares of £1 each, in proportion to the number of their cows. Each brings his milk to be separated, is paid for the butter-making material it contains, and receives back skim milk. If any profit is divided, it belongs nine-tenths to the suppliers of milk in proportion to the value of their supplies, and one-tenth to the dairy employees as dividend on wages in pursuance of the co-partnership principle. These dairies produce butter worth more than £1,000,000. Their rapid spread is due to their great influence in improving the quality of butter, and hence increasing the farmer's gains. The co-operative banks are of the Raiffeisen type, though a few have limited liability. They aim at providing the peasants with necessary capital ("the lucky money" they have christened it) and expelling the usurer. They are increasing rapidly. Among other objects of Irish co-operation are selling eggs, poultry, barley and pigs, joint-grazing, potato-spraying, scutching flax, bacon curing, home industries, and of course supplying farm requisites. The movement promises much further growth in magnitude and variety. The dairy societies have federated into an agency for reaching the English market, and the supply societies into an Irish Wholesale for purchasing to the best advantage. Besides the direct profits and economies of these societies, they have greatly benefited Ireland by teaching men of all classes, parties and religions to act together for peaceful progress; they have led to a wide diffusion of better agricultural knowledge, and to the establishment by government of the Agricultural Department. (See IRELAND.)

Co-operative agriculture in France and other countries.

In France, which Englishmen are apt to speak of as preeminently the country of co-operative production, the agricultural is the most important branch of co-operation; and the source and mainstay of agricultural co-operation are the _Syndicats Agricoles_. These are not technically co-operative societies; they are rather trade unions, not indeed of wage-earners only, or mainly, but of cultivators. They cannot legally trade, being constituted for the study and protection of the general interests of the members, the spread of information, and so forth. Their principal object however, seems in many cases to be to combine their members for the purchase of all farm requisites and especially of chemical manures. This they do by collecting, sorting and passing on orders. They cannot usually manage selling in common without the intervention of a society specially registered for that object. Beginning only in 1893, their number long ago ran into thousands and their membership into hundreds of thousands, drawn from all classes of cultivators and landowners, great and little. Among much other good work they have led to the formation of a large number of strictly co-operative societies for all the purposes of agriculture, except cultivation in common. Thus there are two thousand agricultural banks, besides butter factories, distilleries, associations for threshing, for sale of fruit and vegetables, for wine-making, oil-pressing, and so on, amounting altogether to some hundreds. There are also societies, mostly of ancient date, engaged in making Gruyère cheese: a few years ago these numbered 2000, but they are dwindling. Lastly, there are some eight thousand mutual insurance societies organized as agricultural syndicates.

Everywhere the main features of this agricultural movement are similar to those we have seen in Denmark and Ireland; it is supplementary to individual cultivation; hardly ever does it appear as associations for cultivating in common, and, speaking with certain important exceptions, it has no very ideal aims, but seeks chiefly to give the farmer a better profit. In England there are a number of farms worked by stores, and several large associations for the supply of farm requisites; but the typical agricultural co-operation, based on small village societies and federations of such societies, has only recently been made known and begun to take root.

France and co-operative production.

It is notable that while the _Syndicats agricoles_ are almost exactly what Fourier, the Robert Owen of France, foresaw as the next stage of social development, the other great branch of French co-operation, the workshop movement of the _Associations_ _ouvrières de production_, is directly due to his teaching, which led in 1848 to the starting of a large number of co-operative workshops. The suppression of association after the advent of Napoleon III. killed most of them, but with the return of liberty they revived and they have steadily increased ever since. They vary somewhat among themselves, but are in the main combinations of workmen to carry on their industries with their own capital or that of their trade unions. Their chief difference from English co-partnership societies is that they very rarely admit to membership any persons not belonging to the trade. They are engaged in a great variety of industries, selling comparatively little to co-operative distributive societies, as English co-partnership societies do, but taking contracts from government departments and the municipalities, and supplying the general public. Complete statistics of their total trade are not available, but it exceeds £2,000,000, and the separate societies seem to vary, like the majority of English co-partnership societies, from about £40,000 a year downwards, a few being larger but the great majority small. From about 140 societies in 1896 they have grown to between two and three times that number, and the increase continues with rapidity. More than two hundred of them are federated in the _Chambre consultative des associations ouvières de production_, which looks after certain business interests of the societies, and also assists the formation of new ones by propaganda and advice. In Paris alone about a third of these societies are found.

It has been objected that their growth is artificial inasmuch as the government gives them certain advantages, such as preference over the private contractor at an equal price, exemption from the deposit of security, and special concessions as to payments on account. It also grants a subvention (recently about £7000 per annum), which was formerly all given to the societies in grants, but is now largely lent to them at not more than 2% interest through their own special bank. This bank was founded in 1893 to help the societies with loans and discounts, and was soon after endowed by a disciple of Fourier with £20,000. The societies have also benefited by other private beneficence and public help. As to the Government aid, it must be remembered that in France the state helps all forms of industry in ways unknown to us, and the French co-operative producers always declare that what is done for them is a trifle compared to what is done for other manufacturers. Moreover, they get many large contracts in open and unaided competition. In these societies the _auxiliaires_, or workers who are not members, are often numerous; but no society is now admitted to their federation which does not share profits with the _auxiliaires_ and facilitate their admission to membership.

Consumers' co-operation, credit co-operation, agricultural co-operation, and workshop co-operation, as exemplified in Great Britain, Germany, Denmark and France, are found in most advanced countries, some in one and some in another, in forms roughly similar to those above described. Of co-operation for production it might have been said, a few years ago, that outside Great Britain it everywhere meant associations of producers. Except bakeries, there was but little consumers' production; that, however, seems now to be spreading in foreign countries also. The most important developments of co-operation not yet described are the socialist co-operation of Belgium, the co-operative building societies of the United States, the labour societies of Italy and Russia, the co-operation of German craftsmen to provide themselves with raw material, and the letting out of railway construction to temporary co-operative groups of workmen by the New Zealand and Victorian governments.

In Belgium co-operation is mostly socialist in the towns and Catholic in the country. In all the principal industrial centres are very important co-operative bakeries and distributive societies, owned by co-operative groups, numbering thousands of workmen of every calling. These _Maisons du peuple_ are admitted to be well managed, even by those who dislike their politics. The socialist party look upon them chiefly as a means of organizing and educating the working classes for political and economic emancipation, and of providing funds for political warfare. Like the English stores, and allied societies, they are based on the consumer, but unlike them they pay no interest on share capital, though they do on deposits. A much larger part of the profit than in England is devoted to propaganda and common purposes, though a part is also paid to the consumers individually in the form of checks exchangeable for bread or other goods. The workers employed also receive a share of profit as a dividend on their wages, and elect their representatives on the committee of management. By means of these societies the party has a press, buildings, and the funds to fight elections and support members in parliament. In France, where the store movement has been of an individualistic, and often middle class, tendency, the socialists have lately imitated the example of Belgium, and seem to be winning more success than the older French stores.

In the United States there has long been much important agricultural co-operation, and there have been many much-advertised attempts to establish Rochdale co-operation, but there have so often been failures and even dishonesties that co-operation has had a bad odour in the country, and the developments come and go with such rapidity that it is difficult to speak with confidence of its stability. The branch of co-operation which has been a great success in the United States consists of the great co-operative building societies, but building societies are not considered part of the co-operative movement in Great Britain.

Co-operation of all kinds is greatly developed in Italy, but one form is specially notable. The _Società di lavoro_ are co-operative labour gangs of great importance. They are counted by hundreds, and are found among navvies, builders, masons, carriers, stevedores, agricultural labourers and other workmen, and have carried out very great works in Italy and in foreign countries. They have, for instance, drained lands in the Campagna and made a railway in Greece. They differ from productive societies markedly in that they have comparatively little to do with capital or material, but contract mainly for labour.

The Slavonic races seem to have a special aptitude for grouping together co-operatively: it is said that men meeting casually on a journey will do so for the brief time they are together. In countries like Servia we see this ancient, and more or less customary, loose and unstable co-operation meeting the modern contractual, permanent co-operation of banks and other registered societies. So in Russia, where so large a part in the national organization is played by the _Artel_ (see RUSSIA), which may be a transitory co-operative group of workmen undertaking a particular piece of work, e.g. to build a house, or a permanent association like that of the bank porters combined together to guarantee one another's honesty.

State help.

While English and some other forms of co-operation have always repudiated state help, and probably rightly, so far as their own work is concerned, the state in almost all countries, and conspicuously in England, has in fact helped to the extent of providing special legislation, and waiving fees, so as to encourage the formation of co-operative societies. A second form of state help is very noticeable in the modern development of agriculture, as in Denmark, Canada, New Zealand, Ireland and very many countries, where the state has played a great part in performing or assisting functions which neither voluntary association nor individual enterprise could well perform alone; in providing technical education, expert advisers, exhibitions and prizes; in distributing information in all forms; in finding out markets, controlling railway rates, subsidizing steamboats, and even grading, branding, warehousing and freezing produce, and maintaining trade agents abroad. These things have not been done for co-operative societies alone, but for agriculture in general; but co-operation has chiefly benefited, and much has been done expressly to encourage the formation of associations of cultivators, and provincial and national federations of such associations; and government departments of agriculture are found acting through such bodies, and with their advice and assistance. The third and most questionable form of state help is by direct subventions, and we have seen how much has been done in this way for credit co-operation and particularly agricultural credit. Harm has undoubtedly been done in certain cases by forcing co-operative societies, whether from political motives or merely mistaken policy. Yet even as to money subventions, good authorities, while admitting the great dangers, remain convinced that the advantages overbalance them, self-help being evoked, and helped over initial difficulties which would otherwise be insuperable. Experience in fact shows that governments can do a very great deal, at least for agricultural co-operation, but only on condition that they encourage, and do not undermine, self-help and private initiative. Thus while voluntary association is sometimes advocated as a step towards, and sometimes on the other hand as a substitute for, and bulwark against, state socialism, we find in practice these two forces working each in its own sphere, and in ways complementary one to the other, while underlying and essential to both is the force of individual action and self-help.

Conclusion.

We have now surveyed co-operation in its chief forms and in some of the countries where it is chiefly found. Some years ago it was roughly estimated that the members of one or other of its branches numbered six millions, representing with their families a population of 25,000,000 people. This must be much within the truth to-day. In no other country so much as in Great Britain do we find the tendency for all branches of co-operation to federate in one union and to help one another by mutual trade. Yet everywhere the instinct of co-operative societies is to federate with others--at least with others of their own particular shade; so that Wholesales and other federations are found more and more in many countries. Since 1895 the co-operators and co-operative societies of many far-distant lands--almost of the whole world--have been drawn together by the International Co-operative Alliance, a body which, without attempting to interfere in their differences, collects information from all, and distributes it to all, keeps them all in touch, and every few years calls their delegates together in congress, to discuss their problems, and to remember their common ideals.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--International Co-operative Alliance, _International Co-operative Bibliography_ (London, 1906); G. J. Holyoake, _History of Co-operation_ (London, 1875-1879, new ed., 1906), _History of the Rochdale Pioneers_ (London, 1893, new ed., 1900), _Self-Help a Hundred Years Ago_ (London, 3rd ed., 1891), _Co-operative Movement of To-day_ (London, 1891, new ed., 1896); Lloyd Jones, _Life and Times and Labours of Robert Owen_ (London, 1890, new ed., 1895); F. Podmore, _Robert Owen_ (London, 1906); E. T. Craig, _History of Ralahine_ (London, 1882, new ed., 1893); Thomas Hughes and E. V. Neale, _A Manual for Co-operators_ (Manchester, 1881, 1888); Catherine Webb (editor), _Industrial Co-operation_ (Manchester, 1904); Beatrice Potter (Mrs Sidney Webb), _Co-operative Movement in Great Britain_ (London, 1891, 1893, 1904); A. H. D. Acland and B. Jones, _Working Men Co-operators_ (1898); Benjamin Jones, _Co-operative Production_ (London, 1894); C. R. Fay, _Co-operation at Home and Abroad_ (London, 1908); H. D. Lloyd, _Labour Co-partnership_ (London and New York, 1898); D. F. Schloss, _Methods of Industrial Remuneration_ (London, 2nd ed., 1894); N. P. Gilman, _Profit Sharing_ (London, 1892); C. Robert, _Guide pratique de la participation_ (Paris, 1892); Aneurin Williams, _Twenty-eight Years of Co-partnership at Guise_ (Letchworth, 1908), _Relations of Co-operative Movement to National and International Commerce_ (Manchester, 1896); Dallet-Fabre-Prudhommeaux, _Le Familistère illustré_ (Paris, 1901); Bernadot, _Le Familistère de Guise_ (Guise, 1892); E. O. Greening, _The Co-operative Traveller Abroad_ (London, 1888); H. W. Wolff, _People's Banks_ (London, 1893, 1896), _Co-operative Banking, its Principles and Practice, with a chapter on Co-operative Mortgage Credit_ (London, 1907); de Rocquigny, _La Co-opération de production dans l'agriculture_ (Paris, 1896); Merlin, _Les Associations ouvrières et patronales_, &c. (Paris, 1900); Mabilleau and others, _La Prévoyance sociale en Italie_ (Paris, 1898); Fr. Müller, _Wesen, Grundsätze und Nutzen der Consumvereine_ (Basel, 1900). See also the annual Reports of the Government Labour Departments, and the _Monthly Bulletin_ of the Internat. Co-op. Alliance. (A. Wi.*)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] Holyoake, _History of Co-operation_ (1906 edition), i. 34.

COOPERSTOWN, a village and the county-seat of Otsego county, New York, U.S.A., where the Susquehanna river emerges from Otsego Lake; about 92 m. (by rail) W. of Albany. Pop. (1890) 2657; (1900) 2368; (1905) 2446; (1910) 2484. It is served by the Cooperstown & Charlotte Valley railway (owned and controlled by the Delaware & Hudson), and is on the line of the Oneonta & Mohawk Valley electric railway. The village lies in the midst of a hop-growing and dairying region, and has cheese factories and creameries. It has a public library, Thanksgiving hospital, a Y.M.C.A. hall, and the Diocesan orphanage (Protestant Episcopal). Cooperstown is a summer resort, Otsego Lake (9 m. long and with an average width of about 1 m.), the "Glimmerglass" of Cooper's novels, being one of the most picturesque of the New York lakes. Cooperstown occupies the site of an old Indian town. In 1785 the site became the property of Judge William Cooper, who in the following year founded there a village which took his name and was incorporated in 1807. Judge Cooper himself settled here with his family in 1790. His son, James Fenimore Cooper, who lived here for many years and is buried in the Episcopal cemetery here, made the region famous in his novels.

See J. Fenimore Cooper, _The Chronicles of Cooperstown_ (Cooperstown, 1838).

COOPER UNION, a unique educational and charitable institution "for the advancement of science and art" in New York city. It is housed in a brownstone building in Astor Place, between 3rd and 4th Avenues immediately N. of the Bowery, and was founded in 1857-1859 by Peter Cooper, and chartered in 1859. In a letter to the trustees accompanying the trust-deed to the property, Cooper said that he wished the endowment to be "for ever devoted to the advancement of science and art, in their application to the varied and useful purposes of life"; provided for a reading-room, a school of art for women, and an office in the Union, "where persons may apply ... for the services of young men and women of known character and qualifications to fill the various situations"; expressed the desire that students have monthly meetings held in due form, "as I believe it to be a very important part of the education of an American citizen to know how to preside with propriety over a deliberative assembly"; urged lectures and debates exclusive of theological and party questions; and required that no religious test should ever be made for admission to the Union. Cooper's most efficient assistant in the Union was Abram S. Hewitt. In 1900 Andrew Carnegie put the finances of the Union on a sure footing by gifts aggregating $600,000. For the year 1907 its revenue was $161,228 (including extraordinary receipts of $25,565, from bequests, &c.), its expenditures $161,390; at the same time its assets were $3,870,520, of which $1,070,877 was general endowment, building and equipment, and $2,797,728 was special endowments ($205,000 being various endowments by Peter Cooper; $340,000, the William Cooper Foundation; $600,000, the Cooper-Hewitt Foundation; $391,656, the John Halstead Bequest; $217,820, the Hewitt Memorial Endowment). The work has been very successful, the instruction is excellent, and the interest of the pupils is eager. All courses are free. The reading-room and library contain full files of current journals and magazines; the library has the rare complete old and new series of patent office reports, and in 1907 had 45,760 volumes; in the same year there were 578,582 readers. There is an excellent museum for the arts of decoration. Apart from valuable lecture courses, the principal departments of the Union, with their attendance in 1907, were: a night school of science--a five-year course in general science (667) and in chemistry (154), a three-year course in electricity (114), and a night school of art (1333); a day school of technical science--four years in civil, mechanical or electrical engineering--(237); a woman's art school (282); a school of stenography and typewriting for women (55); a school of telegraphy for women (31); a class in elocution (96); and classes in oratory and debate (146). During the year 2505 was the highest number in attendance at any time, and then 3000 were on the waiting list.

In the great hall of the Union free lectures for the people are given throughout the winter; one course, the Hewitt lectures, in co-operation with Columbia University, "of a very high grade, corresponding more nearly to those given by the Lowell Institute in Boston"; six (in 1907) courses in co-operation with the Board of Education of New York city, which, upon Mayor Hewitt's suggestion, made an appropriation for this work in 1887-1888, and extended such lecture courses to different parts of the city, all under the direction (after 1890) of Henry M. Leipziger (b. 1854), and several courses dealing especially with social and political subjects, and including, besides lectures and recitals, public meetings for the discussion of current problems.

CO-OPTATION (from Lat. _co-optare_; less correctly "co-option"), the election to vacancies on a legislative, administrative or other body by the votes of the existing members of the body, instead of by an outside constituency. Such bodies may be purely co-optative, as the Royal Academy, or may be elective with power to add to the numbers by co-optation, as municipal corporations in England.