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.
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 Conclusion. 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.*)
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
