Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 03.djvu/176

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COOPER UNION" 140 COPAIBA In the United States, before the war, the development of consumers' co-opera- tion had been least marked, though it had a history of effort stretching back through fifty years. In 1916 the Co- operative League of America, the edu- cational federation of the movement in this country, had a record of only 600 co-operative societies in the United States. To-day, in 1920, its card index directory indicates 4,000 such societies, most of them in the Middle West. In Illinois these societies have already fed- erated into a wholesale society, doing a monthly business of $300,000. Another wholesale society has also appeared in Boston, supplying local societies in New England, doing a slightly smaller vol- ume of trade. A third federation is located in Superior, Wis., supplying a large number of Finnish societies in that region, while the Pacific Co-operative League operates a central purchasing agency in San Francisco. Being of spontaneous growth, con- sumers' co-operation is not based on any social theory of organization, as is the case with the other collectivist move- ments. But the movement itself, by its own practical development, has now sug- gested certain laws of social evolution which indicate a system of social organ- ization peculiar to itself. Thus considered, it may be said that co-operation is distinctly a social move- ment, in contrast to a class movement; that it is representative of the people as consumers, rather than as workers. Thus, it holds that consumption is the motive behind all industry, and on this element in society only may a true in- dustrial democracy rest. In method it is evolutionary, as contrasted to the revo- lutionary method of Marxian socialism or the industrial action of syndicalism, or militant industrial unionism. While co-operation does not hesitate to employ political action to protect itself against discrimination, as has been the case in Great Britain, it is essentially an eco- nomic, non-political movement, in that it has no tendency to establish its practices by legislation. Consult: Leonard Woolf, "Co-operation and the Future of In- dustry" (London, 1918) ; Emerson P. Harris, "Co-operation, the Hope of the Consumer" (New York, 1918) ; Albert Sonnichsen, "Consumers' Co-operation" (New York, 1919). COOPER UNION, or COOPER IN- STITUTE, an institute founded in New York City in 1857 by Peter Cooper. Its object is to provide free schools of art and science, and free reading rooms and library for the working classes. The course in science includes the engineer- ing, chemistry, astronomy, and mechan- ical drawing; and that of art includes architectural, industrial, and ornamental drawing, clay modeling and painting. In- struction is also given in English liter- ature and Belles Lettres, wood engrav- ing, pottery, typewriting, stenography, and telegraphy. There are lecture courses, a museum, an art gallery, and a library with a reading room contain- ing current numbers of nearly 500 mag- azines and newspapers. The Institute was built at a cost of $630,000 and was endowed by Mr. Cooper with $300,000. It has received additional gifts from time to time from Edward Cooper and Abram S. Hewitt, and in 1899 Andrew Carnegie gave it $300,000 for the found- ing of a mechanical day art school. The endowment of the Union in 1920 amounted to about $3,000,000. Over 4,000 persons were enrolled in the various de- partments. COORG, or KURG, an ancient prin- cipality, now a province in southern Hin- dustan, lying between Mysore on the E. and N. E. and the districts of South Canara and Malabar on the W. ; area, 1,583 square miles. The country has a healthful climate, and yields coffee, spices, tim.ber, etc. The capital is Mer- kara. Pop. (1901) 180,607. COOT, a wading bird boVngin^ to the family Rallidse, and the suo-family Gal- limUinse (water hens). The head and neck are deep black, the upper parts slaty black, those beneath bluish ash, the bill and frontal plate white, the former with a slightly roseate hue, iris crimson, feet ash-colored with greenish tinge be- low the knee, above it yellow or greenish red. It is found in Great Britain, Hol- land, France, Germany, Switzerland, and throughout Europe. It deposits from seven to ten egg^s of a brownish white color, spotted with dark brown. COPACABANA, a small peninsula in the S. part of Lake Titicaca, Peru, which was a sacred place of the Incas and where many ruins of their tempTes and other buildings can still be seen. Thou- sands of pilgrims yearly visit the chapel there, which contains an alleged mirac- ulous painting of the Virgin. COPAIBA, the balsam or oleo-reain obtained from incisions made in the trunk of copaifera rmiltijuga and other species of copaifera. Copaiba is about the consistence of olive-oil, light in color and transparent, wilh a peculiar odor, and an acrid, aromatic taste; it is per- fectly soluble in an eo.ual volume of ben- zene ; it does not become gelatinous when heated to 270° Fahr., and is not fluores-