Coöperation,
in modern parlance the association of people for the accomplishment of any desired end, especially the association of working people for the management of their industrial interests in store, workshop, or other undertaking, and the equitable distribution of profits. The advantages of coöperation consist in the lower prices paid for the ordinary articles of life and of manufacture, the common use of capital, machines, buildings, water power, and in common production.
In the United States coöperation has made comparatively slow progress. In 1886 coöperative business in New England include creameries, banks, and building associations. A coöperative coopering association was established in Minneapolis in 1874. In 1882 the students of Harvard University formed a society for supplying themselves with books, stationery, and other articles. It has been a great success and has been imitated at Yale and other colleges. At the congress held Aug. 26, 1898, at Karlsruhe, the number of societies reported was 11,854, including 8,451 coöperative banks, 716 coöperative dairies, and 647 other societies. These have since been considerably increased. So far as it has gone the movement 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.
Entry from Everybody's Cyclopedia, 1912.