Various

“ Oddities, no doubt, were the luxuries; and we can see to-day in the ethnological accounts of contemporary savages and backward civilizations, a fair representation of the cookeries of the ancients. The luxuries of the Chinese are, in their way, a survival of long ages of a cookery which to western civilization is grotesque. Even if it is an historic impertinence, it is impossible for the countries of western civilization to regard the fine flower of their own evolution as other than the highest pitch of progress. ”

“ Copyright, like patent right, would be covered by the legal definition of a monopoly. It is a mere right to prevent other people from manufacturing certain articles. But objections to monopolies in general do not apply to this particular class of cases, in which the author of a new work in literature or art has the right of preventing others from manufacturing copies thereof and selling them to the public. The rights of persons licensed to sell spirits, to hold theatrical exhibitions, &c., are also of the nature of monopolies, and may be defended on special grounds of public policy. ”

“ CO-OPERATION, a term used particularly both for a theory of life, and for a system of business, with the general sense of “working together” (con, with, and opus, work) . In its narrowest usage it means a combination of individuals to economize by buying in common, or increase their profits by selling in common. In its widest usage it means the creed that life may best be ordered not by the competition of individuals, where each seeks the interest of himself and his family, but by mutual help ”

“ This was held to be no breach of copyright; but the circulation of copies of a drama, so taken from a copyright novel, whether gratuitously or for sale, is not allowed. Then again it is often a difficult question to decide whether the alleged piratical copyright does more than make that fair use of the original author’s materials which the law permits. It is not every act of borrowing literary matter from another which is piracy, and the difficulty is to draw the line between what is fair and what is unfair. ”

“ But credit is Germany and credit co-operation. used in two senses. The English workman employed for wages is against the credit which means spending them before they are earned: continental co-operation seeks by collective credit to put into the hands of working peasants, craftsmen and traders, the stock and the tools without which their labour is vain. Credit for consumption is the road to poverty; credit for production the road to well-being. ”

“ On the other hand, it is claimed that copyright, being in the nature of personal property, should be perpetual. A man’s own work, in this view, is as much his as his house or his money, and should be protected by the state. Historically, and in legal definition, there would appear to be no doubt that copyright, as regulated by statute, is strictly a monopoly. The parliamentary protection of works of art for the period of fourteen years by an act of 1709 and later statutes appears, as Blackstone points out, to have been suggested by the exception in the Statute of Monopolies 1623. ”

“ Owen, having himself become a great employer of labour, after starting as a draper’s assistant, saw that this was in every sense waste, and that as it paid the manufacturer to have the best machinery and not to overdrive it, but to tend it well and keep it in the best repair, so it would pay him, and abundantly pay the nation, to have the human machines well cared for, not overworked, and kept in the best condition. ”

“ They contend, moreover, and it is indeed admitted that, in spite of the great advantages which consumers’ production has in its command of a market and of abundant capital, only a small part of industry can ever be carried on by associations of the persons who actually consume the produce. Outside this small part, therefore, voluntary co-operation is impossible except as some form of co-partnership. ”

“ The end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th centuries were the culminating days of the industrial revolution, when the old organization of domestic industry had given way before the factory system, and the population of the factory districts was suffering a martyrdom, with ruin of body and degradation of character, from unbridled competition, long hours, women’s and children’s labour, pauper apprenticeship, great fluctuations of trade and employment, dearness and adulteration of provisions, the truck system and insanitary homes. ”

“ A vendor, who is the absolute beneficial owner, now conveys expressly “as beneficial owner,” which words, by virtue of the Conveyancing Act 1881, imply covenants by him with the purchaser that he has a right to convey, for quiet enjoyment, freedom from incumbrances, and for further assurance—limited, however, to the acts and defaults of the covenantor and those through whom he derives his title otherwise than by purchase for value. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Copyhold is necessarily parcel of a manor, and the freehold is said to be in the lord of the manor. The court roll of the manor is the evidence of title and the record of the special laws as to fines, quit rents, heriots, &c., prevailing in the manor. When copyhold land is conveyed from one person to another, it is surrendered by the owner to the lord, who by his payment of the customary fine makes a new grant of it to the purchaser. The lord must admit the vendor’s nominee, but the form of the conveyance is still that of surrender and re-grant. ”

“ The impurities contained in coarse-copper are mainly iron, lead, zinc, cobalt, nickel, bismuth, arsenic, antimony, sulphur, selenium and tellurium. These can be eliminated by an oxidizing fusion, and slagging or volatilizing the products resulting from this operation, or by electrolysis (see below) . In the process of oxidation, a certain amount of cuprous oxide is always formed, which melts in with the copper and diminishes its softness and tenacity. It is, therefore, necessary to reconvert the oxide into the metal. ”

“ Thus while a society for building, or for the collective ownership of houses, is counted a co-operative society, a Building Society (as we ordinarily understand the term) , though it be purely mutual in its basis, is not so counted in Great Britain, but is in the United States (see Building Societies) .
For the early history of the co-operative movement we have to look chiefly to Great Britain, and British co-operation acknowledges as its founder Robert Owen (q.v.) . In every age and every country the origins of co-operation may no Robert Owen. ”

“ The co-partnership theory, on the other hand, maintains that the workers actually employed in any industry, whether distributive or productive, should be partners with those who find the capital, and those who buy the produce, and should share with them the profit, responsibilities and control. The consumers’ party contend that societies of producers make a profit out of the consumers, and thus are never truly co-operative, while as they multiply they must compete against each other. ”

“ The developed art of cookery is necessarily a late addition—if it may be considered to be included at all—to the list of “fine arts.” Originally it is a purely industrial and useful art. Man, says a French writer, was born a roaster, and “pour être cuisinier, il a besoin de le devenir.” The ancients were great eaters, but strangers to the subtler refinements of the palate. The gods were supposed to love the smell of fried meat, while their nectar and ambrosia represented an ideal, which, though preserved as a phrase, would hardly satisfy a modern epicure. ”

“ In many successful societies even more is paid, but the average is falling. Where dividend is high, prices are often fixed above those current in the neighbourhood, so that the members, in addition to saving the retailer’s profit, use their Society as a sort of savings bank, where they put away a halfpenny or so for every shilling they spend. In addition to retailing, a store often manufactures bread, clothes, boots and millinery, sometimes farms land, or grinds corn; usually for its own members only, but occasionally for sale to other societies also. ”

“ Nothing is paid on the shares as interest or dividend, all profit being voted once for all to the ordinary reserve and the indivisible reserve, the latter the backbone of the system. In every large district the Raiffeisen banks are federated in a Union, and these Unions culminate in a General Agency. As an intermediary among themselves, and between them and the money market, the banks have also a central bank with a capital of £500,000, and with ten provincial branches. A great deal of agricultural co-operation has arisen from these banks as centres, and with the money they have supplied. ”

“ Each borrower must specify the purpose for which he wants a loan, say to buy a cow or drain a field, or pay off a money-lender, and this is rigorously inquired into. Only members can borrow. Any member, however poor, can borrow for a profitable approved purpose, and no one, however rich, for any other. Practically all the members see that the money is applied as agreed; and, while the loan is often made for a long period, a year or two—even for ten or more—so as to repay itself out of the profit, power is reserved to call it in at short notice if misapplied. ”