THE OUTCOME OF THE GRANGER MOVEMENT. 371 



Patronesses preferred to Iniy their own dresses, and it finally expired. 

 The States did not stop with agencies. They too began to buy patent- 

 rights. There was an idea that all the principal machinery used by 

 the order should be manufactured within it. Flouriug-mills, elevators, 

 tobacco and grain warehouses, were established. Some ventures were 

 unsuccessful from the start, and at once clamored for subsidies. Others 

 boasted of the greatest prosperity, one making a dividend of fifty per 

 cent the first yeai*. In 1874 two thirds of the elevators in Iowa were 

 in Grange hands. The experiment of shipping provisions directly 

 to Southern Grange centers was undertaken. In 1876 the Patrons 

 were said to own five steamboat or packet lines, thirty-two grain-ele- 

 vators, and twenty-two warehouses. Some of these were local vent- 

 ures, but the full treasuries of the State Granges furnished the capi- 

 tal for most of them. It is always easy to experiment with other 

 men's money, and the State Grange officials found no difiiculty in 

 getting, with the Grange funds, into enterprises where disaster was 

 inevitable. It came in every instance. The blow was so overwhelm- 

 ing in some States (Arkansas and Nebraska for example), that they 

 dropped at once from the order. District Granges disbanded for fear 

 of being held individually liable for State Grange debts, and the very 

 name Granger became a reproach. In other States the Grange was 

 greatly weakened, but survived. In Iowa a few hundred of the faith- 

 ful have struggled on for years, the officers receiving no salaries, but 

 devoting all receipts to the debt, left as a reminder of past glories. 

 Professor R. T. Ely, in his recent book on " The Labor Movement in 

 America," expatiates on the " grand results " achieved by the Patrons 

 in co-operation, and credits the absurd statement that Grange savings 

 in this way amounted to twelve million dollars in one year ! Un- 

 fortunately, the greater number of enterprises were " grand " chiefly 

 in failure, a fact of which Professor Ely seems never to have heard. 

 About all that survived the wreck of the later seventies were mutual 

 insurance companies, principally fire-insurance, and co-operative stores. 

 At present. Grange insurance companies are reported from more than 

 half the States and from Canada, and Grange co-operative stores are 

 even more widespread. Successful buying-agencies still exist in five 

 States, and the Delaware Patrons have a fruit-exchange. The most 

 interesting state of things is found in Texas, where there are about one 

 hundred and twenty-five Grange stores established on the modification 

 of the Rochdale rules, and banded together in a State association. 

 This holds annual meetings, contributes two thousand dollars to keep 

 Grange lecturers in the field, and reports steady prosperity. 



Much of the later history of the Grange has been anticipated in 

 treating of railroad legislation and co-operation, but its decadence 

 merits a little closer attention. Only those interested in agricultural 

 pursuits were eligible for membership, but, in the unprecedented 

 growth of the order under the labors of twelve hundred deputies, it 



