74 



possible. We believe, whenever we have carried out 

 these principles, even in defective ways, we have pros- 

 pered and grown strong. Where we have neglected 

 them our cause is languishing. The more thoroughly w< 

 investigate and understand what is known as the Roch- 

 dale plan, the more thoroughly we are convinced that it 

 is the safest and best system of co-operation which, can I e 

 devised to secure in business matters the greatest good to 

 the greatest numbers. All the patrons want to know is 

 their own strength; we are so apt to forget the advantages 

 we have already attained. In any place where a success- 

 fid Grange store has been established, groceries, house- 

 hold necessaries, such as stoves, sewing machines, and 

 farm implements have been reduced from ten to forty per 

 cent. And vour Committee would respectfully recommend : 



1st. The establishment of at least one co-operati ve 

 store in every county in the State, as near as practicable, 

 on the Rochdale plan. That is, after paying the running 

 expenses of the store and ten per cent, on the capital 

 stock, the net profits to be divided pro rata among the 

 purchasers who arc stockholders. The company to be in- 

 corporated under the State laws, and the stock held only 

 by Patrons of Husbandry. No Patron allowed more than 

 twenty shares of ten dollars each. 



2d. And your Committee further recommend for the 

 purpose of helping the membership throughout the State 

 and further the efforts in the way of organizing County 

 Co-operative Associations, that a circular covering all the 

 points relative to organizing such establishments, be pre- 

 pared by some competent person and printed in sufficient 

 quantity for liberal distribution, and placed in the hands 

 of the Secretary of the State Grange, to be sent out when- 

 ever called for by members of the Order. 



3d. Your Committee further recommend that a com- 

 mission and wholesale house, upon the same plan, be 

 established at some commercial center, so that all local 



