95 



business in a business shape, on a business platform, and 

 invites the attention of manufacturers and jobbers, secur- 

 ing at the same time the best margins. 



For the furtherance of our business interests in the 

 Northwest, a meeting of the managers of Western Co-op- 

 erative Associations was called to meet at the Sherman 

 House, in the city of Chicago, on the 22d day of Novem- 

 ber last. The proceedings of the session, at which seven 

 States were represented, are herewith appended to this 

 report, and as the action of the convention left the care of 

 presenting the subject to the consideration of this State 

 Grange into much abler hands than mine, we shall leave 

 to Bro. Foster the presentation of the plan expressing the 

 wishes and desires of that business body. Co-operation 

 however, being the theme and subject of discussion 

 throughout the land among our membership, a few words 

 on what has already been accomplished in that direction 

 by men of experience, may not come amiss. Co-opera- 

 tion is the action of a number of persons working together 

 in a mutual and uniform way toward the accomplishment 

 of a special end, a special object. Co-operation begets 

 uniformity of purposes and means, and without unifor- 

 mity in the plans followed, cannot be complete, or work 

 to the best advantage of all parties concerned. 



In the Grange, hereafter co-operat : on and education 

 should be our watchwords. The possibilities of co-opera- 

 tion are apparently inexhaustible. 



When a uniform business sj-stem shall be adopted by 

 over 25,000 Subordinate Granges, the Order of the Patrons 

 of Husbandry will become a unit as it were, and will 

 move irresistibly forward to the accomplishment of such 

 enterprises as may be deemed of the highest importance 

 for the perpetuity and welfare of the Order. 



Our Order has inaugurated a revolution as peaceful as it 

 is powerful, and it remains to be seen what honest work 

 and wisely invested capital will accomplish towards liber- 

 ating our country from the immediate dangers which 



