ORGANIZATION S3 



to turn the anti-railroad sentiment of Illinois to the benefit of 

 the order has been noted. In May of the same year, Corbett 

 wrote a strong letter in which he asserted that " Railroad, Insur~ 

 ance Companies, Warehouse and Telegraph Companies, are 

 crushing the life out of the producing classes," and advocated 

 action on the part of the Patrons of Husbandry to protect the 

 people from these evils, even to the extent of forming a third 

 party to hold the balance of power and secure the election of 

 candidates to office pledged to carry out the reforms demanded. 1 

 This letter was read before the state grange of Minnesota and 

 then printed for circulation, and early in the following year 

 Kelley followed it up by securing reprints of articles by Rufus 

 Hatch published in the New York Independent upon stock- 

 watering and other railroad abuses. These, he says, " proved 

 excellent ' fuel ' for deputies to circulate." 2 



By April, 1871, according to Kelley, " ' Cooperation ' and 

 1 Down with monopolies ' were proving popular watchwords." 3 

 The early activity of the Minnesota State Grange in the direction 

 of cooperation has been alluded to. The first efforts of the 

 National Grange along that line were not particularly successful, 4 

 but by the latter part of 1872, the business agent appointed by 

 the Iowa State Grange was showing the possibilities of coopera- 

 tive buying and selling as a means of reducing prices and com- 

 missions. 5 From this time on cooperation was a recognized 

 part of the work of every state grange as soon as organized, 

 and in many states, county councils, afterwards officially recog- 

 nized as Pomona granges, were formed to further the business 

 features of the order. 



Largely as a result of the emphasis thus laid upon its pecuniary 

 advantages, the order began to grow vigorously in 1872, espe- 

 cially in the North Central group of states and in some parts 

 of the South. 1150 granges were organized during the year, as 



1 Reprinted in Kelley, Patrons of Husbandry, 256-259. 



2 Ibid. 256, 315, 320. 



3 Ibid. 322. 



4 Ibid. 302-305, 385; Rural Carolinian, iv. 36 (October, 1872). See also below, 

 p. 256. 



6 Kelley, Patrons of Husbandry, 409. 



