BUSINESS COOPERATION 241 



some of the profits of the middlemen by shipping produce directly 

 to the large markets instead of disposing of it to the local 

 dealers and commission men. The aggregate business done 

 by or through these local agencies throughout the country was 

 certainly enormous during the years 1873, 1874, and 1875, and 

 they no doubt effected very considerable savings for the members. 

 Their operations, moreover, naturally tended to force local 

 dealers to lower their prices in order to meet the competition, 

 and so were beneficial to many who were not members of the 

 order. 1 



But the Grangers were never satisfied with local cooperation. 

 If so much could be accomplished by the united efforts of the 

 members of a single grange or in a single county, what was to 

 prevent the cooperation of all the Patrons in a state or the 

 United States from accomplishing many times as much ? As 

 a result state agencies were established in state after state, 

 until by December, 1874, twenty-six state granges had adopted 

 some sort of an agency system. 2 The methods of operation 

 of these agencies were even more diverse than those of the 

 local agencies, and can perhaps best be made clear by sketching 

 the careers of a few of them as types. 



When the first state grange was organized in Minnesota in 

 1869, business cooperation was one of the principal subjects 

 discussed, and the general sentiment was strongly in favor of 

 the appointment of a state agent to purchase supplies and dis- 

 pose of produce for the Patrons. Kelley and others of the 

 " founders " feared that such a move might be premature, and 

 when the subject of appointing state agents and a general busi- 

 ness agent for the order was brought up at the so-called first 

 annual session of the National Grange in April, 1869, it was 

 laid on the table. 3 If the National Grange had taken hold of 

 the subject at this time and worked out a comprehensive system 

 of cooperation for the order, it might possibly have guided the 



1 The Prairie Farmer for 1873, J 874, and 1875 contains many reports of the 

 work of different local agencies. See especially xliv. 369, 387, 395, xlv. n (Novem- 

 ber, i873-January, 1874). 



2 See list of state agents in Prairie Farmer, xlv. 411 (December 26, 1874). 



3 Kelley, Patrons of Husbandry, 168, 170, 171, 176, 183, 186. 



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