BUSINESS COOPERATION 243 



saved large amounts of money through the operations of the 

 state and local agencies. 1 



Iowa was the first state in which Grange cooperation achieved 

 a marked success. Local agencies existed in the state from the 

 very beginning of the organization of granges and in 1872 a 

 state business agency was established at Des Moines, with 

 J. D. Whitman as state agent, and a Chicago firm was chosen 

 to receive shipments of produce from Iowa Grangers. Whit- 

 man appears to have been energetic and capable. He soon 

 succeeded in building up a large business in the sale of farm 

 implements and supplies to Patrons. Negotiations were entered 

 into with manufacturers and wholesale dealers, and the special 

 rates secured communicated to the granges by means of con- 

 fidential circulars. Whenever possible the state agent seems 

 to have turned the orders over to these firms to be filled, but 

 some of the shipments were made through the agency. Many 

 orders were also sent by local grange agents or individual Patrons 

 directly to the manufacturers or wholesalers. At first the state 

 agent seems to have worked without any capital, but as the 

 business developed he was allowed to use part of the funds of 

 the state grange. This enabled him to take advantage of 

 opportunities to secure very low rates by making large pur- 

 chases outright and then filling orders as they came in. 2 



Even as early as December, 1872, before the state agency 

 had gotten into operation, glowing reports were made of the 

 savings effected by the Patrons of Iowa. 3 It was declared 

 that one-third of the grain elevators and warehouses in the 

 state were owned or controlled by the Granges and that five 

 million bushels of grain and large numbers of cattle and hogs 

 had been shipped direct to Chicago through grange agents, 

 upon which a saving of from ten to forty per cent had been 

 effected. On the purchases of agricultural implements alone 



1 Martin, Grange Movement, 487. 



2 Iowa State Grange, Proceedings, iv, v. u (1873, 1874); Prairie Farmer, xliv. 

 377, 411 (November 29, December 27, 1873); Martin, Grange Movement, 473- 

 485. 



3 S. Leavitt, Township Cooperation (pamphlet), 3, quoting a letter from Des 

 Moines to the New York World. Same in Rural Carolinian, iv. 493 (June, 1873). 



