260 THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 



and the Mississippi Valley." Negotiations were carried on by 

 the executive committee with the approval of the National 

 Grange, and finally a delegate was sent to England to perfect 

 the arrangements. The outcome of the whole matter was the 

 organization of the " Anglo-American Cooperative Company " 

 which was to have an American branch under the supervision 

 of the National Grange. The scheme was presented to the 

 National Grange at its tenth session in November, 1876, and 

 was recommended by it to the Patrons in connection with a 

 comprehensive plan for cooperation, embracing local cooperative 

 stores, state and interstate cooperative associations, and finally, 

 at the top, the American branch of the Anglo-American Coopera- 

 tive Company. The inauguration of this scheme for inter- 

 national cooperation depended upon the raising of a certain 

 amount of capital in America; but by this time the order of 

 Patrons of Husbandry had declined so much in numbers and 

 prestige that this was impossible and the plan never went into 

 operation. 1 



COOPERATIVE STORES 



By the time of the tenth annual session of the National Grange 

 in November, 1876, the members had pretty generally lost 

 faith in Grange agencies of any sort and in Grange manufac- 

 turing, but most of them had become converts to the Rochdale 

 system of cooperation. From this time on the National Grange 

 devoted much of its energies to disseminating literature concern- 

 ing this system and to encouraging the organization of coopera- 

 tive stores and associations and their substitution for existing 

 Grange agencies and corporations. 2 Long before the promulga- 



1 National Grange, Proceedings, ix. 89-93, x - 8-10, 25, 48-67, 124-130, 144-152, 

 162, 167-169, 172, xi. 12, xii. 95 (1875-78); Aiken, The Grange, 13. 



In September, 1876, the Oregon State Grange planned the organization of a 

 " Cooperative Association of the Northwest " to be ultimately connected with the 

 Anglo-American Company. In January, 1877, the Arkansas State Grange recom- 

 mended the organization of corporations which should take stock in and serve as 

 distributing agencies for the Anglo-American Company. Oregon State Grange, 

 Proceedings, iii; Arkansas State Grange, Proceedings, v. 



2 National Grange, Proceedings, ix-xvi (1875-82); Rules for Patrons' Coopera- 

 tive Associations . . . Recommended by the National Grange (pamphlet, 1876); 



