264 TEE GRANGER MOVEMENT 



Its capital rose in ten years from eight hundred and fifty dol- 

 lars to over forty thousand dollars; nearly two hundred and 

 seventy thousand dollars' worth of goods were sold in 1883; 

 and a three-story modern building equipped with a hall for the 

 local grange was erected at a cost of seventy-five thousand 

 dollars. The success of this attempt at cooperation led to the 

 establishment of some twenty or thirty similar cooperative stores 

 in the state. Some were under the control of the Grange and 

 some independent, but nearly all were successful when based 

 upon the Rochdale plan. It is probable that this movement 

 was an important factor in the revival of the order of Patrons 

 of Husbandry in Kansas during the early eighties. 1 



In California a considerable number of Grange corporations 

 were organized in 1873 and 1874 for the purpose of running 

 local cooperative stores, and several more extensive cooperative 

 associations were organized in the commercial centers. Among 

 the most successful of these were the Farmers' Cooperative 

 Union of San Jose, the Grangers' Union of Stockton, and 

 a Grangers' cooperative association for Southern California at 

 Los Angeles. The method of operation of all of these was prob- 

 ably about the same and the last will serve as an example. 

 The capital of this association was fixed at one hundred thousand 

 dollars divided in shares of fifty dollars each, which could be 

 held only by Patrons and not more than ten by any one person. 

 The holding of one share of stock admitted a Granger and his 

 family to all the privileges of the company. Goods were sold 

 to members at as near cost as possible but to outsiders at the 

 usual rates. While this was not the Rochdale system, it con- 

 tained a number of distinctively cooperative features and most 

 of the Grange cooperative associations of California were reported 

 as " meeting with marked success " as late as i882. 2 



The earliest attempt at the organization of a Grange coopera- 

 tive association in the southern states seems to have been the 

 Direct Trade Union, which was incorporated in Georgia in 



1 Warner, in Johns Hopkins University, Studies, vi. 384; National Grange, 

 Proceedings, xv. 37, xvi. 30 (1881, 1882). 



2 Carr, Patrons of Husbandry, 165-168; National Grange, Proceedings, xvi. 27 

 (1882). 



