CONCLUSION 307 



Trades unions and labor organizations of various sorts had 

 existed in the United States for some time, but this seems to 

 have been the first attempt on a large scale to unite workingmen 

 of all occupations in a single order to advance the welfare of the 

 laboring class as a whole. 1 For a few years the Sovereigns of 

 Industry flourished vigorously and councils were established 

 in all of the New England and Middle States, in all of the states 

 of the old Northwest except Indiana, and in Kentucky, Mary- 

 land, and the District of Columbia. About five hundred councils 

 in all appear to have been established with a total member- 

 ship of nearly forty thousand. Over half of the membership, 

 however, was in Massachusetts and Connecticut. The prin- 

 cipal activity of this order was in the direction of distributive 

 cooperation, 2 and large numbers of stores were organized on the 

 Rochdale plan in New England. Some of these were very suc- 

 cessful for a few years; but the Springfield store, which was the 

 largest, was dissolved in 1879, and the order collapsed in the 

 following year. 



Another labor organization of a somewhat similar character 

 was the order of the Knights of Labor. 3 This was founded in 

 Philadelphia in 1869, but did not spread to any considerable 

 extent until the latter part of the next decade. In 1878 the 

 name of the order was first made public and from that time on it 

 grew rapidly and became the first great national organization of 

 workingmen in America. While it is probable that the Grange ex- 

 erted no direct influence on the Knights of Labor, still the declara- 

 tions of the two orders exhibit a similarity of purpose. The pre- 

 amble adopted by the Knights declared their general aims to be: 



1 The American Agriculturist, xxxiii. 47 (February, 1874) mentions the order of 

 " Patrons of Industry " as a weak imitation of the Patrons of Husbandry, for 

 workingmen, with headquarters in New York. This is, of course, not to be confused 

 with the order of " Patrons of Industry " which was organized in Michigan about 

 1887 as an agricultural order. 



2 At the request of the Ohio Council of the Sovereigns of Industry, the Ohio 

 State Grange ordered its agent to cooperate with the Sovereigns in the purchase 

 of supplies. Ohio State Grange, Proceedings, iii (1876). 



3 T. V. Powderly, Thirty Years of Labor; Ely, Labor Movement, 75-88; An 

 Historical Paper Showing the Aims and Objects of the Knights of Labor (leaflet in 

 University of Illinois library). 



