BUSINESS COOPERATION 239 



bandry during the early seventies. The result was the estab- 

 lishment of an almost incredible number of cooperative or 

 pseudo-cooperative enterprises under the control of the farmers' 

 organizations. These enterprises included local, county, and 

 state agencies for the purchase of implements and supplies 

 and the sale of farm products, local grain elevators and coopera- 

 tive stores, the manufacture of farm machinery, banking, 

 insurance, and even organizations for bringing about direct 

 trade between the American producer and the European con- 

 sumer. 



Most of the enterprises were short-lived and many brought 

 disaster to those involved; but they are, nevertheless, distinctly 

 worthy of study, not only as an illuminating, though pathological, 

 chapter in the history of cooperation, but also as an integral 

 part of the movement for agricultural organization which swept 

 the country in the seventies. To trace in detail the history of 

 these cooperative enterprises in the various states would require 

 a volume in itself, and it will be necessary to confine this account 

 to a brief sketch of the development of this feature of the Granger 

 movement with some consideration of its scope, characteristics, 

 and results. 



GRANGE AGENCIES 



Even as early as October, 1867, two months before the estab- 

 lishment of the preliminary National Grange, one of Kelley's 

 correspondents had suggested that the proposed order should 

 be so framed as to confer a pecuniary benefit upon its members. 

 Kelley himself appears to have looked with favor upon this 

 idea; but it was opposed by others of the " founders " and the 

 constitution and early circulars of the order dwelt almost entirely 

 upon the social, fraternal, and intellectual benefits to be conferred. 

 When the work of organizing local granges was begun, however, 

 the farmers were inclined to ask, " What pecuniary benefit are 

 we to gain by supporting the organization ? " and it was not 

 long before the circulars were revised to lay emphasis on the 

 possibilities of protection and cooperation which the order 

 presented. 1 



1 Kelley, Patrons of Husbandry, 35, 79, 112-114, 129. 



