246 THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 



agencies, with the exception of a few which had organized as 

 stock companies, had proven unsatisfactory and were declining. 1 

 At this session the donation from the National Grange 2 was 

 turned over to the executive committee to be used for business 

 purposes and the committee was authorized to establish a new 

 agency to be located in the city of Chicago and placed in charge 

 of a salaried agent who should be under bonds. This plan was 

 tried during 1876 with considerable success, according to the 

 reports made to the state grange in December of that year, 3 

 and the new agency continued operations on a small scale well 

 down into the eighties. 4 



Meanwhile the work done by state agencies in other states 

 had been taken over in part in Illinois by a number of com- 

 mercial firms of Chicago which early began to advertise that 

 they were prepared to fill orders for clubs and granges at whole- 

 sale prices. Prominent among these were the firms of Z. N. 

 Hall, which for several years furnished the granges with groceries 

 at wholesale prices and other supplies for a small commission, 

 and Montgomery Ward and Company, which has since developed 

 into one of the largest mail order houses in the country. 5 For 

 facilitating the direct shipment of produce by the local granges 

 or agencies to Chicago a contract was made by the state grange 

 with the commission firm of Reynolds, Corbett, and Thomas, 

 by which it was officially recognized as Grange agent. When 

 this firm failed, late in 1874, though without loss to shippers, 

 its members declared that the Grange support had not been 

 such as to warrant further experiments of the kind. 6 The 

 executive committee of the state grange succeeded, never the- 



1 Prairie Farmer, xlv. 52, 202 (February 14, June 27, 1874); Illinois State 

 Grange, Proceedings, iv. 12, 15, 17, 23-31 (1875). 



2 See above, p. 68. 



3 Illinois State Grange, Proceedings, iv. 42, 44, v. 9, 48-50, 55-57, 90-101 (1875, 

 1876). 



4 A. G. Warner, " Three Phases of Cooperation in the West," in American 

 Economic Association, Publications, ii. no. i, p. 34 (March, 1887) and in Johns 

 Hopkins University, Studies, vi. 384. 



6 Prairie Farmer, xliv. 91 (adv.), 92, 348, 411 (adv.), xlvi. 172 (1873, 1874). 

 6 Prairie Farmer, xlv. 52, 396 (February 14, December 12, 1874); Industrial 

 Age, December 12, 1874, p. 5. 



