480 HISTORY OF THE GRANGE MOVEMENT; OR, 



have remained solvent have had to pay not only a fair 

 profit on the goods they have purchased, but something 

 in addition for the time that has been given them, and 

 to make up for the losses of the traders by bad debts. 

 Now the members of the Grange who propose to pay 

 cash for what they buy, think that they ought to have 

 their goods cheaper than before. Some of the traders 

 have admitted the justice of this claim, and have made 

 satisfactory terms, but others have refused. Where no 

 terms could be made, the Grangers have been forced to 

 establish their own stores. Their plan has been to 

 divide the stock into shares of $10 or $15, so that each 

 member of the Order can afford to own one or more 

 shares. The goods are then all bought and sold for 

 cash, an advance of eight per cent, on the cost being 

 charged. At Waterloo, where a store of this kind has 

 been established, the farmers find that they obtain 

 better articles at less prices, and that their stock pays 

 them a good profit. The average sales in that store, 

 since its establishment, have been $112 a day, a con- 

 siderable portion of' it coming from .the railroad shops 

 situated there. 



" But it is not alone by cooperative purchases that 

 the Grangers hope to save money. They have not 

 only bought their goods on credit, and therefore in the 

 highest market, but tlfey have sold their crops at home 

 to middle-men for cash, and therefore in the lowest 

 market. They now hope, by cooperative selling, to 

 get better prices for what they raise than they have 

 hitherto received. Until quite recently such a thing as 

 shipping his own grain to Chicago, or any eastern mar- 

 ket, has been almost unknown among the farmers. 

 Whenever any of them have attempted it they have 



