THE OUTCOME OF THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 659 



York, Chicago, and New Orleans, to buy for the patrons of the 

 whole country. But this was soon seen to be impracticable, 

 owing to the diversity of interests in the Order. The same was 

 true with regard to the purchase of patent-rights. With the view 

 of absorbing into the Order the profits of manufacturing farming- 

 implements, the National Grange had bought the right to man- 

 ufacture a harvester, a mower and reaper, and various other 

 machines. It had also tried to buy the copyright of Cushing's 

 "Manual" a book in great demand among the Grangers. 

 Meanwhile, the executive committee was busy in another direc- 

 tion. Congressman Aiken of South Carolina, one of its members, 

 says that they " visited the manufacturers who supplied the mar- 

 ket with such implements as the farmers needed, from a scooter- 

 plow to a parlor-organ, proposing to concentrate the purchases 

 of the Order where the greatest discounts were obtained for 

 cash. In no instance did they fail to secure a reduction of 25 

 to 50 per cent." Mr. Aiken notes the astonishment of one 

 cutlery-maker at a single order for ten thousand pruning-knives 

 of a particular pattern. Such enormous reductions from regular 

 prices were obtained only under a pledge of secrecy. But as in- 

 formation had to be distributed by thousands of printed sheets, 

 the patrons could not keep the secret. The contracts leaked out, 

 causing the withdrawal of many firms from their agreements. 

 What experiments the National Grange might have tried with 

 the great sums in its treasury can only be conjectured, as its 

 resources and influence over the subordinate lodges were crippled 

 almost fatally in the Charleston meeting in 1875. It probably 

 would have continued the crop reports, which, though costly, 

 and often unreliable through the ignorance and carelessness of 

 Granges about furnishing statistics, had proved valuable. Like 

 the State Granges, which had full treasuries, it might have 

 squandered its capital and come to grief on co-operative ventures. 

 Such is the inference to be drawn from utterances like the 

 following, from the executive committee : 



To secure rights to manufacture leading implements ... is pre-eminently a 

 duty of the National Grange, and a measure of the greatest importance, di- 

 rectly, because the profits of manufacture will thus be controlled by the Order, 



