66o READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



as well as the profits of transfer or dealing; indirectly, by securing facilities 

 that will favor the introduction of manufacturing establishments in districts 

 at present far removed from them, and where their products are in demand. 



The plan of having the farmer's machinery manufactured at his 

 door and under his supervision was much better as a statement 

 of protectionist doctrine than as a guide to safe investment. The 

 poHcy of the meeting of 1875 indicated that, before it was too 

 late, the National Grange recognized that there was danger of 

 going too fast, and that its province was rather to devise plans 

 for the use of the Order than to plunge into enterprises itself. 

 It therefore 'sounded a note of caution, and first issuing a scheme 

 for co-operative joint-stock stores based on something found in 

 this country, proceeded to work out a more elaborate system on 

 the model of the Rochdale Pioneers. Various English publica- 

 tions on co-operation were distributed among the Order, and an 

 envoy was sent to England to confer with English co-operators. 

 The result was a new set of rules, closely following the Roch- 

 dale plan, and insisting on the feature of investing the profits of 

 trade for the stockholders on the basis of purchases, as opposed 

 to the simple joint-stock arrangement of the earlier scheme, which 

 had been largely put into practice. After a prolonged stay, the 

 commissioner to England made his report, bringing from English 

 co-operators proposals for dealings on a grand scale. The Grange 

 was to subscribe ^125,000 toward the necessary shipping depots, 

 and all trade was to be carried on directly with England through 

 a company to be known as the "Anglo-American Co-operative 

 Company." The Englishmen followed the matter up by sending 

 three men to the United States to confer with the executive 

 committee. After looking over the ground, they proposed to 

 erect their own warehouses at four seaboard cities, prepared to 

 supply every article of clothing and every farm-implement needed 

 by patrons at a discount of 10 per cent, and to receive in ex- 

 change every variety of farm-produce at the market price, pro- 

 vided that the Grange would concentrate its purchases upon 

 them. But by this time the ardor of the patrons had been 

 cooled by reverses in local experiments, and the executive com- 

 mittee was unable to make the necessary guarantees. The 



