en staple groceries, etc., are sometimes bought in this way. Members
often save enough in single purchases to pay all their expenses for the
Grange. There is no capital invested; there are no debts imposed upon
himself by the purchaser; and there has not been extreme difficulty in
securing favorable contracts. The plan seems destined to continued
enlargement and usefulness as a legitimate phase of business
co-operation. Michigan Granges purchased not less than $350,000 worth
of goods during 1905, under such a plan. The estimate for Maine is over
half a million dollars.

In several states the organization successfully conducts mutual fire
insurance companies; active membership in the Grange being an essential
requisite for membership in the insurance company. Wherever these
companies have become well established, it is asserted that they
maintain a lower rate of assessment than even the popular "farmers'
mutuals." In New York there are twenty-three Grange companies, with
policies aggregating $85,000,000, the average cost for the year 1905
being $1.96 per thousand. Single companies claim to have secured even
better rates. This insurance not only pays individuals, but it attracts
and holds members. In New Hampshire a fairly successful Grange life
insurance company exists.

In co-operative selling, the order has so far accomplished very little,
except locally and among individuals or Granges. There is a supreme
difficulty in the way of successful transfers among patrons themselves,
as members desiring to buy wish the very lowest prices; those desiring
to sell, the very highest prices. Arbitration under such circumstances
is not easy. The fundamental obstacle to members selling together on
the general market is that, in most cases, all members do not have the
same things to sell. A co-operative creamery, for instance, is organized
on the basis of a _product_--butter; the Grange is organized on the
basis of _manhood_--and each man may have his crop or stock specialty.
This difficulty, though grave, is not, perhaps, insuperable, and will
tend to disappear as membership enlarges. But it is only fair to state
that, so far, the Grange has not been able to devise any successful plan
for co-operative selling, applicable on a large scale.

There are two or three features that deserve further mention. One is the
position of the family in the Grange. It is stated that the Grange was
the first secret organization to place woman on a