The Order of the Sovereigns of Industry, established in 1874, was an American mutualist movement targeted at urban workers which attempted to end perceived social ills through the establishment of consumer cooperatives. The organization's form and mission was directly inspired by the Order of Patrons of Husbandry (commonly known as the "National Grange"), a parallel organization established for the benefit of American farmers. After a few years a lengthy and severe financial depression of the American economy caused a net cash flow crisis in the stores associated with the organization beginning in 1878. Deep financial woes forced the dissolution of the Order in 1880.
Organizational history
Establishment
The Order of the Patrons of Husbandry, commonly known as the National Grange, was established in 1868 in an effort to organize American farmers against the monopoly power being exerted by the all powerful railroads of the day. The organization initially took the form of a secret society as a means of preventing retaliation against its members. When Dudley W. Adams was elected National Master of the Grange in 1873, he called upon a friend from school, William H. Earle, to take charge of Grange organizing activities in Massachusetts.
Whereas the Patrons of Husbandry was exclusively an agricultural organization with substantial strength in the rural states of the American West, Earle found an altogether different situation in Massachusetts, a manufacturing state with only limited potential for establishment of an agrarian organization. Earle instead began to envision a new and parallel organization which attempted to unite American workers in the same manner that the Grange united farmers.
Early in January 1874 Earle called an organizational meeting in Springfield among people he had met there who seemed favorable to his idea for a new workers mutual aid organization. Fifteen people responded to Earle's convention call and they worked for a week drafting a constitution for a new organization — the Order of Sovereigns of Industry. The Order was to be governed by a National Council, headed by Earle as the group's president. A set of rituals was also adopted, with the Sovereigns of Industry choosing to copy the early Grange's structure as a secret society.
There were a total of 60 members from 8 states and the District of Columbia at the time of its foundation in 1874, including 21 women.
Objectives
According to an article published by Earle later in 1874, the Sovereigns of Industry was to be dedicated to "elevating the character, improving the condition, and, as far as possible, perfecting the happiness of the laboring classes" through the establishment of consumer cooperatives. Earle saw exploitation of the workers by wholesalers and shopkeepers and other middlemen as a primary cause of their misery:
"We propose to have Purchasing Agencies, through which consumers reach the producer direct, without so many needless 'middlemen,' who do nothing to merchandise but add to its cost. We think 'middlemen' have grown rich enough already. 'Middlemen' not only exact a tax from every consumer, but they are responsible for 'shoddy goods,' 'short weights,' and adulterations. We are determined to secure pure goods at lower prices."
Earle characterized "hand-workers" as "the real producers of wealth" and declared the Sovereigns of Industry's intention of establishing a cooperative network which would allow workers to "control the whole of what they produce, and exchange it as near as may be even with other hand-workers..." Despite this orientation, the Sovereigns of Industry decried the "waging any war of aggression upon any other class, or for fostering any antagonism of labor against capital, or of arraying the poor against the rich," but rather insisted upon its goal of "mutual assistance in self-improvement and self-protection" of its members.
Structure
The constitution of the Sovereigns of Industry called for national, state, and local councils, with the National Council to be composed of two representatives from each state.
At the organization's zenith in 1875, 101 local councils were reported as having established some form of cooperation, with 46 of these operating stores, 20 making use of the Rochdale system, and another 26 selling commodities at cost to members only. The Sovereigns of Industry made efforts to cooperate with the Patrons of Husbandry (Grange), including in at least one case the joint operation of a cooperative store.