The Order of the Sovereigns of Industry, established in 1874, was an American
mutualist movement targeted at urban
workers
The workforce or labour force is a concept referring to the pool of human beings either in employment or in unemployment. It is generally used to describe those working for a single company or industry, but can also apply to a geographic regio ...
which attempted to end perceived social ills through the establishment of
consumer cooperatives
A consumers' co-operative is an enterprise owned by consumers and managed democratically and that aims at fulfilling the needs and aspirations of its members. Such co-operatives operate within the market system, independently of the state, as a fo ...
. 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
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials. The term usually applies to people who do some combination of raising field crops, orchards, vineyards, poultry, or other livestock. A farmer mi ...
. After a few years a
lengthy and severe financial depression of the American economy caused a
net cash flow
A cash flow is a real or virtual movement of money:
*a cash flow in its narrow sense is a payment (in a currency), especially from one central bank account to another; the term 'cash flow' is mostly used to describe payments that are expected ...
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
A monopoly (from Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situation where a spec ...
being exerted by the all powerful railroads of the day. The organization initially took the form of a
secret society
A secret society is a club or an organization whose activities, events, inner functioning, or membership are concealed. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence a ...
as a means of preventing retaliation against its members.
[John B. Andrews, "The Sovereigns of Industry," in John B. Commons, et al.]
''History of Labour in the United States.''
New York: Macmillan, 1918; pg. 172. 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
.
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
Springfield may refer to:
* Springfield (toponym), the place name in general
Places and locations Australia
* Springfield, New South Wales (Central Coast)
* Springfield, New South Wales (Snowy Monaro Regional Council)
* Springfield, Queenslan ...
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
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
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
A consumers' co-operative is an enterprise owned by consumers and managed democratically and that aims at fulfilling the needs and aspirations of its members. Such co-operatives operate within the market system, independently of the state, as a fo ...
.
[William H. Earle, ''Equity,'' October 1874. Quoted in Andrews, "The Sovereigns of Industry," pp. 172–173.] Earle saw exploitation of the workers by
wholesalers
Wholesaling or distributing is the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers; to industrial, commercial, institutional or other professional business users; or to other wholesalers (wholesale businesses) and related subordinated services. In ...
and
shopkeepers and other middlemen as a primary cause of their misery:
"We propose to have Purchasing Agencies, through which consumers
A consumer is a person or a group who intends to order, or uses purchased goods, products, or services primarily for personal, social, family, household and similar needs, who is not directly related to entrepreneurial or business activities. T ...
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 adulteration
An adulterant is caused by the act of adulteration, a practice of secretly mixing a substance with another. Typical substances that are adulterated include but are not limited to food, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, fuel, or other chemicals, that ...
s. 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.
[Richard T. Ely, ''The Labor Movement in the United States.'' Revised and Enlarged Edition. New York; Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., 1886; pg. 175.]
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.
[Andrews, "The Sovereigns of Industry," pg. 173.]
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
In economics, a commodity is an economic good, usually a resource, that has full or substantial fungibility: that is, the market treats instances of the good as equivalent or nearly so with no regard to who produced them.
The price of a comm ...
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.
[Andrews, "The Sovereigns of Industry," pg. 174.]
Membership was to be open to all individuals 16 years old or older.
According to the governing law of the organization, called the "Declaration of Purposes," membership was not to be constrained by race, sex, nationality, or occupation.
The group was to be funded by per capita dues of 20 cents per member, with each member paying an additional 25 cents
initiation fee.
Additional funds were to be generated through a $15 fee charged of each organization for its charter.
Membership
The Order of the Sovereigns of Industry showed rapid growth, skewed heavily to the states of
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
and the
Upper Midwest
The Upper Midwest is a region in the northern portion of the U.S. Census Bureau's Midwestern United States. It is largely a sub-region of the Midwest. Although the exact boundaries are not uniformly agreed-upon, the region is defined as referring ...
.
While a claim of 40,000 total members was made for the peak year of 1875 — of which three-quarters were said to have located in New England and more than 40% percent in the single state of Massachusetts — the official membership count of reporting councils was as follows:
:::
Following the state of Massachusetts, the second area of greatest penetration by the Sovereigns of Industry was in the commonwealth of
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
. Some 11,500 people were said to have joined the Sovereigns in that state, taking part in 78 local councils.
Official organ
The official organ of the Sovereigns of Industry was a publication produced in
Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester ( , ) is a city and county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, the city's population was 206,518 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the second-List of cities i ...
called the ''Sovereigns of Industry Bulletin.''
Termination
While the Sovereigns of Industry maintained a friendly relationship with the Granger movement, the organization's relations with the existing
trade unions
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and Employee ben ...
tended to be frosty. Many local unions of the era were organized into lodges and the rapid growth of the Sovereigns of Industry engulfed them.
Moreover, some unions began to see the Order as part of the problem, trying to bid down labor costs in an effort to obtain commodities for their cooperative stores as cheaply as possible. One October 1875 attack on the Order in the ''National Labor Tribune'' charged that "the only object of the Sovereigns is to buy cheap, if they have to help reduce wages to a dollar a day to do it."
[''National Labor Tribune,'' October 9, 1875, quoted in Andrews, "The Sovereigns of Industry," pg. 174.]
Ultimately it was the dismal economic fortunes of the country that were part and parcel of the
Long Depression
The Long Depression was a worldwide price and economic recession, beginning in 1873 and running either through March 1879, or 1896, depending on the metrics used. It was most severe in Europe and the United States, which had been experiencing st ...
which spelled doom for the Sovereigns of Industry.
[Andrews, "The Sovereigns of Industry," pg. 175.] With rampant
unemployment
Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for Work (human activity), w ...
came reductions of wages and a contraction of consumer spending. Cash payment to the Sovereigns of Industry's cooperative stores fell dramatically, causing cash flow difficulties for the local councils behind them.
Moreover, many of these institutions suffered from incompetent or corrupt management.
Private merchants competed effectively against the cooperatives, and
bankruptcies of the latter followed.
With its cooperative business model smashed and membership levels waning, the Order of the Sovereigns of Industry went into rapid decline in 1878.
[Ely, ''The Labor Movement in America,'' pg. 176.] The group was formally terminated in 1880.
Footnotes
Further reading
* ''Constitution of the Order of Sovereigns of Industry and By-laws of the National Council.'' Worcester, MA: Sovereigns of Industry, National Council, 1874.
"The Sovereigns of Industry: A New Organization for the Redress of Public Grievances — Branch Society Formed in this City,"''New York Times,'' February 1, 1874.
* ''Ritual of Sovereigns of Industry, Revised and Adopted at the Special Session, Held in Springfield, Mass., March 5, 6 and 7, 1874.'' n.c., n.p., 1874.
"The Sovereigns of Industry: The New Movement Among the Laboring Class — Purchasing Agencies.''New York Times,'' August 4, 1874.
* William Rounseville Alger, C. Edwards Lester, and Henry B. Allen, ''Report of the Committee on Declaration of Principles and Purposes, as Made and Adopted at the Annual Meeting of the National Council, Held in Philadelphia, January 12th to 16th, 1875.'' n.c.: n.p., 1875.
''Laws and Regulations of the Sovereigns of Industry, Mutual Relief Association No. 1 of Massachusetts, Organized February 20, 1875.''Boston: Conant and Newhall, Printers, 1875.
—Sovereigns of Industry life insurance flyer.
* Edward M. Chamberlin, ''The Sovereigns of Industry.'' Boston: Lee & Shepard, 1875.
—Reissued by Greenwood Press, 1976.
* John Orvis, ''A Plan for the Organization and Management of Co-operative Stores and Boards of Trade under the Auspices of the Order of Sovereigns of Industry.'' Worcester, MA: Sovereigns of Industry, National Council, 1876.
External links
www.stichtingargus.nl/
See also
*
The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry
The Grange, officially named The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, is a social organization in the United States that encourages families to band together to promote the economic and political well-being of the community and ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Order of Sovereigns of Industry
Organizations established in 1874
1880 disestablishments in the United States
Cooperatives in the United States
Mutualism (movement)
1874 establishments in Massachusetts