"Severing the connections in a complex community": the grange, the patrons of industry and the construction/ contestation of a late 19th-century agrarian identity in Ontario

Labour/Le Travail, Fall, 2004 by Darren Ferry

THE LEADERSHIP of the Patrons of Husbandry and the Patrons of Industry in late 19th-century Ontario offered ideological visions of class harmony, the promise of united political action through antipartyism, and the assurance of material prosperity to Ontario's farmers, the history of agrarian protest can be viewed as one of broken promises and unfulfilled expectations. The tensions inherent in the differing material circumstances and various representational philosophies of agriculture made it impossible for the Dominion Grange and the Patrons of Industry to sustain harmony and unity for any length of time within a deeply divided agricultural population. As a result, entrenched ideological differences regarding the merits or shortcomings of the co-operative principle in the Dominion Grange and Patrons of Industry would highlight the tensions and conflicts intrinsic to the varied approaches of the farmers themselves. And yet the initial success of both agrarian protest movements in Ontario displayed at least a willingness on the part of farmers to bond together for united action. Their cataclysmic collapse into irrelevancy by the turn of the century, however, also revealed the ideological, cultural, social, and economic fissures situated within Ontario's rural populace.

LE LEADERSHIP des Patrons of Husbandry et des patrons of Industry a la fin du dix-neuvieme siecle en Ontario a offert des visons ideologiques de l'harmonie des classes. Ils promettaient une action politique unie au dela de l'appartenance aux partis traditionnels et la prosperite materielle pour les agriculteurs de l'Ontario. Toute fois l'histoire du mouvement de protestation agraire peut etre vue comme une serie de promesses rompues ou d'attentes non remplies. Les tensions inherentes generees par les conditions materielles variees et les diverses philosophies en matiere d'agriculture ont rendu impossible pour le Dominion Grange et les Patrons of Industry de soutenir l'harmonie et l'unite au sein d'une population agricole profondement divisee. En consequence, des differences ideologiques bien etablies au sein de ces mouvements a l'egard des merites et des insuffisances du principe de cooperation allaient mettre en lumiere les tensions et les conflits intrinseques aux differentes approches adoptees par les agriculteurs eux-memes. Et pourtant, le succes initial des deux mouvements de protestation agraires en Ontario avait demontre au moins la volonte des agriculteurs de s'unir pour une action concertee. Au but du compte, leur dramatique faillite, au tournant du siecle, revele les fissures ideologiques, culturelles, sociales et economiques au sein de la population rurale de l'Ontario.

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ON 2 JUNE 1874, the first meeting held to organize the Dominion Grange of the Patrons of Husbandry occurred in London, Ontario. The assembly not only involved many of the more prominent farmers in the area, but it also attracted interested observers from as far away as Grey County. One of the first enthusiastic supporters of the Grange, William Weld, was also the publisher of Ontario's most prestigious agricultural newspaper, the Farmers' Advocate. Acting as the Dominion Grange's first Steward, Weld lauded the new order in Advocate editorials for creating unity, harmony, and strength amongst farmers, and for forging new associational ties in the rural population. However, one year later, Weld resigned his office in the Dominion Grange, stating that he preferred to remain an unfettered member. Already sensing some potential problems in the Dominion Grange, Weld believed that in giving up his office he could freely criticize the order if they should "misuse their powers." By 1880 William Weld came to believe that the business ventures of the Dominion Grange were "petty and selfish," and based more on pecuniary gain and the elimination of the commercial class than in fostering mutual understanding. Commenting that the principle of economic co-operation was a perilous foundation for the Grange to stand upon, Weld accused the Patrons of Husbandry of "severing the connection that should exist in a complex community, making the farmer storekeeper, shipper, speculator, and everything else." (1)

Unfortunately William Weld was not the only agricultural critic to abandon the possibilities of late 19th-century agrarian protest in Ontario. The meteoric rise and fall of both the Dominion Grange and the Patrons of Industry indicates that many farmers shared Weld's initial fascination and eventual disillusionment with agrarian movements emphasizing the co-operative principle in agriculture. Even though Ontario farmers often complained about their weak social, political, and economic position in comparison with other classes, co-operation as the solution to the dilemmas facing the agricultural population would prove to be both the touchstone and the lodestone of agrarian protest in the late 19th century. Initial enthusiasm for the co-operative principle was well founded, as co-operation could connect farmers in a bond of economic mutualism. Through bulk purchasing and united commercial retailing, the co-operative ventures of the Dominion Grange and Patrons of Industry served to bring buyer and seller into more direct contact. Conversely, co-operation could also alienate farmers accustomed to dealing with established market forces, and also those large-scale commercial farmers unwilling to change their modes of operation. Entrenched ideological differences regarding the merits or shortcomings of the co-operative principle in the Dominion Grange and Patrons of Industry highlighted the tensions and conflicts intrinsic to the varied philosophies of the farmers themselves. (2)