Notwithstanding Powderly’s exhortations, the Order was at first slow in taking it up.  In 1882 a general cooperative board was elected to work out a plan of action, but it never reported, and a new board was chosen in its place at the Assembly of 1883.  In that year, the first practical step was taken in the purchase by the Order of a coal mine at Cannelburg, Indiana, with the idea of selling the coal at reduced prices to the members.  Soon thereafter a thorough change of sentiment with regard to the whole matter of cooperation took place, contemporaneously with the industrial depression and unsuccessful strikes.  The rank and file, who had hitherto been indifferent, now seized upon the idea with avidity.  The enthusiasm ran so high in Lynn, Massachusetts, that it was found necessary to raise the shares of the Knights of Labor Cooperative Shoe Company to $100 in order to prevent a large influx of “unsuitable members.”  In 1885 Powderly complained that “many of our members grow impatient and unreasonable because every avenue of the Order does not lead to cooperation.”

The impatience for immediate cooperation, which seized the rank and file in practically every section of the country, caused an important modification in the official doctrine of the Order.  Originally it had contemplated centralized control under which it would have taken years before a considerable portion of the membership could realize any benefit.  This was now dropped and a decentralized plan was adopted.  Local organizations and, more frequently, groups of members with the financial aid of their local organizations now began to establish shops.  Most of the enterprises were managed by the stockholders, although, in some cases, the local organization of the Knights of Labor managed the plant.

Most of the cooperative enterprises were conducted on a small scale.  Incomplete statistics warrant the conclusion that the average amount invested per establishment was about $10,000.  From the data gathered it seems that cooperation reached its highest point in 1886, although it had not completely spent itself by the end of 1887.  The total number of ventures probably reached two hundred.  The largest numbers were in mining, cooperage, and shoes.  These industries paid the poorest wages and treated their employes most harshly.  A small amount of capital was required to organize such establishments.

With the abandonment of centralized cooperation in 1884, the role of the central cooperative board changed correspondingly.  The leading member of the board was now John Samuel, one of those to whom cooperation meant nothing short of a religion.  The duty of the board was to educate the members of the Order in the principles of cooperation; to aid by information and otherwise prospective and actual cooperators; in brief, to coordinate the cooperative movement within the Order.  It issued forms of a constitution and by-laws which, with a few modifications, could be adopted by any locality.  It also published articles on the dangers and pitfalls in cooperative ventures, such as granting credit, poor management, etc., as well as numerous articles on specific kinds of cooperation.  The Knights of Labor label was granted for the use of cooperative goods and a persistent agitation was steadily conducted to induce purchasers to give a preference to cooperative products.