THE RISE OF THE GRANGER MOVEMENT. 201 



place, and the decisions and power of this mythical body were held in 

 great awe by the Patrons. But other men were becoming interested 

 and going to work. In Minnesota they were able to organize a State 

 Grange, having mustered the fifteen district Granges required by the 

 constitution. Two years later the State Grange of Iowa was organ- 

 ized, and its Worthy Master crossed the country to attend what the 

 founders were pleased to call the " Fifth Annual Session of the Na- 

 tional Grange." He was the first member of the order to meet with 

 the seven. What he thought on ascertaining the real state of things 

 is not recorded. However, he did not give up the work, and later he 

 became Worthy Master of the National Grange. The order kept grow- 

 ing. At the sixth annual session, held at Georgetown in January, 

 1873, there were delegates from eleven States, and four women were 

 present ; 1,074 Granges had been organized during the year. The 

 founders now gave up their ofiices, not even reserving the right to 

 vote, and delivered over the results of six years' labor to their success- 

 ors. For the first time, the greatest of farmers' societies was in the 

 hands of farmers ! 



The next two years were years of astounding growth — a growth 

 almost unparalleled in the history of secret organizations, and resem- 

 bling that of the Know-Nothings twenty years before. At the end of 

 1872 about 1,300 Granges had been organized. In the year 1873, 

 8,668 more were added ; and in 1874, 11,941, making a total of almost 

 22,000, with an average membership of forty. Some idea of the mag- 

 nitude of these figures may be gained from the fact that the whole 

 number of lodges of Masons and Odd-Fellows in the world is esti- 

 mated at about 20,000. The order was represented in every State 

 except Rhode Island (which has never found room for it). It had 

 been established in the Indian Territory, whence it appealed for help 

 to the National Grange because the governor of the Chickasaw nation 

 looked on it with suspicion, and had ordered all Grangers out of the 

 Chickasaw country. It had taken root in Canada, where, a few years 

 later, there were 860 subordinate Granges. One deputy introduced 

 it into England ; others were laboring in France and Germany; and 

 inquiries and invitations were coming even from Australia and Tas- 

 mania. 



Grange treasuries were overflowing. In 1873 and 1874 the dues to 

 the National Grange alone, according to the official statement, amount- 

 ed to 6348,532.20. The press was discussing the new order with 

 alarm. Legislative committees were scurrying about the country to see 

 what could be done for the farmer. In the words of the New York 

 "Nation," "the farmer was the spoiled child of our politics." The 

 House of Representatives at Washington was overawed at the new 

 power that was apparently rising in politics, and those who claimed, 

 for the most part falsely, to represent the movement enjoyed an aston- 

 ishing influence. Among other legislation secured by these men, one 



