GROWTH OF SECRET SOCIETIES 251 



Court of Honor 66,449 



Protected Hoiik^ Circh^ 55,000 



B'rith Abraham Order 42,781 



Brotherhood of American Yeomen 37,684 



Order of Gleaners 37,400 



Independent Order of Foresters 220,000 



New England Order of Protection .... 14,996 33,361 



Royal Society of Good Fellows 11,055 



Smaller organizations 190,000 361,592 



Total 4,126,375 7,414,173 



Some of the societies not mentioned in the reports ten 

 years ago are shown in the reports of the present year as having 

 large memberships, while some of those making a showing at 

 that time have disappeared altogether. At the head of the list, 

 however, the Odd Fellows, the Freemasons, and the Knights 

 of Pythias show where nearly 1,000,000 of the increase in 

 memberships has come. 



Other fraternal organizations have outgrown these pio- 

 neers in secret orders. With the accentuated insurance features 

 of many of these, however, the comparisons are lost in great 

 measure. Figures for the Modern Woodmen of America in- 

 dicate a growth of more than 600,000 in ten years; the Inde- 

 pendent Order of Foresters is listed for the first time with 220,- 

 000 members; the Woodmen of the World show 217,000; the 

 Knights of the Maccabees show 160,000; and the Improved 

 Order of Red Men nearly 200,000, while in the grouped smaller 

 organizations the increase is nearly 200,000 in ten years. 



These phenomenal growths in secret societies in America 

 probably will appeal as strongly to the anti-secret society 

 element as they can to the secret orders themselves. Masonry, 

 as one of the oldest of these orders, has been the target for 

 attacks, criticisms, vituperations, and exposes, beyond the 

 records of any other secret body. But its figures of growth 

 are second only to those of the order of Odd Fellows. This 

 growth, too, has been in the face of the admonition to all mem- 

 bers of masonic orders that they shall not invite any man to 

 become a mason. 



This admonition is as binding as a law, said Banker Leroy 

 A. Goddard, grand treasurer of the grand lodge of free and 



