58 THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 



are two that call for special mention because of their bearing 

 on the future development of the order. These are: Article V, 

 which provided for the admission into the order of "any person 

 interested in agricultural pursuits"; and Article XII, which 

 prohibited the discussion of political or religious questions in 

 the work of the order or the application of political or religious 

 tests for membership therein. The proper interpretation of 

 these two articles was to be a vexing question for the leaders 

 of the order for many years to come. In the election of officers, 

 the position of master went to Dudley W. Adams of Iowa, 

 Kelley retained the secretaryship, and an executive committee 

 was elected consisting of William Saunders of the District of 

 Columbia, D. Wyatt Aiken of South Carolina, and E. R. Shank- 

 land of Iowa. 1 On these men devolved the difficult duty of 

 guiding the order during the years of its greatest activity. 



The expansion of the order of Patrons of Husbandry during 

 1873 an d I ^74 an d the beginnings of its decline in the two 

 following years can best be followed in connection with the 

 accompanying table of statistics showing the number of granges 

 and their proportion to the agricultural population in each state 

 and territory at different times during the four years. The 

 accompanying series of four maps, based upon these statistics, 

 will also be of assistance in comparing the movement in different 

 parts of the country. 2 



The rapid expansion of the order during 1873, especially 

 in the North Central group of states, is shown by the statistics 

 of its condition on May 19, August 2 (Map I), and October 18. 

 Iowa was strongly in the lead at the start with 1507 granges, 

 or 631 per hundred thousand of agricultural population. This 

 lead in number of granges was kept up throughout the year, 

 but the rate of increase was naturally not so rapid as in some 

 of the other states where the movement got under way a little 

 later. Thus Kansas and Nebraska forged rapidly to the front, 

 until, by October 18, Kansas almost and Nebraska quite equaled 



1 National Grange, Proceedings, vi. 15, 18, 24; Kelley, Patrons of Husbandry, 

 421; Darrow, Patrons of Husbandry, 39. 



2 The maps will be found facing pages 6 1, 65, 67, and 69. 



