CHAPTER HI 



THE GRANGER MOVEMENT AT FLOOD TIDE 



WITH these real or fancied grievances crying for re- 

 dress, the farmers soon turned to the Grange as the 

 weapon ready at hand to combat the forces which 

 they believed were conspiring to crush them. In 

 1872 began the real spread of the order. Where 

 the Grange had previously reckoned in terms of 

 hundreds of new lodges, it now began to speak 

 of thousands. State Granges were established in 

 States where the year before the organization had 

 obtained but a precarious foothold; pioneer local 

 Granges invaded regions which hitherto had been 

 impenetrable. Although the only States which 

 were thoroughly organized were Iowa, Minnesota, 

 South Carolina, and Mississippi., the rapid spread 

 of the order into other States and its intensive 

 growth in regions so far apart gave promise of its 

 ultimate development into a national movement. 

 This development was, to be sure, not without 



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