GRANGER MOVEMENT AT FLOOD TIDE 27 



protest which arose all over the country against 

 this betrayal to the enemy resulted in the revok- 

 ing of the charters for these Granges, the Eastern 

 farmer did not soon forget the incident. 



The year 1873 is important in the annals of the 

 Grange because it marks the retirement of the 

 ' ' founders ' ' from po wer* In January of that year, 

 at the sixth session of the National Grange, the 

 temporary organization of government clerks was 

 replaced by a permanent corporation, officered by 

 farmers. Kelley was reflected Secretary; Dudley 

 W. Adams of Iowa was made Master; and William 

 Saunders, erstwhile Master of the National Grange, 

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

 land of Iowa were elected to the executive commit- 

 tee. The substitution of alert and eager workers, 

 already experienced in organizing Granges, for the 

 dead wood of the Washington bureaucrats gave the 

 order a fresh impetus to growth. From the spring 

 of 1873 to the following spring the number of 

 granges more than quadrupled, and the increase 

 again centered mainly in the Middle West. 



By the end of 1873 the Grange had penetrated 

 all but four States Connecticut, Rhode Island, 

 Delaware, and Nevada and there were thirty- 

 *wo state Granges in existence. The movement 



