THE INCEPTION OF THE GRANGE 5 



advantages to come to the farmer through intel- 

 lectual and social intercourse, not through political 

 action. Their purpose was "the advancement of 

 agriculture, " but they expected that advancement 

 to be an educative rather than a legislative process. 

 It was to that end, for instance, that they provided 

 .for a Grange "Lecturer," a man whose business it 

 was to prepare for each meeting a program apart 

 from the prescribed ritual perhaps a paper read 

 by one of the members or an address by a visiting 

 speaker. With this plan for social and intellectual 

 advancement, then, the founders of the Grange set 

 out to gain members. 



During the first four years the order grew slow- 

 ly, partly because of the mistakes of the founders, 

 partly because of the innate conservatism and sus- 

 picion of the average farmer. The first local Grange 

 was organized in Washington. It was made up 

 largely of government clerks and their wives and 

 served less to advance the cause of agriculture than 

 to test the ritual. In February, 1868, Kelley re- 

 signed his clerkship in the Post Office Department 

 and turned his whole attention to the organization 

 of the new order. His colleagues, in optimism or 

 irony, voted him a salary of two thousand dollars a 

 year and traveling expenses, to be paid from the 



