CHAPTER V 



THE COLLAPSE OF THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 



THE first phase of the agrarian crusade, which cen- 

 tered around and took its distinctive name from 

 the Grange, reached its high water mark in 1874. 

 Early in the next year the tide began to ebb. The 

 number of Granges decreased rapidly during the re- 

 mainder of the decade, and of over twenty thou- 

 sand in 1874 only about four thousand were alive 

 in 1880. 



Several causes contributed to this sudden decline. 

 Any organization which grows so rapidly is prone 

 to decay with equal rapidity; the slower growths 

 are better rooted and are more likely to reach frui- 

 tion. So with the Grange. Many farmers had 

 joined the order, attracted by its novelty and vogue ; 

 others joined the organization in the hope that it 

 would prove a panacea for all the ills that agricul- 

 ture is heir to and then left it in disgust when they 

 found its success neither immediate nor universal. 



