inflicted onus by the railroads." "Railroad
steals," "railroad pirates," "Wall Street stock-jobbers," and like
phrases supplied the favorite slogans of the spirited rural campaigns.
These parties, though much ridiculed by the metropolitan press, started
a political agitation which spread with increasing force in the next
forty years and in recent times eventually gained the ascendency in both
the old political parties.

The panic of 1873 and the unusually hard times that followed added fuel
to the flame. It was about this time that the Patrons of Husbandry gave
evidences of a new vitality, chiefly manifested in a rapidly increasing
membership. On May 19,1873, there were 3360 Granges in the United
States, while nineteen months later, on January 1, 1875, there were
21,697, with a total membership of over seven hundred thousand. In the
Eastern States the movement had made little progress; in the South it
had become somewhat more popular; in such States as Missouri, Iowa,
Kansas, Nebraska, Montana, Idaho, and Oregon, it had developed into
almost a dominating influence. It is not difficult to explain this
sudden and astonishing growth: the farmers in the great grain States
seized upon this organization as the most available agency for remedying
their wrongs and rescuing them from poverty. In their minds the National
Grange now became the one means through which they could obtain that
which they most desired--cheaper transportation. Not only did its
membership show great increase, but money from dues now filled the
treasury to overflowing. At the same time the organs of the capitalist
press began to attack the Grange violently, while the politicians in
the sections where it was strongest sedulously cultivated it. But the
leaders of the movement never made the fatal mistake of converting their
organization into a political party. It held no political conventions,
named no candidates for office, and even officially warned its members
against discussing political questions at their meetings. Yet, according
to a statement in the "New York Tribune", "within a few weeks the Grange
menaced the political equilibrium of the most steadfast States. It had
upset the calculations of veteran campaigners, and put the professional
office-seekers to more embarrassment than even the Back Pay." The
Grangers fixed their eyes, not upon men or upon parties, but upon
measures. They developed the habit of questioning candidates for office
concerning