An interesting quote from 1907-08 GL Ohio Grand Communications from MWB Horace Irvin

“Number of members August 31, 1907: 68,679

The net gain is 3,574. This is next to the largest gain, 1903 still being the banner year.

By comparison with previous years this seems to be but little more than a normal increase. I can not avoid this feeling, however, that some of our Lodges measure prosperity more by the number of admissions than by the quality of them. Brethren, we are making too many Masons. Many of our Lodges, especially our city Lodges, are too large. There can be no spirit of Fraternity where there is no personal acquaintance or close personal contact. There is no Masonry where there is no Fraternity. I would rather belong to a small Lodge, doing a limited amount of work each year, where all remembered and practised the five points of fellowship, than belong to a Lodge of from five hundred to a thousand members, every one of whom were students of Masonic Philosophy, but too engrossed in the study of it to remember the meeting night of their Lodge or the names of its officers. More Fraternity and less ancient history; more knocks at the homes of your less fortunate Brethren and fewer knocks at the doors of your preparation rooms, will promote the healthiest kind of growth in our Lodges and the fullest realization of the high ideals of Masonry.”