the side of the struggling masses?" It was but a step from the hostile feeling toward the railroads to the anti-trust planks of the Democratic platforms of 1896 and 1900, and to similar economic causes may be traced the present-day hostility of the NonPartisan Leaguers to the bankers, middlemen, and grain brokers, who, they believe, absorb an unfair percentage of the profits which should accrue to the original producer. In a similar way the roots of many of our recently adopted political and economic innovations may be found in the demands of these early and so-called "radical" groups. The proposal for a graduated income tax and for labor legislation is to be seen in the Greenback platform of 1888 and in that of the Populist of 1892, while the latter includes also the demand for postal savings banks. The more aggressive and hopeful democracy of the west has sponsored the recent advances along this line. The Greenbackers advocated the reduction in the terms of United States senators, while the Populists demanded the Australian ballot, a single term for President and Vice-president, direct election of United States senators, and commended the initiative and referendum. The Progressive movement of 1912 drew from much the same groups that had voted the Populist ticket, but went even farther than that party in its advocacy of democratic innovations when it supported direct primaries, including preferential presidential primaries, the short ballot, the initiative, referendum, and recall (the latter not alone of elected officials, but of judicial decisions), and woman suffrage. The advocacy of government ownership of public utilities and the hostility to the trusts of the earlier radical parties was toned down by the Progressives, however, to merely strict governmental supervision. These demands are progressive or radical according to the point of view, but enough has undoubtedly been said to point out clearly that the desire for economic and political changes has its home chiefly in the west. The consciousness of economic bondage to the east has been a cause of continual unrest and has combined with the more democratic influences of frontier life to promote changes toward democracy, NOTES FOR FURTHER REFERENCE The history and significance of the westward movement since the Civil War has never been adequately summarized, although much has been done since F. J. Turner in 1893 pointed out the Significance of the Frontier in American History in the American Historical Association Annual Report. Other essays of Professor Turner, especially those in The Frontier in American History (1921), touch on this recent phase. The most complete bibliography of the period is in F. J. Turner and F. Merk, List of References on the History of the West (rev. ed., 1922). The earliest phases of the trans-Mississippi west are developed in Katherine Coman, Economic Beginnings of the Far West (2 vols., 1912), and the more recent in F. L. Paxson, The Last American Frontier (1910). See also F. L. Paxson, The Pacific Railroads and the Disappearance of the Frontier, Annual Report of the American Historical Association (1907, Vol. I, pp. 105-118); The Cow Country, Am. Hist. Rev., Vol. XXII, pp. 65-82 (October, 1916); Edward Everett Dale, The Ranchman's Last Frontier, Mississippi Historical Review, Vol. X, No. 1, pp. 34-46 (June, 1923). On the publicland policy consult McLoughlin and Hart, Cyclopædia of American Government (1914), articles on Public Land, Land Grants, Homestead Act, etc.; also G. M. Stephenson, The Political History of the Public Lands from 1840 to 1862 (1917); T. Donaldson, Public Domain (1881), inaccurate, but the only available detailed account; the Public Land Report (1880) and the Report with Appendix (1905). Two recent popular accounts are to be found in the Chronicles of America: S. E. White, The Forty-Niners (1920), and Emerson Hough, The Passing of the Frontier (1918). The farmers' protest is interpreted in F. L. McVey, The Populist Movement (1896); in S. J. Buck, The Granger Movement (1913), Harvard Historical Studies XIX, and The Agrarian Crusade (1920), Chronicles of America; opposed in A. A. Bruce, Nonpartisan League (1921) and championed in H. E. Gaston, The Nonpartisan League (1920), in C. E. Russell, The Story of the Nonpartisan League; a Chapter in American Evolution (1920) and in Arthur Capper, The Agricultural Bloc (1922). The Indian wars are recounted in N. A. Miles, Serving the Republic (1911). Material on the contribution of the railroads to the opening of the west may be found in H. K. White, Union Pacific Railway (1898); J. P. Davis, Union Pacific Railway (1894); E. V. Smalley, The Northern Pacific Railway (1883); in the Memoirs of Henry Villard (2 vols., 1904); in E. P. Oberholtzer, Jay Cooke (2 vols., 1907), and in J. G. Pyle, Life of James J. Hill (2 vols., 1917). SELECTED READINGS PAXSON, F. L., The Last Frontier, Chaps. II, IX, X, XI, XIX, XXII. BUCK, S. J., The Agrarian Crusade. HOUGH, E., The Passing of the Frontier. CHAPTER XIX THE AGRARIAN REVOLUTION Outstanding Factors Since 1860.-So momentous have been the developments of American agriculture since the Civil War that nothing less than an agrarian revolution has taken place. The last half century has witnessed both the introduction of agricultural machinery on a large scale and the increased adoption of scientific farming. It has seen the rapid growth of government interest and aid to agriculture and a widespread movement toward agricultural education. Spurred on by the Homestead Act and by migration from Europe, the frontier has been pushed westward until most of the arable land has been preempted. But with the end of the frontier, interest has been stimulated in conservation and in adding new lands to cultivation through dry farming and irrigation projects. This westward expansion, however, has been accompanied by circumstances which have brought hardship and discontent to the farmers and which have been reflected in political and economic unrest. With rising prices of products and land values after 1896, and with better roads, electric trolleys, automobiles, and farm machinery, the economic condition of the farmer has improved and rural life become more satisfying. Nevertheless, these years have seen a constant increase in urban population and manufacturing, and a relative decline in agriculture. Agrarian Discontent.-Although the period since the Civil War has been one of great agricultural expansion, it has not been marked by uninterrupted prosperity; on the contrary, the years. from 1867 to 1897 were years of uncertainty and discontent. During the flush period of the war when prices soared, owing to greater demand for foodstuffs and an inflated currency, many farmers extended their operations by increasing their holdings and equipment. Ex-soldiers, tradesmen, and mechanics, encouraged by the Homestead Act, hastened to take up land; but in all of these cases capital was usually lacking and the land was mort gaged to provide for the necessary equipment. All went well until the inflated war prices collapsed. The government's policy of calling in some of the greenbacks and ultimately raising the paper currency to a parity with gold put the farmers at a disadvantage. Unable to meet his interest payments, which continued at the old rate, while prices fell and the value of money increased, the farmer was often forced to see his mortgage foreclosed and the results of years of labor wiped out, with the option of going into industry, entering the ranks of the tenant farmer or agricultural laborer, or moving to the frontier. He felt strongly that eastern capital was benefiting from his misfortune. Even the fortunate farmer who was able to hang on during the lean years of falling prices had serious troubles. The railroads upon which he was dependent for the marketing of his products were often careless and inefficient, discriminating in their favors to industries at the expense of the agricultural sections. Where there was no discrimination, freight rates still seemed needlessly high to pay dividends on heavily watered stock; furthermore, the farmer felt that an undue share of the profits was taken by the middlemen and by the speculators on the grain and cotton exchanges. While he bore the hardships of a lonely and arduous frontier life, eastern capitalists took from him the profits of his toil. The feeling was especially bitter in those sections where the pinch was greatest, notably upon the wheat farms of the northwest. Minor elements in the prevailing unrest were the conflict between the land-hungry pioneer farmers and the cattle raisers; and the fraudulent methods employed by individuals and companies in obtaining large blocks of land. In the south the situation was equally discouraging. Here the whole economic structure had crashed with the Civil War and was painfully being reconstructed on the ruins. Bankrupt planters, ignorant colored labor, and declining cotton prices were the elements out of which a new system must be erected. In the northeast, deflation and western competition severely affected the agricultural interests, accentuated the movement to the cities, and increased the area of the deserted farms. Throughout the country the general decline in land values was a factor in the agrariar discontent; for the American farmer, it must be remembered, is a land speculator as well as an agriculturist. Added to all this was the high tariff of the Civil War, continued during the years of peace, which aided the manufacturing interests, at the same time increasing the cost of living and jeopardizing the foreign market for foodstuffs. It Relief was sought (1) by pressure upon the government and (2) by coöperative attempts at buying and selling. The first notable legislative efforts were made under the leadership of the Patrons of Husbandry, an organization founded in 1868 by Oliver H. Kelly. The local chapters, or "granges," included in their membership both men and women and were intended to be principally social and educational in their purpose. Their activities soon extended into politics, and in the early 'seventies, the period of their greatest influence, the membership of the organization numbered 758,767 (1875) with over 19,000 granges. was during these years that efforts were made by the states to control the railroads, and, upon their failure, by the federal government. These state railroad acts, usually spoken of as the "granger laws," were not necessarily the work of the granges, for the "granger movement" itself was a result of the agrarian discontent. Later the political interests of the farmers were directed by the Greenback party, the Farmers' Alliances, the Populist party, the Democratic party of 1896, and the Farmer's NonPartisan Political League, founded in 1915. The most important results of the agrarian agitation, as reflected in national legislation, may be briefly summarized as follows: I. Railroad control: State granger legislation; Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. II. Agricultural education and research: Land Grant Act of 1862, its additions and amendments; Hatch Act of 1887; The creation of the Department of Agriculture with its subsidiary bureaus. |