220 AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



he continued to brood on the farmers' ills, and found expression for his 

 views in a local paper which he began to publish in 1900 at a little town 

 named Point in Raines County, Texas. Gresham thought that a new farm 

 order which would avoid the political involvements that had wrecked 

 the original Grange and the Alliance might succeed in really doing 

 something for the farmers. Finally, in 1902, he succeeded in establishing 

 the first Farmers' Union local at Smyrna, not far from Point. Smyrna 

 was the center of a chronically unprosperous agricultural district, and the 

 farmers of the area proved to be ripe for organization. Wisely, Gresham 

 kept the cost of joining the Union down to an initiation fee of one dollar 

 and dues of only five cents a month. No matter how poverty-stricken 

 they might be, the hard-pressed Raines County farmers could, and did, 

 join up. With what little money came in from members and what he 

 could borrow in addition, Gresham pushed the work of organization 

 along. As modest success came his way, he employed other organizers on 

 a fee basis, and within four years not only locals but state organizations 

 as well had appeared in six southern states, with another half-dozen in 

 process of formation. Membership was open to farmers and farm laborers 

 and to the professional classes who served them. According to one estimate 

 the Union had 200,000 members by 1905.* 



There was nothing especially novel in the original demands of the 

 Farmers' Union. Its purposes were first expressed as these: 



To secure equity, establish justice and apply the Golden Rule. 



To discourage the credit and mortgage system. 



To assist our members in buying and selling. 



To educate the agricultural classes in scientific farming. 



To teach farmers the classification of crops, domestic economy and the process 

 of marketing. 



To systematize methods of production and distribution. 



To eliminate gambling in farm products by the Board of Trade, Cotton Ex- 

 changes and other speculators. 



To bring farming up to the standard of other industries and business enterprises. 



To secure and maintain profitable and uniform prices for cotton, grain, livestock 

 and other products of the farm. 



i. William P. Tucker, "Populism Up-to-date: The Story of the Farmers' Union," 

 Agricultural History, XXI (October, 1947), pp. 198-201. On the Texas origins, see 

 also Robert Lee Hunt, A History of Farmer Movements in the Southwest, 1873- 

 7925 (College Station, Texas, 1935), pp. 44-77. 



