222 AGRICULTURAL DISCONTENT 



experience of my life." Much of the success of the Farmers' Union, both 

 in the South and elsewhere, must be credited to Barrett's persistent and 

 enthusiastic leadership. 4 



The decline of the Union in the South was due in no small part to the 

 almost hopeless backwardness of the southern cotton farmers. As a class 

 they were illiterate, suspicious, and unprogressive. The cooperative or- 

 ganizations that were founded in their name were badly managed and 

 insufficiently patronized. Efforts to hold cotton off the market for higher 

 prices generally turned out badly. Conscious of these shortcomings, the 

 southern leaders of the Farmers' Union hoped to bring new life into the 

 order by expansion into the western Middle West. This was the obvious 

 purpose of the Farmers' Union members who attended the Farmers' 

 Cooperative Business Congress held in Topeka, Kansas, late in October, 

 1906. During the congress there was much talk of the need for uniting 

 the agricultural interests of the South and the West. Surely some plan 

 could be devised whereby they could help each other obtain higher prices 

 for their products. The hope was also expressed that through the Farmers' 

 Union some system of "direct exchange" between farmer and consumer 

 might be devised. Perhaps as a means to this end, the congress emphasized 

 the need for the "enactment of a uniform law authorizing and regulating 

 the organization of cooperative societies." Somehow, it maintained, the 

 farmers of the nation should achieve the same right to name the price 

 of their products that the manufacturers of iron, cloth, and other com- 

 modities had to name theirs. 6 



During these years Farmers' Union leaders made every effort to empha- 

 size the appeal of sectional interests. According to one editor, the Union 

 provided the best hope not only for uniting the farmers of the South 

 and West, but also for bringing them independence from the East. "It 

 must be the destiny, the proud privilege of the South and West to give 

 our Nation industrial and financial freedom, for the Republic of the 

 Fathers must not perish from the face of the earth." A convention of 

 grain and livestock producers, dominated by Union sympathizers, as- 



4. "Farmers' Union Herald (South St. Paul, Minn.), May, 1935; Tucker, in Agri- 

 cultural History, XXI (October, 1947), p. 200. 



5. Oklahoma Farmer (Oklahoma City), October 31, 1906; Kansas City Journal, 

 October 25, 1906. 



