THE FARM BLOC, 1920-23 34 1 



All in all, the record of the farm bloc was both aggressive and impres- 

 sive. Despite the fact that farm organizations, cooperatives, congressional 

 representatives from farm districts, and others had sought similar meas- 

 ures at an earlier time, these demands reached a fruition point during 

 the heyday of the farm bloc. Because of its leadership, farm convention 

 after farm convention adopted strikingly similar resolutions. If the farm 

 bloc did not originate the ideas behind the legislation, it certainly fur- 

 nished the drive needed to pass it. 56 



In addition, these bloc tactics gave the administration as well as the 

 nation something to think about. For one thing, they made Congress and 

 the administration more conscious of agricultural demands than they 

 would otherwise have been and later forced them to take some of the 

 wind out of the sails of the progressive bloc. They also brought to the 

 fore the need for a better "integration of the various and often clashing 

 interests of the nation." 57 Curiously enough, too, the farmers found them- 

 selves at political flood tide at a time when their numbers had reached 

 the lowest point in history. The New Yor!( Times was wrong in taking 

 the farm bloc lightly but perhaps correct when it predicted that the bloc 

 would come to pass as did "the Wheel, the Brothers of Freedom, the 

 Society of Equity, the Farmers' Alliance, the Greenbackers, and other 

 shadows." 58 



56. Barnes, in World's Wor\, XLV (November, 1922), pp. 51-59. 



57. Bradley, in Journal of Social Forces, III (May, 1925), p. 718. 



58. Literary Digest, LXXI (December 24, 1921), p. 10. 



