EPILOGUE 543 



the Farmers' Equity Union, the Nonpartisan League, the Missouri Farm- 

 ers' Association, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National 

 Producers' Alliance, and groups like the American Council of Agricul- 

 ture, the Corn Belt Committee, the Committee of Twenty-Two, the 

 Farm Holiday Association, and scores of commodity associations, not to 

 mention the abortive efforts made by minority groups to band farmers 

 and labor together for joint political action. 



One can hardly ignore the importance of these farm groups, whose 

 demands met with greater approval than did the sober, well-meaning, 

 and reasoned recommendations of some of our indifferent, unsympathetic, 

 and cynical scholars. These bodies proved that, no matter how hard 

 pressed the farmers were, they usually had in their midst leaders of some 

 means and influence who could be counted upon to lead a campaign for 

 relief. Organized farm campaigns were bound to be of influence in a 

 "groupistic" society that was responsive to group pressures. This proved 

 to be the case even when the farmers were not as closely knit together 

 and as large in numerical strength as some of their leaders would have 

 the country believe. 



The first of the twentieth-century farm groups to take roots in the 

 western Middle West was the American Society of Equity. Organized 

 in Indianapolis in 1902, it soon spread into the adjoining states. From 

 the tobacco fields of Kentucky and Tennessee, where it first attracted 

 attention, it shifted its activities into Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, 

 South Dakota, and Montana. It was in these parts that most of the years 

 of its short-lived career were spent. It seems rather plausible to assume that 

 the Equity banner became a convenient rallying point for discontented 

 wheat growers; ex-Grangers, Alliancemen, and Populists; La Follette 

 Progressives; the small shippers; and the economic radicalism of the 

 Scandinavians. 



Especially significant were the early Equity demands for controlled 

 production, withholding products from market, and minimum prices. 

 This is proof that the Equity was a pioneer in the parity price concept, 

 and that its leaders had more in common with the agricultural thinking 

 of the 1920'$ and 30'$ than they did with that of the 1870'$, 8o's, and po's. 

 One big difference, however, is that the Equity leaders sought their ends 

 without the intervening hand of the federal government. 



