EPILOGUE 551 



The campaign for more efficient marketing methods reached its peak 

 during the 1920'$. During the first flush of enthusiasm of the early 

 twenties, it had the backing of the American Farm Bureau Federation. 

 Part and parcel of this better marketing campaign were drives to get 

 farmers to sign iron-clad contracts to sell their particular commodities 

 through the same organization for a period of years, usually five, by 

 pooling and withholding their products from market if necessary. The 

 reasoning behind this movement was based on the premise that the plight 

 of agriculture could be alleviated if the benefits of consolidation and 

 combination which were so well known to industry and business were 

 applied to the marketing of the farmers' products. 



Another segment of farmers, split into two schools of thought, placed 

 considerable emphasis on political action. The conservative wing, the farm 

 bloc, spearheaded by the American Farm Bureau Federation, transcended 

 partisan lines. There was nothing ideological or theoretical about its de- 

 mands. Incensed over the failure of Congress to pass legislation designed 

 to help the farmers, the farm bloc thwarted the efforts of the stalwarts 

 to adjourn Congress and launched a vigorous counteroffensive for legisla- 

 tion to regulate the packers, to liberalize credit facilities, and to encourage 

 cooperatives. Another group, supported by liberals, progressives, and ele- 

 ments in the Farmers' Union, the Equity, and the Nonpartisan League, 

 wanted to go beyond this and build a new party committed to a broad 

 program for social and economic reconstruction. Inspired in part by the 

 work of the British Labor party, spokesmen for this group hoped to do 

 on this side of the Atlantic what the liberals were doing on the other. 

 Differences within, personal ambitions, and the conservative drift of the 

 postwar years kept their program in abeyance for a time. Frustrated in 

 their first bid for votes in 1920, they gained courage from the congres- 

 sional elections of 1922 and entered the presidential campaign of 1924 

 with some hope. This new alignment, steeped in the best traditions of 

 Grangerism and Populism, went down to defeat, but only after it amassed 

 the largest third-party vote on record. 



Long before these latest hopes of the third-party enthusiasts had been 

 quashed, agrarian attitudes toward the tariff had been crystallizing. For 

 years many farmers voted for a tariff, expecting that it would bring them 

 larger markets and higher prices; but instead of gaining these ends they 



