AS A POLITICAL FORCE 89 



mating this election, the results of which were more favorable 

 to the new party than any other in which it took part, the fact 

 must be taken into consideration that it was for local officers, 

 and that, in general, party politics play a less important part 

 in local than in state elections. The Reformers were to find 

 their party unable to retain these handsome majorities when 

 it entered the broader field of state politics, because many voters, 

 while willing to cast their ballots for neighbors running on an 

 Anti-Monopoly ticket, were likely, when it was a question 

 of unknown candidates for offices, to return to their old party 

 allegiance. 



Meanwhile similar movements were getting under way in 

 Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, which resulted in state Anti- 

 Monopoly or Reform parties in the general elections in the 

 fall of 1873. The political situations in these three states were 

 strikingly similar. In each the Republican party was in com- 

 plete control; in each a growing demand for railroad regulation 

 was being reflected in messages and addresses of the governor, 

 and in numerous bills before the legislature and in each the 

 farmers were being rapidly organized into granges of the Patrons 

 of Husbandry. The outcome was the organization of new 

 parties which took the name of Reform in Wisconsin, and 

 Anti-Monopoly in Iowa and Minnesota; and in each case 

 the Democratic party either fused with or accepted the candi- 

 dates of the new party. The method of getting the movement 

 under way was about the same in the three states: the farmers 

 and Grangers in the different counties got together during the 

 summer in meetings "outside the gate" and nominated candidates 

 for county and legislative offices; after which calls were issued, 

 either by one of these local meetings, or by self-constituted 

 leaders of the movement, for state conventions, which were held 

 in Iowa at Des Moines, August 13, in Minnesota at Owatonna, 

 September 2, and in Wisconsin at Milwaukee, September 23. x 



1 The summary in this and the following paragraphs is based on a study of legis- 

 lative journals, governors' messages, party platforms, and the files of the Chicago 

 Tribune, Prairie Farmer, and local papers. Information concerning parties and 

 elections, including the platforms in full, can usually be found in the American 



