36 THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 



vote could be depended upon for the party. Hence their interests 

 received little consideration in the drawing up of party plat- 

 forms or the framing of legislation. 1 



Many of the farmers were wont to look upon this loss of 

 political power as the fundamental cause of the relative decline 

 of agriculture, laying at its door all or nearly all of the economic 

 evils which have been considered. 2 The transportation problem 

 was looked upon as a result of governmental favors to the rail- 

 way companies, while its cure was prevented by the grip of 

 the railway interests upon Congress and the legislatures. In 

 the same way it was believed that patent rights, the currency 

 problem, banking legislation, and the tariff were manipulated 

 by the opposing interests to the detriment of the agricultural 

 population. 



How far the farmers were justified in this belief, it is impossible 

 to say. Certainly many of the economic evils under which 

 they suffered could not have been entirely remedied by the wisest 

 of legislation. It is equally true, on the other hand, that the 

 political conditions in the period immediately following the war 

 were anything but pure. The political influence exerted by the 

 railways and the Credit Mobilier scandal have already been 

 mentioned, and in general this seems to have been a period of 

 exceptional corruption and inefficiency, in state as well as in 

 national government. Some of the southern states were in 

 the grip of notoriously corrupt reconstruction governments 

 which squandered their resources; and in the North several 

 of the state legislatures were found to be largely subservient 

 to the transportation and commercial interests. 3 Such being 

 the situation, the farmers were well justified in seeking the cure 

 for their material ills, in part at least, through increased political 

 power. 



1 California Patron, November 14, 1874, p. 2; C. S. Walker, "The Farmer's 

 Alliance," in Andover Review, xiv. 132-140 (August, 1890); Elliot, American 

 Farms, 187-205. 



2 See the address by W. C. Flagg (President of the Illinois State Farmers' 

 Association), in American Social Science Journal, vi. 100-115 (July, 1874). 



3 Dunning, Reconstruction, Political and Economic, chs. xiii, xiv, xviii; Nation, 

 xix. 36 (July 16, 1874); National Grange, Proceedings, xix. 20 (1885). 



