90 THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 



In Iowa the state central committee of the Democratic party 

 decided to hold no convention, and issued an address advising 

 Democrats to support the Anti-Monopoly ticket. 1 In Minne- 

 sota the Democratic convention was held and adopted a plat- 

 form, but indorsed the nominees of the new party. 2 In Wis- 

 consin the Democratic convention met in Milwaukee the day 

 after the Reformers came together, and the two conventions 

 agreed upon a fusion ticket and adopted a joint platform. 3 

 All three of the platforms adopted by these new parties declared 

 for the regulation of railroads or, putting it more generally, 

 for the subjection of corporations to the authority of the state. 

 Reduction of the tariff to a revenue basis, lower salaries for 

 public officials, and a more economical administration of the 

 government, were also demanded by each platform. In no case 

 did these platforms contain planks favorable to the Greenback 

 idea, while the Wisconsin platform contained a declaration that 

 the public debt should be honestly paid, and in Minnesota the 

 platform adopted by the Democratic convention which indorsed 

 the Anti-Monopoly nominees, declared for a speedy return to 

 specie payment. It early became evident that large numbers 

 of Republicans were going into the new party movement in these 

 states, and the Republican politicians made frantic efforts to 

 counteract it. Fortunately for them, the Republican govern- 

 ors in each state had advocated railroad regulation, and these 

 governors were all renominated on platforms which expressed 

 great concern for the welfare of the farmers, and which contained 

 planks favoring the regulation of railroads by the state. 



The campaigns which followed were spirited, and the new 

 parties achieved some surprising results. In Iowa the Anti- 

 Monopoly committee suffered from a lack of campaign funds, 

 and the Republican state ticket was elected, but its majority, 



(after 1874, Appleton's) Annual Cyclopedia under the name of the state. The 

 Owatonna platform of the Minnesota Anti-Monopolists, which is not given in the 

 Cyclopedia, is in Martin, Grange Movement, 510-513. 



1 Chicago Tribune, September 2, 1873, p. i. 



2 American Annual Cyclopedia, 1873, p. 511. 



3 Chicago Tribune, August-September, 1873, passim; Industrial Age, September 

 6, 1873, P- 5- 



