310 THE GRANGER MOVEMENT 



the conservative elements at the time, and some of them, like 

 the sub-treasury plan, were probably quite unsound. Others, 

 however, have remained constantly before the American people 

 and in the course of time have become respectable, at least. 

 Thus the necessity for the regulation of railroads by the govern- 

 ment, which was the principal political plank of the Grangers, 

 is now a generally accepted proposition; a postal savings bank 

 law has recently been enacted by Congress; an amendment 

 to the constitution to authorize the income tax has just received 

 the approval of the states; anti-trust laws are being enacted 

 by Congress and the state legislatures; and the reduction and 

 revision of the tariff is expected to be the principal work of 

 Congress at its next session. The " farmers' movement " has 

 been merged in a general "reform" or "progressive" move- 

 ment which transcends class and party lines; and a new 

 political party, which assumes to be the special representa- 

 tive of this movement, has jumped to second place at its first 

 appearance. 



What, then is the significance of all this ? What does it 

 mean that the Grangers, the Sovereigns of Industry, the Green- 

 backers, the Farmers' Alliances, the Knights of Labor, the 

 Populists, the Bryan Democrats, the La Follette Republicans, 

 and now the Roosevelt Progressives have all denounced capital- 

 ists, corporations, monopolies, and special interests and have en- 

 deavored to devise ways by which their power might be curbed ? 

 What does it mean that practically every one of these agricul- 

 tural and labor organizations has attempted schemes of distribu- 

 tive or productive cooperation in the hope of making its members 

 more independent of these same capitalists, these same monop- 

 olies ? Does it not mean that w r ith the close of the Civil War 

 American history entered upon a new phase in which the domi- 

 nant feature has been a struggle of the people, or of parts of them 

 at different times, to preserve the political and economic democ- 

 racy which they believed to be endangered if not actually 

 destroyed by the rising power and influence of great accumula- 

 tions and combinations of wealth ? 



