166 THE GREEN RISING 



recognition by the farmer of the injustice in these 

 practices during the first decade of their organized 

 activity has not been without significance. The 

 agrarian protest that was raised more than a half a 

 century ago has had much to do with rural credit 

 legislation of recent times and cooperative market- 

 ing activities that are widely practiced by farmers 

 of today. 



All of these grievances enriched the soil of discon- 

 tent, and out of it sprang a number of farm organiza- 

 tions. The Texas Alliance was organized in 1875; 

 the Agricultural Wheel appeared in 1882 ; the Farm- 

 ers' National Alliance came into existence in 1880; 

 and the Farmers' Mutual Benefit Association was 

 formed in 1887. Each of these organizations em- 

 phasized the grievances of farmers and proposed a 

 remedy for the social and economic situation. 



Conflicting Farmer Opinion 



Two fundamental diametrically opposing policies 

 gradually developed in these farm organizations. 

 The farmers of one school of public opinion held 

 that rural problems were essentially economic and 

 social and that their solution depended upon ad- 

 justments within the control of the organized 

 farmers themselves. The other school of farmer 

 opinion agreed that the farmer's problems were 

 essentially economic and social but contended that 

 their solution depended primarily upon political 

 action. This difference in viewpoint has persisted 



