FARMERS ORGANIZE FOR ACTION 169 



The first agrarian party platform was that of the 

 Farmers' Alliance in 1890. This is a significant date 

 in the history of agrarianism in this country. In 

 the preceding year the Farmers' Alliance held a 

 convention in St. Louis. A plan of confederation 

 with the Knights of Labor was formulated, and 

 friendly and sympathetic overtures were made to 

 the Greenback Party and the Single Tax Party. 

 The platform adopted included demands upon Con- 

 gress to pass laws preventing "the dealing in futures 

 of all agricultural and mechanical production" and 

 prohibiting the alien ownership of land. No can- 

 didates were chosen at this convention. The Farm- 

 ers' Alliance had carried the plea of its membership 

 directly to the court of public opinion. But the 

 rise of another and larger political organization of 

 farmers made the appeal of the Farmers' Alliance 

 ineffective, and most of the farmers identified with 

 the Alliance were absorbed in the Populists' or Peo- 

 ple's Party, which entered the political arena about 

 the same time. 



By this time great groups of farmers had reached 

 the definite conclusion that the relief they sought 

 could not be obtained through the old party organ- 

 izations. Millions of farmers broke with the old 

 political organizations and formed a new party. In 

 the chapter that follows this departure in our Ameri- 

 can political history will be surveyed and its influ- 

 ence upon our national life will be appraised. 



