252 THE GREEN RISING 



mere vestigial remains. The farmers were back in 

 their old parties, trading through the old channels. 

 Only in farmer minds remained a trace of the 

 struggle." The great awakening of rural conscious- 

 ness has come since the beginning of the World War 

 in 1914. The past ten years surpass the preceding 

 fifty years in actual accomplishments for rural 

 advancement. 



As one reviews the results of agrarian effort, it is 

 easy to see the change in the point of view of the 

 farmer in recent times. As his point of view has 

 changed from individualism to cooperative effort, he 

 has changed his program from one of expediency 

 to far-reaching policy. "What distinguishes the 

 present agrarian movement," says an editorial in 

 The New Republic for April 9, 1924, "from those of 

 earlier generations is primarily a change in the 

 farmers' conceptions of means of redress. In the 

 eighties and nineties the reforms advocated by the 

 farmers were essentially individualistic. They 

 sought to counteract the decline in prices of agri- 

 cultural products by means of monetary inflation, 

 believing that rising prices would benefit not only 

 the farmer but the whole body of producers at the 

 cost of the money lenders and bond holders. They 

 wished to break up trusts and other combinations 

 in the faith that competition would establish prices 

 on a fair basis all around. Above all, they demanded 

 control of the railways, in order to eliminate exces- 

 sive and discriminatory rates which not only weighed 



