24 THE AGRARIAN CRUSADE 



rates allowed him but a narrow margin of profit 

 on his produce. 



When the farmers sought political remedies for 

 their economic ills, they discovered that, as a class, 

 they had little representation or influence either in 

 Congress or in the state legislatures. Before the 

 Civil War the Southern planter had represented 

 agricultural interests in Congress fairly well; after 

 the War the dominance of Northern interests left 

 the Western farmer without his traditional ally 

 in the South. Political power was concentrated in 

 the East and in the urban sections of the West. 

 Members of Congress were increasingly likely to be 

 from the manufacturing classes or from the legal 

 profession, which sympathized with these classes 

 rather than with the agriculturists. Only about 

 seven per cent of the members of Congress were 

 farmers; yet in 1870 forty-seven per cent of the 

 population was engaged in agriculture. The only 

 remedy for the farmers was to organize themselves 

 as a class in order to promote their common welfare. 



