36 THE AGRARIAN CRUSADE 



surprising, therefore, that wave after wave of re- 

 form swept over the West in the succeeding decades. 



The independent parties of the middle seventies 

 were distinctly spontaneous uprisings of the people 

 and especially of the farmers, rather than move- 

 ments instigated by politicians for personal ends or 

 by professional reformers. This circumstance was 

 a source both of strength and weakness. As the 

 movements began to develop unexpected power, 

 politicians often attempted to take control but, 

 where they succeeded, the movement was checked 

 by the farmers' distrust of these self-appointed 

 leaders. On the other hand, the new parties suf- 

 fered from the lack of skillful and experienced 

 leaders. The men who managed their campaigns 

 and headed their tickets were usually well-to-do 

 farmers drafted from the ranks, with no more po- 

 litical experience than perhaps a term or two in 

 the state legislature. Such were Willard C. Flagg, 

 president of the Illinois State Farmers' Associa- 

 tion, Jacob G. Vale, candidate for governor in Iowa, 

 and William R. Taylor, the Granger governor of 

 Wisconsin. 



Taylor is typical of the picturesque and force- 

 ful figures which frontier life so often developed. 

 He was born in Connecticut, of parents recently 



