THE GREENBACK INTERLUDE 87 



proceedings aroused the fear that they were ad- 

 vocating communism. The members of the clubs 

 and their leaders constituted, as a matter of fact, 

 the more radical of the Greenbackers. They usu- 

 ally opposed fusion with the Democrats and often 

 refused to follow the regular leaders of the party. 



In the election the Greenback ticket polled only 

 about eighty thousand votes, or less than one per 

 cent of the total. In spite of the activity of former 

 members of the Labor Reform party in the move- 

 ment, Pennsylvania was the only Eastern State in 

 which the new party made any considerable show- 

 ing. In the West over 6000 votes were cast in 

 each of the five States Indiana, Illinois, Michi- 

 gan, Iowa, and Kansas. The agrarian aspect of the 

 movement was now uppermost, but the vote of 

 17,000 polled in Illinois, though the largest of the 

 group, was less than a quarter of the votes cast by 

 the state Independent Reform party in 1874 when 

 railroad regulation had been the dominant issue. 

 Clearly many farmers were not yet convinced 01 

 the necessity of a Greenback party. The only 

 tangible achievement of the party in 1876 was the 

 election of a few members of the Illinois Legislature 

 who held the balance between the old parties and 

 were instrumental in sending David Davis to the 



