CHAPTER VII 



THE PLIGHT OF THE FARMER 



AN English observer of agricultural conditions in 

 1893 finds that agricultural unrest was not peculiar 

 to the United States in the last quarter of the nine- 

 teenth century, but existed in all the more advanced 

 countries of the world: 



Almost everywhere, certainly in England, France, 

 Germany, Italy, Scandinavia, and the United States, 

 the agriculturists, formerly so instinctively conserva- 

 tive, are becoming fiercely discontented, declare they 

 gained less by civilization than the rest of the com- 

 munity, and are looking about for remedies of a drastic 

 nature. In England they are hoping for aid from 

 councils of all kinds; in France they have put on pro- 

 tective duties which have been increased in vain twice 

 over; in Germany they put on and relaxed similar 

 duties and are screaming for them again; in Scandi- 

 navia Denmark more particularly they limit the 

 aggregation of land; and in the United States they 

 create organizations like the Grangers, the Farmers' 

 Leagues, and the Populists. x 



1 The Spectator, vol. LXX, p. 247. 



