CHAPTER VIII 



THE FARMERS' ALLIANCE 



THE hope of welding the farmers into an organiza- 

 tion which would enable them to present a united 

 front to their enemies and to work together for the 

 promotion of their interests social, economic, 

 and political was too alluring to be allowed to 

 die out with the decline of the Patrons of Husband- 

 ry. Farmers who had experienced the benefits of 

 the Grange, even though they had deserted it in its 

 hour of trial, were easily induced to join another or- 

 ganization embodying all its essential features but 

 proposing to avoid its mistakes. The conditions 

 which brought about the rapid spread of the Grange 

 in the seventies still prevailed; and as soon as the 

 reaction from the Granger movement was spent, 

 orders of farmers began to appear in various places 

 and to spread rapidly throughout the South and 

 West. This second movement for agricultural or- 

 ganization differed from the first in that it sprang 



in 



