THE POPULIST MOVEMENT 667 



potent effect upon agriculture, and the products of the farm were 

 rapidly increased. A decline in prices followed, which has con- 

 tinued almost uninterruptedly ever since, resulting in the early 

 formation of agricultural organizations in an effort to stay the 

 decline. The Grange of 1867, the Farmers' Alliance of 1879, 

 the Agricultural Wheel, 1878, and others were the forerunners 

 of this organized movement. Efforts were made from time to 

 time to join all societies of this kind into one great combination 

 for political purposes. Although many members of the societies 

 had been disturbed by the third-party idea, it was not until 

 1890 that any great progress was made in the matter. In this 

 year began a series of conventions which finally resulted in the 

 formation of the party under consideration. 



There are five of these conventions whose proceedings interest 

 the student of the People's Party. Two of them were not Popu- 

 list assemblies but the meetings of organized societies showing 

 symptoms of the third-party fever. They were held previous to 

 the real beginning of the party, but belong nevertheless to the 

 series of conventions which have given us so many new ideas as 

 to the way in which we should be governed. The first one in 

 which the idea of a third party appeared was held in St. Louis, 

 December 6, 1889. It consisted of delegates from the farmer's 

 organization and from the Knights of Labor. The object of the 

 meeting was to effect a union between the two classes, which 

 was accomplished under the name of the Farmers' Alliance and 

 Industrial Union. Although this organization wisely deferred 

 its entrance into politics as a party, it nevertheless passed some 

 resolutions concerning the free coinage of silver, abolition of 

 national banks, sub-treasuries, plenty of paper money, government 

 ownership of railroads, non-ownership of land by foreigners, pro- 

 hibition of futures in grain, and the reduction of the nation's 

 income to expenses. Notice, then, that all these measures are 

 economic, none of them even remotely verging upon politics. 

 On December 7 of the following year (1890) another conven- 

 tion was held at Ocala, Florida. The composition of this assem- 

 bly was somewhat different from that of the preceding one. 

 Members of the Southern Alliance, the Farmers' Mutual Benefit 



