THE AGRICULTURAL WHEEL. 203 



We now have seven States organized, and a Territorial Wheel ; and, as 

 president of the national organization, I have appointed and have 

 deputy organizers in the States of Wisconsin, Virginia, Kansas, and also 

 Idaho Territory. 



And I have appointed others as national organizers, upon the recom- 

 mendation of the presidents of the different State Wheels. 



I will now attempt to give you a very brief history of the origin of 

 our organization. The Wheel was organized on the i5th day of February, 

 1882, in an old log school-house, eight miles southwest of Des Arc, in 

 Prairie County, Arkansas. The causes for organization were monopoly 

 and oppression. At about the same time an organization known as the 

 Brothers of Freedom sprang into existence in the northwest portion of 

 the same State ; and in the year 1885 the two organizations were con- 

 solidated, retaining the name of the Agricultural Wheel. 



Brother W. W. Tedford, one of the charter members of Wheel No. i, 

 gives the numerical strength of- the Agricultural Wheel as follows : On 

 February 7, 1882, there were 7 members; in 1883, 500 members; in 

 1884, 5000 members; in 1885, 10,000 members; in i$86, 50,000 

 members; in 1887, 500,000 members. 



I will now enumerate some few of the many causes for the formation 

 of the numerous organizations of farmers, since the financial crisis of 

 1873. One cause is the chartering of so many corporations, which 

 have no souls, and never die, and that have received and are receiving, 

 from both the State and national governments, privileges which indi- 

 viduals do not receive. The Standard Oil Company of the East, and 

 the Cotton Seed Oil Company of the South and West, and other 

 institutions of like nature, are examples. 



It has been claimed that competition is the life of trade. Competi- 

 tion is the greatest enemy that the American wage-worker has to contend 

 with ; not only competition among themselves, but they have had to 

 compete with foreign labor, the laborers having been landed here by 

 shiploads under contract. And we see the results in some of our large 

 trade-centres, Chicago, for instance. All honor to those whose in- 

 fluence has put a stop to this pernicious system ! It was supposed, in 

 an early day, that competition would regulate the value of transporta- 

 tion ; but no sooner is the country spanned by railroads, from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Lakes on the north to the Gulf on 

 the south, than we next behold the vast system, commonly called 

 pooling, by railroad magnates. Competition has ceased to be a factor 

 with the moneyed men of our land ; but it still continues in full force 

 with the agriculturists and wage-workers. 



