EDITOR'S PREFACE 



Not since the so-called ^* Granger movement 

 of the late '70 's has there been so definite and 

 widespread an agrarian movement in the United 

 States as at present. The American farmers 

 during the period from about 1895 to 1915 

 enjoyed in the mass a considerable degree of 

 prosperity, although during those years there 

 was a gradually growing feeling of unrest, 

 rooted in the belief that the farmer was increas- 

 ingly the victim of economic injustice. When 

 we entered the war, the farmers soon came to 

 feel that they had no voice in arranging mat- 

 ters that affected them, and that the men in 

 charge of the larger affairs had inadequate 

 knowledge of the farmers' problems or sym- 

 pathy with their point of view. The post-war 

 deflation affected the farmers more seriously 

 than probably any other class of our people, in 

 fact, so seriously as to be all but disastrous. 



Meantime the organizations of farmers had 

 been increasing in power. The Grange had 



