CHAPTER XII 

 THE FARMERS* PROGRAM 



Political movements among farmers have gen- 

 erally been viewed with alarm if not openly 

 ridiculed by the representatives of the popula- 

 tion's centers during recent years. Otherwise 

 careful students of current history have been 

 prone to misjudge farm movements and to ques- 

 tion the motives and purposes of the leaders. 

 Those who have Lived among farmers and un- 

 derstand their way of thinking and observed the 

 causes for political discontent are seldom so 

 disturbed as are the politicians from urban 

 centers. 



The rise and growth in influence of the Non- 

 Partisian League in North Dakota revived the 

 agitation in the eastern press and brought on 

 an epidemic of uncalled-for comment and criti- 

 cism about American farmers. The result was 

 that the growth of farm organizations which 

 has been quite general since the war has more 

 seriously disturbed some people than any other 

 political movement or even the over-turn of 



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