Changes in Industrial Methods 11 



from sharing in the general prosperity to the extent that 

 he feels his capital and labor have contributed. 



EFFORTS TOWARDS ORGANIZATION 



This conviction on the part of the farmer has been a 

 source of endless controversy in the past and is now an 

 acute public question. It has crystallized from time to 

 time in different efforts to regulate by law some of the 

 injustices from which the producer thinks he suffers. 

 Soon after the Civil War, it took the form of a widespread 

 agitation, especially in the Mississippi Valley, against 

 the granting of rebates and the charging of extortionate 

 discriminating transportation rates. In one form or 

 another, this agitation has continued to the present time. 

 It has been a leading factor in the passage of the present 

 interstate commerce laws and in railroad legislation in 

 the states, in the Farmers' Alliance Movement, the 

 Populist Movement, in the Granger laws in the West 

 and Middle West, in legislation to regulate public service 

 and private corporations, in the recent tariff discussions, 

 in the consideration of the high cost of living, in num- 

 berless state and federal investigations, and in various 

 political campaigns. The farmers have always been 

 ready to invoke the law to save themselves from the fate 

 of modern conditions. They have endeavored to protect 

 themselves from the abuses of the time by seeking the 

 protection of governmental authority, rather than through 

 the organization of their interests for better business 

 methods and for the mutual safeguarding and develop- 

 ment of their interests. For years, the rural classes have 

 felt that there is too great a difference between the price 



