position to railroads that prevailed
in the West. The need of railroads was felt so keenly that the practice
of baiting them had not become popular. Some railroad legislation was
passed, largely through Granger influence, but it was not yet radical.
Nevertheless the Granger movement was by no means without permanent
influence. It helped to develop class consciousness; it demonstrated
that the Western and the Southern farmer had some interests in common;
and it also implanted in people's minds the idea that legislation of an
economic character was desirable. Heretofore the Southern farmer, so far
as he had thought at all about the relation of the State to industry,
had been a believer in _laissez faire_. Now he began to consider whether
legislation might not be the remedy for poverty. Out of this serious
attention to the needs of the farmer other organizations were to arise
and to build upon the foundations laid by the Grange.

About 1875 there appeared in Texas and other States local organizations
of farmers, known as Farmers' Alliances, and in 1879 a Grand State
Alliance was formed in Texas. The purposes were similar to those set
forth by the Grange. In Arkansas appeared the Agricultural Wheel and
the Brothers of Freedom, which were soon consolidated. The Farmers'
Union of Louisiana and the Alliance of Texas were also united under the
name of the National Farmers' Alliance and Cooeperative Union of America.
This was soon united with the Arkansas Wheel, which had crossed state
lines.

A session of the National Alliance was held at St. Louis in 1889 with
delegates present from every Southern State, except West Virginia, and
from some of the Middle Western States. The National Assembly of the
Knights of Labor was also held in St. Louis at this time, and a joint
declaration of beliefs was put forth. This platform called for the issue
of more paper money, abolition of national banks, free coinage of
silver, legislation to prevent trusts and corners, tariff reform,
government ownership of railroads, and restriction of public lands to
actual settlers.

The next year, the annual convention of the Alliance was held at Ocala,
Florida, and the Ocala platform was published. This meeting recommended
the so-called sub-treasury plan by which the Federal Government was to
construct warehouses for agricultural products. In these the farmer
might deposit his non-perishable agricultural products, and receive 80
per cent of their marke