Agrarian Socialist Movement

The agrarian socialist movement took root in the rural parts of the United States at the turn of the 20th century. Economic conditions of this time help explain why farmers, an unlikely bunch to adopt Karl Marx's brand of socialism, were drawn to it. Agrarian radicalism after the Civil War developed with the extension of the railroads west of the Mississippi. The new settlers, who expected freedom and security, encountered instead a fluctuating world price for their crops, railroads, and middlemen to market their crops. Growing cash crops that are primarily cotton, wheat, and corn, farmers were suffering under high interest rates and low crop prices.

Under a system called crop lien, farmers were brutally exploited by their creditors, who loaned farmers money in return for their crops as collateral. Thus, farmers mortgaged their harvest while it was still on the ground. The merchant who bought the crop during harvest time (at a price determined by him) was, in many cases, the same person as the creditor. Often, farmers would be short of paying back their debt despite a year's hard toil. Increasingly indebted, farmers worked 16 hours a day and overworked the soil to stay afloat. Despite these efforts, many farmers lost their land. Tenancy among white and black farmers was thus increasing as the 1910 census revealed. Many thought monopoly capitalism was the culprit.

Responding to the economic conditions, many farmers organized rural protests. These protests took the form of educational organizations, cooperative organizations to eliminate the profits of middlemen, direct action, and political parties. The Farmers' Alliance, for example, emerged in Texas in the late 1870s as an organization of white farmers, big and small, against industrial and monied interests. The leadership of the Alliance focused on educating the individual farmer and shied away from cooperative action such as crop withholding.

The more militant members of the Alliance who were dissatisfied with the Alliance later moved on to comprise the core of the Populist movement (or the People's Party), which emphasized cooperation. The People's Party posed the strongest challenge to the two-party system in U.S. history. The Populists were successful during 1890s, primarily in the countryside in Kansas and Colorado, where Populist governors were elected. After much debate, Populists chose fusion with the Democrats instead of running their own candidate for the presidential election in 1896. The Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan lost, and the demise of the Populists began.

Texas Populists continued even in 1898 to garner significant electoral support against Democrats at a [Page 59]time when the People's Party was practically dismantling in all the other southern states. Moreover, Texas Populists were also recruiting black farmers and calling for the need to create unity between industrial workers and farmers. There was a socialist party in the United States at that time, the Socialist Labor Party. However, its contempt for the small farmer had kept even the radical ex-Alliance members and Populists at bay. Politically homeless, many of these militant Populists joined the Socialist Party of America when it was founded in 1901.

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