THE BUILDING OF RAILROADS AND ITS EFFECTS. 203

country was settling up, and the cost of transporting produce to St. Louis and Chicago, the principal distributing points, over the common roads was so great that it left the farmer little or nothing to carry back to his family. The country villages were few and far between. Railroads had not been built, and it was with the greatest difficulty that the farmer could gather enough money to pay his taxes. The construction of railroads began, but before these were in operation a feeling of awakening had so grown upon the popular mind that Farmers' Clubs began organizing, though, at first, more to discuss matters of cultivation than any thing else.

In 1852, the exactions of the country merchants, or middle men, as they were even then called, came in for a great share of the blame, and justly, beyond a doubt. They were the protected monopolists, who, by the force of their cohesion, controlled prices, and, while they grew rich themselves, oppressed the farmers.) I do not stop here to ask, Would not, and does not, the farmer seek to do the same, if opportunity or circumstances favor? I am now simply writing history.

In the year just named, (the Michigan Southern Railroad was completed to Chicago. The Galena Union, now Northwestern, was stretching westward, and the Illinois Central was nearly completed. The opening of these lines gave partial relief, and caused towns and villages to spring up as if by magic along their routes. Heretofore, the only commodity that brought the farmer any returns in cash was the live stock which he fattened and sold to the drover, to be driven on foot to the nearest point where it could be packed and distributed.

(Agriculture, which before had been languishing, suddenly

became remunerative. With the advent of the towns along

the road came increased immigration. The farmer again had a home maket; he could again, in great measure, deal without the intervention of a middle man. sprang up, and other immigration followed.

Other towns

Other rings

were formed, and the farmer again found himself on relatively-losing ground, although not so badly off as before.)

THE CENTRALIA, ILLS., CONVENTION.

The feeling that relief must be had finally gained such strength that a general convention or congress was called, and held at Centralia, on the fifteenth of September, 1858. The discussions of this body were earnest in tone and comprehensive in scope. They resulted in the following platform, declaration of principles, and plan of operations:

FARMER'S PLATFORM OF 1858.

"We believe that the time has come when the producing classes should assert, not only their independence, but their supremacy; that non-producers can not be relied upon as guarantees of fairness; and that laws enacted and administered by lawyers are not a true standard of popular sentiment.

"We believe that a general application to commerce of the prin ciple that the majority should rule, would increase the income and diminish the outlay of producers, and, at the same time, elevate the standard of mercantile morality.

"We believe that the producer of a commodity and the purchaser of it should, together, have more voice in fixing its price than he who simply carries it from one to the other.

"We believe that the true method of guarding against commercial revulsions is to bring the producer and consumer as near together as possible, thus diminishing the alarming number and the more alarming power of non-producers.

THE CENTRALIA, ILLS., CONVENTION.

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"We believe that in union there is strength, and that in union alone can the necessarily isolated condition of farmers be so strengthened as to enable them to cope, on equal terms, with men whose callings are, in their very nature, a permanent and self-created combination of interests.

"We believe that system of commerce to be the best which transacts the most business, with the least tax on production, and which, instead of being a master, is merely a servant.

"We believe that good prices are as necessary to the prosperity of farmers as good crops, and, in order to create such a power as to insure as much uniformity in prices as in products, farmers must keep out of debt; and that, in order to keep out of debt, they must pay for what they buy and exact the same from others."

DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES.

"These truths we hold to be self-evident, that, as production both precedes barter and employs more labor and capital, it is more worthy the care and attention of governments and of individuals; that in the honorable transaction of a legitimate business there is no necessity for secret cost-marks; that, in all well-regulated communities, there should be the smallest possible number of non-producers that is necessary to the welfare of the human race; that labor and capital employed in agriculture should receive as much reward as labor and capital employed in any other pursuit; that, as the exchanger is merely an agent between the producer and consumer, he should not

have a chief voice in the establishment of prices; that the interests of agriculture and of commerce can only be considered as identical when each has an equal share in regulating barter; and that the principal road to honor and distinction, in this country, should lead through productive industry."

PLAN OF OPERATIONS..

"First. The formation of Farmers' Clubs wherever practical, the object of which shall be to produce concert of action on all matters connected with their interests.

"Second. The establishment, as far as possible, of the ready pay system in all pecuniary transactions.

"Third. The formation of wholesale purchasing and selling agencies in the great centers of commerce, so that producers may, in a great measure, have it in their power to save the profits of retailers.

"Fourth. The organization of such a power as to insure the creation of a national agricultural bureau, the main object of which shall be an annual or semi-annual census of all our national products, and the collection and dissemination of valuable seeds, plants, and facts.

"Fifth. The election of producers to all places of public trust and honor the general rule, and the election of non-producers the exception."

CHAPTER XVII.

THE NATIONAL AGRICULTURAL CONGRESS OF

1872.

REVIVAL OF CLUBS AT THE SOUTH.

Soon after the close of the late war, the more far-seeing citizens of the South began to consider seriously the importance of organizing for the promotion of agriculture in that fertile section. They recognized the fact that the produce of the land is the basis of all national wealth, and they felt this to be especially true of their portion of the country, for the reason that it had always been essentially an agricultural region; and they noted with sadness that, during the war, its agriculture had languished, and its manufactures had been entirely broken up.

Societies for the advancement of agriculture and its kindred interests consequently sprang up and flourished, and eventually a general association was formed, which assumed the name of the " Agricultural Congress." At the second session of this body, held at Selma, Alabama, in December, 1871, the importance of the undertaking was generally recognized. It was essentially a Southern institution, and composed of Southern men. Its officers were as follows: President, Dr. R. J. Spurr, of Kentucky: Vice-Presidents— Hon. Reuben Gentry, of the same State; General William J. Hardee, of Alabama; Major R. R. Hurt, of Tennessee;