Farmers and Government
Missouri History
Farmers and Government
Since agriculture has always been an integral part of Missouri’s economy, farmers were quite involved in the state’s political interest. Missouri’s agricultural land tripled in the thirty years following the start of the civil war.
Unfortunately for farmers, their yields or gain per acre stayed close to the same amount. This meant that while farmers were increasing total output due to advanced machinery and more acres in crops, they made little money or went into the hole. When you can’t support your family on the income you make, what are your alternatives? Since farms were typically a family outfit, a change in livelihood was not in the cards for most. So the next alternative in working to change government ideas and directions.
Many farmers banned together in cooperatives to seek regulation of railroad shipping fees and other issues. As they followed that old axiom that says there’s strength in numbers, they engaged in one particularly enterprising co-op, the National Grange. The five years since its introduction to Missouri found more Grange chapters than in any other state in 1875.
Farmers participated in third-party politics. Disgruntled farmers participated in the People’s party or the Populists. As is typically the case with third parties, they did not win the 1874 election. The People’s Party did transition into other parties, such as the Greenback and the Union Labor Party. Under the platform of the Greenbacks, voters sought the issuance of United States notes as legal tender, equal pay for both sexes, federal tax on incomes, an eight-hour workday, and the availability of public land for real settlers, not simply the speculators. Often third party ideas get picked up by the main parties. That will be the case of these issues in later years.
Farmers remain unsatisfied still in the mid-1880s. It was at this time that Missouri farmers chose to get involved with the National Farmer’s Alliance and Cooperative Union of America. The Missouri branch of the Alliance was known as the Missouri Farmer’s Alliance or MFA for short. This group would eventually head into the field of insurance. Today that insurance entity is known as Shelter Insurance.
Farmers would continue to have periods of anguish as the 19th Century drew to a close. They would suffer through depressions, as in the Panic of 1893. They would be part of the fight over paper currency and the use of gold and silver specie. By 1898, the United States would be waging military activity in the Caribbean and the Philippines. This Spanish-American War would call 3,500 Missourians to arms and volunteer in the fray in Cuba. Missouri’s own John J. Pershing, a lieutenant in the Army, would lead a group of Buffalo Soldiers, black infantrymen in the 10th Cavalry. The leading of these black troops would contribute to Pershing being referred to as “Blackjack Pershing.” Pershing would lead these black soldiers up the hill known as Kettle Hill and San Juan Hill. Pershing would later lead the American forces in World War One. Missouri’s Fort Leonard Wood was named for the person overseeing the entire operation, Leonard Wood.
Because of the war in the Caribbean, Missouri’s resources would be required and the State’s economy greatly. The turmoil felt by Missouri’s farmers would be settled by 1902.
Farmers and Government
Since agriculture has always been an integral part of Missouri’s economy, farmers were quite involved in the state’s political interest. Missouri’s agricultural land tripled in the thirty years following the start of the civil war.
Unfortunately for farmers, their yields or gain per acre stayed close to the same amount. This meant that while farmers were increasing total output due to advanced machinery and more acres in crops, they made little money or went into the hole. When you can’t support your family on the income you make, what are your alternatives? Since farms were typically a family outfit, a change in livelihood was not in the cards for most. So the next alternative in working to change government ideas and directions.
Many farmers banned together in cooperatives to seek regulation of railroad shipping fees and other issues. As they followed that old axiom that says there’s strength in numbers, they engaged in one particularly enterprising co-op, the National Grange. The five years since its introduction to Missouri found more Grange chapters than in any other state in 1875.
Farmers participated in third-party politics. Disgruntled farmers participated in the People’s party or the Populists. As is typically the case with third parties, they did not win the 1874 election. The People’s Party did transition into other parties, such as the Greenback and the Union Labor Party. Under the platform of the Greenbacks, voters sought the issuance of United States notes as legal tender, equal pay for both sexes, federal tax on incomes, an eight-hour workday, and the availability of public land for real settlers, not simply the speculators. Often third party ideas get picked up by the main parties. That will be the case of these issues in later years.
Farmers remain unsatisfied still in the mid-1880s. It was at this time that Missouri farmers chose to get involved with the National Farmer’s Alliance and Cooperative Union of America. The Missouri branch of the Alliance was known as the Missouri Farmer’s Alliance or MFA for short. This group would eventually head into the field of insurance. Today that insurance entity is known as Shelter Insurance.
Farmers would continue to have periods of anguish as the 19th Century drew to a close. They would suffer through depressions, as in the Panic of 1893. They would be part of the fight over paper currency and the use of gold and silver specie. By 1898, the United States would be waging military activity in the Caribbean and the Philippines. This Spanish-American War would call 3,500 Missourians to arms and volunteer in the fray in Cuba. Missouri’s own John J. Pershing, a lieutenant in the Army, would lead a group of Buffalo Soldiers, black infantrymen in the 10th Cavalry. The leading of these black troops would contribute to Pershing being referred to as “Blackjack Pershing.” Pershing would lead these black soldiers up the hill known as Kettle Hill and San Juan Hill. Pershing would later lead the American forces in World War One. Missouri’s Fort Leonard Wood was named for the person overseeing the entire operation, Leonard Wood.
Because of the war in the Caribbean, Missouri’s resources would be required and the State’s economy greatly. The turmoil felt by Missouri’s farmers would be settled by 1902.