icultural class. Old party ties were still strong. Only with
reluctance could the Republican or Democrat of long standing bring
himself to depart from the familiar fold. Then, too, the recent
ignominious failures of the Greenback party might well cool the ardor of
all but the most sanguine advocates of a third party movement. Among the
leaders of the agrarian organizations were many, moreover, who foresaw
that to become involved in partisan politics could mean nothing less
than the defeat of all their original purposes.

One disappointment after another, however, made it apparent that little
was to be expected from the Republican or the Democratic party. Trust in
individual politicians proved equally vain, since promises easily made
during a hot campaign were as easily forgotten after the battle was
over. One speaker before a state convention of the Northwest Alliance
put into words what many were thinking: "There may be some contingencies
when you may have to act politically. If other parties will not nominate
men friendly to your interest, then your influence will have to be felt
in some way or you may as well disband. If all parties nominate your
enemies, then put some of your own friends into the race and then stand
by them as a Christian stands by his religion." In other words, if
nothing was to be gained by scattering votes among the candidates of the
old parties, independent action remained the only course. Hence it was
that the late eighties saw the beginnings of another party of protest,
dominated by the farmers and so formidable as to cause the machine
politicians to realize that a new force was abroad in the land.

After the Greenback party lost the place it had for a fleeting moment
obtained, labor once more essayed the role of a third party. In 1886,
for instance, the Knights of Labor and the trades unions, for once
cooperating harmoniously, joined forces locally with the moribund
Greenbackers and with farmers' organizations and won notable successes
at the polls in various parts of the Union, particularly in the
Middle Atlantic and Western States. Emboldened by such victories, the
discontented farmers were induced to cast in their lot with labor; and
for the next few years, the nation saw the manifestoes of a party which
combined the demands of labor and agriculture in platforms constructed
not unlike a crazy-quilt, with Henry George, James Buchanan, and Alson
J. Streeter presiding at the sewing-bee and at