me until his death in 1912, respected by his neighbors
and forgotten by the world. Peffer, at the expiration of his term in the
Senate, ran an unsuccessful tilt for the governorship of Kansas on the
Prohibition ticket. In 1900 he returned to the comfort of the Republican
fold, to become an ardent supporter of McKinley and Roosevelt.

But the defection and death of Populist leaders, the collapse of the
party, and the disintegration of the alliances could not stay the
farmers' movement. It ebbed for a time, just as at the end of the
Granger period, but it was destined to rise again. The unprecedented
prosperity, especially among the farmers, which began with the closing
years of the nineteenth century and has continued with little reaction
down to the present has removed many causes for agrarian discontent; but
some of the old evils are left, and fresh grievances have come to
the front. Experience taught the farmer one lesson which he has never
forgotten: that whether prosperous or not, he can and must promote his
welfare by organization. So it is that, as one association or group of
associations declines, others arise. In some States, where the Grange
has survived or has been reintroduced, it is once more the leading organ
of the agricultural class. Elsewhere other organizations, sometimes
confined to a single State, sometimes transcending state lines, hold
the farmers' allegiance more or less firmly; and an attempt is now being
made to unite all of these associations in an American Federation of
Farmers.

Until recently these orders have devoted their energies principally
to promoting the social and intellectual welfare of the farmer and to
business cooperation, sometimes on a large scale. But, as soon as an
organization has drawn into its ranks a considerable proportion of the
farmers of a State, especially in the West, the temptation to use
its power in the field of politics is almost irresistible. At first,
political activity is usually confined to declarations in favor of
measures believed to be in the interests of the farmers as a class;
but from this it is only a short step to the support of candidates
for office who are expected to work for those measures; and thence the
gradation is easy to actual nominations by the order or by a farmers'
convention which it has called into being. With direct primaries in
operation in most of the Western States, these movements no longer
culminate in the formation of the third