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Section X THE ElGHTEEN-NlNETIES Suburban Development. The City Becomes Metropolitan in Appearance and Manner. An International Exposition and a Small War CHAPTER 68 1890 been: "Industrialization of the South; glorification of the capitalist and his way of life; political, economic and cultural unity between the South and the East; rigid subordination of class conflict in the South to the maintenance of a status quo of a business man's regime identified with white supremacy ; and the exclusion of the Negro from political life." The creed of the 'nineties, best expressed by Tom Watson, a rising young actor on Georgia's political stage, was just the reverse. It embraced: "Agrarianism, for the South, a glorification of the farmer and his way of life; war upon the industrial East and alliance with the agrarian West; open and relentless class conflict with the enemy classes both within and without the South; and the enlistment of the Negro in the battle for the farmer, equipped with as many political weapons as Watson dared give him."1 During John B. Gordon's two administrations as governor, Grady's gospel of the New South bore fruit. The taxable wealth of Georgia increased about $87,000,000, which included town and city property; railroads $14,360,150; farm land, $13,789,513; banking, $6,160,755; cotton mills, $3,230,518; and iron works, $186,231.2 In his last message to the General Assembly, in 1890, Gordon reported: "The most cheering indications connected with the material condition of the State are the rapid multiplication of manufacturing industries, the increasing diversity in the pursuits of the people, and consequent constant creation of home markets for the products of labor. From Nickajack to Tybee, Georgia presents a pleasant picture of peace and plenty and prosperity, whilst she has made immense strides in material and intellectual progress, and feels today the impulses of a higher and broader development."3 Like most spokesmen of the New Industrial South, Gordon, in his optimism , seemed to forget the most important producers of all, the farmers. True, the Southern farmer had listened apathetically to preachments on diversified crops, scientific methods, and improvements from Grady and other sincere well-wishers ever since the War. Yet, since that cataclysm he had fared less and less wr ell. Hired Negro farm labor proved no substitute for the closely supervised laborer of ante-bellum days. Economic failures led to a rapid disintegration of plantations into smaller holdings. Cotton, the chief agricultural crop of Georgia soon descended from its price of $1.00 per pound at the close of the War. During the 70's it sold for approximately twelve cents, nine cents during the 80's and seven during the 90's.4 HE creed of Henry W. Grady and of the decade of the 'eighties had T THE EIGHTEEN-NINETIES 205 True, the amount of the crop almost trebled during this period, but the farmer, in addition to low prices and unstable labor, also suffered from the lack of credit. The government offered no financial assistance to agriculture, and land, the only basis of credit that most farmers owned, was not a type of collateral that found favor with banks. The emergence of the crop-lien system provided necessary credit in time of emergency, but it entailed many subsequent evils and kept most farmers, particularly tenants, eternally in debt.5 This general situation among the farmers of the country, particularly in the South and West led to what has become known as the "Agrarian Crusade." During the 70's and 80's organizations of farmers, Granges, Alliances, Wheels, Associations, proliferated throughout the land. An amalgamation of various groups led, in 1889, to the formation of the National Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union. The Southern branch of the Alliance alone claimed a membership of 3,000,000 by 1890. Within three years after its first appearance in Georgia in 1887 there were more than 2000 lodges in the State with a combined membership exceeding a hundred thousand.6 At first the Farmers' Alliance was non-political, but believing that the National Government had long been controlled by New England industrialists and capitalists, the embattled farmers turned their attention to political action. At a great meeting in St. Louis in December, 1889, attended by Farmers' Alliances, joined by the Knights of Labor, a program was evolved to which candidates for office must conform in order to secure the support of the two organizations. Its principal features were...

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