Grand Agricultural Wheel | |
| Abbreviation | "the Wheel" |
|---|---|
| Successor | Farmers' and Laborers' Union of America |
| Founded | February 15, 1882 |
| Founders | Nine farmers led by W. W. Tedford, W. A. Suit and W. Taylor McBee |
| Founded at | Prairie County, Arkansas |
| Dissolved | 1889 |
| Merger of | Farmers' Alliance |
| Purpose | U.S. agricultural union |
| Origins | American farm discontent |
Region served | 11 states, mostly American South |
| Subsidiaries | state and local Wheels |
| Affiliations | Knights of Labor National Union Labor Party Union Labor Party of Arkansas |
Formerly called | Wattensas Farmers' Club |
The Agricultural Wheel was a cooperative alliance of farmers in the United States. It was established in 1882 in Arkansas.[1] A major founding organizers of the Agricultural Wheel was W. W. Tedford, an Arkansas farmer and school teacher. Like similar farmer organizations such as the Southern Farmers' Alliance, the Louisiana Farmers' Union, and the Brothers of Freedom, the Agricultural Wheel had been formed to expose and correct the injustices and oppressions done to the small farmers by merchants, grain elevators and the railroads. The Wheel promoted a radical agenda including currency expansion through free silver; closing all national banks; regulation or nationalization of the railroads, the telephones and the telegraph; allow only Americans to purchase public lands; impose an income tax on high incomes; and elect senators by popular election instead of by state legislatures. The Wheel encouraged farmers to join local cooperatives, avoid the debt cycle, and avoid one crop overemphasis on cotton.[2]
- ^ Schwartz, Michael (1976). Radical Protest and Social Structure: The Southern Farmers' Alliance and Cotton Tenancy, 1880-1890. University of Chicago Press. p. 92. ISBN 9780226742359. OCLC 17876926.
- ^ "Schwartz" (1976), pp. 12, 253.