An interesting collection of articles on the situation of farming and farmers delivered by The Appeal to Reason, the foremost voice of rural socialism in U.S. history. Contributions from Allan L. Benson, A.M. Simons and Walter Thomas Mills provide context, while Patrick Nagle and Arthur LeSueur report from the fields of Texas and Oklahoma. Also included are several programs of the German Social Democracy and the Socialist Party of America, with a discussion of the Farmers Plank at the S.P.’s 1910 Congress.

Socialism and the Farmer. Appeal Socialist Classics No. 8. Edited by William J. Ghent. Published by the Appeal to Reason, Girard, Kansas. 1916.

Contents: Preface, I) The Party Attitude, German Socialists and the Farm Problem, Frankfurt Resolution 1894, Breslau Resolution 1895, The American Program, Resolution of 1908, 1910 Congress, Basis of 1912 Program by A.M. Simons, Report of Farmers Committee, Oklahoma Renters’ and Farmers’ Program 1914, II) The Condition and the Remedy, What’s the Matter with the Farmer? by Walter Thomas Mills, The Texas Farm Tenants by Patrick Nagle and Arthur LeSueur, The Oklahoma Renters by Patrick Nagle, Banks and the Farmer by Allan L. Benson, III) Steps Toward the Socialist Goal by A.M. Simons, IV) Facts for Farmers by Allan L. Benson, The Socialist Remedy. 64 pages.

The Appeal to Reason was among the most important and widely read left papers in the United States. With a weekly run of over 550,000 copies by 1910, it remains the largest socialist paper in US history. Founded by utopian socialist and Ruskin Colony leader Julius Wayland it was published privately in Girard, Kansas from 1895 until 1922. The paper came from the Midwestern populist tradition to become the leading national voice in support of the Socialist Party of America in 1901. A ‘popular’ paper, the Appeal was Eugene Debs main literary outlet and saw writings by Upton Sinclair, Jack London, Mary “Mother” Jones, Helen Keller and many others.

PDF of pamphlet: https://archive.org/download/appealsocialistc08ghen/appealsocialistc08ghen.pdf