Patrick Smith (politician) career, Smith being said to have shouted across the floor at Dáil Éireann, "They gave us stepping-stones, but they [state forces in 1922] would not walk on them." A play on the same quote by Irish revolutionary, Michael Collins. He entered the Dáil in September 1923, as a Republican candidate. In 1926, Éamon de Valera, the Leader of Anti-Treaty Sinn Fein, approached Smith and persuaded him to join his newly founded political party, Fianna Fáil. Fianna Fail abandoned the abstentionist policy of Anti Treaty Sinn Fein and its elected members took their seats in Dáil Éireann. De Valera and Smith
Japan Farmers Party (1926–28) Ikuo. Okabe and Hirano's group broke away from the Labour-Farmer Party in March 1926 and on October 17, 1926 they founded the Japan Farmers Party. The Japan Farmers Party declared itself to be "a party by farmers, for farmers". In this sense the party differentiated itself from the other proletarian parties, which all declared themselves to be based on a worker-peasant class alliance. The party won four seats in the 1927 prefectural assembly elections of 1927. As of 1928, the Japan Farmers Party claimed a membership of 70,138. The figure does however appear to be unreliable, compared to the national