Show f FARMERS ALL UNITED i I f Their Convention to be in Every r Sense a National One WHAT THE ALLIANCE HAS DONE Its Growth From Small BeginningThe i Political Aspects of the New Agricultural Movement For TEE SUNDAY HERATD Copyrighted Agriculturalists generally look upon the approaching annual convention of the National Na-tional Farmers Alliance and Industrial union to be held in Ocala Fla on December Decem-ber 2 as far more important to their interests in-terests than any similar gathering in this country has yet been Farmers have been gradually growing up to the belief thaI tha-I there was a way to permanently right the many grievous wrongs they have so long complained of and suffered under The granger movement brought temporary tem-porary relief in some sections of the country coun-try as also did other more or less local or sectional movements but each in its turn soon faded away and reform had to be looked for but never quite obtained in still other directions These various movements move-ments however were failures though they pavedthe way to improved methods of organization and combined effort The results have already been apparent in the returns from the recent elections Whole states have been swept by the farmers here and there and their representatives will sit in governors chairs will form working majorities in state legislatures will no longer seek vainly for plenty of I congenial companionship in the lower house of Congress and will even associate together in the United States Senate itself Small wonder that some of the more opti mistical of their number see the farmers tri B Jl CLOVER in the near future carrying the whole country by storm in a presidential election I Small wonder for their positive belief that this years convention of the Alliancethe first truly national convention of the farmers farm-ers is to be big with great results Delegates Dele-gates from all recognized farmers orders or associations will be welcomed to the convention con-vention and invited to lake an active part in the proceedings The object as declared is the formation of one grand compact national organization which shall unite all these fraternities in mutual cooperation and political action Not that we vaut to run this government govern-ment oursolveb said one sturdy whoat grower from tn west win has been in in town this week but we dont intend to submit to injustice from any man or from any combination of men and we believe that we aro strong enough now to be heard I in legislatures and in Congress We know no party politics in this matter Democrats Demo-crats Republicans and Prohibitionists are working together and the wheatraisers of the west have joined hands with the cotton growers of the south Now we are moving eastward Pennsylvania New Jersey and Now York are in lino with us Next we shall organize the tobaccogrowers of Connecticut Con-necticut who have been shamefully abused and cheated out of their profits For sometime some-time we have had aihcadquarters in Washington Wash-ington Weve got still another headquarters headquar-ters right here in New York city They have At No 335 Broadway in a couple of office rooms on the third floor is the metropolitan abiding place of the Farmers Far-mers alliance exchange Its secretary and managera pleasantlaced young southerner who saw the Alliance at its birthaud shared in its early struggles is also the president of Florida Alliance state exchange The business busi-ness of the exchange is to keep farmers with good security but in need of ready cash out of the hands of usurious and conscienceless con-scienceless sharks to buy farming implements imple-ments seed etc at lowest rates and deliver de-liver them at cost price to obtain the highest high-est rates for farm produce and to look after the general interests of members of the alliance al-liance The farm housewife too is not forgotten for through the Alliance ex change she can obtain sewing and washing machines and other household articles at manufacturers prices and state or local agents can have sugar and other indestructible indestruct-ible provisions shipped to any section of the country fot distribution at refiners prices This means that the farmers after having been the prey of extortionate agents and commission merchants for years can now purchase almost anything they please at from 25 to 60 per cent less than the same articles would cost us at retail here in the city That fact they present as one of the results of cooperation Of course as shareholders they pay a small annual fee to cover the expenses of the bureau which is purely and simply an alliance bureau and not in any way under private control Like all great movements the Farmers Alliance had small beginnings and is not the growth of a day Its early history is even a little obscure for the title originated origi-nated in an informal sort of way in Lam pasas county Texas about the year lTO That is a little piece of history to be read for the llrst time probably by most of the officers and members of the now powerful order Cattle thieves abounded in Lam pasas county in those days and conducted their operations on a most extensive scale The authorities of the region coulddo nothing r noth-ing and the cattlemen decided that the only way to save their stock was to lookout look-out in their own way for their own interests inter-ests They met one night and called themselves them-selves the Farmers Alliance Their object ob-ject was to rid Lampasas county of cattle thieves They had neither officers nor constitution and bylaws but they went to I work vigorously with their single object in view and pretty soon that object was accomplished ac-complished and the Farmers Alliance scored its first success Although those pioneer members have not since been ac I rt I OSWALD WILSON cused of telling tales out of school it is reasonably safe to assume that some of the cattle thieves they raided have not since that time stolen cattle either in Lampasas county or anywhere else In 1878 one of the original members named Baggett went to Parker county Texas and there organized the first for inal association known as the Farmers Alliance It was a secret society Mr Os wald Wilson now the manager of the New I I a t York headquarters was teaching school in I that vicininty at tho time and he and his principal on the invitation of tho farmers were among the first members I mem-bers of the new organization Soon afterward after-ward in the same year the Farmers Alliance Alli-ance made its appearance in western New York but not as a secret organization The I title spread to the North west States wherein where-in spots it lingered but more often lost itself in other orders In the south the title was not known for several years outside Texas but there it prow and flourished for the Parker county organization gradually I grad-ually became a state order and in 18S6 the Texas Farmers Alliance had a membership member-ship of 150000 Delegates from the Farmers State Union j of Louisiana with aEmembership of 10000 met in February 18tj with the delegates from the State Alliance of Texas and formed what was then known as the National Na-tional Farmers Alliance and operative Union obtaining from Washington a national na-tional charter as a tradesunion Organizers Organ-izers were then sent to all the southern states to urge the farmers to establish subordinate alliances in their school districts dis-tricts Oswald Wilson went first to his native state of Florida where he organized the first district alliance In Georgia soon afterward he organized another district alliance The movement spread rapidly after that especially in the great cotton belt where the planters had long been tho victims of sellers and purchasers cotton brokers and the money lenders who acting act-ing it was charged in con crt had loaded down many magnificent plantations with debt and mortgages and not only bought crops at their own figures but foreclosed fore-closed on chattels and lands almost at will District alliances there soon grew into county and then state alliances and the nrst national convention con-vention was held in Shrevesport La in October 18S7 At the same time the National Na-tional Wheel a similar order whose branches wer most flourishing in Tennessee Tennes-see Kentucky and other of the central states of the south held its convention in Shrevesport and it was decided to consolidate consoli-date the two orders This decision was ratified rat-ified at a convention held in Meridian Miss in December 1S8S and the name of the consolidated order became for a time the Farmers and Laborers union It accepted ac-cepted as members farmers farm laborers mechanics mostly rural country schoolteachers school-teachers country physicians and ministers of the gospel The chief restrictions were that an applicant for membership must be white and over sixteen years of age Meanwhile the Northwestern alliance had been gunning the wheat farmers finding find-ing it an excellent medium through which to continue the old contest of the producers against tho transportation companies for amore a-more equalized adjustment of rates Each order felt the need of cooperation with other sections of the country and in December De-cember 1SS9 delegates from the two held a conference on the neutral ground of St Louis and there made arrangements in couvention to consolidate under tho title of the National Farmers Alliance and In dnstrial union the consolidation of course to be subject to ratification by the various state countv and district organizations The ratification has been general and the coming convention at Ocala Florida ip the result More than that the Alliance Alli-ance while stretching out to the Pacific coast has also been coming eastward until at last it has touched the Middle Atlantic states so that as is claimed the December Decem-ber convention will for the first time be national every sense of the word New England still remains out in the cold partly because farming is not so much of an industry there now as it was but organizers or-ganizers have their eyes already upon those eastern states and predict that the seed of the new order will soon be sown there in fruitful ground In the state of New York with D F Allen of Allentown Allen-town as organizer a membership of 3000 is already claimed and there hasnot yet been time to make any real attempt to canvas can-vas the state In New Jersey where C P Atkinson has been appointed organizer the membership is now reported at 900 This of course is considered a mere begin nig for in a state so thinly populated as Florida where there are only 60000 voters the membership in the Alliance is 20000 With the establishment of the New York headquarters great gains in eastern membership mem-bership are looked for and Manager Wilson Wil-son is called upon once or oftener every week to establish a district alliance in aNew a-New York or New Jersey township Alliance members say that their attitude in matters political has been misrepresented misrepre-sented They do not they say want place or power but they do want legislation While they see no reason why a ompetent farmer should be barred from office because be-cause of his occupation they will cheerfully cheer-fully support men of any other occupation occupa-tion even lawyers on whom they can depend de-pend for the legislation they want The first attempt shaping national legislation legisla-tion in the interest of the alliance was made last year in the St Louis pnvention when the subtrcasury bill was presented and indorsed It provides that the government govern-ment shall accept deposits pf produce such as cotton wheat and other imperishable staples and issue in exchange for SO percent per-cent of such staples certificates of deposit which shall pass as currency just as silver certificates pass The bill was introduced in both Senate and Housolast session but died in committee It is promised that it will be introduced again and again and finally pushed to passage That is the one national issue now favored by the alliance l I i 4l ftv ii 7 Ir L L POLE Everyone knows what the Farmers Alliance Alli-ance men did at the polls last election day They swept Kansas Tennessee and South Carolina made trains in Georgia Florida and elsewhere in the south and revolutionized revolution-ized politics in the northwest In Tennessee Ten-nessee and South Carolina the newly elected governors are farmers aim alliance men Five of the seven Congressmen elected in Kansas were elected as Farmers Alliance men One of them is BH Clover the national vicepresident of the alliance Two of the new Congressmen from South Carolina ran as alliance Democrats It is claimed that sixty members of the next Congress have pledged themselves to support sup-port all alliance measures and that many others will not deem itsafe to oppose them Alliance men claim a majority on joint ballot bal-lot in the South Carolina legislature and say that they will send their representative representa-tive to the United States Senate It is openly asserted that there are alliance majorities ma-jorities although perhaps within party lines in the legislatures of Florida North Carolina Kansas and some of the northwestern north-western states The alliance feels that at last the farmers are on the high road to victory And yet said an Alliance farmer while we are beginning to realize what we can do properly organized the talk about capturing the Presidency is confined to a very few enthusiasts in the first place the majority of our members are not going to abandon the old parties in a Presidential Presi-dential election Secondly we dont want the government with its responsibilities and powers Wo want to see men elected who will be loyal to us and who will light legislation intended to grind the farmer down Were doing practical work now and have no time for wildgoose excursions It used to cost cotton planters from 18 to 20 per cent for a loan and they have so little margin of profit that they must work for borrowed money The alliance now sees to it that planters get loans at 8 per cent Then too we sell their cotton for cash Thats practical is it not So is our effort to elect men of whatever party who will be true to us When we beyond that we get into moonshine and drive away our own supporters We are not going to dot 4 do-t w o r anything ridiculous at the Florida convention conven-tion L L Polk of Washington D C is now president of the alliance and Congressman elect B H Clover of Kansas is vicepresi dent The secretary is J H Turner of Washington D C and the treasurer WH Hickman Missouri The election of new officers will be one of the interesting features of the convention The head of the order and its chief guiding spirit is pretty generally acknowledged to be Dr C W Macune whose present address is Washington I Wash-ington D C He is chairman of the executive execu-tive board It is expected that 2OCO delegates dele-gates will attend the convention The alliance alli-ance will also conduct the SemiTropical exposition which will be opened in Ocala December 1 and continued ninety days W H CUKTIS JR |