FARMERS' ALLIANCE, THE. 



299 



cooked Indian meal which she was unable to 

 swallow. In another, in the townland of Cul- 

 niore, there were four young children, one of 

 whom was in a desperate condition for want of 

 its natural food, milk, without which it was no 

 longer capable of eating the Indian-meal stir- 

 about, or even retaining anything whatever on 

 its stomach. I took off my glove to feel its 

 emaciated little face, calm and livid as in death, 

 which I found to be stone cold. My companion 

 gently stirred its limbs, and after a while it 

 opened its eyes, though only for a moment, 

 again relapsing into a state of coma apparently." 

 It was officially recorded during the famine of 

 1880 that before outside aid could reach many 

 districts, the charity of the wretched people to- 

 ward each other had done its last office, and the 

 miserable beings, reduced to a meal a day of 

 turnips, shell fish, or seaweed, had already sunk 

 into the torpor which is the second stage of star- 

 vation. So urgent was the necessity, so heart- 

 rending were the panic-stricken letters that 

 poured in from places reduced to extremities 

 like this, that the Dublin Mansion House Com- 

 mittee, at their first meeting in January, unan- 

 imously suspended standing orders for the pur- 

 pose of dispatching aid. One of the most dismal 

 spectacles of these times was the ragged, famished 

 crowds that came like specters out of the dark- 

 ness of their cabins, swarming around the doors 

 of the relief committees by day and night, in 

 rain and frost, with gaunt, piteous faces, in their 

 rags, waiting patiently for their dole of Indian 

 meal. One committee, at their first distribu- 

 tion, sat far into the night and distributed 1,000 

 tickets for two stones of Indian meal apiece ; yet 

 there were between 400 and 500 fathers of fami- 

 lies still left empty-handed, who had traveled 

 long distances and waited all day and all night 

 in the streets in expectation of a similar pit- 

 tance. Such are examples of the distress which 

 the failure of the potato crop entails on the 

 Irish people. They might be numbered in the 

 thousands. 



FARMERS' ALLIANCE, THE, a nation- 

 al organization of agriculturists for mutual im- 

 provement and the furtherance of political ends. 

 It was founded in New York about the year 1873. 

 Two or three years later the Agricultural Wheel 

 (see " Annual Cyclopaedia " for 1886, page 42) was 

 incorporated ; and in 1885 the Farmers' Union. 

 The Alliance that was incorporated in New York 

 was an anti-secret organization, and spread rap- 

 idly westward. The largest development until 

 recently was in 1883 and 1884. The Alliance 

 that was incorporated in Texas in 1880 was a se- 

 cret and benevolent association. In 1887 it had 

 a membership of over 100,000. At the same time 

 Louisiana had a Farmers' Union with 10,000 

 members. These two organizations united un- 

 der the general laws of Congress, and secured an 

 article of incorporation in the District of Colum- 

 bia, under the name of the National Farmers' 

 Alliance and Co-operative Union. A national 

 organization was completed with the National 

 Agricultural Wheel in October, 1889, under the 

 name of the National Farmers' Alliance and In- 

 dustrial Union. Much confusion arises from 

 the fact that each State has its own particular 

 name ; and so unions, wheels, and alliances exist 

 all over the country. But these are subordinate 



bodies which must conform to the constitution 

 of the national organization and obtain charters 

 from it. No alliance or union can use or per- 

 form any secret work other than that permit- 

 ted by the national constitution. The expressed 

 purposes of the order are : 



1. To labor for the Government in a strictly non- 

 partisan spirit, and to bring about a more perfect union 

 of all classes. 



2. To demand equal rights for all, and special privi- 

 leges for none. 



3. To approve the motto " In things essential, unity ; 

 and in all things, charity." 



_ 4. To develop a better state, mentally, morally, so- 

 cially, and financially. 



5. To strive constantly to secure harmony and good- 

 will to all mankind, and brotuerly love among our- 

 selves. 



6. To suppress personal, local, sectional, and nation- 

 al prejudices, all unhealthy rivalry, and all selfish am- 

 bition. 



7. To visit the homes where lacerated hearts are 

 bleeding, to assuage the sufferings of a brother or 

 sister, to bury the dead, care for the widows, edu- 

 cate the orphans, exercise charity toward offenders, 

 construe words and deeds in their most favorable 

 light, grant honesty of purpose and good intentions 

 to others, and protect the principles of the Farmers' 

 Alliance and Industrial Union until death. 



Women are admitted to full membership, and 

 no person under sixteen years of age is eligible. 

 Women pay neither dues nor fees. The plan of 

 action adopted by the Farmers' Alliance is to 

 agree first upon a needed reform, and then en- 

 deavor to persuade each political party to use 

 its influence to legislate to that effect, and if all 

 the parties fail, it will devise ways to enforce 

 it. The order recognizes that reform must come 

 through legislation, but it does not necessarily 

 place a separate ticket in the field. If legisla- 

 tion can not be shaped in any other way, it will 

 nominate its own candidates. State Alliance ex- 

 changes have been established, with a large cap- 

 ital stock paid in, which enables the farmer to 

 purchase machinery and commodities at whole- 

 sale prices. Millions of dollars are claimed to 

 have been saved by reducing the profits of the 

 merchants and the middlemen. 



The annual national convention of the Farm- 

 ers' Alliance, which met in St. Louis in Decem- 

 ber, 1889, adopted a plan of confederation with 

 the Knights of Labor (see " Annual Cyclopaedia" 

 for 1885, page 516). The name was also changed 

 to National Farmers' Alliance and Industrial 

 Union, and headquarters were established at 

 Washington, D. C. Friendly greetings were 

 exchanged with the Greenback party and the 

 Single-tax party. At the annual national con- 

 vention of the* Alliance, held in Ocala, Fla., 

 in December, 1890, the following platform was 

 adopted : 



1. "We demand the abolition of national banks, and 

 the substitution of legal-tender Treasury notes in lieu 

 of national bank notes, issued in sufficient volume to 

 do the business of tlie country on a cash system, regu- 

 lating the amount needed on a per capita basis as the 

 business interests of the country expand ; and that all 

 money issued by the Government snail be legal tender 

 in payment of all debts, both public and private. 



2. We demand that Congress shall pass such laws 

 as shall eventually prevent the dealing in futures of 

 all agricultural and mechanical productions, preserv- 

 ing a stringent system of procedure in trials, and im- 



