CONCLUSION 303 



bodies which were known as farmers' alliances were established 

 in New York, in Kansas, and in Texas. These movements in 

 the first two states came to naught, but in Texas the local alliances 

 spread slowly during the later seventies, county alliances were 

 organized, and in 1879 the " Grand State Alliance of Texas" 

 was formed. The similarities between this organization and 

 the Patrons of Husbandry are striking. Each was a secret^ 

 order restricted to farmers; each admitted women to full mem- 

 bership; each labored to improve the social and intellectual 

 condition of the farmers; each was professedly non-political 

 and non-partisan but attempted to exert an influence upon 

 legislation; and each engaged in schemes for cooperation in the 

 purchase of supplies and the sale of products. The direct 

 influence of the Grange upon this Texas Farmers' Alliance is 

 clearly visible in the " Declaration of Purposes " adopted by the 

 latter in iSSo. 1 This document endorsed the motto, " In things 

 essential, Unity, and in all things Charity " and stated the 

 purposes of the Alliance to be, "to develop. a better state, 

 mentally, morally, socially, and financially ... to constantly 

 strive to secure entire harmony and good will among all man- 

 kind and brotherly love among ourselves; to suppress personal, 

 local, sectional, and national prejudices, all unhealthy rivalry 

 and all selfish ambition." A comparison of the two shows this 

 document to be but a crude paraphrase of parts of the " Declara- 

 tion of Purposes " adopted by the National Grange in i874. 2 



During the first half of the decade of the eighties two agri- 

 cultural orders similar to the Alliance of Texas arose in Arkansas, 



the Wheel and Alliance; H. R. Chamberlain, The Farmers' Alliance; C. S. Walker, 

 "The Farmers' Alliance," in Andover Review, xiv. 127-140 (August, 1890); H. R. 

 Chamberlain, " Farmers' Alliance and Other Political Parties," in Chautauquan, 

 xiii. 338-342 (June, 1891); W. A. Peffer, "The Farmers' Defensive Movement," in 

 Forum, viii. 464-473 (December, 1889); W. Gladden, " The Embattled Farmers," 

 in Forum, x. 315-322 (November, 1890); J. T. Morgan, "The Danger of the 

 Farmers' Alliance," in Forum, xii. 399-409 (November, 1891); E. M. Drew, " The 

 Present Farmers' Movement," in Political Science Quarterly, vi. 282-310 (June, 

 1891); K. L. Butterfield, " Farmers' Social Organizations," in Bailey, Cyclopedia of 

 American Agriculture, iv. 295. 



1 Dunning, Farmers 1 Alliance History, 28. 



2 See above, p. 64. 



