CONCLUSION 305 



similar name made its appearance in the Northwest. In April, 

 1880, a farmers* club or alliance was organized in Chicago under 

 the auspices of Milton George, editor of the Western Rural. 

 This " Cook County Alliance No. i '" proceeded to issue dis- 

 pensations for the establishment of other alliances in the states 

 of the Northwest and in October, 1880, a convention " repre- 

 senting Granges, Farmers' Clubs and Alliances " was held in 

 Chicago to organize a National Farmers' Alliance of the United 

 States. 1 This organization, which is generally spoken of as the 

 Northwestern Alliance to distinguish it from the Southern 

 Alliance, spread rapidly throughout the Northwest, and in 

 1882 eight state and two thousand local alliances with a mem- 

 bership of over one hundred thousand were claimed. This 

 order was very loosely organized, had no secret features, and 

 was from the beginning openly political in character. Its 

 platforms or resolutions bear a strong resemblance to those 

 adopted by the various Independent parties which arose in 

 connection with the Granger movement. In 1881, for example, 

 resolutions were adopted in favor of government regulation of 

 railroads, prohibition of free passes, reduction of salaries of 

 public officials, restriction of patent rights, and the more equi- 

 table adjustment of taxes including an income tax. 2 



Attempts were made at various times to unite the two national 

 alliances and in some states consolidations were effected; but 

 the Northwestern Alliance maintained its separate organization 

 and claimed a membership of three or four hundred thousand, 

 mainly in Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota, during the later 

 eighties. This order, like its southern namesake, declined 

 rapidly during the nineties, probably as a result of political 

 developments. A similar fate befell numerous other agricul- 

 tural orders, such as the Patrons of Industry, which was modeled 

 largely on the Grange and operated in Michigan, New York, 

 Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin in the later eighties; 3 and the 



1 On the Northwestern Alliance, see Western Rural, publisher, Rules of Order 

 and . . . History of the Farmers' Alliance Movement; Dunning, Farmers' Alliance 

 History, 225; Butterfield, in Bailey, Cyclopedia of American Agriculture, 295. 



2 Western Rural, publisher, Farmers' Alliance Movement, 14. 



8 Butterfield, in Bailey, Cyclopedia of American Agriculture, 295. 



