122 THE AGRARIAN CRUSADE 



the organization of the farmers of the country came 

 in 1889 and 1890. The Farmers' and Laborers' 

 Union and the Northwestern Alliance met at St. 

 Louis on December 3, 1889. The meeting of the 

 Southern organization, which was renamed the 

 National Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union, 

 was attended by about a hundred delegates repre- 

 senting Indiana, Kansas, and every Southern State 

 from Maryland to Texas, with the exception of 

 West Virginia. The purpose of the two orders in 

 holding their meetings at the same time and place 

 was obviously to effect some ort of union, and 

 committees of conference were at once appointed. 

 Difficulties soon confronted these committees: the 

 Southern Alliance wanted to effect a complete 

 merger but insisted upon retention of the secret 

 features and the exclusion of negroes, at least from 

 the national body; the Northwestern Alliance 

 preferred a federation in which each organiza- 

 tion might retain its identity. Arrangements were 

 finally made for future conferences to effect federa- 

 tion but nothing came of them. The real obstacles 

 seem to have been differences of policy with refer- 

 ence to political activity and a survival of sectional 

 feeling. 



With the failure of the movement for union, the 



