140 THE AGRARIAN CRUSADE 



ventures he became the editor of the Kansas Farm- 

 er of Topeka in 1880 and continued in that position 

 until he was elected to the United States Senate. 

 He was a member of the Knights of Labor and was 

 an ardent prohibitionist and, above all, an advocate 

 of currency inflation. 



After the elections of November, 1890, came 

 definite action in the direction of forming a new 

 national party. The Citizens' Alliance, a secret 

 political organization of members of the Southern 

 Alliance, held a convention with the Knights of La- 

 bor at Cincinnati on May 19, 1891. By that time 

 the tide of sentiment in favor of a new party was 

 running strong. Some fourteen hundred delegates, 

 a majority of whom were from the five States of 

 Ohio, Kansas, Indiana, Illinois, and Nebraska, at- 

 tended the convention and provided for a commit- 

 tee to make arrangements, in conjunction with 

 other reform organizations if possible, for a con- 

 vention of the party to nominate candidates for the 

 presidential election of 1892. To those who were 

 anxious to have something done immediately the 

 process of preparing the ground for a new third 

 party seemed long and laborious. Seen in its 

 proper perspective the movement now appears to 

 have been as swift as it was inevitable. Once 



