THE NATIONAL ALLIANCE. 8 1 



must be exercised that the ship of state be kept sailing in the open waters of 

 general reform, ready to respond to and take advantage of any favorable 

 wind that may be presented. The shoals and rocks of special ideas must be 

 avoided, as containing the elements of disaster. 



" While all will admit that nothing will be of as great service in promoting 

 the objects the Alliance seeks to achieve as certain legislative enactments, 

 still nothing could be more disastrous to the order than to tie it to that one 

 channel of reform, because by directing all effort in that direction, it would 

 soon be recognized as the chief object of the order, and when that was 

 accomplished, the necessity for the existence of the order would no longer 

 remain, and it would naturally go to pieces. He who teaches as a panacea 

 for all, either a party reform, a money reform, a land reform, or any other 

 special reform for general conditions, must not be accepted as a guide. All 

 the special reforms that contain good should be contended for as methods of 

 the Alliance, but great care should be taken not to confound them with the 

 principles which are general and are founded on ultimate truth, and as such, 

 and in that capacity, are alone capable of meeting the general adverse con- 

 ditions to be contended with. Hence the necessity, in the extension of the 

 work into new territory, of being able to define the issues on which the meth- 

 ods to be pursued will depend, in plain and simple language, so that all will 

 understand readily and indorse fully. In the cotton belt, co-operation in 

 regulating the price of that product has been an idea that all could grasp at 

 once and indorse it; but other sections are not.favored with a product of 

 which they have a comparative monopoly in the production, and the danger is 

 that without some strong object of peculiar class to act as a ballast, they may 

 attach too much importance to partisan political methods, and getting them 

 mixed with the principles of the order, seriously injure the movement. It 

 must therefore be extremely hazardous to extend the order into new territory 

 without using great caution, and giving full notice to all who contemplate 

 joining its ranks, that its objects are : ' To teach the principles of economic 

 government in a strictly non-partisan spirit ' ; ' To bring about a better 

 understanding among agriculturalists'; 'To promote mental, moral, social, 

 and financial prosperity ' ; ' To bury the dead, relieve the sick and afflicted, 

 to comfort the distressed ' ; and that it means ' Peace on earth and good will 

 to man.' While it is every man's duty to his family and country, under our 

 form of government, to be a partisan, the proper place for him to receive a 

 true education is not in a partisan school. Let the order be the great school 

 of truth, in which, by a thorough exchange of ideas, all may be truly educated. 

 Let it there be agreed what great principles shall be indorsed. Leave parti- 

 sanship to the individual, but study and discuss political economy as a class, 

 and arrive at true conclusions. There need be no apprehension as to what 

 will be the partisan policy of any people who believe and think alike, from 

 enlightened understanding of the same subject. They would then act to- 

 gether and be beyond the reach of those who would try to array them to do 

 battle on account of class prejudice. It is therefore suggested that this body, 

 as the representative of all the Alliances now organized, pass such laws as 



