THE NATIONAL ALLIANCE. 103 



and powerful nation, and the distribution of our products for the use 

 and comfort of our people, the railroads take the lead as a benefactor 

 of the human family, if properly used ; but the avarice and greed mani- 

 fested on the part of these great corporations, have through their unjust 

 manipulation of transportation destroyed all competition, and become 

 oppressors rather than servants of the people for which they were cre- 

 ated. These corporations have rights that should be protected ; a right 

 to business, to legitimate profit, to property, and restricted power. It 

 is not the railroads of which the people complain, but the abuses of 

 their powers, chartered rights, and privileges. 



Everything they have and enjoy hangs like a plummet to its cord 

 upon law alone ; and as the law derives its strength solely from the will 

 and obedience of the people, every rail, car, stock, bond, and charter 

 has its security and protection chiefly from that tender homage and 

 reverence which emanates from the hearts of our law-abiding and liberty- 

 loving agriculturists ; and in oppressing them, they are chafing the cords 

 upon which alone hang their profits, franchises, and existence. 



I would recommend that you demand such legislation, both national 

 and State, as shall regulate and control rates and classifications of 

 freights on all lines of transportation, that fair dealing and justice may 

 be secured to all. 



While our order, as an order, is strictly non-partisan in politics, yet 

 Section I. in our declaration of purposes says, that " we shall labor for 

 the education of the agricultural classes in the science of economic gov- 

 ernment, in a strictly non-partisan spirit." 



It is an evident fact that the origin and power to perpetuate the ex- 

 istence of the various rings, trusts, and combines, that now oppress our 

 people and threaten the overthrow of our free institutions, are due to 

 unjust legislation, and the intimacy and influence that still exist between 

 our representatives and these powerful corporations and combines, are 

 such as to give good reason for serious alarm. We have reached a 

 period in the history of our government when confidence in our political 

 leaders and great political organizations is almost destroyed, and the 

 estrangement between them and the people is becoming more manifest 

 every day. 



The common people are now beginning to see that there is no just 

 cause for the now almost universal depression that pervades the labor- 

 ing classes of every section of our country, and are disposed to attribute 

 the same to the corrupting influence that these great combines and cor- 

 porations exert over our leaders and political, moral, and social institu- 

 tions. So long as our people neglect to inform themselves upon the 



