THE NATIONAL ALLIANCE. 119 



allegiance to the order, on account of any of the arguments or false 

 reports of the opposition. With such an alliance as an auxiliary, when 

 the conflict of the national deepens, the full force and influence of 

 twenty or twenty-five of the best papers in the country could be 

 manipulated with great advantage to the true interests of our cause. 

 This will be by far the most potent agent at our command in the 

 impending struggle, since by it we can keep our own ranks thoroughly 

 posted and unified, and at the same time we can meet the opposition 

 at no disadvantage, in an effort to secure the influence of the great 

 class that now stand comparatively neutral, but will sympathize with 

 and assist us when convinced that our objects are right and our meth- 

 ods fair. 



In considering our relations to the world at large, I believe it well to 

 call your attention to what, after a long and careful investigation, I 

 believe to be a fact, and that is, that all the evils which afflict agriculture 

 to-day, and especially all which contribute to the present universal 

 depression, arise either directly or indirectly from unjust regulations or 

 privileges enjoyed by other classes under our financial system, or our sys- 

 tem of laws in regard to transportation corporations, or our land system. 

 In the consideration of these prime causes of the many abuses that afflict 

 our class we as a national organization of farmers occupy a peculiar but 

 not unsatisfactory position. It has been the custom for changes in any 

 important feature of governmental regulations to be inserted in partisan 

 platforms, and in this way brought before the masses. We compose at 

 least fifty per cent of the strength of each of the political parties. The 

 two oldest political parties have each had their turn at the administra- 

 tion of affairs, and neither has made a single move toward these ques- 

 tions that are now of more importance to our class than all others. 

 Evidently we have been derelict in our duty to ourselves, because we 

 have not made our influence felt in the party to which we belong. We 

 have, from time to time, at our meetings passed resolutions making 

 various and sundry demands of our law-makers, but up to the present 

 time there are little or no visible results. I believe we have scattered 

 too much and tried to cover too much ground, and that we should now 

 concentrate upon the one most essential thing and force it through as 

 an entering wedge to secure our rights. A political party is one thing, 

 and we in our organized capacity are entirely different from it. In fact, 

 we are the exact opposite. Partisanism is the life of party, and the 

 more bitter it can be made, the more solid the party. We, by the dis- 

 semination of the true principles of economic government, set free the 

 strongest influence for neutralizing partisanism, because if all thoroughly 



