i8o AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS. 



demands in regard to the means of transportation and commu- 

 nication have been strengthened by explicitly stating, in terms 

 not to be misunderstood, the ultimatum. It is a platform upon 

 which every honest man can stand. It is a demand for reforms 

 that all candid men will indorse, and, as a whole, it constitutes 

 a declaration of purposes that will lead the people out of their 

 distress, and in the end bring peace and prosperity. 



Here ends the history of the Farmers' Alliance at the pres- 

 ent time. Upon this history it must stand or fall. What its 

 future may be, God alone can tell. It was born of necessity, 

 nurtured amid want and distress, and stands to-day as the cham- 

 pion of the down-trodden of earth. It is not properly an organ- 

 ization it is a growth ; and they who would prophesy of its 

 future must first know the wants and woes of the human family. 

 Such a beginning, such years of probation, such opportunities 

 for good, and such triumphs ! He who holds the destinies of 

 nations in his keeping, and does all things well, will never suffer 

 to be brought to naught. 



The Farmers' Alliance has a mission to fulfil that even those 

 who are its leaders know not of. It has battles to fight, con- 

 quests to make, and victories to gain, that will fill the earth. 

 It is the last, grand, peaceable assault by labor in production 

 upon the intrenchments of plutocracy. It is the last appeal for 

 justice, for " equal rights to all, and special privileges to none," 

 that will be made through education and the ballot box. As 

 well might we undertake to blot out the stars of heaven as to 

 prevent the final triumph of this great movement. In some 

 manner, and in the immediate future, labor in production is 

 going to be free. The shackles it has worn so long will be 

 stricken off, and the bands that have bound it to the chariot 

 wheels of the oppressors will surely be loosened. The Alliance 

 will yet prove the Moses that will lead the people out of their 

 bondage and up to that condition which a kind Providence has 

 vouchsafed to us all. It is sure to be the strong man who, at 

 the appointed time, will proclaim, in thunder tones, reaching 

 from ocean to ocean : "It is finished. Let the people go free." 



The methods of the Alliance are based upon education, and 

 are therefore conservative. They appeal to an intelligent sense 

 of justice, and are therefore all the more potent. Every de- 



