1 82 AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS. 



poses. Here are represented four agricultural organizations in 

 one. This fact alone points to it as a factor of destiny. About 

 the same time, in different localities, four organizations were 

 started in farming communities, the Farmers' Alliance, in 

 Texas ; the Farmers' Union, in Louisiana ; the Brothers of 

 Freedom, in one part of Arkansas, and the Agricultural Wheel 

 in another. They all began under similar conditions and be- 

 cause of similar reasons, and undertook to accomplish similar 

 objects. The story of their origin and final consolidation reads 

 like a romance. They seem to have been actuated by one 

 motive, continued for one purpose, and held together by one 

 common desire. We see the Brothers of Freedom uniting 

 amicably and peacefully with the Wheel, and thereby increas- 

 ing the power and efficiency of both. Then the Farmers' 

 Union consolidates with the Alliance, for the mutual benefit 

 of both ; and last we find the two great organizations, the 

 Farmers' Alliance and Co-operative Union and the Agricultural 

 Wheel combining into one great body, under one name and one 

 authority. The success of this consolidation effort has been 

 phenomenal. It has astonished the thinking world, and is 

 growing in wonder daily. The cause is easily found : it is an 

 honest effort to accomplish a legitimate purpose through busi- 

 ness methods. It is the plain result of intelligent organization, 

 based upon a righteous cause, having as its ultimate result the 

 emancipation from the power of corruption and vicious laws of 

 all those who contribute to the production of the wealth of the 

 nation. 



The farmers are the only class who have not availed them- 

 selves hitherto of the benefits of organization. There seems to 

 be among them a disposition to keep out of organizations them- 

 selves, and find fault with others who join. This comes through 

 a lack of proper education upon that subject. If the farmers 

 of America would organize as intelligently -and solidly as the 

 Standard Oil Company has, and then use the power of such 

 organization as unscrupulously, they would in a few years 

 become the dictators of the world. Nothing could withstand 

 their power. Of course the Alliance and other similar organ- 

 izations are doing a great work in this line of education, but 

 there remains so much yet to be accomplished that the attempt 



