THE NATIONAL ALLIANCE. 183 



looks almost hopeless, even to many who have long been in the 

 movement. But the absolute necessity for organization among 

 farmers is apparent to all thinking people. In the past many 

 attempts have been made to accomplish needed results, but in 

 the main they have all been preparatory. Stern necessity, the 

 great educator of mankind, reaches the farmer last of all. Be- 

 sides this, the agricultural portion of all governments are their 

 conservative elements. They dislike innovation, deprecate a 

 change, and cling to old customs and traditions. But when 

 once aroused, when thoroughly convinced that their rights are 

 being invaded, there is no factor of society more determined, 

 less liable to make mistakes, and better acquainted with the 

 source of difficulty and the needed remedy, than the farmer. 



Organization, and that alone, will make these conditions pos- 

 sible, and that alone will save the farmer and his vocation from 

 complete destruction. Is it not, therefore, the duty of every 

 farmer to at once become identified with some organization, 

 and make common cause against the oppression under which 

 he is now suffering? Let the farmers of the United States 

 organize, stand together, demand better laws, easier conditions, 

 and more liberty. The power to do these things is with them. 

 Let them do it wisely, but firmly. 



In looking back over the history of the order, we note its 

 first rapid growth from August, 1885, to August, 1886, during 

 which time the order in Texas grew from about six hundred 

 Sub-Alliances to about twenty-seven hundred. Perhaps the 

 most potent argument used by the lecturers during that time 

 was that there were too many merchants, and that the farmers 

 could organize and co-operate, and by concentrating their trade 

 on one, where the custom was to have five or six, they would 

 save the expense of supporting so many. During the rapid 

 growth of the order that year, this was the doctrine taught by 

 the lecturers, and at the end of the year it was discarded as a 

 fallacy, and a different policy, that of bulking the crops, advo- 

 cated for the next year. In spite of this complete change of 

 base, there was no check to the rapid growth of the order ; it 

 kept on growing through every change of public sentiment as 

 to its objects, purposes, and methods. Nor is this all. The 

 men who founded it have not remained in the lead during its 



