1 84 AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS. 



wonderful growth. Officers have been changed almost every 

 year, and the constitution, the organic law of the order, has 

 been several times completely changed. 



What are we forced to conclude from all this ? Evidently 

 that the growth of this great order does not depend upon the 

 wisdom and forethought of the men who founded it, or of those 

 who have been put at the head of the column to act as officers ; 

 neither does it depend upon the provisions of the declaration of 

 purposes or the constitution ; and, as we have seen that a gen- 

 eral popular misconception of its purposes, attended with futile 

 and useless action, has in no case retarded its great onward 

 march, we must conclude that it is a higher and a greater 

 power than could possibly emanate from any or all of these 

 sources. The Farmers' Alliance is a God-given institution, that 

 ranks above, and cannot be tied down to, any local or fleeting 

 issue. It is the highest development of material progress, an 

 ever-present and all-powerful influence for good. It is the farm- 

 ers' sinking fund, or savings bank, on which he may draw for 

 help to meet the evils that surround him now, or may surround 

 him in the future. If it could be tied down or limited to the 

 business effort, or to the political effort, or to any other effort of 

 to-day, it would only last until that effort was gained or lost, for 

 success would be as fatal to it as failure, since failure would dis- 

 courage and dishearten its followers, and success would obviate 

 the necessity for its existence. It is, however, on too high and 

 too broad a plane for that. It can never be anchored to any 

 special effort ; it must ever remain a general and powerful 

 influence for good, calculated to meet every emergency; and, 

 as such, its mission will never be accomplished while evil exists 

 or unjust conditions confront the producers, as such a defeat is 

 local and cannot injure, and a victory only opens the way for 

 other fields to conquer. Under this broad, this grand concep- 

 tion of the mission of our noble order, we realize that it is here 

 to stay, and that its existence is not fleeting, that it is worthy 

 of our very best efforts of hand, head, and heart. 



In the light of this conception of our order, let us apply 

 to this all-healing fountain for the crystal drops of ultimate 

 truth and justice, that shall quench the fires of evil and discrim- 

 ination that surround us to-day. A comparison of the condition 



