212 HISTORICAL AND POLITICAL. 



Farmers' Alliance and Co-operative Union met there at the 

 same time. The order had prospered satisfactorily during the 

 year, and the members everywhere were working earnestly for 

 its further success. President McCracken addressed the meet- 

 ing as follows : 



Brethren of the National Organization : 



Again we have convened for the purpose of devising ways and, if 

 possible, providing means to assist our brother farmers throughout the 

 land. I fully believe that one great step in that direction will have been 

 taken when we shall consolidate the farmers' organizations into one 

 grand body, representing, as it will, millions of toilers. United we will 

 be able to wield an influence, as farmers, never before known in the his- 

 tory of the world. One of the objects of this meeting is to unite in still 

 closer bonds the different national organizations that have the same 

 objects in view, and it will be necessary for all to make some concessions, 

 that the greatest good may be done to the greatest number ; and I be- 

 lieve that I voice the sentiments of the Wheel delegates in saying that it 

 will not be our fault if the consolidation is not consummated. A har- 

 monious, organic union of all farmers' organizations is now the watch- 

 word, as union and harmony of purpose on all great questions are of 

 vital importance to the agriculturists of the nation. 



The moral, industrial, and intellectual education of the farmers will 

 make co-operation a success. There is now a greater necessity for or- 

 ganized effort on the part of the farmers than ever before, as monopoly 

 in all its various forms is arrayed against the producer. And as Uriah 

 A. Stevens so aptly said, nineteen years ago, at the formation of that 

 noble order, the Knights of Labor, " When bad men combine the good 

 must unite, or else they will fall one by one, a pitiful sacrifice, by the 

 wayside." 



I will now give you, brethren, a brief statement of my stewardship for 

 the past year : I have issued commissions to nine deputies as national 

 organizers ; two in Georgia, one in Virginia, one in Michigan, three in 

 Illinois, and two in Missouri, and have suspended one indefinitely. 

 ******* 



My correspondence has more than doubled. I have had applications 

 from several States for organizers to visit and aid in establishing our 

 order among them, and have been unable to comply, for lack of an ap- 

 propriation for that purpose. But it affords me pleasure to be able to 

 state that the organization is in a growing and healthy condition. We 

 have passed through another political year, a period which I have found 



