208 HISTORY OF THE WHEEL AND ALLIANCE. 



and profitable employment are closed against them; and 

 that franchises and privileges are conferred only upon the 

 rich and those who possess political influence. 



The Union constitutes itself the protector of the 

 farmers and their interests, and thus, at the outset, appeals 

 to their sympathy aud secures their co-operation. Its acts 

 are the result of the combined wisdom. Its deliberations 

 insure the avoidance of rash and hot-headed action. Noth- 

 ing is done until all means are discussed. The farmer is 

 conscious that he has powerful and unscrupulous enemies, 

 and needs protection against them; self-interest prompts 

 him to join the organization. However much the farmers 

 of the country may have differed in the past as to the 

 nature of the evils they were compelled to endure and the 

 real causes of their depressed condition, it seems now to 

 be an established fact that they have settled down and 

 agreed upon the real and leading causes of depression, 

 and the chief object now is to agree upon a remedy. They 

 claim to be the best judges of the wisdom and efficiency of 

 measures of relief and decline to allow their enemies to decide 

 the question for them. Such opposition as it has met, has 

 come from the monopolies and their supporters; but as one of 

 the objects of the Order is the destruction of these frauds, 

 this opposition is natural, and was to have been expected. 

 It cannot be expected, however, that the changes which the 

 Order proposes to make and the objects it desires to accom- 

 plish can be effected in a month or a year. It has not yet 

 perfected its system of operations. The evils it seeks to 

 combat are so well established and fortified that years may 

 be required to remove them. Let us hope that the reme- 

 dies employed will not only thoroughly eradicate the evils, 

 but forever prevent their recurrence. It is to the patient, 

 persevering and untiring energies of men of iron nerve, 

 stout hearts and unswerving integrity that we must look 

 for the consummation of this grand work. 



