714 THK IMl'KNDiNG REVOLUTION. 



in our action against two forces that are united in purpose 

 to defeat our demands. In making this remark, we do 

 not mean to say that there are not thousands of men in 

 both parties who are in sympathy with us; but that the 

 leaders who fix the policies of those parties, and who 

 manipulate and control conventions, are united in their 

 purpose to defeat the demands of labor. That there may 

 be localities where this method could be made successful, 

 we have no reason to doubt, but it has never yet been able 

 to exert any perceptible influence in our National conven- 

 tions, or in the policies of the two political parties. As 

 evidence of this, it is only necessary to refer to tlje fact, 

 that in 1876, although quite a number of States demanded 

 in their platforms the abolition of the national banks, they 

 failed to obtain a recognition of their views in their Nat- 

 ional convention, or to obtain a plank to that effect in the 

 National platform. 



Not only unity of purpose, but unity of action u is 

 imperatively demanded," if we expect to be successful in 

 obtaining recognition of our demands. Then the logical 

 result of this would be the formation of a new party ? No, 

 it does not necessarily follow. As far as the new party is 

 concerned, it already exists. Parties are not formed ; they 

 form themselves. - The millions in this country who are 

 demanding political reform already constitute a new party, 

 inasmuch as they are a new factor in politics. The only 

 thing wanting to make them a new party, in fact, is coher- 

 ence. And this will not be wanting when there is occasion, 

 apparent to all, that the needed reforms cannot be accom- 

 plished in any other way. ' ' Mankind are more disposed 

 to suffer evil, while evils are sufferable, than to right 

 themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are 

 accustomed." Men are slow to believe that the party 

 which has such a grand record in the past has outlived its 

 usefulness, and that it is necessary for them to seek reform 



