Morris tribune., 1886-07-28
The various Farmers Alliances of

The various Farmers Alliances OF
the state have been urge1 by the ex-
ecutive committee of tie state AL
lance to quietly control and scrutin-
ize the nominations of old political
parties and to support for the legis-
lature the men pledged to the ad-
vancement of their interests, without
reference to their political associations
and to place no ticket of their own in
the field, unless they were ignored by
both of the old parties and such ac-
ton became necessary. 1t was never
the intention that the alliance should
become political organization. Not
withstanding this the officers Of the
Alliance of this legislative idistrict
have takena different course. 1t
seems that these men are desperately
anxious to get into office and being
afraid to submit their claims to the
conventions of the political parties to
which they pretend to belong, are ap-
parently prostituting the influence of
the organization under their care to
their own private advantage, hoping
to ride the Alliance wave into the
Legislature. To this end n district
convention has been called to meet
at Graceyille to-day to put in nomina-
ton n senator and representative.
This action has been taken, we be-
lieve, without the approval of the
membership at large and will result
in injury to the Alliance. When 1t is
remembered also that the Republicans
of the district have given the nomina-
ton of senitor and representative
entirely into the hands of the farmer
membership of the party, and haye
chosen only farmers as delegates to
the district convention which will be
held sometime after the urgent work
of harvesting is over, the calling OF
this Alliance convention at this time
seems wholly Unnecessary and more
and more like manipulation OH the
part Of those calling it. The work of
! fhe convention to-day will show
whether these views are correct or
not. Another thing which makes the
calling of this convention seem
strange is the fact that an agreement
was made between the chairman and
secretary of the Alliance district COM
mittee and the chairman of the Re
publican district committee that
neither the Alliance nor the Republi-
can convention should be called till
after harvest. This agreement was
hardly made before it was broken by
the almost clandestine calling of this
convention. Again, there was insuf-
ficient time between the call and the
convening of the convention and in
sufficient notice was given. The
TRIBUNE was not permitted to see the
call till after it's issue oflast Wednes-
day. The Herman Herald of last
Friday, it is said, does not contain it
and the majority of the papers of the
district have not been allowed to
publish it. If the selfish interests of
scheming leaders have not been up
permost, rather than the advance
ment of the praiseworthy objects OF
the Alliance, why is all this haste and
secrecy to hold an Alliance Econven-
tion right in harvest time, when it lie
almost impossible for farmers to at
tend? The Alliance at large and the
public generally are entitled to an
explanation. If the chairman or
secretary of the district Alliance COM
mittee or any others who are in any
way responsible have any explanation
to offer, the TR1BUNE's columns are
open to receive it. The Alliance has
been organized for the accomplish
ment of noble purposes and all of its
principles are sound. 1t has also an
intelligent membership and 80 far
has done good work. The TRIBUNE
hopes that designing officers. with
political aspirations, will not succeed
inusing the organization for the pro-
motion of selfish interests and thus
cause the Alliance to fall into the
same premature grave which holds
the Grange, the farmers organization
of few years ago.
1