The advocate., 1890-01-23
THE FEDERATION.
What the journal OF the knights Of
Labor says oft.

The negotiations looking toan alliance
between the knights Of Labor and the va
rlous farmers organizations, now consoli-
dated in the National Farmera' Alliance
and Industrial Union, have resulted In a
complete and most gratifying success.
The combination thus effected Is the
most powerful reform organization the
world has ever seen, not alone In num-
bera, but In unity and earnestness OF pur-
pose. There are not wanting those who
predicted that an alliance such as the one
sought would be impossible. These
thought that the farmers and the workers
In the cities and towns could not agree
upon common program. There was a
widespread, though, as the event proves,
nota very well-founded belief that the
two classes could not be brought to see
chat their interests were Identical, not an
tagonistlc; that they we're naturally allies
not rivals. Is II, these people argued, not
the interest of the farmer as producer
tosell the products Of the farm dear, and
Is II not the interestof the mechanic and
the laborer az consumer to buy them
cheap2 Again; Is itnot the interest Of
the farmer as consumer TO buy the
products Of the factory and workshop
cheap, and the interest Of the mechanics
and laborers who produce them to sell
dear2 With this diversity, this antago-
nlsm Of interests, how Is 1t possible, II
was urged, that common ground can be
found, or common line Of action agreed
upon2 And, truth 10 tell a few short
years ago what has now been 80 happily
brought about would not have been pos
sible. Neither the worker on the farm
nor his fellow toller In the mill or the
mine had then learned that they were but
different members Of the same body, with
not differing butidentical interests, OPP
posed no more than the right hand is TO
the left But the lesson is being rapidly
learned, and learned in that stern but ef-
fective school, adversely; and 30 II was
that, when the committees met, instead of
having difficulties and preiudiCes to meet
and overcome and opinions toreconcile by
mutual concessions, they found that on
no single question was there anything
approaching serious divergence. There
was absolutely nothing to reconcile, moth
ing In fact to do but TO agree upon plan
Of working unitedly for the reforms for
which each had been working separately.
The farmer has discovered that the
fruits Of his labor have gone to enrich
those who assisted not in the production
He has toiled hard and long only to find
that of all the wealth which the generous
soil has yielded to his labor little or none
remains with him. And the mechanic,
the miner, the laborer, has seen that all
his incessant labor, adds hardly anything
to his wealth, little Or nothing to his com
fort, Each from his own standpoint has
been thinking and each has been making
discoveries, each has begun to under
stand the real meanings Of things that
were formerly obscure. Each is both
producer and consumer each finds his
productions made artifcially cheap and
thatwhich he consumes artlfcially dear
Each has thought and studied and pom
dered, and now the truth flashes upon
them that theevil must be in the mAchin-
cry Of distribution, and turning their at
tentlon upon this they have learned In q