Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-04-17
ALLlANCEAND GRANGE.
AS 10 HE ALLIANCE.
A Critic of the Farmers Alliance Taken t.
Task.

Task.
/ see in last weeks issue the editors,
in commenting on l. r SIS article, ask
to hear from members of some of the
farmers organizations. First, !. r. S.
says let every farmer in the State at
tend to his own business. Now, one
great object of these organizations is
to place farmer in a condition that he
san attend to his own business. For
many years past every body else has
been attending to his business for him;
that is why he is so badly sin the soup"
He also doesn't buy any thing you can
afford to do without think the aver
age farmer has been doing that very
thing for some time; and if prices grow
lower he will have to quit buying any
thing at all.
He says don't lease your lands for gas
or oil for minimum sum. How is he to
know what is minimum sum in these
times, when silver dollar looks as
large as the hind wheel of an old-fash
Toned farm wagon? Consequently min
imum sum is very likely to be taken for
maximum sum. He says that there
have been a few instances where organ
izations run we'll for time; then few
men would steal the thunder and money,
too. The Alliance has no thunder; it
is all ligh thing, and they had better not
fool with it. AS for the money, we be-
lieve in rich people and poor treasury,
initiation fee for men only fifty cents,
ladies free; dues twenty-five cents per
quarter, for men only, fifteen cents of
that is retained in your surveillance.
He says the more stores of every de-
Scription we have the better for the
public. | suppose he would also say
the more middle men of every descrip-
ton the better for the producer. To
this will take exceptions, and say the
more middle men we have, the more ex-
pense the producers are at in keeping
them. He further says it is well enough
for farmers to combine against the I'M
just encroachments of corporations,
,ombiners, trusts, etc. Then he says
let LIS farmers combine with one con-
centrated effort to run the whole ma
chine. Now brother we want to know
how we can combine without organiza-
join the Alliance and help run the ma
chine.
One of the greatest objects of the ALI
ance is expressed in that grand word,
education; education that will enable
farmers in every particular to keep
abreast of the times; education that will
give us better homes, better schools,
better politics, better legislation and
better administration of laws; educa-
ton that will enable us to abolish every
species of gambling in politics and in
the products of labor; educa ton that
will give us an equal chance with 9th
ers in the pursuit of comfort and the &C
emulation of wealth; education that
will build labor up and place it upon a
broad, intelligent basis where the farm
er, mechanic and other wage-workerS
may, in all respects, be abreast with the
foremost men of the times. We are re-
solved to educate, agitate, and organize;
that justice to all men shall be the
prime motive of our every act. and the
greatest good to the greatest number,
the result to be obtained: that we will
not knowingly compromise any prin-
CT pies of common Justice in order to fur
Their any ends; that education and the
ballot shall be the means by which we
shall accomplish our purpose. Now some
may think that 1 have laid too much
stress upon educa ton, and that it covers
nearly all the bylaws and constitution
of the order. Well, in an indirect way,
it does nearly so. Now, mind, do not |
mean for us all to attend our schools to |
acquire this education, not by any |
means, but by meeting together and eX-
changing thoughts with each other, |
and getting down to real hard study, |
read more and think more for ourselves. |
| find already in our Alliance that the |
members are reading and thinking more
for themselves, have less prejudice, and |
are more liberal in their views. A man
with his head full of prejudice has but
little or no room for any thing else
there.
We have in this (Madison) county
some fourteen or fifteen Alliances, with
a membership of about six hundred. In
Henry and Delaware counties we have
our organizers at work and in those
counties they are organizing rapidly;
many of our most substantial and intek
ligent farmers are joining. We are
with a view of effecting State
soon, which will be of
great advantage to the order. We have
our regular commissioned organizers
working in this and adjoining counties
Now, as l have broken the ice, let us
lear from others.-Wilson Cory, in In
Llama Farmer.