Omaha daily bee., 1891-04-29
ALLIANCE DISCDRD.


Following hard upon the reports OF
dssensiOn aud discord In the Iowa alli-
ance comes the announcement Of u fac
! tional fight in the alliance OF Minnesota,
| which threatens to hopclessly divide the
! organization. Tho trouble grows out OF
| Il controversy as TO the powers and pre-
| rogatiyes OF the executive committee of
the alliance and tho central committee
| OF the alliance party. Mr.. Ignatius
Donnclly. the Shaksperoan iconoclast,
! who for some time past has been play
| ing bold part as an alliance
leader with no credit or ndvan-
| tagc to the people he assumed to rep
resent, claims that the executive com
! mittee Of the alliance is supreme and
that the central committee of the alli-
| anco party ended its mission when the
| campaign closed last year. The chair
man of the latter committee, however,
Mr. Phelps, holds that tho alliance is
| party and will be perpetIated by and
through its central committee, and
therefore must be governed thereby. 1t
is pretty and interesting fight as it
''''i''7' thiu ~ NOtlNl bt hiHultiOus w
predict which one Of the doughty
bosses, Donnelly on Phelps, will be
victorious. Both are characterized and
doubtless justly, as being self-soeking
schemers, and the wise course for the
alliance would undoubtedly be to throw
them overheard, but this will hardly be
done, and the chances are that the fight
will ,.oSplt Ia, q, h., all
political organization or killing it, Tho
farmers of Minnesota have had u decid-
edly unhappy experience thus far in
their efforts TO establish third party,
and the existing conflict may lead them
to abandon the undertaking. The
Minneapolis Tribune advises them to
"reorganize the alliance on com
mon sense lines with II view to making
it II power within the old parties instead
of an independent guerilla band" and
in the circumstances this counsel would
seem to be altogether sound and judic-
ious.
While sporadic evidences of discord
in the alliances of the north are appear
lug from time TO time, there seems to be
general harmony in the southern alli-
ance. Its members are united upon the
one or two issues which it is the object
of the alliance to promote, and
its existence is not causing any
trouble or anxiety to the DOM
inant party in that section. On the
contrary the democratic managers do
not hesit to to say that their party is
practically in control of tho alliance,
wherever 1t is desirable or necessary to
have control, and they are not at all dis
turhed by the third party movement.
The statement of democratic leader of
Mississippi regarding the situation in
that state will doubtless apply to most
all of the other southern states. He
said the farmers alliance of Missis-
sippi will not hurt the NOM
inees of the democratic party
next year; that the democratic
members of the alliance will not permit
their democracy to be questioned, and
that the third party movement will not
amount to anything with u.s." Some of
these men who could not be induced TO
vote for any other candidates next year
than those of the democratic party will
be in Cincinnati next month to assist in
creating third party, and if they are
successful in conjuring northern alliance
republicans into the scheme they will
return home with feeling of confidence
in the success of the democratic ticket in
1892. The south will be as solid next year
for the democracy as it was three years
ago, and If northern alliance men ex-
pect to get any help from that section
they are deluding themselves. Un-
doubtedly a very large majority of the
alliance members in the north are
honest and sincere in tho belief that tho
only way to secure the financial and
economic reforms they desire is through
third party, but it is not possible to
feel this way regarding majority OF
the alliance members of the south.
What is said of those in Mississippi is
applicable to them everywhere,
that they will not permit their
democracy to be questioned. 1t .
remains to be seen whether northern
alliance men of republican antecedents
will allow themselves to be drawn into
the support of a movement which is
manifestly being promoted by the demo
cratic managers south and north. There
are indications which warrant the belief
that very large proportion of them will
not consent to be thus victimized
HAVING SALUTARY EFFECT.