New-York tribune., 1891-04-22
A ROPE OF SIND.


| Alliance in Mississippi have withdrawn IRON
that organization within few weeks DIS
matches which state this fact also refer to charges
of fraud against National officers of the ALI
ance, about which it is needless to say any
thing since it is stated that the great secession
Of members is due to disapproyal OF the SUD-
| Treasury plan. After this scheme had been
formally adopted in two National conventions
at st. Louis and Ocala. it, advocates In Missls-
sippi made it test of fealty. 1t is admitted
that at that time, only few weeks ago, they
had with them majority of the organization
But now it is stated that large majority Oh the
former members are opposing the plan.
food of light is cast upon the order and ITS
nature and methods by this rupture. Not an
other single demand made by this new move
ment, be it remembered, has enlisted more zeal
and passionate enthusiasm among its adherents
than this, Or has been more fully discussed. The
declaration for free coinage did not originate
with the farmers, was not at first especlaly
favored by them, and, as Mr.. Simpson, of Kan
sas, has stated, was accepted by him and many
Others only as q step toward money-Wlthout-
metallic basis, or fiat money which they desired
The attitude of the farmers toward the railroads
in the different States is governed by local cir
cumstances. Neither National Convention made
any formal demand for change OF tariff. The
Western proposal to issue Government notes III
unlimited amount and to lend them to farmers
on land mortgages was voted down at the st.
Louis convention, was scarcely recognized by
vague phrase as a possible alternative in the
Ocala platform, and forms as yet no part of the
Alliance doctrine. Yet the one definite purpose
which was peculiar to the order at the South,
and TO which the whole order was formally
committed, is suddenly thrown overheard by
40 per cent of the members in a Southern State
even at the cost of formal withdrawal.
Though the dispatches may exaggerate, it Is
clear that the Farmers Alliance must have come
into being without ANY defined objects or de-
lberatey adopted plans. Had there been any
such line of action or effort to which members
bound themselves when joining it is simply in
conceivable that great proportion of them
should suddenly and openly abjure it. In the
light of this experience the organization appears
to embody nothing more than vague dissatis-
faction with existing laws, and hope that some
thing better may be found and agreed upon
later But this means that the organization has
no cohesive force whatever. 1t is but rope OF
sand The instant it attempts to concentrate
efforts upon any definite thing there is rupture.
Ii seems probable that similar difficulty oc-
Cured in Kansas, for the late Speaker of the
House is now engaged in protesting to the pub
hc that the measures there proposed were not
in the nature Of repudiation nor calculated to
wrong creditors. Yet it remains the fact that
creditors believed otherwise, and withdrew cap
ita from the State so rapidly that the Alliance
was unable to command the support upon which
it had calculated
When the Granger epidemic swept over the
West it suddenly changed the legislation OF
several States much more radically and seriously
than the Farmers Alliance has been able to do
this year. But within one year the Granger
members who were still posing as lndepend-
cntS, or Anti-Nonopolists or Farmers, were
counted among the scattering, and in two years
none were left. There was found no bond Of
union whatever when the attempt was made to
translate vague dissatisfaction into practical
measures. Certain railroad legislation went
upon the statute books, only after such modiiica-
ton that members of the old parties favored it,
and even these measures have not since been
regarded as public blessings by intelligent farm
ers 1t remains to be seen upon what practical
line of action the Farmers Alliance can agree.
But it is safe to predict that, unless it can find
one of definite and satisfactory character very
soon, the organization will melt away while its
leaders are trying to decide whittier to lead it.