Weekly graphic. [volume] (Kirksville, Adair Co., Missouri) 1880-1949, 1891-01-02
The Two Alliances.
So much is being said from day

So much is being said from day
to day and week to week concern
ling the Farmers Alliance by the
political papers, and especially
while reporting and commenting
on measure es before congress In
which farmers are interested, that
we think it ID high time to draw
clearly and distinctly the line be-
tween the two great bodies that are
evidently regarded by the political
press as one 1t is especially i'm
Dol tant to do this at this particu-
lar time, because one of the Alli-
ances is pressing, with great ener-
gy and zeal, certain measures be-
fore congress to which the other
Alliance has never committed it
self, and to which SO far as we can
learn, it is earnestly and sincerely
opposed. The Alliance to which
allusion is made in the Washing
ton dispatches, at least nine times
out of ten. is the Farmers AL
lance and Industrial Union, which
we have been in the habit of desig-
mating as the Southern Alliance,
not because its membership is con-
fined to the south, but because it
is exclusively the farmers organ.
ization In that region, and because
it is controlled and directed almost
entirely by southern men. In ad-
dition to the southern states it has
state organizations in Kansas, In
diana and Pennsylvania, whilst
the South Dakota Alliance is "be-
twixt and between" 1t is qnite
probable that some southern state
organizations may not be organic
ally connected with this body, but
ifso they are acting independently
and do not belong to either Nation
al organization.
These two organizations while
alike the outgrowth of what may
be termed the farmers movement,
are different in their government,
and different to certain extent in
their doctrines and policy. 1t
could not be otherwise. Organ
izations are largely moulded and
shaped by their leaders, and they
in turn shaped and moulded by
their environment. Ii they have
been practical farmers, the organ
ization will devote itself largely
to improved methods of farming,
} if merchants to cooperative work,
if politicians to political combine
J ton. Not only that, but the latter
case the spirit and policies of the
political parties in which they had
; their being will crop out in the
new organization. Human nature
being thus shaped and constit u
ted, 1t is Inevitable that the domi-
mating and controlling influence of
, an Alliance originating and con-
trolled in the South must be diff
| ferent from that ofone originating
and controlled i'll the North, and
that without reference to which
has the better spirit and policy,
much less to any difference of
opinion as to measure and poll
cies prevailing between the two
sections 10 the present or in the
past.
Leaving the pedigree and envir-
onment of these Alliances, it is ap-
, parent on the surface, to any Oh e
acquainted with both, that the
northern Alliance has but skele-
ton organization, that is, it de-
:, pends for a boud of cohesion, not
,, on rigid laws or rules, but on the
common attachment of the men,
bers to certain central ideas and
principles set forth in its constitu-
ton. 1t has general officers, whose
compensation is mainly clerical
, expenses and a very moderate per
: deim with travelling expenses for
time actually expended in the ser
) vice. None of them has stipula-
ted salary.
On the other hand, the southern
: Alliance has an elaborate system
OF government, a supreme council,
an executive council with the same
man president of both, judicial
, tribunal which may veto but can
not reverse the decision of the
, president, In fact q concentration
: of power in very few hands which
; makes the organization exceeding
,, lv effective in carrying out the
: will of its management. AS will
be seen from the official list of
! officers, the president, secretary,
and treasure reside in Washing
ton, were they have every opportu-
nifty to effect legislation, an ar
rangement which cannot be made
; without salaries conforming to the
necessary expenses. Another dis
tinction lies in this, that the south
ern Alliance is a secret organlza-
ton, while the northern is entirely
open, there being no secret work
1