The Kennewick courier-reporter. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1914-1938, 1919-11-20
TRIPLE ALLIANCE :
Is GIVEN A JOLT
Farmers Turn Down Invitation
to Become Affiliated with
? - Labor s-.,s~. $500 '.~

Having failed to obtain the endorse
ment of the farmers, thru the grange
in Washington, the organizers of the
Triple Alliance received further set
back Saturday, when the National
Grange, in convention assembled at
Grand Rapids, Mich, declined the in
vitation extended by Gompers to at
tend joint conference in Washington
D. c., next month. Only few days
ago A. A. Gilmore, state president of
the Farmers Union, addressing a.
meeting at Colfax, urged the farmers
of Washington to organize, saying:
eve want no secret agreements be-
tween organized capital and organ
lied labor that affect u.s."
When the triple alliance was form
ed at Beillingham last June, President
VIM. Short, of the Washington State
Federation of Labor, and F. L. Hud-
son, Of Seattle, now president of the
alliance, made a strong point of the
amalgamation of the farmers of the
state with labor, as represented by
the federation, and the railway broth
erhoods. The name of the grange was
used as a party to the amalgamation
but members of the grnge thruout the
state were quick to resent their official
inclusion in the tripartite organiza-
ton, and in some instances, notably
at Ellensburg, and in San Juan scoun-
ty, the alliance was repudiated. ~.
The matter became an issue in the
Washington oranges, and the demand
became general that the grange should
continu as nonpartisan body, and
this being grange law, was upheld by
Oliver Wilson, master of the National
Grange, on an appeal from the ruling
of the master of Columbia Grange,
and ir Clarke county and of William
Bouck, master of the Washington
State Grange. Wilson declared that
the alliance could not even be discuss
ed in grange meetings.
The Farmers Union has always
maintained an attitude in opposition
to "a compact with labor, and politi-
cal propaganda, /as it related to the
Triple Alliance, was not considered
in the meetings of that organization.
President Elmore went so far as to
say at the Colfax meeting:
"You farmers ought to have COM
mittee in Washington DC, right now
and for some time to come, to look
after your interests during the read
justments. Organized labor and or
ganized capital will be there. They
are all of the time, and organized
farmers must be there in self-pro-
lection. Meet organization with or
ganization."
The real reason why the Gompers
invitation was declined by the Ma
tional Grange, according to news dis
patches from Grand Rapids, was be-
cause there is nothing in common be-
tween agricultural interests and or
ganized labor. William Bouck, who
was present at the Grand Rapids ses-
sions, according to dispatches, did not
sign the report declining the Comp
ers invitation.
L. w. Buck, secretary of the Wash
ington State Federation of Labor, said
yesterday that the decision of the Ma
tional Grange not to be party to a
coalition with organized labor for the
purpose of controlling the elections
next year, is not serious blow to the
Triple Alliance, because the alliance
expects to do lin fact is doing bust
ness with the Nonpartisan League in
this state. But it is fact that the
Triple Alliance started out with the
expectation that the Grange would
join in the alliance movement in this
state.
Not satisfied with the announce
ment made in September that the
Yakima Pomona grange would not
participate in the alliance movement,
Mrs. Ina P. Williams and o. c. Cott-
rell, the former member of the state
central committee and the latter sec
retary-treasurer of the alliance, plead
ed with the Pomona Grange at Yaki-
ma Grange at Yakima to affiliate, but
the farmers present, 200 strong, re-
jected all overtures and by resolution
recorded its reputation of the ALI
ance. zE, alEsf5