Skaggs confessed that he as a Democrat could not shut his eyes to the evils in his own party and that if four more years of Democratic rule in Alabama were continued under the same policy as the past four years there would be little to boast of in comparison with the Republican party. He pictured the rascality and ignorance existing among not a few of the officers as a disgrace to a great party and a shame to the poor citizens of the state.90 Mr. McElderry attributed the lack of agricultural progress to ignorance and inertia and not to the credit system and monopolies. These were symptoms of disease. The cause lay in the people themselves. President Newman's address was full of counsel for the farmers, the burden of his remarks being that agricultural life in Alabama was stagnant because of the low standard of education, hereditary adherence to unprogressive ideas and practices, and a defective labor system, with the land owner leaving his farm to an ignorant, shiftless tenant without supervision. Then, too, the farmer, in contrast to men of other vocations, seldom worked more than six months a year; there were too many idle land owners; too little attention given to the small industries-as dairy, poultry, bees, fruits, vegetables, and to agricultural diversification; too little attention was given to the beautification, comforts and conveniences of the home. A legislative committee whose duty it was to keep closely in touch with the law-making body for the good of the farmers was appointed; resolutions were adopted in convention urging people of other sections to discredit the old misrepresentations, manufactured for political purposes against the South, and to come to Alabama regardless of religious creed or political opinion, to share in its healthful climate, rich soil, and vast resources.91 90 Proceedings Third Ann. Sess., p. 9. Skaggs became prominent among the Populists. One might surmise that a few such addresses would probably tend to divert an agricultural organization to political ends. 91 Proceedings, Third Sess. Agric. Soc., p. 45. One of the most spicy portions of the entire proceedings of the Talladega session was the "Experience Meeting". The following query, with answers by different members is both instructive and interesting. Query: "What is the best way to improve the darkeys as a laboring class? Answers. 1. Work him hard and pay cash every week. 2. Treat him honestly and fairly-as a human being and not as a brute. 3. Comply with your contract and compel him In a three-day session at Huntsville in August, 1888 with I. F. Culver of Union Springs as president, the Society took a bold and favorable stand for education; sent a memorial to the legislature on immigration, asking $25,000 for that purpose; and unanimously resolved that the Alabama railroads should consider carefully the example practiced by the Georgia railroads during the last fifteen years of giving free transportation to all members who might attend the conventions of the Agricultural Society. Commissioner Kolb was made a committee of one to present the resolution to the railroads requesting free transportation.9 92 The activities of local agricultural clubs as coöperative purchasing agents had been rather pronounced and beneficial. It was customary for them to buy fertilizer, a commodity of vital concern to cotton growers and many other goods at a great saving, usually about 25 per cent. That is, acid phosphate which ordinarily retailed at say $26 a ton could be had for $18 on the coöperative basis. In Lee county, e. g., with a well organized local unit, bagging and ties were ordinarily bought at a great saving. In fact, the question of the price of cotton bagging and the bagging trust were vital matters before the Huntsville convention in August, 1889. President Culver had urged a large attendance in order that there might be full discussion of this important matter which he said cost the farmers of Alabama two million dollars a year.93 Over a million people in the state were engaged in making cotton and they consumed yearly five million yards, which had jumped in price from 7 cents to 11 cents a yard. Mr. Culver thought a $25,000 bagging mill erected in Montgomery would break the trust price for Alabama. The convention voted an endorsement of Commissioner Kolb's administration and lauded his work.94 The fifth to comply with his, and quit renting land to him. Work him under your own supervision. 4. "Export him and raise the mule instead," was the independent retort offered by one, without applause. 92 See Advertiser, Jan. 3, 1888, also Proceedings Fourth Ann. Sess. Agric. Soc., pp. 12, 32. The railroads in 1886 agreed to transport all exhibits to the State Fair at Montgomery at one freight rate and return them free, and all railroads agreed to reduce passenger rates to the Fair to three cents a mile, round trip, except the Western Railway, which made a round trip rate of two cents a mile. (Proceedings Third Ann. Sess. Agric. Soc. p. 40; Advertiser, Aug. 10-11, 18888.) 93 Advertiser, Aug. 2, 11, 1888. 94 Advertiser, Aug. 2,1888; Aug. 11, 1888. annual convention of the Soceity met at Union Springs, the home of President Culver, the latter part of July, 1889.95 Many prominent men of the state and some outstate men were present, one of whom was R. J. Sledge of Texas, President of the National Alliance. Alliance members appear to have played a big part in the program, the welcome address being given by Colonel D. F. McCall, on behalf of the Farmers' Alliance of Union Springs. He quoted from the "poet laureate of the State Alliance" -John Burns of Dallas County-as follows: "Of what avail Is sea or sail Or life itself THE FARMERS ALLIANCE. Just as the grievances of the farmers had been cumulative, so had their weapons of defense or means toward relief evolved slowly. When once an organization was established in one section of the country it spread like a forest fire to other sections, near and far. The organizations were not exactly alike in the different sections or states. This initial period of agricultural coöperation was largely one of experimentation. The oppressed classes were reaching in all directions for relief and were willing to try any scheme which might offer hope for alleviating the existing burdens. Among the early agricultural organizations96 in the South was the Agricultural Wheel which originated in opposition to the obnoxious farm mortgage system.97 Crop diversification and emancipation from merchant domination were aims of the organization which in some states put forward a comprehensive legislative program 95 Age-Herald, July 31, 1889; DuBose, Article No. 81 in Jones, V, p. 55. Either for political or economic reasons the legislature in 1890 withdrew the $5,000 annual appropriation to the agricultural Society. Henceforth it had an empty treasury. (See Address of President Hawkins at Dothan, August 24, 1892, in the Dothan Recorder of Aug. 13; Aots, 1890-91, p. 64. The next convention was held in Birmingham in the summer of 1890, where valuable papers were read, and a resolution adopted condemning the Lodge Force Bill. 96 DuBose, Article No. 81 in Jones, V, p. 54; Owen, Alabama, I, p. 667. 97 Commons, History of Labor in the United States, II, p. 490; Buck, Agrarian Crusade, p. 116. among which were demands relating to legal tender, currency, taxation and usury laws.98 The Wheel came into Alabama in the 'eighties, but it seems to have achieved no significant results among a landholding class, due partly to the rumor that it had socialistic tendencies and especially to the fact that it was overshadowed by the State Agricultural Society and the Farmers' Alliance, each of which received favorable legislative recognition.99 In Louisiana the Farmers' Union had been established as a result of hard times among the farmers due to the low price of cotton in the 'eighties. The Farmers' Union merged in 1887 with the Alliance from Texas into the Farmers' Alliance and Coöperative Union only to unite a year later with the Agricultural Wheel, whose purpose was almost identical, into the Farmers' and Laborers' Union of America.100 It will later be observed that at the St. Louis convention in December, 1889, the latter organization united with the Knights of Labor under the name National Farmers' Alliance and Coöperative Union, frequently called the Southern Alliance.101 The Alliance had originated in Texas as early as 1875 and from there had spread to other states. The first branch102 of the Farmers' Alliance in Alabama was founded at Beach Grove, Madison county, by A. T. Jacobson, organizer, from the Texas Alliance. The installation took place in March, 1887, and other alliances were rapidly installed in Limestone, Marshall, and Jackson counties, and the order soon spread over the state. A state organization was formed in the same year with W. C. McKelvey as President, and G. W. Jones as secretary. A second meeting of the State Alliance was held in 1887 in which all the local units or lodges were united under one head, Reverend S. M. Adams being elected president and J. W. Brown secretary.103 At the 1886-7 session of the general 98 McVey, Populist Movement, p. 198; Acts, 1884-1885, p. 63; Acts, 1886-7, p. 212; Owen, Alabama, I, p. 567. 99 Advertiser, August 17, 1887. 100 M. J. White, "Populism in Louisiana", in Miss. Valley Historical Rev. V, pp. 1-4; Drew, "The Present Farmers' Movement," in Political Science Quarterly, VI, pp. 282-283; DuBose, Article No. 74, in Age-Herald, October 21, 1913; Haynes, Third Party Movements, p. 229; Buck, Agrarian Crusade, p. 117. 101 Drew, loc. cit.; McVey, Political Movement, p. 198; Buck, Agrarian Crusade, p. 122. 102 McVey, op. cit., p. 198. Proceedings Fifth Semi-Annual Session Agricultural Society, p. 35; Buck, Agrarian Crusade, p. 117; Owen, Alabama, I, p. 567. 103 Proceedings Fifth Semi-Ann. Sess. Agric. Soc., p. 35. assembly the Alliance was incorporated 104 as a non-partisan, agricultural organization.105 There was no mystery associatetd with the mere name of the Farmers' Alliance Ostensibly it was nothing more than "another" farmers' organization, composed of such farmers as wished to ally themselves in an effort to attain the goal which was impossible of attainment individually. Starting as a farmers club, it later became 'allied' with various other working groups, especially city laborers, which alliance both strengthened and weakened it in that the two groups had many desires not in common, and it was impossible to harmonize their aims.106 The Alliance, however, became almost from the first a political instrument.107 It was secret and possessed all that brotherhood and mystery calculated to capture the imagination which had made the Grange so popular, but which the Agricultural Society lacked. The Alliance also possessed a constitution and by-laws which if followed strictly would have avoided the political rocks on which the Western Grange stranded. The peculiar mission of the Alliance was to stand between the producer and to eliminate the middleman, improve home life, promote education, build factories and procure needed legislation. By 1887 the Alliance was spoken of as a boon to the agricultural interests of the country. This united effort was considered to be rendering good fruit, causing the 104 Miller, Alabama, p. 282; Acts, 1886-7, p. 385. 105 Advertiser, June 21, 1887. An alliance was organized June 20, 1887 at Calera, Shelby county, officers were elected and all present listened to praises of Henry George. Some twenty-five farmers were present at this secret meeting. Among the prime movers of the new organization were W. C. Griffith, district organizer; W. S. Easterling, editor of the Alliance News published at Calera; and W. H. Davidson, publisher of the Labor Advocate, also at Calera. W. H. Davidson spoke earnestly against monopolies and urged his hearers to follow the doctrines of Henry George, the famous single tax advocate. By 1889 there were in Alabama organizations of (1) the Grange, with Colonel Hiram Hawkins, a native Kentuckian, now a cotton planter of Barbour county as president; (2) the Farmers' Alliance, with S. M. Adams, Baptist preacher of Bibb county as president; (3) the Alabama division of the Farmers' Natonal Congress, with Commissioner Kolb as president; (4) the State Agricultural Wheel; (5) the State Agricultural Society, non partisan, with I. F. Culver of Bullock as president. (DuBose, Art. No. 81, in Jones, V, p. 55; Age-Herald, July 24, 1889.) 106 Age Herald, March 13, 1889. 107 Owen, Alabama, I, p. 567; Shippee, Recent American History, p. 60. |