"Shall the people accept orders from Congress?"

"Who shall rule, the politicians, or the people?"

"Shall we allow these, our servants, to dictate to us, their masters?

"We are sovereigns of this land and we come to our representatives
and not to our lords."

"Shall the agent be allowed to grow too insolent to obey the in-
structions of his principal?"

"When your congressmen come home and begin their preconcerted
attack on your platform, ask them what better plan they have advo-
cated during all these years that they have been enjoying fat salaries." ¹

THESE AND SIMILAR CHALLENGES peppered the columns of the
Georgia Alliance papers; they were flung in the faces of Con-
gressional committees; they glared from the letters of constitu-
ents. It was in such a mood that the Alliance in 1890 determined
to apply its "yardstick," the St. Louis platform. All candidates
must "stand up and be measured." Woe to any office holder, of
whatever military rank or valor, who confessed doubts as to the
subtreasury plan, abolition of the national banks, or government
ownership of the means of transportation and communication.

Unlike their Western brethren, who were already resorting
to independent political organizations, the Southern Alliancemen
believed themselves powerful enough, by boring from within, to
take over the old party for their own purposes and thus to work

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