ow made
its appearance. This method contemplated the "taxation of land according
to its value and not according to its area, to devote to common use
and benefit those values which arise, not from the exertion of the
individual, but from the growth of society," and the abolition of
all taxes on industry and its products. But it was apparent from the
similarity of their platforms and the geographical distribution of their
candidates that the two labor parties were competing for the same vote.
At a conference held in Chicago to effect a union, however, the Union
Labor party insisted on the complete effacement of the other ticket and
the single taxers refused to submit. In the election which followed, the
Union Labor party received about 147,000 votes, largely from the South
and West and evidently the old Greenback vote, while the United party
polled almost no votes outside of Illinois and New York. Neither party
survived the result of this election.

In December, 1889, committees representing the Knights of Labor and
the Farmers' Alliance met in St. Louis to come to some agreement on
political policies. Owing to the single tax predilection of the Knights,
the two organizations were unable to enter into a close union, but
they nevertheless did agree that "the legislative committees of both
organizations [would] act in concert before Congress for the purpose
of securing the enactment of laws in harmony with their demands."
This cooperation was a forerunner of the People's party or, as it was
commonly called, the Populist party, the largest third party that had
taken the field since the Civil War. Throughout the West and the South
political conditions now were feverish. Old party majorities were
overturned, and a new type of Congressman invaded Washington. When the
first national convention of the People's party met in Omaha on July 2,
1892, the outlook was bright. General Weaver was nominated for President
and James G. Field of Virginia for Vice-President. The platform
rehabilitated Greenbackism in cogent phrases, demanded government
control of railroads and telegraph and telephone systems, the
reclamation of land held by corporations, an income tax, the free
coinage of silver and gold "at the present legal ratio of sixteen to
one," and postal savings banks. In a series of resolutions which were
not a part of the platform but were nevertheless "expressive of the
sentiment of this convention," the party declared itself in sym