The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1888-04-17

with bombs and look hideous when
they were about all fhis? No; this
was about the mode d attack: Hun
dreds of tons of acids are sold an
nually in Charlotte. The Alliance
knew that the dealers made about as
much and maybe more clear money
than the farmers simply by ordering
and dealing out the stuff and filling
the blank notes, and they did not
sweat half as much as those who used
it and paid for it. The Alliance Or
dered it's secretaries to correspond
with the factories and get the prices
by the car load. Then they found
that by employing q business agent
two months or longer;they could get
their guanos at from1$ IS to SO cheaper
per ton than the. dealers offered it.
They quietly informed the guano men
of their discovery and told them they
might go fishing as they could run the
business, but if they wanted to they
could handle the guanp for them and
make a, profit about equal to what
their business agent, would cost them
about rs cents on the ton. Now
wasn't that horrible? !? After these
guano fellows making efrom SIS to So
on the ton for years and then to have
to come down to IS cents just because
four or five hundred legged,
horny handed sons of toll said they
must, and if they didn't want to they
could 60 fishing Buts the man who
makes IS Cts on everyIton he sells in
my humble opinion is safer than the
farmer who buys it. At any rate, l
think the majority. ought to rule and
anything that benefits the many and
is a little detrimental to the few ought
to be ruled out. But the Alliance is
curious and would not let the tea0
guano men stuff their. pockets this
year and won't next.
The Alliance, however, is not con-
fined to regulating the guano traffic.
1t is not only broad but comprehen-
sive. Last fall the members of it in
Mecklenburg discovered that every
town within a radius of SO miles of
Charlotte was paying more for cotton
than the buyers there. The different
sub-Alliances sent committee to sift
the matter to the bottom. They pro-
ceeded very quietly and by free use
of the telegraph wire found that the
prices at that hour in Concord, Mon
roe and other comparatively small
markets were from few cents up to
as much as 76c and $l.00 and even
more on some grades higher than in
Charlotte, and that city with the ad-
vantages of freights and compress.
The cotton buyers tried to laugh it off
and promised to pay better prices, and
they have done SO ever since. Now
if these men had not belonged to a
secret society, their plans would have
been frustrated The cotton buyers
would have known the project was on
hand and would have had prices
booming; but as it was, they were
caught mapping.
The Alliance don't lay many eggs
and never cackles till it lays them,
and they are always "whoppers." If
Sheriff Allison was after criminal
and found where he was and would
send him word that he would be there
at such an hour to arrest him, the
chances are that he would not find
him. That is one Of the secrets of the
Alliance, though it is not like the
Irishmans flea: you can always put
your finger on it and press hard for it
is solid, but the trouble is you don't
know where it was just before you do
so. In the above case the cotton buy
ers looked a little like they had been
caught with their hands in somebody's
pockets. The Chronicle gave de-
tailed account of the whole affair the
next morning and wound up by say
ing that the farmers need not be un
easy; that Charlotte would not be out
done by her sister towns and hereafter
they might expect the full market
value of their cotton. Better been
doing that all the time. The Alliance
would not have deemed it necessary
to interfere had that been the case.
Yes, gentlemen, whenever you hear
big timber falling you may guess that
the Alliance is out with it's little
hatchet. 1t is very quiet and order
ly society, looks as if it were asleep
most of the time. You can handle it