The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1890-04-29

decided indications of political
revolution in some of the States"
"Due to the work of the Farmers
Alliance, should you think ?"
at is certainly due to the teachings
of the Farmers Alliance. [ do not
hesitate to say that"
"In your opinion will the teachings
of the Farmers Alliance tend to a
new era, or the infusion of new life in
both parties ?"
al have no hesitation in saying that
we believe that the e~xigencies of the
and our advanced condition
absolutely demand a change of men
and a change of ideas IN public
councils"
"And to reach such change the
Farmers Alliance, without respect to
politics, is after such men only ?"
Is after such men, and we intend to
have them if we can get them. We
want men who believe there are some
things in this country that are para
mount to party"
THE STRENGTH OF THE ALLIANCE.
"Colonel Polk, what is the numeri-
cal strength, approxima ely, of the
Farmers Alliance at this time 2" |
asked.
" | cannot tell you what it is at the
present time. We have made very
rapid progress since we met the Sd of
December last in St. Louis. Our
laws only require semi-annual reports
from the State organizations, and we
have had no reports since that meet
ing. l can only say that at the time
of that meeting membership ap-
proximated 1000, 900. We now have
State organizations perfected in
twenty-four States. We have invaded
the States of Indiana, (which, by the
way, will organize during this month(,
Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, New Jersey,
New York, Montana, Wyoming and
California, the most of which we ok
pect to have organized by the time Of
u next annual meeting in December.
To illustrate the progress we are
making l will cite you North Carolina,
which is one of the oldest States in
the order: Since the first of January
this year we have added about ninety
subordinate organizations in that
State. We thought on the first Of
January that we had the State very
thoroughly organized, but we are re-
ceiving accessions there every day,
and today [ presume our membership
in that State is not less than 100, 900.
"THE STATE OF KANSAS,
Which had belonged to the North
western Alliance up to the time Of
our annual meeting at st. Louis, con
solidated with our order at that time,
and within the last two weeks the
President of the Kansas organization
has written me that they had more
than doubled their number since the
December meeting"
"Colonel Polk, as to the beneficial
feature Of the Alliance, tell me just
exactly how far it has gone, for I hear
it has done a great deal of good"
"The practical benefits ?"
eyes; in helping the farmer prac,
tically and absolutely"
"Indirectly it has wrought a won
derful improvement throughout it's
whole jurisdiction by ~impressing the
membership with the absolute neces-
sity of moving on a higher plane of
individual and manly independence.
That leads, of course, to a great many
things, among the most important of
which is the making of the farmer to
be elf.sustaining. It impresses the
farmers with the necessity of higher
and more practical education of their
children. It cultivates the social
features Of life. Then, in connection
with the order, we have in the older
States what we term business ex-
changes or State business agencies.
To give you an idea of the practical
working of that system, [ will state
that in North Carolina we have a
State business agent located at the
Capitol, Raleigh. We have placed to
his credit, to give him commercial
standing,
ABOUT FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS L
CASH.
That money we cannot use except as
a guaranty of his credit. He pur-
chases at wholesale for the order.
The minutiB of the system can be
thus briefly stated: Each subordinate
Alliance has a business agent. County
Alliances r made up of these sub
ordinate Alliances. The County ALI
ance has also a business agent. Now,
you see, we have three grades of
agents in the State-the Subordinate,
the County and the State. The mem
bers of a Subordinate Alliance club
together, for instance, to buy -four,
machinery or any other heavy goods.
They file their orders with their bust
ness agent. These sub agents send
- N.17-- l. H. IL