Thomas County cat., 1890-07-10
NEEDS ExPLAEArIoH.


copies our articles of last week on tn
Advocate and the money paid tha
paper to send out sample copies, an
adds the following:
In order that the readers OF tn
Capital might be informed OF tn
true inwardness of the transaction
hin d at. but not specifically states
by the Alliance Tribune in the abov
extracts representative of this pape
called upon Messrs. Yount and Este
for brief interview. Both OF thes'
gentlemen were found busily engaged
at their work in the rear OF Knox
bank. where the Tribune Office is 10
Gated, and Mr.. Estes, who is the edi
tor in charge, kindly consented t.
give the readers of the Capital al
audience.
Said he, in reply to an interroga
tory, ''the Alliance Advocate, nov
published in this city, was formerly
an insignificant paper published al
Meriden, in Jefferson county. 1t had
no support to speak of and no par
ticular influence that anybody ever
heard Of By some strange mesmer-
ism that was worked upon the board
of trustees of the State Alliance or
ganization the publishers of the Ad-
vocate was promised the sum of $3.50
If he would remove his plant to To
peka and continue the publication of
the paper at this place. This money
was to be used ostensibly, to purchase
a certain number of copies of the
Advocate, to be sent out as an adver-
t;sement- 10000 copies being claimed
as the number. The Advocate was
removed to Topeka IN accordance
with this scheme. I do not know, of
course, how many copies were mailed
to parties in the state, or out OF it,
but l understand, upon reliable
authority, that the SECRETARY of tie
State Alliance now has IN his Office a
pile of that issue about six feet high,
six feet long, and at least three feet
wide, containing many thousand cop
les that have never been used, but
for which the State Alliance treasury
has been depleted to the tune of $3.50.
The secretary is j. B. French, and
his Office is at Hutchinson"
'sBy what authority was this num-
her of copies of the Alliance Advocate
purchasede"
''By no authority, absolutely none.
Why should $4,000 copies of the Alli-
ance Advocate, or any other number,
be purchased by the board of trustees
of the State Alliance, when there are
probably twenty or more Alliance
papers in the state, all working
equally hard to uphold Alliance
principles and the interests generally
of the farmers in this state as against
all comers? The board of trustees is
composed of B. II. Clover of Cam
bridge, J. B. French of Hutchinson,
S. j. Adkins of Burton, E. c. Cald-
well of Halstead, aud w. A. Nelson
of Corbin. I understand this board
gave the order to pay to Mr.. McLal-
lin, editor of the Advocate, the sum
OF $3.50 about month ago or little
over. Now if there is any provision
of the governing laws of the State
Alliance organization that provides
for the payment of this or any other
sum for such purpose, the members
of the Farmers Alliance who are
putting their hard earnings into the
State Alliance treasury want to be
informed of 1t at once
The money in the state treasury is
not laced there to be paid out to any
hard-pressed newspaper publisher
and the Tribune enters its protest
against such prohigacy, to use no
harsher term"
Perhaps the Advocate was re-
garded by the board of trustees as
the state organ and that the interests
of the Alliance organization would
justify this expenditure" suggested
the reporter.
That could not be-" SAID Mr.. !
Estes, because the matter of q state |
organ was up for consideration at the |
state meeting at Newton last August
and the proposition to choose an
official paper was voted down almost
unanimously. There could be no
mistake about this. The expenditure
of this money-and it is q consider