The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1891-09-09
MORE ABOUT HIM
The Fraud Polk and His Comrades
Exposed.
The Methods Employed to Fleece the
Farmers.
A RECORD THAT is TERRIBLE TO SEE
A Full Account of the Alliance Frauds
They Exist in This Coun-
try To-day.


try To-day.
A special correspondent from Atlanta,
Ga, writes to the New York Morning
Advertiser about the fraud which the
; fraud Polk leads:
In this town there is the interesting
spectacle of a confessed defaulter walk
, ing about the streets with his head up,
challenging arrest, and as secure in his
! liberty as the most honest citizen he
meets. This is one of the triumphs of
the farmers alliance regime. Nothing
else could have accomplished it, for At
lanta is noted for her morality and tidel-
ity to law and order The gentleman
referred to is the late manager Of the
: Georgia State Farmers Alliance EX-
change. He confesses to a shortage of
between $4,000 and $4,000 <He has no
fear of the consequences of his act be-
cause of his accurate knowledge of what
became Of large sums of money belong
ing to the Exchange before he had any
thing to do with it. His downfall was
quite accidental. While pursuing the
even tenor of his farmer -plundering way,
as previous managers had done, his short
age became known to the profane public,
Whereupon he was promptly sacrificed
for the good Of the cause.-the cause
which is bossed by Macune, Polk, Living
ston ct al. The farmers, whose loss it is,
hear Of it only in the columns of the
Southern Alliance Farmer-legitimate
newspapers having been boycotted by
| the leaders-and are consumed with
gratitude to the good men in the state
alliance who detected the scoundrel and
threw him out.
The clever men who have convinced
the farmers of this state that what they
had always believed to be white had
never been anything but the darkest
shade of black were quite modest in the
| beginning. The brilliant scheme of
| changing the husbandman's horror of
monopoly into firm friendship for cor
porations and combinations of corpora
tions-a result now practically accom-
plished-had not then occurred to them,
so they began modestly with the far
mers' alliance exchange enterprise This
was a perfectly logical feature of the
| movement. Here were several talented
men torn from their farms to take mere
salaried positions as servants Of the
people, officers Of the state alliance. 1t
was manifestly their duty, as well as
! their privilege, to look after the farmers
| interests in the marketing of their pro-
duce and the purchase of their imple-
ments, clothing and provisions. In order
to perform this duty properly, capital
was necessary. Where was the crptal
| to cCme from? From the farmer, of
course, since the farmers were to be the
| sole benef1ciaries of the system.
The scheme was laid before the farm
ers in the alliance organ, managed by the
promoters of the enterprise, and was
hailed with delight. Here was the long
sought opportunity to down the (then)
detested monopolies. The local alliances
held special meetings to discuss the mat
ter, and a few weeks later 900 of these
subordinate organizations placed $4,000
in the hands of the managers of the state
alliance. These managers were not un-
grateful. They forwarded, in return,
beautifully engraved certificates ofstock,
which are to-day all that some farmers
can call their own, save the clothes on
their back. They were pleasant to the
sight, these certificates. The farmers be-
gan to feel that they at last had some
thing to cling to; that their organiza-
ton, with such wise, good men at its
head, must prove triumphant success.
1t was understood that dividends on
this stock were to be in the shape of big
ger prices for produce and lower prices
for all that the farmers wonld need to
buy, This was entirely satisfactory.
Even to this day many farmers believe
that, but for the alliance exchange, the
prices of farm produce would have gone
down out of sight, while the cost of jute
and cotton bagging would have con-
sumed the entire crop, labor and all. The
management of the exchange was vested
in board of Extraordinarily Off
GERS of the state alliance-elected by the
stockholders The stockholders were the
1000 local alliances. To simplify cleo
tions, etc, the local alliances elected &
member Of the county organization to
serve as trustee-stockholder for all sub
alliances in the country.
To My Friends and Patrons.