The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-02-06
To Alliance Men.

Now is the time to put organization
on a solid footing. The last state meeting
was the most businesslike of any yet held.
A No. 1 business agent was elected, and
am sure he can save you money if you will
only patroniZe him.
The Alliance was organized on strictly
business principles, and the fact that it
succeeded in breaking the back of the
Irvine trust shows what we can do if we
stand together.
The trust and their hired allies are try
ing to break up the twine plant at Still
water not on accoant Of the small amount
of Irvine made there, sbut because other
states are wantingtto see what success we
have. . -
Texas has a beautiful fiber for twine
very cheap, and some 1000 boarders in the
state prison. Many of them are there be-
cause they cannot get board anywhere else
and many who really deserve to be there
are in congress. If we succeed with our
Irvine plant Texas will establish one. The
trust is aware of this Therefore they wish
to nip the evil in the bud by destroying the
Saltwater plant. While it is true we have
the Peoples party, founded on the eternal
and righteous principles of justice and
equal rights yet it is necessary that the
farmers have an organization which will
see to their particular interests. While it
is true we have a Legislature strongly Re-
publican, and many of the members are
editors and lawyers, who are not interested
in beans, squashes and Russian thistles
and would not know one from the other if
they saw it, yet if we had our 1,40O ALI
ances of the state thoroughly organized
under the head of the F. A. and I. u, and
the members would pay up their dues We
could bring such pressure to bear that
no legislature would dare refuse to listen
to our demands
1t is through the Alliance we must work
the business of the Grain Growers Associa-
ton, and it is of more Importance than
anything else to the farmers of the North
west Let us pull together for the upbuild-
ing of the Alliance more solid basis.
l.. C. LONG.
TO ALLIANCE MEN.
Some Good Advice From President
Vermilya.
There is no reason why our subordinte al
liances should not become strong and ag-
gressive. Nearly every farmer will say that
the farmer pays more than his just proper
ton of the taxes, and that foreign syndi-
Gates control our elevators, and our flour
ing mills, and that the only way the farm
ers can ever expect to throw off this for
egn yoke is by thorough organization and
united effort. This same will say that
the trouble with the alliance is that the
members soon lose interest and neglect to
come to the meetings, and so it goes down.
To such men 1 want to say, you are to
blame for this state OF affairs. You have
not been at work as you ought. If you had
gotten every one of your neighbors to take
the alliance papers, then they would be
posted as to the work of the alliances, and
could understand that they had a depart
ment in the paper, as the alliance has in the
Representative, where they could express
themselves, and help lay plans for their
own benefit. This would do much to keep
up the interest in your alliance
Then again what have you done in your
alliance for the benefit of yourselves? Have
you clubed together and bought your gro
ceries, your binding Irvine, your lumber and
machinery; or have you simply come to-
gether and said what might be DONE and
then went home discouraged because it was
not done, when you did not try to do any
thing?
Now, friends, let US turn over a new leaf.
The first thing to do is to get every men,
Der to take The Representative The next
is to get them to write short pithy articles
for the alliance department of the same so
that they will become interested, and right
here l want to say, l think it would be a
good plan to have a question department.
Let every one ask or answer questions. If
more than one answer comes in for any
question, the editor could take the best one
and light his cigar with the paper the poor
answer was written on. The next thing to
do is to get to doing business; raise the
money in some way and buy your groceries
in bulk. There are good firms that you can
purchase of. You Will, find their advertise
ments in the Represeptatiy Save all the
money you can in this way. All your men,
bers won't be obliged to purchase in this
way at first, but as they realize the amount
they can save, they will gradually begin to
90 SO; and your alliance will soon be so
strong that you can send in your order for
goods once month. You can talk politics
as much as you please then, and no one
will leave on that account. If they are
making money. But, says some one we
buy our groceries with our eggs. Well,
what If you do? Let US make a change
get a few egg cases and ship your own eggs.
Be sure that they are all fresh, and YOU
can work up a trade that will pay you, and
you get the cash to buy your groceries at
wholesale. We selected Mr.. Bowel as our
business agent, who will undoubtedly locate
In Minneapolis, where he can assist us in
buying and selling 1 believe him to be a
gentleman of integrity and ability.
The next thing for alliance men to do is
to ship their own grain, but shall leave
this subject for my next letter. 1 have
never before this advised leaving home gro
GERS. but they have given us nothing but
slurs and sncers. Now let us teach them a
lesson. rIS ,,pifo for orr our hore6+