The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-06-29
THE ALLIANCE IN TROUBLE
ANDIT ALL GROWS OUT OF THAT
SHOE FACTORY.
Shall the HiIlsboro Property be Oper.
ated or Abandoned by the State
Alliance 2.

Shall the shoe factory at HillsborO con-
tinue to stand idle or be operated at
once? That is the question that is now
agitating the Farmers Alliance and is
eliciting almost as much diversity of
opinion and heated controversy among
Alliancemen as does the Initiative or
Referendum, or words to that effect.
This weeks Progressive Farmer con-
tains number of communica tions on all
sides of the question and an editorial
that straddles the fence. Rev. Righteous
Altogether Cobb, the State Librarian,
wants to swoop down upon the back
ing fund" and use part or all of it to put
the enterprise into operation. He says
it is lying idle while the custodian of it,
Maj Graham, has been drawing 81 200
year salary until last year when it
was made 5000 for investing and taking
care of it. 'In few years longer" he
adds, SALARY will exhaust principal and
there will be nothing tangible left to
work the object for which this fund was
raised"
With this view OF the matter Secretary
w. s. Barnes agrees. He writes an Off
cial letter, urging attendance on the
county Alliances in July. Touching the
shoe factory he says:
81 regret to say that it is not in opera
ton and i see no probability of it being
put in operation unless the State ALI
ance at its meeting in August shall say
it must start. l may be mistaken, and
l hope / am. 1t is of the utmost i'm
portance that every member be present at
the county meeting and the following
question be discussed: Shall our enter
prise at Headquarters near Hillsboro be
operated, or shall the property be sold?
There is no use in making promises.
Something must be done about this mat
ter. 1t should be discussed in all it's
phases and your delegate to the State
Alliance should be instructed to do what
you wish in the matter. This
matter should be determined at once
either to push the factory, if it should
take every dollar of the Sacred Fund
to do it, thereby restoring confidence,
hope and life into our organization, or
it should be sold for what it will bring
acknowledging our incompetency to do
business-disband the State Alliance, go
home, stand by our party and promise
allegiance in the future to all the monop-
olies and trusts that may be organized,
and who may desire to feast and live off
of our labor and that of our wives and
children
This plan does not suit Mr.. J. w. Den
mark and he says so. He writes:
"Some suggest and even insist upon
taking the last cent of the Business
Agency Fund to run the shoe factory.
Those who suggest this would not do so
doubtless if they were correctly inform
ed. Some urge that the Subs instruct
all the delegates all the way up to the
State Alliance to take the fund and
start the factory. They evidently do not
know that out of $4,000 of that fund
which the trustee reported in hand at
the last State meeting, there is less than
$4,000 in hand now. *Business,
strict business principles must be adopted
and worked If it takes complete re-
organization to bring us to that, let it
come"
Evidently there is crisis in the affairs
of the Alliance and one that it is going
to take some pretty careful sailing to pre-
vent a total wreck.