The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-03-08
Delegates Present From
 Many Counties.
Claim Made That Organization Has 4o,o0O Members in the State-- objects of the Union Set
 Forth.
By Win T. sheehan.

By Win T. sheehan.
 spondence.) )--Tho Alabama Division ,f the Farmers Protective and Education al Union met here today for its sec ond annual convention with. perhaps lIo delegates attending. TheSunion is a secret organization. Its officers de- clare that its purpose Is the business betterment of the farmers. which they say can best be achieved by n careful Avoidance of any politics in any form < The business sessions Of the union are held behind closed doors, there is an ogtsT guard an inner guard grips In this movement, and 1t has assumed far wider scope than the average man conceives. say that the secret cess of their plans. They assert post lively that politics is tolerated In no manner and in no form.
 In many respects the union resent bles the Farmers Alliance which not so. many years back flourished. and fell. In communities like Clanton, where the local organization of the Farmers Alliance endured through all the years. 1t only surrendered it's char ter and lost It's identity to become a part of the Farmers Union. For the jects are the educational and commer- cial uplifting Of the farmer.
 The leaders look back upon the wrecks of previous organizations of farmers and profess to see as the rock that caused their undoing. the rock ,f profess to regard politics as wolsey angels fell. solemn warnings of this danger was uttered by several speak CTS, at the public exercises todav--for public session. But other speakers. in urging the organ Izatton of farmers. more closely and more thoroughly dwelt at length upon tho wrongs which they said had been put upon the farmers and intimated that he had been the prey of other classes. It isn't too much to say that a man with q good Farmers Alliance speech in today in all propriety.
 A Product of Texas.
 The Farmers Union movement ante- dates the Southern Cotton Growers It is q product of Texas and now Texas is the biggest factor ip the organiza- tion. Its largest field is in the South ern States, although It is said to be son and Dixon's Line.
 An officer of the Alabama Division is authority for the statement that there are in Alabama 10000 members of the union and that there are organizations of 1t in forty counties of the State. The statement is further made that so far of the organization, the building of cooperative storage warehouses, has been fully carried out. there being no less than forty of the warehouses with in Alabama.
 In Clanton, the union is unusually strong It has built modern concrete warehouse, a double ginnery and in the spring and summer time 1t ope- rates fertilizer factory in the ware house. These fertilizer factories in the State are engaged in supplying fertili- ger to the members of the union at q regular contract price. G. T. McElder- ry. a weIl-known fertilizer manufac- turer of Talladega. and who. by the way. is a candidate for Associate mem Der of the Railroad Commission. is the general manager of this department of the work of the union.
 Under an agreement, the Talladega Fertilizer Company. the Clanton Fer tilizer Company and the Tennessee Fer tilizer Company of Montgomery are supplying union farmers. In the past few weeks there has been a little, but lively fertilizer war growing out of this condition and some of the other ferti- lizer makers slashed prices at lively rate
 The union contemplates purchasing supplies in car load lots, in keeping in formed as to the state of markets, in cooperating in the selling of farm sup plies when necessary, in owning CO., operative warehouses and holding cot ton together and selling together The union claims to be the original cotton holder
 There Is just now d split in the na- tional affairs of the union and the courts are looking into it. E. A. Calvin of TeXarkana was at the head of the Texas union, the parent organization, and which. in a way, controlled the organizations in the other Southern States. He called. last fall. meeting of the representatives of all States for the purpose of forming a national or ganization.
 The result of the meeting was not at all to tho liking of MT. Calvin.
 O. F. Pyle of Mineola, Tex, and not he. was elected President Mir. Calvin denied the right of MT. Pyle and his associates to use the charter and he sought an injunction to prevent them from operating under the charter and the courts still have the controversy under consideration.
 Ohicers in Alabama. Of the Alabama Division now in ses- sion here, the officers ire l. A. Wortley, President, Walker county; Dr, E. J.