A LESSON IN CO-OPERATION. 825 



loan could be effected at a reasonable rate of interest, to provide 

 funds to purchase goods with which to supply the contracts ac- 

 cepted by the committee of acceptance ; but all the efforts made 

 were unsuccessful, and tended to produce the conviction that 

 those who controlled the moneyed institutions of the State either 

 did not choose to do business with us, or they feared the ill will 

 of a certain class of business men who consider their interests 

 antagonistic to those of our order and corporation. At any rate, 

 be the causes what they may, the effort to borrow money in a suf- 

 ficient quantity failed." 



The month of April showed an increase in capital, from stock 

 paid in, of $1,526.36. During the month of May maturing obliga- 

 tions failed to be met, notes of the Exchange went to protest, and 

 general disaster followed, amounting almost to a total suspension 

 of business. During all this time the most hopeful statements 

 were made by the manager to the public, and the general frater- 

 nity were induced by official utterances to believe that the troubles 

 of their business were precipitated by a combination of bankers 

 and wholesale merchants to crush it out. A meeting of the State 

 Alliance Executive Committee was called, and, after a few days 

 of examination into the business at Dallas, the following call, 

 signed by the seven directors, was issued : 



Members of the Farmers' Alliance of Texas: 



Brethren : Grave and important issues confront us to-day. Unjust combina- 

 tions seek to throttle our lawful and legitimate efforts to introduce a business sys- 

 tem more just and equitable than is now prevailing. ... In order that the proof 

 of the existence of this combination may be submitted to you, and that a full, free 

 conference may be had with the brethren, it is most earnestly recommended that 

 a mass meeting be held at the court-house in each county of the State on the sec- 

 ond Saturday in June, at which meeting documentary evidence disclosing facts of 

 ^ast importance will be laid before you, and a plan for your consideration and 

 adoption. . . . 



In addition to this, there was issued about the same time a 

 secret circular, signed by the officers of the Exchange, which is so 

 violent in language as to almost merit the adjective "revolu- 

 tionary." The circular is too long for reproduction here, but the 

 main points may be summarized as follow : 



1. There was from the first a hidden, underhanded, masked opposition to the 

 Exchange. 2. That Dallas bankers, wholesale merchants, implement dealers, and 

 manufacturers entered into a combination to crush the Exchange ; that the bank- 

 ers refused to lend the Exchange money upon any terms or any security, and 

 tried to force them to buy through jobbers. 3. That the Dallas combination 

 "kept the mails full and the wires red hot" to prevent the Exchange from get- 

 ting money at Fort Worth, Houston, Galveston, and New Orleans. 



These utterances indicate the bitterness of feeling incited by 

 the Exchange management and- the officers of the State Alliance. 



