52 AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS. 



demands of the order. It is suggested that the number in each congressional 

 district be limited to one, and that he receive his commission upon passing 

 a satisfactory examination before an examining board, composed of the pres- 

 ident, secretary, and Executive Committee of the State Alliance, and that 

 his commission be good for a specified and limited time, and that he have 

 power and authority to appoint as many as one deputy in each county, who 

 shall be deputies under him, and all of whose acts shall be done on his 

 responsibilities. That the law denning the duties, powers, and responsibilities 

 of organizing officers and their deputies, be made complete and explicit, and 

 so changed that they may be more interested in getting good material than 

 large numbers in the organizations, and that they be not allowed to take 

 fifteen men as charter members without a ballot. Also the organizing officers 

 be made members of the State Alliance. 



"The order has grown in the last year and a half from 700 Alliances to 

 about 3500, now organized; and perhaps the most potent argument that 

 organizing officers have used in securing this rapid accession to our ranks has 

 been the individual benefits that would accrue from concentration of trade in 

 purchasing supplies, and the bulking of products when offered for sale. Letters 

 of inquiry are being constantly received, asking information as to trade con- 

 tracts and trade arrangements. Brethren who have joined with sanguine 

 hope of the benefits that would come from co-operation within the order, 

 should not be disappointed ; if they are, they will leave our ranks in disgust, 

 and our numbers will decrease as rapidly as they have increased. This body 

 should, therefore, enact laws defining and establishing a bureau, or making it 

 the duty of the executive or some other committee, to collect and classify the 

 wants and desires of the order and ascertain the very best means of supplying 

 those wants; and they should at all times be ready to give the very best 

 information attainable as to trade contracts, and they should also keep a 

 record of the different trade contracts and arrangements ; they should also keep 

 a record of the different contracts, and note on same the amount of success and 

 satisfaction that attend it in its working, in order to classify same as statistical 

 evidence as time progresses, to the end that we may determine, from the 

 teaching of experience, which is attended with the very best results. 



" This body should take effective and adequate steps to support and assist, 

 to direct and concentrate, the efforts being made by County Alliances to 

 regulate and reform the system of purchasing supplies and sale of products. 



'* There should be a plain law as to the admission of infidels, and if they 

 are excluded, which it is hoped they will be, that the question also be settled 

 as to whether they should be allowed to remain after they have gained admis- 

 sion to the order. 



" Under the laws of Texas, the charter of an incorporated association rests 

 in the Board of Trustees ; and it is hereby requested that provision be made 

 for the election of a Board of Trustees, to be composed of at least fifteen 

 members, and that the Board of Trustees shall, when a vacancy occurs in 

 the office of president and vice-president, fill the vacancy by appointment for 

 the unexpired term, unless they shall deem it expedient to hold a called 



