THE NATIONAL ALLIANCE. 113 



organization. Also, to sustain and assist in every possible manner the 

 efforts made to co-operate for business purposes, by the different county 

 and State organizations, and to provide a plain, simple, and specific 

 demand on the part of the national organization for the proper, just, 

 and equitable regulation of the relations between the different classes of 

 citizens. 



These three classes of teachings, and modifications of them, have 

 been the principal inducements offered people as reasons why they 

 should join our ranks ; and the fact that they have joined in such vast 

 numbers indicates the necessity for action in the directions pointed out, 

 and is a pledge that they will assist in carrying out such methods. Of 

 the three different methods, that of relief from the business effort has 

 received the most attention, and been by far the most prominent. This 

 is due, probably, to the fact that the technical and social co-operation 

 seems best adapted to the workings of the subordinate body, while the 

 business efforts have demonstrated the necessity of the wider range of 

 co-operation to be secured in the county and State organizations, and 

 the co-operation necessary to secure the proper adjustment of economic 

 relations seems peculiarly within the province of the national organiza- 

 tion, as it is the very foundation upon which the whole class in all the 

 States must depend. The prominence given to the business effort, by 

 the different State organizations, has not been without important results, 

 the full details of which, I suppose, will be reported to you by the 

 different State delegations. They have, in nearly all the States, organized 

 their business with a strong capital stock, ranging from $50 to $500,000. 

 Texas has a capital stock of $500,000, divided into individual shares 

 of five dollars each. Several States have their capital stock divided into 

 shares of $100 each, and issue them to subordinate bodies only. I 

 think this last method has many advantages, and would particularly 

 recommend the plan pf the exchange of Georgia as one that seems to 

 me wisely prepared. 



In my message to the last regular session of the National Farmers' 

 Alliance and Co-operative Union of America, at Meridian, I pointed 

 out the necessity for great caution in the formation of any national plan 

 of co-operation for business purposes. I now desire to reiterate that 

 caution, and say to those who wish to inaugurate a National Farmers' 

 Exchange, that there is danger of such an enterprise being so placed 

 that it cannot accomplish much, and still, when in existence, the people 

 will expect much of it. There may, perhaps, be some plan formulated 

 by which the different State exchanges can co-operate, but I doubt the 

 wisdom of going any further than that, by organizing a national exchange, 



