BUSINESS EFFORTS. 363 



capital stock had been paid in, and that their Board of Acceptance had 

 approved and accepted joint notes to the amount of about $128,000; 

 and with the corporation thus overburdened they accepted a contract 

 for the construction of a building upon their lots in Dallas, which in- 

 creased their liabilities about $35,000 more. They continued to accept 

 notes from the people, until their obligations to supply merchandise 

 aggregated about $400,000, with a paid-in capital of about $56,000 that 

 could be used in the business.' ' To discharge this obligation required 

 that the people be furnished merchandise to the value of over seven 

 times the capital stock paid, and to do that it was necessary that the 

 Exchange hypothecate these joint notes, at about eighty-five per centum 

 of their face value. That was found impossible. On the average they 

 had to be used as collateral, at about forty per cent of their face value ; 

 consequently the Exchange had undertaken more than it possibly could 

 do, and it failed ; not because the system was faulty, or the management 

 bad, but because the people did not put in capital stock in proportion 

 to the credit they asked, and because many of them did not pay their 

 indebtedness. The following is the report of the committee, after a 

 thorough investigation of all the facts : 



" To the Members of the Farmers' Alliance of the State of Texas : 



" BRETHREN : In compliance with the request of a meeting held in the city of 

 Waco, on the I5th day of May, 1888, by representative members of our order, from 

 different parts of the State, requesting us to thoroughly examine the books and 

 present financial condition of the Alliance Exchange of Texas, we, the undersigned, 

 President and Executive Committee of the Texas State Alliance, beg leave to submit 

 the following report : 



" We met in the city of Dallas on the iQth day of May, 1888, and, after a 

 thorough and critical examination of the books and business generally, and the 

 manner of conducting said business in all its departments, and those in charge of 

 same, we are gratified to state that the entire business is, and has been, conducted 

 upon sound, conservative, practicable business principles, and that the capital stock 

 of said Exchange is intact, and that it has been self-supporting, and is entitled to 

 your fullest confidence and support. The facts set forth in Brother Macune's report 

 are true. 



"We also find the Exchange has been crippled in its efforts to help the brethren, 

 in consequence of not being able to negotiate loans upon the mortgage notes of 

 the brethren, placed in their hands for that purpose, and by the acts of designing 

 enemies of our order. This you will find more fully explained by Brother Macune's 

 report, hereunto attached, and made a part of this report. 



" We are, after a diligent and fair investigation, made in Dallas, deeply impressed 

 with the great importance of the brotherhood moving with all their united force at 

 once to the support of our Exchange, that we, as an Alliance, have built up. 



" It is with regret we have to chronicle the fact that any class of men should be 

 found in this enlightened age, whose love of power and money, and the emoluments 



