HISTORY OF THE FARMERS' ALLIANCE. IOI 



plainer than ever the monstrous evilb with which he had 

 for years been afflicted. He also saw, in this determined 

 opposition, a remedy for these evils. To break these 

 combinations and free themselves from the shackles that 

 bound them to a system which annually robbed them of 

 millions of dollars, they now earnestly set to work. 



The committee on sale and shipment of cotton reported 

 as follows: 



1. Recognizing that cotton is the most important 

 crop financially considered that concerns the fanners of 

 this great State ; that its value for last year having been 

 $80,000,000, as paid by the spinners, and $64,000,000 

 paid to the producers, leaving a margin of $16,000,000, 

 over half of which immense sum was marginal profits; 

 that this year the crop will not vary much from that of last 

 year; hence, if concerted action is not taken by the pro- 

 ducers of Texas, eight or nine million dollars will again 

 be swallowed up as marginal profits, over and above all 

 fair charges, to liquidating expenses of transportation, 

 sampling, weighing, inspecting, classifying, handling, etc. 

 Eight or nine million dollars are lost each year to the pro- 

 ducers of Texas, principally through false weights, 

 defective sampling, cliques and corners, and enormous 

 charges for transportation. Therefore, your committee 

 recommends, after careful consideration, that the cotton- 

 yard system be adopted by the County Alliances as 

 the surest and most immediate relief to the producers of 

 the State. 



2. It is recommended by your committee that the 

 County Alliances (either singly or where a number of 

 counties lie contiguous to an oil mill) make the best terms 

 possible for the sale of cotton seed, and that each County 

 Alliance making such arrangement shall report terms of 

 such to the secretary of the State Alliance for transmission 



