HISTORY OF THE FARMERS' ALLIANCE. 129 



St. Louis, December 3, 1889. The Rural Messenger, an 

 agricultural paper published at Petersburgh, Va., was 

 adopted as the official organ of the State Alliance. A com- 

 mittee was appointed to devise some means by which a 

 State Exchange could be established for the convenience of 

 the members in the State. Some progress has been made 

 in the way of co-operative business enterprises, among 

 which is a manufacturing company with a capital of $50,- 

 ooo, located at Iron Gate. The object is to manufacture 

 all kinds of implements necessary to the farming industry. 

 Since the time of the last State meeting the Order has had 

 a wonderful growth in the State. There are now over 

 seventy County organizations with over 1,000 Sub- Alli- 

 ances, representing a membership of over 30,000. Co-op- 

 erative manufacturing companies and Alliance stores are 

 being located in many parts of the State. In her rapid 

 strides of progress the Old Dominion has taken her place 

 abreast in her onward march to industrial freedom with her 

 sister States, and bids fair to outstrip some of them in the 

 success of her achievements. 



THE ALLIANCE IN NEW MEXICO. 



The first Alliance in New Mexico was organized by A. 

 D. Wallace, April 25, 1887, in Lincoln county. This was 

 followed by the organization of other Alliances, and, on the 

 3d of June, Mr. Wallace organized the Lincoln County 

 Alliance, which was the first County Alliance organized in 

 the Territory. R. R. Phelts and W. L. Breece were then 

 deputized to complete the organization in Lincoln county. 

 Mr. Phelts did not enter in the work, so the burden fell 

 upon Mr. Breece to organize the county. The- peculiar 

 difficulties of this work can be imagined when it is known 

 that Look Out Alliance, on Black River, being the most 

 distant one formed, is 175 miles from where the first Alli- 

 ance was organized, and there being but six neighborhoods 



