Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/845

Rh loan could be effected at a reasonable rate of interest, to provide funds to purchase goods with which to supply the contracts accepted by the committee of acceptance; but all the efforts made were unsuccessful, and tended to produce the conviction that those who controlled the moneyed institutions of the State either did not choose to do business with us, or they feared the ill will of a certain class of business men who consider their interests antagonistic to those of our order and corporation. At any rate, be the causes what they may, the effort to borrow money in a sufficient quantity failed."

The month of April showed an increase in capital, from stock paid in, of $1,526.36. During the month of May maturing obligations failed to be met, notes of the Exchange went to protest, and general disaster followed, amounting almost to a total suspension of business. During all this time the most hopeful statements were made by the manager to the public, and the general fraternity were induced by official utterances to believe that the troubles of their business were precipitated by a combination of bankers and wholesale merchants to crush it out. A meeting of the State Alliance Executive Committee was called, and, after a few days of examination into the business at Dallas, the following call, signed by the seven directors, was issued:

Members of the Farmers' Alliance of Texas:

Grave and important issues confront us to-day. Unjust combinations seek to throttle our lawful and legitimate efforts to introduce a business system more just and equitable than is now prevailing. . .. In order that the proof of the existence of this combination may be submitted to you, and that a full, free conference may be had with the brethren, it is most earnestly recommended that a mass meeting be held at the court-house in each county of the State on the second Saturday in June, at which meeting documentary evidence disclosing facts of vast importance will be laid before you, and a plan for your consideration and adoption. . ..

In addition to this, there was issued about the same time a secret circular, signed by the officers of the Exchange, which is so violent in language as to almost merit the adjective "revolutionary." The circular is too long for reproduction here, but the main points may be summarized as follow:

1. There was from the first a hidden, underhanded, masked opposition to the Exchange. 2. That Dallas bankers, wholesale merchants, implement dealers, and manufacturers entered into a combination to crush the Exchange; that the bankers refused to lend the Exchange money upon any terms or any security, and tried to force them to buy through jobbers. 3. That the Dallas combination "kept the mails full and the wires red hot" to prevent the Exchange from getting money at Fort Worth, Houston, Galveston, and New Orleans.

These utterances indicate the bitterness of feeling incited by the Exchange management and the officers of the State Alliance.