People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 February 1897 — FARMERS’ ALLIANCE. [ARTICLE]

FARMERS’ ALLIANCE.

Annual Meeting of the Supreme Body at Washington. The annual meeting of the supreme council of the National Farmers’ alliance opened at Washington Tuesday. The report of President Page of Virginia strongly indorsed the scheme of establishing co-operative unions in various states to assist the wealth producers in disposing of their products and to overcome “the stagnation in business caused by the present system of a contracted currency.” He opposed the idea of dropping the word “alliance.” The report of the secretary-treasurer, R. A. Southworth of Colorado, recommended that a mortgage-paying feature be started during this year, to rediem every home in the membership in twenty years, by simply paying 8 per cent interest for about sixteen years. This, it is stated, will reimburse all expense and leave 25 per cent more in the treasury than has been drawn out. The committee on changes in the constitution reported in favor of allowing the National Alliance Aid, now in session at Dallas, Tex., to secede in peace in the interest of harmony, and the report was adopted. An amendment was adopted striking out the provision fixing the president’s tenure of office to one year.