St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-09-02
A fsEPLT 80 sPRAGUE.

gsrnasfIts by Members OF the EXecu-
tive Committee OF the Farmers
Alliance.
The folIown ing communication is self ex-
pianat0ry:
To the Members of the Farmers Alliance
OF Minnesota and the Public. Gentlemen
On the 3lst OF August there appeared in the
St. Paul Dispatch letter from Geo. w.
Sprague president OF the State Farmers al
lance, which was so extraordinary in its
character that we, the undersigned members
OF the executive committee, feel it Il duty
incumbent upon us to make reply thereto. 1t
has for months been believed by majority
OF this committee, and we believe also by
nine-tenths of the membership of the Farm
ers' alliance in this state, that President
Sprague has been using the position and in
fluence which his high Office in the ALI
ance conters upon him to further the
political ends of candidate for gov
crnor Of Minnesota who is repugnant
to the wishes of fully nine-tenthS of the rank
and file of our society. This conviction hav-
ing found its way into the public press of the
state Mr. Sprague has deemed it necessary
to deny strenuously that he has been using his
official position and power for any such pur-
pose At the same time he frankly cOnfesses
his personal preference for and support of
certair candidate for governor whose pOliti-
cal antecedeuts have inspired the great body
1t may not have occurred to Mr.. Sprague
that it was wholly impossible for him to es-
pouse the cause of any party or candidate
without involving the whole alliance but it
would have occurred and doubtless did occur
to the stupidest intellect in the society over
which he presideS. Indeed, Mr.. Sprague.
with apparent unconsciousness, contradc ted
himself in the same breath with which he
makes his statement, as witness his closing
paragraph in the Dispatch letter "Now / am
speaking for myself, not for the alliance, and
| challenge the right of any man or class Of
men to dictate to me how shall use my fran
chse as citizen of this country Imagine
the president of the United States travelling
around the country in campaign with some
ayOwed candidate for office. introducing him
to public audiences and even making speeches
in his behalf and then publishing to the world
that he did it only as private citizen and not
as president, and the absurdity of Mr..
Sprague's position will appear in all its ridicu-
lousness 1t is the deliberate opinion
of the subscribers to this COM
municatien that Mr.. Sprague should not
have gone into the active support of any
candidate without the Endorsement of the
body OF er which he presides. He should have
known that his advocacy of the cause of Mr..
Gilman would be construed to mean more
than that Of private citizen, aud it is we'll
known and can be proved that Mr. Gilman did
construe it to mean the support of large
portion of the membership of our body.
Concerning Mr.. Sprague's reasons for sup
porting C. A. Gilman for governor of Minne-
sofa we have nothing to say. This is not the
Mace to discuss the merits or dement's of
that gentlemen. Mr.. Sprague was privately
charged at the February meeting of the
Farmers alliance with working in the inter-
ests of G. A. Gilman for governor of Mime
sofa. to which he gave his unqualified
denial. 1t was this denial which caused the
,yitbdraval of n heavy opposition TO his re-
election to the office he now holds. His con-
duct during the past summer has been a con-
slant attempt to destroy the effectiveness of
the Farmers alliance as body of reformers.
His action has been utterly inexplicable to the
friends of reform, both inside and outside the