The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-06-02
GEN'L ALGER'S BOOM.
He Is Trying to Enlist the Repub-
lican League Clubs.
COMR STOCKSLAGER TO RETIRE.
The Head of the Land Department Will Soon
GO-The Chicago Board Of Trade-Inter-
State Commerce Commission.

New YORK, June John NJ. Thurston,
of Nebraska, has. been invited to become a
member of General Ayers party that
starts for Alaska this month, and he has
about concluded to accept. Up to date. the
party will consist of General and Mrs
Alger, Mr.. and Mrs. Thomas c. Plat and
Judge and Mrs. Thurston. General Ayers
private car will carry eight persons com
fortably, and probably two more will be
added to the party before the Goth, the date
fixed for their departure.
Judge ThurstOn is stopping at the Fifth
Avenue hotel. He was the temporary
chairman of the last Republican national
convention. He is prominent railway at
torney, and has considerable influence in
the Republican councils in the west. The
most significant point, however, is that
JugdeThurston is president of the Republi-
can national league of clubs, the most pow
erful organization in the Republican
party.
The league has obtained a foothoId in
nearly every state in the union and has a
total membership of over one hundred
thousand. Before the next Presidential
campaign it is the purpose of Judge Thurs
Republican clubs organized and equipped in
almost every town and hamlet in the coun-
try. General Alger, with mis- business in
stincts-from poor of humble origin by
his own efforts having made himself a
many times mlllionaire-can appreciate the
Importance of having such a powerful
machine as the Republican league clubs on
his side in political contest. The fact that
Judge Thurston is president of this Organf-
cation and has accepted General Ayers
invitation to visit Alaska as his guest, goes
far to confirm the belief that the RepUbli-
can league clubs will be used to further the
presidential ambition of the Michigan
statesman.
If the organization can be perfected on
the lines mapped out by Judge Thurston,
1t will be the biggest thing of the kind eveT.
known In politics. Practically, it comDre-
hendS the conquest of the continent DO
litically. Much depends on the ability of
the man or men placed in command of it.
Little is known of Judge Thurston, but he
made fairly good presiding officer at the
Chicago convention last year, but never has
been tried in any position requiring great
executive capacity. Whether he has the
skill to carry through to success the scheme
to organize the Republican league clubs
into an Alger machine, remains to be
proved. Assuming that ex-senator Plat
has been captured by Alger and that he
Will ueNOIe all MS energies TO cOnSummate
the nomination of Alger in 1892, the ele-
ment OF doubt regarding the successful
of the Republican league
clubs is largely eliminated
There is enough in the movement to give
the present occupant of the White House
cold chill if he is seriously thinking of a
denomination. The treatment that Thurs
ton received at the hands of Harrison has
predlsDosed him to take up with the Alger
movement. Outside of the appointment of
Patrick Egan (who was regarded as a resi-
dent of the state) as minister to Chill,
Nebraska has been practically ignored in
the distribution of federal patronage. Judge
Thurston says frankly that the Republicans
Of Nebraska and throughout the west have
no sympathy with the civil service notions
Of the Harrison administration. Alger,
ThurstOn declares with emphasis, is a man
Of his word, honest, capable, absolutely
with an unassailable record
In the meantime, the journey of the Alger
party to Alaska bids fair to become one Of
the most memorable and significant events
Of politics for the next three years.