Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-11-26
AN ALLIANCE SLEDGE.
A High Priest of the National Order In
terviewed by q Gazette Man.
The Damon and Py'hias Act Batwpen Alliance
Leaders and the Railroads.
Gsorgin's Gordon.
pecial Correspondence OF the Gazette.

Special Correspondence OF the Gazette.
AUSTIN, TEX. Nov. "a Mr.. j. R.
Sledge, a high priest IN the National
Alliance and president of the Southern
Mercury publishing company at Dallas,
was in the city to-day, having lately
ne had spent nearly month helping the
brethren to elect q United States SEN
ator.
Mr.. Siedge is a well preserved gentle
man of perhaps forty-eight to fifty
rather tall aud trinity built. He wears
glasses and has prosperous aud thrifty
look about him, decidedly at variance
with the jocuiar and somewhat ironic
remark made to-day that 81 am only q
hayseed Socialist, sir!'' whereat he
smiled grimly as though oppressed with
pity for the poor benighted devils that
cannot appreciate the pnilanthropic zeal
and unselfish motives of men like himself
battling with monopoly and the powers
of darkness. He is sort of evangelist
in the grand army of the Alliance, and
Is generally in the saddle, SO to speak
pereerinating from state to state and
looking after the welfare Of the order.
He spends some time in Washington,
too, where he keeps al eye on the pro-
gress of legislation during the sitting of
congress.
"You are mistaken, said he, "wheu
the remark was ventured that Gordon
had downed the Georgia Alliance. "You
are mistaken about that. Gordon Is all
right on the principles advocated by the
Alliance. perfect understanding was
reached between him and the Alliance
members in the legislature the night be-
fore he secured the nomination. He
agreed to the primo iples OF the sub-rreas-
ury bill. Ii he had not done so, he
could not have been elected, for we had
a sufficient majority to beat him.
"Why, If you had u majority did you
not elect Calhoun, whom you knew to be
pronounced out-and-out Alliance man
of ability
''Because there was some objection to
him on the score of his being a railroad
attorney. Some OF the Alliance people
objected to hun on that account. Call
houn is. / believe, genuine friend of
the Alliance, and is a young man-only
thirty four-of great ability. He is
worth nearly 81 ZOO, GOO, and has made
every dollar OF it himself. But Gordon
is all right, and we think we can count
Oh 0ln. II We uluu I tCiuK SO, ne WOulU
have been left at home.''
Chow can the Alliance trust q man
like Gordon who wabblsd SO awkwardly
and ridlculously ever since ne became a
candidate, in his effort to please the
Democrats and the Alliance people? You
know he coquetted for awhile with the
Alliances but afterwards turned tail aud
fled from them and their sub-treasury
plan?''
eyes, know he did. But that was
because the money power got after him
and threatened to defeat him if he did
not let go Of the Alliance. He got fright
eued aud took water. But that was
nothing. He'll do all the same. We
are not afraid of him.
"How do the railroads feel toward the
Alliace. Mr.. Sledge?'
every kindly, We think. There is no
anta9onism between the Alliance and the
railroads 10 Georgia aud this East. That
is ondned principally to Texas, where
freight rates are kept too high. 1t 10
otherwise east of the Mississippi. There
is no reason why the railroads should not
be friendly to the Alliance, for the in
terest Of one is the interest of the other.
The railroads depend on the farmer, aud
can not do we'll unless he prosDers. You
know that the railroads are q large
debtor class, and as such are interested
in an increase OF money. Like the farm