The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1891-09-04

A. A. HICKOK, PRESIDENT OF OKLAHOMA
ALLIANCE.
states, not to try to accomplish every
thing at once. Legislative control is the
first thing aimed at. Few genuine re-
forms a be accomplished except by
legislation. The control of state legis-
latures involves control of United States
senatorial elections and the possibilities
in this direction are great.
President Polk put the situation forci-
bly, in a recent interview when he said:
"Our campaign at present is not to elect
a president or to secure the governor
ships of states. We are striking at the
monopolists in the United States senate.
So far we have landed three. The first
was Senator Hampton, of South Caro-
lima; then John j. Ingalls,, of Kansas,
and he was followed by Gideon g.
Moody, of South Dakota. The next one
to go into retirement will be John Sher-
man, of Ohio. Matt Ransom, of North
Carolina, will also be retired. The fate
of these two senators is just as certainly
sealed as that of John j. Ingalls,. We
made two mistakes that will not be re-
peated. With complete control of the
North Carolina legislature we allowed
Senator Vance to be reelected on the
strength Of his promises that he would
be a faithful political servant to the in
terests of the people. The election of
Governor Gordon, of Georgia, was also
a mistake, as he had shown himself to be
more interested in his own personal sue
cess than that of the Alliance. Here
after no promises Of the politicians of
the old parties will be accepted"
X ..
Some mistakes have been made by thu
reform managers in the past, but the
Alliance does not propose to make the
same mistakes more than once. These
errors have almost all been in the line of
putting too great confidence in the
pledges of politicians. The lesson has
been pretty well learned now that it is
folly to place any reliance on the prom
Uses of the old party politicians. They
are ready to promise anything to saw
their political heads, but they have M
intention to abide by their pledges. An6
the same thing applies to the old parties
themselves. They will put all manne,
of fair pledges into their platforms tx
catch votes, but they mean nothing. TIT
old parties are alike in their rottennes
and corruptions. There is no truth lief
in them. Their destruction is the only
policy which the friends Of reform MAJ
safely adopt.
n
Colonel Folks comments on the Ohit
situation are interesting. He is quoted
as saying: 1--WE have Sherman defeated
In the legislative districts the Alliance
will support candidates pledged to vot
against Sherman. The voting strength
of the actual organization is $1,000. Gu
members, however. are doing mission
airy work among the farmers generally
and thousands of voters not connectet
with the Alliance itself will be ralliet
against Sherman. If you would lool
over the correspondence from Ohio yo1
would be convihsed that it is now al
impossibility fbr him to. succeed himself
No fight is being made on Mckinley
AS | stated, we are now cleaning tn
United States senate. Governorship
are not valuable to us at the presen
time. 1t would have a good moral efec
to elect state officers merely as an evi
dence of the strength Of the organize
ton, but our primary object is to secur
the balance Of power in the legislatures
which enact the laws and elect Unite
States senators. Probably many Ali
ance members will support the People
ticket in Ohio, but there is no movement
to have them do SO. Consequently tn
Alliance is not fighting Mckinley, bu
do not infer that | think he will b
elected"