Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1891-05-14
LANGDON NORTH DAKOTA. THURSDAY MAY H. 1891

look to the national treasury fo1
personal Gsupport. Then a billion
dollars of taxation would be as a
drop in the sea.
ALLIANCE ED 1ToRs AND THE G.
A. r..
The attitude of the Alliance or
ganization of Kansas toward the
Grand Army of the Republic appears
to bevery decidedly unfriendly. At
its recent meeting i'll Hutchinson,
Kan, the Farmers Alliance Editor
ial association adopted the following
resolution as an expression of its
position in respect to the G. A. r.:
known as the Grand Army ofthe Republic. organ
lied for the purpose of preying upon the United
States Treasury, and thereby filching from the
people in the form Of pensions, money not their
due. We also condemn the membership of said
OAStlilHtihou lOI pIcssllS upull uuu ucluAuuluS
of the people the right to hold Office and be recog-
nized as an active factor in the politics of the
country. The right to vote we do not question,
but their rightto dictate or suggest political ac-
ton and political party we denounce. and we,
the representatives of the reform (Aiance) press,
do hereby pledge ourselves to resist such pre-
sumption on the part generally of the ex-union
soldier but especially of the Grand Army of the
Republic.
There appears to have been an
effort to prevent the publication Of
the offensive resolution, and when
it was first printed in the Chanute,
Kan, Nidette, it was pronounced by
certain Alliance journals in other
states as "false and malicious" The
Salina, Kar., Sun regarded the mat
ter as of sufficient Importance to
justify careful investigation, and
the following are the facts as it
claims to have found them:
1t was to get at the bottom facts that a gentle
and after spending two days there returned yes.
terday, bringing documents that proved conc.u.
siyely the truth ofevery assertion made. The
resolution was heard by number of gentlemen
of high repute in Hutchinson who were in the
convention at the time Of reading. certificates
from some of them asserting the material state
ments are in Selina, and Will be given to the
public that they may be the judges. The resolu
lcopy oft he Hutch News al IT e4relessly lay
n
vent and the iited copy was5 transcribed
from II. This was something the members ofthe
convention did not count on, and 90 have been
taken unawares. That copy of the Hutchinson
News is likewise in Selma, and the shorthand re-
port was transla ted in our presence yesterday by
Mr.. Smith, tho district court stenographer and
Hon. I. F. Carrier, both separately. Excepting
perhaps an unimportant word, if is identical
with the resolution as published.
This would seem to be conclusive
and entirely reliable testimony. It
leaves no doubt Of the anti-G. A. r.
resolution by the Alliance editors Of
Kansas. 1t establishes the fact that
these educators and representatives
of the Kansas farmers did pronounce
the G. A. R. an organization @for
the purpose of preying on the Uni
ted States Treasury and thereby
filching from the people, i'll the form
of pensions, money not their due"
1t is not probable that the Alliance,
as whole, endorses this sentiment,
but that the men who are most in
fluential in the order in Kansas do,
there seems to be no reason to doubt.
The resolution is entirely IN accord,
however, with the declarations made
from time to time by leading repub-
lican papers, and notably by the
New York Tribune, which recently
warned the. republican leaders that
the pension business was being over
done, and that it was high time esto
call q 1 malt, nal !, and demanding ssan In
quiry which shall clear the pension
rolls, as far as possible, of names
fraudulently added, and re-establish
public confidence in the fidelity of
the service and in the real merit of
the great body ofpensioners." The
editor Of the Portland Oregonian,
who was in a Vermont regiment, also
declares that he positively knows
that ssince the passage Of the ar
rears Of pension act about every
shirk and utterly worthless veteran
Of his brigade has been successful
applicant for q pension = It is not