Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-10-09

| cations shall be furnished by the lecturer
| to the party charged. The chairman OF the
| board shall notify the parties at variance,
| in writing, of the time and place at which
| they will take, in writing, all testimony OF
| persons not members of the Alliance. and
| report the same at next meeting of the
board. and upon the report and such other
| testimony as may be procured in the AllI
ance, the board shall proceed at once in the
trial and inflict such punishment on either
or both of the parties, as the board may de-
termine''
See same article, Sec 4: ssAll trials of the
officers or members of the Farmers ALI
ance shall be tried by the Farmers
Alliance; all trials of the officers or men,
bers of the county Alliance shall be by the
board of the county Alliance; all trials of
the officers or members of the state ALI
ance snail be by the judiciary committee of
the State.''
Bro Taylor, you stated that under reso-
luton passed by the state Alliance l was
not member in good standing. 1 then
requested you to state on what grounds,
when you replied under the resolution and
that was sufficient without going into
details. I will now quote the resolution in
full and then notice its application and
compliance with the two sections of the
constitution above quoted. The resolution
reads:
members have organized themselves into 4
foul conspiracy to fatally stab, if within
their power, the Farmers Alliance of the
state of Texas. First, by issuing a circu-
lar known as the Austin manifesto, and
secondly, by establishing paper known as
the Farmers World, at Dallas, and whereas,
the issuing OF said circular and the pub
fishing of said newspaper We're clearly in
tended to do fragrant violence to the pros
perity of Their order in the most far-reaching
manner; therefore be it resolved, that all
persons whose names appear as signed to
said manifesto, to-wit: And that all So
called Alliance men who are now managing
the publication of the Farmers World in
opposition to the Farmers Alliance of the
stateof Texas be, and the same are declared,
no longer members in good standing of the
order, and all Sub-AllianceS of the state, by
the adoption of this resolutin, are SO mott
fed, and charges preferred
Now, Brother Taylor, did you vote for the
adoption of the foregoing resolution! If So.
which presume You did, you certainly did
not understand the constitution of our
order.
Was l a member OF the state Alliance
If so, any member of that body ,ould have
under the constitution. preferred charges
against me, and the president of said body
order trial by the Judiciary committee OF
the state Alliance, when the chairman Gf
parties and deliver to them g copy of the
charges at least ten days previous to the
day appointed for trial.
Now if | We're not a member of that body,
as body had no right TO prefer charges
against me or any other member of the or
der. and challenge you to show any section
or clause within the constitution of our
order that confers on the state Alliance any
such right or authority. Admitting for the
sake of argument that the state Alliance
had such authority, and could, by the adop-
tion of resolution, prefer charges against
ME (Which deny, am l not presumed to be
innocent and entitled to all the rights and
privileges of our order until my guilt is es-
tablished beyond reasonable doubtl
Whoever heard of a man being hung
without trial before an impartial jury, ex-
cept by mob law violence.
Now, Brother Taylor would you mind to
tell the membership of our order and the
good people of our county, through the
press, what member, if any at all, ever pre-
ferred charges against me and Just at what
time any subordinate lodge tried me on the
aforesaid, to be named charges, found mes
guilty by their verdict and said was not a
member in good standing. Yours awaiting
an answer, r. c. BRAGG.