The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1896-08-26
AN ALTERNATE SPEAKS,

MIR L. D. Foster, of st. Cloud, Mimi,
was one Of the alternates elected from
the Sixth district to the St. Louis
convention. The worst thing that
can be said against Mr.. Forster is
that he is poor man; but he makes
up for his poverty by his zeal in be.
half Of Reform. He has travelled cx-
tensively in the interest of the Peo-
pies Party, has sold several thousand
Reform books and made hundreds of
speeches for the cause. The Dobbyn-
Aver faction attacked him, and Mr..
Foster replied in the St. Cloud Jour-
nal-Press (Rep.) to his assailants, and
let the light in upon some Of the de-
tails of the great convention at St.
Louis. W. quote some extracts from
his reply:
Through the kindness of the Jour-
nal Press in allowing me the space in
its columns to reply to the stateme n Is
made In its issue of July 9th, also the
statements made in the Times Of the
same date, under the headlines of
''Too Numerous" and LID. Foster. of
St. Cloud, Gets Into Trouble at St.
Louis" and proceeds to outline the
facts that [ went TO ST. L uis, arriv-
ing there on Monday, the Goth, and
was rampant middle-of- the-road
man from the time OF my arrival.
This certainly is no news as to my DO
litical position, as l never have been
known to be anything else than
middle-of-the-road Peoples Party
man, and l still continue one, and
know Of no reason why / should
change my opinion, and when l am
through with my reply to the state
ments made and the causes for these
tions under which Mr.. Mayhem, of St.
Cloud, Mr.. Dobbyn. of MINNEAPOLIS
and Mr.. Aver Of Minneapolis, under
the guidance of the S N. Owen fac
tion through the papers state that by
means l got hold OF Minnesota
badge and sat with the delegation.
That is true; | was made an alternate
in the Minnesota delegation on the
motion Of Joshua Mayhem, of St. Cloud,
without dissenting vote; and Mr..
DObbyn of Minneapolis, delivered me
the badge that l was entitled to by
the result of said vote: and the Hon.
IgnatiuS DOnnelly, the chairman of
the Minnesota delegation, signed my
tickt t. as chairman, which admitted
me TO a seat. 1t further states that
when it CAM to the vote for perma-
nent chairman I attempted to vote.
This is true; believing had the right
to vote, and believing now that my
vote should have been received for the
following reasons. The committee on
Platform and Rules reported that
they favored the full vote OF each
delegation from each state whether
the delegation was fully represented
or not, and the convention adopted
said report which gave the Minnesota
delegation So votes and II every alter
nate present had been seated as dele
gates the Minnesota delegation would
still have been short Of its full repre-
sentation. Every other state SO far as
could find, and / made special in
Quiry, had seated all their alternates
as regular delegates. But the Mime
sofa delegation, being an Owen crowd,
and knowing that was in favor Of q
straight Peoples Party ticket, and
that l had planned to have the Arkan-
Sas delegation select me or Mr.. Long
OF Minnesota to make their nomina-'
tiOn with the understanding that the
Hon. Ignatius Donnelly was to be the
man named, and feeling that ii Mr..
DOnnelly'S name WIS mentioned it
would be hard to defea this nomination
and it would put the Minnesota dele
cation on record, for all but one dis
trict was instructed for Donneliy and
the citizens of St. Cloud know that
the Sixth district had so instructed,
for Mr.. Brandt introduced the resolu-
tion and 1t passed at the Duluth con-
vention, as well as our county conven-
tion, which by a unanimous vote had
instructed its delegates to work for
him. But in the face of all these in
structtona many OF the Minnesota
delegations as soon as they landed in
St. Louis and found that Mr.. Donnel-
ly's name was the by-word of the mid
dle-of- the-road men, instead of obeying
instructions commenced to circulate
the report that they could not support
Donnelly, and that he was very un-
popular Ia his own state and could not
poll near the vote of his party. I wish
to say however that this was not the
case with the whole delegation. 1
consider that Major Bowler, Judge
COChrane Mr. Long Mr. Cehe rDpr Mr.