The Iola register., 1891-01-09
THE THIRD PARTY MOVEMENT.
Hutchinson News.

| BEFORE lne AllidHCc lHch VI the
Northwest rush into third party Or
ganization they should satisfy them
selves that the Southern Alliance men
tote fair. 1t ought to be plain to the
Alliance members of the North that
they cannot hope to accomplish any
thing in the way of electing a Nation
al ticket without the aid of the South.
If the Alliance OF the North switches
off into third party and the Southern
wing still maintains its allegiance to
the Democratic party, the most prob
able result would be the election of a
Democratic President, and if that is
the desire of the Alliance of the North
it can be done more expeditiously by
affiliating with the Democratic party
direct. The end could thus be reach
ed without sailing under false colors,
thing that the Alliance surely de-
plores.
In an interview published in the
New York Sun, one of the Southern
delegates to the Ocala convention de-
fined the position of the Southern
members, and mapped out the pro-
gram likely to be followed out. First
they want an excuse for affiliating
with Democracy and this is expected
to be accomplished by limiting to DEM
ocracy the kind ofplatform that would
be acceptable. Note what the gentle
man predicted in regard to the Ocala
platform, before it had been presented
to the convention:
You may rest assured of this, the
financial platform which the Alliance
will adopt tomorrow will be liberal
enough for every Democrat in the
country to stand upon. We have been
working night and day to bring the
farmers to their senses, and we are
now assured of success.
The accuracy with which that
prophecy was fulfilled indicates a gen.
eral understanding of what was going
to be done. The Ocala convention
modified the st. Louis platform so as
to make it acceptable to the Democrats
and as Democrat is willing to stand
upon most anything, it will be an easy
matter to adopt a platform acceptable
alike to Democrats and Southern AL
lance men.
A little more of the program is un-
folded in a further interview as fol-
lows:
"If our Republican Alliance BROTH
ers in the Northwest want to form a
third party at Cincinnati, we have no
objections. We shall be glad to zee
them do it, but it will not be support
ed by the white Alliance men of the
South.
But that is not all. These Southern
fellows do not propose to stop there.
They intend to encourage the "Repub-
lican Alliance brothers" in a third
party movement. They intend to
make dupes of them if they can, and
this is how they expect to do it:
We shall 60 to CinciDatti to see
what happens there, but we shall not
send delegates from the Southern
State Alliance. That would be carry
ing it too far. If we should do that
we might start a whirlwind that we
couldn't ride. If the Northwest organ
ICES third party in February, the Re-
publican party will never be able to
reclaim the deserters. 1t is ALWAYS
the history of such movements that a
party has no enemies so bitter as those
who have just left its ranks. Take
Gen. Rice's speech in denunciation of
the Republican party before this con-
veution the other day. 1 never heard
so fierce. If we succeed by
a third party movement in smashing
the Republican party in a few of its
strongholds, there can be no doubt
about the election of a Democratic
President in 1892. Perhaps he would
be elected by the House of Represen-
tatives, but even in that case there
would be no possibility of Republican
success.
A very nice scheme if it can be
worked. But we mistake the intelli-
gence of the "Republican Alliance
brothers" if they fall into any such
trap. OF course the Alliance men of
the North can and will do as they
please in the matter of forming a new
party. They are independent to act
as suits them best, but that independ-
ence will cause them to protest against
being led into any such pitfall as that
dug by the Southern Alliance men,
aided by a few Democratic sympa-
thizers in the North.