The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1891-05-28
A COLD GREETING.
That's What the Leading Demo-
cratic Daily OF the Northwest
Gives the Peoples Party.

Ihe Peoples parry, sC-cttlleu,
was born yesterday at Cincinnati,
and stands like an orphan with its
character its hand, asking popular
support. The platform adopted
is the work of Ignatius Donnelly,
the Minnesota charlatan; and the
fact that no one occupied a more
prominent position in the conven-
ton just adjourned than he shows
better than anything else could
the character of the men who COM
posed it. In IN assembly of sober
and practical citizens, earnestly
bent on securing definite and FEAST
bic reforms, a shallow and wordy
impostor of his STIR pe would have
received but Il curt hearing. His
abilities are of the yeneered pat
tern, which would attract only the
inexperienced, the credulous and
the visionary. He bears on his
face and in every word the marks
of insincerity, folly and selfishness;
and in Il body where sound wisdom
and knowledge had any place
there would have been excited, as
soon rs his voice was heard, in
quiries as to his public and private
record. In such case his promin-
ence would have endured but for
an hour.
Of the fourteen hundred dele
gates who assisted at the parturi-
ton Of this new political organ
ization, over four hundred are the
local followers of the lunatic econ
omist from the Kansas prairies,
William PETER, and the balance
embrace only here and there a
name which has been heard before
or will be again heard in public af-
fairs. They are almost without
exception men who have not made
a success of their own lives, and
who for that reason consider them
selves capable Of directing the life
Of the nation. Personal misfort-
unes, based partly on their own
incompetency and partly on the i'll
chances which may befall even the
worthy, have given their views a
sinister cast, and they have built
up by lonesome and unenlightened
meditation a political philosophy
too vague to be criticised, or even
to be comprehended by them
selves. TO such people a humbug
like Donnelly, mouthing round
sentences and blowing forth mean
ingless platitudcs with a bellows
like persistency, seems a John the
Baptist preparing the way for a
coming deliverance, and they
listen with distended eyeballs to
the wonders of his wisdom.
Men of this sort can never exert
any permanent influence on the
nations thought, because they can
not secure for themselves q hear
ing, even if they have anything
worthy to be said. The strength
of the Democracy and the Repub-
Iican party lies in the character of
their leaders. Their party prin-
ciples may be criticised very hon
estly by people who differ from
them, but they have the virtue of
numbering among their foremost
men vigorous personalities, seri-
Gus, learned, honest and strong.
Such men force on their fellows
respect and attention, and even
their faIlacies and errors are in
dorsed and fought for by enthusi-
astic and trusted followers. But a
party with Donnelly as one of it's
leaders, standing on a platform of
his construction, every plank of
which is of necessity nailed with
ignorance and ornamented with
lies, has no more vitality than a
weed, and will be trampled under
foot as honest men pass over it on
their way to their daily work.
The world has no time for Don
nelly's butfoonery and harlequin
AIDE. Life is short, and the road
is hard enough anyhow. Decent
people cannot afford to give their
strength and DAYS to Watching the