The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1893-11-03
WATSON'S TRIUMPHS.

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A PoPULIsT CHAMPION WHO WINS
HIS HEARERS HEARTS.
Popular In tho Cities and Towns as Well
~ In tho Agricultural Districts-For
the Negroes Riehts-what = Travelling
Correspondent Saw and Heard.
When reached Augusta, Ga, was
surprised to find that the conductor and
motorman on my electric car were in
such active sympathy with the Peoples
Party as to regard Tom Watson as the
greatest man in their state, if not in the
south. was then on my way to the
little town of Thomson to see Mr.. Wat
son, but it had not occurred to me before
that the city of Augusta could possibly
be in his district. knew of Mr.. Wat
son as the congressman who had left the
Democratic party to join the Peoples
Party, and supposed of course that he
would not have dared to do this unless
he had distinctly farmer constituency.
l found. however, that the city of Au-
gusta was in his district, and that he
had made the fight knowing what odds
he had against him.
These street car men did not saw
whether or not they had voted the third
party ticket, but did say that there were
thousands of men in Augusta who were
ready to vote any ticket if they could
prevent a repetition of the frauds bv
which the Democrats had beaten Tom
Watson. Fraudulent voting. on a large
scale, they said, had been begun at Au-
gusta in the local option election about
year before, and in the congressional
election all the frauds of the liquor
campaign were doubled and quadrupled
to defeat the Populists. Negroes, in
stead of being debarred from voting.
were voted at one polling place after an
other until the city of less that 10000
people had polled a vote of nearly II, 900.
In other words, there were 1000 more
votes counted than could possibly have
been cast by legitimate voters.
What heard of the campaign during
the few hours was in Augusta greatly
increased my interest in meeting Mr..
Watson. When reached Thomson, my
interest was still further increased by
the bitterness with which my hotel pro-
prietor spoke of him. The town, soon
found, had been torn in two by the cam
paign, so that Democrats boycotted Pop
ulists and Populists boycotted Demo-
Gratis. The lapse of eight months had
somewhat allayed the feeling, but had
not removed it. Of the private charac-
ter and ability of Mr.. Watson every one
spoke in the highest terms, but of the
Peoples Party the Democrats generally
spoke with such bitterness as northern
Republicans have rarely shown toward
Prohibition seceders.
When had talked with Mr.. Watson
for little while, I understood how he
had been able to make his marvellous
campaign. His manner of talking was
far from being oratorical, yet as ! talked
with him l found myself thrilled as
have rarely or never been by a political
orator. The Peoples Party movement
is to Mr.. Watson part of his Christian
ity, and this was so unmistakable that
it did not seem to me atall strange when
one Democratic storekeeper afterward
told me that the negroes had kind of
''voodoo worship" for Mr.. Watson, and
| another told me that ''some of the peo-
pie around here look upon Watson as a
second comer.'"
Mr.. Watson, it may be said, conducted
the first campaign in the south in which
the white people had it preached to them
that the negroes should be protected in
their full rights of citizenship. "When,"
he told me, ''the white people hold all
the land and all the culture, and, as we
claim, the superior brains, it is ignominy
for us to cry that there will be negro
domination if the negroes are given the
same chances as ourselves" In the cam
paign the negroes became convinced that
Mr.. Watson was making fight for the
poor, and when he appealed to their bet
ter emotions in its behalf they followed
him with the same answering loyalty
they had once given to the Republican
party.
When the Democrats held their great
bar becue at Sparta, Mr.. Watson was
holding a meeting in an open square,
with no feast whatever for his listeners,
and yet for the three solid hours that he
talked his great audience of negroes
would not stir from their places, though
the couriers from the barbecue kept rid
ing up and shouting that the meats were
being served. It was camp meeting
excitement, and Eyes, Lord" would
come back from ignorant old men who
knew nothing but that their hearts were
touched.
What is more, this emotional enthusi-
asm lasted through the campaign and be-
yond it. Neither threats nor brides could
persuade the negroes of that county to
vote against Mr.. Watson, and when a
fund was afterward raised to enable him
to make contest before congress a
great deal of the money came from sub
scriptions of dimes and half dollars
brought in by the negroes. This work.
ing together of negroes and whites in the
Peoples Party campaign had its effect
upon the Democrats. Before the cam
paign was over negro orators were speak
ing side by side with white orators on
Democratic platforms, and the color line
was effaced in politics. &C. b. s. in Out
look.
Who are the Anarchists? /
A few years ago four men were hung,
one goaded to suicide. and three more
.ivnprieono1 for tho or;,,o ~ 1>,;~,, -,