The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-09-19
A NARROW ESCAPE.
SAVED FROM AN ABYSS.
An Attempt to Turn Our Party
Over to the PlutOcrats.

There can be no question that the
vigilance of the REPRESENTATIVE has
saved the Peoples Party of Minnesota
from destruction, total and irrevoca-
Die, by preventing the establish hment
OF a daily paper, as the organ Of the
party, while it was owned and controll-
ed by the Plutocracy.
! At conference of leading Populists
held in Minneapolis last week, some
very surprising facts were revealed.
1t was shown that it would take $40,
900 to start such daily; that the mere
news franchise" would cost $50, 900;
and that it would take IS 900 month
Tor year and a half to maintain it.
one OF the members of the State Cen
tral Committee, tippenny-bit lawyer
named Peterson, of st. Paul, cody
talked about "the St. Paul stock" and
the Chicago stock" owned by wealthy
men, as II he was addressing a gather
ing of bankers. Where, in the name
OF Heaven, could the Peoples Party
OF Minnesota, made up of farmers and
Workingmen, scarcely able, many of
them, to pay % cents each for a week
~ paper for three months; where, we
say, could they get $4,000; or $50, 900
for franchise" or $4,000 more to
keep the paper alive for a year and
half? And the capitalists would not
start it until 10000 persons had sub
scrlbed, because they wanted to get
the ear of the Populists of this state.
And the 10000 would be simply sub
scribers, and would have no more con-
troll OF the paper than they would have
over the orbit of the moon. And
lawyer Peterson, who seems to have
been very active in trying to start the
thing, did not deny that the parties
behind the scene were not Populists;
and that the Chicago stock would be
owned by the Chicago banker and plu-
| tocrat. John r. Walsh. owner of the
| Chicago Herald, one of the worst ene-
mics of organized labor there is in the
world. Mr.. d. V. Debs, president of
the American Railway Union, swore
that reporter Of the Herald came
to him and proposed that if the A. r.
| U. would deposit the funds of the or
der in John r. Walsh's bank, the
Herald would stop fighting the strike
and would support it. Mr. Debs de-
clined this offer. He also made oath,
published in the Chicago Times. that
the reporters of the Herald told him
that when they had made fair and ac-
| n TO crfc nf i,to Ii;
they had held with him, the editors of
the Herald had garbled them and put
words in his mouth he never uttered,
Unreasonable words, that might there
after be used to send him to the pene-
tentiary.
Now, we trust there is no Populist
in this state fool enough or blind
enough not to see through all this
| plotting.
If these capitalists had really re-
pented Of their evil ways and desired
to publish daily paper to help the
Populists, (the supposition is a most
unreasonable one), what was to pre-
vent them from doing as II. 2. Hall
did recently when he established his
bright and newsy daily paper, "The
Morning CALL" in St. Paul? Horace
Greeley said, when there was great
discussion as to the proper method of
resuming specie payments, in 1S79,-
"the best way to resume is to resume"
And SO we would say that, if you have
money enough, the best way to publish
a paper is to publish it. But this is
not what these conspirators wanted.
In that event they would have had no
more control over the minds and con-
sciences of our great party than is
possessed by '"The Morning Call' or
Mr.. Blethen's able little paper, with
populistic leanings, 1.-The Penny Press"
of Minneapolis. They insisted that
they must be the organ of the party:
must be endorsed by the State Cen
trail Committee; that they must get
in near the heart of the party: and
must have the right to speak er cathe-
dra, ''as one having authority" and
they must have 10000 subscribers in
| advance. And Macdonald was the man
who was to introduce this Greek horse
inside our Trojan entertainments,
filled with bankers and plutocrats,
who at the right time were to sally
out and cut our throats. In the mean
time, by publishing weekly, at Is
cents year; and if necessary they
would have made it so cents, or 10
cents year, or given it away, as the
old party papers are given away to
the farmers of the United States to-
day by the hundreds of thousands and
millions of copies, they would have un-
dermined, and destroyed, the REPRE-
SENTATIVE, the Alliance, and the
Peoples Party organ, and driven it
out of existence Then, with the field to
themselves, at the proper time, proba-
bly, week or two before election, the
Peoples Party daily would come out
with an article, setting forth that
there was no chance of carrying the
state: and that the best thing they
could do was to vote for Nelson. to
beat the Democrats; that it was dis
covered that Owen had killed his
grandmother; and that Donnelly was
the devil himself, etc; etc.
Remember how our weekly papers
were bought up two years ago for $3.50
each: Hunt, of the Mcintosh POnnlist