The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-01-16
THE STATE LEAGUE.
An Enthusiastic and Successful
Meeting.
Officers Elected and Ringing Reso-
buttons Adoptions.


Wednesday last at Century Hall, and sue
ceeded in drafting and adopting a constitu-
ton, electing officers, and discussing gen
orally the methods to be followed by them
in carrying on an educational campaign
from the present time until the election of
1896
Maj j. NJ. Bowler, recently a candidate
for congress from the Third district, acted
as temporary chairman, having been
elected as president of the temporary or
ganization formed for the purpose of call
Ing the convention. The first business was
the appointment of a committee to draft
constitution On that committee were
chosen w. A. Hotchkiss, of Fillmore
county; f. ii. Lambert, of Otter Tail;
David Cochran, Wright; A. \. Brancken-
reed, st. Louis; A. Nj. Morrison Blue
Earth.
This committee was employed in it's work
until time for the calling of the after
noon session. Meantime reports were re-
ceived fro the officers of the temporary
organizations and from delegates who
attended the party conference at
st Louis short time ago. among them
being Prof. W. r. Dobbyn, II. B. Martin
and H. J. 0. Reed, the latter reporting by
letter from FIT. Worth, Tex.
after the report of the committee on Gre
dentials had been adopted, giving seats to
173 delegates representing 81 counties, the
committee on constitution presented it's
port in full, which was acted upon section
by section. The first section made the
name of the permanent organization The
Peoples Party State League This
adopted after some discussion, the under
standing being that the old organization
should merge into the new one, avoiding
conflict in names.
The most important discussion upon the
report of the committee was on the con-
stltuton and powers of the state central
committee. The recommendation of the
committee was finally adopted, making
central committee of 80 members five to
De elected from each congressional district,
the committee to be completed by the add
ton of the four officers Of the state Or
ganization. An amendment was also Of
fered and carried. providing for the selec-
ton OF an executive committee of II, one
to be elected from each district. and these
to act in the executive committee to have
powers delegated to them by the central
committee. The purpose of this provision
was that business of minor Importance
might be promptly transacted without the
necessity of calling together the entire
central committee. Further sections adopt
ed defined the duties Of officers. who are
to be president, vice-president. secretary
and treasurer, specified the conditions of
eligibility for membership in the state or
ganization, and the means of raising rev.
enues for the payment of the secretary and
the expenses of the work of the league.
THE ELECTION AROUSED INTEREST.
Tho IF
the next business in order, and aroused the
greatest interest of any business done
during the day Maj. ]. NJ. Bowler was
looked upon by all as the logical candidate
for the position Of president. He was pres
ident of the temporary organization, and
under his rulings the convention had at
tended more to it's own business and less
to the business of others than PopuHsts
have ever been known to do heretofore
in any of their meetings. No candidate
was nominated against him, and he was
elected unanimously and by acclamation
Mr.. Donnelly taking the chair to put the
vote.
Prof Dobbyn, L. c. Long, Swan Nelson
and Henry Lewis were named for the Of
flee of vice-president. The first two with
drew, and several seconding speeches were
made for each of the others. Mr.. Donnelly
tHOuSnt tIldt WISDOM WOulQ suggest the
recognition of the Scandinavian element
of the party, and recalled that Swan Mel
son, candidate for the lieutenant-gov-
ernOrship, was his running mate in the
campaign of 1892. After the roll of coun-
ties had been called as far down as Todd
motion was made and carried that Mr..
Nelson be elected unanimously Hennepin
and Douglass being the only counties that
had voted against him,
1t was agreed the secretary should be a
Hennepin man, and the Hennepin delegation
stood solidly for c. ST. John Cole against
L. NJ. Ayers. Of whose Populist doctrines
they expressed some doubts. Delegates
from several outside counties were of the
opinion that the Hennepin delegation should
have no more to say than any one else as
to who should be secretary, the reason for
selecting a Hennepin man being merely one
of expediency and convenience of loca ton
Such proved to be the general opinion, and
Mr.. Ayers chosen by a vote of 112 to
49 on the call of the counties. Mr.. Ayers
was also the choice of Mr. Donnelly, whose
word had great weight in the decision Of
any question upon which he expressed an
opinion.
1t was after o'clock before the vote on
the secretaryship was announced, and the
election of a treasurer was deferred until
the evening session. Before taking a re-
cess, however the convention adopted the
following resolutions, presented to them by
r. J. MeiShan:
THE RESOLUTIONS.
Resolved, that the Peoples Party of Min
nesota has nothing TO do with the battle
now raging among the Republicans. in the
legislature over the election of United
States senator and should not be held
responsible for any result that may be
reached, since experience has shown that
such result will probably be brought about
by corruption.
Resolved, that are opposed to the
election Of Mr. Washburn, Knute Nelson,
McCleary any other Republican to the
United States senate, since they all repre-
sent the interests of money power against
the people. and have nothing in common
with the principles of the Peoples party.
Resolved that we call upon the Populists
in the state Legislature to select some good
Peoples Party man their candidate for
United States senator, and continue to vote
for him until the end of the contest. and
we recommend to them the examplelrof
Herman r. Taubeneck in the legislature
of Illinois, when all alone he cast his vote
for the candidate of his party to the end
of the fight.
THE FINAL SESSION.