Omaha daily bee., 1895-12-12
A ruREE-cop,Enrp uS,oy.
Proposed Combination of Popuiists,
| rrohibitIonIsfs n nd sncInIists.

Prohfbftionfsfs and Socialists.
just prior to their national conventions
OF 1892 says the New York Sun, some Of
the active populists and few OF the active
prohibitionists endeavored to bring about a
fusion Of the two parties and to ally them
selves, II they could, with the socialists.
Their idea was that, while the three out
side parties did not, separately, amount to
very much, IL all three were to combine and
call upon voters who were neither democrats
nor republicans to assist them, they would
gain many recruits and might, perhaps, elect
here or there a candidate who In office would
be able to carry into effect some OF the re-
! forms to which these parties are committed.
! The prohbitionists have a fair organization
throughout the country; the popusts are,
or WERE strong in the west and south. and
the socialists have more following than the
! populists in New York and New Jersey.
combination of all three parties on the
common ground Of opposition to republi-
cans and democrats would make the new
organization formidable in membership and
might, some thought secure for its mem
bers public hearing, which is not generally
given now. The populst convention which
met at Omaha in July made this concession
to the temperance men in its platform:
Our sympathies as party of reform
are naturally upon the side of every prop
osition which will tend to make men intel
Iigsnt virtuous and temperate. We ask all
men to help us to determine whether we are
differ as to the conditions upon which IL
ie to be administered" To ct the support
of the socialists the popuists came out for
their pet plan, an eight-hour-a aday law.
The prohbtionists at their convention in
Cincinnati declared that railroad, telegraph
and other public corporations should be
controlled by the government in the interest
of the people," That was concession to
the populists. They also put another plank
into their platform: "Al unearned grants
of land to railroad companies should be
reclaimed" But though what European
diplomatists are accustomed to call a rappro-
element was brought about tentatively
between the prohibitonsts and the nppulists,
the socialists proved stumbling block to
the consolidation of outside parties, for they
are uncond ,tonaly opposed to any proh-
bition notions, are dead against any Sunday
laws, and have therefore, no common ground
CT meeting with the cod-wa;er msn. The
prohihiton!sts and the populsts ran separate
tickets in each of the states, the prohibition
lists polling their largest vote in New York
and their smallest vote in Delaware (where
the peach brandy comes from. The pop
uSts polled Their larges, vote in Kansas
and their smallest vote in Vermont. the
most conservative a American common
wealths. The socialist vote was scattered
over half dozen sta es and nowhere out
side of New York reached even noticeable
percentage of the total vote. Since the
national election Of 1892 some efforts to bring
the outside parties together have been going
on, but the recent election in this STATE con-
tainei at least one discouraging feature for
the advocates of such consolidation The
prohibtionists and the popuists united on
one candidate for the Office of at orney gen
eral. His name was Elias Root, and the
total number of votes cast for him in town.
with two of the outside parties supporting
him, was only 1625-2,300 less than the
number of defective ballots and 5000 less
than the blanks.