Birmingham state herald., 1895-11-13
THE THIRD AND FATAL STEP.

in Greensboro last Saturday for the pur- pose of selecting delegates to attend the meeting which holds forth here today, the Greensboro correspondent of the State Herald had the following to say of the Hon. Thomas K. Jones:
 Hon Thomas K. Jones, who was twice a candidate for state treasurer on the populst ticket, was present. and in a short address severed his connection with the populst party and announced his de- termination in the future to support the nominees of the democratic party. We learn that in the course of his remarks he stated in substance that the popuhte party had run its race; that the issue was now between the white man and the ne gro and that he proposed to stand by the white man. Mir Jones is Intellectually strong young man and has had large and devoted following among the popu- lists of this county"
 The State Herald desires to call the at tention of every man who will attend the meeting here today and every man in Alabama who saw fit to abandon the reg ular organized democratic party in this state and join what was in 1892 named the Jeffersonian democratic party. es- pecially to the action of MT. Jones. be- cause his action is important. He was one of your trusted leaders and his course should have good deal of bearing with those of you who will be called upon after the adjournment of the meeting here to- day to again make choice of parties.
 In 1892 when the split came the party nominating Captain Kolb took the name of Jeffersonian democracy, and under that banner the campaign of 1892 was fought; so also was the contest of 1894 waged under the name of Jeffersonian democracy; but after the contest was over there came about a meeting of the lead CTS of the Jeffersonian party which re- suited in the taking of still another step leading directly away from the we'll beaten paths of. true democracy and straight on towards the republican camp.
 That meeting merged the Jeffersonian democratic party into the populist party. Having gotten thousands of men who were born democrats, rocked in the cradles of democracy and nurtured by the milk from the breasts of true demo- cratic mothers. to fight two campaigns under the name of Jeffersonian democ- racy, the leaders became sufficiently bold to try the plan of pasturing them during the inactive season in the barren fields of populism.
 What do we find the next step to be? It Is to pass on from the populist pastures into the republican camps. That step will be taken here today. After the work of today shall have been concluded there will remain in Alabama only two political parties-the regular democratic and the regular republican parties. Those who have conducted the effort to destroy the democratic party in Alabama have done their work gradually and deliberately and we must say with some degree of generalship. They were entirely too shrewd to attempt to take lifelong dem ocrats into the folds of republlcanism at one step; so step by step they have done their work, going first under the name of Jeffersonian democracy. then under the name of populism and now they come to take the third and last step, landing themselves and those who follow them further in the outstretched arms of R. A. Moseley and his crowd. Thomas K. Jones has seen the point and declines to go fur ther. Thomas K. Jones at heart is no better democrat than thousands of other men in Alabama who went off in the Kolb revolt, but he happens to see and realize a little earlier than many others where the road he has been travelling leads.
 To all those former democrats who went off after Kolb who have made up their minds for good and always that they prefer going to the republican party to returning to the house of their fathers the State Herald has nothing to say fur har thon ho hox in hoc fa and can repent at leisure. We have no harsh criticisms for them This is a free country and every man has the free born right to choose his church and his political associates. To those who have not yet so determined, and we are glad the class whom we address constitute a large majority of the Kolb following, the State Herald would say in all candor and seriousness, stop! Think and take your bearings before taking this third, last and fatal step. You are advocates of the free coinage of gold and silver, free ballot and a fair count None of these can you expect at the hands of the republican party. Naturally. no man dare say that the re- publican party is not the father of gold bugism in this country and locally you all know them. They have been in control in Alabama and one of the acts passed by them looking to fair CD elections made the challenging of voter felony. The fair CD election laws given Alabama by the party you will be expected to pin your faith to after today are absolutely the fountain head of the election frauds Of which you complain now. The populist party as national organization is gone. The proposition of the leaders of the pop ulist party here in Alabama Is to deliver over to the republican party the voters who have only been popullsts in Ala bama since the last election: really. we might say just during the grazing sea- son. If you are democrat and believe in democratic principles return to the dem ocratic party like the Hon. Thomas K.