The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-09-15

WASHINGTON, Sept. Ex-senator
Marion c. Butler, chairman of the
Populist national committee. TODAY
mailed the following letter of notifica-
ton to Hon. Thomas e. Watson, the
nominee for yice-president:
Washington, D. c., Sept. IA, 1896.
Hon. Thomas E. Watson, Thompson,
Ga
Dear Sir:-Such is our form of gov
eminent that the citizens of the United
| States must shape its course for good
or evil through the agency of political
parties; when there is no political party
that represents the principles of good
government, no party that stands for
right and the interest of the laborer,
wealth-producer and all who strive to
make an honest living by fair and
legitimate means, then it is impossible
for the majority Of the voters to ex-
press their will at the ballot box.
When all the political parties stand
for the
SELFISH INTEREST AND PER
SONAL GREED
Of money-changers, corporations,
trusts. monopohes. as does the Repub-
lican party under the leadership of
John Sherman, and the Democratic
party under the leadership of Grover
Cleveland, then the producing masses
are victims without an alternative. To
withhold their votes will furnish them
no relief, while to cast their votes for
either party is to sanction their own
spollation and to strengthen the power
that Expresses them.
This was the political situation in
1892, when stern necessity forced
organized labor, the organized wealth
producers, and others who believe in
good government and We're engaged in
legitimate business interests to meet
and form new political organization
known as the Peoples party. This new
political party, representing the
PRINCIPLES OF TRUE REPUBLI-
CANISM
as taught by Abraham Lincoln, and
of the true Democracy as taught by
Jefferson and Jackson, as if springing,
full grown, from the loinS of the peo-
pie, cast over one million votes, win
ming in five states within four months
from the date of its birth.
'fEhe Democratic and Republican
parties no longer represented the prin-
cipleS upon which they were found ID
They had long since deserted the prin-
cjpies for which our ancestors left the
old world, and which were made cur
inheritance through the blood and
sacrifices of our fathers IN the revolrl-
tionary war and had embraced thu
oiious and oppressive methods SO long
praoticed under the monarchies and
despCtisms of the old world. TIE
eremie3 of good government, the e1e-
mics of the peoples prosperity and he
enemies of struggling humanity
haa dominated and controlled both Of
these parties for twenty years. Both
Of these parties had long since ceased
10 regard the interest Of the masses,
and became the agel-s through which
COZ porations and trusts exploit the PEG
pie: both of these D3t-.eS
HAVE BETRAYED THE PEOPLE
and have legislated in the interest OF
the bs mixers, SPECTATORS, bnnd-holders
aEi monopolies, thus enaoliag lie
favored few to absorb the millions of
plt erty earned and created by The
tCll1ng masses. They have peen the
age ncies for robbing the nil ions to
max the few millio ~, 6, and, worse
th4l this, they have placed the wei
fare and happiness of the whole ma
ton in the hands and subject TO the
cuptederated money power Of the
w. lG. The candidates O.. both of these
parties for the past twenty years have
been pledged to the gold andard, and
nave used the powe" IF the S3vern-
ment on the side of the gold. No matter
which party the people voted for, their
Totes were cast for their enemies and
IN
which party went into power,
TIMES GREW HARDER
and the wealth of the many concen-
trated into the hands of the few.
Another party, an American party,
was wanted. There was need for such
a. party to keep alive the American
the principles of the Declaration Of In
dependence, to advocate the rights of
American labor and American man
hood, to restore prosperity to a suffer-
ing people, and to rescue a great and
rich nation from the quicksands of
bankruptcy and ruin. Thus the Peo-
pies party stands for the great prin-
ciples of a republican form of govern
ment as represented by the forefathers,
and came into existence to restore the
government to the people.
''The Peoples party was the first po-
litical organization in twenty-three
years that made an honest demand for
the free and unrestricted coinage of
silver. Until the present year, both old
parties put into their platforms a de-
mand for the restoration of silver, but
coupled with it qualifying and ambigu-
Gus phrases that negatived the demand,
and then rallied the voters of the
WEST AND SOUTH FOR SILVER
and the north and east for the gold
standard on the same platform. The
Peoples party was the first political
organization that declared against the
surrender of the governmental func-
lions of issuing paper money to ma
tional, state or private banks. The
Peoples party was the first political or
ganization to make definite and spe-
cific what it meant by opposition to
instead of INDUCING in gilt
tering generalities. The Peoples party
was the first political party to noni- |
nate candidates for president and vice
president that were not goldbugs, and
did not receive goldbug support. 1t is |
the only party now in existence which, |
with an undivided membership and a |
solid front, is demanding legislation for
the suppression of monopolies, and for |
the equal protection of all citizens
against the encroachment of individual |
and corporate power. So successfully |
has it exposed the short comings of i
the two old parties, so vigorously ar !
raigned them for the betrayal of the I