Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-07-24
The Populist Convention Discussing
Order of Business.
LAST STAND TAKEN BY TEE RADICALS
Bryan Men Have Control of the
Situation.
BUILDING THE PLATFORM

| pie think they have everything shaken to-
gether now and that they will adopt a con-
| servative platform and nominate Bryan
| ana Sewal today. Their victory in the
| election Of Senator Allen last night to be
| permanent chairman was decisive, the vote
| was rigid test of the strength of each side
at that time, and the 'middle-of- -the-road"
men were well subdued by the first shock
OF their defeat. They rallied their forces
In some sort of order after the convention
had adjourned, and were ready this MORN
ing for the fight Such a severe test of
strength as that over the election of per-
manent chairman would In any ordinary
convention settle the whole contest beyond
the shadow of a doubt.
There is hardly doubt that this result
is an assurance of the nomination of both
| Bryan and Sewall. But anyone who has
| made study of the composition of this
| convention must make even the most OBJ
| Vlous prediction with some reserve A hum
! ured men might change their position al
any time for some very slight reason. 1t is
not likely under the circumstances that
| there VIII be any change; ii is only a re-
mote possibility on account of the peculiar
| individuality of the delegates The plans of
the Bryan people are skillfully arranged.
and they have the convention well in hand
| ire committee on resolutions has agreed
oh the piatfcrm which the Bryan men
| WANT winch is quite near the Chicago plat
lorm' out In different language and more
Neroose. III Is a hitting together of the
| Omaha platform and the Chicago plstform
with the plain object in view of making il
as acceptable as possible to the democrats
| Ihey think IL can be adopted without
| difficulty
| jerry Simpson and Lafe Pence are racop-
nized by the chair as the floor MANAGERS
| Both are clever manipulators and are fs-
| milar with parliamentary practices so as
TO nave an advantage over their unframed
| adVersar1es They propose to curtail the
| speeches. as far as possible by limiting the
time Tor debate, and to rush the work of
the convention through as rapidly as pos
slble, now that they have it in hand Their
plans are aided by the fact that the dele
gates by their long stay here are rapidly
consuming their limited supply of funds
and are anxious to get home before their
| expense account bankrupts them.
| The managers expect to go on with the
| nominations as soon as the resolutions are
adopted, and to secure a final adjourn
ment some time today or tonight. The
| middle-of-the-road' men are still kicking
vigorously and are loud I'm their threats
Il i
the hope of compromise that will cut
Sewall OF the ticket, but many of them
| are dead In earnest, and there will Droh-
| ably be more or less extensive revolt
| ihe suggestion of their leaders is that they
remain IN the hall after the convention is
| declared adjourned without day and after
| the rest nave gone, nominate a straight
! populist ticket, ienouncing the Bryan men
as boilers. The Bryan people do rot pro-
| pose to yield TO any compromise IL any,
| thing but the straight nomination of Rry-
| an and Sewall is brought about it will be
| through the weakness of some of their fol-
lowers and not with their consent
The thing that made the election of Allen
a direct test was that the issue was drawn
sharply, and it was understood before the
vote was taken that a vote for Allen was
in the interest not of Bryan alone. but
of the whole democratic ticket The feel
| ing on both sides was intense
| The result was triumph of eeneralshin
The men who make up this convention
know nothing about parliamentary prac-
uce. There was not man in the mid
dle-of-the-road' crowd who knew how to
lay out plan of procedure.
On the other hand, Pence and Simpson
had the advantage of their congressional
experience, and all the men who lad had
| any such experience were on this side
Pence managed to get the affirmative Of
propositions when this was to his advan-
tage, and his opponents did not know how
to prevent ii. His points of order were
sustained, while those male against him
failed because they Were not properly
made, and his opponents were thrown into
confusion. On the adoption of the report
of the committee on permanent organiza-
| ton the affirmative belonged to the mid
| dle-of-the-raod' people on their minority
report, but they made wrong motion, and
he seized the opportunity to get the first
| vote on the majority report as a substi-
| tute for the minority
This reversal of order was utterly be-
wildering to the other side With the
election Of Allen the Bryan people got the
management of the convention in their
own hands. With so much uncertainty of
purpose among the delegates less adroit
management would have resulted i'm defeat
of Allen. Substantially the real division
IN this convention is between those on one
hand who are really free silver men" and
those on the other who care nothing
about silver
| Silver Among the PopuIists.
The more the situation is looked into. the
| more apparent il becomes that the silver
sentiment is nothing like as strong in the
lpopulist party as it was thought to be. The
middle-of-the-road men are almost much
opposed to a currency redeemable in silver
| as they are to that redeemabie in gold
The probabilities strong that Mckinley
| will get good share of the populist votes
| In the south. There is pretty strong ten
deEcy toward protection among the south
ern populists, an utter indifference toward
| silver and bitter opposition not only 10
| Bryan's nomination by this convention, but
| also to his election.
0here were some shouts for Mckinley in
| the convention last night, and when Allen
| asked IL the convention wanted the protoc-
| ton there were some cries OF yes" among
! the chorus of noes" The feeling among the
southern delegates against the democrats
is intense. What the middle-of-the-road
men really want I'm the way of a financial
policy is thus expressed: I'VE demand
national paper currency not redeemable in
specie, but based upon the credit and re.
sources Of our nation and a fun legal ten.