The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-12-12
TOM WATSON ON SENATOR
MARION BUTLER.

In the last issue of the Peoples Party
Paper, the personal organ Of Thomas E.
Watson, defeated Populist candidate for
vice-president, Is leading editorial
signed by "T. f. w." in which the writer
speaks very freely and frankly his opin-
ion of Senator Marion Butler. The edi-
toral follows: 1T Is all well enough to
talk about the propriety of the Populist
factions coming together again, and of let
ting by-gones be by-gones. but the spirit
Of distrust, when once aroused, is more
restless than Banquo's ghost, and will
not down. As long as Marion Butler Is
chairman of tine national committee it will
be utterly impossible to get the real Popu.
lists to take any interest in campaign
work. They have tested said Butler, and
they want no more of him. They know
him to be a selfish. unprecedented tricks
ter. and nothing he can now do will ever
cause them to forget what liar and trail
tor he was during the campaign of 1896
To ask these men to come together and to
act with Butler and the Butterflies Is mere
waste of breath. They will never do so.
-:ll:-
"Those of us who love the Populist prin-
ciples and have suffered for them can
never be other than Populists. But it
does not follow that We are willing to
work four more years, as We have worked
III tHS past, " Sdihc a pOItiCdl harvest
which Butler can take to the market and
sell to the highest bidder. Life is too
short for us to enjoy two such expert
ences as that. 1t is no comfort to us 10
know that we have more congressman to
our credit than ever before. They are
mostly fusionists, not Populists. They
are not serving our party with an eye
single to the satisfaction of Populist con-
stituents. No, their constituents are part
ly Democrats and partly Populists and
every fusion congressman is burdened
with the task Of serving two masters. Ac-
cording to holy writ, one of them is going
to get left. Judged from the Butler
standpoint, Populism is a mere article Of
political merchandise. He himself Is not
Populist in principle. He owes his ele-
walton to the fact that he stepped in ani
became the residuary legatee of the heroic
L. l.. Polk. Butler did nothing but keep
himself we'll within the shadow of Colonel
Polk. And when that glorious patriot laid
down his life-an exhausted warrior In the
fight for the liberation of humanity-But-
Ter simply put his foxy feet into the shoes
of the dead leader and plucked the fruit
which Folks labors had ripened.
ill
Butler has no conviction, no fixed prin-
ciples. He is devoid of any sense of honor
Words are to him the mere tools in the
game or deception. He does not mind tell
ing the truth, provided he loses no point
in the game by doing so. Nor does he
mind telling an untruth, even IL it yields
him nothing more than the casual pleas
ure of having deceived. We do not say
this in any spirit of hostility to Mr.. Butler.
We are simply analyzing him from
scientific and disinterested standpoint. He
has for us the interest which a naturalist
takes in a rare bug; nothing more. We
would not turn on the heel to do him an
injury. We harbor no resentful feeling
against him. 1t would be most unjust to
do so. When a constitutional coward
runs away from the battlefield, all gener-
Gus men feel a profound sympathy for
the victim of a natural defect in charac-
ter. God made him that way, and he can
not help it. The coward is no more to
blame for his cowardice than Is the tiger
for its ferocity. In the same spirit of lib
erality and equity we judge Marion But
Ter. Nature made him what he Is, and
he cannot help it, To be foxy, double
faced. false of tongue. and treacherous Of
heart Is natural to him, and when he
betrays those who trust him. and de-
ceives those who are silly enough to take
him at his word. he has no more sinncd
against his nature than does our friend,
the William goat, when 1t fights with
horns rather than with mouth or feet"