People's party paper. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, 1896-10-09
WATSON SAYS
HE'LL STICK
PopuIist Leader Interviewed as
to His Candidacy by
James Creelman.
NO FAVOR FOR SEWALL
Declares He win Place His Head on a
\ Block Before He Will Surren-
to a "Plutocrat.D
NO FAVOR FOR SEWALL
DEN0UNCES BUTLER'S METHODS
Severe Arrangement Of the Managers Of
His Campaign; Cites Instances-A
Character Sketch.


From the Atlanta Journal.
NEW YORK, Oct. 5.-The world prints
this morning the following interview
with Hon. Thomas E. Watson, the Popu-
list candidate for vice president, signed
by its staff correspondent, James Creel-
man, who is now in Atlanta:
Suffer Death First.
"I'd lay my head on the block before
I'd retire from the race to make way for
a plutocrat, bond holder, national
banker and protectionist like Mr.. Sc
WALL" said Tom Watson as he sprawled
back in big arm chair in his room last
night A wonderful face, face in which
youth and age were strangely compound
ed. a gaunt thin-lipped crackled-skinned
face with high cheek bones, straight nose
and wide receding nostrils wrinkled and
puckered and followed, but electric with
eagerness and almost impish in its fash
like humor.
Mr.. Watson had just come in from the
country where 1900 rip-roaring Georgians
had stormed the platform at the close of
his fiery grafton. His soft felt hat was
tossed on a chair and bunch of gera-
NUNS lay on the table before him, GRIM
son, white and pink, tribute from some
frantic valley dWeller. The Populist can
didate for vice president was eating
grapes. His dull bronze colored hair
glowed In the mild glare of the gas blaze
overhead, the small hazel eyes shone
L.. III l,.AAI
head, and the muscles of his angular
Jaws played visibly on the surface as he
talked.
Mr.. Watson is a slender sinewy man
with bony well-formed hands. He gives
you the impression of being freckled al
though his skin is spotless. When ne
laughs his eyes draw a thousand
wrinkles across his temples. Two deep
lines travel down the hollows of his
cheeks and are met bF sharp little wrin-~
kles reaching out towards the nostri1s.
He looks like the old picture of Henry
Clay. The mystery about his face is due
to the parchment texture of his skin One
moment while he cmiles and he shows his
loosely set small teeth you think he is
youth of 20 and the next, when he tears
up words by their roots, with some of the
soil clinging to them, and draws his
brows down over his sharp eyes, mouth
hard set and little ears standing out
sidewise from his head, he might beAa
sage of 60. His earneStnesS flames up in
his strange old-young face Such is the
leader oracle and shepherd of Populism.
the one man in the youngest party OF the
country who will not bargain or sell in
politics. 1t would have done Mr.. Sewall
good to have seen his dread rival as he
stretched himself out there in the bright
light, an old-fashioned shirt bosom filling
up the space between the edges of his
unbuttoned vest Mr.. Watson's jaw
would have interested him. 1t is the Jaw
of a crusader, the jaw of a martyr.
Sewall's Retirement Bryan's Hope.
'Tf Mr.. Sewall is willing to get off the
ticket L believe that even now there is a
chance to elect Mr.. Bryan" said Mr..
Watson as he picked a grape from the
dewy bunch. "Mr. Bryan and I could at
once make tour together and inside of
10 days we might restore thousands of
votes
"How could Mr.. sewall be got off the
ticket?"
Mr. Watson pulled another grape and
cooked his leg over his knee His eyes
burned in his head.
1T would be easy enough. The Dem
Mr.. Sewall and say to him Mr.. Sewail
Mr.. Sewall and say to him Mr. Sewall
you are the menace to the ticket. I'm
less you withdraw Mr.. Bryan will be de-
feated. You are endangering his chan
ccs.' There will be nothing for Mr. Sew
all to do but to resign. If he wishes to
see Mr.. Bryan elected, he will retire
now"
But suppose Mr.. Sewall should refuse?
The national committee cannot compel
hiIa."
II will remain on the ticket till the last
ballot is cast" exclaimed Mr.. Watson.
when the election is over I will 20 back
to my party and they will know then that
the trust committed into my hands has
not been betrayed. I have been shameA
fully treated Int I am not afraid to do
my duty ! represent a great political
party and was regularly nominated for
the office Of vice president in my party's
national convention. Think of how I
have been used; think of the humiliation
OF having to beg in public for a formal
notification Of my nomination. Think of
the indignity of being asked to abandon
the cause of my party for the sake of a
fellow like SeWall No, l will not retire.
intend to vote for Mr.. Bryan and to do
all in my power to elect him, but [ want
to warn the free silver Democrats of the
country that they cannot hope to secure
enough votes from the Populists to elect
Mr.. Bryan by reviling and deriding their
candidate. l represent men who pray be-
fore they fight, men who have no lust for
Office, men who have sacrificed every
thing for principle and have withstood
ridioule, misrepresentation and ostracism
for conscience sake. You cannot
laugh down a cause for which a mi d VI
eight hundred thousand men nave cast
their votes. These men are beginning TO
realize that their party has been sold out
1t has been fused away. Unless they arc
treated fairly and respectfully by the free
silver Democrats thousands of men will
stay away from the polls in November
Already the Populst papers which are
indorsing fusion In the west are losing
circulation. ana those which are fighting
1t are gaining circulation. Senator But
ler's paper is losing rapidly; so IS seha-
tor Stewards Silver Knight. But the
Populist editors in Georgia, Missouri
Texas, Indiana, Kansas and other states
who are opposing the surrender OF tho
Popullst party to the Democrats, NM
that their circulation is increasing at
very rapid rate. That tells the story
These anti-fusion papers were the incu-
baters of Populism. the cradles In when
It was rocked. These editors are ths