The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-07-14
SAYS INDORSE BRYAN.
J. Fl. Turner, Secretary of Popu1ist
Committee, Declares It's the Only
Course

Washington, July 14,-J. H. Turner,
who for the last four years has been
secretary of the national committee of
the Peoples Party, in a signed state
ment urges Populists to support Bry-
an for president. He writes:
'',The result of the late national
Democratic convention is undoubtedly
the triumph of PopuIism- A large por-
ton of the voters in the Poplist party
in the south and west were originally
Democrats. and left the old party be-
cause it was dominated in every ma
tiona1 convention by the eastern Dem
ocrats who represented Wall street and
the monopolists of New York and New
England.
1T became quite evident to every
thinking man that as New York was al
lowed to make the platform and name
the candidate of the Democratic party
that the great plain people would have
no show and that their rights and
ieving this the thinking men among the
rank and file determined to Quit the
old party and organize a new party.
THE Democratic NArty at Chicago
simply purged itself, @seOrganized itself
and came out for true Democracy, and
to all intents and purposes substituted
the Peoples Party platform for the
old platform that the party has been
using for years and which was die
tated and fOiSted upon the people by
the gold bugs of the east. Mr.. Bryan
the nominee of the convention, is a
man who fits the platform I have
personally watched his course for r.
number of years and know that his eV-
cry impulse has been against the Op-
pressors of the people and in behalf of
the great masses.
For more than two years he has
acted with the Populists of his own
state. 1t cannot be successfully de-
MED that the principles advocated by
the POpulist party have captured the
Democratic party and have driven out
of its ranks that element which has al
ways been opposed to true Democracy
and which from the beginning has
been AFFILIATED with the Republican
party at it's natural home. All POpulists
in these United States should rejoice
that their principles have taken such
a hold upon the American people that
one of the great political parties has
been compelled to adopt those princi-
pies and nominate q ticket pledged to
carry them into execution.
If the POpulists think more of their
principles than they do of mere party
organization, they will be compelled
to unite with forces going in the same
direction and thereby rescue our coun-
try from all the dire calamities which
we have predicted would befau it,
should the gold standard be perna-
nently fastened upon US.
''As secretary of the national COM
mittee OF the Peoples Party for the
son and out of season for the upbuild-
ing of our party. I love the associa-
tiOns which [ have formed in its ranks,
but while these are dear to me. the
principles of the Peoples Party are
much dearer. I fdel that I would be
one of the worst enemies of the Peo-
pies Party and of its principles should
I not take the step at this time that I
believe will culminate in the complete
triumph of every demand made by the
party.
I'VE have advocated a. union of the
south and west in order that we might
bring about the necessary financial re
forms. Now we have a chance of
bringing all our hopes and desires to
a grand cOnsummatiOn.
The truth of it is that the only point
the POpulists now have to decide is
whether or not they will take NIr.
Bryan, whom every gold bug in the
country has denounced as a Populist,
for our next president of the United
States, or whether they will take Mr..
Mckinley, who represents everything
that the POpuIists have denounced and
just the opposite of everything they
have advocated since they have been
a. party