The Roanoke daily times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1895-1897, 1896-10-14

chicago, Oct lo.-A meeting of the eX-
ecutive committee of the Peoples party
was held at the Sherman House to-day
| All members were present with the eXceD
ton of John S. Dorr of California. Afte,
hearing reports from members present
and especially from III. w Reed, of Geor.
gia, who spent several days with Thomas
II. Watson, the committee decided to is
sue the following manifesto:
| 10 the Peoples party voters of the Uni
| ted States:
"1our national committee INDUCED the
| hope that the patriotic action of the PEG
| pies party in national convention in sub
| originating interests Of party to the sue
| cess of the vital issues involved in this
campaign would be met by equally un-
selfish devotion to n common Interest in
the present Democratic party and that
MI the friends of silver could present Il
solid front against the minions of greed
by supporting one ticket, the truly CO.
operative ticket, Bryan and Watson. But
this hope being disappointed there were
but two courses left, one of which must
be adopted
"f'irst-to run straight Bryan and
Watson electoral ticket in every State,
which, on account of the failure of the
Democratic party to support this ticket,
would have affected the same result i'm
S'itS S''ihl't'E tIttJ MOtlltl nave IOllOWpU
the nomination of a straight Populist
ticket at st. Louis, namely the election
of Mckinley and the triumph CT the gold
standard
1T is true that the Democratic party
would be responsible to II greater extent
than ourselves for such Il result. but to
permit evil To triumph on such grounds
would convict us, rs we'll as them, of
lack of patriotism and narrow PARTISAN
ship that would deserve the forfeit to us
of the confidence of the American people.
Remember that two wrongs',never make n
right.
when our devotion to the welfare of
the people falters because Of the failure
on the part of the Democratic or any
other party then, indeed, will we have
lowered our standard ard proven our
selves false to our own (Seachings and re-
pudiated our own motto Of country first
and men and parties second
The other course left open to your
committee that Was consistent with the
action OF the convention in nominating
MI. Bryan was to do every thing in its
power to unite the voters of the country
against Mckinley and to Overcome the
obstacles AMI embarrassments which. if
the Democr3ic party had put the cause
first and patty second we would not have
encountered. This could be accomplished
only by arranging for division of the
slectoral. vote in every State possible, Sc,
curing so many electors for Bryan and
Watson and conceding so many to BRYAN
and Sewa.. AT the opening of the cam
paign this, under the circumstances,
seemed the wisest course for your COM
and it is clearer to- day than ever
that 1T was the only safe and wise course
if our votes were to be cast and made
effective for the relief of an oppressed
and outraged people.
Following this line of policy your
has arranged electoral tickets
in tlrce-fourths of the States and will do
all i'll its power to make the same arrange
ment in all of the States. BY peIfecting
this arrangement and every sincere oDpo-
nent of the gold standard giving loyal sup
port to those joint electoral tickets, the
Peoples party will not only secure in the
electoral college for Bryan and Watson
several times rs many votes as we could
have possibly secured by making n
fight, but we will secure the de-
feat of Mckinley and the gold standard,
which should now he the greatest desire
Of every citizen who believes in the prin.
ciples OF true Democracy as taught by
j Jefferson and of true Republicanism as
by Abraham Lincoln.
'By this arrangement we can unite Il
large majority of the voters of America on
our joint electoral tickets; therefore the
only hope OF the money power and trusts
is to divide and conquer us. The Repub-
lican managers and their gold Democratic
allies realize this, and are putting forth
every effort to accomplish this end They
have had their emissaries on hand every
where, trying to prevent joint electoral
tickets from being arranged; failing i'll
this they try to find Populists and silver
Democrats who can be induced OH one
preteXt or another to rebel against the
joint electoral tickets. They also have
secured or will secure the services of every
man that money can command to breed
ann divisions The danger
lies i'll the possibility of certain portion
of the rank and file of the Peoples party
being misled by so called leaders who for
reasons best known to themselves or for
want of reason are advising voters to re-
bel against the joint electoral tickets and
put up separate electoral tickets or to
their support from the joint
electoral tickets
"Somc of the Democrats of the rcve-
nue. stripe, who are not yet wcancd from
the flesh pots of Egypt, but are sticklcrs
FOR regularity and are nominally support
ing Mr.. Bryan while secretly and in every
way are trying to accom-
plish his defeat, are advising against the
joint electoral tickets, and failing in this
they advise Democrats to scratch thePeo- |
pies party electors and already a few So |
called Populist leaders are advising the |
rank and file OF our party to strike back |
by refusing to support the Democratic !
electors on the joint electoral tickets |
This is II tap set by the gold bugs, who |
are rejoicing that few honest men have |
fallen into it, These rcnorts to-day are !