The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1896-02-07
AS OTHERS SEE IT.

H..
Ghat the Leading St Louis Papers Think
Of tho Action Of the National Commit.
tee
Under the caption, "Populist Dreams, :"
the ST. Louis Republic published the
following editorial:
Not the least interesting of the
many diverting populist characteristics
is the profound conviction of all the
chieftains that they are at all times on
the eve Of turning temporal affairs
topsy-turvy.
whenever three or four are gathered
together in the name of reform, politi-
cal parties at once begin to totter and
all the evil things of earth to seek a
hiding place.
''At such time it is a relief to be
permitted to see a populist leader. He
is SO thoroughly self-satisfied, conf
dent of the future, SO boundless and so
gorgeous that we are at once lifted
from the commonplace and permitted
for the while to dwell in the Utopia of
which we have before only dreamed.
This populist dissatisfaction has
never been SO overwhelming and in
spring as at this very moment. When
the leaders get together, as they have
just done in St Louis, and feed on
thoughts the old parties seem small,
incompetent and weak. We are amazed
that we ever tore our shirts and de-
pleted our pocketbooks to elect our
candidates.
1.-The populist leaders have decided
that the voters in their own party
ho ~
pose to ignore the men who have
clothed them with little brief au-
authority and turn all the machinery
over to Sibley and Stewart
They expect to suppress all the adj
vocates of the sub-treasury, govern
mental control of railroads, equal suf-
frage and the referendum, create a sill
yer party, sweep the country and kill
democracy.
ut looks SO easy to control the
masses that the Taubenecks and the
Holcombs already consider it as ac-
complished. The situation seems clear
to the manipulators. and they will not
learn better until the news reaches the
country. Then the misguided people
whom they have taught that all sue
cessful men are robbers and that the
Omaha platform is divine in its inspira-
ton will accuse them of selling out to
the silver millionaires. Without it's
isms, there is nothing left of the peo-
pies party. Coxey is better expo
nent of populist beliefs than Sibley,
and will arouse more enthusiasm and
poll more votes.
'We shall hear much in the next few
days of the probable absorption of the
populists by the Sibleyites, but when
the convention meets the delegates
from the backwoods will simply tack
on a few additional planks to the Oma-
ha platform, declaring for government
control of the liquor business and the
right of women to vote, and nominate
Allen or PETER for the presidency"
Commenting upon the action of the
national committee and its true con-
struction, as bearing upon the future
of the peoples party, the Globe-Demo-
crat said:
THE old populist party seems to
have been disbanded This is rather
startling statement to make, yet it is
a natural deduction from the resolu-
tions passed by the national populist
committee, which met again at the
Lindell hotel yesterday. This is the
only conclusion to which any reason
able man can come. Let the interview
with Hon. Thomas M. Patterson, of
Denver, COL, and the expressions of
opinion by others of equal prominence
be read, and the reasonableness of the
conclusion is considerably strength
ened. It is not to be understood, of
course, that the name will disappear.
The name will remain, but the princi-
Piles hitherto advocated by the party
will be dropped. For the future the
efforts of the party will be conc entrat-
ed on one issue-free silver. The gov
eminent ownership of railroads. the
government ownership of telegraph,
free trade-these are all to be exclud-
ed, if possible, from the platform which
the populist party will adopt if the ell
ement now dominant holds control.
The shadow is to remain, the substance
Is to vanish.
''Thus the meeting of the committee
which has come together for the NOM
inal purpose of selecting the time and
place of the populist convention, and
which up to this time has consumed
two days in the task, has really been
the most important of any which has
taken place since the organization of
the party. AS it formed itself by swal-
lowing up the elements of various
other so-called reform organizations,
SO now it is to be swallowed up bv the
free silver organization. The point is
a nice one, but it does not alter the
fact that the old popuIist theories are
to be relegated to the past. The plans
which the committee matured have re-
ally been the subject of months of cor
respondence among the silver leaders
Mr.. Thomas Patterson was one of the
leaders. He really manipulated the
work of the committee. He is not, it
will be remembered a member of the
committee. He appeared by proxy.
Yet he framed every resolution rh at
was passed or supervised and inspired
the framing of it. Mr.. Patterson no
more be lieves in the practicability of
some of the populist theories than any
other man gifted with ordinary sense
does. His presence by proxy and his
work as engineer of the scheme in
which the meeting has resulted caused
considerable feeling among some few
members"
Recover the Booty.
Some California man with taste for
statistics has made public the interest
ing estimate that the land grants held
by the Southern Pacific railroad would