The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1896-11-25


But no forestalling. Let the "gen-
erals" take to the woods.
UTTER FOOLISHNESS.
DR.. A. A. Ames polled 1919 votes in
Hennepin county alone. Owen was
defeated In the same county by about
1900 votes. The proba bilities are that
every one of those 1919 votes, given to
Ames was voted by good Populist;
and under ordinary circumstances
they would have voted for the Popu.
list candidate for Congress-; and there
were no doubt enough more, who were
friends of Ames, but did not think
there was any chance of his election,
and who voted for Fletcher, to have
wiped out the majority against Owen
DR.. Ames had been very promi-
prominent citizen of the state; he had
once been a candidate of the Democ-
racy for governor, and made a phe-
nomenal campaign, and come very
near being elected. He had been alb
sent from the state year or two, and
upon his return to Minneapolis, he es-
poused the cause of the Peoples Party,
and gathered round him thousands of
his old friends. II he had been treat
ed properly and wisely. and courteous
ly, there is no doubt he would have
stood with the Peoples Party to the
end. and Mr.. OYep would be today
Congressman-elecs1 from the Fifth
district. But Instead of so doing, a
crowd of youthfulb adventures, men
who had never been heard of in our
politics prior to the recent campaign,
inspired, as we believe. by Owen him.
self, proceeded ITO jump upon and
treat DR.. Amesl la the most unjust
manner. He weht.to St. Louis, as a
delegate to the National Peoples
Farty ConventiOnj and there he was
ignored and pushed aside in the most
discourteous fashion; no notice was
given him Of thec place of meeting
of the delegatidn;, no consideration
was paid him, and no recognition
awarded him; he was an outlaw among
those whom he associated with. He
pursued very modest and unobtru-
sive course at the convention, but he
did good deal of thinking; and the
result was that when the time came
he went upon the war path, and de-
feated not only Mr.. Owen, but even a
much better man,-the Hon. John
Lind.
No man is fit to be the leader of a
popular movement who sees in it only
an opportunity to crush and destroy
those who, he thinks, may stand in his
way. A party is never SO strong that
it can afford to do injustice, and never
so weak that wise counsels may not
give it success. The radical defect of
Mr. Ovens character is that he seems
unable to tolerate any one near. him
who is not an AFFECT slave; he has
for ten years been our enemy without
our ever having given him any provo
cation. Year after year we defended
him, supported him, and did our best
to give him success; and year after
year he was trying to drive his knife
through our heart. A friend told us
the other day that he participate in
a caucus in Mr.. Ovens Office in 1894,
when the whole' object of the caucus
was to devise the best means of crush
ing this paper and its editor. And
this year the publica tion of our paper
was suspended for day or two by the
same influences; and our foreman iu-
forms US that he was approached and
offered money to induce him not to
get out the paper. II the Peoples
Party of Minnesota had had $1,000 ma
jority over all competitors, this would
have been an unjust, foolish and RI
diculous proceeding; but for party
that was largely in the minority, and
fighting the most powerful influences
in the world, to attempt to destroy
part OF its forces, before the hour of
victory had arrived, was simply rank
idiocy. The same treatment which
we had endured patiently for many
years was applied to DR.. Ames; but
the Doctor, it seems. has not our for
bearance, and 50 he announced him.
self as an independent candidate for
governor, and be taught these fools
that something's can be done as we'll
as others. He went from county to
county, holding Urge meetings and
making vigorous, speeches., and he
polled very craddtable vote. and the
probabilities are that for every vote
he received there were ten that SYM
pathized with hftf, but did not vote
for him because they feared they
would be throwing their votes away;
and many Of these in their disgust
voted the Republican ticket.
These poppinjays have been taught
a lesson that men are men, and, If a
man believes as you do, there is no
reason why you should be allowed to
spit in his face and kick him. II we
would build up a successful party, the
narrow heads must be driven into the
crevices. and broad, just and kindly
policy, tolerant Of each others ambi-