The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-09-10

4 dl1 uOL gong 10 De interviewed
now, Mr.. Watson said to the corre-
spOndent. Il am willing to give you
the benefit of my speeches in the cam
paign so far, but you must not expect
me to talk Of what am going to do
while I am in the west or of what
hope or expect to do. The rule in this
campaign is TO let every day take care
of itself.
have said in my public speeches My
mission in the west is not to stir UP
strife among men, but to try to make
peace among all our people. I come to
talk to Democrats as well as POpulists;
to urge harmony among them and Incl
dentaliy to ask for fair play for the
POpulists. If Mr. Bryan is to be elect
ed, the Democrats must realize that it
cannot be done without the aid of the
POpultSt vote. We have gone as far as
we can. We went outside of our party
to give a Democrat the first place on
our ticket. Nobody, not even a Demo-
Ocrat who respects himself, could have
asked any more POpulists must be
honest with themselves. We must prac-
tice what we preach. If we support
Sewau we will not be honest, and if we
support Mckinley, as it is proposed in
Texas by some men, we will be greatly
dishonest If Bryan carries Nebraska
or Kansas or Iowa or Illinois or Min
nesota or any northern state where
there is a large vote of our people, if
he carries the country and becomes
president, it will be by the aid of Tom
Watson POpulists.
Now, I put it to our fair minded
Democrats, if they want our votes
should they not in honor and equity
tote fair with US? They tell US that
this campaign for Bryan is a partner
ship business, but they want to be both
partners. Why, even in that kind of a
partnership where the law says a man
and his wife are one it takes two to
make bargain. And yet the Demo-
Gratis, who can't get along without our
two million votes, say the partnership
n T0 1c-f of
they want to be both partners.
We are willing to fuse, but we are
not willing to be swallowed, and more
than that, we don't intend to be. We
Populists. are asked to take me off the
ticket That would defeat Bryan, and
Democrats who want to get rid of me
are blind not to see it The demand
for me to get off the ticket is based on
political passion and prejudice-nOth-'
ing more. The moment I should get
off the ticket there would be thousands
of protests from honest men, good citi-
ZenS, who would not consent to such
an arrangement I have no i'll will
against any man south or north, east
or west. have no antmOSity on ac-
count of former political associations,
but represent in my nomination for
second place on the st. Louis ticket
the Peoples Party. 1t is far from my
purpose to destroy that party by de-
cIining the nomination for vice presi-
dent. If I come off the ticket, it means
death to the POpuIist party.
IF DemOcrats,if POpulists who would
consent to my withdrawal, are honest
in their demand for silver legislation,
they should not want the Peoples Par
ty to die. Where would the silver
cause have been in 1894 and 1895 if it
had not been for the Peoples Party2
Somebody else must be asked to kill
that party: I will not. I sat by its
cradle; I have fought its battles; I have
supported its principles since its organ
iZatiOn; 1 have taken pride in its
growth; it's sorrows have been my sOr-
rows and don't ask me, after all of my
service with the Peoples Party, to kill
it now. I am going to stand by it till
it dies, and I want no man to say that
I was the man who stabbed it to the
heart. The Peoples Party must never
die. 1t has done too much good to die.
1t was the Peoples Party that made
the Democrats come to take up this
fight for the masses.
we don't ask the Democrats to
throw down their musl1ets, and they
will excuse US if we, decline to obey
their command to give up our guns.
They have fooled US in the past and
they might do It again, should we aban-
don our party organization If the
Peoples Party were dead the old Demo-
cratic leaders might get in again, and
then where would we be? Just where
Moses was when the light went out
mo; Sewau has got to come down.
He brings no votes to Bryan. He drives
votes away from Bryan. would bring
votes to Bryan and bring thousands of
out hurting his party, and 1 have got
to stand on the ticket, where my party
put me. I can't come down. An at
tempt may be made-iS made. indeed
to run me off, but 1 am going to fight
before it is done. I don't want any
Jonah and the whale business with
the Democrats playing the whale. They
might forget to do what the whale did
with Jonah. We might never get out
any more
''Sewan is a national banker. he is
railroad king. He is a. bOndhOlder, and
therefore not in touch with the people.
Bryan himself made a rule which ought
to take Sewau off the ticket when he
said that a candidate running on a
platform should not only indOrse every
plank but every sentence and word of
every plank. Sewan ought to get off
while I should step on That is the
only construction that fairly can be put
on BryanS language. His language
has been so construed in Georgia It
is so construed there by Democrats, too.
Mr.. Butler has told me that Mr..
Bryan will be notified of our nOmina-
tiOn by September Is, and once notified
I have no doubt Mr.. Bryan will accept.
He is not in a position to throw votes
away. 1 see no reason why any man in
this campaign could not at this time
say precisely where he stands and
which way he is going and what he in
tends to do. I say that, as leader of
statement that I will accept the nOni-
nation. but pledge my faith that Bry-
an will make q statement and he Will
accept am not going TO be made
mat for some politician to wipe his feet
on. If anybody thinks I am, he is mis-
taken in the man. I shall be treated as
a man, free born and of good repute.
We are willing to fight this fight with
the Democrats and will go UP and down
with them, but We must be recognized
as equals.
I am southern born; my father was
a Confederate soldier. I was born to
the soil, as the millions who are with US
in this great fight for the rights of the
people We're born. We will fight shoul-
der to shoulder with the Democratic
leaders, but they must respect our par
ty and the people it represents. They,