Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1896-06-21

dacy to the cooperation convention. ac-
companled by the repeated statement
| that IL 1 did so / would be unanimously
| nominated. This is a well-known fact
| that no truthful man would attempt to
| deny by statement or implication.
This scurrilous censor of political pro-
| priety enters the infallible and absolute
| decree that when the populist organiza-
| ton, under the influence of designing
men, departed from the political princi-
pies that it had professed and combined
with the gold standard republican party
| that I should have quietly retired to
| "congenial political Affiliations" Upon
| what principle of public ethics, political
| taste, civic obligations or common
| sense is this dictate based? Perhaps IL
| might be founded upon tender consid-
Grafton of the exigencies and crisis of
cooperation and the nervous sensible
| tiles of that aspiring, ambitious swell
head, whose time since he announced
| to the expectant, anxious multitude that
| he was a populist seems to have been
| devoted to figuring out the emoluments
| of the tax assessors office. 1T is bet
| ter to have" figured "and lost than never
| to have" figured "at ALL" His figures
| will be quite sporadic" when the people
| firmly and unanimously decline to rec
| ognize any special merit" in the leader of
| the "measly and onery" contingent 1
| firmly believe that pure politics and good
| government would be utterly impossi-
| BILE under the aegis of cooperation, and
| that its success would bring the name of
| populism into contempt and that the last
! condition of our government would be
| worse than the first. The stream of re-
| form in order to be pure must proceed
| from clean springs and not from "measly
| and onery" fountains.
The following from the editorial I'M
| der consideration is redolent of the spirit
of the whole article in the BeSSemerite
| of the 10th instant: "Who cares whether
| Henry Page Burruss, or George Wash
| ington Snifkins or any other individual,
| however great in his own conceit, votes
| the populist ticket or not? 1t is but the
| loss of one vote, which can be neutral
| ICED by the vote of the measliest, orner-
| lest darby in the state"
Thus we have the meaning of Corpora
| ton, its source of support, the basis of
| its hopes, the spirit, purpose and effect of
| it's plans clearly indicated and vividly
| portrayed lby the cooperation candidate
| for tax assessor of Jefferson county. If
| every white voter that is not willing to
| support cooperation and vote for gold
standard McKinleyites can be, as this
man claims, "neutralized" by the vote Of
the "measliest and oneriest negroes"
what kind of supremacy shall we have in
Alabama? On his own lips the profess
sions of reform on the part of this editor
turn to prophecies of the political and
moral degradation of his own party or
tract from the Bessemerite of the 10th
instant:
I'm the present campaign the populists
and republicans agree to support and
vote for one ticket nominated by the pop
ulists, but upon which they have placed
unexceptionable representatives of the
republican party Each party has its
own distinct platform of principles and
its own distinct organization.
''Unexceptionable republicans" are
AL
gold standard platform. The Mckinley
state platform adopted in Montgomery
on the 2Sth of April declaring against sill
yer at 16 to 1 and the Goodwin platform
Of even date declaring for silver at 16 to 1
are certainly distinct platforms of prin-
ciples." Again we clip from the Besse-
merite:
"On two of the leading questions in
American politics the two parties radi-
cally differ, that of finance and Mckinley
protection, but on the one simple ques-
ton of securing honest elections in Ala
bama, free ballot and fair count, the
two parties are now cooperating
What beautiful, blessed, suitable, con-
sistent and congenial union this co-opera-
ton ALLIANCE is! They say some matches
are made in heaven. Where this one was
conceived is interesting material for polit-
ical speculation.
ooh, what a tangled web we weave
When first We practice to deceive
This virtuous advocate of the substitu-
ton of the "measlieSt and oneriest' ne
groes for white men in his party does not
know the complexion or the names of his
associate candidates on the county ticket
for tax collector, county treasurer and
the legislature in the place of Mr.. Snider,
Mr.. McEniry and Mr.. Sloss, who had
more Intelligence" than to exchange their
present position of private condition for
the honor of a hybrid candidacy. The
rump county ticket could not be COM
pleted until after the action of the nation
al republican gold standard convention.
And yet this co-opera ton concern, which
is dictated to and run by gold standard
republicans, is denominated populist.
What a fearful caricature of populism!
Money makes the (co-operation) mare CO.
The love of it is declared the root of all
evil.
"Of all the causes which conspire to blind
Mans erring judgment and misguide the
mind
in these days money seems with strong
est bias to rule" Under it's blghting in
f1uence short views we take, nor see the
lengths behind
Grimmett and Smith are represented
as silver men who believe in the free and
unlimited coinage of silver at 16 to l.
populists to all practical purposes ON the
money question, who yet stand on a state
platform declaring against silver at 16
to 1, and are going to prove their loyalty
to silver by voting for Mckinley on a
gold standard platform.
"As the chameleon who is known
To have no colors of his own,
But borrows from his neighbours hue
His white or black, his green or blue,
He acts and talks as they befriehd him.,
Smeared with the colors which they lend
him;
Thus merely as his fortune chances,
His merit or his vice advances"
l believe some good and true men are
supporting cooperation. but do not be-
lieve that there is any lawful authority
to anathematize those poplsts who dare
to oppose it.
I do not, 1 cannot believe that any
populist of common sense holds that any
other populist is bound to support CO.
operation on the ground that it is a genu-
inc popuIist party. The best that could
be said for it is that 1t Is political hy-
brid of doubtful expediency and suspi-
cious character.
The truth, in my judgment, is that 1t
Is a political corporation constituted for
the more convenient distribution Of
future republican federal patronage and
the more certain and prompt receipt Of
republican campaign revenue When