The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1896-08-13
.0PENENED UP HIS CAMPA|N
THOMAS Il. WATSON ADDRESSES
THREE THOUSAND PEOPLE
AT ATLANTA.
APPEAL FOR A SECTIONAL CONTEST
Arrays the South and West Against the
North and East-Every Populist
Should Vote for Bryan, But Not
for Sewall.


campaign tonight with an address of two
hours delivered before an audience of
| 5000 people
Mr.. Watson appealed at the outset for
Il free and non-partisan hearing, declar
| ing that he spoke with bitterness towards
none, and in behalf of the men who held
the plow, who pulled the hoe, who
welded the hammer. If God gave him
strength, he declared, he would place the
cause of these people through the pens
of the reporters present before siXty-hve
millions of people in the morning.
lie then entered into an enumeration
of the reform demands of the peoples
party, indicating the government for high
crimes and misdemeanors in the granting
of the governmental power of making
money to special class; in the unfair
levy for taxes which laid the heavy
| hand of tribute upon those least able 10
sustain il and in closing the minis to
| the free and unlimited coinage of silver:
leaving the great public highways of the
country in the control of grasping corpo-
rations, who levied tribute upon the peo-
pie, who were compelled to use them,
and III the corruption of the ballot. He
explained at length his course in leaving
the democratic party after having been
|
by the machinery of the democratic
party He said that his opponent mad
run as II straight platform democrat.
while he had made his race on the Al
lance platform and was pledged to stand
by that platform, though the heavens
fall. Furthermore, the national alliance
convention had instructed those con-
gressmen elected on the alliance platform
not to go into the caucuses of either of
the two great political parties Not only
had he felt bound to stand by principles
rather than party, but he had seen then.
as he saw now, that the only chance for
JeitcrsOnan democracy was to unite the
farmers of the south with the farmers of
the west. To do that required n new
party. The southern democrat could net
be induced to go into the republican
party, nor could the western republican
he induced to enter the democratic party
a common rallying point was absolutely
necessary. When congress met in 1892
eleven western congressman stepped out
of the republican party.
"Of the thirty southern congressman
elected on the alliance platform, how
many stepped out of the democratic
party| exclaimed Mr.. Watson "Only
one, and thank God that | can say it /
was that one'
Continuing, he said Looking at the
affair since the Chicago convention the
western populsts said to the democrats:
we are going to help you in this fight, >
and the western democrats say: We
are very glad to get your help
Here in the south the democrats say:
We do not need you fellows. We've got
a little machine that will turn out just
the majority we need They want to
sail i'll our ship, but they want to cxpcl
our crew. They want TO run our train,
but they want to kick out our engineer.
They say they want fusion but il is the
fusion of the earth with the city il en-
CULTS.
AT Chicago the democratic politicians
swallowed our platform and they thought
they had swallowed u.s. For awhile af-
ter the Chicago convention they thought
they had caught the bear. Now, since
the St Louis convention, they are begin
ming to feel sure the bear has caught
them. The present political situation, he
declared. was the first case on record
where half loaf was not found to be
better than no bread.
1--WE can stand by Mr. Bryan. He has
been with MS and has fought for our pol
icies. But when we are asked to swal-
low Mr.. Sewall from the realm of Maine
we beg to be excused. We can not vote
for Mr.. Sewal, because he does not rep
resent our platform. If we do we say we
did not mean what we said in that plat
form. You can not consistently say this
| is fight of the west aud the south and
go off to Maine to get candidate for
vice president. Therefore. seeing that
your democratic leaders had made a mis-
take, we stepped into the breach and did
what they ought 10 have done. nominated
Il southern man for vice president
This is movement of the south and
west. and you must have n southerner
on your national ticket. In the name of
the south we have ,repudiated the error
of the Chicago convention. We have
| said: Lei X be Il young leader from
the west and a young leader from the
south
HAS not the south been in political
bondage long enough! Has not it play
ed second fiddle long enough! 1t has
been dream of mine to do what | could
to reinstate the south to her place in the
royal sisterhood of states. ! appeal to
you as a Georgian, as Il southern man,
to seize this opportunity to make this al
lance with the west to throw off the
domination of the north and east which
has proved ruinouS to the farmer, the
laborcr. the merchant and the entire peo-
pie"
In concluding Mr.. Watson made this
significant statement
1--WE are not going to put up any candi-
uilt USdlnSL W T. are SDluS W
vote for Bryan whether Sewall is with
drawn or not. i am going to manage
this campaign so that William j. Bryan
| gets every vote we've got. | see the
| dread evils of the McKinleyism threaten
ing us, and fear that if we are defeated
| in this fight McKinleyism will be en-
throned forever and the battle for free
dom had just as well be given up. |
shall tell my people to stand by the con-
tract made at st. Louis. Let Bryan have
every vote you can muster. Let Jones
say what he likes; let him insult you if
he will. Make no answer. Pray for
your country. Work for her interests.
Do your duty. Here is what we are GO
ing to do in our state convention: We
are going to put out full electoral tick
ct for Bryan and Watson. We can't
vote for Sewall. Then Wen empower
our committee to take off part of our
electors and put on part of yours when
ever the democratic party retires Mr..
Sewall. The democratic managers may
have made up their minds to put Tom
Watson down and keep him down, but
| thank God the people of the state have
entered into no such contract. Let it be
known henceforth that the south and
west will never again sit at the footstool
of the north"
Mr.. Watson was cheered at frequent