The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-10-28
Chairman washburne's Complaint.

]
Having placed the responsibility for the
/ failure of fusion Of the democrats and
populists in states in which fusion has
! not been effected upon other shoulders,
| Mr. Washburne, the western chairman of
the populist national committee. now
| feels a liberty doubtless to take a rest.
! According to his talk as reported in our
! Chicago dispatch yesterday he thinks the
the state democratic executive commit
tees of Georgia and Tennessee took a
fearful responsibility when they refused
to accept the populist fusion ultimatum
in their respective states. 1t seems from
from what he says that had fusion been
effected in these two states it could have
been accomplished in other states where
populists votes are thought to be nee
essary to Mr.. Bryans success, notably
in Kansas, Florida and North Da-
kota. He assumes that the Geor-
gia and Tennessee committees had
the power to take down democratic cleo
tors and put up populist in their places,
and to pledge the electors to vote for
Mr.. Watson for Vice Presidente. AS a
matter of fact, however, they had no au-
thority to do anything of the sort, not
having been clothed with it by their re-
spective state conventions oven if they
mad taken the authority to adopt the
fusion scheme it would have been founc
to be a difficult matter to induce Georgia
and Tennessee democrats to vote the
fusion ticket.
The dam oCra tic axon,4+i,,a <o,,,r, - ooe ~
Georgia and Tennessee understood the
democratic voters in their respec-
tive states too well to at
tempt to make them vote
ticket pledged TO support Mr.. Watson
for Vice President. While such a ticket
would have been satisfactory to the pop
ulists it would not have been acceptable
to the democrats, and the democrats
would have shown their dissatisfaction
by refusing to vote However, Mr. Wash
burne was not so much concerned about
the attitude democratic voters might as
sumo if fusion were forced upon them as
he was for the success of his pet idea
namely fusion Of democrats and populists
in all the states.
However, fusion scheming is now a thing
of the past. 1t is too late to attempt to
bring about fusion in the states in which
it does not exist. We are inclined to
think the democratic party would be bet
ter off from any point of view if it had
not sought an alliance with the populists.
The alliance suggests to many democrats
that democracy surrendered some of its
most vital principles in order to join
hands with the populists, and therefore
they have lost the interest and pride they
once had in their party. There are many
of them who will not vote the fusion
ticket.
The democrats have fused with the pop
ulists in twenty-nine states. Hence they
have straight tickets in only fifteen
states. The republicans have a straight
electoral ticket in forty-four states. In
Texas they have fused with the popu-
lists and gold standard democrats.
The failure of fusion in Kansas and
North Dakota may give those states
to Mckinley. The chances are, how
ever, that it will not, because the
populists, pretty generally, will vote
for Bryan. In Georgia and Tennessee
the democrats don't want help from any
body. They can take care of themselves.