The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-10-07
WATSON WON'T GET OFF.
WOULD GIVE UP HIS HEAD BE-
FORE HIS CANDIDACY.

main on the Ticket TIL the Last
Ballot is Cast" Then He'll Be on,
of Course.
James Creelman in New York World.
Atlanta, Ga, Oct. Ard lay my head
on the block before I'd retire from the
race to make way for plutocrat, bond
holder a national banker and protection
list like Mr.. Sewall," said Tom Watson,
as no sprawled back in a big arm chair
in his room last night. A wonderful face
face in which youth and age were
strangely compounded, a gaunt thin-lip-
ped cracl<led-skinned face with high cheek
bones straight nose and wide receding
nostrils. wrinl1led and puckered and hol-
lowed, but electric with eagerness and
almost impish in it's fiash-like humor.
Mr.. Watson had just come in from the
country where 1900 rip-roaring Georgians
had stormed the platform at the close of
his fiery grafton. His soft felt hat was
tossed on chair and a bunch of gera-
NUNS lay ON the table before him. Grim
son, white and pink, a tribute from some
frantic valley-dweller. The pqpulist can
ddate for vice president was eating
grapes.
IF Mr.. Sewall is willing to get off the
ticket believe that even now there is a
chance to elect Mr.. Bryan" said Mr.
Watson as he picked a grape from the
dewy bunch 'Mr. Bryan and could at
once make a tour together and inside of
ten days we might restore thousands of
votes"
How could Mr.. sewall be got off the
ticket?'
Mr. Watson pulled another grape and
IL 1T
burned in his head
1T would be easy enough. The dem
ocrats should say to Mr.. Sewal
you are a menace to the ticket. I'm
less you withdraw Mr.. Bryan will be de-
feated. You are endangering his chan
ces.' There will be nothing for Mr.. Sewall
to do but to resign. If he wishes to see
Mr.. Bryan elected, he will retire now"
but suppose Mr.. Sewall should re-
fuse? The national committee cannot
compel him"
81 will remain on the ticket till the last
ballot is cast" exclaimed Mr. Watson
when the election is over l will go back
to my party and they will know then that
the trust committed into my hands has
not been betrayed. 1 have been shame
| fully treated, but l am not afraid to do
my duty. l represent a great political
| party and was regularly nominated for
| the office of Vice President in my party's
have been used; think of the humiliation
of having to beg in public for a formal
| notification of my nomination. Think of
the indignity of being asked to abandon
the cause of my party for the sake of
fellow like Sewall. No, will not retire.
intend to vote for Mr.. Bryan and to do
all in my power to elect him, but 1 want
to warn the free silver democrats of the
country that they cannot hope to secure
enough votes from the populists to elect
Mr.. Bryan by reviling and deriding their
candidate. / represent men who pray be-
fore they fight, men who have no lust for
office men who have sacrificed everything
for principle and have withstood ridicule,
misrepresentation and ostracism for con-
| science sake, you cannot laugh down a
cause for which a million eight hundred
thousand men have cast their votes. These
men are beginning to realize that their
party has been sold out. 1t has been fused
away. Unless they are treated fairly and
| respectfully by the free silver democrats
thousands of men will stay away from the
polls in November. Already the populist
papers which are indorsing fusion in the
west are losing circulation, and those
which are fighting are gaining circulation.
Senator Buffers paper is losing rapidly;
! so is Senator Stewards Silver knight. But
the populist editors in Georgia, Missouri,
Texas, Indiana, Kansas and other states
who are opposing the surrender of the
populist party to the democrats, find that
| their circulation is increasing at a very
rapid rate. That tells the story. These an
| Infusion papers were the incubators of
populism, the cradles in which it was
rocked These editors are the John-the-
Baptists of the movement. They know that
populists will not vote for a mere plutocrat
like Sewall"
''Mr. Watson" said, "an the signs
point to Mr. Bryan's defeat In that event
TO 10 as-fxf
"Why, the democrats will split in two.
On half will go to the sound money dem
ocrats, who will be in the position of the
Charles O'Connor democrats in the Gree
ly campaign. The rest will unite with
the populist party. The populists can
make no surrender of principle, neither
now nor in the future. Unless we stand for
something that is opposed to the ideas of
the two old parties we are malicious med
dlers cantankerous busybodles. There Is
hope for the country In an honest, unpur-
chasable third party. There must be a
sword of Damocles hanging over the heads
Of parties which lie on couches of ease.
jefferson led a third party, Jackson led
q third party and Lincoln led a third par
ty But there is danger that the popu-
list MANAGERS in some of the states will
fuse all their strength away. Look at
what has happened in Alabama. Reuben
Kolb fused the populists with republican
until he has practically killed MS party
there, and now he has Joined the demo-
Gratis himself. And II the populists of
North Carolina, Kansas and Colorado give
themselves up to the democrats they will
kill their party also. The free silver dem
ocratic leaders seem to think that they
have the game in their own hands and
that they can offer any insult to as with
impunity. They are mistaken. 1t was
hard enough for me 10 get my populist
friends to consent even 90 the Bryan and
Watson fusion. But told them that Mr..
Bryan stood substantially for the ideas
/ represented and that they could vote
the ticket with confidence. But It IS hard
to work with the democratic managers 1t
Is hard to labor cordially with people who
are kicking and abusing you all the time.
II is hard to support a partnership when
the partnership is all on one side"
Mr.. Watson clasped his hands over one
knee and rocked himself gently in his
chair. His voice was cold and hard.
"I abandoned law practice of 5000 q
year to enter public life. | was a demo-
GRAFT / gave up a seat in congress 10
work for the peoples party. did not ask
for the nomination. When / was noml-
mated I waq at home and in he'd yef I