The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1896-04-29
MOVING FORWARD.
GREAT EFFORT TO SOLIDIFY
MEN IN ONE STRONG
PARTY.
Interview With Chairman Taube-
neck.-SenatOr Tillman and
the Silver Party.

New York, April 25.-A staff correspond
ent Of the Mail and Express teegraphs that
paper as follows from st. Louis:
A strong current of populism and demo-
cratic free silverism has been running
through this city for forty-e.ght hours, Ow-
ing to the phesence Of Senator Tillman,
Chairman Taubeneck, of the Populist ma
tional committee, and Reuben F. Kolb, who
twice carried Alabama for governor,
but failed to be seated N Office. All three
are full of enthusiasm for the cause, but
their views indicate that they realize what
a chaotic mass of opinion they have to deal
with Kolb and Taubeneck were in confer
ence all yesterday, the latter being now en-
route to Chicago after making tour of the
far West He said to me today that the
POpulists will nominate national ticket Of
their own, no matter what the Democrats
do at Chicago. ''The gold bugs Will contest
both of the old parties" said he, land the
only thing for the masses to do is to come
to US. We will make no bargains, however.
II the free coinage Democrats bolt at Chi
cago they are welcome to join our ranks,
but they cannot nominate our ticket"
Suppose free silver Democrat should
be named, would the Populists help him?"
/ asked.
mo, we have done with both parties"
replied the Popul.st national chairman
1--WE are here to stay as a party ourselves
and will fight it out on these lines. There
is absolutely no use of talking fusion to US;
We do not want any Of It,"
l asked Mr.. Kolb, of Alabama, the same
question as to the possibility Of fusion be-
tween free coinage Democrats and the Pop
ulists.
1T cannot be-" he said. "No 16 to man
has any right in the Democratic party. He
ought to join the Populists. That is the
only place for him. That is what we have
done in Alabama, and the result is that all
the gold bugs there are in the Old parties.
l believe we will elect Populist governor
and senator in my state th.s fall and carry
1t for the Populist presidential ticket. The
national situation is going to be complex
one and there are many surprises in store
for the old politicians. l believe that if we
declare firmly for free coinage and for pro-
lection to American industries we will be in
an invincible position. The conventions Of
both of the old parties will make about the
same utterances on the money question;
neither can afford to straddle. The time
for that is gone by. l expect to see both
conventions declare for gold, and then those
who are bimetallists can come into our
ranks. We will have our own candidate
though"
Senator Tillman, on the other hand, looks
forward to union, Democrats with POpu-
lists, should the gold men dictate the Chi
cago platform or name the nominee. The
first efforts of the silver Democrats, accord
ing to Tillman, will be to break the rule
compelling a two-thirds vote for nominal
ton. The free silverites want majority
to nominate instead. They are going to
fight for that first, then for the platform
and the candidates. Failing to successful
ly contest these said Tillman today, the
free coinage Democrats will bolt. believe,
though, that the gold bugs will be the bolt
ers. We have canvaSsed every state and
feel confident that we Will have majority
of the convention. A free silver Democrat
can carry Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and
Missouri, if opposed by gold bug Repub-
lican.'
Once you get west of the Mississippi river
or south of the Ohio, you strike territory in
which the Democratic party is overwhel-
m:ngly for free silver, and the Republican
ranks are not as soidly against it as one
would like to see, inasmuch as a pfesiden-
tial contest approaches in which this ques-
ton will go hand in hand with the tariff as
deed, the journey west does not reach be-
yond Chicago before sharp line of contro-
versy is to be found among the people, for
we find Illinois stampeded for silver by the
Democratic leaders and not entirely free of
the heresy in the interior Republican coun-
ties. In this state, which stands sixth in
the Union in the yearly value of IT'S manu-
featuring product, and seventh in its wages
payroll, exceeding by far any other South
Der of visiting friends from other church
es will be present.
ern state, the Democrats have been the first
In the country to formally put presidential
candidate in the field upon an uneQuivoca!
free coinage platform. The free silver
Democrats, at their convention at Sedalia
last Thursday not only would not listen to
"gold bug oratory, but, despite his protest,
declared for "Silver Dollar" Bland for pres
ident, thus making platform utterances on
the money question entirely superfluous,
Bland being platform in himself Every
body knows where he stands on the money
question. His party in the state is with
him, and so is his party throughout the en-
tire Southwest.
In the wake of the Democrats state con-
venton has come Senator Tillman, full of
vigor and epigram, telling the people that
Cleveland Democracy and Sherman Repub-
licanism are one and the same, and that he
wants to return to Lincoln Republicanism
which, he asserts, has died out as complete
ly as Jeffersonian democracy. Tillman's
counsel to Democrats is to bolt the Demo
cratic national convention if it does not de-
clare for free silver, and nominate a free
silver advocate. Unquestionably his tour
through these Western states is part Of an
agreed plan among his wing of the party to
go out of the Chicago convention. should
they fail to control, and join forces with the
Populsts in common battle against both OF
the old political parties. South Carolina
declared T.llman in his address out in the
country the other night. is ready to bolt
not yet having had enough Of seeding, and
his declaration was met with hurrahS which
indicated that the Bland Democrats of Ms
souri, are no less intense in their devotion
to the white metal.
Tillmans Western tour closed in this city
last night, with speech at the Academy OF
Music, where great crowd applauded hin
to the echo, and the money receipts went tx
another cause, in which South Carolina
played a conspicuous part-the Confederate
Monument Fund. 1t was from Charleston
s. c., that the Democratic party went fortf
to division and defeat in 1861, and it is
from the same place that the demand now
comes through Tillman that the party mus
surrender to the South Carolina idea or be
destroyed. The whole trend Of the free sill
yer campaign in the West at present IS tt
so intensity Democratic sentiment in its be.