The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-12-05
"ToO MUCH BUTLER."
MIR. Watson Analyses Him From n
Scientific and Disinterested stand

MIR. Watson Analyses Him "FrOm n
Scientific and Disinterested stand
point"
In a signed editorial in the last issue of
his paper Hon. T. e. Watson has some
thing to say about Senator Marion Butler.
who was chairman of the populist national
committee in the recent campaign. The
article says in part:
1t is all well enough to talk about the
propriety of the populist factions coming
together again, and of letting bygones be
bygones, but the spirit of distrust, when
once aroused, is more restless than Ban
quos ghost, and will not down"
AS long as Marion Butler is chairman of
the national committee it will be utterly
impossible to get the real populists to take
any interest in campaign work. They
have tested said Butler and they want no
more of him. They know him to be a sell
fish, unprincipled triekster, and nothing
he can now do will ever cause them to
forget what a liar and traitor he was dur
ing the campaign of 1896. To ask these
men to come together, and to act with
Butler and the Butterflies, is mere waste
Of breath. They will never do so.
Those of us who love the populist prin-
ciples and have suffered for them, can
hcNol We OlntI ltuil popullSlS. but IL QOeS
not follow that we are willing to work
four more years, as we have worked in
the past, to garner a political harvest
which Butler can take to the market and
sell to the highest bidder. Life is too
short for us to enjoy two such experiences
as that.
Judged from the Butler standpoint. pop
ulism is a mere article of political mer-
chandise. He himself is not a populist in
principle. He owes his elevation to the
fact that he stepped in and became the
residuary legatee of the heroic L. L. Polk
Butler did nothing but keep himself well
within the shadow of Col. Polk. And when
that glorious patriot laid down his life
an exhausted warrior in the fight for the
liberation Of humanity-Butler simply put
his foxy feet into the shoes of the dead
leader, and plucked the fruit which Folks
labors had ripened.
Butler has no convictions, no fixed prin-
ciples. He Is devoid OF any sense Of honor.
Words are TO-. him the mere tools in the
game of deception. He does not mind tell
ing the truth, provided he loses no point
| In the game by doing so. Nor does he
mind telling an untruth even IL II yields
him nothing more than the casual pleas
ure of having deceived.
We do not say this in any spirit of hos
tility to Mr.. Butler. We are simply anal
yzing him from a scientific and dsinter-
ested standpoint He has for us the in
terest which a naturalist takes in a rare
bug-nothing more. We would not turn
on the heel to do him an injury. We
harbor no resentful feeling against him.
1t would be most unjust to do So When
constitutional coward runs away from
the battlefield, all generous men feel a
profound sympathy for the victim of a
natural defect of character. God made
him that way, and he cannot help IL. The
coward is no more to blame for his COW
ardice than is the tiger for its ferocity.
In the same spirit of Hberality and
equity we judge Marion Butler. Mature
made him what he is, and he cannot HELM
1t. To be foxy, double-faced, false of
tongue and treacherous a heart Is uatn.
raj TO him: and when he betrays those
who trust him, and deceives those who
are silly enough to take him at his word
ne mas no more sinned against his nature
than does our friend, the Wiliapgoat
when 1t fights with horns, rather than
with mouth or with feet
But there Is reason in all things ana
common prudence must be consulted. now
and then.
However much we may pity a coward
who runs away, we do not wish 10 20 into
battle, more than once with comrades
VINO viii not fight. We would never let
our sympathy for the constitutional weak