Omaha daily bee., 1896-04-12
Pops NOT READY FOR REFORM
Pottawattamie County's Contingent Turns
Down the Conncil Bluffs Socialists.
DECLINE TO JOIN WITH THE RADIc'LS
spIit In the County Convention Re-
suits in the Withdrawal of Social
lists Under the Lead of Ex-
Chairman Travis.

! lSts tnVcr thc beuu OF tJN-
| Chairman Travis.
The row that has been brewing for some
| time between the socialists broke yester-
day afternoon and the result was an open
| rupture In which the socialists withdrew in
| a body from the county convention and left
! the populists with a scant dozen delegates
| in room that had been pretty well filed
Surface indications were that the split
! yesterday was due solely to the fact that
the middle of the road populists refused to
| take up with the socialist movement, but
there is another side 10 the story. 1t is
openly charged by membe"s of the socialistic
| section who withdrew from yesterdays COR
| vention that the pop leaaers in the city Of
| Council Bluffs have been engaged In an un-
| holy traffic in votes and have sold out the
| party a number of times, the last occasion
| being no later than last months city cleo
| tion. The charge of bribery was made at
the city convention on Friday night when
w. F. Travis, who has been chairman Of the
city central committee, resigned and wrote
| letter telling Why he was constrained to
withdraw from the peoples party. In his
letter. which is a lengthy but caustic docu-
espoused the socialistic cause and desired
to renounce his allegiance to the populist
party. He did 50 for one reason because he
thought the socialistic platform furnished
better remedy for the reforms sought by the
laboring people than did the populist scheme
and then he had another reason, and he
gave it in these words:
There has, however been a poisonous
and deadly serpent coiled around the staff
of your banner and Il loathsome moth gnaw-
ing the beautiful texture of its fabric. 1t
Is needless to add that by the former / mean
fusion and by the latter bribery. Your de-
creased vote at the las' city election was
doubtless wholly attributable to the above
mentioned causes. Fusion is unknown to
socialism and bribery and booderism have
never yet found place tu rest their heads.
The platform, the candidates and the mem
bers of the party are subjects to bar
ter or trade and woe be TO him who would
be so base as to betray its confidence"
Mr.. Travis concluded his resignation as
chairman CT the committee with expressions
of gratitude to the men who had stood by
him in the honest work for the popust party,
and promise of war to the knife with the
assassins who had tried to sell the party
to the enemy. The resignation was accepted
and the city convention selected delegates
to the county convention and adopted the
social.stic platform section by section. Dele
gates were appointed to bring in members
from the wards which were not represented
in the city convention, and have them pre-
sented delegates to the county conven-
zion.
TOO HIGH FOR RURAL DELEGATES.
That was the situation when the conven-
ticn met yesterday morning to select dele
gates to the state convention to be held in
Des Moines April %. The city delegates
were ripe for the adoption of the socalistic
platform, and the country delegates had an
idea that socialists and anarchists were
have Nf ny,l,r
preliminary organization was effected at
the morning session. and the convention ad-
journed until the afternoon. At O'Clock
the convention met again in the superior
court room and Eihu Meyers was selected
as arman and Il. ]. Orr secretary. The
committee on credentials, appointed at the
morning session, reported list of accredited
delegates, and a molten was offered to ap-
prove the report. And then the mercury
went up a few notches. Mr.. Travis offered
an amendment that N. p. Hansen, N. Jensen,
Nels Anderson, Robert Johnson, Nels Peter
son and Peter Christensen be admitted as
delegates from the Fifth ward.
Some one wanted to know il the gentle
men named were populists Mr.. Travis re-
piled that they were populists and more.
They were socialists.
The answer started the rural delegates
% shifting, and 1t was suggested that no
socialists need apply.
Travis took up the defense of his motion.
He read the call for the convention in which
all workers in reform movements were in
vited to participate in the meeting. The
socialists, he said. were in line in great
many measures, and that every populist was
sec alist in a degree. He did not think
that the populst should invite other reform
workers to come in and then refuse to allow
them to take part in the deliberations OF the
convention. There was no question of the
fact that the delegates named were socialists,
and they were also populists
j. w. Dorland and e. p. Brown. opposed
the amendment Water and oil would not run
together Mr. Brown declared, and he was
opposed to mixing populsm with socialism or
any other ism. After some scussCn, Travis
amendment was sidetracked, and the report
of the committee on credentials adopted
Then the committee on resolutions presented
the following:
We demand:
l. Direct legislation.
2. Free coinage of silver at the ratio of
16 to /, without waiting for the consent OF
any other nation. Government issue OF all
money, the same to be legal tender for all
debts, public and private, and irredeem-
3. That the government shall own and
operate all railroad, telegraph and telephone
l. We favor any honorable unifcation of
reform forces.
Tackled on to the report Of the committee
on resolutions was a recommendation that the
platform of the socialist party be read and
considered and that a vote on 1t be taken
without discussion. After some talk the
question was put and adopted, and then Chair
man Meyers asked that the convention pro-
ceed with the selection Of delegates to the
state convention. Breezy Breeze, Travis
and other delegates asked for the reading of
the socialist platform. as provided by the
resolution. They were promised a hearing
later on, and were content for little time
The convention selected the following mem
bers of the county central committee to fill
vacancies: II. d. Stitt of Carson, G. W.
Ronk of Grove, e. B. Snyder of Hazel Dell
William Osborne of Nicola and Lewis Hamil-
ton of Rockford.
WOULD HAVE THE GENERAL.
Then a motion was made to have General
Kelly of Omaha read the platform of the
socialist party. The motion was carried with
some dissenting voices and General Kelly
arose. He said he would decline to read the
platform, az he did not come as disturber
of the meeting He desired nothing but
harmony, and unity Of interest among re-
form workers for the common purpose OF re-
moving the cause that led to the present
conditions
That's as far as he got. II. s. Alexander
of Hardin township called a halt. He was
opposed to speechmaking by any one on the
socialist side of the house, and objected, es-
pecially to importing an Omaha orator TO
read the socialist platform or make speech
uGanaraln Kelly again insisted that he did