Daily capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1896-1899, 1897-04-20
LETTERS.
From Peoples Party Men
On the Question Of Union Of the
Reform Forces.


writes, Marshfield, April l6:
In THE JOURNAL of the 18th inst ;,
in speaking of the political needs Of
the present time you speak Of party,
that must be free from all impract-
ical and visionary notions, founded
ona few elementary propositions, etc,
but have you ever tried TO draft into
proper shape those STEW elementary
propositions so that they will be per-
fectly plain and practicable, and
entirely free from what some will be
ready to say visionary notions" I"
Those few practical. principles, that
everybody almost seems to know Of,
get so Elusive that nobody has been
able to catch them and clearly define
them: is what is wanted more at the
present time than anything else.
The Republican party when it was
first formed had few clearly defined
propositions, and they were to pre-
vent the further extension of slavery
into the territories, and not TO meddle
with it when it already existed; it
was successful on those propositions
alone, when the issue Of retaining the
union intact was forced upon it and
the visionary notions of the abolition
lists furnished its final landing place.
There are thousands of persons who
are quietly waiting for the masses to
get settled on TO those few elementary
propositions aud are ready to await
the results and trust to the future as
as to the fate of their visionary
notions" after those few PROPOSE
tions are put to test. 1t is one
thing to know and speak Of them and
but 1T is quite another thing to
clearly formulate them in such
shape that the great majority of the
people will approve Of them.
THOMAS BUCKMAN.
NEW PARTY.
Ward Swope, assistant editor of
"The Other Side," official Peoples
party paper of Washington county
writes:
AAOSCDU lOl COPJ VI loNdC vi 4
March 25, as 1 was much interested |
in the different articles concerning
the future action of the opposition
forces" 1t is certainly apparent to
any one that union or all these forces
Is necessary to success; but how this
union can best be accomplished is the
puzzling question.
In considering this question, let us
bear in mind that all parties are
made up Of two or more factions; and
that these are held together by some
dominant principle. If union is
formed, it is evident that the demand
for financial reform must be the nu-
cleus around which all these forces
may gather.
But in my mind the restoration Of |
silver is not enough; nor do l believe |
that more than one-fourth OF the Pop |
ulist voters will agree to a union on
that phaseE alone of the money ques-
tion. We demand that gold, silver |
and paper shall all be primary money;
and that is the only kind of money we
consider "sound money" / shall not |
take the space here, but, if agreeable |
to you, shall in the future be pleased
to give few reasons for our objec- |
tions to paper money made redeem
able in either gold or silver, or inl
both.
Moreover these forces, no doubt,
can all be united in opposition to the
national banking system, to monopos
lies of all kinds, as of transportation,
communication, etc, and in faYoring
an income tax, the referendum, pri-
mary election law, tariff based on
the difference in the cost of prOduc-
tion in our country and in foreign
countries, and various other demands.
Nov fail to see any necessity for
the formation Of new party to ad-
yocate these demands since there is
already a party, thoroughly organized,
that has been advocating these re-
forms since 1890, and has in fact forced
these issues before the people.
am aware that many of our allies
OF the late campaign object to being
called POpuli-ts and their reasons
may be summed up under two heads,
viz: ~ That Populists are extrem-
lists, and ~ That some other name
Is preferable because of the prejudice
against the name Popullst..
There never was really any grounds
Tor the charge that Populists are ex-
tremists; true some editors and some
speakers among them are extremists,
and some of theirexpressionsIhaye been
heralded over the country by the op-
position press as expressing the views
ot the party; but no part Of our plat
form can be termed extreme. There
are radicals and conservatives in all