The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1897-09-01


delegates should have gone to Nashville
with some formal power. to represent
| the party; as it was. every volunteer
striving to do right went there at his
own expense.
"As to the third question-"Why we
appointed a new committee at Nash
ville?" we would say that it was because
there was very general suspicion, es-
pecialy In Southern states, that Senator
Butler, of North Carolina, who had OBJ
tanned his seat In the United States SEN
| ate by fusion" with the Republicans
of that state, was ready to fuse again.
| with the Democrats. to retain his posi-
ton. even at the cost Of the life of the
! party. While we could scarcely believe
that this was true, yet we had seen and
heard of some things that showed us
that the senator was a shrewd, wiry,
tactful man; and that If he had any
such purpose in view he had the cunning
and the bOldness to carry it out. Under
these circumstances we thought it was
better and safer that an emergency COM
mittee should be appointed; so that, If
Senator Butler did attempt to betray the
organization, those who desired that it
should live would have something to
rally around.
Our party is in somewhat of a disor-
ganized condition throughout the coun-
n of !,
SION made last year with the Demo-
Gratis by the nomination of Mr.. Bryan.
We had urged at st. Louis that we
should not nominate Mr.. Bryan but put
up straight ticket of our own and then
divide the electoral vote in the different
states with the Democrats, and combine
in the January following, SO as to cast
our votes for Mr.. Bryan for president
and for Tom Watson for vice-president,
and elect both these gentlemen. If this
had been done, we could just as easily
have united in Minnesota upon an cleo
toral ticket, half Populists and half
democrats, as we did with Mr.. Bryan at
the head of the ticket. In the mean
time we would have held our own forces
together, by having our own candidate.
1t could not be charged, as it was, that
the party was dead, or sold out to the
Democracy. This argument sent thous-
ands of Populist back into the Repub-
lican ranks. If they had taken the course
which we and others urged upon them,
10
session of the government A change of
$500 votes in half dozen states would
have given us victory, and those $500
votes we should have had if we could
have disabused the Populists of the idea
that they had been turned over, body
and breeches, to the Democracy. Mr..
Owen, however, was a candidate for con-
gress in the Minneapolis district; he had
been nominated by Populists, but de-
cllned to accept their nomination until
the Democrats had indorsed him. In
TACT, we are not sure that he ever &C
cepted the Populist nomination. He and
jerry Simpson, of Kansas, and number
OF others who were in the same fix,
wanted Democratic support at home;
and, to get it, they were ready to turn
over the party to Mr.. Bryan. And now
Jerry Simpson says the Democratic par
ty is the real Peoples Party!!! And
owen argued, last spring, that the party
had better dissolve and die the death!.!
In this state we have a man named
nnhhVO W n
ers of the Peoples party, but who OPP
posed it and denounced it for years He
came in, however, when the tidal wave
was rising, and by trickery and manipu-
latlon worthy of the old parties, he got
himself elected chairman of the state
central committee. The indignation
which followed, however, was so great
that the next day he declined the nomi-
nation; and it was agreed that the COM
mittee should elect it's own chairman.
But now Dobbyn comes to the front and
claims the right to be chairman. He
was opposed to the Nashville confer
ence, and has been leading member Of
the Owen fusion coterIe If he runs
the party in this state he will run it To
destruction.
Our friend can therefore see that this
is not personal quarrel-not a quar-
rel for the Offices-for there is not much
prospect that we will have any state
offices to distribute-but simply bat
tie to decide whether the Peoples party
shall live or die. We do not think that
those who-ha declared that it ought
to die should, when it refuses to die,
be placed in command of it; for the
same feelings and the same spirit would
be there; and If they have power, ana
the party does not want to die, they
will see that it docs die.
We are not sure whether Mr.. Lynch
is perfectly honest and sincere in the
efforts he is making to get up meeting
OF Populists during fair week. He has
the disadvantage of holding an office
under the Democratic sheriff of Henne-
pin county, which he obtained through
the fusion DEAF of last fall. And he
was the only Populist in the county
that got an office! 1t may be, despite
this fact, and despite his association
with the men who have been trying to
destroy the party, that he may, never
theless, be honest at the present time.
n no OIL 70