The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1897-07-07
We Can Have No Fusion.
Editor Representative.

EUlIOT
AS to the matter of disrupting or
abandoning the Peoples Party in this
state l can safely say that even the
most conservative members of the re-
form element in this section are against
the move no matter from whence it
comes.
This is so for the most obvious rea-
sons. chief among which is the fact that
there is as much reason for the exist
ence of the Peoples Party now as there
ever was. However, this is not the
only reason for the preservation Of the
Peoples Party.
BY way of illustration let us suppose
that the reform elements of each Of the
present political organizations were to
merge into one party under new name.
what would be the result? Now let us
take it for granted that all real REFORM
| ers would be satisfied with this ar
| rangement (Which they would noD and
see what the result would be. AS soon
as we would surrender the name, PcO-
| pies Party, the enemies Of reform would
! conspire to start a straight out middle
| of-the-road, sO-called, Peoples Party.
Then, too, they would organize what
would purport to be the Simon pure
| Democratic party. Each of those par
| ties would have some following; there
! can be no question about that. The net
| result would be that we would have
| three or four parties all drawing from
one source. This, in my opinion, is
of any attempt to consolidate the re-
| form forces under any new name. There
| fore any man or set of men who attempt
| to prompt fusion at the present time
must be greatly deluded, or what is
worse, they must have betrayal OF
trust for personal advantage at heart
This thing seems so plain to us that !!
is impossible to understand how any
man with any pretension Of statesman
ship could advocate fusion of any kind
| at the present time. We can have nc
| fusion tn name until victory is gained
| However, it is possible to center Oul
forces on consolidation without cny
sacrifice and without stultifying our
selves in any way, providing we car
agree on representation But as fol
actual fusion, may the Lord spare Us
from any such dire catastrophe, an6
may the man Or set Of men who aGVO
cate any such thing go down in con
temptibe oblivion, never to be resur
rected. We are not malicously inclined
but we hope that every reformeH VII
set down hard On fusion at the pre5en
time 1t may be objected that one re
form party is enough but let us under
stand once for all that the only way t
| centraliZe our forces effectuaily is Il
| maintain our present organization DIS
is. Otherwise we will have parties ga
lore and no end of trouble. Think o
the opportunity it would afford tn
enemy, if we should make any sucl
grievous mistake as we allude to above
They would herald us throughout IN
length and breadth of the land dis
pack of dispicable jumping-jacks, reve
satisfied except when organizing a neN
party. And while doing this they wOul
proceed to organize parties to pose un
der the names vacated by the reforr
forces. But we will not trespass furthe
en- valuable space. Let no half-Witte
states craft divide us. We can have Il
fusion without sacrifice. Beware of a
| fusionists Yours for the cause,
S. J. Leahy.
Faribaut MINI.