The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1897-12-01

thing-The Minds of the People
Degraded With Foot Ball, ETC.
The Republic on the Brink of Ruin
Can the West Save the NatiOnY
(The following is a private letter. Lut
1t Is so full of terrible significance that
We feel our subscribers should read it.
The writer has been for years one Of
the leaders of reform in this country,
and his statements can be depended
upon.-Ed. Rep.)
WASHINGTON, D. c.. Nov. 25.-Hon.
Ignatius Donnelly, st. Paul, .4,nn.-In
Cumberland, Md, the other day l came
across the last issue of the REPRE-
SENTATIVE, and 1t has prompted me
on this Thanksgiving day to write you
letter, not for publication, but rather
to give vent to my feelings. Everything
is SO chaotic in matters of politics that
one has trouble to locate himself or has
any confidence in being able to main
tain himself In one position in case he
should be able for one moment to do So
One does not know the damage that
was done to the Peoples party and the
principles 1t represented. AS for the
Democratic party in the East, in talking
to the members Of it, find neither love-
the platform adopted at its last national
convention. In the recent campaign in
New York the fine Italian hand of David
b. Hill was to be seen in every move.
He controlled the state committee
when 1t met, and through his influence 1t
decided not to call a state convention
and by doing so avoided a wrangle over
the silver issue. It assumed the respon-
sibility Of nominating state ticket. It
nominated a man at the head Of the
ticket, who,if he voted at all ut the last
election. voted the gold-bug Democratic
ticket. The state committee refused to
declare itself upon the Chicago platform
The same course was pursued by Tam
many Hall. And on that issue a Repub-
lican majority of 900 last year is
turned to a Democratic majority Of
$4,000 this year. At the close of the
campaign, when the election Is over,
Tammany Hall holds a Notification
meeting and announces that 1t has a
large surplus of its campaign fund left
unexpended and makes a donation Of
$4,000 to Cuba and another $4,000 to
the poor of the city. Now Tammany
has been out of Office for four years
The question Is going around from
mouth to mouth, Where did Tammany
get so much money from? And Dame
RumOr is bold enough to say that it was
contributed by VIM. G. Whitney, the
president of the Traction railway system
that owns all Of the surface railroads
of Greater New York And yet Fam
many had plank in it's platform favor
ing municipal ownership of street rail-
ways. A New York paper has an inter-
view with Whitney in which he says
that the Democracy must get together.
The World gives Hill the credit for the
victory in the state, and intimates that
the Democracy may run him for gov
ernOr next year and in case that he
wins he will be formidable candidate
before the national convention in 1900:
and gives figures to show that no Demo-
crat can be elected who cannot carry
New York and New Jersey.
The whole of this means that the
Eastern Democracy were not newborn
at Chicago one year ago. 1t means that
the Eastern Democracy proposed to ig-
more the Democratic national platform
in the congressional campaign of next
year. And that In case the Democracy
has majority in the next congress it
will not have 1t on the silver issue. It
means that the Eastern wing Of the De-
mocracy propose to serve notice on the
party that the silver issue is dead one
and that w. j. Bryan must be relocated
to the rear In the next campaign.
And one might as we'll look for
report of the baseball news in the Bible
as defense of silver or the Chicago
platform in the Democratic press of
the East. And it is this kind of
treacherous outfit that has absorbed the
Peoples party, and that seems to have
hypnotized the whole national machin-
cry Of the party. 1t looks as though the
chairman of the Peoples party national
committee dares not call his committee
together to define a party policy. And
every moment that such move is de-
layed the more it increases the disin-
tegratiOn Of the party. And in the East
the Peoples party has no standing at
all among the common people, The
wage worker does not know that It ex-
lists only as the butt of ridicule in the
plutocratic press. The only movement
that has any standing against the old
parties is the Social Democracy and the
Socialistic Labor party. And for the
pure essence Of unauthorized gall the
financial proposition of Secretary Gage
takes the cake. And yet one will travel
many day here in the East and not
hear a word of condemnation. In fact
the people of the East at the most do
not know but what that outrageous
is all right. And let me tell
you there is no way to teach them. They
will not read. They will not listen to