The Roanoke times. (Roanoke, Va.) 1897-1977, 1897-04-15
POPULISTS
SEE HOPE.
An Address Urging Patience and
Educational Work.
EXPRESSIONS OF DIS
TRUST OF DEMOCRATIC LEAD
ERs, WHILE THE RIGHT HAND
OF FELLOWSHIP is EXTENDED
TO vOTERs-REGRETs AT THE
ATTITUDE OF THOSE WHO
WOULD NOW HAVE THE PARTY
DECLARE ITS FUTURE PLANS.

DECLARE ITS FUTURE PLANS.
Washington, April 14.-NIembers of
tie Peoples party in Congress have is
sued an address to their followers
throughout the country. They see only
hope in the future of their cause. The
address was prepared at n joint caucus of
Populist Senators and Representative
aGd reads as follows:
To the Peoples Party of the Nation:
Never in the history of our party has
there been such cause for hope .on the
part of those who are seeking reforms
along financial and industrial lines rs Mt
the present time. Our progress, consid-
ering the opposition that the party has
met, has been marked, and notwithstand.
ing we have not yet realized our full ex-
pectations, we now begin to see potent
evidences of the good work we have done.
with very encouraging signs for the flu
ture.
The Peoples party has won the conf
dence and respect of all intelligent and
liberty loving citizens of our country. Its
record of unselfish devotion to the inter.
ests of the plain people is in striking con-
trast to that of the two old parties that
for thirty years have overlooked the inter
ests of the muses. in their competition
power, corporations and trusts
The unseIiish devotion to principle ev-
emplified by the Peoples party in the
campaign of 1896 is without parallel in
the history of political parties. The
robust integrity of the party enabled it to
rise to meet the occasion when subjected
to the severest test TO which loyalty to
truth can ever be put.
The People party recognized the voice
and hand of the plain people in the Chi.
cago convention. The platform enunc-
ateu and the chief candidate nominated
evidenced beyond question that the
masses OF the Democratic party, in spite
OF the hitherto dominant element of that
party, had at Inst pat forward one par.
TALLY successful effort in their own be-
half. Therefore, without ahating our
distrust Of the leadership of thai party in
the past we extended the right hand of
fellowship to those voters who must in
the end find their abiding place in our
household.
This action of the Peoples party was in
no sense an Endorsement of the past
record of the Democratic party. But il
was an act of fidelity to our own platform
and teachings, Il part of which found
utterance in the Chicago platform, and
nearly, if not quite all, in the person OF
William j. Bryan, the candidate there
nominated.
TO the Peoples party is due the credit
for the bolt in the Republican convention
ut st. Louis, and for the revolt in the
Democratic party that rescued the Chi
cago convention from the clutches of the
bondholding and banking combine
Politicians bow before the powers that
can make or unmake them. The teach
ings of the Peoples party press and
lar t1,s,,,
such deep root among the masses of the
voters of the country that the old party
politicians. who had misled the people,
could no longer retain their offices and
give their support to parties that upheld
the gold standard. Those politicians
who were unwillingly forced to accept our
principles in the campaign of 1896 are
probably no more sincere now than tbey
were when they supported Harrison and
Cleveland in 1892, and should the Pco-
pies party relax its efforts, and cease to
apply the whip and spur to these politi-
clans by attracting the voters to our party
there is nothing in their past conduct to
warrant the belief that they would not
support their old party again. though the
gold combine should regain its control.
The patriotic stand taken by the Popu.
list party in the last campaign has added
to its power to command the situation in
the present and future. Had our party
in the late campaign displayed no higher
patriotism than the old parties ana
sought merely party ends and not proved
itself equal to any party sacrifice in order
to advance the welfare OF the people, we
would not now hold the confidence of the
masses, and stand as bulwark of the
people against the intrigues of the old
political leaders, who, for thirty years,
have betrayed the people and controlled
their parties in the interest of the banks,
monopolies and trusts.
Had Mr.. Bryan been elected President
with Congress in sympathy with him,
the money question would have heen
speedily settled, and with forty or more
trusted leaders of our party in Congress
and the State governments of several
States in our hands, the transportation
question and other vital issues presented
by our platforms would have Mt once be-
come the storm center of political discus
sion. and the Peoples party would soon
acquire second IL not first place in the
politics of our country. Viewing the
duty of the present in the light of the
past experience the demand for uphOlding
our organization and pushing the work
of education is more imperative now than
at any time in the past
We have governors in five States, eight
Senators and twenty three congressman.
and the election in 1898 will undoubtedly
give us the balance of power in the House
as we now have it in the Senate. The
opportunity is before us to accomplish
these results and more.
We, your representatives at Washing
ton, are striving to push forward the
cause of the party, and to strengthen and