Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-07-12
Mr.. BRYAN'S CONTRIBUTION
Something Further From M. Bateman
About That 81 500 Held by Mr.. Allen.
He Holds q Letter From Talbot Stat
Said I'm Regard to the Money.
To the Elitor Of The Evening Star:

To the Editor Of The Evening Star:
must again trespass upon your patience
and space to very briefly reply to the re-
cent speech of Congressman Freeman
Knowles of South Dakota. In order that
your readers may fully understand this
controversy it will be necessary to refer to
the original charge. 1 stated in an Associ
ated Press dispatch that Mr.. Knowles,
while on recent visit to his old home In
Skowhegan, Maine, had, in an ungua-ded
and mellow moment, told citizen of that
town that Mr.. Bryan had recently given
$500 to the managers of the peoples party
with the understanding that no action
against fusion should be taken by our par
ty before the next national convention. A
stone thrown into a hornets nest could
not have produced greater commotion. Bry-
an himself came out and admitted that he
gave the money, but denied the motive that
mad charged. Senator Allen dragged the
matter into the Senate chamber and dra-
matfcally said that he would leave the
party II 1t advocated my kind of popuism.
without noting the fact that he could do
will merely call attention TO the fact
that none Of these gentlemen offered the
slightest scrap of evidence to show that
my charges were not true. 1t requires no
great strain on the intellect to call some
one else liar or an idle dreamer.
But the gentlemen were not satisfied even
now. They induced Mr.. Knowles to get up
In the House of Representatives and deny
that ne ever made the statement imputed
10 hlm This prairie statesman read a let
Ter from one Talbot of Skowhegan, saving
mat Mr. Knowles had never made the
statement, etc. Now 1t would he an easv
matter to get letters from a thousand mon
VINO never heard him make the statement
Inc rub would come in getting letters from
.ne men VINO did hear him make the ad-
mission. Mr.. Knowles seems to have
strangely overlooked this part of the nro-
gram He says that Talbot is n nonuIist
AS a matter of fact he is nothing of the
hliin. he Is a democrat, pure and simple,
ana stumped his county for that marty Ia ~
Fan: Like the gentleman from Dakota no
liIius II convenient to pose as a populist in
Crder to deliver more goods to his new
lound masters-the. democracy
This same Talbot wrote me a letter be.r-
ING GATE June 2S, in which he admitted
mat knowles said in his presence that Mr.
t ryan mad given the money. and that
lore the next national convention. -
still hold the letter in INV possession
bot. "e" ioi III
Ihese men one and all admit that 81 zoo
has been given by Bryan. and is now IN H.
possession of Senator Allen On this point
tnere Is no controversy. The only question
that remains to be settled is for what pur-
pose was THIS money given? If 1t was for
a legitimate purpose then WHY was il not
put into the hands of the treasurer of the
populist national committee? He was the
proper man to receive the money AS that
gentleman happens to be a middle-o the
road populist, he was kept in profound
ignorance of the gift. In fact, none of us
Knew anything about 1t until Congress-
man knowles came to Maine If his state
ment in Congress is true. then how did
stumble on to such an important secret
Let the gentleman speak up loudly, so we
can all hear. No information of the kind
had ever been given to the public previous
to that time.
The bald, bold fact remains that this
money was given into the keeping of a
crowd of men in Washington who are in
terested in keeping up fusion, because 1t
furnishes them with fat congressional DO
sitions at 5000 per year. There are a few
OF us left who believe in principle and who
maintain that the Omaha platform means
something. The great populist conference
| at Nashville the other day has emphasized
this fact, and such men as Senator Allen
and Congressman Knowles can now go 10
the democratic party, where they belong.
Mr. BryanS money will not break UP the
peoples party nor secure his Endorsement
in 1900. His gift for that purpose, which
l have just dragged to light, is one of those
congenial democratic transactions that
'Shine in the dark, but, ushered into day.
The stencil remains-the luster dies away"
L. c. BATEMAN
Auburn, Maine.