Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1898-03-15
Fusion and Burial.

The number of 'sfusiOn and sue
cess'' articles which have recently
appeared in the TRIBUNE would seem
to Indicate that fusion will be success
full in its own consuinm alton in this
country at least. It can nowhere and
never be successful in anything else.
Now, what in the name of common
sense do the populists want fusion for.
Fusion laid the peoples party pros
trate in '96 and the present pet scheme
of the fusio, lists will bury it in '98, tn at
is if their scheme succeeds. 1t will
bury the mostimportant peoples party
principles along with the party sodeep
th:tt it will take decades before they
will be up again if indeed they ever
will
1t is impossible for me to understand
why populists would fuse with s:re-
juvenated" democrats and silver re-
publicans. What issue have they in
common? Only free coinage ofsilver
and gold. The democrats and popu-
lists want an income tax and oppose
government by injunction while we
have yet to hear from silver republic
cans on these points. Either of these,
income tax or no government by injunc-
ton, is in my opinion Of as much i'm
portance as the coinage question.
Fusion populists clamor an alliance
between themselves, rejuvenated dem
ocrats, and silver republicans as do
these latter themselves. What is the
rejuvenated democracy? It's the party
that last year stood for silver in Mass.
that in N. Y. had a gold bug candi-
date while it's platform was silent on
the money question; that in Greater
New York, under Tammany: repudia-
ted the Chicago platform, and still
there had the support of the leaders
of free silver democracy: that in Md.
was for gold: that in Pa. was for silver
and elected gold bugs; the party whose
history tells us that it opposes scien-
tific money, initiative and referendum,
direct elections, government ownership
of railroads and of telegraph lines,
postal savings banks: opposes every
populist principle save the minor ones
on which fusion was agreed in 1896.
The silver republicans agree with us
on the coinage question only-are
enemies to all the populist principles
save that. And the fusionists want
us to support our enemies polite
and work against what we as peoples
party men consider to be right, justto
get a few fusionists into Office if posi-
BILE and take onr chances to get free
coinage law which at it's best will be
of little benefit to the people. Many
of the would-be leaders of the peoples
party leaders to defeat) are in fav-
or Of unconditional fusion. They
have become infatuated with the idea
that If fusion succeeds the peoples
party cause, or perhaps it is their own
cause, succeeds; and of course the
peoples party cause would in such
a case succeed to get a quiet burial.
Fusion, whenever practiced in the
past, has always succeeded in killing
one of the parties to the deal and Civ
ing the other tremendous setback.
Remember the fate of the greenback
party when it became a party to fus-
ion deal in 1872: the fate of the fusion
between liberal republicans and demo-
Gratis in 1878: contrastto these the fate
of the republican party, formed in
l854-5S, it was composed of former
Free Sellers, Wings, Democrats,
Know Nothings and Abalitionists: but
they did not fuse as members of their
respective former parties but as men
who stood for common principle
and who gave up their former politi-
cal organizations and united in a new
in order to work for and further their
common principle Fusion of the first
kind has never been successful and
never will be, which should be warn.
ming to the populists of today not to
become party to any such deal. It is
about time to quit trying to down one
corrupt party by putting in power
another corrupt party.
The fusiOnists are frantic in their
endeavors to gather the so-called re-
form parties to the support of John
Lind for governor of our state. Have
these fusionists considered the impos-
sibility of their scheme and don't they
want to see it. I do not always
agree with the utterances of DR.. John
son but [ think the DR.. struck the
nail fairly on the head when in his
article of last week he said: If Lind
could not be elected two years ago
with Clough as an opponent, he can
not be elected this year against a
strong man and possibly Swede at
that: and the rest of the ticket wou In It
know it was in the field.'' Are the
fusionists aware that the democratic