The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1898-07-06
-(Minneapolis Tribune.)
Ex-Governor Waite's Views.

Friend Donnelly:
1t was great misfortune to the peo.
pies party when it adopted it's great plat
form OF principles at Omaha In 1892 that
1t did not also take away from dts officials
the power to crush out the life of the or
eahlzatlOn. We took without considera Zion
the caucus. committee and convention sys-
tem, winch for the past so years in the
United States has controlled for evil tnrD
policy of all political parties and made
them IN this republic the most convenient
ana powerful or all agencies for monopoy
The people Of the old world under despotic
rule nave governmental ownership of rail-
ways, telegraphs and telephones and postal
savings banks-refOrms which we will never
obtain SO long as the corrupt caucus and
convention system controls the policy of
Poltlcal parties and compels the nomina-
tion and election of candidates for repre-
sentatlon who as a rule misrepresent the
people. In 1892 our party unfortunately
nominated for president a man who is a
natural compromised, with skill and exper-
lence, not In up-building, but in destroying
reform parties. The chairman of our ma
tonal committee, 80 to 96, proved to be
a molusk, without even the streak on the
bach which indicates a rudimentary back
bone, and this barnacle blocked the prog
ress OF the party nearly four years.
In the beginning no political party made
scch rapid progress as Ours-a million and
a quarter of votes in a four months cam.
palGn-and this progress was made with
out money, by the sacrifice and unceAsing
efforts of reform speakers, who preached
in almost every schoOlhouse and grove, and
by the eloquence and patriotism Of a re-
form press, which in almost all cases as
a hadge of poverty, was compelled to use
and has made respectable, the patent in
side.' In all the four years of it's admin
istration no attempt was made by the ma
tional committee of the Peoples party to
organize its army of speakers, increase the
circulation of its reform press or make any
aggressive movement whatever. Assuming
and exercising despotic power, it sat upon
the shoulders Of the Peoples party like
Sinbad's old man of the sea The national
committee was purpOsely made unwieldy
and consisted of $50 members, in order that
its members might prevent a full attend
ance at any special session, which, if called,
might be controlled by the pedding poll
tician with his pocket stuffed with proxies
generally obtained under false pretenses.
The Democratic national convention at
Chicago July Z, 1896, the evening of
that day adopted, in committee plat
form, a declaration of principles, which, on
the morning Of July g. before any platform
had been made ticket nominated in con-
venlon published by the morning
press of the United States This prema-
ture publication was a part Of the fraud
perpetrated by that convention. The finan-
Cletl pld1lh VI llo pldllOTIl, DIS puD1SIeu,
was in substance the financial plank Of the
Peoples party. But on July the platform,
as published by the committee, was recon-
sidered and the platform committee elm
mated from the financial plank it's oppo-
sition to all banks took from the green
back or treasury note it's legal tender quail
ity and made it redeemable in coin. But
this change of the platform was not pub
lished in the Associated Press dispatches
of July 9. The long platform, as published
in advance July s. was the precise plat
form, word for word, as finally adopted,
except the change in the financial plank,
and all through the campaign of 1896 Demo-
Gratis and Populists was Identical. Not one
in a hundred Of the delegates at the st.
Louis convention who voted to nominate
Bryan for president knew of this radical
change in the Democratic platform, and in
most states our party was stampeded by
this gigantic fraud.
The record of Senator Butler as chairman
of the Peoples party national committee
In the campaign of 1896 and since surpasses
in infamy that Of his ''illustrious predeces-
sor." Our national convention nominated
Bryan and Watson for president and vice
president. Chairman Butler and the ma
tonal committee deliberately favored the
Democratic ticket of Bryan and Sewall.
By his own act Senator Butler put him
self outside the Peoples party, and since
that time the great mistake of the middle
of-the-road Populists has been that they
in any way recognized the senator as chair
man of the national committee OF the
Peoples party.
All attempts at compromise must neces-
sariy fail the conflict is not only ire
pressible, but radical and irreconcilable.
If there be any Populists who believe that
the Democrats will honestly carry out the
reforms of the Omaha platform. let them
join the Democratic party; but how can
those who believe the Democratic and Re
publican parties both rotten and the
tools of monopoly fuse with either? What
concord hath Christ with Belial?
Let the Peoples party assemble in ma
tional convention at Cincinnati Sept and
re-adopt the Omaha platform, with the few
amendments in political issues which time
has proved necessary; nominate national
ticket and commence an aggressive cam
paign. If in no other way We can make
the separation between Populists and fu-
sionists final and complete, let us take a
new name-it will save legal complications
and prevent unseemly controversies about
names and symbols Let declare for a
free ballot and fair count PoliS'al par
ties and campaigns are a farce, and re-
publican form of government doiuslon
so long as the popular elections. nor0l ana
south. are determined by fraud. as they
now are openly and boldly in many s,eAes
Let us declare the official who stuffs the
ballot box or makes forged and dishonest
returns an outlaw and treat him as such,
till no man, north or south, dare boast, as
some of them now do, Of the com mission
Of election frauds and outrages. And last,
but not least, let US provide Tor the Sro-
lection of our new organization against the
treason of it's officials.
reicice in the grit of the Minnesota
Populists. Yours truly,
DAVIS II. WAITE.