The San Francisco call., 1898-07-14
WHY GEORGE w. BAKER
 RESIGNED HIS OFFICE
LOS ANGELES TOO FAR AWAY
 FOR HEADQUARTERS.
He Does Not Approve of the Course Pursued by the Populists in
 Nominating a Governor.

OAKLAND, July 13.-George W. Baker, who resigned as chairman of the State Silver Republican Committee at Sacra- mento yesterday afternoon, returned home last night, but went back to the scene of strife at the capital this afternoon
 My reasons for resigning from the chairmanship of the Silver Republican Committee are fully set forth in my letter to the committee said Attorney Baker to-day. The committees headquarters are in Los Angeles, and in order to attend to the duties of chairman 1t requires ire quent visits to that city, which my busi- ness engagements will not permit and hence, in order to advance the interests and labors of the committed I considered it advisable that a chairman should be elected who was on the ground and who would give the matter his personal atten- tion during the campaign.
 There were some differences of opinion as to the proper course for the committee to pursue, but these were mere matters of detail, and did not enter into consideration when the resignation was made. The members of the committee from Los An geleS were in favor of joining the Pop uIlsts in the nomination of a Democratic candidate at Sacramento in advance of his nomination by his own party, and I do not consider such a course as conducive to the best interests of the reform forces. HODuUStS should nominate a ticket of their own and then appoint fusion committee to confer with the Democrats, and if the latter were in a. mind to join forces with the PopulistS ana Silver Republicans upon a platform mutually satisfactory, then l am willing to submit any candidate whom the joint committee might agree upon; but l do not believe in anticipating the action of the Democratic party by naming any candi- date from among their aspirants in ad- vance of his being named by his own Ta TT
 This view was not shared by the ma jority of the Silver Republican Committee, who believed that the naming of a Demo- crat by the Populist convention would operate as a strong incentive for the Democratic convention to name the same candidate. However, these are simply diff ferences of opinion. which always occur in conventions, and which must always be settled by mutual concessions, and did not in any way prectpitate my resigna ton.
 T did not consider then. and do not now, that the Democratic party desired the Populists to lead off in nominating a candidate for them, and in this view l am supported by the acton of their State Central Committee yesterday after my resignation was made and accepted.
 While they expressed, with some dis sentients willingness to fuse with the Populists upon certain conditions, they were unanimous in the opinion that the Populists should not be permitted to name in advance their candidate for Governor or any other office. This, in my judgment is the only sensible view to take of the matter, and was the only matter upon which I dissented from the views of the other members of the Silver Republican Committee l am now and have ever been and will always remain an uncompromis ing advocate of the principles of bmetal- lism and in favor of any honorable means to promote its success, and to that end will use my best exertions in support of men and measures to accomplish that result ''