The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1898-10-23
BETRAYED
BY POPULIST
PIE-HUNTERS"
J. V. Webster T alks
Out Plainly.
NO CANDIDATE TO VOTE FOR
FORTY THOUSAND ELECTORS
WHO WERE IGNORED.
NO CANDIDATE TO VOTE FOF
FORTY THOUSAND ELECTOR:
WHO WERE IGNORED.
The Large Majority VIII Cast Bal
lot for Gage in Preference to Ma
guire, Whose Alleged Prin-
ciples Are Fallacies.
Oakland Office San Francisco Call,

9OS Broadway, Oct. o.
Betrayed by pie-hunters-pie-hu
who. having once tasted and who, like
hogs at a trough, cannot be driven away
once their appetites are whetted."
Thus spoke one of the most honest and
best-known farmers of California, referr-
Ing to the present predicament of the Pop
ulists. who fully recognized the fact that
on the official ballot there are no candi-
dates whom they are bound TO by party
ties. This farmer is j. v Webster,
who four years ago was the candidate
for Governor on the Populist ticket and
polled a vote that aStOnished the State.
Mr. Webster is now on brief visit to
Oakland from his ranch in San Luis
Obispo County, and he has been to some
extent canvassing the sentiments of
Populists in relation to the so-called deal
between the three parties.
Having had no crops in San Luis
Obispo this year" said Mr.. Webster, we
have had plenty of time to think, and
since the so-called Populist convention at
Sacramento some of us have done great
deal of thinking. We are now in the un-
fortunate predicament of having no one
to vote for who represents our princi-
pies, and undoubtedly a large proportion
of the Populist vote will go to Mr.. Gage,
not because they desire him for Cover
nor, but because by voting for the fu-
petuate the disgrace into which the So
called Populist leaders have dragged a
section of their party.
cat Sacramento the Populist delegates
were treated to q surprise. There were
there many honest farmers, knowing
nothing of the wiles and chicanery of
professional politics There We're also
humber of so-called Populist delegates,
mostly from San Francisco and Los An
geles, who were simply hunting pie
can express 1t in no other way. The
honest Populists, finding that scheme
had been matured to sell out the party
to the Democrats, merely that a few al
legged Populists might get an office, wished
TO return home and ally themselves with
the Socialists. This proposition was not
favored by the majority OF the straight
Populists and, as the result OF caucus,
we held the boiling convention and nomi-
mated Shanahan. This was done, not be-
cause we expected to elect Mr.. Shana-
han. but because we wished to preserve
our organization as a nucleus upon which
to build up the party after TINS cam
paign of disgrace and treachery. The de-
cisiOn of the Supreme Court that the fu-
sionists have the right to the party name
and that we Populists are nameless is
something that / have not yet been able
to understand. At Sacramento the forces
were Just about equally divided appar-
entity but In reality we claim that the
majority of the Populists were opposed to
fusion The vote for Mcguire would have
been turned around had about ten men
changed their minds. San Francisco had
tWenty-six delegates and Los Angeles
nineteen, and one-half OF these forty-hve
delegates were unknown to Populism and
are understood to be rank Democrats
Consequently. as they all voted for
Mcguire the latters nomination did not
fairly represent even q majority or the
convention.
right when he recognized the Populists as
being the representatives of their own
party. We simply took our action at Sac