The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1898-10-19
"CYCLONE DAVIS"

Forward Into Events.
General Manager Harvey, of the Dem
ocratic party, is organizing the radical
16 to ! Democrats so as to be ready for
split and bolt in the Democratic ma
| tional convention of 1900.
This is the opinion of Cyclone" Davis
of Texas, the recognized leader of the
anti-fusion Populists in the whole coun-
try. He gives it as one who was DEM
ocrat before he was POpulist, who has
been in politics all his life. who has
mixed much with Democrats of the 16 to
brand and knows their ways.
Harvey, Jones, Altgeld, Stone and the
rest of that combination" said Mr.. Davis
yesterday, "forsee split in their con-
vention of 1900. They see that the East
ern Democrats who never would accept
silver, assisted by Democrats in the Mid
die West and portions of the South who
accepted the Chicago platform simply be-
cause Democrats wrote it, are likely to
hold the whip hand.
Il believe the mass of the Democrats
in the West and South are sincerely for
silver and will bolt unless the Chicago
platform be re-adopted. The Harvey
ed, and compelled to be the boilers, will
have an organization of their own well
in hand for immediate cooperation with
some other elements, like the Silver Re-
publicans or maybe the Populists.
THE signs of such split are on every
hand. Eastern Democrats have ignored
lhe Chicago platform. Men who were
truest to it in other states are being side
tracked. In my state, Texas, the Gold
Democrats have disbanded their organi-
zatiOn. In the Democratic state cOnyen-
Ion the two staunchest silver men, Al
tnrney General Crane and Colonel DicH
Wayne, were overwhelmingly outvoted
and Joe Savers nominated for governor.
He is a Cleveland Observation-Disclosures
Cleveland the greatest man of the age
and believes the tariff is the great issue.
l am told the Gold Democrats have done
practically the same here and in Wiscon-
sin and that silver is being pushed to the
wall
LET me make another prediction on
the side. The regular Democratic con-
vention in 1900 will meet first, will make
Admiral Dewey and Fitzhugh Lee itA
candidates on platform of heroism and
patriotism, ignoring everything else, and
will steal all the thunder of the Repub-
licans."
Cyclone" Davis thus casts the Demo-
cratic horoscope in mood as mild as a
summer zephyr. 1t is only on the plat
form before an audience that this unique
Texan becomes "twister." When he
stands up he is little more than straight
line of black seven feet high with an
umbrella-like hat at the upper end
When he sits on chair of ordinary
height he is a series of acute angles. His
eyes are mild and blue, his features long
and thin and his plentiful brown beard is
VI q III Oil SuC. liz NSiSAo WIFI Oil lilo
height probably no more than 100 pounds,
but POpulists think he weighs a ton in
argument
Cyclone Davis was a Democrat until
1891. President Cleveland's letter to the
Iroquois club, of Chicago, declaring for a
dollar the intrinsic value of which would
be accepted all over the world convinced
him that Cleveland was Gold Democrat
and made him Populist. He came out
of joint debate with Wat Harding at
Frankfort KY, in 1895 with "Cyclone"
prefixed to his name by a Cincinnati
newspaper and he has never been able to
get away from it. Half his mail is SO
addressed. At home he is a lawyer in
Sulphur Springs, Tex.
Endorsement of Bryan in the Populist
convention of 1896 and almost won. There
wifi be no fusion in 1900, he says. If
by any chance the anti-fusionists be de-
feated in convention he thinks there will
be heavy bolt and swing into line be-
hind Wharton Barker and Ignatius Don
nelly, nominated at Cincinnati last
month. He is here to help anti-fusion
Populists of Illinois.
Mr.. Davis does not prognosticate on
the fall elections except in Texas, where
the Populists he says, have majority
of the white vote, but the Democrats will
win because the colored vote acts with
them in off years.
cover the country, especially among
farmers" he said, there is large and
increasing doubtful vote, different from
the doubtful which swings the pendulum
from one old party to the other. There
is growing feeling that both old parties
are inefficient. Low prices rule Cot
ton never has been so low since slave la
Dor was abandoned, except for three
months in Cleveland's panic. Texas has
bountiful corn crop, but corn cannot
be sold for money, and only a little can
be sold in trade
Facts and Figures.