The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-06-15
ASSAILS FUSION.
Middle of the Roaders at Omaha De-
nounce Democrats.


| Omaha, June 15-The middle of the
| road section of the national reform
! press association met in Creighton hall,
with nearly a hundred members i'll at
tendance from all sections, but chiefly
from Texas, whence came about ID deli
egateS under the leadership of Milton
Parks and Paul Vandervoort. Mayor
MOOreS was present and extended to
which General William Philips of Mar
fetta, Ga, responded. r. w Richard
son, representing the exposition man
agement, extended to the delegates an
invitation to visit the exposition and
announced his readiness to furnish the
necessary tickets.
Following the above, Col Frank Bur-
kit of Oklahoma, Miss, president of the
association, delivered his annual ad-
dress. It was principally devoted to
the question of fusion, in reference to
which he aTraigned the Democrats by
saying:
Swift to thrust the country into a
war with foreign power, with no spec
ial thought as to its far-reachinS ef-
fleets. but with the hope that some po-
Htical advantage might accrue to them,
the Democratic leaders were too ObtuSe
to com prehend that the movement only
furnished an excuse to their RepEb bill
can coadjudicators tofurther burden he
Industries of this country, or they were
Indifferent to the results. And when
the crucial test came to decide whether
the present should be a bondhol ers'
ocratic senators abandoned the pro-
fessed principles of the purified 81 De-
mocracy and ally themselves with the
party of Doodle and bonds.
And this is the political organization
which PopuIists are invited to cooper
ate with now and in future. and strange
to say, men whom the party has honor
ed above their fellows are using the
power of their official position to CON-
pei such a humiliating concession.
1T is no wonder. after such cam
paign as that of '96, in which our only
representative on the ticket was pub
licIv ignored by the Democracy, and
openly betrayed or cowardly left to his
fate by the constituted authorities %
our own party. that honest PCpulistS
should have been Disguised and dis
couraged, and L maintain, but Cor the
action of the reform press at Memphis,
in February, 1897, in taking preliminary
stems to counterfeit the mischief done
and to rally the dropping spirits or the
despairing voters, the Peoples party
would have long since experienced sue
fate of the Greenbacx, the Union Ia
nor and all other parties that have
preceded it. Through your indie att
gable efforts, in the face OF the o1tter-
est opposition, a natIonaI CONFER ehce
was held at Nashville, Tenn, July y, OF
last year. The brave and patriotic de-
Uberations of that body served to re-
animate the hearts and revive the
hopes of Populists from principle, every
where, in the same proportion that It
started and alarmed the official spoils
men, who fain would have used them
as political Hessians to further their
selfish schemes and personal ends.
Your national organization committee
which has done so much to restore our
party to its once grand estate was the
offspring of the Nashville conference
and the world knows you have done
your part nobIy in defending the acts
and sustaining the decisions of that
committee. Had you faltered at any
critical stage of the proceedings, which
have feeb1y outlined, then PopuIisnl
had died, and should you faiter now
you abandon a cause made glorious by
your heroic labors and unprecedented