Omaha daily bee., 1898-06-17

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ton OF MIR. Bryan and still continued to so
hold 1t. 1t would never be used except upon
Mr.. Bryan's written direction.
Butter Defends Himself.
Another talk directed toward the neces-
sity for the resignation OF Chairman Butler
was INDUCED in by Colonel Burkitt and then
Senator Butler took up his own defense. He
wanted to tell the gentlemen from Texas
and Missouri who had been fighting him that
he was made of North Carolina material,
which would not run under hre," and though
they tried to do so for another twenty-four
hours they could not wear him out. Gle
would suffer his right arm to be torn OFF be-
fore he would yield under the circum-
Stances They might cause him to lose his
health, but they could not force him to re-
tire so long as he believed that he was doing
his duty by his party and his country. lie
intimated that he might have considered the
advisability of a resignation had it not been
for the hard fight the Texans had made upon
him and the manner in which he had been
treated in his own state by men whom he
had sought to befriend and for whom he had
stood up. His own colleagues on the COM
mittee from North. Carolina, ]. l.. Ramsey
and Y. I. Garrett, after, upon his advice,
they had been retained upon the national
committee, had turned over their proxies to
two of bis opponents in Texas, Messrs. r. A.
Cain and r. Il. Peters, and upon every prop
osition opposed to him in the committee the
votes of these two Texans had been cast
against him. His enemies could not force
him to yield by any such tactics, and, there
fore, no matter how much his resignation
was insisted upon by his opponents he
would not yield. His words were loudly APP
plauded by the fusionists.
Several other speeches were made, prin-
cipally by w. L. ~Haughawout of Missouri
and George f. Washburn of Massachusetts.
OF course Mr.. Haughawout maintained the
position Colonel Burkitt had taken and re-
iterated the principle of the Omaha platform
that no oficeholder, national, state or
municipal, should hold any position of au-
thority either in the primaries or the con-
v~entions of the party. On the other hand
MIR. Washburn stood by Mr. Butler and
voiced the sentiment that under no circum-
stances should Mr.. Butler resign" "He
must not resign repeated Mr.. Washburn.
1t vas finally decided to have another con
ference committee appointed from both
sides. For the Butterflies, Messrs. G. f.
Washburn of Massachusetts, J. II. Anderson
of Idaho and Eltweed Pomeroy Of New
Jersey were selected, and for the middle
of readers" General William Phillips of
Georgia, James H. Ferriss of the JOLT. (ll.)
News and S. C. Cranberry of Texas were
chosen.
An adjournment was then taken at a late
hour to give the new conferees a chance to
meet together and the hour of 8 p. m. was
fixed upon for hearing their report.
HercuIenn Task.
When after IL p. IN. the national commit
tee convened it was found that the new con
ference committees had a much more diff
cult task on hand to effect a basis of agree.
men than had the old ones. In the-mean
time the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. had hello
a meeting at the Barker hotel and had in.
structed the conferees representing them &c
hold out for Chairman Buffers resignation
no matter how long it took-to follow the
identical tactics that had been pursued the
day previous by the fusionists in the mat
ter of the credentials report, the Park com.
mittee indulging in the hope that they could
succeed in wearing out Senator Butler. The
fnti-fusionists felt much better than they
had the night before over the matter of ex.
penses, because they had received an as
surance from e. Il. Peters, one of the Tex.
ans who hold a North Carolina proxy, thar
he would cover the expense of every mid
die f-the-roader'' in Omaha until the figh'
was settled. He own Is, 900 acres of cotton
land in Texas and consequently is consid.
cred to be in a position 10 sustain his les.
favored fellow-kickers. Besides being /:
"middle-of-the- rOader" and a determined op.
ponent of Senator Butler, Mr.. Peters is tn,
president of the National Cotton Growers
association.
More OratOry on Tap.
The conference committees had intimated
- H. ~ a.
time-would probably need until l a. H.
but the national committee evidently pre-,
ferred to take advantage of the nocturnal
hours for purposes of oratory for no propo.
sition to adjourn was needed until midnight
And not then until a fight over whether
John r. Sovereign of Missouri should bt
allowed a seat as the holder of a proxy from
J. H. Voorhees, of Colorado or not had beer
enjoyed.
The motion to admit Sovereign was mad,
by Robert Schilling of Wisconsin.
Colonel Frank Burkitt at once objected
and several points of order were raised b,
Haughawout of Missouri and other anti
fusionists against MIR. Sovereign's presence
in the meeting until his status was deter
mined upon.
Colonel Burkitt said Sovereign's own stat
had removed him from his position as
committeeman because he had electioneereC
against a straight populist in 1896.
Chairman Butler permitted Sovereign t.
say a word or two in his own behalf ant
Sovereign pronounced Colonel Burkitt'
statement false and an uproar ensued. ]
was concluded then that the best thing t
do was to take a recess until ! a. m. a
which time the report of the confcrees wa
expected.
COnfarces report.
The conferees finally reported after
o'clock this morning, or rather they brough
in two reports, one from the "middle-of
, the-roaders' and one from the Butleries.
General William Phillips read the former
Its main point was a recommendation tina
the principle of the Omaha platform agains
officeholders being allowed membership |
the committees and conventions of the part
, should, be lived up to strictly in the future
: The other report was read by Eltwee
Pomeroy OF New Jersey. Its chief conces
=, sion was that the populist national conven
ton in 1900 should be held at least a mont
earlier than either the democratic or re
publican conventions.
4 AS the Butterflies were not willing to con
cada tho omaha nlatforn nripcinla raanact