The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-08-07
YESTERDAYS TENN CREATURES.
washington time q p. m. st. Paul..
T4ts PASSING OF PoPULIsM.


A governor of one of the Southern
states, in which Populism gained much
Roadway a. few. years. ago, said, the other
day, that Populism was passing away
and Reed-net be -lenger reckoned with
as an appreciable factor in state or ma
tionaI politics. Ex-senator PETER con-
tributed an article to one Of the maya
zines recently on the passing Of Popu-
Ism, and confirmed his views by lapsing
into Republicanism. While effort is
made 70 maintain separate organiza-
ton, state aDd national, Populism is only
a shadow whose substance is almost
wholly merged in Democracy. Almost
wholly. we say having in memory the
ardent mfd-roaders and their protests
and lamentations, and the delectable
presidential ticket which they set up last
year for next years campaign.
The rise ard fall of this movement is
but a repetition of similar movements in
our past and one which like causes will
repeat in the future. 1t was at once a
protest and a rejection; protest against
the policies and methods of the dominant
party, and q rejection of the machinery
of the minority party. For the greater
part 1t was recruited from the ranks of
the Republican party by men moved by
varying motives. 1t drew into it the op-
portuniSt element Of the Democratic
Marty in sections ubara II vrae tho xyyaal,
er. 1t took on sundry men whose politi-
cal aspirations had been disappointed in
other parties One element drawn from
the Republicans went because that party
refused to advance on it's socialistic lines.
There were the advocates of the sub
treasury and land-loan plans; others left
because the socialistic trend of their
party was distasteful. Both were satu-
rated with dislike for the word Democrat
and refused to take the logical and SEN
sible step of transferring themselves di-
rectly TO that party and seeking to use
1t in accomplishing their ends. It requires
more decision than the average man has
to move openly and directly from one
party 10 another. The preiudices of the
days when men doing that were dubbed
''turn-coats" and "renegades," and os-
TRACKED, were still forces with which men
felt they had to reckon
Gradually, as the ferment worked the
elements of the new party began to differ
entiate. Soberer counsels modified the ex-
treme Views of the socialists, who then
began to fall apart. The mass began to
realize that they had more in common
with Democracy than with Republican,
Ism; that the fundamental concept of
government held by that party was. on
the whole, the truer and sounder one.
and from this element came the move
ment for fusion, the precedent of merger.
that prevailed in 1896. Others, retaining.
the collectivist views of their former
Repubicanism, returned to the party
more in accord with their views. Only
the handful of 'irreconcilables and out
casts is left.
But this movement, like all Of it's kind,
has not come and gone and left no i'm
print on public thought. Socialism is
better understood than it was ten years
ago; the dividing line between socialism
that is really individualist and that
which is collectivist; that, in other words,
which is Democratic and that which is
Republican are more clearly ard generally
seen than they were. Democrats who, a
decade ago, rejected the suggestion of
governmental ownership and operation of
certain public utilities as being an I'M
warrantable invasion of the domain OF
private enterprise now admit that it is
essentially Democratic in principle. On
the other hand socialism, as most strik-
ingly displayed in the trust DEVELOPMENT.
whose icGieal conclusion is governmental
absorption Of private industries and in
dustry. has made tremendous strides
PopHisin las come and gone, and the
old, s!l struggle is still on, augmented
son'c'@hal Icy its coming; the contest be-