The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-10-28
FUSION ARRANGED FOR 1900.

1t is Fusion again in 1900 upon the
same terms as an 1894, and the parties
issues that brought them into power in
that year.
There were once $4,000 Populists in
North Carolina. That number dwindled
down to $4,000 in 1896, and in 1898 the
number who voted the Fusion ticket did
not exceed 10000 or $4,000. The party
was strong and powerful an 1894 because
Cleveland, who had been elected Presi-
dent as Democrat, had carried out
Republican measures. In the State. too.
there were men who had been Demo
Gratis, who didn't like this or that thing,
and they wanted a change. In 1896
when the National Democratic party re-
pudiated Cleveland and Cevelandism,
many of the Populists-those who left
on the money question-returned to the
Democratic party. In 1898, when they
saw what the result of their fusion with
the negro party had wrought, many more
popuhsts returned to the Democratic
party. And in 1900, when the only
chance to eliminate the negro vote is by
voting with the Democrats, all the bal
ance except the pie-hunters and those
who love to affiliate with negroes be-
cause it suits their taste, will come back
TO the only party that stands for ''the
White Man and the White Metal"
In the face of the outspoken advocacy
of the amendment by many Populists
and some Republicans, the pie-eaters and
pie-hunters who know that their hope of
office depends solely ON keeping 10000
negro voters on the poll books, are great
" alarmed, and are looking about for
some craft to carry them safely through
the storm of popular wrath and indigna-
ton. Three months ago the Populist
office-holders We're saying that lat the
proper time, to quote their leader, they
would come out for the amendment, and
it was talked among them that while the
Populist party might not declare in ia
vor Of it, the policy would be to leave
their people free to vote as they pleased.
That was before the recent bargain made
between the Republican and Populist
office leaders. In the past two weeks,
these so-called Populist pie-eaters have
changed their tune and are now all
taking up the Radical cry and denounc-
ing the dishonest election law" and the
plan of DISTINGUISHING ignorant white
and colored voters alike" Pick up any
of their papers and contrast them with
the utterances Of the Spring, and you
would not suppose they were the same
sheets.
As an evidence that the Pornlist pa
rprs are going to fohow Py1tono91's
lead the editorial columns Of the Cau
casian this week show that it has en-
tered the fight on the lines marked ont
by Pritchard, and the Hickory Times
Mercury, which sneezes when the eau
casian takes snuff, said III this weeks
issue:
Senator Pri1chard's address is a high
toned legal, production. He les not
deal III mud and slime Whether one
agrees with it or no, he IS comDellcd 10
admire the manner and styl, in which
the Senator spoke it. This will nave its
weight upon the intelligent vcte- Mr hear
so much about-so. much SO till it viii
tale more than buster and mean liGuor
TO wipe it out
What has suddenly come over them?
The answer is plain. The Radical bosses
and the Populist office-holders have re-
Gently made bargain, the full terms of
which we are not at liberty to print now
because our Republican informant says
he cannot yet disclose them. Here is
his statement:
1.-THE fusion has been perfected. There
is no longer any friction between Prit-
chard and Butler They have made a
compact by which Butler is to join
Pritchard in a hot fight against the
amendment, but to veil his opposition to
the amendment now by pretending to
fight chiefly against the new election
law. The Republicans are to put up all
the money needed to pay for and circu-
late campaign literature and send out
organizers and speakers. The Populists
arc TO get in front and make a big howl
chiefly in the East against stealing and
DISTINGUISHING. and the Republicans are
to do most of the bowling in the West