The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-05-19
BRYAN AND TOWNE.
POpulist Reasons Which ImpelIed
This Nomination.

10 the EO1l0r OF the (IIODe.
l will be brief, but must exceed The
space usually allowed to a correspond
ent. To analyze a political convention
is very much like analyzing cyclone, for
the antics of the psychic forces vary in
no great particular from the twisting
winds which often terrOrize the prairi S
1t has been said that the Peoples party
was dead, and had it not been for the
constantly startling acts of the admin
istration, if not alarming, that kept sue
cessively agitating the public mind, it is
quite likely the party would not have
been wrought up to very high pitch;
but the Spanish war came with anneXa-
ton involved with such conditions and
such unusual eXactions as to raise the
fear Of empire. There is nothing in an
nexatiOn itself to startle the public mind
now any more than in the seven previous
annexations. But the total ignoring OF
12,0OO,0OO of people as Indigenous to the
soil as the -torrid products of their varied
isles, who had, to d large extent. been
employed as allies, and the ignoring with
equally bad faith the proclamat ton of
Gen. Miles to the Porto Rcans, and the
pro-English trend of our foreign policy,
which sent agents out, not to study the
English colonial system, but to fami Tar
lie themselves with it enough to eXtol it.
to praise it, so that the people might not
its beginning after the present congress
was elected, but before IT'S first session.
Since congress convened we have the
Macrum business, which discovered the
fact that our state department was in
accord with Great Britain in suppress ling
the BOer republics, and when caught in
its secret efforts to aid and comfort, we
are told that documents which wore the
broad seal Of the United States were open
ed by the British consul by mistake-a lie
thinner than the invisible web with which
Vulcan entrapped Venus and Apollo.
The first act of congress, the financial
bill, which IS of national Importance.
openly violates the pledge of the platform
of the party made in 1895, which declares
that the present gold standard shall be
maintained. This bill does not maintain
q single feature of the old gold standard
and I predict that if the present Beer
war continues premium on gold will be
demanded within a year.
The Porto Rican bill cannot be TOO
strongly denounced, but even worse than
the bill itself was the manner Of it's
passage, as 1t shows our president after
declaring it to be our plain duty to give
that island free trade, forgetting princi-
pie and the decOrums OF his high of
flee, Hobbies through congress, and signs
a bill which prohibits the performance
that, too, against this dictum of the su-
preme court of the United States:
There is certainly no power given by
the constitution to the federal govern
ment to establish and maintain colonies
bordering on the United States or at a
distance to be ruled and governed at its
own pleasure; nor to enlarge its terri
torial limits in any way except by the
admission of new states, to be admitted
as soon as their population and situation
wOl1d antitlG them
CitiZens of the United States who emil
grated to a territory belonging to the
people of the United States, cannot be
ruled as mere colonistS, dependent upon
the will of the general government to be
governed by any law it may think proper
to impose
The government and citizen both enter
1t under the authority of the constitution
with their respective rights defined and
marked out; and the federal government
can exercise no powers over his person
or property beyond what that instrument
confers, nor lawfully deny any right
which it has reserved
ut Ghe constitution places the citi-
zens of territory on the same footing
them as firmly and plainly against any.
tnroads the general government might at
tempt under the plea of implied or incl
dental powers"
All this has bred distrust and impeIled
people to conventions, and as Populists
are all opposed to that sort of thing. the
attendance at Sioux Falls was good. |
am told that by actual count there were
VIZ delegates and alternates present.
winch In this busy spring time is re-
markable; and in the two full DAYS. not
one drunken man, or one under the in
luence of liquor was seen among them.
The Sioux City Journal trying either to
be funny or sarcastic, states that the
Cataract house hired eight extra clerks
in st. Paul for IS per day. to tend It's
bar, and had no use for one of them;
that the gambling fraternity assembled
from all over the United States would
nave starved on what they got from the
cohVehtlon' and intimated chat 500 got
from one Iowa delegate was the best and
about the only strike they made, as the
Pops were not Sporty
Contrast this with Minneapolis eight