The representative., 1900-04-19
A Big ROW ON HAND
The FusfOnists Deserting the Flu.
sion Gang.

sion Gang.
The strong tendency, manifested al
over the nation, to drop fusion and sup
bort straight Populism has invaded
even the fusion state central commit
tee of Minnesota.
We find the following in the Mime
apolis Tribune Of April II:
Francis H. Clark. chairman of the Popu
list state committee, has at last taken tht
action indicated several days ago by The
Nribune, and removed from position thu
Hennepin county Populist committee, anl
appointed the following men in their places
Paul Fontaine, temporary chairman
Thomas Chapman, temporary secretary; w
R. Dobbyn, A D. Campbell, L. D. Brown
s. NJ. Owen, Charles Gibson, H. j. O. Reed
D. A. Kennedy, A. T. Grotte, L. A. Wei
berg, John Peterson, w. F. McCullom. l.
H: Lydiard and Timothy Ryan.
1T seems that the state committee sent
notices to the Hennepin committee instruct
Ing call Tor convention to select dele
gates to the national convention to be held
at Sioux Falls, and that the notices were
sent to the wrong man as chairman. AT
least the local chairman claims that he
never received the notice, and therefore
convention.
In clearing up this misunderstanding It
was discovered that the Hennepin county
committee was poor reed to lean upon.
and change was considered desirable.
Therefore the appointment as above noted
was made.
Members of the county committee say
that they are disgusted with the efforts be-
ing made to keep up an organization SIM
ply in order to deceive people into voting
hn nroft snly4
are glad to be relieved of their committee
positions 1t is claimed by them that the
organization has been a blind merely and
tnat In the last campaign when the cam
palgn committee was appointed men were
named only after they had been given to
thoroughly understand that they were not
expected to put in any campaign work. but
let the Democrats receive such assistance
as they could give.
Chairman Clark justif1es his arbitrary
action upon the resolution, which it is said
the POpulist state committee adopted. au-
thorizing such removals in cases where
deemed necessary,
Locally, Populists are Of the opinion that
Mr.. Clark's action counts for very little.
and while they look upon it with contempt
ana lndlHerence, they are not inclined to
KICK up row or cause unnecessary trouble
Chairman A. D. Campbell, of the county
committee, voiced the sentiment fairly by
saying:
We have no great interest In the
matter and care little what the state
committee may choose to do. At the
last meeting of our committee wedis
cussed the question whether or not our
party has legal standing in this
county and we reached the conclusion
tnat we had no such standing We
afterwards submitted the question tn
the city attorney. and he told us our
conclusion was correct.
therefore, there is no legal possi-
bility of Populist convention. The
best that can be had Is a mass conven-
.on, ana tnere IS such great lack Of
interest all around that I doubt yerv
much If call would bring out enough
people to make showing
Discussing the matter further Chairman
Campbell said
1t is my judgment that fusion has
killed the Populist party and that It is
useless to longer keep up the farce Of
2 separate organization. I was against
fusion at the outset because I believed
then 1t could only result in the death
o. Of the smaller party. Events have JUS
tilted my belief.
Now it is almost hopeless task to
try to keep up separate organization.
most OF us are practically with the
democrats and will vote with them.
some Few have gone to the Republican
loss to the fusion movement, Manv ~
our OLD time leaders have accepted and
hold office under the state administra-
tion, and they are the only ones who ara
directly interested in keeping the party
organization alive. BY doing so they
hope to hold on a while longer than
they could under other circumstance
FOR one do not believe in maintaining
political organization for such a pur.
pose.
We find the following in the st.
Paul Dispatch Of the 14th inst,
The Ramsey county Populist comm,ttee
acting in conjunction with the citv CON-
pittee, has called the county convention
70 eject delegates to the state deIe1ato
convention for April %. At the meefino
wednesday evening the members c-iticisod
IRe state central committee and Chairman
Clarke for removing members of tho countr |
committees of Hennepin and at louis
counties because their ideas did not conforn
70 MS own and those Of Secretary Austin
state committeeman Paradis was calIad
upon to explain the peculiar actions or the
gaze committee and its officers, and to state
tH - "nat os;. au'aority they presumed to dictate
counties. Paridis stated that the Ponm-
iist committee, at none of It's meatinss
nao autnorized such action on the mart -; |
the chairman. and that Austin was not a |
OF the committee at all but mera,v
q Cs.. ~ .ue capacity OF private secretary
the deliberations Of the committee. and Could
lot only upon Clarke's orders rhe oot,au
" the chairman was simply a mart ~ ~.
conspiracy to renominate Lind BY fair mems
3P foul. - A"aA "aeans
This set the ball rolling ana III.
2ers Of the committee took turn 3, em- nea
~ Clarke. The trouble with these Por-
alists Y that they have not learn.d -
ae death OF their party. Had thev tatsr
~ uouDIe 20 investigate, they could easilv