Omaha daily bee., 1902-08-30
WEBB SHOWS UP FUSIONISM
Ardent POPulist DsnOunOss Alleged Merger
Of Parties In Nebraska Politics.
DECLARES PARTY is BRYAN CRAZY
Former Memb Of state Legislature
Gives Organism the Cold Shoulder
and Asserts Real status OF
Fusion Party.

An ardent father Of populism In Nebraska,
E.. NJ. Webb, former editor Of the Custer
County Independent during the great pop
ulist landslide in Nebraska, d~enounces the
fusionism Of today as a chespened and de-
graded quality Of What was once his ideal
of government Mr.. Webb says:
Editor Queen: Last week l was assailed
by all the animals in the fusion menagerie.
Permit me to offer a few reasons for the
faith within me. The chief accuses me Of
the crime Of being elected to the state leg
i~slature by virtue Of populist votes. I
plead guilty. / was elected as a p~opulist,
by populists and without democratic aid,
on a platform Endorsed by such patriots as
Thomas y. Watson, ~Ignatius Donnelly and
Colonel 8. F. Norton-men who never
STEPPED their souls in fusion filth. l owe
populists much. But l owe nothing TO
that brand of democrats. calling themselves
| populists, who are led by W. J. Bryan, w.
H. Thompson and M. G. Harrington. They
are a different set. and ~populism is a
stranger at their doors.
II fusionists can vote the democratic
ticket for six years to kill populism ana
still be %populists. why cannot anti-fl-
~slonists vote the republican tick one
year and still be populists7 Will some
fusionist please answer?
The cry Of democrats for half a century
has been the tariff. In 1896 they dropped
the tariff question and made the campaign
on bimetallism, income tax and against
government by injunction. In 1900 they
dropped bimetsllism and the income tax,
and went into the campaign on their new
found issue of Imperialism" Now that
their cry Of imperialism has proven to be
a fake, they have raised a roar about
trusts and the Fowler bill, to furnish their
party organs with a subject to talk about,
while their peerless leader" goes chasing
up and down the country trying to unearth
some new fake issue for the next cam
paign.
Are Bryan Grassy.
In 1892 populists were populists and re.
NAMED populists until 1895, when the fu-
sionists, led by emisearies Of the demo-
cratic party, went crazy over Bryan and
helped the democrats knife Watson. In
1900 the .fusionists slapped populism in the
face, nominated a democrat for president
and a republican for vice president, boosted
of their patriotism in going outside Of
the party to find candidates and then
finally followed Bryan and Stevenson to
the political boneyard. This year they
have hauled down the populist nag in Ne
bAaoha hOhiAudNON q llAC-AOhb uChOCEdl
f0T governor. They lied TO the popuiists
of Custer county when they pledged them
selves against any further fusion In county,
state or nation, and, what is more, they
intended to lie. Their they nominated a
mossback democrat to head the county
ticket as al evidence to democrats
throughout the state that the birthplace
Of populism In Nebraska had gone demo-
cratic-as a final proof Of complete and
unconditional surrender.
Mr.. Editor. l have heard this cry against
trusts since my early boyhood. It was
originally raised as a defense for demo-
cratic free trade tallacies. II there had
been any sincerity in this cry, why did
not the democrats regulate the trusts
when they were in power and had the
chance? Mr.. Bryan proposes to license the
trusts-license what he terms legalized
robbery-but that won't hurt the trusts.
The only trust 81 l ever heard of the
democrats trying to crush is the little
2x4 starch factory established by ]. Sterling
Morton at, Nebraska City. This Mr.. Bryan
tried to crush because he loved Mr.. Nor
ton 30.
POpulists XIII Their Party.
The ~populists had the true remedy for
trusts in public ownership, but they have
killed their party and the national democ-
racy will never indorse this. demand.
l know not how others may feel, and It is
none Of my business, but /, for one, am sick
and tired Of this cheap demagoguery and
deception-of politician-made issues-of this
continual change Of front-of this gradual
drifting back to the old democratic bugbearS
Of free whisky and free trade-issues which
are long since dead and covered with the
moss Of a dim and distant past.
God intended that men should go forward
not backward-that nations and peoples
should progress morally, intellectually anC
commercially. Not that section should be
arrayed against section, and class against
class, with the democratic party against the
world. incapable of self progress and block.
ing the way against the progress OF others
l will not follow such a party nor supper
its candidates. 1 shall support the repub.
lican ticket in this campaign. not because
have changed my political views. but to cleai
the track of the political rubbish that ha
made the word reform" a laughing stock ii
Nebraska for the last six years.
II the fusionists wish to throw stones a
me let them do so. They will soon be eat