Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1903-05-30

and to the cause of humanity . very
grave infdelity to insist now upon
keeping the populist party IN the 8eld9
Ihave written this as the appeal of.
q brother man to q brother man. I
would be glad If you will publish it.
Sincerely and fraternally yours,
CARL D. THOMPSON.
As the writer seems to indicate that
the growth of socialism is so rapid
that it will be fatal to the hopes and
aspirations, politically or. in busi-
ness sense, for an editor to oppose
them, have resolved to drop the edi.
torial I'VE" and sign my article, In
order that my sins may not be visited
upon the head of an innocent person.
The editor-in-chiet has for some weeks
been busy on q county history, and
Whatever has appeared during that
time that displeases either republicans,
democrats or socialists has come from
my pen.
The question whether the peoples
party borrowed from socialists or the
socialist party borrowed from the pop
ulists is perhaps immaterial. There
have of course been socialists Of every
school for At least q century, but the
socialist party OF the United States
that Mr.. Thompson 10 working for
made its first appearance in the
national arena as party in the Cleo
tion of 1900. The peoples party was
organized nine years before, formu-:
lating certain demands, which Mr.. T.
says are all included In the platform
of his party. They drew the line Of
soci altsm 1T great public utilities nec-
essary in carrying on all kinds of
business, such as railroads, tele-
graphs, and money. The socialist
party makes public utility of every
thing necessary to carry on any kind
of business. In his speech here Mr..
T. laid special emphasis on the utili-
ties included by the populists, and for
that reason I made the statement that
he made 3 good populist speech. At
ter more careful consideration Of ther
spesch, viewed BY the light OF his own
book and some pamphlets by his CO.
laborers, I take it all back, because 1
see more plainly what he means by
public utilities.
The omission of mention Of the fact
that he favored an independent social
ist party was due to the fact that I
did not consider it necessary to men
tion it. When man makes repub-
lican speech we do not take pains to
mention that he wants people to vote
the republican ticket. Mr.. T., being
announced as socialist speaker,
took it for granted that people would
understand that he wanted people to
join the socialist party, and therefore
it was not mentioned. =.
After studying his book and some
others recommended by him, I have
come to the conclusion that the So
cialists want government ownership
of practically everything. They say
they want the government to own oil
the material means of production.
That must include lard, mines, for
ests, factories, railroads., and all
other means Of communications. AS
| the means of distribution must be in
cluded in production, it must also
mean all mercantile establishments.
There would thus be left no field for
private enterprises. We would all be-
come servants of the government.
Il is on this point that populism
and socialism split. The peoples
! party stands Cor individualism in ef-
fort, but believes that in order to have
that individualism it is necessary that
the means of transportation and COM
munication, as we'll as the means of
exchange lmoney} should not be put
into the hands of corporations that
can use them to suppress Individual
ism in production. With the people
having those means in their own
hands, and with the governnaent
placed nearer to the people. through
the initiative and referendum, the
trusts would have lost their most DO
tent weapon.
The socialists seem to have no def
mite ideas on the money question, at
least-none that they care to make
plain. I have vainly searched for
any utterance of what they want there.
The nearest find is an indication of
what they don't want. "A. M. Simons,
whom Mr.. T. approvingly refers to,
in his pamphlet Socialism and the
Farmers" refers to ''free silver, pop
ular banks, fat money, and a.. hun