The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-11-14
WATSON GIVES
OUT STATEMENT
Crank Candidate BIames Cleve-
land For Parker's Defeat.
THINKS He GOT 500, 900 VOTES
POPS SCATTERED ALL OVER THE
COUNTRY.

POPS SCATTERED ALL OVER THE
COUNTRY.
New York, Nov. 13.-Thomas E. Wat
sou today gave out the following state
ment:
IT should be borne in mind that at
the time the Springfield convention
rendered me the presidential nominal
ton the Peoples party had had no real
existence as a factor in national poll
tics for eight years. in the presidential
election OF 1900 it gave TO its nominee
only 5000 votes. To that extent had
the fusion of 1896 swallowed up a move
ment IN which il counted nearly O00.-
600 votes and about /. 800 active newspa-
pers Therefore we had TO build from
the ground up in 1894 We had almost
nothing 10 start with in the way of
party organization, campaign funds
and newspaper support: we had only
three months in which to work These
things being first considered. some fair
idea of what was accomplished can he
had only when the official returns are
known. Up to this time no official state
ment has been made of the vote, and
can only guess what il was from in
formation conveyed to me by friends
in various parts of the country. These
sources. of course, are not very relia-
bic. Basing an estimate upon them.
however my opinion is that I received
something like half million votes.
scattered through so many states. north
and south, east and west, as TO indi-
cate that the sentiment which gives its
moral SUPPORT 10 the Peoples party is
national and not sectional have
found everywhere that the current was
strong and deep in favor of jefferson
ian Democracy. l believe today that il
all those who believed in that theory
of government could be united in har-
monious action we could sweep the
country.
Lays It to Cleveland.
"Mr. Roosevelt's overwhelming ma
jority was not so much due to the fact
that our people believe in class legis-
lstiOn and the reign of special privil-
eyes. 1t was not by any means an en-
dorsement Of corporation tyranny. the
greed of the trusts or the methods of
combined capital Mr. Roosevelt's ma
jOrity over Mr.. Parker was due mainly
to two things. One was the immense
personal unpOpularity Of Mr.. Cleve-
lands. second administration Unfor-
tunately for Mr. Parker. he became SO
completely identified With the maraud-
ers who plundered the government dur
ing CIeveland's second administration
that he had TO bear all the odium
which they had incurred The people
have never had chance to show just
II. -. i
ministratiOn. Mr. Bryan's two cam
paigns did not give them the oppor-
tunity 1t was only when the old Cleve-
land commission secured the defeat Of
Bryan and Hearst and dictated the
nomination of Mr.. Parker that the
masses got the opportunity to vent
upon a national candidate the intense
hatred which they had been nursing
for years against such men as 0lney
and Belmont and Carlisle and CIeVe-
nd himself They knew that 1 could
not be elected. and they were So, eager
TO make the best Of the opportunity to
safeguard the country against a Tepe-
ttiOn of that saturnalia of class legis-
l4tion which marked ClevelaRd's sec
ond administration. that they rushed
to Roosevelt and gave him a maj ority
which does not under ordinary circum-
stances belong to the Republican par
ty In other words the personality of
Mr.. Roosevelt and the unpopularity of
Mr.. Parker's environment carried into
the Republican columns vast multi
tudes of men who under ordinary cir
cumstances would not be found there.
Has Large Ideas.
MY own plans for the future en-
brace a complete organiza ton of the
people along the lines of Jefersonian
Democracy. the re-esta blishment Of re-
form and a systematic propaganda Of
Jeffereonian principles in order that in
1898 there shall be a party of genuine
opposition 10 the Republican party and
its present policies. If political history
teaches anything it is that old parties
never accomplish any reform unless
they are irresistibly driven to ii by
pressure from without. / hope at least
to be of some use TO my country in aid
ing those who viii apply that pressure.
1t is immateriaI to me who does the
work which the reforIners want done,
so that the work itself is done.
Il have no faith whatever that re-
forms viii be accomplished by the
Democratic party, tt is discredited in
the eyes of the people by a series of
crushing defeats, but it has been so
vacillating i'm its course, it has changed
its principles so often. has run from
one extreme to another so recently
had such a magnificent opportunity in
1892 TO work out the reforms TO which
it stood pledged and made such wretch
cd use of that opportunity. that it can
not inspire the confidence which leads
to success. Since 1892 the Democratic
party has almost entirely boxed the
compass in political profession Of faith.
1t has been for pretty much everything
until this year. when IL stood for every
thing or nothing, according 10 the in
depreciation which the voter chose to
put upon its ambiguous platform.
Crack at Bryan.
Mr.. Bryan. while a great Democrat,
is not the Democratic party There are
other distinguished Democrats who
are yet to be heard from, and they may
not endorse his Populist platform.
There is John Sharp Williams of Mis-
sissippi; there is Joseph w Bailey OF
Texas; there is senator Ben r. Till
man of South Carolina: there is Sen
atOr Morgan Of Alabama; there is Sen
ator John r. Daniel Of Virginia. in
fact. there are quite number of dis
tinguished Democrats who may claim
the right TO put in word before the
next national Democratic platform is
fixed They may not be willing to
take. for instance, Mr.. Bryan's forty
seven different systems Of government
railroads; they may not be in favor Of
some other planks in his platform. BE
that as il may. Mr.. Bryan has no more
right at the present to say what the