The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1904-10-13
PopuEist Candidate Accepts
Nomination Of Party.
A SCORCHING EPISTLE
Both Democrats and Republicans are
Spilled on the Same Pitchfork.
An Appeal to the Voters Of
the Country.

lie at Birmingham, Ala, Sunday night
his letter accepting the nomination of
the Peoples Party for the presidency.
The letter is very lengthy, and much
of it is devoted to bitter arraign
! ment of the democratic and republi
can parties.
He devotes considerable space to
explaining why the peoples party
stands for the initiative and referen-
dunn, and the imperative mandate and
right of recall, under which officials
| who fail in doing their duty can be
summarily punished. He declares
strongly for the election of all Off.
GERS by the people, which "for one
thing would bring the federal judges
to their senses and take out Of their
inflated souls the ideas that they are
earthly editions Of Jehovah"
In the beginning Mr.. Watson says:
To Hon. Samuel w. Williams, Chair
man Committee on Notification:
When two great political parties have.
in turn, governed country, and have
between them brought about unsatis
factory conditions, it is but a natural
fact that a third party should arise.
Citizens who have looked in vain to
''the two great parties" for remedial
legislation lose confidence for both
after a while, and adopt one Of two
courses-they either submit to the
evils of bad government, or protest by
organizing third party.
To the student of history there Is
nothing more saddening than the ten
dency Of the people to submit. AS a
rule political education never reaches
the masses. Statecraft, like priest
craft, jealously guards it's secrets.
There is always the inner sanctuary
which the people are taught to be-
lieve would be profaned by the touch
of their unholy feet.
Again, in organized government,
there is a mysterious reverence for
authority. "Whatever IS, is right" to
the unthinking multitude; and the Vo'
taries. of power never cease to deepen
that impression. Thus, partly from
ignorance and partly from reverence
for established authority, the people,
in every age, have shown more In
clination to submit to bad government
than to resist it.
In concluding Mr.. Watson makes a
direct appeal to the voters in the fol-
lowing:
To the courage and the intelligence
of the voter appeal. If you think
am right, vote that way, or you are a
moral coward. Do not fear that your
vote will be thrown away" Your
vote is never thrown away until It
ceases to be the representative OF your
honest convictions.
To the extent that the opponents OF
republican principles support me IN
1904 the hands of those will be
STRENGTHENED who shall make war upon
the republicans in 1908. The present
attitude of national democracy is an
impossible one. They will be driven
from it, beyond all doubt. Four years
from now the Belmonts, Germans and
Hills should be put into the republican
camp where they belong. The real
democrats will return to their Omaha
and Chicago platform. In some honor
able way the Bryan democrats must
act with US; the cause demands IT,;
duty requires it; patriotism exacts IT,
to the success of true democracy it Is
indispensable To preserve an organl'
zation of resistance 10 the plutocracy
to show them that they cannot play
their selfish game quite so easily as
they had imagined, to make them feel
that there is life in the people yet, to
form q nucleus around which the be-
trayed people could rally, we make
this struggle.
It has already grown into larger
proportions than could have foreseen
It promises to bring forth good fruit
without heart sickening delays.
accept the nomination rendered me
and indorse the platform upon which
it is made. In this campaign, when
plutocracy has captured both the olc
parties, it seemed an absolute neces
si1y that some one should erect the
standard of Jefferson democracy. Hao
no one made the effort to inf'lse the
spirit of resistance into the people
four more years of apathy and discon
tent might have rendered the case
hopeless. The leaders in 1908 Whe
would seek to rekindle the hopes Of
the masses might have been met WITH
| the cry, "Too late!"