Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1904-10-18
WATsoN.s PEN In ACID.
Popu1ist Candidate in Letter of Accept.
ance Is YitrioIic.

Thomas E. Watson's letter formally
accepting the Populist nomination for
President. has been made public. Tbe
letter, which is addressed to Samuel W,
Williams. chairman of the committee on
notification. is about 1880 words long.
1t denounces fercely the Democratic
party and its candidate, declares the gold
standard .'unscientiiic and wrong" as
serts that those who produce wealth in
the United States are robbed of the
fruits of their labor and charges com
bined capital" with a plot to crush out
individual liberty by downing the labor
unions
The only hope lor the middle and low
er classes" as Mr. Watson terms them,
he sees is the rise and growth 10 success
of third party, not subject to corpora
ton domination Constructively, he pro-
poses national board of arbitration to
pass upon disputes between capital and
labor, the adoption of the initiative and
referendum for the making of federal
laws and the ownership of public utili-
ties.
The letter opens with lament by Mr..
Watson over the tendency of humanity
70 submit to the domination of a few,
who use their power for oppression. Pass
ing from historical examples to the CON
dilion of things nowm the United States.
ne finds symptoms which always have
characterized the diseased nation when
afflicted by class legislation" The COR
porauons, according to the PopuHst can
didate, Row rule the land and the people.
A blacker chapter than that which re-
cords how both the old political parties
united to despoil the common people of
the land says Mr. Watson, SIS not to be
found in the annals of class legislation"
attacking the gold standard, the can
didate says:
The gold standard is not .'irreyocably
nxed, because it is unscientific and wrong
Nothing is more certain than that the peo-
pie OK this country will continue their strug-
gle until they have a national currency
which the money power cannot control. and
Whlch answers the purpose Of perfecting
exchanges without becoming an arlnury
from which the buccaneers of modern IL
nance draw the Irresistible weapons with
which they attack values and raid the mar
kets.
In what Mr.. Watson terms "the farm
ing out to the national banks of the pow
err privilege and profit of supplying the
country with paper currency" he finds
system whereby the privileged fatten
upon uSury 1T the expense of the I'M
privileged. and hold 'despotic power"
Both the Republican and Democratic
parties are ''irrevocably fixed,' Mr. Wat
son says in their support of the national
banks
In discussing telegraph, telephone, ex-
press and railroad management, the let
ter says:
No other people among civilized nations
are so cursed with corporate tyranny as
ourselves. Half dozen corporate kings
can meet in the Office OF J. Z. Morgan and
can tax the life out of any city or town in
the United States. BY a stroke OF the pen
they can add hundreds of millions of dol
lars to the burdens of the people. They
enable the trust to Stay its rivals by grant
ing rebates or special rates, which make
competition impossible. They debauch pub
lie morals by their methods of gaining what
they want from governors Legislators,
judges editors, politicians and members OF
Congress.
Passing to a Pronunciation of the dead
ly principle" of compound interest, Mr.
Watson attacks the Standard Oil Com
pany, ]. F. Morgan. Andrew Carnegie,
August Belmont. Arthur F. German and
Charles NJ Schwab for financial opera
tons which. he says, have caused "a
rising tide of angry discomfort" all over
the country These evils all would be
cured by the application of Popalistic
IDEAS according to Mr. Watson