Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1904-11-23
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER %, 1904
WAIsoN'S 3TA1 EMENT.

WA1soN's EMEhr.
It should be boz ne in m:nd that at
the time the Spring field convention
rendered me the pre- sidential nomi-
nation, the Peoples party had had
no exstetc e as q factor in natioDal
politics for eight years. In The Presi.
dental election of 1860 it gave to It's
nominee only SO 600 votes. To that
extent had the fusion of 1896 swallowed
up a movement which IN 1894 counted
nearly two millions Of Votes and about
1900 active newspapers, therefore we
had to build from she ground up in
1904 We had almost nothing to start
with in the way OF party organization,
campaign fund and newspapersupport
we had only three months in which to
work These things being first con-
sidered fair idea of what was accom-
plished can be had only when the Off
cal returns are known. Up to. this
time no official state ment has been
made of the vote, and can only guess
what it was from information convey
ed to me by friends in various parts
of the country. These sources, OF
course, are not very reliable. Basing
an estimate upon them, however, my
opinion is that I received something
like half million votes scattered thru
so many states, North and South,
East and West, country and town as
to Indicate that the sentiment which
gives it's moral support to the Peoples
party is national and not sectional.
l have found everywhere that the cur
rent was strong and deep in favor OF
LETTERS oman Democracy. l believe to-
day that If all these who believe in
that theory of Government could be
united in harmonious political action,
we cou d sweep the country.
Mr. Roosevelt's overwhelming ma
jori5y was not so much due to the fact
that our pc. PIE believe in class legis-
lation and the reign of special privi-
lege II was not by any means an en-
dorsement OF corporation tyranny,
tie greed of the trasts, or the methods
OF cLmbiLed capital. l sincerely be
lieve that MIR Rooseve.t's majority
over Mr.. Parker was due to Two things,
one was the immense personal popu'
larity of Mr.. Roosevelt himself, and
the other was the immense unpopular
ity OF Mr.. Cleveland's second admins,
tratiOn.
Unfortunately for Mr.. Parker he be-
came so completely Identified with the
marauders who plundered the Govern.
ment during Mr.. Clevelano's second
administration that he had to bear all
the odium which they had incurred.
The people have never had chance
to show just what they thought Of
that second administration. Mr..
Bryan two campaigns did not give
them the opportunity; it was only when
the old Cleveland combin alton Sc
cured the defeat OF Bryan and Hearst,
and dictated the nomination of Mr..
Parker til at the masses got the oppor.
tunity to vent upon national candi.
date the intense hatred which they had
been nursing for years against suct
men as Olney and Belmont and Carl
isle and Cleveland himself. They
knew that could not be elected and
they we're so eager to make the best Of
the opportunity to safeguard the
country against a repetition of tina,
saturnalia Of class legislation which
marked Cleveland's second admins.
tration that they rushed to Roosevelt
and gave him a majority which does
not under ordinary circumstances be.
long to the Republican party. In
other words, the personality of Mr..
Roosevelt and the unEopularity Of
Parker's environn ent carried into the
Republican columns vast multitudes
of men, who under ordinary circum
stances would not be found there.
My own plans for the future embrace
q complete organization of the people
along the lines Of Jeffersonian demo-
cracy, the. re. establishment Of reform
papers, and 81 stemstic propaganda
of Jeffersonian principles, in orde,
that in 1908 there shall be q party o.
g. nuine opposition to the Republicsr
party and it's present policies. Il
political history teaches anything II
is that old parties never accomplish
any reform unless they are irresistibly
driven to it by pressure from without
l hope at least to be of some use tc
my country in aidtrg those who will
apply that p, assure 1t is immaterial
to me who does the work which tho re.
formers want done so that the work
itself is done.
I have no faith whatever that re.
forms will be accomplished by the
Democratic party. 1t is not only dis.
credited in the eyes of the people by a
series of crushing defeats, but it has
ben 80 Facilitating in it's course, i,
has hanged its principles so often. i,
has run from OF extreme to another
20 recently, it had such msgniticen,
opportunity in 1892 to work out the
reforms to which they stood pledged
and they made such q wretched use Of
that opportunity, that it cannot in
spire the confidence which leads to
success. Since 1892 the Democratic
marty has almost entirely boxed the