New-York tribune., 1908-04-05
THE POPULTST TICKET.

The Populist party is the first nauonal organ
ization in the field with Presidential tlckeI.
The national convention. which met at 81 LOUIS
last week. rudely repulsed all suggestions that
If make itself tender to another national party
ss II did in 1896 and 1900 and selected nom
,nees of ifs OWN. 4 few of the advocates OF
fusion withdrew. but it was made clear that the
Ponulisfs will stick this year TO the middle or
the road and take their chances with uckes
and platform of their own making
The history of this party is peculiar ID that IL
developed a very disproportonate strength III
its first Presidential canvass and then frltterSd
that strength away through mismanagemeht'
Ii did not grow and could not even MAINTAIN IL
self because its leaders lacked intelligence ana
foresight They did not know how to proht by
the OPPORTUNITIES offered them The Democratic
nsrfy in 1892 under conservative" management
committed blunder which gave Populsm an
extraordinary impetus General Weaver, Of
Iowa. was the Populist candidate for President,
and the Democratic National Committee, hoping
to divert electoral votes in the Far Western
states from General Harrison sent orders 10
the Democrats in those states TO vote Tor Pop-
uIist electors. The scheme worked successfully
in Kansas Colorado. Idaho and Nevada, where
Populist electors were chosen. It also helped
10 give one electoral vote TO Weaver in North
Dakota and one in Oregon. The Populst Presi-
Electoral College, and his popular vote IN the
country at large was 1.O41 ,461.
This was a fiattering start for the new organ
ization 1t had drawn to itself the support Of
several hundred thousand Democrats. If a con
servative Democratic candidate had been nom
mated in 1896 the POpulist party would prob
ably have polled more votes than the Demo
cratic But its leaders did not know how TO hold
their Democratic auXiliaries and at the same
time avoid fusion with the radical element
which came into power in 1896 in the Demo-
cratic party. The Populist managers had COM
mitted themselves so strongly to the single issue
of free silver coinage that when Mr.. Bryan was
nominated on that issue by both the Democrats
and the Western silver Republicans they could
not hold themselves aloof from the combination.
They accepted Bryan after a bitter fight in the
1896 convention. and then with impractical per
yersenesS rejected Sewall and nominated Thomas
+. Watson for the Vice-Presidency. Their vote
of 1892 was reabsorbed by the Democratic man
agement and in 1900 there was nothing left for
them TO do but renominate Mr.. Bryan and later
to retire their own Eice-Presidential candidate
in favor of Adla E. Stevenson.
The conservative" wing got control OF the
Democratic party in 1901 and the continuance
of fusion with the Populsts became impossible
But the PopuIist organization had shrunk to a
mere skeleton. and the Watson electoral ticket
Of 1904 polled only 1929 votes-One-tenth of
the total for 1892. The party can only hope to
regain its position by asserting its Individuality
and its leaders have taken the one step neces-
sary 10 prevent dissolution by deciding 10 avoid
fusion hereafter and to make an independent
canvass on their own issues There is room for
a Populist party. especially in the South, and
Mr.. Watson's recent activities have shown that
il still exerts some influence in that section. 1t
n do q HaTiO0al
could create a political division in the Southern
States which did not follow race lines. Such a
division, as Mr.. Watson justly says. would re-
generate and modernze the South politically,
and II is high time for such regeneration and
moderniZatiOn