The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1912-12-12
PETER FOUNDED
| POPULIST PARTY
As United States Senator He
Made a Sensation.
HIS WHISPERS WERE FAMOUS.

They Obscured His Whole Face Excep,
4 the Nose and Eyes and Extended
Hallway to His Wsist-ons OF First
TO Dsnounes Wall Street.
William A. PETER, who died recently
was the first and only Populist United
States senator and founder of the Pop.
ulist party.
A few months before he had suffered
the amputation Of leg that history
on Populism. upon which he was at
work, might be completed. 1t was to
have been kept In the archives of the
Kansas State Historical society to be
read by historians in years to come.
1t does not take long political mem
DRY to recall the sensation which Sen
ator PETER made when he went t.
Washington as United States senator.
He wore beard which obscured his
whole face except his nose and eyes
and extended halfway 20 his waist.
The whiskers became famous from one
end of the country to the other, and
dispatches from Washington were
known to concern Senator PETER when
they spoke of whiskers without men
tioning name.
Was Farmers Son.
He was born in Cumberland county.
Pa, on Sept 10, 1881. the son of John
PETER. farmer. The lad began teach
ing school when he was fifteen years
old and worked on his fathers farm
when the country schools were not in
session. He went west when he was
: fwenty-one and in the second year of
the civil war enlisted as private in
the Eighty-third regiment of Illinois
volunteers. He served to the end of
the war and was mustered out ranked
as a lieutenant.
He went to GAINESVILLE. Tenn. and
began the practice of law. but soon
afterward went to Kansas, where he
lived for the rest of his life. He es-
tablished two country newspapers and
in 1874 was elected to the Kansas state
senate. In 1880 he was a Republican
presidential elector. 1t was in 1891
that the wave of Populism rose in the
west. and PETER went to the United
States senate as Populist senator
Seven years later. when he had retired
from the senate. he wars the Prohibition
candidate for governor Then he went
back to his desk and spent the rest of
his years as writer.
In contribution to the North Amer
lean Review. written while he was still
In the senate, he gave terse sum-
mary of the PopuIistic creed 1t has
many familiar ideas and several ia
miliar phrases:
Populist Greed Summarized.
1.-The Populist party is an organized
demand that the functions of govern
ment shall be exercised only for the
mutual benefits of all the people. 1t
asserts that government is useful only
TO the extent that it serves to advance
the common veal Believing that the
public good is paramount to private |
interests, it protests against the dele
cation of sovereign powers to private
agencies.
Its motto Is Equal rights to all;
special privileges to none. Devoted to |
the interests for which the constitution
of the United States was adopted. it |
proposes to insure domestic tranquility !
by SECURING to every man and woman
what they earn; to establish justice
by procuring an equitable distribution
of the products and profits of labor; TO
promote the general welfare by abol
ishiiIg class legislation; to secure the
blessings Of liberty to ourselves and
our posterity' by protecting the pro
ducing masses against the spoliation of
spectators and usurers"
Senator PETER was one of the first
to raise loud voice against Wall
street. He fought 'intrenehed capital"
and vested interests with all the Wig
or of his makeup
He wrote in 1900 book on THE
Rise and Fall Of Populism In the Unit
eo States"
Mr.. PETER was a striking figure in
the senate during his period of service
there from March, 1891. to March.
1897. Tall, cadaverous, lynx eyed. soft
OF speech ana or tread, humble III
manner to the point of AFFECTION at
times, he introduced bills covering
every one of the Populist contentious
before he retired. None of them got
further than first reading by title; but,
forearmed with this knowledge. PETER
was not deferred from preparing them
with laborious care and presenting
them.
He retired so poor that the naughty
senate, which once had reviewed him
as a joke. provided for him a place on
the payroll of its contingent fund to
codify the senate index to the Con
gressional Record. This he held unit
a few years ago
10000 More Seals Than In 1911