The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1912-10-17
PETER FOUNDED
P0PUL|ST PARTY
As United States Senator He
Made a Sensation.
HIS WHISPERS WERE FAMOUS,
They Obseured His Whole Face EXCEPT
the Nose and Eyes and Extended
Halfway to His Waist-One of First
to Denounce Wall Street.

the Nose and Eyes and Extended
Halfway to His Waist-One of First
to Denounce Wall Street
William A. PETER, who died recently.
was the first and only Pepulist 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
nave 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 men,,
DRY to recall the sensation which Sen
ator PETER made when he went to-
Washington as United States senator.
He wore a beard which obscured his
Whole face except his nose and ewes
and extended halfway to 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
Peffer. farmer. The lad began teach
Ing school when he was fifteen wears
old and worked on his fathers farm
when the country schools were not in,
session. He went west when he was
tWenty-one and in the second year Of
the civil war enlisted as a private in
the Eighty-third regiment of Illinois.
volunteers He served to the end of
the war and was mustered out ranked
as lieutenant.
He went to Clarksville Tenn, and
began the practice of law. but soon,
afterward went to Kansas, where he,
lived for the rest of his life. He es-
tabllshed 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 was the Prohibition
candidate for governor. Then he went
back to his desk and spent the rest of
his years as a writer.
In contribution to the North Amer
lean Review. written while he was still
in the senate. he gave a terse sum-.
mary of the Populistic creed. 1t has
many familiar ideas and several ia
miliar phrases:
PopuIist Creed Summarized.
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 constitutions
of the United States was adopted. it
proposes to insure domestic tranquility
by securing to every man and womalt
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-
ishing class legislation: to secure the
blessings Of liberty to ourselves and
our posterity' by protecting the pro-
ducinS MASSES against the spoliation of
SPECTATORS and usurers''
Senator PETER was one of the first
to raise Il loud voice against Wall
street. he fought "intrenched capital'
and "veSted interests with all the Wig
or Of his makeup.
He wrote in 1900 i book on THE
Rise and Fall of Populism In the Unit
Ell 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 and of tread. humble in
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 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 until
q few years ago.