Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-06-30

are the epheme- w~MII'NlA 'SScfhl
rida OF politics. WILLIAM Writ
The Progressive party. which died IN
Chicago last Monday and is now await.
ing decent interment, is the iateut !,
the long series which the politica, an.
tomologists have been called upon n
classify. 1t would be unklnd to say that
these parties are interesting to burolo.
gists, but every one OF them has stArted
with what the irreverent would cali aoma
kind of bug" and every one has bean
years in incnbatinS.
There was the anti.Masonic party a,
1882, which was composed of opponens
Of the Democracy who seized upon the
disappearance of William or James Nor
gan--he is called by both names--a shift.
less mechanic who wrote what purported/
| to be an exposure of Masonry. The
Masons were charged with making away
| with him. He disappeared In 1925. The
issue was used with some effect In stats
elections soon after. and In 1880 O con-
vention of the antiMasons was held In
| this city. Arrangements were made at IL
| for second convention in Baltimore to
B.
were present at this second convention
from the New England and Middle States
and Ohio and Indiana.
Dragging the Courts Into Politics
They intended to nominate Justice
Mclean, of the Supreme Court, and he
was willing to accept the honor. He had
| served as Postmaster General under Mon.
roe and Adams, but had declined to be q
party to the distribution of the spolls
which Jackson inaugurated. jackson
thereupon put him on the bench, and he
Immediately Joined the opposition Justice
Mclean withdrew when 1t became known
that influential National Republicans
whose party was planning to nominate
Henry Clay, would not support him. Yet
the convention wanted the moral support
of the, Supreme Court, and the delegates
invited Chief Justice John Marshall, who
was in the city, to be present during their
deliberations. He accepted and smiled on
them from his place, without any thought
of degrading the bench. The convention
finally nominated William Writ, Of Mary,
land, who had been Attorney General
under Monroe and Adams. In his speech
of acceptance Writ confessed that he 4
had been Mason and did not see any
harm in 1t until the anti-Masonic party
was formed. He offered to withdraw II 4
the convention did not like him. but the
delegates insisted that he run. He polied
a small vote, but he carried Vermont and
received it's seven ELECTORAL votes.
No other third party nominee received
any electoral votes until the election OF
1855, when Millard Fillmore, as the can :
didate of the Americans against Ere
mont, Republican, and Buchanan. Dem 2
ocrat, carried Maryland. Fillmore was
nominated in Philadelphia by conyen-
ton made up of delegates who had inner
tied the hostility of the Know Nothings
and Native Americans to persons OF for
eign birth and the Roman Catholic faith
The Party of "Flat" Money
The Civil War put a quietus TO polticai
vagares for while, and 1t was not until
1876 that the third party reappeared with
the nomination of Peter Cooper for the
presidency on the Greenback ticket. the
great Greenbacker of that time, however
was Solon Chase. of Maine who drove
about the country with a yoke OF oxen
He made speeches from the tail Of his OK
cart, telling the people that Uncle sam
was great enough TO take piece OF
paper and print on 1t This is One Dollar
and compel the world to accept 1t at i1s
face value. The economists called TINS
fiat money, but the ignorant, whose eye
sight was not very good, usually read II a.
nat" money and argued that that was
the correct title, because paper dollar
is fiat, isn't it?"
The Greenback party survived throusn
three presidential campaigns, and its iAs.
candidate was that Massachusetts, pohtlcAi
buocaneer Benjamin f. Butler. The REQ
ple's party, which entered the nauonh
field In 1899, inherited its financial mere
sles and nominated James B. Weaver
who had been the Greenback candidate
in 1880. Weaver was the first third-paFsy
man since Fillmore TO get any eleototai
votes He carried Kansas, Nevada anu
Idaho, and received one of the four vo's'
OF Oregon and one OF the three OF Nofsn
Dakota, making a total OF 22. or 10 mof9
than Mr.. Taft received in 1912.
Roosevelt holds the record OF pollhs
the largest third-party vote in the nisssls
OF the country, Eighty-eight elec'ols
voted for him, and his popular Yoto -
more than 100000. or more than -.
successful candidate for the presidenes
received up 20 1915.
The Prohibitionlsts, who have nsss,
chosen single eieetor, have psfslsssr
longer than any other third party. tnsn
irst candidate was named in 1879 ~nsn
they called themselves the Tempeisuss
party. In 1876 they changed the n.ia
10 Prohibltionists They poll anoes
quarter OF million votes, and are nlaklse
no gains. u ~