The Connecticut labor news., 1924-10-18

Weaver and La Toilette is not exact, for if La Toilette can swing two great states to the Democratic column while depriving the Republicans of a solid block of normally Republican states, most politicians predict he will insure the election of John w Davis.
 Third Parties Common.
 The very year the Republican party was established, 1850, also saw third the Electoral College, and before that date third party candidates were more the rule than the exception. Ex-Presl- dent Willard Fillmore, the third party candidate that year, however, is worth noting for he ran on the American, or Know Nothing, platform, and h1s followers were the spiritual grand daddies of the Ku Kluxers of 1924. Fillmore received eight electoral votes.
 The Democratic party boldly de- nounced radical and religious intoler- ance i'll their platform, and on this issue their candidates, James Bu- chanan, was elected.
 Incidentally, the Republican plat form, which hedged on the Ku klux issue, found an issue i'll polygamy, which 1t declared must cease. It was burning issue, too, for there is prob ably no group i'll our country now that +1,o were III 1856. All was confusion in that eelction with the shadow of the Civil War hanging over the country. The elections of 1864 were held amid hysteria which makes the evening of the Klan vote in Madison Square Garden last spring seem like the work of House of Bishops. The Demo lcratic party held three conventions, one in cooperation with the old American Know Nothing party and nominated three rival candidates for president Douglas Breckenridge and ex-Senator John Bell Each received a few cleo toral votes, l23 all together, against the 180 which were cast for Abraham Lincoln.
 The Civil War first brought James B. Weaver into prominence. He had been born i'll 1853 in Dayton, o. In the Battle of Corinth his colonel and lieutenant colonel were shot down, and Major x Weaver led his regiment through to a Union victory. At the end of the war, he was brevetted a brigadier general.
 For the rest of his 80 years-he died lin 1912-Weaver was Civil War gen eral. He began by looking faintly like Grover Cleveland in his sternest mo- n1ents. As he grew lean and old his profile became sharper and more mili- tary and with his fierce eyebrows and Eheavy mustache he became the per feet type of an old soldier.
 Weaver Always Fighter.
 I He was fighter too, and Battling Bob" La Toilette has not earned his affeCtionate nickname more honsstx than Weaver earned his reputation for be11igerency. It became per manently fixed in 1880 when as rep resentative, he led a pitched battle on the floor of the House against the fol- lowers of William 4. J. Sparks of IT, linois in which both sides used cuspi- dors as weapons. The battle ended with mighty blow of chair in the hands of Sparks.
 Fresh from battle, Weaver became a candidate for President for the first time, running on the Populist- Green 1 back ticket. From the Populist party 1 he got the nickname of Pop Weaver l i'll that election, and remained Pop ] the rest of his life. The election that l year was really between creditors and debtors. In the boon reconstruction i days after the Civil War huge for tunes and many debtnrs had both been created, The fortunes and the debts. too, had been made in money de- preciated ythe war. Now the debts, on which the fortunes were built, had fallen due. and the debtors naturally wanted cheap" money again with which to pay. The Populist platform callede for an extension of the cur rency until $50 was circulation for every inhabitant oi the country Weaver received 37,O00 popular votes and no votes in the Electoral College James A. Garfield was elected presi- dent.
 Led "Whiskers' Party.
 The movement headed by Pop Wea- yer grew. In 1892 the real battle came, The leadership oi the ''whisk- CTS" party 0892 for long haired and parlor BoIshevis) was worth fighting for, and Weaver had to struggle for