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THE PEOPLE’S PARTI PAPER.
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Give the Women a Chance.
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for the position of State Librarian.
There is ho duty connected with
the office which a woman caunot dis
charge 33 well as a man.
In every field of industry there
should he a chance for the bread
winners of both Rexes, The law
should go no further than nrtture
does in dieqwsliiywg a woman for
any work :ho is willing and able to
do. ,
An Edit ora! Which We Endorse.
We clip the following from The
Evening Journal, a reform daily
published Lotus, Mo.:
THE ONLY WAY.
If ths leioriuura expect to win in
1900 they must gat together in more
itfootusl’’style than they did in the
campaign of 1896. They can never
win by attempting to have one can
&d:ito straddle half a dozen parties
ail formed on different and distinct
principle?, and half tho membership
ot each pulling against the nominee
for one cause or the other. It can
not ba accomplished by one party
vying to “h-?g” everything in sght,
giving up only tha portion that is
insignificant to either faction. Neither
c in it be brought about by «»oh party
making nominations for disgraceful
wiffidrtwaU at the eleventh hour.
Such cooperation doesnot co-oper
ate, aad can result in nothing short
of confusion, utter disruption and the
Btiseess of the opposition. These
were the unfortunate conditions sur
rounding tho campaign just closed,
and to that alone Democracy ora
its defeat.
In order to win in 1900 it is ea
seat!si ths-t ths numerous political
parties now leaning toward reform
should consolidate in such s manner
th there could be no dissensions,
no side whims to break the f&rce.
The leaders of the parties should
agree to a national convention for the
organization of a new party, at which
a declaration of principles should he
adopted embodying all the more es
sential theories of all the parties con
otrned. Chairman Jones and Chair
man Bailor should take the initiativ.
in this respect and use their best
endeavors to bring about such aa ar
rangement as speedily as po.wible.
With delegations from each party
Buch a obnicrcncs an agreement could
ei'sily be arrived at whereby a union
of reform forces could b» effected
th.it wocld ba union, and with tn
organized head; not a parody on con
b nidation.
It haa been clearly demonstrated
that the Democrats cannot win ou
the mere hobby of tree silver; free
silver > a stepping stone, ar.d that’.-
all. Populists vul never surrender
their fundamental principles for the
success of such an uhuo and the
placing iu power of the Democratic
parly; the Democrats apparently will
not embroew all that Populists are
striving for; free silver Republ'cans
are not iu harmony wilh either the
Dem ?crats or P> pulists, except on
the silver question, so it is as plain as
day that these factions can never be
effectually united without a compro
mise of soma kind that wul form
them all into one party, with 3 plat
form upon which ail can stand, and
this can only bo accomplished by a
national convention to ratify a new
and distinct organization. This con
vention should bo called at an early
date and the next few years’ cam
paign of education contacted on the
lines laid down by that conference.
There is a movement on foot to
accomplish this, and unless party
pride see iu on all aides a meeting
of this k nd may be amjug the near
future possibililiez.
The Democrats can blamo only
thsir politicians for their defeat. Had
they given the Populists any show
whatever, both the parties could
have easily elected Bryan. Ah it
was, thky wanted the whole earth or
none and the consequences were
that a great majority of the Populists
either remained at home or voted for
McKinley.—Peoples Press.
PEOPLE’S PARTY PAPER, ATLANTA, GA„ NOVEMBER 20, 1896.
Butler and Watson.
Mr. Marion Butler has given to tl o
press a reply which he wrote (after
so long a time) to Mr. Watson’s Let
ter of Acceptance. This reply of
Butler’s was so evidently written for
the purpose as be ng published after
the election that it could hardly be
seriously considered at all. It was
so late in the campaign that no utter
ance of either Butler or Watson
could change the situation, and But.
ler knew it.
Below wo publish Mr. Watson’s
rejoinder to Mr. Butler's letter, omit
ting a prefatory allusion to the lost
letter which is no longer important:
“Hon. Maeion Buti.ee :
Dear Sir—Yours received.
*****
You did not dare to publish it (the
first letter) because you felt its ar
raignment of you to bo unanswerable.
Mr. Washburne’s telegrams (to
which I was no party) did not con
tr®l you then in not publishing the
letter any more than they control
you now in suppressing it.
Tiie truth is, Senator, you fee
youreelt to be a deeply guilty man,—
as indeed you are.
Instead of managing this great
campaign in a spirit of broad patriot
ism and of courageous loyalty to your
nominee and your party, you have
allowed your personal ill-will towar Js
mo to divert yon into a tortuous,
narrow, jealous and disloyal policy
which has ship-wrecked the Peoples
party and brought the success of Mr-
Bryan to a crisis of extreme peril.
You now plead with me to puli
you out of the hole. I shall do noth
ing of the kind. You pecked your
way into it, and you must peck your
way out. ‘What’s writ is writ and I
cwld not now repair your blunders
if I tried to do so.
For eight year?, we reformers who
organized the People’s party, have
been denouncing the National Bank
ing t-ysiam.
Ho w the* can we support Sewall,
the National Banker ?
We have been denouncing the
Bondholders and plutocrats.
How can we support Sewall, the
bondholder and p utocrat?
We have denounced class legisla.
tion in .all its forme.
How can we support Sewall who
represents class legislation in its most
vicious forms ?
We Je-iounoethe McKinley Tariff.
How then can we support Sewall
who is a McKinleyite on the Tariff
question, and who not only has grown
to baa millionaire through the favors
of class legislation, but is even now
seeking a farther bounty from Con
grass in behalf of his ship building
interests.
‘•Equal rights to all and special
privileges to none,” was the bed roes
principle upon which the great Alli
ane.e movement and the Peoples
party were founded.
If we vole for Sewall, the repre
sentative and beneficiary of “speuisl
privilege,” we give the lie to ail we
have been saying for the Inst eight
years.
To ask the reformers of the South
and West to vote for an Eastern cor
poration plutocrat who is known
throughout New England as atypical
oppressor of labor, is equivalent to
requiring that they shall brand them
selves as hypocrites.and humbugs.
No party should force the voter to
do violence to his sense of right. 1
could not vote for Mr. Sewall with
out feeling that I had surrendered
uiv creed, renounced my own teaoh
and dishonored my cherished
convictions.
The Democratic party had no right
to put such a man as Sewall on its
ticket, and then demand that Popu
lists vote for him.
In effect, the Populist Convention
at St. Louis told the Democrats in
the most emphatic way that it would
support Bryan but would not support
Sewall.
I have felt myself bound by the
action of our National Convention,
and have persistently refused to ao
cspt Sewall a.i cur nominee.
Had you been equally obedient and
loyal to the highest authority of our
party Sewall would have been with
drawn long ago, and this deplorable
condition winch makes Mr. Bryan’s
success doubtful would not have
existed.
It was the domination of just such
men as Arthur Gorman, Calvin Brice,
Roswell Flower and Arthur Sewall
that made me lose hope in the Dem
aoratio party and leave it. It would
be folly, indeed, for me to go back
and help these men win a victory
which means nothing to the people
but a perpetuation of class-legisla
tion.
Unless the Peoples party can be
held together as a champion of reform
principles, the Demo ratio leader?
will tie Bryan’s hands, aud the silver
movement will not materializo.
If we compel the Populists to vot
against their reform principles, in
supporting Sewall, we kill the spirit
which vitalizes and inspires on?
movement, and it will shrink into a
mere rabble of place hunters—such
as we see under Breider that’s lead in
Kansas.
When Populist Stateleaders openly
avow the policy of selling the national
ticket and the national principles in
return for local spoils, he who run
may read the doom of Populism. Its
mission as a re generator of the na
tional body politic is endi d. Its oc
eupation as the apostle of higher and
purer ideals of national government
is gone.
Senator, because I have held these
views and have dared to express
them, you have called the Nationa
Cunmittee together at Chicago, and
issued an address condemning me—
thus putting a public affront upon
me.
No such indignity was ever before
offered a Presidential candidate by
his own committee.'
You knew that I was ill: under
the care of a physician; and before
you thus took the responsibility of
judging me, and publicly condemn
ing me, your committee should at
least have visited and consulted me
I do not believe, Senator, that the
Peoples party intended, when they
nominated me, that I should be pub
licly humiliated by you in this man
ner. The Party knew that I had
always been a ‘ Middle of the Road”
Populist; and had the Convention
disapproved ray attitude, the pre
sumption is that it would have ad
ministered the rebuke. It would not
have left the job to you.
By seeking to degrade me, you
have emphasized the fact that you
did not want me nominated at St.
Louis, —aud you have rej need the
Democrats and the Republicans ex
ceedingly. I cannot believe that you
have won the approval ofAhc Popu
lists.
In the written protest which I laid
before you at the opening of this
campaign, I warned you that if you
penis ed in trying to force our people
to vote for Sewall, I would appeal
from you to the people. I now do so.)
They must judge between u?. Yon
had no to make these deals over
my protest, and then claim that it is
now too late to apply the remedy-
Neither iu law nor in politics should
any man be suffered to take advant
age of his own wrong.
Senator, you were selected as
Chairman to help mo win this cam
paign. You wire expected to act
with me and for mo. You have nut
done so. You have acted without
me, and you have anted against m-5.
In nothing have you consulted -ne.
At no time have you told me of your
plans, cf your purposes.
In all this you may be right, and I
may be wrong. The Committee,
called off by you to one side at Chi
oago, has sustained you, and censured
me. Therefore my position is most
painful. The Bryaa Sewall commit
tee is against ms, ai d the Bryan-
Watson committee is against me.
I stand alone.
But, Senator, I was a PopuFs
while you were still camping with the
Democrats, and I have always been
a Middle-of-tbe-Road Populist whi’e
you nevsr have. A fusionht you
have always bsen, and you bargain
with the Republicans in one cam
paign and with the Democrats in ih?
next. In thin campaign, you have
bargained with both Republicans and
Democrats.
God, only, knows which bargain
you intend to keep.
As for me, I turn from you and
appeal to the rea l , true-hearted Pop
uliats. If I havo-ninnod against prin
ciplo and right in demanding that
our party and its nominees and its
creed be respected by the Democrats
who had coma to us for help,—then
I want the party to say bo, aud I will
bow to its decree.
But I do not recognize your right
to put me under the heels of the
Demoaratio tricksters and bosses, and
I shall continue to claim the privilege
of speaking and writing for the na
tional nominees of the Peoples party
I do not believe that the time ha
yet come when Populists will say it
is treason to be loyal to the Populist
ticket.
It is unnecessary for mo to say that
my letter of acceptance must stand
just as it is written.
Yours, etc.
Tiros. E. Watson.
Thomson, Gs., Oct. 28, 1896.
j The Story of Franca and the Peo
ple’s Party Paper 1 year, $1.25.
The Mission of Populism.
Its glory has been that it made its
appeal directly to the people, sought
to educate them, and tried to organ
ize them in the behalf of better gov
ernment.
As a school teacher, no political
party ever made swifter headway
than ours. We have educated the
masses as fast as we could retch
them, wherever people would li At n
converts were made. Aud no man
ever returned to eiti er of the old
oarties after having become a Popu
list in principle.
It is true that our ciuse has suf
fered much damage at the hands of
extremists. Radical ranters who
burlesqued Populism rather than il
lustrated it have prejudiced thou
sands against m. The fire-eaters
who make war upon private owner
ship of property and who seem pos
sessed by an insane desire to level
everything in sight, alarm and dis
gust many a citizen who?.e heart and
hose vote would be with us if he
understood us juA as we are.
Daring the recent campaign Popu.
list doctrines stood a better chsnw
to get a fair hearing than ever be
fore. When the Democratic party
adopted our platform at Chicago, we
at onre gained the ear of an immense
audience which, up to that hour, had
been hopelessly hostile to us. And
now that the campaign is over, the
moral viotory which Populism won
at Chicago is still oum. No Demo
crat can ever hereafter be heard to
abuse or ridicule a creed which his
party formally embraced.
Not only has Populism done mag
nificent work as an educator, but it
has achieved a yet moro signal tri
umph as a liberator of the human
miud from the slavery of party dom
ination.
/ It has smashed party tie-i right and
left. It has broken the idols of tee
market-place in a manner beautiful
to behold. It has well-nigh abolish
ed the party lash. It has utterly
abolished soiial ostracism for politi
cal opinion’s sake. No citizen any
longer hesiti’es to take sides with
any party he likes, or to vote for any
candidate he prefers. The day of
political persecution is over—even in
the South—and Populism did it!
Not only has our reform move
ment educated aud liberalized the
masse?, but it leavened both the old
Parties until they themselves throb
with the restless movement of the
pjople. Never before di 1 two cam
paign managers work harder to sat
isfy the minds of the common peo.
pie than did Jones and Hanna.
Never before did fact, argument,
and illustration count for so much in
an election. Never before was so
much economic literature printed,
distributed and read.
A few years ago tvhat did the
campaign literature consist of? Lies,
mostly. Tae Democrats would got
out a slander or two ou Blaine or
Garfield, and the Republicans would
concern their virtuous souls with a
defect or so in Cleveland’s moral
charactej; and the contest was fought
out on the old frayed and frazzled
line of “Force-Bill” on one side, and
“Bloody-shirt” on the other.
Look into the campaign books of
the two old parties, a few years
back, and see how much space is
given to mere scandals, and how lit
tie to economic principles!
In thia campaign ail was changed
—and Populism has done it.
Everybody sought information
Taa voter wanted light. He de
manded to know the facts. The
printing presses groaned night and
day to supply the demand.
The impression prevails that Mark
Hanna’s money bought McKinley’s
election. We do not share that
opinion. It is practically impossible
to bribe people by the million.
McKinley was elected because the
the Republican writers and speakers
w.re able to hold their men together,
while Bryan’s forces were scattered
by bad management.
The Popuiwt theory of money is
the only cue which can guccessfully
meet the “Bound Money” argument,
and Bryan lost votes because our
Democratic allies were not willing to
adopt our line of reasoning.
But although the campaign is over,
the diecntsiou of the money questiou
goes rig at on.
It has received a mighty impulse
which koepu it moving. And eo
grea.iy disturbed is Mirk H m a
over the outlook, that he proposes io
continue the Republican catu.pa gn
organization, ,aud to keep it at went.
Thus has Populism been doing its
work. It has put down party des.
potism. It has erased the lines o‘
sectionalism. It has brought politics
to a battle of economic doctrines, it
bis forced tho money question to
the front. It hss called tho mars 8
into such life and g-.rength as they
have not had for a generation. It
has abolisied political intolerance.
It has made huge inroads upon po
litical ignorance.
Let us not be discouraged, com
rades. Good govermens does not
happen by accident.
Under great disadvantages, we
have fought a good fight. We mist,
not falter nor fall back. The path
of duty leads onward, aud we must
press forward therein.
T. E. W.
SENATOB BU I LEit SERVES JOTICE
If Mr. Bryan Leads Reform Forces in
j 900 it Must uol be as a Democrat
From the Ralciirh Caucasian (Published
by .Senator Butler).
It is probably idle tn go back now
and review tho causes which led to
the defeat of Mr. Bryan, tut the
ehiefest among them all was the
brutal stupidity of the goldbug nom
inee for Vice Preside at in declining
to retire from the national ticket sup
oned by those forces declaring for
reform'. In may not be altogether
correct to assert that this stupidity i
the sole cause of defeat, ba: it is cer
tain ihatmacy people who favor re
form could not be persuaded to be
•leve in the sincerity of such a man
as Arthur Sewall, and we have no
hesitation in saying they were right.
We have asserted before that he wa
rn t on the ticket by the schemers t>-
defeat it, sr.d we say so now. The
object for which he was put up has
been accomplished.
Another cause of the defeat was
the failure of the party represonteu
by the Chicago Convestion to au»-
nort the Bryan ticket. If that party
hid g ven two-tKirds as many votes
to Bryan as it gave to Cleveland four
rears ago, Bryan would have been
elected.
The announcement now comes
that Mr. Bryan declares he will con
tinue to fig it the battle of reform.
It is well, perhaps, that he will do
so. He is an able leader, and it may
ba that none can now be found to
qrtal him. But great events oah b
evolved within the next four years,
and, speaking no w for the People'is
party of North Carolina, and we be
lieve for the nation, we take the lib
erty of serving notice upon Mr
Bryan that if he desires to head th-,
reform for< es of the People’s party
ia ths next light he mast done under
some other name than that of Dem
ocrat. Tc at name has become a re
proach and a stench among the p«o
--•le, and it -rill not be supported any
more now nor hereafter.
Democrats had charge of the gov
ernment for nearly four years, and
they played the people false—gross
ly and brutally false. In the cam
paign just closed tho People’s party
joined forces with the Democrats and
he Democrats again played the peo
pie false—grossly aud brutally false
There is no virtue in them. We are
done with them now and forever,
and also with any man who seeks to
lead the people hereafter under any
thing that may bear the name or
have the smirch of the word Demo
crat on it. •
Note: The great trouble about
the above is that it comes too laie.
Mr. Butler is simply hedging. He
knoca that his conduct during the
recant campaign stamps him as a
man without principle or loyalty,
and he resorts to his old trick of
abusing the Democrats in the hope
that the Populists will forget how
he, Butler, betrayed them to said
Democrats.
If there is one man in America
who ought never to open his mouth
agiinat Sewall and the Democrats, it
is Butler.
Aud if there ba one unscrupulous
political trickster whose treachery to
Populism and to the Populist ticket
will never be forgotten by the rea]
Populists of the country, it is Butler.
We see no reason why Mr. Bryan
should be any less fit for Mr. But
ler s distinguished support in 1900
than he was in 1896. If it was the
correct thing for the Populists to
dsseit their own nominees and flock
to Bryan and Sewall in 1896, we
cannot understand why it will not be
the correct thing in 1900. Years
change, bat principles do not. Right
in 1896, will be right in 1900.
Mr. Butler knows nothing about
the Democratic party now which he
has not known for several years. It
has behaved itself quite as well dur
ing the campaign of 1896 as it did
during those of 1894, and 1892.
Democratic methods do not change.
They are the same old thing, year in
an 1 year out.
Mr. Se wall’s “brutality” in not
withdrawing from the ticket is no
more shocking now than it was pre
vious to the election when Butler
convened his Committee at Chicago,
and “censored” Watson for insisting
that Sewall should be withdrawn.
Mr. Butler should not abuse the
Democrats. He has learned several
useful political lessons from them-
Ona of these is that the people soon
forg’t. But we venture to say that
i»r. Butler has made a mistake if he
thinks the Populists hava memories
which do not last sixty days.
T. E. W.
Rural Free Delivery.
“The department of the Federal
government which most intimately
concerns all the people is the general
post-office. Comparatively few of
the seventy million inhabitants of the
United States ever have any practi
cal acquaintance with the custom
house, me internal revenue collector,
or a Federal court, but all are brought
into a frequent contact with the
postal system, and all recognizs in it
one of the most beneficent product/
of civilization. It is a paternal de
vic*, but is justified by necessity. It
is an ogency through whr4h the peo
ple’s government performs a great
and indispensable work that oou’d
not poasibiy be performed by cor
porate or individual enterprise. The
e ideut of Alaska or the inhabitant
o a sparsely settled rural siotion
pays the same rates for transmission
of mail matter as are paid for carry
ing similir matter between Wash
ington and Baltimore, or between
New York and Brooklyn. D uht
less private enterprise could do the
work of the postal service in the
densely populated parts of the coun
try at lower rates than those of the
Pi s.- office Department, but the gov
ernment has always prohibited tbe
carrving of mails by express com
panies, or any c inpetitor with itself,
holding it to be necessary to ukb the
profit earned iu thickly settled sec
sions to offset the loss incurred e se
wnere. This is, as we have said,
paternalism, an arbitrary exercise of
power to limit private business, but
it has the hearty support of the peo
ple, for they know that it promotes
the general welfare.
“The postal service has been one
of the great factors in the settlement
aud development of the West. It
plays me of the most important pirts
in the business of the country, and
is an ever-present and always active
force in educational and religious
work. Some of our contemporar es
complain of the extent to which the
franking privilege is used in political
campaigns, but so long as its use is
limited to statutory requirements it
will be found beneficial. We need
i in all our great campaigns as an
educational aid. The privilege is
-qually open to all parties and fac
tions, and it the law is violated the
remedy lies not in the repeal of it,
but in prosecution of the guilty.
“The question of free delivery of
mails in rural districts has been dis
missed for some years, and we are
glad to know that the experiment is
now on trial in a number of States,
including Maine, New York, and
Wisconsin. In the last named State
it is reported that the farmers who
live in tha vicinity of Sun Prairie,
Piercevillo and Madison are to re
eeive their mail by mounted couriers,
who will cover a route of twenty-two
miles each day, Tiio Chicago News
suggests, as a probable result of tho
extension of tin plan, the discontinu
ance of very many small post-office#
which are maintained at great expanse
for the convenience of residnnts in the
suburban di strict#,"so that there would
be some compensation for the extra
outlay for courier#.
“Whatever adds to the pleasure of
life on the farm without increasing
its cost to the farmer must inevitably
tend to allay that spirit of discontent
which is prevalent in the agricultural
regions. When the farmer and his
family have their letters and news
papeis brought to their door by a
messenger of the general govern
ment, instead of being compelled to
go a long distance to the post office,
they will have tangible evidence that
this is their government. Every
decennial census shows an increasing
movement from country to city, and
its influence is not wholesome. A
well regulated rural free delivery
will not, at ones, put a stop to this
exodus, but it will tend to check it.
We hope these experiments will be
s > successful that Congress will be
induced to go on with the work.”
Note: We take the abovii extract
from the Washington Post. Per
haps it is proper for us to state that
the author of the law under which
the Government is making free de
livery of mail in country district# is
the said “T. E. W.”
When in Congress, Mr. Watson
secured the passage of an act appro
priating SIO,OOO for the purpose.
That was the beginning. Congress
had never before endorsed the prin
ciple.
Mr. Watson, however, (with his
usual crankiness) thought that if it
was all correct for the bankers and
merchants of the big cities to go
their mail delivered to them without
cost every half hour during the busi
ness day, it would be equally proper
to deliver mail to farmers and labor
ers in the country once a day.
After some debate, Congress
agreed with said Watson.
Mr. Cleveland, however, refused to
obey the law.
Mr. Moser, of Georgia, took the
matter up in the next Congress, and
again the principle was endoised.
Mr. Butler, ot North Carolina, fol.
lowed in the footsteps of Watson
and Moaes, at the last session, and
once more Congress voted the money.
It seems that the postal authori
ties are at last going to heed the law
and give the country people the ben
efit of froe delivery of mail.
T. E. W.