People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 April 1896 — No Fair Dealing Expected. [ARTICLE]

No Fair Dealing Expected.

Benjamin Harrison, having smoothed out the family ruffles, was married Wednesday to Mrs. Dimmick at New York. The People’s party bases its existence on three principal demands, viz., reform of the laws of finance, of transportation and of land. The Maryland people’s party state convention will meet at Baltimore, April 16, to select delegates to the national convention. Expressions are generally favorable to deferring state and congressional nominations until after the the national convention. Ex-Gov. Pennoyer of Oregon, antiadministration democrat, has finally landed squarely in the people’s party, and on April 2, was nominated for mayor by the populists of Portland. The executive committee of the nineteenth congressional district of Illinois met at Marshall March 31. A. J. Maxwell and H. M. Brooks were elected delegates to the national convention.

The silver party of Kansas has organized by electing a state committee and calling for a state convention to elect delegates to St. Louis. A. C. Shinnis. chairman, and Wm. P. Tomlinson secretary. From Oregon Chas. A. Fitch of the national committee writes: “The campaign is progressing splendidly. The Portland central committee has bought the People’s Party Post. Every paper is now in line for an honorable union at St. Louis.” Senator Elkins of Virginia has giver it out cold and flat that the states west of the Mississippi must choose between republicanism and populism. He says: “Win or lose the republican party must stand for sound financial legislation.” George Wilson, of Lexington, Mo., author of the Financial Philosophy, or the Principles of the Science of Money, reports many items of interest gathered among populists in the east where he has been spending some time studying and observing the political and financial situation. It is proposed in a bill now pending in congress to buy in all the outstanding bonds of the United States at TWICE THEIR MARKET VALUE. Read the bill, printed in full in this issue. If it should become a law those bonds would be immensely choice securities and their market value would go kighting.

We are under obligations to a banker acquaintance for a ciraular letter, printed upon the stationery of the Committee on Banking and Currency of the House of Representatives, and signed (by Charles N. Fowler, Republican representative from New Jersey, relative to a proposed ;new banking law published elsewhere in this paper:. This letter has undoubtedly been addressed to all bankers, and it urges them, after reciting the great advantages chat will accrue to them through the adoption of the bill, to communicate with the author of the bill before the first of April. This proposed new law is in harmony with the financial policy of the Republican party and the present Democratic administration. It is destined to become a law in the near future, even though it fails in this session, unless the people repudiate it at the polls. It is the English system, doubly Anglicized.

The action of the republican majority in the present congress in refusing to pass the ’ free coinage substitute, submitted by the senate, is disgusting the free silver voters throughout tne country. In South Dakota the Pettigrew men in the republican party are feeling sore over their defeat and the failure of their party to enact any favorable railroad legislation, makes the success of the populists this year not only possible, but probable. The populist state committee of Missouri has been called to meet at Marshall, on April 24, to fix date, place and basis of representation for the state convention. The people’s party press association will also meet at the same time and place. New Hampshire has selected delegates to the national convention. but nominations for state and congressional posi tions will be deferred until after the national convention. Prohibition will be the leading issue in New Hampshire this year. Just how it will affect the people’s party, cannot be known.

The Oregon state convention met March 26. A telegram from Gen. Weaver dated March 27. says: “The Oregon delegates. are instructed to do all in their power to secure a union with silver forces on a common ticket. The national committee fully indorsed Jno. C. Young, state chairman. Martin Quin and Vanderburg, nominees for congress, will be elected.” Gen. Weaver will remain in the northwest until April 15. We note the election of the following delegates to the national convention: From the seventh congressional district of Indiana, Leroy Templeton and Sylvester Fisher. From the twelfth district, W. T. C. Francis and H. H. Haines. From the sixteenth congressional district of Ohio, J. W. Warner and J. W. Swindler, instructed for John Seitz and Hugo Preyer as delegates at large. From Pennsylvania, the delegates at large are R. A. Thompson, John H. Stevens, George W. Dawson, Jerome B. Aiken, and C. F. Taylor.

The People’s Party Club of Oshkosh, Wis., after reaffirming our declarations for financial reform, adopted the following resolutions: “The railroads of the country having reached a period in their history when it is possible for them to assume the role of dictator instead of continuing rendering service as public servants, should be placed under a system of rigid control. We favor government ownership of these public highways, and as a method of education upon this subject, that it may be made plain that public control is possible and practicable, we demand that the government foreclose the mortgage held by it against, the Union Pacific Railroad, and that the same shall be conducted as a public enterprise in the interests of the people.”

Some of the Texas populist papers declare that Texas is the only state which holds its state convention after the national convention. This is not true. All the states, so far as heard from, except Oregon, Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama and South Dakota, have postponed their nominating conventions until after the national convention. Also, all congressional nominating conventions, with the exception of four or five, have been postponed until after the national convention, and two of those which have nominated regret this now. as they see that it would be more expedient if they would have postponed their nominating convention until after July 22.

A number of populist papers have stated that the silver convention to be held at St. Louis. July 22, would have 2,600 delegates. while the people’s party convention would only have 1,300 delegates, and that there was a movement on foot to consolidate the two conventions so that the silver party would have two votes where the people’s payty would have only one. There is not a word of truth in the statements. I’he people’s party national convention will

be composed of about thirteen hundred and ninety delegates, and the sllvei’ convention of about thirteen hundred and ten delegates. No one has never as much as suggested that the two conventions would combine in one, to make a platform, ©r nominate candidates.

Senator Tillman, whom all the anti-gold-bug public are so eager to hear, has been expressing himself in a South Carolina paper as follows: “The differences in the democratic party are as irreconcilable now as they were in 1860. The struggle then was the extension of slavery in the territories. Now the issue is, whether money, or the people, shall rule. As I see it, the convention is bound to split again when it meets. No fair dealing can be expected from the men who foisted on us the silver plank in the last national plat iorm. No fair dealing can be expected from the men who defeated Hardin in Kentucky last fall and have just prevented the election of Blackburn. Any straddle will cause the populists and silver men to sweep the south and west, and the democratic party will be only a name and become a third party.