People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 August 1896 — THE BIG CONVENTION. [ARTICLE]

THE BIG CONVENTION.

REFLECTIONS INSPIRED BY THE PROCEEDINGS AT ST. LOUIS. Will the Party Be the Victim or Treachery as Suggested by the B LoulRepablic and Other Oreens. The chaotic condition of America:, politics so plainly shown by the bolting of disaffected republicans, democrat 2 and prohibitionists from their respective parties this year, was again emphatically illustrated by the proceedings of the national people's party convention at St. Louis. But since pblitical “chaos” is only possible when the power of party “leaders” falls of commanding the unquestioning respect of the people, and since it is indisputably true that the oppressive and outrageous conditions at present existing are the result of implicit obedience of the past commands of JLhcse whom accident placed in control of p« Utlcal affairs, the disturbance of our political ocean may be hailed as c happy omen that the spirit of independence still exists in the breasts of those for whose benefit alone governments can claim the right to exist and that that spirit is now fully aroused to the necessity of important and radical changes in the policy of our government. 'lt was this spirit and the sense of this necessity that prompted influential republicans and prohibitionists to withdraw from their respective parties and inspired dominant faction 6? JJemocracy to mark out a course for their party so radically different from that which it approved four years age that the administration of its own choosing repudiates the new policy as the vagaries of “cranks,” “socialists,” and “populists,” and it was this same irrepressible and indomitable determination to compel those in control of governmental affairs to inaugurate measures which the people have come to believe necessary for their relief, that at times seemed to bid fair to turn the people’s party convention into a howling, heartless horde of senseless beings who were prompted solely bj the belief that the supreme duty of the hour was abundantly compiled with if ea<fc would make all the noise he could.

It was not a lack of respect for age that caused the convention to howl the venerable Senator Stewart from the rostrum, nor a want of appreciation of past services rendered by General Weaver which at the same critical moment caused his mouth to be stopped by the angry yells of the people’s party delegates, but the Intuitive knowledge that they were both endeavoring to guide the convention into a channel which it had decided not to enter. This scene occurred on the question of nominating Thomas E. Watson for vice president.

The usual order of Dominating the candidate for president first had been reversed by the adoption of the minority report of the committee on rules, which provided for this way of procedure in the belief that if the usual order was preserved and Bryan nominated first the convention would be tricked into seeming indorsement of the entire democratic ticket by the nomination of Sewall for vice president. The delegates had recognized in the intelligent, lncorrupted and gener-ous-hearted W. J. Bryan, whom the democrats had unexpectedly and In a moment of forgetful delirium, inspired by his own eloquence, honored with the position of chief standard-bearer of their party, a person in every way worthy of their confidence, and had determined to show their willingness to unite with democracy in seating him in the presidential chair. But while these rugged representatives of the pew force that is rapidly coming to the front in American politics were thus ready to display a degree of patriotism hitherto unknown in partisan politics, they could not and would not be guilty of the self-stultification involved In the proposition to nominate the railroad magnate and national banker whom the democrats had selected ns their candidate for vice president. And it was while this contest between Watson and Sewall was on* and at the hour of midnight, when the delegates were exhausted with the efforts of a continuous session, that Senator Stewart, who was not a delegate to the convention, attempted to speak in behalf of his feilow-millionaire on the democratic ticket and was driven from the stage by the cries of “time! time!” etc. General Weaver followed and met with a like fate because of the widespread belief, inspired by his recent course, that he stood ready to sacrifice everything for free coinage of silver. This scene, followed, as it speedily was, by the unanimous selection of Watson as the choice of the convention for vice president amid a display of wildest enthusiasm, in which the delegates from every state joined, coupled with the fact that a simple doubt in .the minds of the delegates as to whether Mr. Bryan would accept their nomination for president, prevented his nomination from being made unanimous, tells of a latent determination in the representatives of the people’s party to place principle and patriotism above party and office-getting, of whica those who are considering the advisability of taking Watson from the ticket and substituting Mr. Sewall in his Btead would do well to take heed. It is hinted that the motion investing the national committee with plenary powers, with the avowed object of enabling it to substitute the name of Norton for that of Bryan in the latter declines to accept the nomination, was really introduced for the purpose of enabling the committee to take down Watson and substitute Sewall. While this insinuation against tho honor and loyalty of the new national committee gains no credence in any respectable Quarter, it will do no harm

to remind the wily democratic leaders that if they should accomplish this purpose through “proxy" tricks or any other devious method their action will be taken as a plain warning to the people’s party that the unscrupulous element of democracy is in control of the democratic party and that they will conclude if present conditions must continue it were better that they be perpetuated under McKinley, who, whatever else may be said of him, stands in the open as a defender or the gold standard, rather than under Bryan, who, such action would indicate, was simply to be used as a tool to accomplish designs which would not bear Investigation. That the Bryan leaders in the people’s party convention were afraid to trust his nomination to the delegates conditioned upon his acceptation of the honor Is proven by their haste to adjourn the convention after their desires had been accomplished without waiting to hear from Mr. Bryan. The same spirit which would not accept the advice of Senator Stewart or General Weaver in the vice presidential contest would have asserted itself and rolled W. J. Bryan from the list of possible presidential candidates had the convention believed that the honor which It sought to confer would have been contemptuously returned to it as a thing of no account. As it was, and in spite of every effort quietly made by the Bryan men to convince the middle-of-the-road men that Mr. Bryan would accept the nomination and thank the convention for the honor, the shadow of doubt upon this point remained so thick in the minds of 340 delegates who toted against hjm that it was deemed inexpedient tio move to make his nomination unanimous.

Whether it was the fear on the part of Mr. Bryan that the acceptance of the people’s party nomination might alienate from his support that class of millionaire monopolists of whom Mr. Sewall is a type or whether it was from a strained sense of duty on his part toward his democratic running mate, or whether it was a misconception on the part of his advocates in the convention as to what his real position was in the premises, the fact is indisputable that the close of the convention with almost one-fourth of the votes of the delegates recorded against his nomination leaves matters in a very unsatisfactory condition. The platform adopted by the convention, since it provides for government money, without the intervention of banks, free coinage, government ownership of railroads and telegraphs, the abolition not only of corporate but private monopoly of land, and the initiative and referendum, is even more radical than the Omaha platform, and plainly bespeaks a determination to take no step backwards. It is not reasonable to suppose that a p*arty whos*> invincible determination to move forward on the lines of the Omaha platform waß plainly Bhown by the hearty and unanimous adoption of such a platform will consent for a moment to be balked in its career by the wishes of a few selfish office-seekers who fear that the substitution of the honorably and widely known name of Thomas E. Watson for that of the obscure millionaire Sewall may endanger their chances to obtain a place at the public crib. The willingness of the people’s party to accept Mr. Bryan as its candidate and the expouent of its principles is based wholly upon the fact that he is everywhere recognized as an independent, progressive, large-minded young man far in advance of the fossils of democracy who nominated him solely with the desire to profit from the association with the “new blood” and new ideas which his candidacy alone would make possible to them, while the hope of obtaining office under Mr. Bryan doubtless prompted some of the “leaders” in the people’s party convention to support him, that contemptibly selfish motive did not inspire the tenth part of the thousand votes he received in the convention.

The people’s party recognizes, as does every other body of intelligent men, that the power of the “pie brigade” Is very great, and the men from Texas, Maine, Arkansas, California, Ohio, Illinois, and many other states who took part in the proceedings of the meeting held after the adjournment of the convention were determined that the influence of the officeseekers in their own as well as in the democratic party should for once, however, reluctantly be cast upon the side of principle, or else be rendered absolutely nugatory. Either Mr. Bryan will accept the people’s party nomination and with Watson on the ticket with him and accomplish a sweeping victory over the gold standard as represented by Mr. McKinley, or he will refuse the assistance tendered by the people’s party and with his monopolistic running mate go down in overwhelming defeat. With two electoral tickets in the field, one for Bryan and Sewall, the other for Bryan afed Watson, or Norton and Watson, such a division in the rank and file of the voting army would occur as would necessarily defeat the electoral tickets opposed to McKinley in three-fourths of the states of the union. The votes for the Bryan and Watson electors could not be counted with the votes cast for the Bryan and Sewall electors in order to elect Bryan. The Republic, in an editorial in its issue of the 27th inst., chucklingly says: “Senator Allen played a shrewd piece of politics when he refused to read the telegram from Mr. Bryan announcing a refusal to accept the populist nomination with any other except Sewall as a running mate. “He secured the nomination of Bryan, prevented a bolt and placed the authority to make further arrangements in the hands of the national committee. „ 'Thus, while Watson is the nominee of the populist party for rise preai-

dent, the votes of the party can be ascured for Bryan with orwithout hia acceptance, as the populist national committee may determine,” Here is a plain admission that Senator Allen received a telegram from Bryan declining to be the nominee of the populists except with Sewall. The intimation Is plain (and It is true) that Bryan would not have been the nominee of the convention had such a telegram been read, but the assumption that the national committee will treacherously do that which the national convention of the party would not consider a moment Is assumption pure and simple and Is 3trictly on a par with the impudence which characterizes as “a shrewd piece of politics” a contemptible action which is only properly named when It is called “dishonest politics." The Globe-Demo-crat, another organ to whom real reform and real reformers are as poison, also suggests that the democrats will accomplish their purpose through the treachery of our national committee, which is to be relied upon to take down Watson and put up Sewall in his stead. These old party organs, who know absolutely nothing about reform or reformers, and who “measure everybody in their own half-bushel” and judge others by themselves, of course believe that the members of our national committee have each their price and all that is necessary is to meet it. In this they are mistaken. But suppose the impossible should happen, does anybody o that the members of the people’s party would permit themselves to be made merchandise of and delivered in the direction suggested? T. D. HINCKLEY.