The Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 17, No. 3, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 20, 1898 Page: 1 of 16
sixteen pages : ill. ; page 15 x 11 in. Digitized from 35 mm. microfilm.View a full description of this newspaper.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
%
VOL, XVII., NO. 3.
DALLAS, TEXAS, THURSDAY, JAN. 20, 1898.
PER ANNUM.
THE POPULIST COMMITTEES AT
ST. LOUIS.
Pursuant to the call of the Executive
Committee issued November 24th, 1897,
the National Organization Committee
of the People's party assembled in the
Masonic Temple, St. Louis, January
12th, 1898, and was called to order by
Chairman Milton Park, of Texas. Sec-
retary Morgan called the roll, and on
motion a committee on enrollment was
appointed, which reported a majority
of the states represented and a quorum
of the National Organization Commit-
tee present. (There were about ninety
members present).
A committee on resolutions and ad-
dress oí procedure was appointed by the
chair, to whom all resolutions offered
in the fuil committee were referred
for report. Said committee consisted
of the following members:
Burkitt of Mississippi, Morgan of Ar-
kansas, Zabel of Michigan, Mims of
Tennessee, Peek of Georgia, Washburn
of Massachusetts," Tracy of Texas,
Coxey, of Ohio, Parker of Kentucky,
Willetts of Kansas, Dixon Qf Missouri
and Raynolds of Illinois.
This ccrnmittee after mature deliber-
ation submitted the following address
and plan of procedure, which, after
certain amendments by the whole com-
mittee, was unanimously adopted by a
rising vote.
THE ADDRESS.
St. Louis, Mo., Jan. 12, 1898.
' To the people of the United States:
The fusion movement consummated
at St. Louis in July, 1896, and the in-
excusable treatment of our candidate
for vice president in the campaign that
followed, gave rise to such dissatisfac-
tion among the rank and file of the
People s party as to threaten the ab-
solute dismemberment of the only po-
litical organization honestly contend-
ing for the social and politcal rights
of the laboring and producing classes
of the country, who are the sole crea-
tors oí cur wealth, who really pay all
taxes, and who, in the main, fight our
battles in. time of war.
Seeing our councils divided.and our
forces disorganized, and realizing that
discontent within the ranks of genu-
ine reformers over the non-action of
the constituted authorities of the party
Tras growing to such an alarming ex-
tent as to threaten the complete anni-
hilation of the People's party, the
National Reform Press Associa-
tion ever watchful of the pub-
lic interest and always alert to serve
a righteous cause, essayed the unwel-
come task of arousing our National
Committee to a sense of the danger im-
pending, and volunteered its assist-
ance in the work of reorganizing our
shattered forces. Unfortunately, as we
think, the patriotic endeavors of the
press went unheeded by the legal guar-
dians of the party's integrity, und it
became a question whether the broken
fragments of the once proud army of
reform should remain a sort of ad-
junct to ne or the other of the old
parties, or whether an effort should be
made to raise its bedraggled standard
from the dust, and hold it aloft as a
sacred banner around which men, who
love principle more than political suc-
cess, and who regard the public welfare
as paramount to individual preferment,
might rally for the final contest be-
tween the people and plutocracy;
which contest is to decide whether or
not enough virtue and courage abide
with us to enable us to regain for our-
selves and our posterity a government
of, for and by the people, such as the
fathers bequeathed to us. The Na-
tional Reform Press Association at its
meeting in Memphis, Tenn., February
22, 1897, appointed a committee with
instructions:
1. To comunícate with the National
Committee and secure its co-operation
in holding a national delegate confer-
ence at some time and place during the
summer of 1897. The National Com-
mittee declined and the Press Commit-
tee was then reluctantly forced to con-
sider the second clause of their instruc-
tions, which was to take steps for the
assembling of a national conference at
such time and place as they might
deem advisable. In obedience to these
instructions, the committee, failing to
secure the co-operation of the National
Committee, met in Girard, Kas., on the
15th of April, 1897, an issued an ad-
dress containing a call for a national
conference to assemble at Nashville,
Tenn., July 4, provided the voters of
the People's party, to whom the ques-
tion was referred, should approve the
same. The people did approve the call,
and in the face of every obstacle pre-
sented, the Nashville conference was
attended by delegates representing a
constituency of 875,000 earnest reform-
ers, who indorsed the Omaha platform
without reservation. We submit to a
just public that the proceedings of
that conference proved beyond contro-
versy that the chief object of its ori-
ginators was to inspire the "boys in
the trenches" with renewed courage to
fight the battles of the great common
people, and we maintain that it did in-
fuse new life and hope into the hearts
and minds of thousands of our disgust-
ed and despairing comrades.
A ringing address was issued pro-
claiming unswerving allegiance to the
People's party creed and declaring un-
equivocally against fusion with either
of the old parties in future, and a Na-
tional organization committee was ap-
pointed and specifically instructed to
co-operate with the National Commit-
tee in every and all movements they
might choose to make along purely
Populist lines. These instructions it
has been our purpose to faithfully ex-
ecute, and we deplore the fact that no
opportunity has been given us to carry
them out. Under conditions such as
these, the Executive Committee of the
National Organization Committeee, im-
pelled by the painful knowledge that
no rallying of the reform forees could
be attained, and no accretions to our
party strength could be hoped for, un-
til a reassuring policy was outlined
and boldly proclaimed by one or the
other (or both) national committees,
to whom the people at home look for
advice and guidance, met by appoint-
ment in the city of St. Louis on the
23rd of November last, and, after ma-
ture consideration, issued a call for
a meeting of the full committee,
couched in the following language:
"Recognizing the importance of im-
mediate, united and aggressive work
to secure the lining up of all reform
forces for the approaching campaign,
we, the Executive Committee of the
National Organization Committee of
the People's party, hereby call a meet-
ing of said committee at the Laclede
Hotel, in St. Louis, Mo., January
12, 1898Tand respectively invite the Na-
tional Committee of the People's party
to meet with us in conference on the
above date, appealing to their patriot-
ism and sense of duty to aid us in re-
storing our party organization to its
once splendid estate."
We congratulate the rank and file
of the People's party, that
seventy-five members of the Na-
tional Committee, hailing from forty
states and territories, have signified,
either by their presence here in per-
son and by proxy, or by letters ad-
dressed to members in attendance, their
willingness to hold a joint conference
with this committee and lend their ef-
forts to the restoration of harmony.
We accept this cheerful fact as an
omen most encouraging, and we be-
lieve had the National Committee been
officially convened in such a'conference
as was contemplated, this very hour
would have been the most auspicous
for good in the varied history of the
Reform Movement.
Why the National Committee, as a
committee, should have ignored this
polite invitation to a joint conference
with us, it is unnecessary here to dis-
cuss.
It has been the purpose always of
this National Organization Committee
to be courteous to the National Com-
mittee, and our supreme desire has
been at all times to promote a har-
monious co-operation with said com-
mittee, that factional differences might
be obliterated, our party prestige re-
gained and our "our organization re-
stored to its once spleudid estate."
If we have failed to take any fraternal
step to secure this much-desired end,
it has been an unintentional omission
which we would disdain to palliate or
excuse by qubbling. We, the Na-
tional Organization committee,
feel confident of our ability to show
that it is no fault of ours that the
National Committee is not present as a
body to-day, but we do not choose to
waste valuable time in wrangling over
questions of official etiquette. We avow
it to be our sincere purpose to promote
in every honorable way the reform
movement on true Populist lines, and
we deem the issues too momentous and
the dangers threatening free govern-
ment too imminent ¿o allow us to
pause to consider personal grievances
or affronts, or to permit wounded dig-
nity, real or Imaginary, to overshadow
patriotic duty.
Under present conditions, our be-
loved organization Is slowly but surely
disintegrating, and our comrades, who
have valiantly fought by our side so
long, that they might have equal op-
portunities and be compelled to bear
only an equal share of the burden of
government, are clamorous for aggres-
sive action.
Having, in vain, Importuned those
whoassumed to be our superiors,toper
mit us to aid them in the grand work
of reorganizing the People's party,
that it may accomplish Its glorious
mission, we now appeal to the people,
the true source of all politcal power,
and submit to them the determination
of the following propositions:
First—That township and county
conventions be held in every state not
later than the last Wednesday in May
1898, and that State conventions be
held not later than the first Wednesday
in June, 1898.
Second—That at said conventions
the following propositions be submit-
ted to the members of the People's
party:
(a) Do you favor a National Conven-
tion being held pending the campaign
of 1898 for the purpose of promoting
the welfare and declaring the future
policy of the party?
(b) What date is your choice for
holding a national convention for the
purpose of nominating Presidential
candidates—July 4, 1898; May 26, 1899,
or February 22, 1900?
Third—That at the State conventions
delegates to a national convention be
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Matching Search Results
View two places within this issue that match your search.Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Park, Milton. The Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 17, No. 3, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 20, 1898, newspaper, January 20, 1898; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth185740/m1/1/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .