The Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 15, No. 32, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 6, 1896 Page: 4 of 16
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SOUTHERN MERCUBY.
AUG. 6, 1895.
ONE DOLLAR A YEAR.
—PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY—
SOUTHERN MERCURY PUB. CO.
MILTON PARK,
MANAftlNG EDITOn AND GENL MGR.
TEXAS POPULIST STATE PAPES
AND
Jfflclll Journal Farmers' State Alliance of Teiai
Entered at the Dallas, Texas, poet office M
mail matter of the second class.
jfflce, 196 Main St., Opposite Trust Bnfldlng.
It matters not how affairs may be
adjusted politically, one thing is set-
tled. The people of Texas are deter-
mined that the International & Great
Northern and the Southern Pacific
railway combine shall cease to con-
trol the destiny of this state. The
rule of this octopus must cease or
Texas is ruined.
The peoples party still lives.
To be right, hold fast that which is
good.
Populism and practical politics
won't mix.
Recognize no leaders save the mass-
es of the people!
Tom Watson is the young Lochin-
var of the south.
The effort to storm the Texas dele-
gation was repulsed.
Organized labor is about as badly
disorganized as usual.
Honest election methods is the pop-
ulist demand in Texas.
Czar Reed, of Maine, has been re-
nominated for congress.
Gen Weaver answers the definition
of a political nondescript.
The voters of Texas should down
the corrupt democratic gang.
Hon. Tom Watson stays on the
ticket, or up goes the combination.
The peoples party of Texas will be
heard from in state convention this
week.
Don't follow self constituted lead-
ers, but look to the people for wis«
dom.
The populists of Texas in state con-
vention should speak out in no un
certain sound.
The democrats should lay their
Chicago platform on the shelf and
adopt the peoples party platform, as
it is very much better than the lame
document adopted at Chicago.
Col. Norton will more than likely
be placed upon the peoples party
ticket with Tom Watson. Mr. Bryan
will not accept the platson, and the
only alternative will be to fill out the
ticket with Col. Norton.
There is a more pressing demand
for honest ballots than there is for
honest (?) money,
The Mercury proposes to condemn
any populist office holder who deserts
the common people-
The Mercury keeps in touch with
the common people, and is, therefore,
on a safe foundation.
Even Senators Peffer and Allen de
serted the standard of the common
people at &t. Louis.
There is little doubt but that Mri
Taubeneck will soon be found in the
democratic or republican party.
The reform movement is a child of
Texas, and the Texans stood by the
youth at the St. Louis convention.
Weaver, Davis, Taubeneck and oth-
er silver hirelings failed to move the
Texas phalanx at the St. Louis con-
vention.
The peoples party was greatly
tempted, but it had the courage to
say, "Get thee behind me, Satan!"
When the leaders of a party desert
the principles of the party the mass-
es should stand more closely together.
It will take a greater and more
powerful man than the modern Na-
poleon to breathe the breath of life
into the tariff issue.
The Texas delegates to the St. Lou-
is convention were proof against a
stampede. Every means possible was
resorted to break the Texas lines,
but they failed. The Texans with-
stood the assault, and came out of
the combat with banners flying. All
honor to Texas!
Mr. Bryan must take his choice of
a running mate. If he is a friend of
the people, as he claims to be, he
must turn from the millionaire bank-
er and roilroad magnate to the poor
man, whose heart beats in eympathy
with the common people.
Populists shoul i not be discouraged.
The peoples party is not dead nor
likely to decay. Principls are eter-
nal, and a party based on principle is
long lived. The peoples party will be
in existence after the graves of the
two old parties are covered with moss.
The peoples party is on trial, and it
will come clear. It has gone through
a furnace and it has not the smell of
fire on its garments. The peoples
party banner still waves.
Bryan may be an honest man, and
he may think his party will honestly
carry out the declarations made at
Chicago, but he is destined to find
himself greatly deluded. The demo-
cratic party never has carried out a
reform contrary to the interests of
the money power,and it never will.The
democratic party can no more secure
the passage of a free coinage law
than the devil can turn to a saint
There is not the least probability of
the democratic party ever securing
the passage of a free coinage law. It
had abundant opportunities to do so,
had the power at its command, and
refused to do so. All such declarations
are simply made to humbug the peo-
ple. They are as sounding brass and
tinkling cymbols.
If Mr. Bryan thinks more of Sewall
and his barrel than he does of Wat-
son and his honesty, then the peoples
party will place another candidate at
the head of the ticket.
A dollar to a nickel that ex-Chair-
man Taubeneck will not be a populist
after this campaign. A second prop-
osition of a dollar to a cent that Tom
Patterson is not a populist now, nev-
er was, and never will b*, and that he
never will support a populist ticket
in full. A dollar to a turnip that if
Bryan should refuse to endorse the
peoples party platform, and Col.
Norton should be placed on the ticket
with Watson, that Gen. Weaver will
not support the ticket, but will be
found advocating the election of the
democratic ticket, jt would be safe
to wager a small sum that as soon as
the free Silver bosses draw their
pursft strings and shut off the flow of
boodle and Taubeneck's St. Louis sup-
ply is exhausteed, that Cyclone Da-
vis' voice will cease to be heard in
the land advocating a union of par-
ties for the success of the free silver
cause.
Every reformer who wants to do his
full duty should aid in spreading the
reform gospel. The best way to do
this is to get up a club of subscribers
for the Mercury. The seeming com-
plications resulting from the actions
of the St. Louis convention make it
more important that the Mercury be
circulated among the people. The
Mercury can be relied upon to make
the conditions plain and easily com-
prehended. The Mercury will also
endeavor to conscientiously point out
the way for middle of the road popu-
lists to travel. Let one active citi-
zen in each neighborhood take the
I initiative and get up a large list of
I Mercury subscribers.
DESERTED BY ITS LEADERS.
The peoples party was practically
deserted at the St. Louis convention
by every man whom the voters have
heretofore made prominent by elec-
tion to official positions. Not one,
from United States senator to party
chairman, stood up in that conven-
tion in defense of the principles and
policies of the peoples party and in
favor of the preservation of the par-
ty automony and organization.
The fact that the peoples party is
indeed and in truth a party of the
people was exemplified in the late
national convention, when, in defi-
ance of the concentrated action of
the prominent men of the party, the
masses of the party preserved the «or-
ganization from wreck and ruin. Such
a spectacle was never before witness-
ed in this country. The leaders of the
party, in a time of great peril, hedg-
ed «and retreated, tvaccillated and
halting between two opinions, while
the representatives of the voting
masses stood forth an invincible army
in defense of sthe party. There is a
valuable lesson in this. It not only
shows the weakness of humanity, but
it proves beyond doubt the danger of
entrusting the leaders with authority
to dictate a policy or control the des-
tinies of a reform party.
The supreme power of the peoples
party is located in the masses of the
people, and it must continue to be
lodged there if the party is to exist
and carry out its destiny. Let the
masses of the peoples party voters
refuse to surrender this power to any
person or persons. If the peoples
party is to live and carry into effect
the principles of the reform move-
ment, the masses of the party must
be vigilant, and zealously guard the
party organization, and see that it
keeps right in the middie of the road.
Self-styled leaders must be curbed
and held with a tight rein. Let the
initiative and referendum be carried
out in the party government strictly
and to the letter. It is the only way
the peoples party can be preserved
and the system of government it ad-
vocates finally realized. Don't trust
the party leaders. Go to the people
for inspiration and. guidance. Only
when the masses point the way is it
safe to go therein.
WHO IB RIQHT7
True to its record of h ypocracy and
falsehood, the democratic party, at
Chicago, in its platform, declared
that it favored "such legislation as
will prevent, for the future, the de-
monetization of any kind of legal ten-
der money by private contract." The
leaders are now in a row as to wheth-
er or not an amendment, offered by
David B. Hill, that this should not
apply to existing contracts, was
adopted or rejected. Chairman J. K.
Jones says that the amendment was
lost, and that the platform declara-
tion applies to all existing contracts.
At the western commercial congress,
held in Kansas City in 1891, W. J.
Bryan, the democratic candidate on
the Chicago platform, introduced the
folio win g resolution: ' 'Resolved, that
it is the sense of this congress that
all legal tender money of the United
States should be made a full legal
tender for all debts, public and pri-
vate, any condition in the contract
to the contrary notwithstanding,
provided that this shall not affect
contracts already in existence." Who
is right? Jones now,or Bryan in 1891?
Will the time never come when the
democracy will be consistent and rea-
sonably honest? Judging the future
by the past, the question must be an-
swered in the negative. •
GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP.
Ownership of railroads as advocat-
ed by the peoples party does not im-
ply the purchase of all the roads in
the country, nor does it contemplate
such a purchase as might be neces-
sary to control and regulate the
means of traffic wholly all at
once. The Pacific roads which the
government practically owns now,
might be taken in first, and then
other trunk lines. As soon as the
government gets control of the lead-
ing lines of road, the control of the
traffic rates will be secured, and the
other roads can be taken in hand as
necessity demands. In fact,' govern-
ment ownership would do away with
the necessity for competition, and
some of the roads could be dispensed
with if the owners refused to operate
them. Government ownership of
railroads is one of the most popular
issues before the country.
LIFE WORK OF TH0MA8 L. NUGENT.
The Mercury has received a copy of
the Life Work of Thomas L. Nugent,
by his widow, Mrs. Catherine Nugent.
This is a volume of neary 400 pages,
neatly bound and containing a fine
engraving of the great Texas com-
moner. It is a complete biography,
beginning with the earliest history of
the Nugent family in this country and
following the life of Thomas L. Nu-
gent from boyhood to his death. It
contains all of his principle speeches
and public papers, articles contribut-
ed by him on governmental and eco-
nomic subjects. It is a valuable book
of reference, and contains thoughts
on the quessions of the day, such as
the pure mind of Thomas L. Nugent
could only put forth. Every reform-
er in Texas should have this book.
Address Mrs. Catherine Nugent,
Stephenville, Tex.
The fusionist8 need not attempt to
stampede the populists of Texas.
They stood by the peoples party ban-
ner at the St. Louis convention, and
they will keep in the middle of the
road throughout the campaign.
r
k
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Park, Milton. The Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 15, No. 32, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 6, 1896, newspaper, August 6, 1896; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth185671/m1/4/: accessed August 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .