The Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 16, No. 50, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 16, 1897 Page: 1 of 16
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RCURY.
VOL. XVI., NO. 50.
DALLAS, TEXAS, THUBSDAY, DEC. 16, 1897.
*1 PER ANNUM
P'-
About Fusion.
Hon. Ignatius Donnelly in com-
menting upon an editorial in a
Michigan paper favoring fusion, uses
the following sensible and vigorous
language:
"It is not always so much what a
man is talking about as what he is
plainly thinking about, that indicates
bias.
Self interest has swayed the minds
of mighty men.
Mr. Lamphere divides all Populists
into two classes, the theoretical and
the practical. The middle-of-the-road
Populists, he says, "undoubtedly have
high ideals, and work with an unsel-
fishness and patriotism that appeals
to the best instincts of men, but there
is too much of the theoretical in the
demands."
Should any man be accorded lead-
ership in our party who will say of
the Omaha and St. Louis platforms
"there is too much of the theoretical
in their demands?" \
The fusionist8, he describes, as the
practical Populists. They are those
compromising, policy, get there, spoils
system, majority fellows, who for party
success would compromise with the
devil and justify it on the ground that
he possessed a few instincts in com-
mon with them.
These practical fuslonists quote Car-
Jyle: "There are quarrels in which ev-
en satan, bringing help, were not un-
welcome."
And again in comparing the Chicago
platform and Bryanism, with the Oma-
ha platform and Populism, Carlyle is
apepaledto: "Great, truly is the actual;
is the thing that has rescued itself
from the bottomless deeps of theory
and possibllty and stands there as a
definite, indisputable fact, whereby
men do work and live."
Mr. Lamphere holds that this so
called practical Chicago platform,
Bryanism, is the actual, the thing that
stands out as a fact, while the Omaha
platform, Populism, rests yet in "the
bottomless deeps of theory and possi-
bility," and he says late elections have
demonstrated that the Populists are
weak. Perhaps they are weak but Bro.
Lamphere has not divined the true
cause of that weakness. He erroneous-
ly assumes that the Democratic party
has sincerely and honestly adopted free
silver, government money, opposition
to trusts, tax on incomes and lower
taxation. Why did the Democrats fail
to give us any of these reforms when
they had the president and both houses
of congress?
Mr. Lamphere has examined the Pop-
jollst brand mark opon Bryan and a
v:':¿ r;
.¿s; j; Vt
¿Ms.
few well meaning Western Democrats,
and declares that all Democrats tire
O. K. He forgets that the branding
iron of Populism has never yet invaded
noise than meaning. Populists can
hardly afford to disband, unite and co-
operate with the Democrats, storm the
outworks and take the citidel only to
the corral of Tammany. . He forgets find Tammanjr in possession. We earn-
that Tamany is not theoretical but
practical.
He says we are weak. Down in
Chicago in 1896 those well meaning
Western Democrats, out of their desire
to co-operate with the Populists for re-
form, put up Populist Bryan. Tam-
many tied the Wall street Sewall mill-
stone around his neck. These same
friendly Democrats mixed up for the
Populists a 16 to 1 lemonade. Tam-
many put a Wall street coin-redemp-
tion stick in it. Jim Jones, Jim Wea-
ver, Jim Sovereign and others at St.
Louis persuaded the Populists to take
the nasty concoction, and this is why
to-day we are weak. The dirty dose
would have killed any party less vigor-
ous than the Populists.. We can read-
ily see how from Mr. Lamphere's
point of view it may seem practical,
it may seem to be the thing, to pnt
estly hope that before 1900 the Popu-
lists of the Seventh district will fully
realize that Bryanism is only Tam-
many silver plated on the westward
side. Choose for congress some good
Populist who does not think the Oma-
ha platform too theoretical, and prefer
following that candidate to honorable
defeat, to following a fusion popocrat
to a disgraceful Tamamny victory.
A Hard Nut to Crack.
Did you know that the government
has refused to redeem its own postage
stamps in gold or any other kind of
money? Aye, worse than that; it
won't even exchange other postage
stamps for them. The facts are that
it looks as though the postofflce de-
partment is getting most damnable
stuck up and independent. A few days
up in the Seventh district a fusion can- ago one of our many admiring friends
didate for congress. sent us a dollar's worth of nice, new,
Wall street money elected McKin- clean> never-had-been-licked-and-stuck
ley, and as a sequence McKinley is the Postage stamps in payment of his sub-
tool of Wall street. When the Seventh scriptlon. Being in the postofflce short-
district sends to congress a man elect-
ed by Democratic funds and Democrat-
ic votes, that man must and will pass
under the Tammany lash. History has
proven that Wall street Republicanism
and Tammany Democracy are identi-
cal. It was Tammany that nominated
Sewall and kept him on the ticket It
was Tammany that doctored the Chicago
platform with that * coin-redemption
dope. It was Tammany that elected
McKinley by voting the Republican
Ticket. It was Tamany that placed in
nomination plutes on both the old
party tickets in Ohio. It was Tam-
many that defeated Henry Qeorge and
reform, and elected Van Wyck, and be-
fore 1900 wil lorganlze the new state of
Manhattan, send two more Wall street
ly afterward we called at the window
and asked the stamp clerk to give us
the cash on them. Wth a look of dis-
dain and with an Importance that
comes only from long service In a pub-
lic capacity he Informed us that he
was selling postage stamps and not
buying them. We then requested him
to exchange and give us one-centers
for our twos. He simply pointed to a
printed notice that Uncle Sam does not
even exchange stamps. We, ex-
pected that as soon as the word got
out, stamps would depreciate and be
worth possibly less than the paper up-
on which they are printed. So we hur-
ried to a drug store and found, to our
surprise and pleasure, that postage
stamps' were still worth their face
millionaires to the senate, and dictate value. That has been several days ago
the politics of the nation.
Western Populists feel proud when
it is said that in the senate Populist
senators hold the balance of power.
There are good and well meaning
Democrats in the Democratic party,
and in the West we meet them every
day. They are in bad company, and
we can never lift them up by ourselves
and we are told this morning that they
are still selling all over the city at the
same old price. It seems kind o*
strange how this is. Why, they are not
a legal tender for anything; they are
not fit for money even If they were, be-
cause of the nasty stickum-tight on
their backs; the government won't
the price. Well, as you cannot pay pos-
tage with anything else but stamps, we
wonder why somebody hasn't got a
corner on them? Why don't some of
these smart bankers get together and
buy all the postage stamps at
two cents apiece and then raise the
price? Possibly they have not thought
of it. But they have thought of every-
thing else; wonder why they have not
thought of this? They corner up the
government's money and make Uncle
Sam dance around and beg like a little
puppy dog and make him issue bonds
and do lots of other humiliatiug things,
but somehow they have never thought
to tackle the postage stamps. After
looking it up a little it seems that Un-
cle Sam got it into his old head that
he could run the postofflce without the
aid of the bankers. He seems to have
forgotten to make any provisions for
his banker boys in the matter, and so
he keeps his postage stamp mill go-
ing all the time; and if they buy
all the stamps he has, he simply prints
some more, and some more, and some
more, and keeps right on smiling; and
the more they buy, the more he
smiles. If they should conclude to buy
up a big lot of them and ship them to
„Yurrup" he would keep right on ami-
ling and smiling and printing more
stamps. The supply of stamps seems
almost inexhaustable. It looks like
Uncle Sam might get tired of it after
awhile and delegate the Issuing of his
stamps over to the banks as he has
done in the matter of money. Then he
could take a much-needed rest, and his
banker boys could have a real picnic.
They could have a regular high old
time, and there would be a "hot time
in the old town," you bet your life. The
boys would put the price of stamps
down till they got possession of what
are on hand; then they could "bull"
the market and make a nice pile. They
could limit the supply ; they could slip
them oft to Europe, and a great many
other things they could do. They could
give Uncle Sam lots of pointers In bus-
slness. Stamps could be used Just like
the money Is if Uncle Sam was not
such a blasted old mossback as to
stand right in the way of progress.
Funny, isn't it? Suppose you put In
abut five minutes thinking this over.—
Warren Foster's Paper.
have them after it sells them once; and
going down Into the political slums to 8tin they are worth two cents apiece,
join them. It sounds well to talk of and It now looks just like the price is
co-operation insuring success, in union going to stay up right where it is.
finding our greatest strength, storming There is only one use that anybody
the outworks first, and taking the citi- can make of the things, and that is to
del later, and a three-cornered fight re- pay postage; and still they don't de-
sulting In sero, but in all these things predate. There seems to be some sort^national convention, if one be call<
there is more sound than sense, more 0f a ]aw back of them which keeps tyPdpring 1898
The State Executive Committee of
the People's party of Kentucky met In
Louisville Dec. 1, and arranged for a
State Convention to be held at Louis-
ville the third Wednesday in
next, for the purpose of reorganisation
and the election of delegates to
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Park, Milton. The Southern Mercury. (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 16, No. 50, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 16, 1897, newspaper, December 16, 1897; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth185736/m1/1/: accessed June 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .