m m 
 
 . * • • • § 
 
 
 •NV.v 
 
 
 :W:y:-;to:-f^::W 
 
 'IwtfWKW' 
 
 .*;•:«:•:. 
 
 ':&&: 
 
 :::* 
 
 
 jVAW 
 
 ftKKfi 
 
 
CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME 
 OF THESAGTE ENDOWMENT 
 FUND GIVEN IN 1 89 1 BY 
 
 HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE 
 
Cornell University Library 
 JK2261 H42 
 
 Third party movements since the civil wa 
 
 olin 
 
 3 1924 032 654 877 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924032654877 
 
THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 SINGE THE CIVIL WAR 
 
 WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO IOWA 
 
 A Study in Social Politics 
 
 BY 
 FRED E. HAYNES 
 
 PUBLISHED AT IOWA CITY IOWA IN 1916 BY 
 
 THESTATEHTSTORICALSOCIETYOPIOWA 
 
 5 _ 
 
 6 \ 
 
COPYRIGHT 1916 BY 
 THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF IOWA 
 
 THE TORCH PRESS 
 
 CEDAR RAPIDS 
 
 IOWA 
 
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 
 
 This volume is the outgrowth of plans to make 
 available through the publications of The State His- 
 torical Society of Iowa the history of political parties 
 in this Commonwealth. Thus the book is related to 
 the series of studies on the history of political parties 
 in Iowa before 1860 made by Dr. Louis Pelzer and 
 published several years ago in The Iowa Journal of 
 History and Politics. 
 
 At the outset Dr. Haynes aimed to confine his 
 studies rather strictly to the history of third parties 
 in Iowa; but as his researches progressed it became 
 evident that the scope of the proposed volume would 
 have to be enlarged, since the movements of minor 
 parties in Iowa were found everywhere to be inextri- 
 cably bound up with the growth of these parties in 
 other States. Accordingly, the final product of the 
 researches of the author is a history of third party 
 movements in the United States since the Civil War 
 with special reference to Iowa. That such a volume 
 should emanate from this State is both logical and 
 fitting, since Iowa is in the very heart of the region 
 in which the new movements have originated and has 
 furnished the most capable leadership in such move- 
 ments. 
 
 Benj. F. Shambaugh 
 
 Office op the Superintendent and Editor 
 The State Historical Society of Iowa 
 Iowa Citt Iowa 
 
AUTHOR'S PREFACE 
 
 The purpose of the studies recorded in the pages which 
 follow is to present an historical account of third party 
 movements since the Civil War, chiefly from the stand- 
 point and surroundings of Iowa — the State that con- 
 tributed a presidential candidate for these parties first in 
 1880 and again in 1892. The selection of movements to be 
 considered has been determined as the study progressed, 
 the connecting link being the fact that they grew out of 
 the economic and social conditions arising from the settle- 
 ment of the West. From time to time political parties 
 have been compelled to take notice of economic and social 
 problems until to-day their leading policies are social. 
 Successive third party movements have been the instru- 
 ments in bringing about this result. 
 
 The Prohibition and Socialist parties have not been 
 included because of their different origin and develop- 
 ment. Primarily a party of one issue, which has been 
 largely a moral one, the Prohibition party has been na- 
 tional in its source and scope : it lias had no vital con- 
 nection with frontier conditions nor with the economic 
 and social life of the West. The Socialist party, on the 
 other hand, has been international in its history and de- 
 velopment : it has grown out of the industrial revolution 
 in European countries and its program and policies have 
 
viii AUTHOR'S PREFACE 
 
 been shaped by conditions there. So far as those condi- 
 tions have reappeared in the United States, European 
 socialism has grown stronger in this country. There is 
 nothing distinctively Western or American about the 
 Prohibitionists and Socialists, as has been the case with 
 the Anti-Monopoly, the Greenback, and the Populist par- 
 ties. 
 
 The newspapers used are largely those published in 
 Iowa. This has been partly accidental ; and at the same 
 time it has been partly intentional, since the purpose was 
 to approach events from the Iowa point of view. For- 
 tunately, it happened that, during the period under con- 
 sideration, there were in Iowa a number of papers owned 
 and edited by men of unusual strength and intelligence. 
 Among the papers referred to most frequently are The 
 Iowa State Register of Des Moines, controlled by the 
 Clarksons, a family of able Republicans ; the Clinton Age, 
 a Democratic journal that exercised a wide influence 
 under a strong editor, Judge E. H. Thayer ; and the Daily 
 Press of Iowa City, another Democratic paper for many 
 years the organ of that unique personality, John P. Irish. 
 In addition considerable use has been made of the Bur- 
 lington- Hawk-Eye and the Sioux City Journal, both ably 
 edited Republican papers. 
 
 From the newspapers frequent quotations have been 
 introduced so that to a certain extent the story has been 
 told by contemporaries. Such a method, of course, in- 
 volves the inclusion of extreme and partisan statements 
 
AUTHOR'S PREFACE ix 
 
 that do not harmonize with the more sober conclusions 
 of history, but they do reproduce for us something of 
 the atmosphere and conditions out of which the more 
 recent progressive movement has grown. 
 
 While much reliance has been placed upon the news- 
 papers of the period, other sources of information have 
 been freely used. The Weller Papers in the possession 
 of the Wisconsin Historical Society, the Weaver Papers 
 in the hands of the family in Des Moines, and the Don- 
 nelly Collection of the Minnesota Historical Society have 
 been consulted, since they include the chief manuscript 
 and personal collections of materials covering the period 
 under review, particularly from the standpoint of the his- 
 tory of minor parties. 
 
 The thanks of the author are due to Professor Benja- 
 min F. Shambaugh, the Superintendent and Editor of 
 The State Historical Society of Iowa, without whose con- 
 stant encouragement and unfailing interest this study 
 would never have been completed. Dr. Dan E. Clark, the 
 Assistant Editor of the Society, has helped at every stage 
 with many valuable suggestions, besides compiling the 
 index; while Miss Helen Otto assisted in the verification 
 
 of the manuscript. 
 
 Feed E. Haynes 
 The State Historical Society of Iowa 
 Iowa City Iowa 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Editor's Introduction . . v 
 
 Author's Preface . . v ii 
 
 I. Introduction : Third Parties ... 1 
 
 PART I 
 THE LIBERAL REPUBLICAN MOVEMENT 
 
 II. The Cincinnati Convention and its Sources . 9 
 
 III. The Liberal Republicans in Iowa ... 22 
 
 IV. The Liberal Republicans 1872-1876 ... 30 
 V. The Independent Republicans 1880-1884 . 41- 
 
 PART II 
 
 THE FARMERS' MOVEMENT 
 
 VI. Third Parties in the West 1873-1876 . 51 
 
 VII. The Anti-Monopoly Party in Iowa 1873-1875 . 67 
 
 PART III 
 
 THE GREENBACK MOVEMENT 
 
 VIII. Labor Reform Agitation .... 91 ' 
 
 IX. Organization of the Greenback Party . . 105 ' 
 
 X. Union of Labor Reformers and Greenbackers . 120 
 
 XI. The Decline of the Greenback Party . 131 
 XII. The Greenback Party in Iowa : The Period of 
 
 Growth . . 153 
 
 XIII. The Greenback Party in low a : The Period of 
 
 Decline . . 175 
 
 XIV. A Crucial Period — 1880 to 1890 . 202 
 
xii CONTENTS 
 
 PART IV 
 
 THE POPULIST MOVEMENT 
 
 " XV. Sources of the Populist Paety . . 221 
 XVI. The Campaign of 1890 and the Formation 
 
 of the New Party 236 
 
 XVII. The Campaigns of 1892 and 1894 : The Pol- 
 icy of Permeation .... 261 
 XVIII. The Campaign of 1896 : The Union of Popu- 
 lists and Democrats ..... 282 
 XIX. Conditions in Iowa in 1890 and 1891 . . 304 
 XX. The Iowa Campaigns of 1892 and 1893 . 321 
 XXI. Industrial Unrest in Iowa . . . 338 
 XXII. Free Silver and Populist Gains in Iowa 346 
 XXIII. The Climax of Populism in Iowa . 358 
 
 PART V 
 
 THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 
 
 "XXIV. The Pioneer Progressives : Bryan and La 
 
 Follette . ... 379 
 ' XXV. The Reign of Roosevelt . . 398 ~) 
 ■ XXVI. The Progressives in the States . . 408 
 XXVII. The Split in the Republican Party . 420 
 XXVIII. The Progressive Movement in Iowa: Gov- 
 ernor Larrabee . ... 435 
 XXIX. The Progressive Movement in Iowa: Gov- 
 ernor Cummins . .... 447 
 -r— • -XXX. Social Politics . . . 470 
 Notes and References . . 483 
 Index ... .... 537 
 
INTRODUCTION: THIRD PARTIES 
 
 The usual view of third or minor parties in the United 
 States has ignored their real significance. An individ- 
 ualistic political philosophy has led most people to think 
 of them simply in relation to the great parties. The 
 chief contrast has been a matter of size. The Republican 
 and Democratic parties are coextensive in their organi- 
 zation with the Nation; while third parties are not 
 necessarily organized nationally and do not contest every 
 election. Then again, the utopian character of their 
 demands, as they appear to the practical American, has 
 aroused his sense of humor. His amusement has not 
 always allowed him to see the real nature of the organ- 
 ization beneath the apparent absurdity. 
 
 The caricatures of Kansas Populists, as presented by 
 the cartoonists of the metropolitan press, are typical of 
 the way in which third parties have been regarded by the 
 majority of Americans. According to this view a man 
 of good sense connects himself with one of the regular 
 parties in preference to throwing away his vote upon a 
 third party candidate. To such a person, representing 
 as he does the more or less prevalent popular view, a 
 third party is made up largely of reformers, cranks, and 
 discredited leaders of the older parties. All others ought 
 to find a place in one of the two great parties. 
 
 A broader view of these minor parties regards them 
 as a means of agitation and education. Especially is 
 this true in the case of an organization such as the Pro- 
 
2 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 hibition party, which may not only enable the citizen to 
 perform more efficiently his political duties, but may also 
 educate him to take a higher view of his responsibilities. 
 Moreover, such an opinion concerning third parties de- 
 velops an attitude which regards them as an expression 
 of social discontent — as a means of indicating objection 
 to the existing economic regime. 
 
 The great influences favoring democracy in this country 
 have come from the West : the experiences of the pioneers 
 on the frontier developed individual enterprise and a 
 sense of personal independence. The margin of free 
 land on the frontier provided an outlet for the more 
 adventurous ; and so the West has been the seat of demo- 
 cratic ideas. The Greenback, Granger, Free Silver, and 
 Populist parties were the expression of repeated efforts 
 on the part of the democratic citizens of the West to 
 assert themselves against the prevailing characteristics 
 of the industrial and social development since the Civil 
 War. Often shortsighted and visionary in their specific 
 remedies, these leaders of the people were fundamentally 
 sound in their opposition to the growing influence of 
 wealth. Their instincts opened their eyes to features in 
 contemporary developments that were not discovered for 
 many years by the people in the older parts of the coun- 
 try. It is only necessary to read the platforms of the 
 minor organizations to find the origin of many of the 
 planks that are later prominent in the proposals of the 
 .Democratic and Eepublican parties. For the most part 
 these short-lived parties represent forward movements 
 in the development of government of the people, for the 
 people, and by the people, rather than the outbursts of 
 fanatical reformers based upon the imaginings of poorly 
 balanced minds. 1 
 
THIRD PARTIES / 3 
 
 Looked at from the social point of view the chief func- 
 tion of third parties has been to bring new issues before 
 the people : they force new policies upon the older parties, 
 and after accomplishing their work they pass away. One 
 reason for their brief lives is undoubtedly due to the fact 
 that reform is a good issue with which to arouse enthu- 
 siasm, but after the first impulse to activity is over the 
 enthusiasm declines. A more important reason for the 
 failure of such movements seems to be the ' ' innate politi- 
 cal conservatism of the bulk of the American people 
 . . . . [who] prefer, .... to bring forward 
 the new issues and to work out the desired reforms in the 
 established parties rather than to attempt to displace 
 them with new organizations." 2 
 
 Permeation of the old parties by the influence of third 
 party organizations formed to advocate some urgent 
 reform has been the American method of dealing with 
 political and economic reforms. The larger the number 
 of votes cast for a third party the greater the probability 
 that its issue will be adopted by one or both of the great 
 parties rather than that its manifest strength will help it 
 to displace or take a place alongside the established 
 parties. So regularly has this occurred since the Civil 
 War that a recent writer has declared that "it is aj 
 truism of political history that minority parties ulti-' 
 mately write the platforms for all parties. In time, the 
 causes which they have the temerity to espouse, are 
 taken up by the established organizations when direct 
 appeal to the latter may have proven fruitless." 3 
 
 Certain minor characteristics of third parties may be 
 noticed at the outset. All of them take a broad view 
 of the federal Constitution. Thus General James B. 
 "Weaver declared that "every good Greenbacker spells 
 
4 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 the word ' Nation ' with the biggest kind of an N. " * This 
 attitude results from the fact that they are urging policies 
 that the older parties refuse to espouse on constitutional 
 grounds. Back of constitutional limitations there are 
 economic and social forces which are more or less con- 
 sciously working for recognition. The Constitution must 
 either break or bend. Happily, the genius of Alexander 
 Hamilton and the wisdom of John Marshall developed 
 the doctrine of "implied powers" so that the Granger 
 ' demand for government regulation of railroads could be 
 satisfied by constitutional interpretation without serious 
 strain to the Constitution. 
 
 Again, every third party aspires to become one of the 
 ruling parties, so that, in addition to its chief issue, it ex- 
 tends its platform to include other issues in order to 
 absorb the strength behind such issues. This course is 
 almost always followed, in spite of the fact that there are 
 grave doubts as to whether more is not lost than gained 
 through the danger of factions arising from contending 
 interests. To the leaders of minor parties fusion often 
 seems the open door to real political power; but fusion 
 has probably been more often fatal to such parties than 
 any other cause. Either the larger party will swallow 
 up the smaller, or the natural antagonism that seems to 
 develop between parties most closely related appears and 
 a fierce quarrel ensures, which is equally fatal to the 
 smaller body. 
 
 The real value, then, of third parties is that they stir 
 the waters and prevent stagnation. What an agitator is 
 among individuals the third party is in relation to the 
 older party organizations. These parties may go on as a 
 result of the momentum acquired from past services. 
 "Parties can and do exist for a considerable time with- 
 
THIRD PARTIES 5 
 
 out any peculiar doctrines ; nothing is much more common 
 than to see a party looking for a principle, seeking what 
 we call an 'issue'. Both parties do this in fact, but the 
 minority party is more eager than the one having the 
 advantage of office and authority. ' ' If this does not hap- 
 pen, then a new party soon comes into existence. "If 
 the principles they present are looked on with favor by a 
 large portion of the people, these principles will be taken 
 up by one or the other of the older parties or proved by a 
 short time to be undesirable. " 5 Balance of power is the 
 lever in the hands of the third party by which its prin- 
 ciples may reach accomplishment, although in time its 
 organization almost certainly ceases to exist. 
 
 So regularly has this course of events occurred since 
 the Civil War, that it may almost be regarded as a fixed 
 order of American political life. Party machinery has 
 become so complex and requires so much technical skill 
 in its manipulation that there seems less and less chance 
 of its overthrow or seizure by inexperienced workers. 
 It almost seems as though the Bepublican and Democratic 
 parties must go on indefinitely; and yet we know that 
 they must inevitably adjust themselves to the new social 
 and economic problems that continually become urgent. 
 Social and economic problems are, indeed, the real forces 
 behind the third parties, without which they would be of 
 minor importance but with which they are factors that / 
 can not be ignored or neglected. Already they have been 
 seen to exercise such influence upon the two great parties 
 that there is more in common between sections of the 
 different parties than between divisions of the same 
 party. The progressive Bepublican has much more in 
 common with a progressive Democrat than he has with 
 the conservative members of his own party. Hence the 
 
6 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 significance of President Wilson's reference in his in- 
 augural address to all "forward-looking" men. 
 
 There are few tasks more difficult than that of tracing 
 the history of minor parties — which must be judged 
 rather by their effects upon other bodies than by direct 
 study of their own activity. How these minor parties 
 have influenced the Eepublican and Democratic parties is 
 an important but hitherto neglected phase of the his- 
 tory of political parties in the United States. What 
 Bryce has called the "Fatalism of the Multitude" 6 and 
 what Von Hoist has described as the "Worship of the 
 Constitution" 7 have blinded the people of the United 
 States in their interpretation of very important and in- 
 fluential phenomena — the manifestation of social and 
 economic forces that are only beginning to be under- 
 stood. 8 
 
PART I 
 THE LIBERAL REPUBLICAN MOVEMENT 
 
II 
 
 THE CINCINNATI CONVENTION AND ITS 
 SOURCES 
 
 The Liberal Republican movement began in Missouri 1 , 
 where, in 1865, a constitutional convention had deprived 
 Southern sympathizers of the franchise and of the privi- 
 lege of holding office, and where, in 1868, a rigid registra- 
 tion law was passed to carry out these constitutional 
 provisions. As early as 1866 Colonel B. Gratz Brown, a 
 prominent Republican and former United States Senator, 
 had begun an agitation intended ultimately to remove all 
 restrictions from Southerners and also to reform the 
 revenue system and the civil service. Although this 
 movement began in St. Louis, it was soon felt throughout 
 the whole State. Colonel Brown found a powerful ally 
 in Mr. Carl Schurz, who had recently come from Wiscon- 
 sin and who as the editor of an influential German news- 
 paper and as a popular speaker rendered efficient aid in 
 the new movement. 
 
 An attempt during the legislative session of 1870 to 
 pass a new registration law failed, and the Republicans 
 became rapidly divided into two factions known as Lib- 
 erals and Radicals. At the general State convention, 
 held at Jefferson City late in August, the differences of 
 opinion became so pronounced that two hundred and 
 fifty delegates, led by Mr. Schurz, withdrew and held a 
 separate convention over which he presided and which 
 adopted a platform containing articles urging the re- 
 
 9 
 
10 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 moval of all political disabilities and also expressing 
 hostility "to any tariff which fosters one individual or 
 interest at the expense of another". In addition, the 
 convention demanded "a thorough reform of the civil 
 service", opposed all schemes to repudiate any part of 
 the State or national debt, and finally declared its dis- 
 approval of "the alienation of our public domain to 
 private corporations, to the exclusion of actual settlers, 
 and that the public lands should be held in trust for the 
 landless and laboring-men of the country." 
 
 Colonel Brown was nominated for Governor by the 
 Liberals, while the Radicals renominated the Governor 
 then in office. The Democrats decided to make no nomina- 
 tions of their own, pledging their support to the Liberal 
 candidates. Although the administration at Washington 
 urged the support of the Radicals, and although the Rad- 
 icals themselves declared in favor of reenfranchisement, 
 the Liberals won at the election in November by more 
 than 40,000 plurality.- They also gained control of the 
 State legislature and elected two Congressmen — the 
 Democrats at the same time electing four and the Rad- 
 icals three. 9 
 
 Early in 1871 the existing dissatisfaction with the 
 Grant administration among Republicans began to take 
 definite form. The first open expression of hostility came 
 from a meeting held at St. Louis. This meeting was 
 followed by other conferences held in Cincinnati during 
 February and March and attended by Republicans of 
 such prominence as ex-Governor Jacob D. Cox and Stan- 
 ley Matthews of Ohio. At these conferences the forma- 
 tion of a Republican association to promote certain views 
 and policies that should guide the future of the party 
 was completed. The declaration of principles was signed 
 
THE CINCINNATI CONVENTION 11 
 
 by about one hundred Republicans. This movement was 
 called a ' ' Republican Reform movement, and was said to 
 reflect a change in sentiment, in regard to some points 
 of Republican legislation, which had become manifest 
 among the people of the West and Northwest. " The new 
 faction declared its intention to work within the lines of 
 the Republican party and advocated four distinct prin- 
 ciples, namely: general amnesty, civil service reform,} 
 specie payments, and a revenue tariff. 10 Moreover, there 
 were representatives and sympathizers with this move- 
 ment in the Senate at Washington, which made it of im- 
 portance in national as well as in State politics. 11 
 
 The Missouri split between the Liberals and Radicals 
 continued in 1871 in spite of efforts made to reunite the 
 factions. A meeting called by the State committee of the 
 Liberals assembled at Jefferson City on January 24, 
 1872, and was described as ' ' one of the largest ever held 
 in the State". It was attended by many persons "from 
 other parts of the country. ' ' 12 Speeches were made by 
 local delegates and by the visitors ; and resolutions were 
 adopted similar to those already indicated, with the addi- 
 tion of a demand for "the removal of such [tariff] duties 
 as, in addition to the revenue yielded to the Treasury, 
 involve an increase in the price of domestic products", 
 and a disapproval of "the packing of the Supreme Court 
 to relieve rich corporations ' '. The convention closed by 
 issuing a call for a national convention to be held at Cin- 
 cinnati on the first Wednesday of the ensuing May "to 
 take such action as their convictions of duty and of public 
 exigencies may require." 1S 
 
 The invitation from the Missouri Republicans met with 
 response from various parts of the country. A letter 
 signed by twenty Republicans of New York, expressing 
 
12 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 "concurrence in the principles lately set forth by the 
 Liberal Eepublicans of Missouri" and accepting the in- 
 vitation to meet at Cincinnati, is an example of the way 
 in which the call was received. Among the signatures to 
 this letter was that of Mr. Horace Greeley. 14 
 
 Preparation for such an invitation had been going on 
 since 1868 when "a group of public spirited men, per- 
 suaded of the injustice of a protective tariff, formed the 
 American Free Trade League. This included, among 
 others, Alfred Pell, senior, Eobert B. Minturn, Carl 
 Schurz, Judge Hoadley, ex-Governor Jacob D. Cox of 
 Ohio, Horace White of the Chicago Tribune, David A. 
 Wells, Anson Phelps Stokes, Edward Atkinson, William 
 M. Grosvenor, E. L. Godkin, editor of The Nation, ex- 
 Governor Randolph of New Jersey, David Dudley Field, 
 William Lloyd Garrison, Samuel J. Tilden, 0. B. Froth- 
 ingham, and Howard Potter. One of the members in 
 San Francisco was a young printer named Henry George, 
 not yet known to fame. William Cullen Bryant was its 
 President, Charles M. Marshall, Treasurer, Mahlon 
 Sands, Secretary, and Henry D. Lloyd, Assistant Secre- 
 tary. It made every effort to inform public opinion 
 through lectures and literature. It issued a paper called 
 The Free Trader, and .... a number or two of an 
 illustrated monthly called The Pictorial Taxpayer; they 
 published a book by William M. Grosvenor, Does Protec- 
 tion Protect f A campaign of public meetings averaging 
 in 1870 more than one every two days extended from 
 Maine to Minnesota. ' ' 15 
 
 The New York Herald, discussing the political situa- 
 tion in February, estimated that "these Eeformers pos- 
 sibly have a hundred thousand votes." Referring to the 
 New Hampshire election which was to occur on March 
 
THE CINCINNATI CONVENTION 13 
 
 12th, the same paper stated that that was "the State 
 where the Labor Reform movement is strongest, where 
 they gave the control last year [1871] to the Democracy, 
 and where it is presumed, by the aid of the speeches of 
 Sumner and Schurz, the same result may this year also 
 be secured. ' ' 16 
 
 The movement gained strength so rapidly that in April 
 it seemed possible that a ticket nominated by the Liberals 
 and accepted by the Democrats might win. A large mass 
 meeting held in April at Cooper Institute in New York 
 City, indicated its growing importance. The Nation de- 
 clared that "it was the most densely packed meeting 
 which ever met there. All approach within fifty yards 
 of the entrance was next to impossible in the early part 
 of the evening, so great was the crowd in the street. . . . 
 The audience was composed of that sober, thoughtful 
 middle class, equally removed from wealth and poverty, 
 which one has seen in the same room on all great oc- 
 casions since 1860, such, in short, as was there at the first 
 emancipation meeting in 1862, and at the reform meeting 
 of last spring. ' ' " Senators Trumbull and Schurz were 
 the speakers. 
 
 Charles Francis Adams, Horace Greeley, Lyman Trum- 
 bull, Charles Sumner, and David Davis were suggested 
 as candidates for the presidency. Sumner, Trumbull, or 
 Adams might have been supported consistently by the 
 best elements in the movement. Sumner's health for- 
 bade his serious consideration ; so the choice lay between 
 Trumbull and Adams. Mr. Trumbull would have been a 
 satisfactory choice but Adams was by far the stronger 
 candidate. He was the one most feared by Grant's sup- 
 porters and the most acceptable to the Democrats. In 
 April, just before his departure for Europe, Mr. Adams 
 
14 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 wrote a letter to Mr. David A. Wells in which he ex- 
 pressed a willingness to become a candidate, if the 
 nomination should come to him absolutely without con- 
 ditions. 18 
 
 Two days before the meeting of the May convention 
 the politicians began to assemble in Cincinnati. The 
 five independent editors, Murat Halstead of the Cincin- 
 nati Commercial, Horace White of the Chicago Tribune, 
 Henry Watterson of the Louisville Courier- Journal, 
 Samuel Bowles of the Springfield Republican, and White- 
 law Eeid of the New York Tribune, were also present. 
 They believed that a scheme was prepared between the 
 delegates from New York and Illinois for the nomination 
 of Mr. Davis who had already been nominated by the 
 Labor Reformers, and they succeeded in heading off this 
 plan; but apparently the influence back of it was later 
 transferred to Horace Greeley. 19 
 
 Other men of importance among the members of the 
 convention and sympathizers with its purposes were 
 Judge John B. Stallo of Ohio, Governor John M. Palmer 
 of Illinois, Governor Austin Blair of Michigan, Mr. 
 James R. Doolittle of Wisconsin, Colonel William M. 
 Grosvenor of Missouri, Mr. Frank Bird, Mr. Edward 
 Atkinson, and General William F. Bartlett of Massachu- 
 setts, Mr. David A. Wells of Connecticut, Mr. William 
 Cullen Bryant and Mr. Reuben E. Fenton of New York, 
 and Governor Andrew G. Curtin of Pennsylvania. 20 
 
 The first mistake made by the convention was the 
 choice of Mr. Schurz as'permanent chairman. He favor- 
 ed Mr. Adams as a candidate for the presidency and so 
 indicated in his speech of acceptance. Moreover, he had 
 shown that he possessed ability for political leadership, 
 and he was needed on the floor. He might have been 
 
THE CINCINNATI CONVENTION 15 
 
 able to get the convention to declare for a platform and 
 a candidate that would have met all the necessary re- 
 quirements of the situation. On the whole, with one ex- 
 ception, the platform was satisfactory. The exception 
 was the reference of the tariff question "to the people in 
 their congressional districts and to the decision of Con- 
 gress". This action was the price paid for the support 
 of Mr. Greeley and the New York Tribune. The price 
 paid was altogether too high, even as a matter of policy. 
 Seen from the distance of the years it is clear that the 
 most promising opportunity for the reduction of the tariff 
 for a generation was lost. 21 
 
 The greatest error of the convention was the nomina- 
 tion of Mr. Horace Greeley. One observer described it 
 as "the humorous nomination of the ironical convention 
 which met at Cincinnati in May ' ' and then went on to say 
 that it "has been received by the nation with the con- 
 trasted feelings usually awakened in mixed audiences by 
 a joke ; the great mass have no real pleasure in it ; many 
 whose opinions or prejudices have been trifled with resent 
 it ; a few like it ; but at first everybody laughs. " 22 A 
 tariff reform convention had nominated the most extreme 
 protectionist living. A civil service reform convention 
 had nominated a man less friendly to its demand than 
 General Grant himself. Only in regard to the South was 
 Mr. Greeley in sympathy with the Liberals, and even 
 here his agreement was not complete. Of the nomination 
 Mr. Bowles of the Springfield Republican, who had been 
 for Adams and later voted for Greeley, declared in a 
 private letter soon after the close of the convention that 
 Greeley had "magnificent qualities and has done more 
 for political reform and social reform, Eepublican ad- 
 vancement and Democratic elevation than any man living. 
 
16 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Then he has more first-class weaknesses than any man, 
 too." General Grant finally received the support of The 
 Nation and the New York Evening Post. Except the 
 Brown clique, whose leader had been given the vice 
 presidential nomination, the original promoters of the 
 movement were bitterly disappointed. 23 
 
 In his Life of Lyman Trumbull, Horace White of the 
 Chicago Tribune says concerning the convention that 
 "the streets of Cincinnati had never beheld a more order- 
 ly, single-minded, public-spirited crowd. At least four 
 fifths had come together at their own expense for no 
 other purpose than the general good. There was, how- 
 ever, a small minority of office-seekers among them. The 
 movement in its inception was altogether free from that 
 class, but when it began to assume formidable proportions 
 and seemed not unlikely to sweep the country, it attract- 
 ed a certain number of professional politicians, including 
 a few estrays from the South. 
 
 "The office-seeking fraternity were mostly supporters 
 of Davis, whose appearance as a candidate for the presi- 
 dency was extremely offensive to the original promoters 
 of the movement. As a judge of the Supreme Court his 
 incursion into the field of politics, unheralded, but not 
 unprecedented, was an indecorum. Moreover, his sup- 
 porters had not been early movers in the ranks of reform, 
 and their sincerity was doubted. They were extremely 
 active, however, after the movement had gained head- 
 way .... Davis's chances were early demolished 
 by the editorial fraternity, who, at a dinner at Murat 
 Halstead's house, resolved that they would not support 
 him if nominated, and caused that fact to be made 
 known. ' ' 2i 
 
 Mr. White gives an interesting account of the "Gratz 
 
THE CINCINNATI CONVENTION 17 
 
 Brown trick" by which Mr. Greeley was made the candi- 
 date in place of Mr. Adams. He thinks that this was 
 done out of jealousy of Mr. Schurz's power in Missouri. 
 His opponents "feared he would become oninipotent 
 there, dominating both parties, if Adams should be elect- 
 ed President; and that the only way to head him off was 
 to beat Adams. They chose Greeley for this purpose, 
 not because they had any bargain with, or fondness for, 
 him, but because he was the next strongest man in the 
 convention. ' ' 2b 
 
 Mr. Schurz's account of the "Gratz Brown trick" is 
 given in a letter to Mr. Greeley dated at Washington on 
 May 6, 1872. In this communication he expresses the 
 deepest disappointment at the results of the convention. 
 He declares his belief in Mr. Greeley 's honesty, but says 
 that "nobody can read the proceedings of the conven- 
 tion .... without concluding that .... the 
 first fruit of the great reform .... was a success- 
 ful piece of political huckstering and that the whole 
 movement had been captured by politicians of the old 
 stamp." He refers to both Mr. Blair and Mr. Brown 
 by name. 26 
 
 Mr. White believes "that either Adams or Trumbull 
 could have been elected if nominated at Cincinnati. ' ' He 
 thinks "also that Adams was the stronger of the two, 
 because he had incurred no personal ill-will during the 
 twelve years of war and Reconstruction and because the 
 minds of the Democratic leaders who had encouraged the 
 Liberal movement were eagerly expecting him .... 
 The Germans also were enthusiastic for Adams. . . . 
 He was also the man of whom the Republican leaders had 
 the gravest fears as an opposing candidate. ' ' 21 
 
 A meeting composed of persons dissatisfied with the 
 
18 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 nomination was held in New York on May 30th. "he 
 speakers were Professor Perry of Williams College, Wm. 
 Cullen Bryant, David A. Wells, Edward Atkinson, Simon 
 Sterne, and Henry D. Lloyd. The last named speaker 
 described how the nomination of Mr. Greeley had been 
 brought about by a "spontaneous rally which had been 
 carefully planned the night before. The hall was filled 
 with a mechanical, preordained, stentorious bellowing. 
 Hoary-headed, hard-eyed politicians who had not in twen- 
 ty years felt a noble impulse, mounted their chairs, and 
 with faces suffused with a seraphic fervour blistered their 
 throats hurraying for the great and good Horace Greeley. 
 The noise bred a panic. A furore, artificial at first, be- 
 came real and ended in a stampede, which resulted in the 
 nomination of Mr. Greeley". 28 
 
 As a result on June 20th an invitation was issued for a 
 conference of "gentlemen who are opposed to the present 
 Administration and its continuance in office, and deem it 
 necessary that all the elements of the opposition should 
 be united for a common effort". The invitation was 
 signed by Schurz, Cox, Bryant, Wells, and others, and 
 was sent to two hundred of the original advocates of the 
 Cincinnati meeting. At the appointed time "over one 
 hundred men of affairs gathered in the Fifth Avenue 
 Hotel rooms. . . . The meeting was called to order 
 by ex-Governor Randolph; Jacob D. Cox was elected 
 President, William Cullen Bryant and General John A. 
 Dix Vice-Presidents, and Lloyd Secretary. A resolution 
 was passed that the Chair proceed to a call of the States 
 and that each delegate, under seal of confidence not to 
 report the proceedings, express his individual opinion as 
 to the future course of the Grant opposition. When New 
 York was called, a stormy debate ensued, and Carl Schurz, 
 
THE CINCINNATI CONVENTION 19 
 
 emerging from his period of indecision and silence, made 
 a two hours' speech said to be one of the finest he ever 
 delivered. He maintained that it was too late for a third 
 ticket, that in order to defeat the corruption in power, the 
 best policy was to unite in supporting Greeley, whose 
 election by an overwhelming majority he predicted. . . . 
 This speech swept the conference before it. Indignation 
 over the Cincinnati fiasco disappeared like morning mist, 
 and by 1 A. M. the second bolting convention adjourned 
 sine die." 
 
 "There still remained, however, out of the Cincinnati 
 thousands a handfull of men who were determined not to 
 compromise their principles .... and before sepa- 
 rating [they J arranged to meet again. There were only 
 twenty-five in all who assembled the next morning." 
 Mr. Lloyd was there pleading for "an immediate nomi- 
 nation" as a duty to the people. A platform was adopted 
 and William S. Groesbeck of Ohio and Frederick Law 
 Olmsted of New York were nominated as candidates. 29 
 
 Referring to this action The Nation declared that the 
 platform was "the most respectable document of the kind 
 we have seen for many years, and bears all the marks of 
 having been drawn by honest men, and can be read from 
 first to last without laughter." During the excitement 
 of the campaign, however, this ticket was entirely for- 
 gotten. 30 
 
 In due time the Democratic convention met and ac- 
 cepted the platform and candidates of the Liberals. For 
 a time the northern Democrats were opposed to the ac- 
 ceptance of Mr. Greeley ; but as it became plain that no 
 other Liberal Republican candidate would be substituted 
 and that the only possible hope of defeating Grant lay in 
 the concentration of the opposition upon a single candi- 
 
20 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 date they yielded. The Southern Democrats accepted 
 Mr. Greeley more willingly, partly because their situa- 
 tion was so hopeless that they were willing to grasp at 
 anything that promised relief. 31 A movement for a bolt 
 by "straight-out" Democrats failed through lack of a 
 leader to make much impression. A convention at Louis- 
 ville in September nominated Charles 'Conor for Presi- 
 dent and John Quincy Adams for Vice President — but 
 both declined to run. 32 Nevertheless 29,489 votes were 
 cast for 'Conor, who had been nominated by the Labor 
 Reformers after the refusal of Davis and Parker to ac- 
 cept the nomination made at their convention which was 
 held at Columbus in February, 1872. 33 
 
 For a time in September and early in October there 
 seemed to be a possibility of Mr. Greeley's election. In 
 September he made a tour through Pennsylvania, Ohio, 
 and Indiana and was greeted by great crowds every- 
 where. His great reputation was undoubtedly responsi- 
 ble for these demonstrations of interest. But the inevi- 
 table result came in November, when Grant secured the 
 electoral vote of all but six or seven States 34 and a pop- 
 ular majority of 750,000. This result ought to have been 
 foreseen by everybody. 
 
 Commenting upon the election The Atlantic Monthly, 
 in its survey of current politics, observed that "the Pres- 
 idential election is over at last, and the nation breathes 
 freer in the security of its delivery from Mr. Greeley and 
 his galvanized democracy. For this it may reasonably 
 be grateful to General Grant who has a second time saved 
 the Union — not now from rebellion and dissolution, as 
 before, but from an uprising of office-seekers under the 
 lead of an erratic, unstable, and ill-advised philanthropist 
 — from confusion and corruption and absurdity and bab- 
 
THE CINCINNATI CONVENTION 21 
 
 ble and ink — shed, without end. ' ' The same writer de- 
 scribed the election of Grant as "the choice of the lesser 
 evil. ' ' 35 Again, the same magazine declared that ' ' the 
 Cincinnati movement ended in disaster, last summer, but 
 it had one good result, which all those who avow an inter- 
 est in reform ought to notice : it proved the existence of 
 a small class of sincere reformers, who are not only- 
 capable of making a bold attack on the party in power, 
 but who are also ready, in the interest of reform, to turn 
 on their own soidisant fellows and ruin them ; who are not 
 interested in the reform movement because it seems to 
 afford an avenue to place and profit, but because it is a 
 real reform movement; and who leave it the moment it 
 ceases to be true to the object of its existence." 3S 
 
in 
 
 LIBERAL REPUBLICANS IN IOWA 
 
 Iowa as a State bordering upon Missouri, where the 
 Liberal Republican movement originated, was strongly 
 influenced by the appearance of tbe new party. As early 
 as July, 1871, references are made to "Reform Conven- 
 tions" in Iowa newspapers. One such meeting held in 
 Mahaska County is described contemptuously as "com- 
 posed of sorehead Republicans and ambitious Demo- 
 crats". 37 The Clinton Age, a Democratic paper, in 
 diagnosing tbe political situation, observed that the 
 "Democrats are being beat at every election because some 
 men are too obstinate to abandon an idea and others are 
 too wise to forget anything. If the democracy could 
 muster up courage enough to go into the next presidential 
 contest on the live questions of the day — such as the 
 President's encroachments upon individual rights, the 
 attempted destruction by tbe party in power of the per- 
 sonal freedom of the people of a dozen states, the corrup- 
 tion, profligacy and wholesale swindling of government 
 officials — there might be a chance for success. But we 
 have very little hope of seeing so much sense in the dem- 
 ocratic party. The everlasting negro question must be 
 fought over again and again. . . . "We don't believe 
 it makes much difference what man the democracy nom- 
 inates for the presidency .... if the platform 
 should be made up wholly of a formal indictment against 
 the present administration for the wrongful acts com- 
 mitted — such a man could be elected. ' ' S8 
 
 22 
 
LIBERAL REPUBLICANS IN IOWA 23 
 
 Another Democratic leader declared about the same 
 time that it would be folly to contend under the old name 
 in 1872. The Democrats, he thought, should make no 
 nominations but "disband and endeavor to divide the 
 Republican party", and support one of the Republican 
 factions. 39 To this suggestion The Clinton Age replied 
 that the Democratic party "must be kept intact . . . . 
 we are not particular about the precise name .... 
 we say let the opposition to Grant's administration unite 
 on a platform which shall set forth the principles of rev- 
 enue reform, general amnesty, civil service reform, re- 
 duced tariff .... and there may be a show for suc- 
 cess." i0 
 
 Early in 1872 a conservative Republican paper de- 
 scribed a scheme of the "Western railroad interests, 
 identified with the great lines from Chicago through 
 Iowa, to Omaha, and probably the Union Pacific interest, 
 also, ' ' to bring forward ' ' one of their attorneys as a Pres- 
 idential candidate ' ' against Grant in the Republican con- 
 vention. After remarking that the statements quoted 
 from a New York paper (the Herald) were "substantial- 
 ly correct", the writer went on to say that "we of the 
 West have understood for a long time past" the existence 
 of railroad influences in our national and local politics. 
 "We point out this new development of railroad inso- 
 lence, and we speak of it plainly, that it may be known 
 and thwarted by the people. This interest has made our 
 judges, has given us a Senator [Mr. Allison] and now 
 seeks to foist upon the people a President." 41 
 
 In February, 1872, The Clinton Age referred to the 
 ' ' recent convention of liberal Republicans held in Jeffer- 
 son City, Missouri" as a meeting of "more than a mere 
 local significance ' ' and printed the resolutions adopted. 42 
 
24 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 In April a call was issued for a convention at Davenport 
 on the 23rd of April to appoint delegates to the national 
 convention to be held at Cincinnati in May. The call was 
 addressed to the "friends of Union, Loyalty, and Good 
 Government in Iowa." Davenport rather than Des 
 Moines was selected as a more convenient meeting place 
 for the majority of the people attending. Among the 
 signers of the call were Mr. Fitz H. Warren, Mr. J. B. 
 Grinnell, and Mr. D. C. Cloud. 43 
 
 The convention met on Tuesday, April 23rd, was called 
 to order by General Warren, and Mr. Cloud of Musca- 
 tine was made temporary chairman. Governor Brown 
 of Missouri, "the originator of the liberal move", was 
 announced as present by Mr. Grinnell, "when three 
 hearty cheers were given. ' ' Permanent organization was 
 completed with General Warren of Burlington as chair- 
 man. Mr. Grinnell was made chairman of a committee 
 to select "delegates who would go to Cincinnati without 
 regard to number". He presented a list of one hundred 
 and forty-six names. The same committee recommended 
 a State committee of fourteen members. Ex-Senator 
 Dixon of Wapello County presented a platform which 
 expressed opposition to General Grant, but declared a 
 willingness to support any one "nominated upon a plat- 
 form of honesty, economy, universal amnesty, thorough, 
 genuine reform and the one term principle for the presi- 
 dent. ' ' When the business had been completed, the con- 
 vention listened to addresses by Mr. Jacob Butler, Mr. 
 C. F. Davis, Judge David Borer, Governor Brown, and 
 Mr. J. B. Grinnell. A Bepublican editor, commenting 
 upon the convention, remarked that General Warren and 
 Judge Borer were leaders of the Liberal Bepublicans in 
 Des Moines County and that they ranked with Mr. Grin- 
 
LIBERAL REPUBLICANS IN IOWA 25 
 
 nell and Mr. Butler " as leaders in the State. Inciden- 
 tally it was stated that it was ' ' doubtful if either of them 
 had voted a Republican ticket in the last six years. ' ' 40 
 
 Governor Brown was described by a friend as "a man 
 of deep learning, close thought and ardent convictions, 
 and possessed of ample wealth and unflagging public 
 spirit. ... A good new man is the best departure 
 for the Democratic party. . . . Brown represents a 
 Western State of resources, population and dimensions 
 which has never been honored in the selection of a Presi- 
 dential candidate by either party. . . . His appear- 
 ance is not very handsome, but it is characteristic and 
 quaint — a little knotty, red-headed man, equal parts 
 pluck and genius, whom the people can see and huzza 
 for." 46 
 
 Naturally the nomination of Mr. Greeley was the sub- 
 ject of discussion early in May. The Burlington Haivk- 
 Eye (Republican) said that the "Democrats are quite 
 divided on the question of supporting Greeley. Had 
 Davis been nominated they would have taken him at once. 
 They would have made a few wry faces at Adams or 
 Trumbull, but no very serious objection. But 'ould 
 Greeley' — well, it is pretty rough on them". 47 The 
 same paper a week later stated that Mr. John P. Irish, 
 chairman of the Democratic State Convention, repudiated 
 the nomination of Mr. Greeley and had called upon the 
 Democrats to put a full ticket in the field. "Heretofore, 
 Irish has led the young Democrats and pronounced in 
 favor of a liberal policy, as opposed to the old Bourbons 
 represented by Claggett, Mason and others. The order 
 is now reversed. The Bourbons are out for Greeley and 
 the 'Liberals', while the young Democracy want a hard 
 shell ticket." 48 
 
26 THIRD PAETY MOVEMENTS 
 
 I There is some evidence that Judge David Davis of 
 Illinois was the most popular western candidate for 
 President in 1872 among those classes of people who were 
 becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the existing situa- 
 tion in politics. He received nearly one hundred votes 
 in the Liberal Eepublican Convention, and was nominat- 
 ed for President by the Labor Reform party at Colum- 
 bus, Ohio, in February. Commenting upon this nomi- 
 nation The Clinton Age concluded that it was the work 
 of the Liberal Republicans, and declared that if that 
 were true and the Liberal Republican Convention en- 
 dorsed it, probably the Democrats would hesitate to 
 make a nomination of their own. 49 
 
 Above it was pointed out that Judge Davis would have 
 been accepted willingly by Iowa Democrats. 50 The same 
 paper (the Burlington Hawk-Eye) described the Demo- 
 cratic program as intending ' ' to unite all the Democracy, 
 all the Labor Reformers, and all the Republican 'sore 
 heads' on one ticket." Judge Davis was declared to be 
 the first choice of such a coalition. 51 Mr.. Rhodes de- 
 scribes him as having "an itching for the presidency" 
 and allowing "himself to be nominated by the Labour 
 Reformers, upon a platform which made even his silent 
 consent a grave indiscretion. " 52 A contemporary spoke 
 of him as " an able judge and a worthy man with a strong 
 taste for active politics. . . . He belonged to a high- 
 ly respectable class of politicians known as Independ- 
 ents. ... It was said of him ", later in the United 
 States Senate, "no doubt with some jocose exaggera- 
 tion .... that if he voted twice in succession with 
 the same party, he appeared to be alarmed lest he should 
 take on the character of a partisan, and made haste to 
 
 nS 
 
LIBERAL REPUBLICANS IN IOWA 27 
 
 restore the healthful balance of his mind and of his poli- 
 tical action, by voting next time with the other side. In 
 justice to him, it should be remembered that the position 
 of independency in politics was at that time less under- 
 stood, had been less practiced, and hence was more diffi- 
 cult of graceful maintenance than it now is. ' ' 53 
 
 The character of the Liberal Republican movement in 
 Iowa is shown in a letter sent from the headquarters of 
 the party at Davenport in August, 1872. A list of names 
 of "notable accessions to the reform ranks" is given 
 with the following descriptions: "The venerable Sena- 
 tor from Scott County, who has been a devoted Republi- 
 can since the organization of the party; .... a 
 prominent member of the bar, recently mayor of the city 
 [Davenport] ; .... a prominent and influential 
 Republican, the probable Liberal nominee for Congress 
 in the Vth District ; .... a Grant elector in 1868 ; 
 . . . . one of the most active and influential Republi- 
 cans in the lid District; .... a brilliant speaker 
 and an old-time Republican ; .... a Republican of 
 high standing and large influence, one of the most effec- 
 tive speakers in the State ; .... a German of lib- 
 eral culture and great influence; .... a gallant 
 soldier and an eloquent speaker. ' ' The letter concludes 
 with the statement that "some leading Republican in 
 every county in the State" has joined the movement and 
 the "conditions here are most cheering and satisfac- 
 tory". 54 
 
 The election results in 1872 in Iowa indicate the atti- 
 tude of the people towards the distinctive movement of 
 the year and also the way in which the Grant adminis- 
 tration was regarded. 
 
28 
 
 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 1868 
 Grant 120,399 
 
 Seymour 74,040 
 
 1872 
 Grant 131,566 
 
 Greeley 71,179 
 
 Straight 
 
 1876 
 
 Hayes 171,326 
 
 Tilden 112,121 
 
 Cooper 9,431 
 
 Democrat 2,221 Prohibition 
 
 99 
 
 Total 194,439 
 
 Grant increase 11,167 
 
 Total increase 10,527 
 
 Democratic decrease 640 
 
 Democratic decrease 2,861 
 
 (Governor) 1871 
 
 Republican 109,288 
 
 Democratic 68,199 
 
 Scattering 351 
 
 204,966 
 
 292,977 
 
 including Straight Democratic 
 excluding Straight Democratic 
 (Sec'y of State) 1872 
 Republican 132,719 
 
 Liberal 74,447 
 
 Straight Democrat 1,330 
 Scattering 337 
 
 208,873 
 
 Total 177,778 
 
 Republican increase 23,431 
 
 Total increase 31,095 
 
 Democratic increase including Straight Democratic 7,578 
 
 Democratic increase excluding Straight Democratic 6,248 
 
 Mr. B. F. Gue in his History of Iowa estimates that 
 "the number of Eepublicans in Iowa who voted for Gree- 
 ley could not have been more than three hundred and 
 ninety-seven as the vote for Grant lacked but seven hun- 
 dred and ninety-three of being as large as that for 
 Young, Republican candidate for Secretary of State; 
 while about 2,166 Democrats withheld their votes from 
 Greeley." 55 Using the figures in the Iowa Official Regis- 
 ter for 1913-1914, 56 which differ from those given by Mr. 
 Gue — crediting Grant with 333 more and Greeley with 
 60 more — -it would appear that 533 Republicans voted 
 for Greeley — not a very large number in a total of 
 
LIBERAL REPUBLICANS IN IOWA 29 
 
 204,966 votes. It is clear that Grant ran slightly behind 
 the State ticket ; while at the same time his gain as com- 
 pared with the vote for him in 1868 was greater than the 
 gain in the total vote for President. The vote for Greeley 
 showed a decrease of 2,861 over that for Seymour in 
 1868. Including the vote for the straight Democratic 
 candidate, the decrease was only 640. Greeley ran 3,268 
 votes behind the State ticket. Including the straight 
 Democratic vote there was an increase of 7,578 votes for 
 the Democratic State candidates as compared with the 
 vote for State officers in 1871. 
 
IV 
 
 THE LIBERAL REPUBLICANS 
 
 1872-1876 
 
 The usual accounts describe the Liberal Republican 
 movement as begun, developed, and completed in 1872. 
 As a matter of fact it began in Missouri much earlier, 
 dating back almost to the close of the Civil War. Even 
 as a national movement it was longer in preparation 
 than the ordinary descriptions suggest. By the election 
 of 1870 the Republicans lost the two-thirds majority that 
 they had had since the first contest with President John- 
 son in 1866. In 1871 the pressure of opposition to the 
 Southern policy of the Republicans became strong enough 
 to lead President Grant in his annual message to suggest 
 the removal of political disabilities. Senator Carl Schurz 
 in 1871 was known as a "liberal" Republican, and he 
 was already urging the policies which were to make him, 
 in the following year, the intellectual leader of the new 
 movement." 
 
 Again, the failure of Mr. Greeley's candidacy is sup- 
 posed to have ended the Liberal influence. Such, how- 
 ever, is not the case. In 1873 a Democratic county con- 
 vention in Ohio declared that "both political parties have 
 demonstrated that they are powerless to check or control 
 the existing tendency toward the utter demoralization of 
 the politics of the country", and invited the people with- 
 out regard to former political relations to meet at Colum- 
 bus in mass convention to take such action as the exigen- 
 
 30 
 
THE LIBERAL REPUBLICANS 31 
 
 cies of the time demanded. As a result a convention, 
 which was participated in by Democrats and Liberals, 
 met and nominated a State ticket made up of five Demo- 
 crats and three Liberals. At the ensuing election 10,109 
 votes were cast for this ticket. 08 
 
 In 1874 it was said in an account of the Democratic 
 State Convention of Connecticut that "a considerable 
 proportion of the delegates were Liberal Eepublicans 
 who made common cause with the Democrats." The 
 election resulted in the success of the nominee of this 
 convention. 59 Moreover, the nest year the Democratic 
 Liberal Convention met and renominated the same can- 
 didates unanimously and "with prolonged applause". 
 They were again successful. 60 
 
 In Massachusetts in 1874 General N. P. Banks, former- 
 ly a Eepublican and in 1872 a Liberal, ran as an independ- 
 ent candidate for Congress, being accepted also by the 
 Democrats. In another district, as a protest against 
 caucus methods, President Julius H. Seelye of Amherst 
 College was taken up by some of the Republicans as a 
 candidate without a formal nomination. Both of these 
 candidates were elected — General Banks by a wide mar- 
 gin over his competitor. It was in this same year that 
 the Democrats elected their first Governor since the Civil 
 War; while the congressional delegation from the State 
 was made up of five Republicans, four Democrats, and the 
 two Independents (Banks and Seelye). 61 
 
 The next year (1875) a New National Union party was 
 organized in Boston with General Banks as one of its 
 leaders ; but with the exception of the issue of an address 
 to the people this party developed little strength. At the 
 same time certain men who had been prominent in the 
 Liberal Republican movement in 1872 issued a statement 
 
32 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 announcing their formal union with the Democrats, who 
 had nominated for Lieutenant Governor, General W. F. 
 Bartlett, a Liberal Eepublican, "by acclamation and with 
 cheers and plaudits." He declined the nomination, but 
 declared that if there should ever be need of such a sacri- 
 fice he would be ready to make it, "whether it be with 
 the Democratic party or the Republican party (or, better 
 still, the honest half of both), so it shall be the party 
 which the near future imperatively calls for to lead the 
 way of true reform, pure administration, and intelligent 
 progress ; a party which shall neither be obliged j;o con- 
 tent itself with the recital of its past achievements nor 
 atone for its past mistakes." e2 
 
 In New York in 1874 the Liberal Republicans held 
 two State conventions — 228 delegates attending the first 
 meeting. The expediency of endorsing the Democratic 
 ticket was earnestly discussed ; but finally it was decided 
 to declare in favor of neither the Republican nor the 
 Democratic nominees and to recommend "the Liberal 
 Republicans and other independent electors of the State 
 that they support for office only men of approved hon- 
 esty, and who most fitly represent the principles enun- 
 ciated at the organization of the party at Cincinnati, and 
 subsequently reaffirmed at State Conventions. ' ' 63 The 
 next year the Liberal Republicans followed a similar 
 course, concluding their resolutions with the statement 
 that "intending to maintain the principles they have 
 now repeatedly and hitherto uniformly proposed, [they] 
 congratulate the country upon the general favor to which 
 they have attained, and believing that, if not entirely, yet 
 they are substantially recognized by both the Democratic 
 and Republican parties of the State, do not think it neces- 
 sary or useful to nominate a State ticket. They do there- 
 
THE LIBERAL REPUBLICANS 33 
 
 fore recommend to the Liberal and independent voters 
 of the State" the best candidates already nominated who 
 will cooperate with Governor Tilden ' ' in his work of ad- 
 ministrative reform. ' ' 64 
 
 The correspondence of Carl Schurz throws consider- 
 able light on the activities of the independents during 
 1875 and 1876. In a letter dated April 16, 1875, and ad- 
 dressed to Henry Armitt Brown, a Philadelphia orator 
 and reformer, he states that "the purpose is to assemble 
 a number of men whose standing in the country is such 
 that their utterances will find attention and respect. It 
 is not important that there should be a great many, but 
 that those present should be, in the truest sense of the 
 term, respectable and respected. The genus 'politician,' 
 in the common acceptation of the term, should therefore 
 be excluded. ' ' 65 
 
 Again, in a letter to Mr. W. M. Grosvenor, written 
 from Switzerland and dated July 16, 1875, Mr. Schurz 
 declares that ' ' what we ought to have, in my opinion, is a 
 meeting of notables — men whose names will be of weight 
 with the country and who can be depended upon to agree 
 to an independent course. Such a meeting ought to be 
 held some time in January or February. ... To 
 make the necessary preparations for such a meeting, so 
 that it can be called without danger of failure at the 
 appropriate time, should, in my opinion, be the principal 
 object of the committee of correspondence, and I am 
 sure, with your knowledge of men and things, you can 
 accomplish it. ' ' 66 
 
 In a letter to Mr. Charles Francis Adams, Jr., also 
 written from Switzerland and dated July 22, he says that 
 "all that is needed is some money to keep Grosvenor at 
 work. I have written about this to Cyrus W. Field, but 
 
34 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 you ought to be able to raise some at Boston. ... If 
 money enough is raised to pay Grosvenor's way this sum- 
 mer and next winter, we shall, I doubt not, have the 
 necessary machinery of organization in good season. ' ' " 
 In another letter to Mr. Adams, addressed from Switzer- 
 land and dated August 18, 1875, Mr. Schurz refers to 
 letters received from Halstead, Nordhoff, Field, and 
 Lodge. 68 
 
 To Mr. Samuel Bowles he wrote a letter addressed 
 from New York and dated January 4, 1876, in which he 
 asks: "Is it not about time you should set out on your 
 Southern tour? You will have to look up there men fit 
 to cooperate with us. I have written letters to my friends 
 in the West and think we shall have from that quarter 
 what we desire. But in the South my acquaintance is 
 limited and it will be for you to make the necessary dis- 
 coveries. Here in New York we can have what we want. 
 Strong efforts are made here for Blaine and Bristow. 
 Our friend Phelps has again succumbed under the 'per- 
 sonal magnetism ' of the former, and Nordhoff also .... 
 The Bristow movement is so right in principle that it 
 deserves encouragement, and I think a large number of 
 the men engaged in it will finally act with us, and we 
 have this with them in common, that Bristow is our sec- 
 ond choice anyhow, and right heartily too. ' ' 69 
 
 Another letter to Mr. Samuel Bowles, dated January 
 16, 1876, describes Schurz as "corresponding with a num- 
 ber of my friends in the West and I find the idea of a 
 meeting to be called 'to devise measures to prevent the 
 campaign of the Centennial year from becoming a mere 
 scramble of politicians for the spoils' .... is tak- 
 ing very well. ... I am confident now we can have a 
 
THE LIBERAL REPUBLICANS 35 
 
 respectable meeting as soon as it is time to issue the invi- 
 tations. 
 
 "I agree with you in thinking that circumstances are 
 growing more and more propitious. It seems almost 
 as if Blaine had virtually killed himself as a candidate, as 
 I always thought he would. He may seemingly revive, 
 but I am sure he will die of too much smartness at last 
 .... I have drawn up an address which I want to 
 submit to you as soon as it is finished. The Republican 
 National Committee has put off the Convention later 
 than I expected, but it is well. We have now plenty of 
 time for preparatory work, and of all places in the coun- 
 try Cincinnati is the one where we can organize the 
 strongest pressure. . . . Do you know Governor 
 Chamberlain of South Carolina? Can you get into cor- 
 respondence with him? We ought to have him with us. 
 
 "We, i.e., you and I, ought to meet about a fortnight 
 from to-morrow and establish thorough concert of action. 
 I shall by that time have elaborated a complete plan of 
 operations and ought to have your judgment upon it. ' ' 7 ° 
 
 A letter to Mr. Bowles, dated March 7th, contains "a 
 draft of an invitation to a conference which has already 
 been submitted for signature to Mr. William Cullen 
 Bryant, President Woolsey, Governor Bullock, and Gov- 
 ernor Koerner of Illinois." Mr. Schurz desires the sig- 
 nature of Governor Newton Booth of California ; but not 
 knowing his position he asks Mr. Bowles, "his most inti- 
 mate friend", to request Booth's signature. "I would 
 then sign the paper myself and address it with those 
 signatures to about 200 or 300 persons. Lodge and 
 Brooks Adams are here, helping me. . . . They want 
 to see you concerning the list of men to be invited from 
 New England. The intention is to hold the Conference 
 
36 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 at Cincinnati on April 27th, but that point is open and I 
 have requested the opinion of the gentlemen who are to 
 sign the invitation. ' ' 71 
 
 In a letter to L. A. Sherman, editor of The Times, at 
 Port Huron, Michigan, replying to a letter from that 
 gentleman, Mr. Schurz writes under date of April 15th 
 that he is "happy to learn that the movement in favor of 
 a strong reform candidate like Mr. Bristow is growing in 
 favor with the Republicans of Michigan. . . . By the 
 time this reaches yon, you will have seen in the papers 
 the full text of an invitation to a Conference to be held 
 in the City of New York". 72 
 
 In a letter to Francis A. Walker of April 17th, Mr. 
 Schurz declares that he has "very favorable reports from 
 the "West. Public sentiment is rapidly turning in our 
 favor. Some time ago I could not think of a single man 
 in Indiana who might be invited; but a few days ago a 
 prominent Republican of that State called upon me and 
 gave me a list of outspoken reformers that astonished 
 me." 73 
 
 The presidential election of 1876 gave the Liberal Re- 
 publicans another chance to exert an influence upon a 
 national scale. Early in the year the national committee 
 sent out an inquiry as to the advisability of calling a 
 national convention. Ex-Senator J. W. Tipton of Ne- 
 braska, replying to one of these requests, declared that 
 he expected to support the Democratic candidates, and 
 he ended with the statement that "if you conclude to call 
 a convention please drop my name from the commit- 
 tee. " 74 In April a circular was sent out from New York 
 by a committee made up of William Cullen Bryant of 
 New York, Theodore Woolsey of Connecticut, Alexander 
 G. Bullock of Massachusetts, Horace White of Illinois, 
 
THE LIBERAL REPUBLICANS 37 
 
 and Carl Schurz of Missouri. In this circular reference 
 was made to "the wide-spread corruption in our public t 
 service .... the uncertainty of the public mind, 
 and of party counsels, as to grave economical questions 
 involving in a great measure the honor of the Govern- ; 
 ment, the morality of our business life, and the general 
 well-being of the people [which] .... render it 
 most desirable that no effort should be spared to secure 
 to the popular desire for genuine reform a decisive influ- 
 ence in the impending national election". 
 
 An invitation was therefore extended for "a free con- 
 ference to consider what may be done to prevent the 
 National Election of the Centennial year from becoming 
 a mere choice of evils ' '. At the conference held in New 
 York City, on May 15th and known as the ' ' Fifth Avenue 
 Conference", persons were present from five northeast- 
 ern States, three middle States, six western States, and 
 three southern States. Schurz was the chairman of a 
 committee which reported an address to the American 
 people in which the chief emphasis was placed upon civil 
 service reform. 75 
 
 The opinion of many Liberal Eepublicans was ex- 
 pressed by Mr. F. W. Bird of Massachusetts in a reply 
 to the invitation to the New York conference. He de- 
 scribed three courses that might be followed: (1) to 
 form a third party; (2) to reform the Eepublican party 
 from within; and (3) to work with the Democrats. His 
 comments upon these different possibilities were that 
 since ' ' the melancholy failure of 1872 ' ' the first plan was 
 well nigh hopeless; as to the second, there was "but one 
 way of salvation for the Eepublican party, and that is 
 through the purgation of defeat"; and as to the third, 
 he believed that defeat had purified the Democrats as 
 
38 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 power had corrupted the Republicans. "I want to vote", 
 he writes, "for a candidate who has not only shown the 
 courage to fight the thieves of his own party, but who 
 will not be elected and surrounded by the same gang of 
 thieves and their apologies." 76 
 
 In a letter to Mr. Charles Francis Adams, Jr., dated 
 July 9, 1876, Mr. Schurz expresses his opinion of the 
 nominations. "The result of the Cincinnati Conven- 
 tion", he says, "appeared at first as the triumph of a 
 respectable compromise candidate; the result of the St. 
 Louis Convention as the triumph of a great name with 
 the attachment of an ambiguous platform and the most 
 objectionable man imaginable as a candidate for the 
 Vice-Presidency. Neither side satisfactory and yet a 
 third movement out of the question. ' ' Later, Mr. Schurz 
 had corresponded and had had two interviews with Mr. 
 Hayes; and he declares that "unless I am very much 
 mistaken, the Cincinnati Convention has nominated our 
 man without knowing it. . . . Let me confess that I 
 never entertained as high an opinion of Mr. Tilden as a 
 reformer as you did. He has been too much of a dema- 
 gogue and is too much of a wirepuller and machine politi- 
 cian now to be depended upon as a man of principle. 
 
 "We had a meeting of the executive committee of the 
 conference on June 30th. It was deemed best, as the 
 situation was then still undefined .... not to do 
 anything with regard to the candidates. Indeed, I do 
 not see the necessity of united action on the part of the 
 independents. It may truly be said that the choice of 
 positive evils is avoided, and a certain measure of re- 
 form is promised on either side. . . . We did, how- 
 ever, resolve to invite all those who signed our address, 
 
THE LIBERAL REPUBLICANS 39 
 
 about 1,500, to join in the organization of a National 
 Civil Service Reform League". 77 
 
 In a letter to Mr. Oswald Ottendorfer, editor of the 
 New York Staats-Zeitung, dated July 22, 1876, Mr. 
 Schurz justifies his preference for Mr. Hayes as follows : 
 "Some persons", he writes, "have found a cheap amuse- 
 ment in holding up before those men who took part in the 
 May Conference in New York, and are now supporting 
 Mr. Hayes, the address issued by the Conference, and 
 pointing out the inconsistency of their action. Let us 
 look at this matter more closely. The men who arranged 
 the Conference and carried it through had for their first 
 object a true civil service reform and a sound position on 
 the financial question. They had all sorts of candidates 
 in mind, but their candidates represented certain princi- 
 ples, and were not pressed simply on their own account. 
 They wanted to promote the nomination of proper men 
 in order to give their prime object the greatest possible 
 push forward; but they had no notion of swearing un- 
 qualified fidelity to such men, whether or no their can- 
 didacy, by its attending conditions, made doubtful the 
 attainment of the great end in view. Whoever thinks 
 that the Conference was devoted to the service of par- 
 ticular persons has entirely mistaken its spirit. ' ' 78 
 
 A gathering of New York State Liberal Republicans 
 showed a wide variation of opinion as to the course to be 
 followed in the election. On the same day the regular 
 convention, meeting as the Republican State gathering, 
 endorsed the nominees and platform of both the national 
 and State conventions of that party, while several con- 
 testing delegations, not admitted to the regular sessions, 
 expressed their confidence in Governor Tilden and rec- 
 
THE INDEPENDENT REPUBLICANS 
 
 1880-1884 
 
 The campaign of 1876 seems to have been the last in 
 which in any organized way the Liberal Republicans at- 
 tempted to influence political affairs. The nomination of 
 two men of the character and reputation of Mr. Hayes 
 and Mr. Tilden, together with the approaching retire- 
 ment of General Grant, removed the most urgent objects 
 of the opposition of the Liberals; while the passing of 
 Reconstruction as the chief issue between the parties 
 gave opportunity for the consideration of other pressing 
 problems already too long pushed to one side during the 
 aftermath of war. The policy of Mr. Hayes toward the 
 South, unpopular as it was with the partisan Republicans, 
 was welcomed by the Liberals as the one for which they 
 had been working for a number of years. 
 
 It is interesting to notice that at this time there were 
 in the Cabinet four men who had supported Mr. Greeley 
 in 1872 — William M. Evarts, the Secretary of State, 
 who had also supported Mr. Tilden for Governor in 
 1874 ; Carl Schurz, the Secretary of the Interior ; Charles 
 Devens, the Attorney General, who had once been a can- 
 didate for Congress on a Democratic ticket; and David 
 M. Key, the Postmaster General, who was a Southern 
 Democrat. 81 A Republican paper in Iowa declared that 
 "the men who have been chosen to represent the Liberal 
 Republican or Greeley element [in the Cabinet] are the 
 
 41 
 
42 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 strongest, the most radical, and the most obnoxious of 
 that faction. . . . We admit the ability and superior 
 ability of every man in the list. We admit the deserving- 
 ness and trustworthiness as men, of all of them. . . . 
 We only regret that the real Republican party was not 
 given the preponderance instead of the liberal Republi- 
 can element." 82 
 
 In 1880 the threat of a third term for General Grant, 
 worked up by the Republican leaders like Senator Roscoe 
 Conkling of New York and Senator Simon Cameron of 
 Pennsylvania, aroused once more the opposition of Inde- 
 pendent Republicans. 
 
 In a letter to George William Curtis in December, 
 1879, Mr. Schurz urged action to prevent Grant's nomi- 
 nation in 1880. He believed that "all that is necessary 
 now is that those who are earnestly opposed to the third 
 term should openly say so. You strike the nail on the 
 head in saying that the real danger consists in 'the habit- 
 uation of the popular mind to personal government' 
 . . . . Now let it be known that the Independent Re- 
 publican element in New York is of the same mind, — let 
 this become known through a strong and unmistakable 
 demonstration, and the back of the Grant movement will 
 be broken. ... Is the organization of the 'scratch- 
 ers ' in any manner active ? They should not hesitate now 
 to step forward and make known their minds. ' ' S3 
 
 Again, in a letter to Mr. Lodge, dated January 3, 1880, 
 Mr. Schurz declares that "as to the Grant business, one 
 thing seems to me necessary to kill it with unfailing cer- 
 tainty : it is that those who do not mean to support him 
 under any circumstances — and there are legions of them 
 — should make it known, boldly and loudly, before the 
 election of delegates to the National Convention takes 
 
THE INDEPENDENT REPUBLICANS 43 
 
 place. Much is done in that direction already, but more 
 should be done. Cannot you and your friends set the 
 'Young Republicans' of Massachusetts going!" 8 * 
 
 In May a Republican Anti-Third Term Convention met 
 at St. Louis and was presided over by General J. B. Hen- 
 derson of Missouri. It decided that, in case of the nom- 
 ination of General Grant, a national committee should 
 be appointed and instructed to meet in New York City 
 "to act in such a manner as they shall then deem best 
 to carry out the spirit and purpose" of the convention. 
 The resolutions adopted declared most earnest opposi- 
 tion to a third term for any President and that "as Re- 
 publicans we cannot be hero-worshippers, and we demand 
 from a party without a master the nomination of a can- 
 didate without a stain. ' ' 85 Delegations were present 
 from New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Missouri, 
 Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, 
 Kansas, Iowa, and Rhode Island; while other persons 
 were present from Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia, and 
 South Carolina — the majority being either lawyers or 
 editors. 86 The nomination of Mr. Garfield was satisfac- 
 tory to these Independents. It is interesting to notice 
 that the name "Liberals" is no longer used. The pass- 
 ing of the Southern problem probably accounts largely 
 for this fact. 
 
 Finally, in 1884, the nomination of James G. Blaine by 
 the Republicans brought out, perhaps, the most effective 
 activity of the Independents. In 1880 opposition to the 
 candidacy of Mr. Blaine had been coupled with the anti- 
 third-term sentiment ; 87 but, for the sake of expediency, 
 it had been suppressed since in the West, curiously 
 enough, he was regarded as the rallying point of the peo- 
 ple against the bosses, and the objections to him in the 
 
44 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 East found there "only a faint echo". 88 In December, 
 1883, Republicans in Boston started to plan for the adop- 
 tion of measures and the nomination of men who would 
 command the approval of "the independent, thoughtful, 
 and discriminating voters of the United States", by ap- 
 pointing a committee and entering into correspondence 
 that resulted in calling a conference of Independent Re- 
 publicans in New York City on February 23, 1884. The 
 conference adopted a resolution urging the need of a 
 candidate who would adhere "to the principles of ad- 
 ministrative reform" and who would divorce "the public 
 service from party politics " — a committee being ap- 
 pointed at the same time to ' ' take such action in relation 
 thereto as they may deem expedient." 
 
 Another conference in New York City, on June 16th, 
 after the nomination of Mr. Blaine, was attended by 
 prominent representatives from several States; and a 
 resolution, offered by Mr. Schurz, referred to it as disre- 
 garding "the reform sentiment of the nation, and repre- 
 senting political methods and principles to which we are 
 unalterably opposed", and he proposed a committee of 
 twenty-five to rally and organize Republicans and Inde- 
 pendents with a view to the holding of a representative 
 conference as soon as possible. The chairman of the 
 meeting and of the committee was George William Curtis. 
 
 After the Democratic convention had nominated Grover 
 Cleveland, still another conference was held in New York 
 City, from which there was issued an address to the 
 people in which the object of the movement was stated 
 to be "to defeat the Republican candidates". The ad- 
 dress closed with the recommendation to vote for the 
 Democratic candidate as the most effective way of strik- 
 ing at the "increasing public corruption", and the "want 
 
THE INDEPENDENT REPUBLICANS 45 
 
 of official integrity in the highest trusts of the Govern- 
 ment." Throughout the campaign the Independents 
 labored for the election of Mr. Cleveland. Their prin- 
 cipal speaker was Carl Schurz, who travelled through 
 several States, making addresses on the issues and can- 
 didates. 88 
 
 In a letter to R. R. Bowker, dated at Dayton, Ohio, 
 September 21, 1884, Mr. Schurz asks: "But am I to 
 remain the only Independent speaker in the field? Is 
 there no one to take a part of the burden? We have 
 plenty of able men in Boston and New York. They are 
 needed here, for the State of Ohio is in doubt, and the 
 October election may decide the whole campaign. Is no- 
 body available? I must say that I begin to feel a little 
 lonesome in this struggle. Where is Curtis? And where 
 are the able speakers from Massachusetts? .... 
 I cannot do it all alone. ' ' 90 
 
 In a letter to George W. Folsom, treasurer of the In- 
 dependent Republican organization, Mr. Schurz acknowl- 
 edges, under date of January 10, 1885, the receipt of a 
 check for $600 ' ' to refund my travelling expenses during 
 the campaign. I did not keep any detailed account of my 
 actual outlays on my campaign trips, as it was my ex- 
 pectation to bear those expenses myself. Least of all did 
 I expect that the Committee would have any surplus 
 funds after the election. But since that is the case I do 
 not see why I should not permit at least a part of an 
 outlay of money to be refunded, which was really larger 
 than I could well afford." He returns the $600 check 
 and asks that one for $300 be sent in its place. "That 
 will about cover what I paid out in excess of what might 
 be considered my cash quota of the campaign ex- 
 penses." 91 
 
46 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 The "Mugwumps" were successful, for they helped to 
 defeat Mr. Blaine. The independent has become a recog- 
 nized factor in our political life, helping to make and 
 unmake established parties and exercising a wholesome 
 restraining influence upon public life : he is a product of 
 the years from 1872 to 1884, beginning with the fiasco 
 of Mr. Greeley's campaign and ending with the defeat of 
 Mr. Blaine, when the object of his ambition seemed al- 
 most within his grasp. 92 
 
 The Liberal Republican movement has usually been 
 regarded as purely political in character, and conse- 
 quently its relation to the economic unrest which began 
 at about the same time has been overlooked. While in 
 the East it was almost entirely political, it could not 
 escape connection with other developments of the time, 
 such as the Labor Reform agitation, and its western 
 origin inevitably drew it into the movements arising 
 there. It was made up of leaders who never had a fol- 
 lowing among the masses of the people. The failures of 
 the Grant administration, the results of the radical Re- 
 construction policy, the weaknesses in the public career 
 of Mr. Blaine were the peculiar objectives of the attacks 
 of the Liberals; while the reduction of the tariff, 93 civil 
 service reform, and sound money were the constructive 
 features of their program. 
 
 The economic unrest in the West grew out of the exist- 
 ing conditions in that section, where problems of trans- 
 portation, regulation of corporations in the interest of 
 the people generally, and more abundant capital were 
 the urgent matters in the minds of the people. Civil 
 service reform and revision of the tariff were theoretical 
 propositions that they were quite willing to put into their 
 platforms, but about which they did not generate a great 
 
THE INDEPENDENT REPUBLICANS 47 
 
 deal of enthusiasm. The Liberal Republicans had little 
 social vision because their surroundings did not help 
 them to see much beyond the machinery of government, 
 while the West had real economic and social problems to 
 solve. Furthermore, the Liberal Republicans saw the 
 regulation of corporations as a problem of official in- 
 tegrity — honest officials would mean honest corpora- 
 tions and vice versa; but the West viewed such regula- 
 tion as a necessary preliminary to the proper develop- 
 ment of the rich natural resources of their section. 
 
 Resolutions in various Liberal platforms refer to cer- 
 tain of these economic issues. The "bolting" convention 
 in Missouri in 1870 adopted a resolution of opposition to 
 the grant of public land to private corporations and 
 urged its retention for the use of actual settlers. 04 The 
 convention at Jefferson City in 1872, which issued the call 
 for the Cincinnati Convention, denounced "the packing 
 of the Supreme Court to relieve rich corporations". 95 
 The Cincinnati Convention declared against ' ' all further 
 grants of lands to railroads or other corporations. The 
 public domain should be held sacred to actual settlers. ' ' 98 
 The Ohio Liberal Democratic Convention of 1873 con- 
 demned the Republican party "for the squandering of 
 the public lands in grants to private corporations, for the 
 release of railroads from their just obligations to the 
 Government, and other manifestations of corruption, as 
 developed by the Credit Mobilier and other investiga- 
 tions", declared that "grants of subsidies in bonds or 
 money, and of special privileges and exemptions to na- 
 tional banks and other great moneyed corporations, and 
 all fostering of monopolies at the expense of the whole 
 people, are unjust and oppressive", and concluded with 
 the statement that "it is the duty of the Government to 
 
48 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 repeal all laws that favor capital to the prejudice of 
 labor." 97 
 
 The Liberal Democratic Convention in Connecticut in 
 1874 likewise declared opposition to all monopolies, rec- 
 ognized "the grievances of which the industrial classes 
 complain", and favored "a government policy that shall 
 impose such restraints and prohibitions upon grasping 
 corporations and stock gamblers as will prevent those 
 financial fluctuations which have ever resulted in a de- 
 based currency, official defalcations, bankrupt employers, 
 and starving working men and women. " 98 It is worthy 
 of note that these resolutions are in the platform of a 
 combination of Democrats and Liberals which was suc- 
 cessful in a number of elections in a conservative New 
 England State. 
 
 It is apparent that the Liberal Eepublican movement 
 was influenced by the economic unrest of the time, but 
 it is equally evident that these forces did not vitally 
 affect it. Its real leader, Mr. Schurz, was a German, a 
 cosmopolitan in his attitude towards his environment, 
 stirred by the slavery question and the legacies of the 
 war and with little understanding of western conditions." 
 Missouri, the State with which he was most closely as- 
 sociated was southern rather than western, and the local 
 problems there were the national problems in a smaller 
 and perhaps more intense form. The other leaders were 
 men whose outlook was eastern and European rather" 
 than western. Their great service was to break down the 
 Chinese wall of partisanship which surrounded the Ee- 
 publican and Democratic parties in the early seventies — 
 a work that was destructive rather than constructive. 
 For real constructive work one must look to the third 
 or minor parties that grew up contemporaneously with 
 it, but largely independent of it. 
 
PART II 
 THE FARMERS' MOVEMENT 
 
VI 
 
 THIRD PARTIES IN THE WEST 
 1873-1876 
 
 From 1873 to 1876 there was a "farmers' movement" 
 in the central and northwestern States that attracted a 
 large share of public attention throughout the country. 
 Under the names of Independent, Reform, or Anti-Mo- 
 nopoly parties, the farmers organized for political action 
 in eleven States. In some places victories were secured 
 by fusion with the Democrats, while in others independ- 
 ence was maintained. Three States secured the election 
 of Independents to the United States Senate — Illinois, 
 Kansas, and California. 100 
 
 The origin of this movement dates back three or four 
 years and grew out of an economic condition existing in' 
 those States which collectively have been described as the 
 "garden-spot of the country". In 1870 Illinois, Iowa, 
 Wisconsin, and Minnesota, in the order named, were the 
 greatest wheat-producing States in the Union : more than 
 one-third of all the wheat raised in the United States was 
 produced by these four States. Illinois and Iowa were 
 also the largest corn-producing States. In addition they 
 attracted a large immigration from Europe, with the re- 
 sult that the area under cultivation was extended and the 
 crops increased beyond the capacity of home consump- 
 tion; and so it became necessary to send large quantities 
 of grain to eastern markets. The development of rail- 
 road facilities did not keep pace with the increased pro- 
 
 51 
 
52 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 duction, so that grain accumulated and the railroads were 
 unable to handle it. The increase in freight rates caused 
 great dissatisfaction among the farmers, who held that 
 the railroads were extortionate and made grain produc- 
 tion unprofitable. The railroads replied that competition 
 compelled them to give low rates for through freights 
 and that they must charge higher rates for local freights. 
 Furthermore, they declared that even with high rates 
 they did not pay expenses. 101 
 
 At the same time there developed in these States a 
 great number of farmers' clubs and various organiza- 
 tions, known as the "Patrons of Husbandry" or more 
 popularly as "granges". The grange movement origi- 
 nated in Washington in 1867 as a result of the efforts of a 
 number of government clerks who were interested in im- 
 proving the conditions of the farmers in the southern 
 and western States. It was a secret organization mod- 
 elled upon the Masons and Odd Fellows. The first local 
 granges were established in 1868, and by the end of the 
 year ten were in existence — six of which were in Min- 
 nesota. The organization did not make much progress 
 until 1872 when 1,105 granges were established, followed 
 by 8,400 in 1873, and nearly 4,700 in the first two months 
 of 1874. 102 
 
 The rapid growth of the granges began when the order 
 commenced "to advocate government regulation of rail- 
 road rates, and to establish cooperative enterprises for 
 the purpose of eliminating the profits of the middle- 
 men. ' ' 103 The system used by the manufacturers of 
 agricultural implements, by which they agreed with their 
 agents not to sell directly to farmers at lower prices 
 than those demanded by local agents, compelled pur- 
 chasers to pay from twenty to forty percent profits to 
 
THIRD PARTIES IN THE WEST 53 
 
 these middlemen. As a result many granges established 
 common funds, made up of the money that individual 
 members intended to devote to the purchase of agricul- 
 tural implements, and then purchased directly from the 
 manufacturers at wholesale prices. Sometimes, also, this 
 plan was used in the purchase of groceries and dry goods 
 to the great injury of local trade. 104 The grange was 
 non-political in character; but that did not prevent it 
 from taking a stand upon public questions, and it un- 
 doubtedly paved the way for the establishment of the 
 so-called Granger parties. 105 
 
 Another phase of the opposition was shown in the 
 "Three-cent Wars" in Illinois, where the railroad com- 
 mission had fixed a schedule of maximum passenger rates. 
 The Illinois Central Railroad disregarded this schedule 
 and charged its usual rates, instructing its conductors 
 to eject passengers refusing to pay the regular fare. The 
 farmers formed "Three-cent Clubs" and travelled in 
 such numbers as to secure the enforcement of legal 
 rights. Where they did not travel in force, they were 
 ejected. Conductors were arrested and fined for assault. 
 The Alton Railroad, being sued for damages by ejected 
 passengers, in turn brought suit for the delay and dis- 
 turbance of trains. 106 
 
 The movement for a new political party, with railroad 
 regulation as its principal plank, first came to a head in 
 Illinois. The agitation had been going or more or less 
 vigorously since 1865. Finally, provisions were inserted 
 in the new Constitution in 1870 directing the legislature 
 to pass laws to prevent extortion and discrimination in 
 railway rates. In accordance with this direction the As- 
 sembly in 1871 enacted a series of so-called "Granger 
 laws", one of which was declared unconstitutional by the 
 
54 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 State Supreme Court in January, 1873. V This action was 
 the signal for the farmers' entrance into politics. A 
 State Farmers' Convention was called to meet at Spring- 
 field in April, 1873. The principal work of the conven- 
 tion was the adoption of a series of resolutions concern- 
 ing railroad legislation, followed later by other* resolu- 
 tions which suggest that the movement was expected to 
 develop into a new political party. There was consid- 
 erable opposition to the adoption of resolutions upon 
 other subjects likely to weaken their work in favor of the 
 regulation of railroads. The opponents of these resolu- 
 tions declared that they were the result of the efforts of 
 Democratic politicians to capture the movement and of 
 railroad men to nullify it by confusing it with other 
 issues. The immediate result of the agitation of the 
 farmers was the passage in May, 1873, of a more radical 
 and effective law for the regulation of railroads. 
 
 The political results of the movement were first mani- 
 fested in the judicial elections of June, 1873. In two 
 districts in which Supreme Court vacancies occurred and 
 in eight or nine of the circuits in which judges were to 
 be elected the candidates nominated or favored by the 
 farmers were elected in nearly every case. Encouraged 
 by their success, the farmers threw themselves energeti- 
 cally into the campaign for the election of county officers 
 in the fall. Celebrations of Independence Day were ar- 
 ranged to give impetus to the movement. At most of 
 these meetings an important part of the program was the 
 reading of the new ' ' Farmers ' Declaration of Independ- 
 ence " 107 — a skillful parody on the original Declaration. 
 It set forth at great length the conditions which had led 
 to the uprising of the agricultural class. It concluded 
 by declaring the farmers absolutely independent of all 
 
THIRD PARTIES IN THE WEST 55 
 
 past political connections. The enthusiasm of the farm- 
 ers was also stirred up by numerous picnics and harvest 
 festivals. County after county held conventions and 
 nominated farmers' tickets. Of the 102 counties, sixty- 
 six made independent nominations. The election returns 
 showed i 'Anti-Monopoly" tickets successful in fifty-three 
 of the sixty-six counties. The total vote in sixty-six 
 counties was 176,263 — of which the "Reform" candi- 
 dates received 94,188, leaving 82,075 to all the other can- 
 didates. The same ratio carried throughout the State 
 would have given the new party a majority of 22,000. 
 The "Reformers" made their best showing in these local 
 elections: when they entered the broader field of State 
 politics, they found many voters unwilling [to follow 
 them. 108 
 
 Parties were formed in 1873 in Minnesota and Wis- 
 consin — known in the former as Anti-Monopoly and the 
 latter as Reform. In both States the Democrats either, 
 fused with or accepted the candidates of the new party. > 
 The principal issue was the regulation of railroads. Re- 
 duction of the tariff, lower salaries, and more economical 
 administration were demanded in both the platforms. 
 Wisconsin declared that the national debt should be hon- 
 estly paid, and Minnesota declared for a speedy return 
 to specie payments. Many Republicans joined the new 
 party; but at the same time great efforts were made to 
 counteract this tendency. Fortunately the Republican 
 Governors in these States had advocated regulation, and 
 so they were renominated on platforms favoring regula- 
 tion and expressing concern for the welfare of the farmer. 
 In Minnesota a Democratic convention was held and 
 adopted a platform; but it endorsed the candidates of 
 the new party. In Wisconsin the Democrats met the day 
 
56 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 after the Reformers had assembled and the two conven- 
 tions agreed upon a fusion ticket and a joint platform. 
 In Minnesota the outcome was a greatly reduced Republi- 
 can majority. In Wisconsin the "most startling results 
 were achieved." Through local complications the rail- 
 road and liquor interests supported the Granger candi- 
 dates, with the result that the whole fusion ticket of State 
 officers was elected. The Democrats and Reformers also 
 secured a majority of twenty in the lower house, while 
 the Republicans retained a majority of one in the Sen- 
 ate. 109 
 
 Likewise in Nebraska the farmers 7 movement was one 
 of the chief events of the year. The opinions of the agri- 
 cultural classes were set forth in elaborate resolutions of 
 the usual sort, adopted by a convention of the "Grand 
 Castle of the Order of American Farmers and Mechanics 
 of Nebraska" held at Lincoln on July 29, 1873. 110 In 
 Nebraska and in Kansas there were no State elections, 
 but farmers' candidates were nominated in a number of 
 counties; and in Kansas a sufficient number of Inde- 
 pendents were elected to give the opposition to the Re- 
 publicans about twenty majority in the lower house of 
 the State legislature. As a result, ex-Governor James 
 M. Harvey, a farmer and an Independent, was elected to 
 the United States Senate. 111 __ 
 
 In California transportation within the State, along 
 the coast, and connecting with other States was merged 
 under one corporation owned, it was claimed, by three 
 persons. 112 Freight rates were almost prohibitive, rang- 
 ing from three to fifteen cents per ton per mile. A bitter 
 struggle between the railroad monopoly and the people 
 had been maintained for three years, and had, of course, 
 
THIRD PARTIES IN THE WEST 57 
 
 entered into the politics of the State — especially in the 
 election of United States Senators. The railroad inter- 
 ests controlled both of the old parties; and so an Inde- 
 pendent or Anti-Monopoly movement developed, led by 
 Governor Newton Booth and ex-Senator Eugene Casserly. 
 The election resulted in a legislature composed of thirty- 
 seven Republicans, forty-two Democrats, and forty-one 
 Independents. Two United States Senators were to be 
 chosen. The contest lasted for three weeks, and it is 
 said that "there was a lavish expenditure of money on 
 the part of the railway companies". In spite of these 
 influences Governor Booth and Judge John S. Hager, 
 an "anti-railroad Democrat", were elected. 113 / 
 
 In 1874 Independent or Anti-Monopoly parties contin- 
 ued to be active in all these States, while new organiza- 
 tions were effected in some others. In Ohio a few local 
 efforts, begun in 1873, failed to develop any strength — 
 probably because of a revival within the Democratic 
 party in the State at that time. 114 
 
 A convention of farmers met at Indianapolis, Indiana, 
 in June, 1874, in response to a call signed by a long list 
 of persons and headed by the superintendent of the State 
 Grange, which exhorted the people regardless of party 
 relations to meet in mass convention "to frame such 
 measures and select such men as shall represent their 
 sentiments and carry out their purposes. . . . The 
 success of this popular outbreak depends upon the ex- 
 clusion of the party managers and self-seeking dema- 
 gogues. ' ' About 500 delegates representing every county 
 in the State were present, and a resolution was adopted 
 assuming the name of "Independent" for the new party. 
 Considerable discussion and some differences of opinion 
 
58 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 upon the expediency of forming a new party led to the 
 withdrawal of several delegates. Later a platform was 
 adopted and nominations for State officers were made. 
 
 Another convention met at the same place in August 
 to fill vacancies caused by the refusal of some of the 
 candidates to run. Two were rejected because they had 
 accepted nominations from the Democrats. Only about 
 seventy-five delegates attended the second convention. 
 In the election these "Independent" candidates received 
 over 16,000 votes. They also secured five senators and 
 eight representatives in the legislature. After the elec- 
 tion in November, still another convention met at In- 
 dianapolis to form a new party. This convention was 
 attended by about thirty persons from various parts of 
 the State; and after some discussion they published a 
 "basis upon which to call a preliminary national conven- 
 tion" to form "a new political organization ". The 
 "basis" contained two articles demanding (1) "a paper- 
 money issued by the Government directly to the people, 
 without the intervention of any system of banking corpo- 
 rations" and (2) that the interest on the public debt and 
 that portion of the principal which is by the express 
 terms of the law payable in coin be so paid. The con- 
 vention also unanimously adopted recommendations for 
 a national convention to be held at Cleveland in March, 
 1875, "to perfect a national platform and to appoint a 
 time and place for holding a national independent con- 
 vention to nominate candidates for President and Vice- 
 President". All who fully endorsed "the basis of un- 
 ion" were to be invited to participate. 115 
 
 In Michigan a new party, known as the National Re- 
 form party, was organized in August and held a nomi- 
 nating convention in September, 1874. The platform de- 
 
THIRD PARTIES IN THE WEST 59 
 
 manded (1) a reduction in the number and diminution of 
 the power of offices under the national government; (2) 
 a reduction of salaries; (3) frequent changes to secure 
 purity in administration; (4) the election of all local and 
 federal office-holders by the people; (5) a speedy return 
 to hard money as the only standard of value; (6) all 
 banking made free; (7) a tariff for revenue and an equi- 
 table system of taxation. The candidates nominated were 
 in part accepted by the Democrats — those not so en- 
 dorsed and not withdrawn receiving a vote ranging from 
 two to seven thousand. 116 
 
 The political activity begun among the farmers in Illi- 
 nois in 1873 developed into a State party in 1874. The 
 first general political convention of the year was a large 
 and enthusiastic gathering, chiefly of farmers, at Spring- 
 field on June 10th, which nominated a Democrat for State 
 treasurer and a Republican for State superintendent. A 
 declaration of principles stated that "the farmers, me- 
 chanics, and other citizens of Illinois", deemed "it need- 
 ful for the best interests of this State and nation that 
 independent political action be taken by and in behalf of 
 the producing, industrial, and other business classes, and 
 in opposition to corporate monopolies, that are influenc- 
 ing, even controlling, our Legislatures, courts, and execu- 
 tives, and taxing and oppressing our citizens". One 
 article condemns specifically the "practice of our public 
 officials in receiving free passes from railroads." The 
 name chosen for the new party was "Independent Re- 
 form", and appeal was made "regardless of past politi- 
 cal affiliations .... to the better judgment of all 
 our business and professional men to lend us their aid 
 and sympathy, remembering, as they well may, that upon 
 our prosperity and happiness depends their success in 
 
60 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 business." The Democrats nominated a candidate of 
 their own for treasurer but endorsed the Independent 
 candidate for superintendent. In the election the fusion 
 candidate received 197,490 votes, compared with 166,984 
 for the Republican candidate; while for treasurer the 
 Eepublican candidate was chosen by a plurality of nearly 
 thirty thousand, the Independent nominee receiving over 
 75,000 out of a total vote of about 370,000. The con- 
 gressional delegation as a result of the election stood 
 seven Eepublicans, eight Democrats, three Independent 
 Reformers, and one Independent Republican. In the 
 State legislature the Independents secured three senators 
 and twenty-seven representatives. 117 
 
 In Wisconsin the political contest, which ended at the 
 election in November, 1874, was conducted with remark- 
 able energy by the Republicans and their antagonists — 
 whom they designated by the general name of ' ' Reform- 
 ers ' '. The congressional delegation was made up of five 
 Republicans and three Reformers. The whole number 
 of votes, arranged by districts, amounted to 186,435 — of 
 which 93,411 were for Reformers and 93,024 for Repub- 
 licans. The year before the total, made up in a similar 
 way, had been 147,823 — of which 81,199 had been for 
 Reformers and 66,224 for Republicans. In the legisla- 
 ture, the Reformers had fifteen senators and thirty-five 
 representatives. 118 
 
 In Missouri the opposition to the Democratic party — 
 the party then in control — consolidated under the name 
 of Peoples' party. It was "made up chiefly of Republi- 
 cans" and held its convention at Jefferson City in Sep- 
 tember, 1874. In the platform appeal was made to the 
 people to act "independent of all old party organiza- 
 tions." "Frequent sessions of the Legislature are pro- 
 
THIRD PARTIES IN THE WEST 61 
 
 ductive only of confusion in our laws and largely in- 
 crease the burdens upon the taxpayers ' ' ; and so the party 
 was "in favor of a constitutional revision requiring a 
 session only once in four years." Further contraction 
 of the national currency was declared detrimental to the 
 producing classes. Members of Congress were to be 
 selected "who will have constantly in view the true inter- 
 ests of the producers of the West, the improvement of 
 the water-routes of the country and other means of trans- 
 portation to the sea board, the reduction of taxes, and the 
 adjustment of duties on imports to a revenue basis ; the 
 speediest feasible safe reduction; cancelment of the in- 
 terest-bearing debt, the abolition of the monopoly fea- 
 tures of our banking system, with as early a return to 
 specie payment as can be effected without disaster." The 
 Democrats were successful at the polls, the vote for Gov- 
 ernor standing 149,566 for their candidate while the op- 
 position candidate received 112,104. There were no Re- 
 publican candidates. 119 
 
 The opposition in Kansas took the name of Independ- 
 ent Reform and held its nominating convention at To- 
 peka in August, 1874. A platform of the usual char- 
 acter was adopted, the last article of which favored ' ' the 
 election of President and Vice-President, and United 
 States Senators, by the direct voice of the people." The 
 Republicans were successful by a plurality of 13,000 
 votes, out of a total of 84,000 cast for Governor. In the 
 legislative elections the Reformers won nine senators and 
 twelve representatives; in addition there were three In- 
 dependent representatives, besides three Democratic sen- 
 ators and ten Democratic representatives. 120 
 
 In Nebraska the Independents held a convention at 
 Lincoln in September, 1874, and nominated candidates 
 
62 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 for Governor, State treasurer, and for members of Con- 
 gress. The platform favored resumption of specie pay- 
 ments as soon as possible, oppQsed_--all_combinations, 
 favored the election of President and Vice-President and 
 United States Senators by direct vote, and declared that 
 "inter-state commerce should be regulated by Congress, 
 and that railroad pools .... should be prohibited, 
 so that competition may be encouraged in the interest of 
 cheap transportation. ' '1 Republicans and Democrats both 
 nominated candidates, the former presenting a remark- 
 ably progressive platform. One article recommended 
 "that the Government establish and operate a double- 
 track railroad from the Missouri Eiver to the Atlantic"; 
 and another was almost identical with the article in the 
 Independent platform in regard to the election of federal 
 officials by a, direct vote. The Republicans carried the 
 election. 121 
 
 An Independent party held a convention at Salem, Ore- 
 gon, in April, 1874. Here nominations were made and a 
 platform adopted in which it was declared "that the up- 
 rising of the agricultural classes, and their organization 
 into a compact society for mutual protection -against the 
 extortions of oppressive monopolies, commends itself to 
 the favor of every just mind, and cannot but result in 
 ultimate good to the whole people. ' ' The two old parties 
 were very nearly equal in voting strength, and are said 
 to have combined in some places to defeat the Independ- 
 ents. The vote for Governor was 9,700 for the Demo- 
 crats, 9,100 for the Republicans, and 6,500 for the Inde- 
 pendents ; for Congressman it was 9,600 for the Demo- 
 crats, 9,300 for the Republicans, and 6,300 for the Inde- 
 pendents. In the legislative and local elections the new 
 
THIED PARTIES IN THE WEST 63 
 
 party was even more successful than in the State and 
 congressional contests. 122 
 
 In only, a few States did these Independent parties con- 
 tinue active in 1875. In Wisconsin the Democrats re- 
 nominated the persons then in office, and declared in their 
 platform that "the representatives of the Democratic, 
 Liberal Reform and Independent electors of [the State] 
 . . . . abide by the principles of political reform 
 adopted by the People's Reform Convention of 1873, and 
 subsequently readopted by fifteen thousand majority of 
 the people". The Republican candidate for Governor 
 was elected, although the other State officers chosen were 
 Democrats. The Republicans also regained full control 
 of the legislature. 123 
 
 In Oregon the Independents nominated a candidate for 
 Congress at a convention held at Salem in August, 1875 ; 
 and in their platform they favored a return to specie 
 payments at the earliest practicable moment and con- 
 demned all third-term schemes. The Republicans and 
 Democrats also made nominations ; the latter carried the 
 election by a close vote. The Independent candidate re- 
 ceived a much smaller vote than in 1874. 124 
 
 The State election of 1875 in California was conducted 
 almost wholly on local issues, the leading subjects dis- 
 cussed being irrigation, transportation monopolies, tax 
 reform, and reform in municipal government. The Peo- 
 ple's Independent party, which was originally formed 
 under the leadership of Governor Newton Booth, had 
 drawn largely from the Republican ranks, and had also 
 received considerable Democratic support. This year 
 both Republicans and Democrats made nominations. The 
 result of the election was the choice of the Democratic 
 
64 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 candidates by a large vote. The vote for Governor stood : 
 Democrats, 61,509; Republicans, 31,322; and Independ- 
 ents, 29,752. 125 
 
 In Minnesota a "Reform" party, wbicb emphasized the 
 suppression of the liquor traffic, held a State convention 
 at St. Paul in June, 1875. This party seems to have had 
 no direct connection with the earlier Anti-Monopoly 
 party, for it declared in its platform that "the time has 
 come for the formation of a political party", which in 
 addition to the abolition of the li quor traffkywould de- 
 mand the adjustment of the relations between capital and 
 labor and the honest and economical administration of 
 government. Very probably about the same men com- 
 posed this party as made up the earlier one — although, 
 as both Republicans and Democrats nominated candi- 
 dates, the vote cast for Reform was only about 1,600 out 
 of a total of over 80,000 votes. 126 
 
 It was during the years 1873 and 1874 that the greatest 
 successes were achieved by these Independent parties. 
 In a few States they were active in 1875: In Indiana 
 and Illinois they took part in the formation and became 
 component parts of the national Greenback party in 1875 
 and 1876. In Illinois enough Independents and Green- 
 backers were elected to the legislature to hold the bal- 
 ance between the two old parties and secure the election 
 of Judge David Davis as an Independent to the United 
 States Senate in 1876. 127 
 
 It appears, therefore, that Independent parties were 
 organized in eleven States — Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, 
 Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Nebras- 
 ka, California, and Oregon. In some of these States they 
 secured victories by uniting with the Democrats and 
 
THIRD PARTIES IN THE WEST 65 
 
 forming a new party of opposition to the majority party 
 — the Republicans — except in Missouri. In other States 
 they maintained their independence, and secured local 
 victories and cut clown the vote for the old parties. In 
 California many of the Independents cast their lot with 
 the " Workingmen 's party", which was formed by Dennis 
 Kearney and played a considerable part in California 
 politics till 1880. 126 
 
 The purpose and character of this Independent move- 
 ment is indicated by the platforms adopted. It was an 
 "anti-monopoly" movement, and the Granger laws were 
 its principal achievement, It was also a "reform" 
 movement. On the currency question a majority took a 
 definite stand in favor of a return to specie payments as 
 soon as possible. 129 It began "that radical but tedious 
 revolution of American ideas which is slowly bringing 
 industry under the political power of democracy. ' ' 1S0 
 
 An editorial comment in the Chicago Weekly Tribune 
 summed up the results of the movement. "It is idle to 
 talk of the failure of a movement which has gained the 
 political control of the States of Wisconsin and Califor- 
 nia; which is dictating terms to the old parties in Iowa 
 and Kansas ; which has carried a majority of the counties 
 of Illinois, and bids fair to carry the State at the next 
 general election ; which is making rapid headway in Min- 
 nesota and Michigan, and which has secured so fearless 
 and able a leader as Gov. Booth in the United States 
 Senate. ... If there is any healthier political or- 
 ganization anywhere than that which the farmers have 
 originated in the West, we do not know what name it is 
 called by ... . the main significance of the Farm- 
 ers' Movement is that it offers to those who desire re- 
 form in public administration, and who have sought and 
 
66 THIED PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 failed to secure it in the old dividend-paying parties, an 
 opportunity to accomplish something for the benefit of 
 the country at large — not for the farmers merely, but 
 for all who live by their industry, as distinguished from 
 those who live by politics, speculations and class-legisla- 
 tion." 131 
 
VII 
 
 THE ANTI-MONOPOLY PARTY IN IOWA 
 1873-1875 
 
 The sources from which the Anti-Monopoly party in 
 Iowa came were the same as those from which similar 
 parties sprang in neighboring States. Like all the peo- 
 ple of the Central West the people of Iowa were at first 
 very friendly to railroads, and they were very slow to 
 resent the growing abuses. For years no attempt was 
 made to check the growth of evils, but at last the patience 
 of the people was exhausted. The abuses were not con- 
 fined to one State and the demand for their removal arose 
 simultaneously in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and 
 Iowa. Fanned by the arrogant attitude of the railroad 
 managers the new party movement spread in a short 
 time over the whole Northwest. 132 
 
 The party went under a number of names such as the 
 "New Party", 133 the "Anti-Monopoly" party, 134 the 
 "People's" party, 135 the "Farmers' and Laboring 
 Men's" party, 136 and the "Reform" party. 137 Probably 
 the most frequently used term was that of Anti-Monopo- 
 ly, although stanch Democrats like Judge E. H. Thayer 
 of The Clinton Age declared that it was a senseless 
 name. 138 The variety of names and the lack of definite- 
 ness were due to the nondescript character of the party. 
 It was really a coalition of diverse elements, which at 
 once comprised its strength and its weakness. After all 
 it was really an "opposition" party — the first of a suc- 
 
 67 
 
68 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 cession of parties based upon economic issues, a party of 
 protest and discontent, an unconscious effort to grapple 
 with new problems which were only vaguely understood. 
 Parties before the Civil War had dealt with political, 
 constitutional, and moral issues. The Anti-Monopoly 
 movement marked the lifting of the curtain upon the 
 stage where the influences of wealth and democracy were 
 to struggle for supremacy — a struggle of which we are 
 now witnessing, perhaps, the very crisis. 
 
 Another element in the situation was the condition of 
 the Democratic party in the State and in the Nation: it 
 was hopelessly in the minority because of its record 
 before and during the Civil War, and its leaders were 
 ready to grasp any opportunity to climb back into power. 
 Anything that promised to strengthen opposition to the 
 Eepublicans received their support. Moreover, any as- 
 sociation with the Democrats seemed to imply not only 
 bad judgment but positive disloyalty; while opposition 
 to the Republican party that had saved the Union was 
 sure to be branded as showing sympathy with the ene- 
 mies of the Nation. 
 
 The situation in Iowa was very similar to that in Illi- 
 nois and Wisconsin : there was a growing demand for the 
 regulation of railroad rates by legislation; the Republi- 
 can party was in control and not inclined to give heed 
 to this demand; and there was a movement on the part 
 of the farmers to organize a new political party. The 
 activity of the farmers was the more important because 
 in Iowa there had been organized more local granges 
 than in any other State in the Union. 139 In February, 
 1873, while the legislature was in special session to re- 
 vise the Code, the State Grange met at Des Moines ; and 
 the influence of 1,200 Republican farmers at the capital, 
 
ANTI-MONOPOLY PARTY IN IOWA 69 
 
 talking- to members and asserting that their organization 
 would control the next legislature seems to have been the 
 most important factor in securing the passage of a law 
 fixing maximum passenger rates. A proposed measure 
 for the regulation of freight rates failed to pass the Sen- 
 ate. 140 
 
 Immediately the farmers began to organize a new 
 party. There were few open clubs in Iowa of the kind 
 that took the lead in Illinois, so that the local granges 
 were drawn into political action rather more than in other 
 States. Such work, however, was generally done at in- 
 formal meetings. 141 Press comments indicate what was 
 going on in the State. A Democratic paper declared it 
 did not "blame the farmers for organizing in their own 
 interests .... but it looks to us as though the 
 Grangers were undertaking too much. . . . [They J 
 will control the election in this State next fall [1873]. 
 They will elect the next legislature. . . . But after 
 they have got through legislating they will ascertain that 
 there are certain fixed and irrevocable laws of trade, 
 which no legislative power can change or modify." 142 
 Two months later the same paper observed that "the 
 parties of today may run candidates next fall, but we 
 hardly think the dividing lines will remain the same as 
 now much beyond another election. There seems to be a 
 general upheaval of parties. " 143 A Republican organ 
 referred to "the talk which has lately not been inconsid- 
 erable of a new party to take the place of old ones". 144 
 There are also frequent references to political action by 
 the Patrons of Husbandry. 145 
 
 During the months of May and June, 1873, the news- 
 papers gave accounts of conventions called by the Grang- 
 ers to nominate candidates for county offices and for 
 
70 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 seats in the legislature. 146 Finally, a call was issued 
 by a Polk County farmers' convention held at Des 
 Moines on June 7, 1873, for a State convention to meet 
 on August 13th to nominate State officers. The conven- 
 tion which issued this call was described as "quite large 
 and also quite respectable in its membership. Every 
 township in the County but one was reported as repre- 
 sented ; and there were in the body, perhaps, between one 
 hundred and fifty and two hundred actual members. It 
 was a farmers' convention, in large majority. . . . 
 Politically, it was about evenly divided between RepubK- 
 cans and Democrats. The Democratic half, however, 
 was the more active half, and .... shaped the pro- 
 ceedings". The convention created a "State Commit- 
 tee" of five members. Of this committee the chairman 
 was the treasurer of the State Grange. He was also one 
 of the "real" Republicans on the committee. Three of 
 the members had been supporters of Mr. Greeley in 
 1872. 147 The committee met on July 3rd and issued a call 
 for a State convention to be held in accordance with the 
 action of the convention which appointed it. 148 
 
 The Anti-Monopoly State Convention met at Des 
 Moines on August 13th. At the opening there were 
 present two hundred persons, of whom one-half perhaps 
 were delegates representing thirty-seven counties. A 
 speech was made by John P. Irish, Chairman of the Dem- 
 ocratic State Committee, in which he declared that the 
 Democratic party was dead and expressed his willingness 
 to accept the new party. The Republican press described 
 the convention as run by Democrats, with very few farm- 
 ers. 149 Jacob G. Vale was nominated for Governor and a 
 platform was adopted expressing demands much the same 
 as those of the Illinois Independents. 160 A Republican 
 
ANTI-MONOPOLY PARTY IN IOWA 71 
 
 newspaper in referring to Vale before his nomination as 
 Governor spoke of him as "a good illustration of a pros- 
 perous Iowa farmer. He came to the State some twenty 
 or twenty-five years ago, with very little pecuniary 
 means. He was a college graduate and an experienced 
 school teacher, but concluded to devote himself to agri- 
 culture. . . . He has added farm after farm .... 
 until he has come to be one of the most extensive farmers 
 in the State". 151 The same paper, commenting upon his 
 nomination as Governor, described him as having "bolt- 
 ed" the county Republican ticket in 1869 and as having 
 been elected an Independent with the aid of Democratic 
 votes. It was said that he was ambitious, and that two 
 years earlier he had thought that he might be elected 
 United States Senator in Mr. Harlan's place. 152 
 
 "While the events just described were taking place, the 
 Republicans held their State convention, renominated 
 Governor Cyrus C. Carpenter, and adopted a platform 
 favorable to the demands of the farmers. An effort was 
 also made to nominate Dudley W. Adams, Past Master 
 of the Iowa State Grange and Master of the National 
 Grange, for Lieutenant-Governor; but this plan failed, 
 although Mr. Adams received over one-third of the votes 
 on the first ballot. 153 Governor Carpenter, himself a 
 prominent Granger, was pledged to favor the farmers' 
 policy. In an address before the State Agricultural So- 
 ciety in January, 1873, he had declared his belief in State 
 regulation of railroads. He also predicted that the time 
 would come ' ' when a system of National Railroads, built 
 at government expense, and managed by the government, 
 as a department of the civil service, will extend from the 
 Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. " 154 The Grangers took 
 possession of the primary meetings which sent delegates 
 
72 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 to the Eepublican convention which nominated Mr. Car- 
 penter. Indeed, there were enough Grangers in the con- 
 vention to have prevented his nomination had they so 
 desired. He was their choice and after his nomination 
 he was invited to address a large number of Grange meet- 
 ings." 5 
 
 Of the campaign of the Eepublican candidate it was 
 said by a Eepublican paper 156 that ' ' Carpenter, the can- 
 didate of the Eadical party for re-election to the office of 
 Governor, and a member of capital Grange, perambulated 
 all over the State making political speeches, at Grange 
 picnics". The same paper refers to this method as 
 "Governor Carpenter's demagoguery in traveling over 
 the State, attending Grange rallies, standing on the out- 
 skirts of the crowd eating corn dodgers and flitch meat, 
 pretending to like them." 
 
 A f riendly account of the Anti-Monopoly campaign de- 
 scribed it as unorganized and without leaders, "except 
 for localities. There is no money to pay the ordinary 
 and necessary expenses of a campaign. There is no press 
 recognized to advocate organization, to lead public opin- 
 ion, and the whole army of anti-monopolists, workingmen, 
 industrials and free traders, is yet at sea, and every in- 
 dividual is thus far running a campaign of his own. ' ' 157 
 Under such circumstances the new party could not carry 
 on a very effective campaign. 
 
 The Democratic State Committee, following the sug- 
 gestion of its chairman made in his speech before the 
 Anti-Monopoly convention, issued an address in Septem- 
 ber announcing its determination not to call a State con- 
 vention and advising Democrats to support the Anti- 
 Monopoly candidates ; 158 and this advice seems to have 
 been quite generally followed. There was some dissatis- 
 
ANTI-MONOPOLY PARTY IN IOWA 73 
 
 faction among the more conservative Republicans with 
 Governor Carpenter's friendly attitude toward the fann- 
 ers ' demands. On the other hand, a good many Grangers 
 were prevented from joining the Anti-Monopoly move- 
 ment because of the Governor's sympathetic position. 169 
 
 The result of the election was a considerable reduction 
 in the Republican majority. Many Republican counties 
 elected full Anti-Monopoly tickets. The most successful 
 opposition to the Republicans was in those counties where 
 the Republican majorities had been largest. For exam- 
 ple, in Henry, Washington, Mahaska, Jasper, Warren, 
 Muscatine, Scott, and Black Hawk counties the Republi- 
 can vote "was divided near the middle." A Republican 
 paper spoke of "Mr. Vale, who has made such an unex- 
 pected run for Governor", declared that the Grangers 
 "exhibited considerable cohesion, and have demonstrated 
 that, should they decide to go into politics hereafter, they 
 will constitute a very powerful, if not a controlling ele- 
 ment — while they hang together". 160 Governor Car- 
 penter probably saved the Republicans from defeat. 161 
 
 The final returns showed a falling off of 27,587 votes 
 for the Republicans and a gain for the opposition of 
 6,573 votes. In the elections to the legislature the Re- 
 publicans elected fourteen senators and forty-eight repre- 
 sentatives, while the Anti-Monopolists elected eight sen- 
 ators and forty-nine representatives. 162 The almost equal 
 division of the House of Representatives produced a long 
 deadlock, which was finally settled on the one hundred 
 forty-second ballot by a compromise under which the 
 Republicans got the speakership and the opposition was 
 given the other officers and the control of a number of 
 committees. 163 
 
 The principal business before the legislature was the 
 
74 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 railroad question. Judge Edward H. Thayer of Clinton 
 declared that "an outsider would conclude that the only 
 thing wanted in Iowa to make everybody supremely hap- 
 py, was the total destruction of every railroad in the 
 State. ... If half the Legislative projects now be- 
 ing considered are put into the statutes, the law-makers 
 need but add one more and that one to provide for build- 
 ing a Chinese wall around the State, and their work will 
 be done. . . . When we see a dozen different bills 
 for the regulation of railroads, introduced into the two 
 houses of the General Assembly in a single morning, we 
 feel like crying out against such mischievous and inju- 
 rious Legislation. ' ' 16i 
 
 A committee of the State Grange sent in a draft of a 
 moderate bill providing for an investigating committee 
 as a preparation for future legislation. The Anti-Mon- 
 opoly members of the legislature rejected this proposal, 
 declaring that it was probably drafted in a railway of- 
 fice. 165 A bill fixing maximum rates, similar to the 
 Granger laws of Illinois and Wisconsin, was passed. 166 
 It was prepared largely by Senator Frank T. Campbell, 
 an able young journalist of Jasper County who was serv- 
 ing his second term in the State Senate. He was assist- 
 ed by Judge George R. Willett, Senator from Winneshiek 
 County. Senators Lafayette Young of Cass County, 
 chairman of the Senate Committee on Railroads, John 
 Shane, and John P. West of Henry County were leaders 
 in the upper house. In the House of Representatives 
 John Q. Tufts of Cedar County, Lemuel R. Bolter of 
 Harrison County, and Joshua G. Newbold of Henry 
 County were the leaders. 167 
 
 The wildest predictions were made by the railroads as 
 to the extremes to which the Anti-Monopolists would go 
 
ANTI-MONOPOLY PARTY IN IOWA 75 
 
 in their legislation, but they limited themselves to the 
 establishment of an jjfficiaLclassification and the fixing 
 of maximum rates. "The law was approved March 23, 
 1874, and went into effect on the 4th of July following. 
 This law in no case compelled companies to carry freight 
 at a lower rate than they had voluntarily carried it in the 
 past. Many of the rates in force at the time of the pas- 
 sage of the act were considerably lower than the corre- 
 sponding maximum rates fixed by the legislature. The 
 average rates fixed by the law were higher than the rates 
 at which the railroads had previously carried a large por- 
 tion of corresponding freight. The revenues of the road 
 were not even curtailed by this law. . . . 
 
 "The Granger laws have been and are still severely 
 criticised by those opposed to the principles of State 
 control and by the ignorant. It is nevertheless true that 
 those laws were moderate, just and reasonably well 
 adapted to remedy the evils of which the public com- 
 plained. . . . The Iowa law was imperfect in detail 
 and yet its enactment proved one of the greatest legisla- 
 tive achievements in the history of the State. It demon- 
 strated to the people their ability to correct by earnest- 
 ness and perseverance the most far-reaching public 
 abuses and led to an emphatic judicial declaration of the 
 common-law principle that railroads are highways and 
 as such are subject to any legislative control which may 
 be deemed necessary for the public welfare." 168 
 
 The law of 1874 was not passed without great opposi- 
 tion on the part of the railroad interests. Before the 
 assembling of the legislature the correspondent of The 
 Chicago Tribune at Des Moines reported that the indica- 
 tions were that there would be "an extensive moneyed 
 lobby. Many of the best rooms in the first hotels have 
 
76 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 been engaged for the winter by well-known politicians 
 and lobbyites. Among the number are several railroad 
 Republicans, noted for their lobbying successes at Wash- 
 ington." 169 
 
 There was a prevalent feeling among the Anti-Monopo- 
 lists that they failed in the campaign of 1873 "rather 
 from a lack of organization and systematic work than 
 from any inherent weakness in their cause." They de- 
 termined, therefore, to remedy this defect by securing or- 
 ganization. 170 And so a call was issued for "a Delegate 
 convention of all the voters of Iowa opposed to the Radi- 
 cal party and Monopoly" at Des Moines on February 25, 
 1874. The object as stated was "to consolidate all the 
 elements in favor of reform in the State and National 
 Governments." 171 Commenting upon this call a Repub- 
 lican paper declared that there was "unquestionably a 
 great weakening of party ties. The old political parties 
 are on trial. This is especially true of the Republican 
 party. ... A multitude of voters who have stood 
 by and been a part of the Republican party from the day 
 of its birth till now, have reached the conclusion that if 
 that party is to be run by such men as Ben. Butler and 
 Matt. Carpenter, the sooner it goes down the better. ' ' 172 
 
 The State convention met at the appointed time. Six- 
 ty-four counties were represented by 414 delegates. A 
 new State committee was chosen to serve till June, and a 
 platform containing eleven resolutions was adopted. The 
 gathering was described as "highly respectable, and the 
 proceedings entirely harmonious. . . . The conven- 
 tion was largely managed by members of the old Demo- 
 cratic party. ... A careful examination of the 
 names .... does not indicate that any special in- 
 roads have been made upon the Republican party since 
 
ANTI-MONOPOLY PARTY IN IOWA 77 
 
 the last election. Still it seems to us quite evident that 
 the Republican supremacy in the State and Congressional 
 elections this year is to be more warmly and vigorously 
 contested than it has been at any time during the last 
 fourteen years. . . . The new party has made a thor- 
 ough organization. It has appointed a Central Commit- 
 tee for the State at large and one for each Congressional 
 and judicial district. As Republicans, we are gratified 
 that the Anti-Monopolists have made so fair a start. 
 . . . For many years the Republican majorities in 
 Iowa have been too large. That they will be reduced in 
 the future, seems now quite certain. . . . "We do not 
 think the new party is going to carry Iowa at present, 
 yet with a wide-spread secret organization in our midst, 
 though professedly non-political, yet taking a vital in- 
 terest in politics, the usual bases of calculation are some- 
 what disturbed. ' ' 173 
 
 The committee appointed in February called another 
 convention to meet at Des Moines on June 24, 1874, to 
 nominate candidates. A friendly observer described the 
 convention as ' ' one of the largest gatherings of the kind 
 ever held in Iowa. It was made up of Republicans, Dem- 
 ocrats, old-time Abolitionists, Liberals, Independents, 
 hard money men, soft money men, greenbackers, beer men 
 and anti-beer men, license men and anti-license men 
 . . . . and for a convention thus made up to harmon- 
 ize upon so many matters, was one of the most wonderful 
 sights we ever witnessed. ' ' 174 Of the same convention a 
 Republican editor said that ' ' the managing man .... 
 was ex-Governor Stone, a gentleman of great political 
 shrewdness and no political principle. . . . He was 
 the only State Executive elected by the Republican party 
 whose moral and political life his especial friends were 
 
78 THIED PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 continually called upon to defend .... his chief 
 assistants were J. B. Grinnell, John P. Irish, and Ed. 
 Campbell, and others of like stripe. . . . The outlook 
 for reform has not been improved by the meeting of 
 Anti-Monops". 175 Another Republican paper described 
 the ticket as "not as strong as that of the same party 
 last year". 176 Mr. Stone's relation to the Anti-Monopo- 
 lists in 1874 was similar to that of Mr. Greeley to the 
 Democrats in 1872. 177 There seems to have been a gen- 
 eral feeling of dissatisfaction among the supporters of 
 the new party over the results of the convention. 178 
 Probably this was due also to the discussion over the 
 license plank and over proposals to change the name of 
 the party from Anti-Monopoly to independent. The 
 platform, written by Mr. Stone, is spoken of as satisfac- 
 tory to none. An editorial with the heading of "The 
 Conundrum Convention" said it "was a successful sort 
 of a failure." Four hundred delegates were present 
 from ninety-two counties. 179 
 
 Eepublican comment on the result of the election de- 
 clared that "the Anti-Monopoly party has received its 
 quietus, and we shall hear of it no more. It would have 
 been buried more effectually had the Republicans massed 
 their full strength against it. As it was, the general 
 vote was light, but light as it was it was all too heavy for 
 the Reform party". 180 Judge Thayer of Clinton called 
 attention to the Democratic victories in Ohio and In- 
 diana and said, "we believe had the ticket been styled 
 'Democratic', it would have received 30,000 more votes 
 than the Anti-Monopoly ticket received. We believe if 
 the Congressional nominees had been put into the field 
 under a democratic call, Iowa would have elected demo- 
 cratic Congressmen in the First, Second and Third dis- 
 
ANTI-MONOPOLY PARTY IN IOWA 79 
 
 tricts". 181 As it was one Congressman, Mr. L. L. Ains- 
 worth, was elected from the third district. A Republican 
 paper remarked that he was the first Democrat elected to 
 Congress from Iowa since 1856. It also spoke of him as a 
 fit man for the place and the best of the nine nominees of 
 the opposition party. 132 It should be added that the elec- 
 tion was only for minor State officers and for members 
 of Congress. The usual falling off of votes in an off 
 year should therefore be kept in mind. 183 
 
 In December, 1874, a conference was held at Iowa City 
 "to consult together as to the future course to be pursued 
 by the Anti-Republican voters of Iowa." 1Si Here it was 
 decided that the Democratic Committee of 1872, the Lib- 
 eral Committee of 1873, the Anti-Monopoly Committee 
 of 1874, and the Iowa members of the National Democra- 
 tic Committee should unite to call a convention to meet 
 not later than June 15, 1875, at Des Moines. 185 Rumors 
 of a Democratic caucus to be held in Des Moines on Feb- 
 ruary 22, 1875, are referred to with disapproval by The 
 Clinton Age, iae whose editor favored a convention to be 
 called by the Democrats but liberal enough to include all 
 ready to cooperate with the Democrats. 187 The same pa- 
 per also stated early in April that "some months ago it 
 looked as though the anti-republican party of Iowa, was 
 getting up dissensions. . . . But everything is quiet- 
 ing down. . . . The programme appears to consist 
 simply of a democratic call for a democratic convention 
 to nominate democratic candidates for State offices. ' ' 18S 
 
 The call was finally issued in May for a State conven- 
 tion of Democrats, Liberals, Anti-Monopolists, and of 
 "all others who are opposed to the Republican party as at 
 present constituted" to be held on June 24, 1875, at Des 
 Moines. 189 At the appointed time over three hundred 
 
80 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 delegates representing about seventy counties assembled. 
 The gathering was much more thoroughly Democratic 
 than in the preceding year, when one-third of the dele- 
 gates were former Republicans. This year not over one- 
 sixth were Republicans. The year before the Republi- 
 cans held the leadership in the convention, but this year 
 they had little to do with the management of affairs. Mr. 
 Shepherd Leffler, an old-time Democrat, was nominated 
 for Governor. Discussion occurred again upon the name 
 of the party, but no definite action was taken, although 
 several motions were made. 190 
 
 The nomination of Mr. Leffler caused a great deal of 
 criticism. The Burlington Hawk-Eye declared that his 
 "thirty-five crops of corn", of which he boasted in the 
 convention, "have been mostly if not entirely raised by 
 prosy. 'Shep' himself was always 'constitutionally 
 tired', and for this he has probably been more noted than 
 for anything else during his long residence in this com- 
 munity." 191 The Clinton Age referred to him as "the 
 lion-nerved", 192 and declared his "one mistake" was that 
 he was growing old. 193 Later in the campaign the same 
 paper protested against the personal abuse in which the 
 parties were engaging. 194 
 
 After the election the Burlington Hawk-Eye referred 
 to the campaign made by Mr. Leffler as "the most thor- 
 ough" and "most successful" of any Democrat during 
 the last fifteen years. "He traversed the State from 
 river to river and from the Missouri to the Minnesota 
 line." His speeches were not particularly pleasing or 
 instructive, but "there has been nevertheless a certain 
 plausibility about them, accompanied by the evident hon- 
 esty of the speaker, which has made them quite popular 
 with his own party, and secured for him quite a measure 
 
ANTI-MONOPOLY PARTY IN IOWA 81 
 
 of respect from his opponents. ' ' Reference was also made 
 to "the unexpected run" made by him in his own coun- 
 ty. 105 
 
 The Clinton Age said that "a very light opposition 
 vote was cast .... and there was a large falling 
 off from last year's Anti-Monopoly vote. . . . The 
 Eepublican vote polled was a large one, Kirkwood's 
 popularity being undoubtedly the cause, while the falling 
 off in the Democratic vote, was due to the lack of enthu- 
 siasm felt in the candidature of Mr. Leffler". 100 In the 
 House the Republicans made large gains — seventy-one 
 to twenty-nine in place of an almost equal division. The 
 Senate remained almost unchanged. The same number 
 of counties was carried as by the Anti-Monopolists, but 
 the majorities were much heavier in 1875 than in 1874. 
 Democratic gains in two districts insured the return of 
 two Democratic Congressmen in 1876. 197 Mr. Buck de- 
 clares that the platform adopted by the June convention 
 contained ambiguous planks on the currency and liquor 
 questions. In fact, the failure to declare definitely 
 against prohibition appears to have alienated much of 
 the German vote. The Republican majority was held 
 down to about 30,000 : it had formerly been about 60,000. 198 
 
 The campaign of 1875 was the last in which the Anti- 
 Monopoly party figured in Iowa. The national election 
 of 1876 revived the Democratic party and drew many of 
 the independents back into the Republican party; while 
 the more radical voters went over into the Greenback 
 party. 199 The readjustment of party relations was made 
 easier because of the fact that the Republican candidate,, 
 Mr. Hayes, was a western man forced upon the politi- \ 
 cians by the reform spirit aroused by the western un- I 
 rest 200 when they would have much preferred the more 
 
82 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 brilliant Blaine. Another factor that influenced the re- 
 turn of Republicans to the party fold was the share of 
 that party in the passage of the railxaad_law„_o£ 1874. 
 That act was really the result of the joint efforts of the 
 Anti-Monopolists and the Eepublicans. The Eepublican 
 party was still a popular party and responsive to popu- 
 lar feeling; while the new party had but a brief life be- 
 cause its reasonable demands were taken over by the Re- 
 publicans. 
 
 The agitation about the railroads declined after the 
 passage of the act of 1874. Railroad regulation had been 
 the chief issue of the Anti-Monopolists, and there had 
 been general agreement that some kind of a law must be 
 passed to satisfy the popular demand. 201 A strong effort 
 to repeal the law was made in the legislature of 1876, but 
 the railroads failed to convince a majority of the mem- 
 bers that repeal was justified. The vote upon repeal in 
 the House stood thirty-four for and fifty-eight against. 
 There were those who favored absolute repeal, those who 
 favored the law as it stood, and those who believed a 
 more flexible law was needed. Feeling in 1876 proved 
 still too sensitive to allow a change to be made. 202 
 
 The real issue behind the Anti-Monopoly movement 
 in Iowa from 1873 to 1875 was the recognition of the 
 right of the State to regulate railroad rates in the inter- 
 est of the people. There were other influences, but they 
 were incidental to the main issue. Moreover, the nation- 
 al political situation complicated the local situation. The 
 fiasco of 1872 with Mr. Greeley's candidacy seemed to 
 justify much of the outward and formal contempt shown 
 by the Republicans for the Anti-Monopoly party. Gen- 
 
ANTI-MONOPOLY PAETY IN IOWA 83 
 
 eral Grant's personal honesty and his failure as an ad- 
 ministrator placed loyal Republicans in a difficult posi- 
 tion. George William Curtis and Carl Schurz illustrate 
 how differently good men might act under the circum- 
 stances. 
 
 The currency was a problem that divided people along 
 sectional rather than party lines. Such a stanch Repub- 
 lican paper as The Iowa State Register could print the 
 statement that "Bills of Congressmen, to give us forty 
 or fifty millions more currency, is about like a miller in 
 time of drouth trying to make his mill run .... by 
 pouring into his mill dam a barrel of water. The people 
 of this vast country need three or four hundred millions 
 more money. . . . Let our Legislature .... 
 stir up the lawmaking power at Washington, and thunder 
 in their ears the great need, as well as the demands of the 
 great West for more money." 203 
 
 A Democratic paper declared that "there is certainly 
 something wrong somewhere in the currency question. 
 . . . We all know there is not currency enough in 
 the country. There should be more. . . . The west 
 wants relief. If it were the manufacturing interests in 
 the east which were being cramped, the relief would go 
 out from Washington very quick. But the great agri- 
 cultural interests of the west seem to be divided up among 
 too many people to have its influence felt. ' ' 20i Again the 
 same paper declared that "this cry that increasing the 
 currency thirty or forty millions of dollars, will create a 
 speculating fever which will lead to another financial 
 crisis is the merest twaddle. . . . We can't help be- 
 lieving that the agriculture interests of the west will be 
 improved by an increase of the currency. And as what 
 
84 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 benefits western farmers benefits western towns, we as a 
 western man look witb favor upon tbis attempt to give 
 the country more money to facilitate business. ' ' 205 
 
 Senator Thomas Mitchell of Polk County, a radical 
 abolitionist, who kept a station on the "underground 
 railroad", a Eepublican who left his party and was elect- 
 ed by the Anti-Monopolists to the State Senate in 1873, 
 and of whom The Iowa State Register always spoke in 
 the highest terms even after he had left the party, 206 
 stated in his announcement that he was not a candidate 
 for Congress, that he was for the party that was "most 
 a Western party, and against any party of whatsoever 
 name that proposes contraction, hard money, higher in- 
 terest, more mortgages, and further injury to the 
 West." 207 
 
 The existence of sectional lines is shown also in the 
 discussion as to Democratic nominations for the presi- 
 dency in 1876. A Democratic paper declared that it 
 would be a blunder to nominate a New York man and 
 to make the currency the leading issue as New York 
 wanted hard money first and a Democratic President as 
 a second consideration. ' ' Such a ticket must have at its 
 head a Western man. The platform cannot declare abso- 
 lutely for hard money, and it would be worse than sui- 
 cidal to favor inflation. It must declare for something 
 better than either, to-wit, for Reform, Reconciliation, 
 Rights of individuals, Personal freedom, an honest and 
 economical administration of the affairs of the Govern- 
 ment. With a Western man and such a platform the 
 Democracy can sweep the country". 208 
 
 A feature of the Anti-Monopoly movement that has 
 been overshadowed by its political aspects was the coop- 
 
ANTI-MONOPOLY PARTY IN IOWA 85 
 
 -jsratiyejniying and selling that was carried on to a very 
 considerable extent while it was at its height. The rapid 
 subsidence of political strength inevitably led to its dis- 
 continuance. What was actually accomplished and the 
 larger plans are of interest and ought not to be over- 
 looked by those investigating cooperative methods at the 
 present time. They included "local, county, and state 
 agencies for the purchase of implements and supplies 
 and the sale of farm products, local grain elevators and 
 cooperative stores, the manufacture of farm machinery, 
 banking, insurance, and even organizations for bringing 
 about direct trade between the American producer and 
 the European consumer. ' ' 209 
 
 These economic featuK.es were best developed in Iowa 
 where a State agency was established at Des Moines in 
 1872. By January, 1874, this agency had handled $200,000 
 worth of machinery, and by direct shipment of stock, 
 grain, and farm products to its representative in Chicago 
 had realized larger profits. It also reduced the cost of 
 farm supplies. 210 
 
 "The most important attempt at manufacturing agri- 
 cultural machinery" by the G rangers ^ "originated in 
 Iowa." In 1873 the State agent found it almost impos- 
 sible to persuade the manufacturers of harvesters to sell 
 at wholesale rates and some one proposed that the 
 Grange manufacture its own harvesters. The Werner 
 harvester patent right belonging to a Wisconsin man was 
 purchased "for one thousand dollars and a royalty of 
 two dollars on each machine manufactured", and ar- 
 rangements were made to establish factories to produce 
 harvesters for the different State granges. During the 
 summer of 1874 about 250 of the machines were con- 
 structed and sold for "about half the prevailing price for 
 
86 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 harvesters." Although the machines were good, and 
 gave satisfaction in most cases, the State organizations 
 found that they had lost money hy the deal. The fol- 
 lowing year threats of suits for the infringement of pat- 
 ents caused the plan to be given up. 211 
 
 The apparent success of the Iowa manufacturing ex- 
 periment for a time led to the plan of having all the 
 machinery used by farmers manufactured under the con- 
 trol of the Grange. For this design E. E. Shankland, the 
 Iowa member of the executive committee of the National 
 Grange, was chiefly responsible. Patents on all kinds of 
 implements were purchased, some by the National organ- 
 ization and others by State organizations. No systematic 
 plan was followed, and so careful testing of machines 
 and patents was not always made. Extensive plans for 
 a great variety of manufactures were made in Kansas, 
 Missouri, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky and 
 in some places actual operations began. Usually funds 
 were difficult to obtain; failures destroyed enthusiasm; 
 and by the end of the year 1875 manufacturing plans had 
 been largely abandoned. 212 
 
 At one time the Iowa -State Grange had three factories 
 at Des Moines making plows and controlled three large 
 establishments in other parts of the State. In addition 
 thirty grain elevators scattered about in suitable places 
 were owned by local organizations and run by salaried 
 superintendents. Grain and other produce delivered to 
 these elevators was shipped to market ; and likewise sup- 
 plies of many kinds were purchased at wholesale prices. 213 
 
 The extensive business conducted by the State agencies 
 required representatives in the great cities which were at 
 once the markets and sources of supply for surrounding 
 
ANTI-MONOPOLY PARTY IN IOWA 87 
 
 regions. Arrangements were made with firms in Chicago 
 to handle this business — sometimes independently and 
 sometimes under bond to the State organizations. Later 
 similar plans were carried out in San Francisco, Cairo, 
 St. Louis, Memphis, New Orleans, and Wheeling. The 
 Chicago firms handled business for Kansas, Nebraska, 
 Dakota, Iowa, Northern Missouri, Wisconsin, and Illi- 
 nois. 214 
 
 The Chicago Tribune for April 25, 1874, devoted nearly 
 three columns to a description of the economic activities 
 of the Grangers, in which was a list of the cooperative 
 enterprises ""projected and complete" throughout the 
 South and West. These undertakings covered insurance, 
 elevators, manufacturing establishments, grist-mills, 
 pork-packing (at Muscatine, Iowa), and grange stores 
 (five were in operation in Iowa). 215 
 
 Grange agencies were the most successful form of bus- 
 iness cooperation attempted. The total amount of busi- 
 ness carried on throughout the country during 1873, 1874, 
 and 1875 was "certainly enormous", and "very consid- 
 erable savings" must have been effected. 
 
 Cooperative stores were established in the States of the 
 Middle West in large numbers in 1874 and 1875. Most 
 of them were short lived, but some were reorganized on 
 the Rochdale plan; and a few, exceptionally well man- 
 aged, continued in business for a number of years. "In 
 Iowa, the Farmers' Exchange of G-rinnell, which was 
 started in 1873 with a membership limited to Patrons, 
 survived the collapse of the order in that state, but was 
 obliged to admit others to membership after 1878. The 
 Eochdale system was never adopted in this store; but 
 provision was made for limiting the voting power of 
 
88 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 large stockholders, and, largely because of skilful man- 
 agement, the store continued to do an extensive business 
 during the decade of the eighties. ' ' 
 
 As already indicated, Grange manufacturing outside of 
 Iowa did not meet with much success. The attempts 
 were an outgrowth of the activities of the agencies, but 
 they involved the Grangers in serious difficulties and had 
 to be given up. 
 
 Banking and insurance were other fields in which the 
 Grangers proposed to operate; but the only State in 
 which anything was done in banking during the seventies 
 was California. Farmers' mutual fire insurance com- 
 panies existed before the organization of the Grange, and 
 they were especially suited to the purposes of the organ- 
 ization. Township or county companies were formed in 
 every State in which the Grange was active. Life insur- 
 ance also received attention, but does not seem "to have 
 been as successful as fire insurance. It worked all right 
 for a few years ; but soon the death rate began to increase 
 and then the membership generally decreased. ' ' 216 
 
PART III 
 THE GREENBACK PARTY 
 
VIII 
 LABOR REFORM AGITATION 
 
 With the subsidence of the farmers ' movement for the 
 regulation of the railroads, there came into prominence 
 the agitation in regard to the use of greenbacks. "Wheth- 
 er the greenbacks should be gradually retired, or whether 
 they should remain a permanent part of our currency, 
 had been an open question since the close of the Civil 
 "War. Existing conditions in the country brought the 
 matter to a definite issue after the crisis, of 1873. The 
 business depression lasted till 1878. Following as it did 
 a period of business prosperity, based upon the abnormal 
 situation resulting from the war, it produced the usual 
 unrest and discontent. The lack of actual currency in 
 circulation prevented even solvent enterprises from mak- 
 ing payments in cash. Naturally, to the inexperienced 
 observer the trouble seemed to be a lack of money. Pres- 
 sure was brought to bear upon the government, to reissue 
 the greenbacks which had already been withdrawn, and 
 also to provide for an additional issue. The latter part 
 of the demand took the form of the so-called "Inflation 
 Bill" of 1874, which was vetoed by President Grant. The 
 victory of the hard-money men in preventing further 
 issues of paper was followed in 1875 by the Resumption 
 Act, which provided for a return to specie payments by 
 January 1, 1879. 
 
 In the "West there was a general belief in the necessity 
 and wisdom of the permanent use of the greenbacks. 
 
 91 
 
92 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Like all new and undeveloped Communities, there was 
 here a lack of capital compared with conditions in the 
 East. The "West believed that a larger circulation of 
 money would remedy the situation. There was, in addi- 
 tion, further justification for the western belief in green- 
 backs, because they were the best money the "West had 
 ever known. Before the war "there had been little coin 
 except fractional silver in circulation. The circulating 
 medium was mainly the bills of wild-cat banks : the mem- 
 ory of that money was enough to make people think that 
 greenbacks, attractive in appearance, difficult to counter- 
 feit, and of the same value in every State, were good 
 enough for any body. ' ' 217 
 
 "The originator of greenbackism was Edward Kel- 
 logg, a merchant of New York. His book, Labor and 
 Other Capital, was practically contemporary with Marx's 
 Communist Manifesto, Proudhon's What is Property? 
 and also Louis Blanc's L' organization du travail, from 
 which Lassalle borrowed his program. Each of these 
 doctrines was formulated in the forties on the same the- 
 ory of capital and labor, and each was caught up i« the 
 sixties on similar movements. After 1861 several re- 
 prints of Kellogg 's book were published. Although more 
 fanciful than its European contemporaries, greenbackism 
 was more successful, for it left its permanent contribu- 
 tion to American political economy in the legal-tender 
 paper currency. . . . ' Greenbackism* passed through 
 two stages, the first, that of the National Labor Union, 
 18£LL to .1872 ; the second, that of the Greenback Labor 
 Party after 18?3. ... In this first stage of its ca- 
 reer, the greenback theory was the American counterpart 
 of the radicalism of Europe. . . . Only in politics 
 and law was it American. It took its peculiar American 
 
LABOR REFORM AGITATION 93 
 
 form according to the American stage of industry at the 
 time and the American system of government." 
 
 Compared with the more extreme doctrines of mon- 
 archial and aristocratic Europe, " greenhackism was a 
 doctrine of universal suffrage of wage-earner and farmer. 
 The animus of the doctrine was the effort to take away 
 from bankers and middlemen their control over govern- 
 ment and credit, and thereby to furnish credit and capital 
 through the aid of government to the producers of phy- 
 sical products. . . . This was to be done by making 
 the bonds, bearing three per cent interest, convertible 
 into legal-tender currency not bearing interest, and mak- 
 ing the currency convertible back into bonds, at the will 
 of the holder of either .... its significance lies in 
 the fact that it captured the principal leaders of the wage- 
 earners in 1867. ... In 1870 the National Labor 
 Union determined finally to organize an independent 
 political party. . . . The political organization nom- 
 inated in 1872 the first candidate of an American Labor 
 Party for president of the United States, only to find that 
 it had been made the tool of politicians in their struggle 
 to control the ensuing nominations of the great 
 parties." 218 
 
 National labor congresses had been meeting since 1865. 
 They were the result of influences that came from Europe, 
 where Karl Marx and others were at work arousing the 
 working classes to a sense of their importance and power. 
 Labor agitation had assumed considerable proportions in 
 Massachusetts at about the same time. Organization of 
 labor had begun in many parts of the country, especially 
 in the older portions where industry had developed to a 
 considerable extent. The platform adopted at the Con- 
 gress, held at Cincinnati in August, 1870, declared that the 
 
94 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 laboring class was ' ' suffering from a system of monetary 
 laws", which, enacted during the war, were now "to be 
 perpetuated in the interests of bondholders and bankers 
 as a means to subvert the government of our fathers, and 
 establish on its ruins an empire in which all political 
 power shall be centralized to restrain and oppress the 
 rights of labor, and subordinate its votaries to the mer- 
 ciless demands of aggregated capital." 
 
 The resolutions also demanded the abolition of the na- 
 tional banking system, and urged that "a true national 
 currency", based on the wealth of the Nation, should 
 replace the national bank notes and the greenbacks. This 
 currency should be of paper, and full legal tender, "and 
 convertible at the pleasure of the holder into Govern- 
 ment bonds bearing three per cent interest .... 
 the bonds likewise convertible into lawful money, at the 
 option of the holder. ' ' The payment of the bonds in gold 
 and their funding was opposed. Exemption of bonds 
 from taxation was also opposed. Other items touched 
 upon in the platform were the tariff, an eight-hour day 
 for national and State employees, Chinese immigration, a 
 department of labor at "Washington, and public lands. 
 "Protection of life, liberty, and property are the three 
 cardinal principles of Government, and the first two 
 more sacred than the latter, therefore, money for prose- 
 cuting wars should, .... be assessed and collected 
 from the wealth of the country, and not be entailed as a 
 burden on posterity. ' ' Finally, a resolution was adopted 
 by a close vote recommending the immediate formation 
 of an independent political organization to be known as 
 the "National Labor Reform Party". 219 
 
 In Massachusetts in 1870 there was a confused political 
 situation, and the success of the Eepublicans was threat- 
 
LABOR REFORM AGITATION 95 
 
 ened. There were four parties exclusive of the woman's 
 suffrage movement. The Labor Reform and Prohibition 
 parties were new, being composed chiefly of persons who 
 had acted with the older parties, and who did not so 
 much expect the success of their candidates as they hoped 
 to induce one of the other parties to adopt their princi- 
 ples, or to found a party that would ultimately achieve 
 success. Wendell Phillips was the candidate of both 
 the new parties for Governor. The convention of Labor 
 Reformers was held in September and was composed of 
 250 delegates. The platform reaffirmed the principles 
 of the Declaration of Independence, and declared that 
 associations of working men should have the same rights 
 as associations of capitalists. Candidates were pledged 
 to vote for a law prohibiting the employment of women 
 or minors for more than ten hours a day. All schemes 
 of repudiation were opposed, but the ' ' speediest possible 
 payment of the entire national debt" was demanded. 
 Bank notes should be retired, and " legal- tender govern- 
 ment notes as the best and safest currency the govern- 
 ment ever had" substituted therefor. At the ensuing 
 election Phillips received 21,946 votes for Governor, 
 while the Republican and Democratic candidates received 
 79,549 and 49,536 respectively. 220 
 
 A similar situation existed in New Hampshire, where 
 there were Temperance and Labor Reform parties, in 
 addition to Republicans and Democrats. The Republi- 
 cans were in a majority, but the Democrats "possessed 
 considerable strength and influence". The Labor Re- 
 formers held a State convention, to which no delegates 
 were admitted unless they signed a pledge to support 
 only the candidates of the party and to separate them- 
 selves from all other parties. The platform declared 
 
96 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 that "labor is the sole creator of wealth, and money pro- 
 duces nothing". Repudiation was denounced, but a de- 
 mand was made that the burden of taxation be equalized, 
 and its payment should not be made in a manner that 
 would cause the ' ' rich to grow richer, and the poor, poor- 
 er". National banks were described as moneyed monop- 
 olies. Greenbacks were spoken of as the best paper cur- 
 rency we ever had, and their substitution for bank-notes 
 was demanded. Other articles referred to the tariff, 
 public lands, and a ten-hour day for women and minors 
 in factories. The candidates received 7,363 votes, as 
 compared with 34,424 for the Republicans and 24,992 for 
 the Democrats. 221 
 
 The National Labor Congress in 1871 adopted a plat- 
 form, "upon which it proposed to appear before the 
 country in 1872, as a distinct political party". After an 
 introduction that gives reasons for the formation of a 
 new political party, the statement is made that ' ' our gov- 
 ernment is wholly perverted from its true design. . . . 
 We need only point to facts. In this beneficent country 
 of unlimited resources, with the land annually groaning 
 beneath the products of human effort, the mass of the 
 people have no supply beyond their daily wants, and are 
 compelled, from these unjust conditions, in sickness and 
 misfortune, to become paupers and vagrants. Pauper- 
 ism and crime are the prevailing questions of all modern 
 statesmanship, and it is with these we have to deal. How 
 far these evils are connected with the abuses inflicted on 
 labor, a superficial statesmanship seems not to perceive. 
 Chattel slavery has been abolished, but the rights and 
 relations of labor stand just where they did before eman- 
 cipation, in respect to a division of its products. The 
 difference lies only in the methods of abstracting the re- 
 
LABOR REFORM AGITATION 07 
 
 suits and concentrating them in a few capitalists, who are 
 now masters and dictators of the terms, and thus all 
 labor is practically placed in the same condition of the 
 slave before his emancipation. In thus placing it, the 
 interests of all labor become common, and they must fight 
 their battles in unity if they would succeed. 
 
 "What, then, are the instrumentalities by which these 
 wrongs are inflicted?" These are described as (1) bank- 
 ing and moneyed monopolies, "the great central source 
 of these wrongs, and through which all other monopolies 
 exist and operate"; (2) consolidated railroad and other 
 transportation monopolies; (3) "manufacturing monop- 
 olies, whereby small operators are crushed out" ; (4) land 
 monopolies; and (5) commercial and grain monopolies. 
 The remedies proposed to deal with these evils are (1) 
 the establishment of a monetary system "in harmony 
 with the genius of the Government and adapted to the 
 exigencies of legitimate commerce"; (2) the payment of 
 the national debt and no funding; (3) the preservation 
 of the public domain for "actual settlers and tillers of 
 the soil"; (4) a tariff for revenue only; (5) "requiring 
 in all future wars means necessary for their prosecution 
 . . . . collected from the wealth of the country and 
 not entailed on the future earnings of labor"; (6) "hold- 
 ing legislators to a more rigid accountability, by requir- 
 ing the submission of the annexation of territory, and 
 other fundamental laws affecting the general interest of 
 society, to the vote of the whole people"; and (7) "the 
 creation of a board of management of the currency and 
 revenue, to consist of such a number of intelligent busi- 
 ness men as may be necessary to transact the fiscal af- 
 fairs of the Government, which board shall be charged 
 with the execution of all laws relating to the collection of 
 
98 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 and disbursement of the revenue and the regulation of 
 the currency, and empowered to have the oversight of the 
 clerical- force and other officers and agents required in the 
 discharge of all duties pertaining to this Department. 
 The same rule is to be applied to the Post-Office and 
 Interior Department as far as may be practicable, the 
 Secretaries of the Departments to be presidents of such 
 boards." 222 
 
 In Massachusetts in 1871 the Labor-Eeformers held a 
 convention, nominated candidates for State offices, ap- 
 pointed a State central committee and adopted a plat- 
 form. Labor was declared to be the creator of wealth, 
 and a willingness was expressed to accept the results of 
 principles so radical "as the overthrow of the whole 
 profit making system; the extinction of all monopolies; 
 the abolition of privileged classes; in extended rather 
 than a restricted franchise ; universal education and fra- 
 ternity; perfect freedom of exchange, and the best and 
 grandest of all, the final obliteration of that foul stigma 
 upon our so-called Christian civilization — the poverty of 
 the masses." The framers of the platform were aware 
 that the goal could not be reached at a single leap. They 
 declared war upon the wages system, demanded that 
 every encouragement be given to cooperation and re- 
 quested the same aid that had been extended to railroad 
 and other enterprises. They recommended a ten-hour 
 day for factory work as the first step and an eight-hour 
 day for all persons employed at public expense. When- 
 ever women were employed at public expense equal pay 
 for equal work should be the principle. All public debts 
 were to be paid at once and no more were to be contract- 
 ed. Importation of coolies was denounced "as only an- 
 other form of the slave-trade". The Labor Eeform vote, 
 
LABOR REFORM AGITATION 99 
 
 however, showed a great falling off from that of the 
 preceding year. The candidate for Governor, E. M. 
 Chamberlain, received only 6,848 votes, while the vote for 
 Eepublicans and Democrats was 75,129 and 47,725 re- 
 spectively. The Prohibitionists had separate candidates 
 — their candidate for Governor receiving nearly as many 
 votes as the Labor Reform candidate. 223 
 
 The first national convention of the Labor Reform 
 party was held at Columbus, Ohio, in February, 1872. 
 Connecticut, Massachusetts, New- York, New Jersey, 
 Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, 
 Kansas, -and Nebraska, were represented. Edwin ' M. 
 Chamberlain of Massachusetts was chosen permanent 
 president and a platform of sixteen articles adopted. 224 
 David Davis of Illinois and Joel Parker of New Jersey 
 were nominated for President and Vice President. In 
 June, Judge Davis declined the nomination in a letter in 
 which he said that "having regarded that movement as 
 the initiation of a policy and purpose to unite various po- 
 litical elements in compact opposition, I consented to the 
 use of my name before the Cincinnati convention, where a 
 distinguished citizen of New York was nominated. Under 
 these circumstances I deem it proper to retire absolutely 
 from the presidential contest, and thus leave the friends 
 who were generous enough to offer their voluntary sup- 
 port free to obey their convictions of duty unfettered by 
 any supposed obligation. Sympathizing earnestly with 
 all just and proper measures by which the condition of 
 labor may be elevated and improved, I am, with great 
 respect, your fellow-citizen". Governor Parker also de- 
 clined a few days later. He expressed sympathy with 
 the objects of the party, but as a member of the Demo- 
 cratic party for thirty-five years and elected to office un- 
 
 i 
 
100 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 der its auspices, he felt bound to respect the nominations 
 of the national convention. 
 
 As a result of these letters a conference of Labor Ee- 
 formers was held in New York on July 30th, at which a 
 convention of delegates. was called to meet in Philadel- 
 phia on August 22nd to nominate candidates. At this 
 convention Charles 'Conor of New York was nominated 
 for President, but no nomination for Vice President was 
 made. A resolution adopted declared that "we regret 
 that our candidates have withdrawn from the canvass, 
 for what reason we are utterly at a loss to know; that 
 this conduct is such as meets with our disapprobation 
 and leaves a suspicion on the reputation of those men 
 that they were influenced in their action by the merce- 
 naries of either Grant or Greeley. ' ' 225 
 
 The Labor Reformers were active in local elections in 
 three States in 1872. In Connecticut they made nomina- 
 tions for State offices and endorsed the platform of the 
 Labor Congress of 1871. They also recommended an 
 amendment to the federal Constitution limiting the Pres- 
 ident to one term. 226 
 
 The Massachusetts Labor Reformers held a conven- 
 tion, but made no nominations. Considerable difference 
 of opinion occurred in the drafting of a platform; but 
 finally the following brief resolution was adopted as a 
 compromise: "That the whole power and strength of 
 the Labor party in this State is concentrated in the single 
 issue of reducing the hours of labor for the factory oper- 
 atives, and that we will not vote for any member of the 
 Legislature who opposes this simple act of justice". 
 Failure to make nominations may have been due to the 
 fact that the Democrats and Liberal Republicans fused 
 at this election and the latter adopted a strong labor 
 
LABOR REFOKM AGITATION 101 
 
 plank in which labor is declared to be "the creator of 
 capital and is what originates the only valid title to the 
 private possession of it". The government should give 
 the laborer "the utmost facility honestly to acquire cap- 
 ital, by seeing that he is not unjustly or unnecessarily 
 taxed, that he enjoys the best means of education and has 
 the benefit of well managed financial and cooperative in- 
 stitutions, whereby his smallest savings of capital may 
 earn the largest profit, and the doing of this is held to be 
 the highest duty of the State. ' ' 
 
 General N. P. Banks presided over the Liberal Repub- 
 lican convention which met at the same time and place 
 as the Democrats. A joint ticket was made up by a con- 
 ference committee of the two conventions. Senator Sum- 
 ner was nominated for Governor, but declined ; and F. W. 
 Bird was substituted by the State committee. 227 
 
 In Pennsylvania the Labor Reformers held a conven- 
 tion and nominated State officers. A letter was read 
 from Charles R. Buckalew, informing the delegates that 
 he would stand as their candidate for Governor if the 
 Democrats endorsed him. The ballot for nominees for 
 Governor resulted in the selection of Wm, P. Schell who 
 received twenty-nine votes, while Buckalew received 
 twenty. A little later Buckalew was nominated by the 
 Democrats. 228 
 
 During the session of the Republican State Convention 
 in Connecticut, in 1873, a delegation of Labor Reformers 
 presented resolutions relating to the usury laws, a bureau 
 of labor statistics, and the working hours of women and 
 children in factories. These resolutions were referred 
 to the committee on platform, which recommended no 
 action upon the last two and offered a substitute for the 
 one on usury. During the discussion of the report of 
 
102 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 the committee a delegate proposed substitutes for the 
 report that favored action along the lines asked by Labor 
 Reformers, and these substitutes were adopted by the 
 convention. The Labor Reformers also presented sim- 
 ilar resolutions to the Democratic State Convention which 
 adopted them. 229 
 
 In Massachusetts in 1873 the Labor Reformers held a 
 convention, but nominated no candidates. The chairman 
 of the convention declared that it was not the object of 
 the party to create an independent organization, but to 
 force attention to the ten-hour law and such other State 
 and national legislation as was necessary for the im- 
 provement of the condition of the people. A resolution 
 was unanimously adopted in favor of supporting General 
 B. F. Butler, who was making a second effort to capture 
 the Republican nomination for Governor. A State com- 
 mittee was appointed and the principles of the party set 
 forth in a long platform dealing chiefly with the ten-hour 
 law and the record of candidates upon labor questions. 230 
 
 Again, in 1875, the Labor Reformers in Massachusetts 
 nominated Wendell Phillips for Governor and General 
 William F. Bartlett (who was also nominated by the 
 Democrats) for Lieutenant Governor. The attendance 
 at the convention was very small and the discussions at 
 times became heated. A resolution was adopted inviting 
 the "delegates of all labor organizations throughout the 
 land to meet us at Philadelphia on the 3d day of July, 
 1876, to confer together on the state of the nation, es- 
 pecially in relation to the national industry, and to de- 
 vise such means as are adequate for securing justice to 
 all classes of our citizens". 231 
 
 The climax of the Labor Reform agitation came in con- 
 nection with the great railroad strikes of 1877 which 
 
LABOR REFORM AGITATION 103 
 
 extended through West Virginia, Maryland, New York, 
 New Jersey, and Pennsylvania where the worst out- 
 breaks occurred, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri. 
 Altogether three hundred lives were lost and one thous- 
 and persons injured and property to the amount of from 
 $12,000,000 to $15,000,000 damaged. 232 
 
 A contemporary account traces the political agitation 
 connected with these strikes back to several different 
 sources: (1) there had always prevailed a popular sen- 
 timent that labor deserved to be well remunerated; (2) 
 "there was a wide-spread and bitter feeling against the 
 railroad companies, and a desire that legal limitations 
 should be set to their powers"; (3) "a general desire 
 among the mechanical class that their order should be 
 heard and felt in politics, though in what cause and for 
 what ends they had formed no definite conception"; (4) 
 "there were the social democrats, of whom every city 
 contains a coterie; they are nearly all foreigners, Ger- 
 mans, Bohemians, Poles, Frenchmen, Italians, active 
 minds, thoroughly imbued with the doctrines of the 
 French commune and the German social democracy." 
 They used every opportunity to give "a politico-social" 
 character to the events connected with the strikes. They 
 drew up manifestos and made speeches at the meetings, 
 but were not popular with the workingmen. As illustra- 
 tions are cited a workingmen 7 s party in Louisville, Ken- 
 tucky, which elected several members of the legislature. 
 Their platform renounced both parties and proclaimed 
 the formation of a party composed of the industrial 
 classes. Among their proposals were "courts of arbi- 
 tration to decide in disputes between capital and labor 
 . . . . [to] stop the employment of children under 
 14 years of age in factories or elsewhere, [to] establish 
 
104 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 compulsory education . . . . [to] nominate no one 
 who is not a laborer." In Ohio, a workingmen's State 
 ticket was nominated upon a platform of a decidedly 
 radical character. 233 In New York a quasi-political asso- 
 ciation issued a call for an independent labor party, ad- 
 dressing itself to "trades-union men, labor reformers, 
 Grangers and greenback men". The program issued by 
 a convention in Baltimore merely repeated the well 
 known proposals of the European socialists. In St. 
 Louis, also, the executive committee of the United Work- 
 ingmen's party issued an address in which they seemed 
 to require "the regulation of wages by law". 234 
 
 In an article on "The Railroad Riots of 1877", Mr. 
 Rhodes declared that "from the close of the Civil War 
 to the end of the century the gulf between labor and cap- 
 ital was constantly widening. . . . This tendency 
 was much accelerated by the autocratic reduction in 
 wages of 1877 and by the strikes and riots which ensued. 
 It is true that victory rested with the railroad companies, 
 but it was a Pyrrhic victory. ' ' 235 How far apart the two 
 classes were is shown by comments upon the results of 
 the strikes at the time. ' ' The property losses have to be 
 made good by the taxpayers. The strikers have finally 
 gone to work at the wages they refused. The dead are 
 the only lucky ones in the entire affair". 236 The same 
 writer defines communism as meaning "that when a man 
 by industry and frugality has saved a dollar, the other 
 fellow who by idleness and waste has saved nothing has 
 the right to take it away from him. ' ' 237 
 
IX 
 
 ORGANIZATION OF THE GREENBACK PARTY 
 
 Coexistent with the Labor Reform agitation there de- 
 veloped a movement in the West that culminated in the 
 formation of the Independent or Greenback party. As 
 early as 1868 Geo. H. Pendleton, as a candidate for the 
 presidential nomination of the Democrats, advanced the 
 "Ohiojidea", which was to p ay th e principle of the goy : 
 ernment bonds in greenbacks instead of in coin. At. the 
 national convention great enthusiasm was manifested by 
 his supporters. They cheered for their "Ohio boy", 
 whom they delighted to call "Young Greenback"; and a 
 banner carried by them had the inscription ' ' The people 
 demand payment of the bonds in greenbacks and equal 
 taxation. One currency for all." Some of the Repub- 
 lican leaders, like Thaddeus Stevens and Benj. F. Butler, 
 hastened to "embrace the plan of paying the bonds in 
 greenbacks", and even John Sherman "showed that he 
 was influenced, by the apparent strength of the move;. 
 ment." 23s r"Pr£sident Grant's veto of the Inflation Bill 
 and the passage of the Resumption Act committed the 
 Republicans to hard money. The Democrats inclined to 
 soft money, but never committed themgelves fully as a 
 national party to the fiat money principle^ 
 
 Finally, in November, 1874, a national Independent 
 party was formed at Indianapolis at a meeting held in 
 response to an invitation "issued by a convention of the 
 State Independent party. The party calling the confer- 
 
 105 
 
106 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 ence was the farmers' organization that had been active 
 for the past few years ; while the proposed national party 
 came to be known as the Greenback party. The so-called 
 Independent parties of Indiana and Illinois "tookpartin 
 the formation of and became component parts of the Na- 
 tional Greenback party in 1875 and 1876 ", 239 
 
 The convention at Indianapolis was composed of about 
 fifty persons representing New York, New Jersey, Con- 
 necticut, Illinois, Michigan, and Kentucky, in addition to 
 the Indiana delegates. It was called to order by Mr. E. 
 A. Olleman who read the resolutions of the Indiana State 
 convention, proposing "that a committee be authorized 
 to correspond with similar organizations in other States 
 with a view to organizing a national party". Such ac- 
 tion had been taken and the meeting had assembled (1) 
 to consult upon the issue of an address, (2) to call a pre- 
 liminary convention, and (3) to take steps looking toward 
 a nominating convention in 1876. Hon. James Buchanan 
 of Indiana was chosen chairman, and a committee was 
 appointed to draft a declaration of principles. Letters 
 were read from persons in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, 
 New York, New Jersey, and Iowa, 240 "all indorsing the 
 movement for a party in favor of currency reform." 
 
 At the evening session Mr. Buchanan made an elabor- 
 ate address, and after he had finished the committee on 
 platform made its report. It appears that in this report 
 the committee favored "a new political organization of 
 the people, by the people, and for the people, to restrain 
 the aggressions of combined capital upon the rights and 
 interests of the masses, to reduce taxation, correct abuses, 
 and to purify all departments of the Government .... 
 [Moreover, it was declared that] the proper solution of 
 the money question more deeply affects the material in- 
 
ORGANIZATION OF GREENBACK PARTY 107 
 
 terests of the people than any other one question, and 
 that it directly or indirectly affects all other economic 
 questions in issue before the people." The committee 
 also recommended ' ' a National convention of all the peo- 
 ple who can agree to the foregoing financial proposition, 
 to assemble in National convention at Cleveland, on the 
 11th day of Mar., 1875, to perfect a national platform 
 and to appoint the time and place for holding a National 
 Independent Convention to nominate candidates for Pres- 
 ident and Vice-President." 
 
 A National Executive Committee was nominated with 
 power to add to their number and to change the date of 
 the preliminary national convention, if necessary. Rob- 
 ert Schilling of Milwaukee, R. F. Trevellick of Detroit, 
 and A. C. Cameron of Chicago were among the members 
 of this committee. Other prominent delegates were Alex- 
 ander Campbell of Illinois, Alexander Troupe of Connec- 
 ticut, Horace H. Day of New York and L. A. Wood of 
 Kentucky. 241 
 
 Hon. James Buchanan, "the political Moses of the 
 'New Party', the author of the 'Indiana Financial 
 Plan' ", according to The Chicago Tribune, was a large 
 man "weighing well nigh 300 pounds, and with an ability 
 and shrewdness that compel respect, however much his 
 theories may be ridiculed and abused. ' ' He was described 
 as a lawyer "enjoying a comfortable practice and a fair 
 reputation" before "he mounted a financial hobby early 
 after the panic of September, 1873." 
 
 His plan was to have the government issue greenbacks 
 direct and to have sub-treasuries or depositories in all 
 the large cities where bonds could be exchanged for cur- 
 rency and then reconverted at the pleasure of the holder. 
 The scheme had been introduced into the last Congress 
 
108 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 by the Hon. Godlove S. Orth, at one time a very enthu- 
 siastic friend of the measure but who lost interest and 
 allowed the bill to die. The bill comprised 416 pages of 
 legal cap; and two expert penmen were engaged for 
 more than a fortnight in copying it from the original text, 
 with its marginal references. 
 
 Mr. Buchanan was the editor of The Sun, a weekly de- 
 voted to the interests of the farmers, which he had pur- 
 chased to aid him in satisfying his ambition to become 
 United States Senator. He believed the Independents 
 would hold the balance of power and he hoped to be their 
 candidate. Furthermore, Mr. Buchanan thought that the 
 Independent party would elect the next President; and 
 he interpreted the election of 1874 as an indication of dis- 
 content, especially with the existing financial system. 
 The preliminary skirmish had been fought and the Ee- 
 publieans defeated; the next attack would overwhelm 
 both old parties and the new one would come "into life 
 and responsibility." 
 
 The new party was compared by Mr. Buchanan "with 
 the Greeley movement of 1872"; and he declared that 
 "the latter movement commenced with the leaders in the 
 sanctums of a few editors, and culminated in a set-up 
 game between Horace Greeley and Gratz Brown." The 
 new movement began "with the people; leaders it has 
 none ; for the lack of proper guidance it has gone astray 
 here and there ; but it is from the people, and it will suc- 
 ceed in the end. . . . Some financial Henry of Na- 
 varre will come to the front, and, sticking a greenback in 
 his hat, instead of a white plume, the cohorts of the people 
 will march from conquering to conquer. This is the 
 scene from a Buchanan point of view. "Wanted, the 
 Henry of Navarre. " 2i2 
 
ORGANIZATION OP GREENBACK PARTY 109 
 
 The Cleveland convention met as planned early in 
 March, 1875, about sixty delegates representing twelve 
 States being present. The more prominent delegates in 
 attendance were Hon. Thomas J. Durant of Washington, 
 D. C, Judge Alexander Campbell of Illinois, J. A. 
 Noonan, editor of The Industrial Age, Eobert Schilling 
 of the National Coopers ' Union, E. A. Olleman and James 
 Buchanan of Indiana, Eichard Trevellick of Detroit, and 
 Professor Hooten of Centralia, Illinois. Preparations 
 for the convention had been under the immediate direc- 
 tion of the "Workingmen's Association, and considerable 
 attention was given to the interests of labor. One even- 
 ing session of speeches was devoted to labor reform. 
 The Chicago Tribune referred to it as "the convention 
 of Grangers and Laboring-men, otherwise known as the 
 Greenback convention. ' ' 
 
 After permanent organization had been completed a 
 committee consisting of one member from each State was 
 appointed to draw up resolutions. The platform when 
 reported was adopted first by sections and later unani- 
 mously as a whole. A committee of five was assigned the 
 duty of preparing a plan for a central committee, and 
 they recommended a committee of eleven members. The 
 convention instructed the executive committee to prepare 
 an address and to determine the time and place of meet- 
 ing of the national nominating convention. The Cleve- 
 land meeting completed the organization of the new party 
 which was regarded as having "its central power in In- 
 dianapolis, where dwells its expectant candidate for the 
 Presidency. ' ' 243 
 
 In March, 1875, a committee appointed by an Anti- 
 Monopoly convention held at Philadelphia, selected the 
 first Tuesday in September as the time and Cincinnati as 
 
110 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 the place for holding a proposed national conference of 
 representative workingmen and farmers. After five ses- 
 sions of three hours each the conference adjourned. Only 
 thirty-eight delegates were present out of two hundred 
 who had signed tha^regular call. All the eastern dele- 
 gates withdrew. UIUq^ resolutions adopted declared in 
 favor of protection, denounced special legislation which 
 granted immunities to corporations at the expense of 
 laboring classes, demanded the repeal of the Resumption 
 Act of 1875 and of the national banking law, and that the 
 government supply paper money directly — such money 
 to be made legal tender for all debts, including duties on 
 imports, and to be interchangeable for government bonds. 
 Furthermore, power conferred on corporations must_be 
 held subject to the conferring power, large land-gr ants to ^ 
 corporations ought not to be made, and direct. taxation 
 and one term for the President were favored.] Finally, 
 a committee was appointed "to act with the national 
 executive committee of Independents appointed by the 
 Cleveland convention. ' ' 24i 
 
 Another Greenback convention was held at Detroit in 
 August, 1875, upon the invitation of Moses W. Field of 
 that city. Preparations had been made for a large at- 
 tendance and the presence of leading men like Matt. 
 Carpenter of Wisconsin, Wendell Phillips of Massachu- 
 setts, and Senator John B. Gordon of Georgia was an- 
 nounced. None of the prominent men appeared and the 
 attendance was much smaller than had been expected. 
 One report said that there were no large delegations from 
 out of town, and that the laboring men out of employ- 
 ment comprised the main portion of those present. W. 
 
 D. Kelley of Pennsylvania, James Buchanan of Indiana, 
 
 E. P. Allis of Wisconsin, and D. A. Mahoney of Iowa 
 
ORGANIZATION OF GREENBACK PARTY 111 
 
 were among the more prominent Greenbackers present. 
 Thomas J. Durant was the presiding officer and a list of 
 twenty-seven vice presidents was read — fully one-half 
 of whom did not appear at all. 
 
 The significant item in the series of resolutions adopted 
 recommended "the organization of Greenback Clubs in 
 every State of the Union for the purpose of carrying out 
 the principles and measures set forth in the .... 
 resolutions." 245 These clubs played a very important 
 part in the Greenback agitation and came to represent 
 that element of the party which was opposed to fusion 
 with other parties. They were the successors of the 
 farmers' clubs of a few years earlier, and the predeces- 
 sors of the Populists' clubs of the nineties. The attrac- 
 tion of some people for and the opposition of others to a 
 semi-secret organization have been a feature of our polit- 
 ical and social life throughout our history. 
 
 In January, 1876, the workingmen of New York City 
 held a very large mass meeting to urge lawmakers to take 
 measures so that work may be obtained "by the tens, and 
 hundreds of thousands in enforced idleness." Peter 
 Cooper, who presided, said in the course of his address 
 that justice and general welfare would never be estab- 
 lished until "a true American system of finance" was 
 adopted. The meeting also sent out to the workingmen 
 of the United States an appeal which declared that con- 
 traction was responsible for business depression and that 
 the remedy was a suitable currency supported by the 
 credit of the whole country, while the national debt was 
 to be put as far as possible in the hands of the American 
 people and converted into bonds payable in currency and 
 bearing a lower rate of interest. 248 
 TDuring the early months of 1876 State conventions 
 
112 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 were held for the appointment of delegates to the national 
 convention which was to be held at Indianapolis in May. 
 The convention in Indiana contained representatives 
 from forty-nine counties out of ninety-two. The dele- 
 gates were instructed to vote for Senator Newton Booth 
 of California for President. 247 
 
 The nominating convention of the National Independ- 
 ent party assembled in Indianapolis, May 17, 1876, with 
 two hundred and forty delegates present, representing 
 eighteen States besides the District of Columbia. Igna- 
 tius Donnelly of Minnesota and Thomas J. Durant were 
 temporary and permanent presiding officers, respectively. 
 Moses W. Field was the "Wet Nurse and Director-Gen- 
 eral of the Convention", while R. F. Trevellick, "the 
 great apostle of the new command, 'in the sweat of thy 
 jaw shalt thou eat bread' ", and Hon. James Buchanan 
 were other notable delegates. 
 
 Most of the afternoon and evening of tbe first day was 
 devoted to a discussion about the voting of delegates, the 
 object of which was to kill off opposition to Judge Davis 
 and enable Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Kansas, 
 all well represented, with the aid of Indiana, to secure 
 his nomination. This effort was bitterly opposed and 
 "after an acrimonious debate of more than four hours" 
 was finally given up. 248 
 
 Peter Cooper of New York was nominated for Presi- 
 dent and Senator Newton Booth of California for Vice 
 President. Senator Booth subsequently declined the 
 nomination and Samuel F. Cary of Ohio, "a notorious 
 champion of the fiat-money heresy", was nominated to 
 fill the vacancy. The platform stated that "the Inde- 
 pendent party is called into existence by the necessities 
 of the people, whose industries are prostrated, whose 
 
ORGANIZATION OF GREENBACK PARTY 113 
 
 labor is deprived of its just reward by a ruinous policy 
 wbicb tbe Republican and Democratic parties refuse to 
 change, and in view of the failure of these parties to 
 furnish relief to the depressed industries of the country, 
 thereby disappointing the just hopes and expectations of 
 the suffering people, we declare our principles and invite 
 all independent and patriotic men to join our ranks in 
 this movement for financial reform and industrial eman- 
 cipation. ' ' 249 Mr. Cooper ' ' accepted the nomination con- 
 ditionally", expressing in his letter the opinion that there 
 was "a bare possibility, if wise counsels prevail, that the 
 sorely-needed relief from the blighting effects of past 
 unwise legislation relative to finance, which the people 
 so earnestly seek, may yet be had through either the Re- 
 publican or Democratic party. ' ' 250 Moses W. Field of 
 Detroit and Thomas J. Durant of Washington, D. C, 
 were chosen chairman and secretary of the national 
 executive council of the party. 251 William Allen of Ohio 
 was mentioned as a candidate, should Mr. Cooper de- 
 cline. 252 
 
 Peter Cooper, the candidate of the new party, was born 
 in New York on February 12, 1791, and was consequently 
 eighty-five years old at the time of his nomination. He 
 had had a varied career in business from 1812 to 1830, 
 when he engaged in the manufacture of iron, first near 
 Baltimore and later at Trenton, New Jersey, where he 
 erected the largest rolling-mill for the manufacture of 
 railroad iron which existed at that time in the United 
 States. In 1876 these works had grown to be very ex- 
 tensive and were carried on by members of his family. 
 His great object was to educate and elevate the industrial 
 classes, and to accomplish this he established the ' ' Coop- 
 er Institute" at a cost of $650,000, to which he afterwards 
 
114 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 added an endowment of $150,000. Here at night there 
 were held, free to all, regular classes on social, political, 
 and technical subjects. These classes were attended by 
 two thousand pupils, mostly young mechanics, who stud- 
 ied engineering, mining, metallurgy, chemistry, drawing, 
 and practical building. There was also in the Institute 
 a free reading-room and a library. 253 It is hardly neces- 
 sary to remark that Mr. Cooper was a successful man-of- 
 affairs as well as a philanthropist. Hence his nomina- 
 tion by the new party was a natural and creditable one, 
 although there could be, of course, no serious thought or 
 expectation of his election. His final acceptance of the 
 nomination came on May 31st. 254 
 
 Soon after the adjournment of the convention the na- 
 tional committee appointed Marcus M. Pomeroy, usually 
 known as "Brick" Pomeroy, "chairman of the National 
 Committee for Organizing Greenback Clubs". Two years 
 later as a result of his work he claimed to have "char- 
 tered" nearly four thousand clubs, and the clubs and 
 membership were said to be "increasing faster than ever 
 before ' '. 
 
 Besides the issue of a newspaper the club propaganda 
 was carried on by Mr. Pomeroy by means of a series of 
 tracts called ' ' Meat for Men ", " Hot Drops ' ', etc. These 
 documents were described by the "Honest Money League 
 of the Northwest" — which had been organized in Chi- 
 cago in 1878 to counteract the progress of "doctrines of 
 inflation and absolute money" — as "communistic in- 
 flammatory and treasonable ' '. According to the same au- 
 thority they were ' ' full of the charge of tyranny on the 
 part of the Government, and conspiracy on the part of all 
 Government officers to help the bondholders and 'money 
 power' to rob the poor and laboring people; while at the 
 
ORGANIZATION OF GREENBACK PARTY 115 
 
 same time lie [Pomeroy] is selling these vicious docu- 
 ments to the poor and laboring people at a profit of from 
 600 to 2,000 per cent above cost. They are illustrated 
 with coarse, vulgar pictures, and are filled with the most 
 villainous falsehoods, and advice to laboring men to get 
 ready for secession, and to rob the banks and homes of 
 eastern people, unless every bond is burned. ' ' 255 
 
 Mr. Pomeroy was one of the many interesting char- 
 acters brought into prominence by the Greenback move- 
 ment. His designation as "Brick" came from a series of 
 sketches of well-known Wisconsin men which he wrote 
 for one of his papers and named "Brickdust Sketches". 
 His work as a journalist in La Crosse, Wisconsin, was 
 at first successful and he became one of the largest tax- 
 payers in the county ; while his paper had a circulation of 
 100,000. Always a radical he began as a strong Union 
 man, but suddenly changed his attitude and denounced 
 the military policy of the federal government. He re- 
 moved to New York City and founded "Brick Pomeroy 's 
 Democrat" which gained a large circulation because of 
 its sensational character. Both of his papers failed, and 
 in 1875 he settled in Chicago, where in 1876 he under- 
 took to edit a Greenback organ. To retrieve "his broken 
 fortunes he grasped at all sorts of propaganda". He 
 wrote much on money and personally organized 8,000 
 Greenback Clubs throughout the country. He was a 
 Democrat until the nomination of Mr. Tilden, when he 
 became a bitter opponent because of the influence of 
 Tammany in the party. Moreover, he regarded Mr. Til- 
 den as the representative of interests opposed to a paper 
 currency and favorable to the resumption of specie pay- 
 ments. Marcus M. Pomeroy was "a curious blending 
 of the elements of success and failure. ... He had 
 
116 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 a wonderful array of truths and half truths. ... He 
 lived and died misunderstood and in a large degree un- 
 appreciated. ' ' He died at Brooklyn, New York, on May 
 30, 1896. 256 
 
 There was considerable activity among the Independ- 
 ents in various States during 1876. In ConnecticuTan 
 organization of "Greenback men" was formed early in 
 the year. They met in New Haven, some two hundred 
 men being present — about one-half were residents of 
 the city or its vicinity. They decided that in case both 
 of the existing parties refused to accept its views, an 
 executive committee should nominate candidates for State 
 offices. Later another meeting was held, nominations 
 made, and a platform of the usual sort adopted. 257 
 
 In New York the first political convention of t he ye ar 
 was that of the Greenback party. Its object was^ehieffy" 
 for organization and the expression of sentiments; and 
 the resolutions adopted declared that the "men who now 
 assume to lead the Democratic party in this State are 
 associated with and controlled by its great money and 
 corporate interests", and that upon this convention de- 
 volved "the duty of perfecting an organization which 
 will be Democratic in its character, and in harmony with 
 the wishes of the people throughout the country, and the 
 organization of the Democratic party in the Southern 
 and Western States, where it is not controlled by money, 
 as it has heretofore been in this State." It was also 
 recommended that delegates be chosen to meet in State 
 convention to choose delegates to the Democratic Na- 
 tional Convention at St. Louis who were to ask admission 
 as representatives of the Democrats of New York. A 
 second convention was held in New York City in June, 
 at which representatives were present from fifty-two out 
 
ORGANIZATION OF GREENBACK PARTY 117 
 
 of the sixty counties. Four delegates were chosen to the 
 Democratic convention at St. Louis, and resolutions were 
 adopted claiming admission for these delegates as the 
 only duly authorized representatives of the Democracy 
 of the State and the only organization not controlled by 
 money. Still later a third convention met to nominate 
 State officers. 258 
 
 _ In the West there was also considerable activity among 
 the Greenbackers. In Indiana they had put a ticket in 
 TEe~~field early in the year, but later a second convention 
 was held to fill vacancies. The usual resolutions were 
 adopted in which they declared that they had "no faith 
 in the professions of reform which come .... from 
 the corporation thief and railroad wrecker representing 
 the old Tammany regime of New York, and, .... 
 from the organization which in national convention has 
 indorsed the entire Administration of President Grant, 
 not even excepting its stealings. ' ' Only six days before 
 the election the candidate for Governor withdrew, giving 
 as his reason the fact "that most of the Democrats in 
 the Independent movement were secretly supporting the 
 regular party candidates, and he did not consider it fair 
 to the Eepublican party of the State to keep up the divi- 
 sion." The vacancy was promptly filled by the State 
 committee. 
 
 A letter written at Indianapolis in August, and ad- 
 dressed to Governor Hayes, gives an interesting view of 
 the political situation from the Eepublican side. "There 
 is an Independent party in this State, confined, it is true, 
 to a few counties, but formidable, and it will defeat Gen- 
 eral Harrison. There is but one way to overcome this 
 movement. The leaders of the Independents are poor, 
 needy, and in debt. They must be lectured. Let docu- 
 
118 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 ments be placed in their hands that they may be con- 
 vinced of their folly. A bloody-shirt campaign, with 
 money, and Indiana is safe ; a financial campaign and no 
 money, and we are beaten. ' ' 259 
 
 In Illinois the Greenbackers partially fused with the 
 Democrats. 260 In Kansas the Republicans invited the 
 cooperation of all men "whether called 'Liberal' or 'In- 
 dependent,' to whom 'reform' is something more than 
 an empty name". The Democrats made a separate 
 nomination for Governor, and the rest of the ticket was 
 made up by a coalition with the Greenback party. 261 
 
 A great campaign meeting was held at Chicago in 
 August at which Samuel F. Cary, the candidate for Vice 
 President, was the principal speaker. The candidate 
 for the Presidency, Mr. Cooper, also sent a letter regret- 
 ting his inability to be present. He wrote that he had 
 hoped that Mr. Tilden's letter of acceptance would have 
 made it possible for him to withdraw ; but he like Hayes 
 was determined to continue the wrong policy in finance. 
 At the afternoon session Cary made a two-hour speech 
 in which he arraigned both parties and denounced es- 
 pecially the financial legislation of the last eight years. 
 In the evening Cary addressed an audience of from 1,000 
 to 1,500 persons. There were other speakers and a 
 torchlight procession at the close. 262 
 
 As was to be expected, the election results- in ac tual 
 votes were insignificant — about 80,000 out of a total of 
 over 8,000,000. Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, and 
 Kansas were the States in the West where the Green- 
 backers received the most votes, varying from 17,000 in 
 Illinois to 6,000 in Kansas. Massachusetts was the State 
 in the East where they were strongest. Undoubtedly, 
 the greatest practical influence of the new party was ex-_ 
 
ORGANIZATION OF GREENBACK PARTY 119 
 
 ercised in Illinois, where five Independent senators held 
 the balance of power in the legislature and were able to 
 bring about the election of Judge David Davis to the 
 United States Senate in 1877. His election prevented 
 him from serving upon the Electoral Commission and as 
 a consequence probably prevented the seating of Mr. 
 Tilden as President. 263 Judge Davis had been the can- 
 didate of the Independents, but he finally received the 
 support of the Democrats. He was "rated as an Inde- 
 pendent, but acts more commonly with the Democrats. 
 He is understood to be in favor of remonetizing silver, 
 and postponing the resumption of specie payments. ' ' 26i 
 Some light is thrown upon the effect of the Greenbackers 
 upon the old parties by the results in Indiana, where the 
 total vote for the candidate for Governor was 13,213. Of 
 this vote forty-one Republican counties cast 9,482 and 
 thirty-six Democratic counties cast 3,731 ; of the remain- 
 ing 15 counties which cast no Greenback vote 14 were 
 Democratic and 1 Eepublican. "The total Greenback 
 vote in the Republican counties was more than 2y 2 times 
 as great as that in the Democratic counties." A Re- 
 publican newspaper in Iowa, commenting upon these re- 
 sults, says "This is an excellent lesson for the Republican 
 Greenbackers of the Northwest. They can thus see how 
 the Democratic Greenback men stick to their old party 
 predilections while inducing Republicans to throw away 
 their votes." 265 
 
UNION OF LABOR REFORMERS AND 
 GREENBACKERS 
 
 In 1877 there were indications of the cooperation of th e 
 Greenback and Labor Reform parties in several States. 
 Wendell Phillips was the candidate for Governor IE 
 Massachusetts, and the remainder of the ticket was a 
 joint one for Greenbackers and Labor Reformers. 266 In 
 Pennsylvania also there was an alliance between the two 
 parties where two noteworthy resolutions were passed 
 by the Greenbackers, one of which favored guarantee 
 by the general government of deposits of ' ' surplus earn- 
 ings of the people"; while the other declared that "the 
 Common School system should be supplemented by a sys- 
 tem of Industrial Schools." The United Labor party 
 in this State also adopted some significant resolutions 
 advocating (1) "compulsory education, and prohibitory 
 laws with penalties attached against the employment of 
 children under fourteen years of age in industrial estab- 
 lishments or workshops", and (2) "gratuitious educa- 
 tion in all educational institutions; candidates for the 
 higher course of studies in colleges or academies for the 
 professions] to be selected for merit by competitive 
 examination, irrespective of station or condition of 
 life." 267 
 
 In Ohio a split occurred among the workingmen by 
 which a large part of the organization repudiated the 
 action of its representatives. Later a conference was 
 
 120 
 
UNION OF PARTIES 121 
 
 held between the disaffected workingmen and the execu- 
 tive committee of the Greenback party, at which the lat- 
 ter agreed to withdraw their ticket and unite with the 
 new movement, if their ideas of currency reform were 
 accepted. This was done and a full ticket was then 
 nominated. The results of the election showed that the 
 two elements were nearly equal in voting strength. 268 
 
 In all the States where they were organized, the Labor ( 
 Eeformers and Greenbackers were really two branches, 
 of the same party which was gradually being formed in; 
 ,the country to deal with the industrial and economic 
 problems that the old parties were all too slow in taking! 
 up. From time to time resolutions crept into the plat/ 
 Torms of either the Labor Reformers or the Greenbackers 
 which indicate their relation to earlier or later move- 
 ments. The Greenbackers of New Jersey declared the 
 act "by which silver was corruptly, and against the 
 wishes and welfare of the people, demonetized as a legal 
 tender, was an outrage upon the rights and interests of 
 the nation", and its unconditional repeal was demanded. 
 "The cause of the late disturbances [railroad strikes] 
 shall be removed, by the inauguration of a financial policy 
 which will give money to productive industry, and full 
 employment, at good wages, to labor, instead of an in- 
 crease of the army". 209 In New York the Labor Re- 
 formers demanded the "gratuitous administration of jus- 
 tice in all courts" and that railroads "should be under 
 the control and management of the State through which 
 they pass, and that the transportation of freight and pas- 
 sengers should be done for the cost, as as near as possi- 
 ble, paying a reasonable interest to the stockholders, and 
 providing for a sinking fund sufficient to keep the road 
 and rolling-stock in good condition. ' ' They also favored 
 
122 THIKD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 "a law for the protection of life and limb of employes 
 in factories, or in the erection of buildings" and "the 
 abolishment of tenement-house factories". 270 
 
 In the East where there were the largest cities and the 
 greatest industrial development the Labor Reformers 
 were stronger; while in the West the conditions were 
 favorable to the growth of a party that emphasized mone- 
 tary and financial measures. Naturally the union of 
 these two independent movements seemed eminently de- 
 sirable to the leaders. Separately they were too weak 
 to have much power. United they might form the nucleus 
 for an Independent party that might hold the balance 
 of power between the Republicans and Democrats, and 
 possibly might mean the formation of a party strong 
 enough to replace one of the older parties. 
 
 Finally, at a meeting held at Toledo, Ohio, on EebraaEy 
 22, 1878, an alliance between the Labor Ref orm and 
 Greenback parties was completed. Delegates attended 
 the conference from twenty-eight States. The preamble 
 to the platform adopted described the reasons for the 
 union as follows: "the Independent Greenback and 
 other associations, more or less effective, have been un- 
 able hitherto to make a formidable opposition to old 
 party organizations .... assemble in national 
 convention and make a declaration of our principles and 
 invite all patriotic citizens to unite in an effort to secure 
 financial reform and industrial emancipation. The or- 
 ganization shall be known as the 'National Party,' and 
 under this name we will perfect, without delay, National, 
 State and local associations to secure the election to 
 office of such men only as will pledge themselves to do all 
 in their power to establish these principles." 271 
 
 A contemporary account described the meeting as com- 
 
UNION OP PARTIES 123 
 
 posed of "the friends of labor reform, those in favor of 
 the postponement of the resumption of specie payments, 
 and a large issue of greenbacks and many others". The 
 same authority says that "the union of the Labor element 
 with the Greenback portion brought to the latter griev- 
 ances which have been deep-seated and long-continued, 
 and which are beginning to attract the attention of civi- 
 lized society. ' ' 272 
 
 I The, .p latform declared that it was the exclusive func- 
 tion of the general government to coin money and regu- 
 late its value and to make it a legal tender for all pur- 
 poses; that there should be no, privileged class of cred- 
 itors; that silver should be coined on the same basis as 
 gold; that there should be an adequate supply of money, 
 "fixing a minimum amount per capita of the popula- 
 tion"; and that no species of private property should be 
 exem pt from taxation. Government bonds and money 
 should be taxed and "a graduated income tax should be 
 levied for the support of the Government and the pay- 
 ment of its debts." Then follow a number of articles 
 referring to the public lands, encouragement of labor, 
 monopolies, abolition of useless offices, economy in the 
 public service and the punishment of unfaithful officers, 
 reduction of hours, and more leisure for working classes 
 for education and recreation. Next comes a demand for 
 the adoption of an American monetary system to bring 
 about fair and reasonable distribution, and to "muster 
 out of service the vast army of idlers, who, under the 
 existing system, grow rich upon the earnings of others, 
 that every man and woman, may by their own efforts 
 secure a competency, so that overgrown fortunes and 
 extreme poverty will be seldom found within the limits 
 of our republic". The last three articles urge the estab- 
 
124 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 lishment of bureaus of labor by the State and national 
 governments, the prohibition of contract labor, and the 
 suppression of Chinese immigration. 
 
 Before the adjournment a dispatch was read from 
 General B. F. Butler urging the convention to denounce 
 the modification of the Silver Bill urged by the gold 
 men and to pass anti-resumption resolutions. And so a 
 resolution was offered and unanimously adopted de- 
 nouncing the Silver Bill as a delusion and indignantly 
 condemning it as a financial measure. 273 Eight hundred 
 delegates were present; and while the word "Labor" 
 was not officially incorporated in the name of the party, 
 it was commonly referred to as the Greenback Labor 
 party. 274 In May the executive council met in New York 
 to devise plans for thorough and systematic organiza- 
 tion in all the States. 275 
 
 The greatest strength for an independent or third 
 party movement manifested in the United States up to 
 that time was in the year 1878. Only congressional and 
 State elections took place ; but they indicated a very re- 
 markable growth in voting strength. The most accurate 
 estimates give the new party the following votes : 
 
 1876 82,640 
 
 1877 187,095 ./ 
 
 1878 1,000,365 276 ^ ^ 
 
 / The reasons for this great increase are (1) the effect 
 of the business depression beginning in 1873, (2) the 
 unrest indicated by and also resulting from the great 
 strikes of 1877, (3) dissatisfaction with the settlement of 
 the disputed presidential election of 1876, and (4) the 
 difficulties due to the contraction of greenbacks, the re- 
 sumption of specie payments, and the coinage of silver. 
 All of these influences tended to create in the country an 
 
UNION OP PARTIES 125 
 
 increasing number of persons who were willing to sup- 
 port a party that seemed inclined to take up some of 
 the urgent questions neglected or mismanaged by the 
 older parties. Candidates asked for support before elec- 
 tion, but afterwards forgot Greenback and Labor allies. 
 Hence actual results were much less than might reason- 
 ably have been hoped for from the size of the vote cast. 
 The States contributing most largely to the increased 
 vote were as follows — the numbers indicating the order 
 of the States based upon the size of the vote cast : 
 In the West In the East 
 
 1 Iowa 11 Ohio 2 Massachusetts . 
 
 5 Michigan 12 "Wisconsin 3 Pennsylvania 
 
 6 Missouri 13 Kansas 4 New York 
 
 7 Illinois 14 Minnesota 8 Maine 
 
 9 Indiana 16 Nebraska 15 New Jersey 
 
 10 California 
 Total in round numbers 508,000 Total in round numbers 350,000 
 
 The relative strength of the two main branches of the 
 party are roughly indicated by the division of the vote 
 between the East and West. These States comprise the 
 major part of the total strength of the party. It is 
 hardly necessary to note that all the eastern States, with 
 the exception of Maine, are States where the industrial 
 development was most advanced. The strength of the 
 Greenback movement was, of course, in the States of the 
 central "West from Ohio to Nebraska. 
 
 The campaigns in the different States throw light upon 
 the situation in different parts of the country. In 
 Illinois in 1878 a convention met in January to demand 
 thlTTemonetization of silver. Late in March another 
 convention nominated candidates for minor State offices 
 and adopted the same platform as that drawn up by the 
 
126 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Toledo conference with a few additional resolutions, 
 among which was one opposing "the employment of 
 minors in shops and factories under fourteen years of 
 age". Independent candidates for Congress ran in all 
 but three districts out of nineteen, receiving votes vary- 
 ing from about 6,500 in three districts to 884 in one dis- 
 trict. In nine districts additional to the three above 
 mentioned, the vote for Independent candidates was 
 from 2,000 to 4,000. In two districts Socialist candi- 
 dates received 2,322 and 2,473 votes. In the legislature 
 ten Independent and four Socialist candidates were 
 elected. 2 " 
 
 In Indiana the National Greenback Labor party de- 
 clared fealty to the American monetary system, opposed 
 resumption, and expressed hostility to government bonds. 
 Furthermore, they denounced "the red flag Communism 
 imported from Europe which asks for an equal division 
 of property", and "the Communism of the National 
 Banks, of the Bond Syndicates, and of the consolidated 
 railroad corporations, which have secured and are en- 
 forcing an unequal division of property, having already 
 divided among themselves ten thousand millions of the 
 property of the people by corrupting the representatives 
 and servants of the people. The one system of Com- 
 munism ignores the inequalities of capacity which have 
 been implanted by Nature in the human family, and both 
 systems are destructive of the rewards of toil and of the 
 incentives to industry and exertion." 
 
 Other articles discussed the reduction of the rate of 
 interest; economical government; fair election laws; 
 protection to persons employed in mines ; the election of 
 President, Vice President, and Senators by direct vote 
 of the people; and the increase of the standing army. 
 
UNION OF PARTIES 127 
 
 Finally, they endorsed and reaffirmed "the platform of 
 principles adopted at Toledo" and congratulated "the 
 country upon the union of the political interests sub- 
 serving the useful ranks of society in one party, which 
 shall advance this decree of a higher and better civiliza- 
 tion, and this oldest gospel — that there shall be work for 
 all, and that all shall work. ' ' 278 Independent candidates 
 ran in all the thirteen congressional districts. In one 
 district the Democrats made no nomination, and here 
 the Independent candidate was elected. 279 
 
 The Michigan Greenbackers, in addition to the usual 
 financial planks, demanded "the enactment of such laws 
 as will best protect the industries of this Nation, and 
 confer the greatest good upon the greatest number. 
 Such legislation should be had that the number of hours 
 of daily toil be reduced, leaving the working classes more 
 leisure for mental improvement and social enjoyments, 
 saving them from premature decay and death." They 
 also "deprecate all efforts to redress wrongs by viola- 
 tion of law, and believe that through the ballot-box alone 
 we must look for justice. ' ' 280 
 
 In Ohio one article in the Greenback platform de- 
 nounced^' alike the Communism which demands an equal 
 division of property and the infamous financial legisla- 
 tion which takes all from the many to enrich the few. 
 We demand cheap capital and well-paid labor in the 
 place of dear capital and cheap labor. ' ' 281 
 
 Missou ri Greenbackers, besides making the customary 
 '♦financial demands, denounced "the present system of 
 convict labor", favored changes in the public school sys- 
 tem for the purpose of establishing "mechanical and 
 commercial schools in connection with the present 
 schools", declared for the "improvement of all Western 
 
128 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 navigable rivers", and urged that "the general govern- 
 ment build, own and control the St. Louis and San Fran- 
 cisco railway". Furthermore, they demanded "the abro- 
 gation of all laws that do not bear equally upon labor and 
 capital", and "the adoption of measures insuring health 
 and safety to those engaged in mining, manufacturing or 
 building pursuits." They opposed the introduction of 
 Chinese labor and pronounced "against strikes, revolu- 
 tions and all violent measures for the relief of labor." 
 Finally, they invited "all patriotic and free citizens of 
 this State who may subscribe to the foregoing resolu- 
 tions to abandon all old parties and unite with us in 
 establishing a new party of the people to deliver them 
 from money and corporate despotism .... to in- 
 augurate a system of American absolute money and to 
 secure to the people and their posterity the blessings of 
 civil and religious liberty". 282 
 
 Maine- was the eastern State where the Greenback 
 party came nearest to success in gaining control of offi- 
 cial positions. The State convention was composed of 
 782 delegates. Solon Chase, who was made chairman, 
 declared that ' ' the bottom is not knocked out of the party 
 when we see men like James G. Blaine rocking the rag- 
 baby. Inflate the currency, and you raise the price of 
 my steers and at the same time pay the public debt. 
 Eesumption means falling prices and shrinkage of 
 wages." Chase and "them steers" became famous in 
 Greenback annals. Joseph W. Smith, "a respectable 
 and successful man of business, who has been an active 
 politician ' ', was nominated for Governor. He had been 
 a Democrat down to 1855, and a Republican since that 
 time. 283 The platform opposed ' ' the nomination for office 
 of old politicians, especially those who have been for a 
 
UNION OP PARTIES 129 
 
 long time and are now in the employment of the Govern- 
 ment". The Greenback candidate for Governor received 
 41,371 votes; while the Republican candidate received 
 56,554 and the Democratic candidate 28,218 votes. In 
 the legislature the House contained sixty-five Republi- 
 cans, sixty-four Nationals, and twenty-two Democrat*. 
 Nationals were elected to Congress in two districts. 28 ' 1 
 
 Connecticut Greenbaekers demanded that "the Gov- 
 ernment at once establish postal savings banks, for the 
 purpose of receiving deposits by the people for safe keep- 
 ing, and loaning money to the people, on ample security, 
 at a rate of interest not exceeding the actual expense of 
 creating and loaning the same." They also advocated 
 an income tax "graduating upward, but leaving un- 
 touched all incomes under $1,000", and "a thorough re- 
 form in the system of public-school education, [as in Mis- 
 souri] .... and that not less than one lecture per 
 week be delivered upon the dignity of labor and its para- 
 mount importance in the affairs of men in every day 
 life." 285 
 
 A Greenback conference in New York reiterated "hos- 
 tility to the contract system in our penal institutions" 
 and deplored "the distress caused our fellow-citizens in 
 California and the "West by the importation of servile 
 Chinese labor into this country", demanding that it be 
 abolished by immediate legislation. This conference also 
 urged that "both National and State Governments es- 
 tablish bureaus of labor and industrial statistics, clothed 
 with the power of gathering and publishing the same." 
 Finally, it declared that "we do not recognize or affiliate 
 with any secret or questionable political organization 
 whatsoever. ' ' 286 
 
 In Pennsylvania the Greenbaekers declared that while 
 
130 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 the United States could support a population ten fold 
 greater than the present, "nevertheless, with an enter- 
 prising, industrious people, after a series of abundant 
 harvests, manufacturies are idle, business prostrate,- 
 labor unemployed and starvation impending. This con- 
 dition of affairs has been produced by the control of the 
 producing interests of the country by the non-producers, 
 and by legislation in favor of non-productive^apitalj,nd 
 against the interests of the laborers of the country." 
 They insisted that the laborer should be protected and 
 conditions so ameliorated that he may "obtain the com- 
 forts and luxuries of life, and thus, by increasing con- 
 sumption, open new avenues for industry and new fields 
 for labor". Furthermore, they advocated "opening 
 new fields for labor in the construction of works of Na- 
 tional importance, either directly by the Government , 
 itself, or by rendering assistance ; in no case to be in the 
 form of subsidies, but all outlays of the Government to 
 be adequately secured." Safeguarding the deposits in 
 savings banks and trust companies was recommended, 
 and "the passage and enforcement of such laws as will 
 prevent all combinations, discriminations, or granting of 
 rebates by transportation companies, and compelling the 
 common carrier to furnish the same facilities and per- 
 form the same service for the same price to all men." 287 
 
XI 
 THE DECLINE OF THE GREENBACK PARTY 
 
 As in the case of all other independent parties, the 
 Greenbackers showed their greatest strength in local and 
 State elections. The elections o£1878 marked the highest 
 point in., their voting power: their success in national 
 politics never indicated more than a third as much 
 strength as was manifested in 1878. The only national 
 election of that year was the choice of members of Con- 
 gress. Fourteen members of the lower house were cred- 
 ited to the Nationals — three from Pennsylvania; two 
 each from Iowa, Illinois, and Maine ; and one each from 
 Indiana, Missouri, Texas, North Carolina, and Ala- 
 bama. 288 
 
 In December, 1878, the central executive committee met 
 at Washington and issued an address to the people, in 
 which it called attention to the remarkable growth of 
 the party in the last two years, declared that the real 
 strength of the party was nearer 1,500,000 or 2,000,000, 
 and maintained that there could be no doubt that a party 
 which could develop such strength in two years would 
 elect the President in 1880. Opposition to the money 
 power was emphasized as the paramount purpose of the 
 party. 289 
 
 In March Mr. James B. "Weaver acting for the execu- 
 tive committee sent to the Democratic and Republican 
 members of Congress a letter in which names of candi- 
 dates were given for whom the G-reenbackers were will- 
 
 131 
 
132 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 ing to vote for Speaker. This was done on the presump- 
 tion that the nearly equal division of the House of Rep- 
 resentatives would give the balance of power to the 
 Greenbackers. The letter declared that the Greenbackers 
 held ' ' the balance of power, not only in the present House 
 of Representatives, but in the States of Maine, Connecti- 
 cut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, 
 Illinois, and Michigan. In other words, in scarcely one 
 of the Northern States has either of the old parties a ma- 
 jority." The letter was sent out at the time of the or- 
 ganization of the forty-sixth Congress in March, 1879. 290 
 The election of Speaker resulted in the choice of Samuel 
 J. Randall, the candidate of the Democrats. James A. 
 Garfield was the candidate of the Republicans and Hen- 
 drick B. Wright of Pennsylvania was the choice of the 
 Nationals. The votes cast were as follows : Democrats, 
 143 ; Republicans, 125 ; and Nationals, 13. Thus the Dem- 
 ocrats did not need the Independent votes, and the Re- 
 publicans even with their votes could not control the 
 House. 291 
 
 Early in 1879, Rev. Gilbert De La Matyr, Congress- 
 man-elect from the Indianapolis district, was sent South 
 on an extended tour to secure Greenback converts. 
 Through letters to prominent Southerners he sought in- 
 vitations to address legislatures. He was selected he- 
 cause of his former Methodist pastorate and because 
 it was thought that he would have more weight than a 
 professional politician. A Republican newspaper in 
 Iowa described this trip as the first move of the Nationals 
 in the campaign of 1880 and declared that it was to be 
 followed by sending their ablest men to Maine the next 
 summer. According to this authority, the Nationals 
 would try to carry Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, Penn- 
 
DECLINE OP GREENBACK PARTY 133 
 
 sylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Mississippi, 
 Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. 202 
 
 The most important activity of the Greenbackers in 
 1879 occurred in Maine, which had been solidly Repub- 
 lican since 1854. The Greenback candidate for Governor 
 was Mr. J. W. Smith, who had also been nominated in 
 1878. The election resulted in the casting of 68,766 votes 
 by the Republicans, 21,688 votes by the Democrats, and 
 47,590 votes by the Greenbackers. The law required a 
 majority vote for election, and so the final decision was 
 thrown into the legislature. 293 Charges of fraud in the 
 election of Republican members of the legislature were 
 made by their opponents. On the other hand, it was 
 claimed that the Republicans were being robbed of vic- 
 tory by the Democratic State officials. The Governor 
 and Council, acting as a board of review of election re- 
 sults, claimed that they were simply following the law 
 in throwing out ballots without ' ' distinguishable marks ' ' 
 or "fatally defective". The Republicans declared that 
 their majority of seven in the Senate was changed to one 
 of nine for fusion and their majority of twenty-nine in 
 the House to one of seventeen for fusion, and that five 
 Republican cities were without representation and were 
 denied a new election. 
 
 Eight Republican senators and twenty-nine Republi- 
 can representatives were refused certificates by the Gov- 
 ernor and Council. They pointed out that there had not 
 been so many "fatal defects" in fifty-nine annual elec- 
 tions and that almost all the defective ballots were for 
 Republicans. The object, they said, was to be sure of 
 Democratic officials who would do the same thing in 1880. 
 Indignation meetings were held, and for a time rebellion 
 seemed imminent. Finally, the matters at issue were 
 
134 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 submitted to the Supreme Court for settlement ; and that 
 body declared unanimously for the Eepublicans. One of 
 the judges was described as "a radical and life-long 
 Democrat". 294 Whatever the exact results may have 
 been, it is practically certain that the State had gone 
 against the Eepublicans. The combined Democratic and 
 Greenback vote for several years had been greater than 
 the Eepublican vote. 
 
 In Massachusetts General B. F. Butler received the 
 Democratic and Greenback nomination for Governor. 
 He received 109,149 votes, while the Eepublican candidate 
 received 122,751 votes. 295 After Maine and Massachusetts 
 the States casting the largest vote for Greenback candi- 
 dates in 1879 were as follows : Iowa, 45,549 ; California, 
 44,482; Pennsylvania, 27,207; New York, 20,286; Ken- 
 tucky, 18,954; and Wisconsin, 12,996. 296 As only about 
 twelve States held elections the vote must be regarded 
 as that of an "off" year and can not properly be com- 
 pared with that of 1878. The near successes of Maine 
 and Massachusetts are indications that the Greenback 
 movement was by no means to be ignored. The Green- 
 backers could not safely be regarded as simply "dis- 
 gruntled Eepublicans who pass the time between Presi- 
 dential elections growling and grunting and in 1880 will 
 return to the banner of the bloody shirt and vote for 
 Grant." 297 
 
 A National or Greenback Labor conference was held at 
 Washington in January, 1880, at which between 100 and 
 125 delegates were present in addition to the Greenback 
 congressmen. Most of the delegates were representa- 
 tives of State and local Greenback associations, with a 
 few from trade and labor organizations. The personnel 
 consisted chiefly of lawyers, editors, workingmen, and 
 
DECLINE OF GREENBACK PARTY 135 
 
 farmers; and these men represented many different 
 shades of political, social, and industrial reform. Their 
 object was to determine the time and place for the na- 
 tional convention to nominate candidates for President 
 and Vice President. Chicago was selected as the place 
 of meeting, and June 9th was named as the date. At the 
 same time the editors present organized the Greenback 
 Labor Press Association. 298 
 
 In March a National Union Greenback Labor Conven- 
 tion was held at St. Louis. Twenty States were repre- 
 sented by 250 delegates. One of the leaders stated that 
 this wing of the party had 10,000 clubs in working order 
 and 2,000,000 voters in the country at large. "Brick" 
 Pomeroy addressed the meeting; and thanks were voted 
 Dennis Kearney of California, the Greenback congress- 
 men, and other leaders. Ralph Hoyt was elected presi- 
 dent, and Geo. W. Brewster of Iowa was made secretary. 
 Mr. Hoyt made a bitter speech against other political 
 parties and attacked President Hayes. An unsuccessful 
 attempt was made to adjourn and unite with the con- 
 vention which was to meet in Chicago in June. Stephen 
 B. Dellaye of New York was nominated for President 
 in spite of a telegram from him saying that he would 
 not accept in opposition to the Chicago nominee. B. J. 
 Chambers of Texas was nominated for Vice President; 
 and amid great confusion it was finally decided to ad- 
 journ to meet in Chicago on June 9th. A sort of mass 
 meeting of the delegates still in the city was held on the 
 following day, at which meeting several members of the 
 Women's National Suffrage Association were given seats 
 upon the platform, and the president of the Association 
 thanked the Greenbackers for the equal suffrage planks 
 in their platform. 299 
 
136 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 The Greenback National Convention met early in June 
 at Chicago in Exposition Hall. Among, jtha -delegates 
 there were two separate factions. The ' ' Pomeroy, Hoyt 
 club or wing" met at Farwell Hall to emphasize the de- 
 mand for a distinct Greenback candidate, and to express 
 hostility to any compromise or coalition with the Demo- 
 crats which they feared would be attempted by the con- 
 vention at Exposition Hall. They decided finally to re- 
 tain the club organization, but to unite with the Exposi- 
 tion Hall convention. 
 
 At the regular convention the committee on credentials 
 reported 617 delegates and 244 others — including the 
 Farwell Hall delegates. A minority report urging the 
 exclusion of the latter occasioned a debate of some length. 
 Confusion became so great that several sergeants-at- 
 arms, with Dennis Kearney as chief, were appointed. 
 Later a memorial from the Socialist Labor party was 
 received, in which they asked representation in the con- 
 vention in order to make common warfare against the 
 money power, claiming to have 100,000 votes. On motion 
 of Mr. Daniel P. Stubbs of Iowa, the convention voted to 
 admit forty-four Socialist delegates and also the repre- 
 sentatives of the Union Greenback Labor party. The 
 Woman Suffrage Association asked for a suffrage plank, 
 and Miss Susan B. Anthony was allowed to present the 
 matter — Mr. Kearney alone objecting with the com- 
 ment that "he had not travelled 2,600 miles to waste time 
 in Chicago hearing the women talk." Two representa- 
 tives of the Canadian Currency Eeform League made 
 addresses and brought the congratulations of the Cana- 
 dian "Beaverback" 300 to the American Greenback party. 
 Mr. Kearney also made a characteristic speech at one of 
 the early sessions. 
 
DECLINE OF GREENBACK PARTY 1JJ7 
 
 Gilbert De La Matyr of Indiana was temporary chair- 
 man and Richard Trevellick of Michigan permanent 
 chairman of the convention at Exposition Hall; while 
 E. H. Gillette of Iowa was chairman of the committee 
 on resolutions. The platform contained the usual expres- 
 sions of sentiment about money, bonds, and financial 
 matters, together with numerous labor planks. It de- 
 nounced the "action of the old parties in fostering and 
 'sustaining gigantic land, railroad, and money corpora- 
 tions and monopolies, invested with and exercising powers 
 belonging to the Government, and yet not responsible to 
 it for the manner of their exercise." It demanded "ab- 
 solute democratic rules for the government of Congress" 
 and the "taking away from committees a veto power 
 greater than that of the President." It asked "the 
 cooperation of all fair-minded people. We have no quar- 
 rel with individuals, wage no war upon classes, but only 
 against vicious institutions. We are not content to en- 
 dure further discipline from our present actual rulers, 
 who, having dominion over money, over transportation, 
 over land and labor, and largely over the press and ma- 
 chinery of government, wield unwarrantable power over 
 our institutions and over life and property." By order 
 of the convention, the committee reported an additional 
 resolution declaring ' ' that every citizen of due age, sound 
 mind, and not a felon, be fully enfranchised, and that 
 this resolution be referred to the States, with recom- 
 mendation for their favorable consideration. ' ' The vote 
 upon the adoption of this resolution was 528 for and 125 
 against. 
 
 An informal ballot upon candidates for the Presidency 
 resulted as follows : J. B. Weaver of Iowa, 224y 2 ; H. B. 
 Wright of Pennsylvania, 126M>; S. B. Dellaye of New 
 
138 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 York, 119 ; B. F. Butler of Massachusetts, 95 ; Solon 
 Chase of Maine, 89; Edward P. Allis of Wisconsin, 41; 
 and Alexander Campbell of Illinois, 21. Changes were 
 made before the announcement of the ballot and General 
 Weaver received the entire vote. Mr. B. J. Chambers of 
 Texas received 403 votes and General A. M. West of 
 Mississippi received 311 votes for the vice presidential 
 nomination. Mr. Chambers was unanimously nominated 
 and the convention adjourned. 301 General Butler had 
 been talked of as a candidate by the Greenbackers ; for 
 it was thought that with him as a candidate the election 
 would be thrown into the House of Representatives and 
 that the Democrats would vote for him in preference to 
 a Republican. 302 But it seems that General Butler was 
 not ready to take the nomination : he did not even support 
 the Greenback nominee, as it had been supposed lie 
 would. 303 
 
 The Greenback or National party took an active^ part_ 
 in the campaign. 304 General Weaver's letter of accept- 
 ance, dated at Bloomfield, Iowa, July 3rd, congratulated 
 the convention upon the "unification of the various 
 Greenback and Labor elements into one compact organ- 
 ization" which "prepares our forces to strike a decisive 
 blow for industrial emancipation". The platform met 
 with his "cordial approval. It is comprehensive, rea- 
 sonable, and progressive". He believed it to be the duty 
 of civil government to foster industry ; but such a result 
 could not be ' ' realized until there is an adequate circulat- 
 ing medium .... its issue and volume should be 
 sacredly kept under the control of the people, without 
 the intervention of banking corporations." Further- 
 more, he declared that the system of funding the public 
 debt like national banking "was borrowed from the Eng- 
 
DECLINE OF GREENBACK PARTY 139 
 
 lish monarchy. . . . There is not the slightest excuse 
 for funding these bonds, except to perpetuate the debt as 
 the basis of an iniquitous banking monopoly. It must be 
 apparent to all that the great moneyed institutions, and 
 other corporations, now have control of nearly every de- 
 partment of our Government, and are fast swallowing 
 up the profits of labor and reducing the people to a con- 
 dition of vassalage and dependence. These monopolies, 
 of whatever class, headed by the associated banks, are 
 interlocked in purpose, and always act in closest sym- 
 pathy. . . . The great problem of civilization is, how 
 to bring the producer and consumer together. This can 
 only be done by providing an .adequat e circulating me- 
 dium, and by rigid regulation of inter-State commerce 
 and transportation." 
 
 General Weaver denounced the donation of the public 
 lands to corporations, while no legislation was passed to 
 enable the poor to occupy a few acres. He favored im- 
 migration from Europe, but urged the prohibition of 
 "Chinese servile laborers". He declared that "the 
 Speaker is as much the dictator of the country as though 
 he were an emperor, and ruling in the most despotic 
 government on the globe. One of the grand missions of 
 our party is to banish forever from American politics 
 that deplorable spirit of sectional hatred, which, for base 
 purposes, has been fostered by the leaders of the old 
 parties. . . . Let us have a free ballot, a fair count, 
 and equal rights for all classes .... to re-estab- 
 lish, in the administration of public affairs, the old-time 
 Democracy of Jefferson and Jackson, and the pure Re- 
 publicanism of Abraham Lincoln and Thaddeus Stev- 
 ens." In closing his letter he observed that "the great 
 avenues to public opinion — the press, the bar and the 
 
140 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 pulpit — being mainly under the control of the enemies 
 of our movement, your Convention thought proper to 
 request its candidates to visit the various sections of the 
 Union, and talk to the people. It is my intention to com- 
 ply with this request to the extent of my ability." 305 
 
 How faithfully General Weaver kept his promise may 
 be inferred from a statement which he made in a speech 
 at Des Moines where he asked for order because of the 
 condition of his voice, which he had used for about one 
 hundred days in the open air. He had travelled from 
 Arkansas to the northeastern corner of Maine and from 
 the east side of Lake Michigan to Mobile. He had made 
 fully one hundred speeches, had travelled 20,000 miles, 
 had shaken hands with 30,000 people, and had talked to 
 500,000 persons. The Greenback party having no tele- 
 graph service and no newspapers was compelled to 
 spread its gospel by word of mouth. There seemed to 
 be a conspiracy of silence on the part of the newspapers 
 of the old parties. For three months he had been speak- 
 ing to crowds of from 3,000 to 30,000 daily. 306 Occasional 
 items in the papers describe Mr. "Weaver as in Washing- 
 ton on his way ' ' from Alabama where he has been on the 
 stump for the past two weeks" to West Virginia for a ten 
 day trip through that State. Early in September he 
 spoke in Faneuil Hall, Boston, on his way to Maine. 
 Later in the same month he spoke at Cooper Institute 
 in New York. 307 
 
 The Democrats tried the same trick on General Weaver 
 as on General Garfield: they attempted to prove by a 
 forged letter that he was in the pay of the Republican 
 party. The letter, which was published in The New York 
 Star, was addressed to E. H. Gillette under date of Sep- 
 tember 9th. 308 A Republican paper in Iowa defended 
 
DECLINE OF GREENBACK PARTY 141 
 
 Mr. Weaver against the charges — declaring that he nev- 
 er made a fusion in which he could not dictate terms and 
 that he made mistakes but never was considered cor- 
 rupt. 309 
 
 At the ensuing election 308,578 votes were cast for 
 General Weaver. The States casting over 10,000 votes 
 were : Missouri, 35,135 ; Michigan, 34,895 ; Iowa, 32,701 ; 
 Texas, 27,405; Illinois, 26,358; Pennsylvania, 20,668; 
 Kansas, 19,851 ; Indiana, 12,986 ; New York, 12,373 ; and 
 Kentucky, 11,499. 310 It will be noted that only two of 
 these States were eastern: the strength of the move- 
 ment was in the West. 
 
 Soon after the election some of the more prominent 
 Greenbackers of the Northwest met at the Palmer House 
 in Chicago. During this conference a reporter of The 
 Chicago Tribune interviewed General Weaver, who was 
 one of the half dozen persons present. He declared 
 Greenbackers had reason to feel proud of the result, as 
 their vote had increased from 80,000 in 1876 to upwards 
 of 300,000 in 1880. The falling off had been in Indiana, 
 Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan. The Southern question had 
 been used as an issue and had worked against the Green- 
 back party. But that issue would not be raised again; 
 and, as the Democratic party was dead, the Solid South 
 would be broken up by the Greenbackers. 311 Later in the 
 same month General Weaver issued an address to the 
 "National Greenback Labor Voters of the United States" 
 in which he claimed "near five hundred thousand votes". 
 He appealed to them to reorganize for the next cam- 
 paign. 312 
 
 The discussions of the time "belittled the movement 
 and sneered at those engaged in it. " In a sarcastic vein 
 a Democratic paper in Iowa suggested some planks for 
 
142 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 the Greenback platform as follows: (1) "to all persons 
 resident in the United States who have 'worked forty- 
 eight years and are tired', there will be paid from" the 
 United States Treasury $50 a month as long as they 
 live, ' ' such amounts to be assessed and collected from all 
 voters between the ages of 21 and 48 years"; (2) that so 
 much of the third chapter of Genesis as is contained in 
 the words "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread 
 till thou return unto the ground" be and is hereby re- 
 pealed. 313 During the campaign of 1880 some paper money 
 was printed in the form of $1,000 notes which were de- 
 scribed "as absolute money, redeemable nowhere, in 
 nothing, and by nobody. The law directs that this money 
 shall circulate freely. When this note has been spent, 
 another may be had upon application at the Treasury." 314 
 That the movement was much more formidable and the 
 men who took part in it were of much greater political 
 consequence than these humorous references suggested, 
 is indicated by a letter written in the early summer of 
 1880 by Senator David Davis in reply to a letter from 
 Mr. O. H. Browning of Illinois, formerly Secretary of 
 the Interior, asking his opinion upon certain points. In 
 this letter Senator Davis declared that "great corpora- 
 tions, the rapid growth of corporate power and [the] 
 malignant influence which it exerts, by combinations on 
 the National and state Legislatures, is a well grounded 
 cause of alarm. A struggle is impending in the near 
 future between this overgrown power, with its vast rami- 
 fication all over the Union, and a hard grip on much of 
 the political machinery on one hand, and the people in 
 an unorganized condition on the other, for the control of 
 the government. It will be watched by every patriot 
 with intense anxiety .... my support will be 
 
DECLINE OF GREENBACK PARTY 143 
 
 cheerfully given to any candidate for President who in 
 good faith, will strive to carry out this general line of 
 policy, which in my judgment is of far more importance 
 than the ambition of any man, or even the success of any 
 party." 316 / 
 
 The election of 1880 was the third national election in 
 which a third party had taken part. In 1872 an Inde- 
 pendent, Judge David Davis, had been nominated, but 
 later withdrew. In 1876 Peter Cooper, a wealthy busi- 
 ness man, well-known for his philanthropy, was the 
 nominee. He was a man long past eighty years of age 
 and naturally could not make an active canvass. Con- 
 sequently, the campaign of 1880 was the first in which 
 the third party took an aggressive part. The candidate, 
 General Weaver, who was an experienced and able speak- 
 er, was in his prime. He carried on a vigorous canvass, 
 such as those with which the people have come to be 
 familiar more recently in connection with Mr. Bryan and 
 Mr. Eoosevelt. Indeed, there is good ground for saying 
 that General Weaver was the first candidate for the 
 Presidency to make his appeal directly to the voter and 
 to undertake to cover the country personally. In Gen- 
 eral Weaver the radical, progressive sentiment, the so- 
 called "third party", according to our traditional method 
 of describing such enterprises, found its first real leader. 
 His place in the movement for economic and industrial 
 reform looms larger as we are able to understand it bet- 
 ter and to see it in its proper perspective. His service 
 places him in importance next to Mr. -Bryan and Mr. 
 Roosevelt as a leader in the great movements which were 
 so long regarded with amusement and contempt, but 
 which are now beginning to be recognized as of funda- 
 mental significance. 
 
144 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 In spite of the gain, made in 1880 as compared with 
 1876, it was evident that the expectations aroused by the 
 great vote of 1878 were not to be realized immediately 
 The hope of the formation of an independent party that 
 would replace one of the old parties was plainly prema-_ 
 ture. The result was to increase the struggle within the 
 new party itself, between those who favored fusion and 
 those who would have nothing to do with the old parties. 
 The more conservative and the more practical of the 
 independents drifted back into their former party rela- 
 tions, leaving only a portion of the independent forces 
 still aligned under that name. The results of these re- 
 arrangements were shown in the election of 1882 when, 
 as a Republican paper in Iowa declared, there was "a 
 landslide, a tidal wave, an earth-slip, or whatever you 
 would like to call it. " Democratic Governors were elect- 
 ed in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Kan- 
 sas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New York, Penn- 
 sylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas; and 
 these added to those already in office made up a total of 
 twenty-four Democratic Governors in thirty-eight States. 
 Only two Republican candidates for Governor were suc- 
 cessful. 316 The congressional elections also resulted in a 
 large majority for the Democrats in the House of Repre- 
 sentatives. 317 
 
 There were a number of reasons for these results, but 
 without doubt one of the causes was the fusion of many 
 of the independents with the Democrats. As in 1874, 
 the passing of the apparent power of the independents 
 is to be explained by their absorption into the Democra- 
 tic party, or, what is the same thing, their support helped 
 the Democrats to become temporarily the majority party. 
 A partial failure of the crops in 1881, a renewal of labor 
 
DECLINE OF GREENBACK PARTY 145 
 
 t£&fihlfi£, and dissatisfaction with Republican adminis- 
 tration contributed to the numbers of discontented who 
 voted against the dominant party. 
 
 Another influence that worked against the continued 
 growth of the Greenback party was its supposed sym- 
 pathy .with the beginnings of socialism in the United 
 States. In 1880 there had been an attempt to arouse 
 hlisHliiy against them by calling attention to the admis- 
 sion of Socialists to the Chicago convention ; and General 
 Weaver was criticised because he wrote a letter approv- 
 ing of the "Socialistic land resolution" of the Green- 
 back party . S1S 
 
 After the assassination of President Garfield, a Re- 
 publican newspaper in Iowa declared that ' ' for ten years 
 the snake of the Commune has been trailing its insidious 
 poison through the lower orders of society in this na- 
 tion. ... It grew up first in the dark and noisome 
 places of New York City. . . . One particular politi- 
 cal party, a fungus growth of that part of the public 
 mind which grew morbid during the late hard times, has 
 aided perhaps unconsciously but none the less wrong- 
 fully and criminally in popularizing its wrongs and con- 
 doning its crimes." 319 A Democratic paper in the same 
 State described "the principal agitators", in a threat- 
 ened renewal of labor strikes, as "the French Commune 
 exiles, who ought to be hung, since they are uneasy un- 
 der any form of government and are the reckless teachers 
 of false doctrines." 320 
 
 Dennis Kearney's agitation in California and his iden- 
 tification with the Greenbackers also aroused the fears 
 of many. He was referred to by his opponents as ' ' the 
 San Francisco communist" 321 and as developing into "a 
 violent revolutionist"; 322 while his friends, after an ad- 
 
146 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 dress in Faneuil Hall, adopted resolutions in which he 
 was referred to as the "great and efficient apostle of the 
 laboring classes of California, who comes .... for 
 the noble purpose of uniting them, as he has united their 
 brothers in his own State". 323 "His agitation", as Mr. 
 Bryce points out, "was essentially the same as that which 
 has appeared in the Western States under the forms of 
 Grangerism, the Farmers', Alliance, and Populism, an 
 effort to apply political remedies to evils, real or sup- 
 posed, which are mainly economic rather than political, 
 and only a part of which legislation can remove." 324 
 
 Early in 1882 newspaper items began to appear to the 
 effect that the Greenback party was dead. 325 At the same 
 time references were made to efforts to revive it by some 
 of its leaders, and General "Weaver was described as 
 "very active. He has written letters to various leading 
 Democrats in the South and West, proposing a'coalition 
 between the Greenbackers and the Democrats, and offer- 
 ing, in substance, to carry over the remains of the former 
 organization to the Democrats." If the Democrats would 
 endorse the principles of the Greenback party, arrange- 
 ments might easily be made about offices. Many rumors 
 about such a coalition were heard in various quarters. 326 
 
 During the same period there were reports of a meet- 
 ing of Greenbackers at St. Louis to consult regarding a 
 call for a national convention. Nearly a whole day was 
 said to have been consumed in discussing the platform— 
 due to differences between the contending wings of the 
 party. The platform invited "all members of land 
 leagues, farmers' alliances, trades unions, anti-monopoly 
 leagues, producers' organizations, Knights of Labor, and 
 all other industrial organizations and good citizens, who 
 believe in the foregoing statement of principles, to unite 
 
DECLINE OF GREENBACK PARTY 147 
 
 with us". A national committee with members from 
 twenty-four States was also elected. 327 
 
 A new Anti-Monopoly agitation began to attract atten- 
 tion in 1881. An article in the Atlantic Monthly in 
 March of that year described the Standard Oil monopoly 
 which had come to control the production and price of 
 petroleum. The article formed the beginning of the 
 study which later was published in book form with the 
 title of Wealth against Commonwealth. Mr. H. D. 
 Lloyd, the author, was one of the first to discern the dan- 
 gers resulting from the growth of great industrial com- 
 binations — what we have learned to describe as the 
 "trust problem". In the same number of The Iowa 
 State Register that contained an extract from the Atlan- 
 tic Monthly article, there was an editorial on government 
 control which referred to the "cry for Government con- 
 trol of pretty much everything of any special size in the 
 business world. . . . All sorts of demagogues are 
 utilizing the new cry to their own uses." 328 
 
 An extreme view of the political situation in 1883 is 
 suggestive as to actual conditions. The writer declared 
 that "there is not one public man living to-day in the 
 United States whose name is a watchword and whose 
 voice is a slogan. . . . Among the republicans men- 
 tion a republican in connection with the presidency and 
 if the testimony of the majority be accepted, he will be 
 declared fitter for the penitentiary. . . . Suggest a 
 nominee for the same high office . . . . to a group 
 of democrats .... and half of the company will 
 declare .... they'd never vote for him. . . . 
 The business of the hour is time serving. The spirit of 
 the age is to keep what you have got and to get all you 
 can. . . . The country is full of haughty Arthurs, 
 
148 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 bosses of the Conkling type, statesmen of the Tabor 
 stripe, monopolizers of the Grould instincts and politi- 
 cians who have no higher conception of government than 
 to secure lucrative offices, at the public expense for their 
 henchmen. . . . The story of the congress which has 
 just ended its disgraceful career does not appear to 
 startle the country. . . . How could it [Congress] 
 be otherwise with a rich insolent lobby guarding every 
 door way to the capital, giving exit and entrance only to 
 the infamous and the claim agents master of every de- 
 partment of government. After all the people have 
 themselves to blame for this state of affairs. They per- 
 sistently refused to take their political business into their 
 own hands. . . . To be sure they are moving but 
 very slowly. ... As usual, the ' outs ' are not agreed 
 upon a plan of attack, and the 'ins' are well housed and 
 happy. ' ' 329 
 
 A call had been issued for a conference at Chicago on 
 July 4, 1883, to formi "a new political party to espouse 
 the cause of legitimate industry in the irrepressible con- 
 flict already entered upon between the confederated 
 monopolies and the people." A national convention of 
 the Anti-Monopoly party was held at Chicago on May 14, 
 1884, at which representatives were present from seven- 
 teen States — eleven of which were western and six 
 eastern. 330 The platform which was adopted urged the 
 regulation of commerce among the States by the federal 
 government — including the "giant monopolies" that 
 controlled "transportation, money and the transmission 
 of intelligence." The other subjects referred to in the 
 statement of principles were bureaus of labor statistics, 
 arbitration of labor disputes, an eight-hour day, contract 
 labor, election of United States Senators by direct vote, 
 
DECLINE OP GREENBACK PARTY 149 
 
 a graduated income tax, a tariff in the interests of the 
 people, grants of public lands, and the encouragement of 
 agriculture. In conclusion an appeal was made "to the 
 American farmer to co-operate with us in our endeavors 
 to advance the National interests of the country, and the 
 overthrow of monopoly in every shape when and wher- 
 ever found." General Butler was nominated for Presi- 
 dent upon the first ballot, while the nomination of a can- 
 didate for Vice President was left to the national com- 
 mittee. 331 
 
 The Greenback party held a convention in Indianapolis 
 at the end of May. General Weaver was permanent 
 chairman and Mr. Gillette was a member of the committee 
 on resolutions. A dispatch was sent to General Butler 
 asking him if he would accept a nomination on a satis- 
 factory platform. He replied by asking why such a 
 question should be put to him. "Is not my record as a 
 Greenbacker for twenty years sufficient without a formal 
 pledge to you which would cause me to be pointed at as a 
 man who bids for the nomination!" Butler was nomi- 
 nated upon the first ballot, receiving 323 votes to 98 for 
 Jesse Harper of Illinois. E. P. Allis of Wisconsin and 
 David Davis of Illinois each received one vote, while 
 Solon Chase of Maine received two. Butler's nomina- 
 tion was made unanimous, "though there were a number 
 of hisses and crys of 'No, No'." General A. M. West 
 of Mississippi was nominated for Vice President by ac- 
 clamation. A platform of the usual kind was adopted. 
 One article asked for the "reduction of the terms of Sen- 
 ators", and another favored a wise revision of the tariff, 
 although "as an economic question, its importance is in- 
 significant as compared with financial issues". 
 
 On June 12th General Butler replied in a letter con- 
 
150 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 fined almost entirely to the subject of greenbacks ; but lie 
 said nothing about accepting the nomination. He was 
 then acting with the Democrats in Massachusetts, and 
 he afterwards attended their convention in Chicago as a 
 delegate at large but opposed the platform and candi- 
 date. On August 12th he published a long statement, 
 addressed to his "constituents", in which he accepted 
 the nominations of the Anti-Monopoly and Greenback 
 conventions, advocated the consolidation of all the ele- 
 ments of discontent into a "People's party", advised 
 fusion with the minority wherever there was a chance of 
 gaining by it, and explained to the Democrats of Massa- 
 chusetts his reasons for leaving them. 332 The address 
 was described as issued earlier than he had intended "at 
 the desire of many trusted and valued friends", although 
 he believed, the "people's campaign should be a short, 
 sharp, and decisive one, and should not be begun .... 
 until some thirty days later". 333 
 
 General Butler's candidacy was one of those unusual 
 incidents that attract attention : the spectacle of the mil- 
 lionaire lawyer as the candidate of the workingmen led 
 to his denunciation as a demagogue. He himself is re- 
 ported to have said that "he had belonged to the Demo- 
 cratic party till it attempted to destroy the Union, and 
 was with the Republican party till it deserted its found- 
 ers, the laboring men. The capitalists now hold the Ee- 
 publican party bound hand and foot. Hayes has vio- 
 lated every pledge and betrayed the negroes of the South. 
 The effort of Grant's administration to strengthen public 
 credit was a swindle." 334 
 
 The facts of Mr. Butler's career were that he had been 
 a Democrat before the Civil "War, and in 1853 had been a 
 member of the lower house of the State legislature of 
 
DECLINE OP GREENBACK PARTY 151 
 
 Massachusetts where he helped to pass a law reducing the 
 hours of labor from thirteen to eleven. He had also been 
 elected to the State Senate, and had been the Democratic 
 candidate for Governor in 1860. After a brilliant but 
 stormy career in the army, he became, during Grant's 
 administration, one of the influential advisers of the 
 President. He was a member of Congress from 1866 to 
 1878 — except for two years. In 1871 he was the Repub- 
 lican candidate for Governor of Massachusetts and in 
 1878 and 1879 he was the independent Democratic candi- 
 date for the same office. In 1882 he was elected Governor 
 of Massachusetts, and in 1883 he was defeated for 
 reelection. Soon after the close of the Civil War he had 
 advocated the continued use of greenbacks and endeav- 
 ored to turn the Republican party in that direction. 
 President Grant's veto of the Inflation Bill and the pass- 
 ing of the Resumption Act forced Butler out of the party. 
 He loved excitement and sensation; he was able but un- 
 scrupulous. At the same time, he seems to have been a 
 consistent believer in the wisdom of the use of the green- 
 backs ; and throughout his career he believed himself the 
 friend of the workingman. His successive candidacies 
 for Governor, lasting from 1860 to 1883, came to be re- 
 garded as a joke, and many people said that in 1882 they 
 voted for him to give him his wish and to get rid of his 
 persistent candidacy. 335 
 
 An editorial in The Chicago Daily Tribune in 1874 de- 
 scribed Mr. Butler as "ejected from the Democratic 
 party and booted out of the Republican .... he 
 now threatens to open an opposition establishment by 
 starting a new party. . . . He is the Mephistophiles 
 of American politics." 336 
 
 At the time of his death in 1893 The Iowa State Regis- 
 
152 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 ter of Des Moines declared "that with the death of Ben- 
 jamin F. Butler one of the most picturesque Americans 
 passed from among the living. He was a great man, a 
 rugged mental Titan who has filled a large place in the 
 thoughts as well as the affairs of the American people. 
 The strong qualities in him were so numerous that they 
 overshadowed the many eccentricities and little weak- 
 nesses that marked his career. . . . After the war 
 Mr. Butler won distinction as one of the greatest of 
 American lawyers. . . . While he was alive we. could 
 not all agree with him, hut now that he is dead, we can 
 all agree in paying him the tribute which is due him as 
 a great and original character in American political his- 
 tory." 337 
 
 The Review of Reviews spoke of him as "always a rad- 
 ical, who appealed to men 's discontent. He was a shrewd 
 criminal lawyer, and he was counted as somewhat un- 
 scrupulous. Yet he had his brilliant and his noble quali- 
 ties, and he was a man of intense democratic instincts 
 in an environment of intellectual, moral and social aris- 
 tocracy. ' ' 338 
 
 President Judson of the University of Chicago gave 
 perhaps the most discriminating judgment when he said 
 that General Butler "cannot be dismissed as a mere 
 demagogue. . . . Before we can judge of his real 
 weight and meaning in our political development we must 
 know more of the issue of that radical movement to which 
 he gave coherence and a considerable impetus. The his- 
 torian who looks back a hundred years hence may assign 
 Butler a very different place as an actual force in politics 
 from that we should now be inclined to give him. ' ' S39 
 
XII 
 
 THE GREENBACK PARTY IN IOWA: THE 
 PERIOD OF GROWTH 
 
 The Greenback party in Iowa grew out of conditions 
 that were typical of those under which the movement 
 arose~Tn the States where it was strongest. Those con- 
 ditions were almost entirely agricultural, without the 
 industrial developments that influenced the movement 
 in the older communities. The new party arose out of 
 and absorbed a good deal of the Anti-Monopoly party, 
 and it represented a continuation of the general discon- 
 tent with existing conditions. It was a better organized 
 effort to meet the economic problems that were forcing 
 t£emselves~upon the attention of the people, and which 
 were trying to find a place for themselves in the organ- 
 ized" political life of the country. Some of the leaders 
 in both of the older parties recognized the need of con- 
 ciliating these elements, but they were unable to modify 
 party programs sufficiently to satisfy the demands of the 
 discontented. The Democratic party, hopelessly in the 
 minority in the State, was naturally most open to such 
 influences. The Anti-Monopoly party had been an ad- 
 junct of the Democratic party, and the Democratic lead- 
 ers had taken advantage of it to regain some degree of 
 political strength. 
 
 The nomination in 1876 of Mr. Hayes by the Republi- 
 cans and Mr. Tilden by the Democrats satisfied many of 
 the discontented voters, whose interest was chiefly cen- 
 
 153 
 
154 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 tered upon better and more economical government. On 
 the other hand, both Mr. Hayes and Mr. Tilden repre- 
 sented those hard money principles, coupled with the 
 resumption of specie payments, that were especially 
 obnoxious to many people in the West where the need of 
 more capital for local development gave rise to the opin- 
 ion that more money in circulation per capita would 
 relieve their wants. Although the Democratic party was 
 permeated with the greenback or fiat money idea, some 
 of the leaders, like John P. Irish, were bitterly hostile to 
 the notion. Consequently, the party as an organization 
 was never allowed to go far enough to satisfy the strong 
 greenback sentiment in the State. As The Iowa State 
 Register said of the Democratic State Convention of 
 1876, ' ' the greenback men had control of the Convention, 
 but the wily leaders of the party had control of them. ' ' 340 
 "The Independent party of Iowa", as it was desig- 
 nated in the preamble to the platform, was formed at 
 Des Moines on May 10, 1876. The attendance at the con- 
 vention was estimated at from twenty to fifty — accord- 
 ing to the fairness and accuracy of the paper making the 
 report. "The personnel was extremely respectable, con- 
 sisting, .... of men of prominence and of former 
 political influence. The proceedings were reasonably 
 harmonious, although apparently lacking enthusiasm. 
 One delegate .... announced that he was ' a sore- 
 head Republican', otherwise the membership was mainly 
 of former Democrats and Liberals." 3 * 1 The leaders 
 were Republicans, tired of the corruption of their own 
 party, who preferred a new party rather than to unite 
 with the Democrats. 342 The platform declared the finan- 
 cial question "the paramount issue of the present cam- 
 
THE GREENBACK PARTY IN IOWA 155 
 
 paign, in which the Democratic and Republican party 
 leaders have failed to take the side of the people". 
 Resolutions were adopted favoring the repeal of the 
 Resumption Act, the issue of government notes, and the 
 withdrawal of all bank notes. Delegates to the national 
 convention and members of a State committee were 
 chosen. 343 The Iowa delegates cast twenty votes for 
 Peter Cooper as the presidential nominee of the party. 344 
 Among the delegates were John Wiseman of Washington 
 County; Samuel Sinnett, who was temporary and per- 
 manent chairman of the State convention and chairman 
 of the State committee; A. C. N. Dawley of Webster 
 County; T. E. Harbour of Guthrie County; and Daniel 
 Campbell, J. B. Weaver, P. C. Welch, and H. C. Hargis — 
 the last four being district delegates. 345 
 
 A State convention was held at Des Moines in Septem- 
 ber to nominate candidates. "Some thirty or forty 
 delegates" representing about twenty counties were 
 present — most of them from "Counties nearly neigh- 
 boring" to Des Moines. The convention "while small 
 . . . . was lively and frequently turbulent — al- 
 though nearly all the time good natured. The character 
 of the delegates was fair, and among them were quite a 
 number of gentlemen of good record and considerable 
 public prominence." Discussion turned upon the ques- 
 tion of fusion, some delegates urging that the Democrats 
 should be asked to withdraw their electoral ticket and 
 unite with the Independents. Other delegates bitterly 
 opposed all compromise, declaring that they would not 
 play second fiddle to any one. No vote was taken, but 
 the opposition to fusion was shown in the selection of 
 candidates. Chairman Sinnett of the State committee 
 
156 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 advised that the election be fought in congressional dis- 
 tricts, as the State was overwhelmingly Republican, and 
 there was no hope for success in that direction. 346 
 
 Mr. Samuel F. Cary, candidate for Vice President, 
 made a speech at Des Moines in November, and a "Coop- 
 er and Cary Club" was formed at Bloomfield. 347 The 
 total vote cast for Greenback candidates was 9,436 — 
 about 3% of the total vote. Polk County contributed 
 476, Taylor and Union each over 400. 348 
 
 The Greenback State Convention in 1877 met at Des 
 Moines on July 11. Eighty-seven delegates were re- 
 ported present. A Republican editor described it as a 
 "queer mixture of men. . . . There was a goodly 
 number of right good men. . . . There were also a 
 goodly number of the real representatives of the farming 
 and laboring masses. . . . But these more excellent 
 elements .... were not the noisy nor yet the con- 
 spicuous members". The author of the platform was 
 described as a failure as an instructor in an Iowa insti- 
 tution, removed about the time of the Granger excite- 
 ment, who had joined that movement and later became a 
 greenbacker. Daniel P. Stubbs, the candidate for Gov- 
 ernor, was a lawyer and at one time a member of the 
 State Senate, who has "always been active in politics, 
 and has always had an itching for office. ' ' He was for- 
 merly a Republican, but left that party with Mr. Greeley 
 in 1872. The only other person known to the State was 
 Judge Porter of Eldora who was candidate for Supreme 
 Court Judge. He was formerly a district judge and also 
 a Republican — until successive failures to secure a nom- 
 ination for Congress and an exasperating factional quar- 
 rel in his county led him to leave the party. ' ' His nom- 
 
THE GREENBACK PARTY IN IOWA 157 
 
 ination is a fair one, — and much the best and most ap- 
 propriate on the ticket. ' ' 349 
 
 The railroad strikes throughout the country in 1877 
 influenced the campaign in Iowa as in other States. Some 
 experience at Burlington, Council Bluffs, and Ottumwa 
 aroused the fears of the conservatives and the Governor 
 issued a proclamation against violence. In July, George 
 W. Jones made a speech at the courthouse in Des Moines 
 at a mass meeting to offer sympathy to the strikers in the 
 East, in which he declared that "if fire and blood are 
 needed to give men their rights let fire and blood come". 
 He was described as an "arrant demagogue and arch 
 hypocrite", and as an employer who is "one of the most 
 grinding and illiberal" in Des Moines. 350 Later he pre- 
 sided at a meeting in Des Moines at which Mr. Stubbs, 
 the Greenback candidate, spoke. His inflammatory 
 speech was referred to and he was spoken of as "the 
 chairman of the Greenback State Committee, and the 
 editor of an obscure Greenback organ of limited circula- 
 tion .... nor can the Greenback party in Iowa, 
 which numbers in its membership many respectable gen- 
 tlemen and good men, afford to stand sponsors and 
 endorsers for Jones's murder and mob arguments in a 
 time of extreme public peril, as it is doing by retaining 
 the fellow as the Chairman of its State Executive Com- 
 mittee. ' ' 351 At this meeting there was ' ' a good sized 
 assemblage" and "a reasonable degree of enthusiasm", 
 although the fact that "Blood and Thunder Jones" pre- 
 sided did not have a reassuring effect upon the more 
 conservative part of the audience. 352 
 
 The nature of the campaign against the Greenbackers 
 is suggested by various comments upon the candidacy of 
 
158 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Mr. Stubbs. One refers to "record proof" of the way 
 in which he had bought a poor man's home for $35 on a 
 tax-title and had sold it for $3,500 in cash. Since his 
 exposure as a tax-title shark and railroad attorney, his 
 supporters were described as getting ready to withdraw 
 him. Fusion with the temperance forces was declared 
 to be under consideration if they would endorse Green- 
 back theories, 353 The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye 
 described the Greenback platform as promising "an era 
 of high wages, lots of employment, high prices for wheat 
 for farmers, cheap flour for the mechanic, high prices for 
 cattle for the stock raiser, cheap beef for the working- 
 man, lots of money, low interest, and good times for 
 everybody but contractors, manufacturers, railroads and 
 bankers, who are to be very poor and have no money 
 to pay their hands." 354 The Daily Press declared that 
 "the vote cast for the Greenback candidates in Iowa is 
 a fair census of the men hopelessly in debt. ' ' 355 
 
 Any hopes for fusion with the Democrats were dis- 
 sipated by the action of the State convention of that 
 party which was held at Marshalltown in August. John 
 P. Irish was nominated for Governor by acclamation, and 
 the prevailing opinion seemed to favor a straight party 
 ticket. 356 
 
 The election resulted in 34,316 votes for the Greenback 
 candidates — almost four times the number cast in 1876. 
 The Eepublican vote showed a falling off of 50,000 and 
 the Democratic vote of 33,000. The Prohibitionists re- 
 ceived over 10,000 votes. Seven counties gave over 1,000 
 Greenback votes each, and three Greenback representa- 
 tives were chosen from as many counties. The Green- 
 back vote was about fourteen percent of the total vote. 357 
 Mr. Gear and Mr. Irish carried their own counties, while 
 
THE GREENBACK PARTY IN IOWA 159 
 
 Mr. Stubbs was decidedly in a minority in his home 
 county, receiving only 576 votes out of more than 2,800. 368 
 In spite of the growth of the Greenback vote, its op- 
 ponents declared the party to be "unquestionably as 
 dead as Julius Caesar. ' ' 359 
 
 Just at this time the silver question was prominently 
 before the country through the debates in Congress over 
 the issue of the silver dollar. How monetary problems 
 cut through party lines is shown by the opinions of John 
 P. Irish among the Democrats and of the Clarksons 
 among the Republicans. Irish declared that the Neiv 
 York Tribune "had labored and sweat to make a sectional 
 party issue of the silver question, when the truth is, the 
 light dollar, like the greenback cheat, has found its fond- 
 est friends amongst Northern and "Western Republicans. 
 In all New England no Democrat as prominent as Wen- 
 dell Phillips or Gen. Butler has ever advocated greenback 
 or silver inflation .... In Illinois Logan led and 
 the Inter Ocean followed the grand army of greenback 
 inflationists, while in Iowa Senator Wright was the au- 
 thor of currency views contrasted with which those lately 
 expressed by Dan Voorhees are the opinions of a gentle 
 bullionist. Now comes the Republican Governor of 
 Iowa .... for the unlimited coinage of unlimited 
 legal tender silver. Nothing more clearly shows the bond 
 of sympathy between the greenback and silver inflation 
 notions. In 1874 this present Republican Governor of 
 Iowa [John H. Gear] was speaker of the lower House of 
 the Iowa Legislature, and there favored the wildest 
 schemes of the greenbackers .... The Press is not 
 proud of the attitude of Democrats upon the currency 
 question, but it is none the less capable of honest disgust 
 at the Republican claim of super-soundness, when that 
 
160 THIED PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 super-soundness means in the East hunting with the hard 
 money hounds, and in the "West running with the soft 
 money hare. ' ' 360 Again, Mr. Irish refers to newspapers 
 that talk about "sympathy with the people" as having 
 taken a contract to nominate David Davis and as mean- 
 ing by the pbrase "dishonest or ignorant false teaching 
 upon the currency question. ' ' 3ei 
 
 The Iowa State Register, in commenting upon the pas- 
 sage of the Silver Bill by the Senate, declared that that 
 body "has finally complied with the popular will of the 
 Republic and performed its duty. . . . It is gratify- 
 ing to recall the prominent part the State of Iowa has 
 taken in this movement for the restoration of the double 
 standard. The Iowa Republicans, in their convention last 
 June, were the first to declare unequivocally for remon- 
 etization." 362 The same paper described the message of 
 President Hayes vetoing the Silver Bill, as sounding 
 "more like the argument of a Wall Street circular, or the 
 editorial of a Boston newspaper." Again, it said that 
 the veto was "the one thing alone that President Hayes 
 could have done to render himself completely unpopular 
 with the Republicans of the West. . . . Had the sil- 
 ver bill been killed by the vote of Hayes, the Republican 
 party would have been swept down in the West nearly to 
 its death. . . . But the bill lives .... and the 
 restored silver dollar .... has rolled on to its le- 
 gal place under the Constitution by the side of its gold 
 brother. There is where it belongs." 3es 
 
 Iowa was represented at the Toledo meeting in Febru- 
 ary, 1878, where the Greenback and Labor Reform forces 
 united to form the new "National Party". Samuel Sin- 
 nett was one of the vice presidents and J. W. Muffly one 
 of the secretaries, while Daniel Campbell was made a 
 
THE GREENBACK PARTY IN IOWA 161 
 
 member of the executive committee composed of one 
 member from each State, James B. Weaver of the com- 
 mittee on resolutions, and L. H. Weller of the committee 
 on credentials. 364 
 
 The Greenback State Convention for 1878 met at Des 
 Moines in April. It was made up of about one hundred 
 delegates representing a little over one-third of the coun- 
 ties of the State. The absence of the leading men who 
 were present the year before was very noticeable and a 
 sore point with the members. "Weaver, Stubbs, East- 
 man, Ballinger, Welch, Merritt, Matthews, Porter, Kinne, 
 nor any of the stronger men in the Convention last year 
 were [present] .... with the exception of Mr. 
 Hoggatt and Mr. Sinnett scarcely any gentlemen in the 
 lot who are known outside of their counties." The Iowa 
 State Register described the meeting as "the diminished 
 gathering of a waning cause ' ' ; while the chairman of the 
 State committee in his speech calling the convention to 
 order said that "the opposition to the Greenback party 
 were openly boasting that they would spend one hundred 
 million for the purpose of defeating the Greenback can- 
 didate for the Presidency. ' ' To meet this opposition he 
 recommended that each member be assessed ten cents a 
 month for campaign expenses. The question of the party 
 name was dodged and the platform was described as of 
 the "National State Greenback Party of the State of 
 Iowa." It was generally understood that the author of 
 the platform was Leonard Brown, "who is the brains and 
 leader of the party in this part of the State". The plat- 
 form was referred to as "a curiosity. But perhaps it is 
 all that it could be made — since it had to be framed so 
 as to cover and appease the views of the original and 
 genuine Greenbackers, the Bourbon Democrats, the Na- 
 
162 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 tionales, the Communists, and the other elements making 
 up the motley crew". 365 There was evidently consider- 
 able dissatisfaction with the convention among the lead- 
 ing Greenbackers, for the Dubuque Daily Telegraph, "the 
 leading Greenback paper of the State ' ', is quoted as say- 
 ing that "not more than a third of the counties of the 
 State were represented", and as describing the State 
 committee and general management of the party as "a 
 set of mutton heads ' '. 366 
 
 The Iowa State Register referred to Leonard Brown as 
 "an honest, earnest man, and a patriot and a sincere 
 friend of the Union and the Union soldier", in connection 
 with a resolution offered in the convention of "Nation- 
 ales". He proposed a resolution for the enactment of 
 stringent liquor laws. 367 
 
 The discontent and unrest connected with the railroad 
 strikes of 1877 influenced the campaign of 1878. An 
 editorial in The Iowa State Register referred to an inter- 
 view with the editor of the two chief organs of the So- 
 cialist Labor party in New York City under the heading 
 of the "Commune and its avowed objects". It went on 
 to say that the leaders there talked as "Fire and Blood" 
 Jones did in Des Moines during the railroad strike. 
 "There is a taste of the same thing in the Greenback 
 State platform adopted this year, and there is no doubt 
 that many of the members of that party hold these pur- 
 poses of the Commune to be the final purpose and pro- 
 gramme of the party here in Iowa and in the nation at 
 large. Indeed some of the men who were delegates in 
 their late State Convention, and helped in making the 
 platform, have since openly avowed themselves to be 
 Communists. The honest but deluded men in the party 
 ought to see what is now the plain tendency of the organ- 
 
THE GREENBACK PARTY IN IOWA 163 
 
 ization. Further proof of it is found in the secret meet- 
 ings now being held all over Iowa and in this Congres- 
 sional District. As fast as it can be, the Commune is 
 being organized from the headquarters in New York. 
 The New York leader, in the conversation we quote to- 
 day, speaks for many in Iowa, and it is time our people 
 were beginning to realize the situation and the serious 
 face that it is taking on. ' ' 36S 
 
 In a letter to the editor of The Iowa State Register, a 
 writer who described himself as "traveling a great deal 
 in Iowa this spring and summer, — much of the time in 
 the little towns and farming country", said that he had 
 been "surprised by the number of secret meetings being 
 held in nearly every County that I have been in. These 
 meetings are held at night, generally, — and about once 
 a week. They are very secret and exclusive, and the 
 members have pass-words, signs and grips. I have un- 
 derstood that these were Greenback meetings, and some 
 of the members of that party say they are, while others 
 declare they are not. Since the appearance of the Com- 
 mune and the alarming demonstrations it has been mak- 
 ing, I have wondered if these meetings have not some 
 connection with that — and if, indeed, they are not com- 
 posed of the radical or Commune element of the Green- 
 backers or Nationals. The fact that the more respectable 
 members of that party deny and disown these meetings, 
 suggests the query if they are not held by the wilder and 
 really desperate members of the organization. . . . 
 It would be wise for the Iowa public to know what these 
 secret meetings really are, and what they are for. That 
 they are being held is established fact, and well known to 
 many people. ' ' 369 
 
 Since only minor State officials were to be elected in 
 
164 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 1878 the most important contests were waged in the con- 
 gressional districts. There was considerable opposition 
 to fusion — principally among the more extreme and less 
 experienced Greenbackers — and this fact probably ac- 
 counts for the noticeable absence of leading men from the 
 State convention. Greenback sentiment was strong in 
 both of the old parties, and the far-sighted men saw a 
 greater possibility of success through fusion than by in- 
 dependent action. Their influence is seen in the con- 
 gressional nominations made by the Greenbackers. In 
 July, out of eight nominees in the nine districts, they had 
 selected former Republicans. Only one of these refused 
 to accept the honor. 370 
 
 The successful candidates for Congress, General J. B. 
 Weaver and Mr. E. H. Gillette, were the principal figures 
 in the campaign. General Weaver had left the Repub- 
 lican party in 1877. He regarded it "as having sold out 
 to the bond holding and gold interests". He had not 
 abandoned "his convictions as to slavery, and the war, 
 but regards that as finally settled .... he is fully 
 satisfied with Hayes' management and policy as to home 
 rule in the South .... if elected, he expects to 
 labor for a reform in finances, and will co-operate with 
 such men as believe, with himself, in regard to finances". 
 He was a Democrat before the Civil War and had always 
 been opposed to a protective tariff. "He is not an ex- 
 tremist on currency, does not believe in unlimited infla- 
 tion, and thinks we ought to have an increase of currency, 
 either by full silver coinage or more greenbacks". He 
 was opposed "to the creation of a perpetual national 
 debt." 371 
 
 General Weaver was quoted as saying that he was a 
 Greenbacker two years before he left the Republican 
 
THE GREENBACK PARTY IN IOWA 165 
 
 party. 372 Before his election the Colfax Sentinel declared 
 that there was "not a worse old demagogue in the State 
 than this same Gen. Weaver." m After the election The 
 Iowa State Register said that "the election of Gen. 
 Weaver is not so objectionable as that of Gillette, for the 
 General has far more to commend him personally, and 
 much more to fit him for service in Congress, and is in 
 every respect more a man of honor. ' ' 374 Again, a week 
 later the same paper compared results in Maine and 
 Iowa. ' ' The result in Iowa is a striking coincidence with 
 that in Maine. Two Republican Congressmen were lost 
 here as there. And there, one of the two Greenbackers 
 elected is a man of good record and honor personally, and 
 with the qualifications of integrity and capacity to fit him 
 for Congress .... the other, much like Gillette here, 
 is an avowed Communist, a dishonest agitator .... 
 the Kearney of Iowa. ' ' 375 
 
 Mr. Gillette seems to have been the special object of 
 attack during the campaign. Nothing seemed too bad 
 for his opponents to say of him. Perhaps this fact was 
 partly to be explained by his residence in Des Moines, 
 where he was constantly under the observation of the 
 able editor of The Iowa State Register. Commenting 
 upon his nomination, that paper stated that he had not 
 lived long in Des Moines, but had "alternated for ten 
 or fifteen years between caring for his Government bonds 
 in the East and his swamp lands in the West". The ex- 
 planation of his nomination was that "having plenty of 
 money .... he is anxious for some new diversion 
 and greater notoriety." His fortune was made "as an 
 officer and large partner in the American Emigrant Com- 
 pany, of fragrant fame. The methods and usages of that 
 company many people in Iowa, and many counties in 
 
166 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Iowa, know all too well. Its exploits in Swamp Land 
 corners on unsuspecting counties are stories of thrilling 
 interest, and will make fine material, and be a perfect 
 magazine of ammunition, for the campaign. . . . Mr. 
 Gillette is a gentleman and a good neighbor, an elegant 
 gentleman indeed — a gentleman of leisure and means — 
 a gentleman, if you please, of the exquisite sort, such as 
 Iowa has not yet had time to raise many of. The only 
 samples which it has of such gentry and statesmen just 
 now it has had to borrow direct and ready made from 
 Boston." 376 Another editorial in the same paper asks 
 ' ' Is Mr. Gillette a Communist ? " 3 " And another notes 
 that he has not yet told why he is going to "emancipate" 
 the workers in a coal mine, owned by a " soulless corpora- 
 tion", who are "getting fifty per cent higher wages than 
 the workmen in his own tile and pipe works. ' ' 37S 
 
 The Daily Press at Iowa City also expressed strong 
 disapproval of Gillette, declaring that the nomination 
 was made in spite of the opposition of one-third of the 
 delegates, who refused to vote on the final ballot. "A 
 secret caucus had already arranged to overpower the 
 protesting element". Mr. Gillette was introduced and 
 accepted the nomination in a "speech unremarkable ex- 
 cept for the high flown rot about 'England and Wall 
 Street' to which Brick Pomeroy gives far more eloquent 
 utterance." 379 Again, the same paper declared "that 
 truckling to communism in Iowa taints the party with 
 suspicion in close Districts in other States", and may re- 
 sult in the defeat of enough Democratic candidates to 
 lose the next House and the next President, "giving both 
 to the 'common enemy' to whom Greenbacker Gillette 
 occasionally alludes." 380 
 
 In all the congressional districts, except the two in 
 
THE GREENBACK PARTY IN IOWA 167 
 
 which Weaver and Gillette were nominated, all three par- 
 ties had candidates. In those two districts Democrats 
 and Greenbackers fused, in spite of the opposition of 
 hard money Democrats like Mr. Irish and the more ex- 
 treme among the Greenbackers. About a month before 
 the election, a fusion upon the State ticket was arranged 
 by which four candidates were given to each party. Can- 
 didates for Secretary of State, Treasurer, Eegister of the 
 Land Office, and Reporter of the Supreme Court were 
 assigned to the Greenbackers ; while candidates for Aud- 
 itor, Attorney-General, Supreme Court Judge, and Clerk 
 of the Supreme Court were filled by Democrats. 381 
 
 Election results in 1878 can not be compared with those 
 of previous years because of this fusion. The conspicu- 
 ous successes were the election of Weaver and Gillette 
 to Congress. The votes for Greenback candidates in the 
 remaining seven districts ranged from slightly under 
 4,000 to over 12,000. Gillette received 16,474 votes, com- 
 pared with 15,546 cast for his Republican opponent ; while 
 Weaver received 16,366 votes, compared with 14,308 cast 
 for his opponent. In the fourth, fifth, eighth, and ninth 
 districts the Greenback candidate stood next to the suc- 
 cessful candidate. 382 
 
 Commenting upon the results, The Iowa State Register 
 declared that "the result proves that the theory of fiat 
 money .... has had a fascinating effect upon the 
 people of this and the Sixth districts. The first returns 
 being from the cities and towns, were very favorable to 
 the Republicans. The country townships, as a rule, have 
 gone wild after the new fancy. It is a passing and tem- 
 porary fever. But it has wrought its work this year. ' ' 383 
 The same paper expressed the opinion that it was "a pity 
 for the Greenbackers and their cause that Hoggatt was 
 
168 • THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 not elected [in the 9th District] .... for he is pre- 
 eminently the most representative man that that party 
 and its principles have in Iowa. The Greenback party of 
 Iowa will never be fully bodied forth to the people in its 
 real character and its actual identity till Hoggatt is made 
 Congressman and Leonard Brown, Governor. For as 
 these two gentlemen were the founders of the party in 
 Iowa and have been its ablest champions, so are they in 
 their lives and characters its fittest Iowa representa- 
 tives." 384 Hoggatt was a member of the "famous Anti- 
 monop Legislature — made up of Reformers with big 
 E 's. " 885 The Daily Press said of Hoggatt : "Old Hog- 
 gatt is so ugly he sours milk when he looks in the pan. 
 He is ... . honest as Cincinnatus, and remorseless 
 as belly ache." 3S6 And again, "it is said that when old 
 Hoggatt, who scared poor Carpenter out of ten years' 
 growth in the 9th District, looks at his majority of 600 
 in Carpenter's home county of Webster, he could sit for 
 a photograph of the cat who said 'Ha! ha! I've eat the 
 canary ! ' " 387 
 
 A "Greenback Conference", called by the State com- 
 mittee, met in Des Moines in December. There was a 
 discussion over fusion; a majority were opposed to it, 
 but a direct vote was avoided. Among the noisiest speak- 
 ers against fusion was Mr. Hoggatt. The conference 
 lasted all day and in the evening a public meeting was 
 held at the court house. Messrs. Hoggatt, Weaver, Gil- 
 lette, J. B. Welch, Leonard Brown, P. P. Ingalls, and 
 Sam. Sinnett made speeches. Mr. Weaver said that clubs 
 would be formed in every township in Iowa for the next 
 campaign. Organize' was the motto. 388 
 
 Another account of the same meeting says that "but 
 
THE GREENBACK PARTY IN LOWA 169 
 
 few members of the party [were] present and but few 
 invited" — and those were of the class who favored 
 fusion. A State chairman was elected from ' ' outside of 
 the committee .... to get a man they — Weaver, 
 Gillette, Sinnet & Co. — could control. ' ' They repudi- 
 ated the call for a national convention in March — which 
 was declared to be "the prime object" of the meeting. 
 The same account stated that ' ' nearly five hundred clubs 
 in this State .... are the mainspring and backbone 
 of the Greenback party of Iowa and the nation. . . . 
 We do not want and will not have any Toledo fraud; we 
 do not want and will not have any man or men who rec- 
 ognize that platform. So far as I have talked with the 
 Greenback voters of Madison county, and I have talked 
 to hundreds, they denounce the council at Des Moines as 
 a fraud, a cheat, and a swindle". 389 A letter from E. M. 
 Farnsworth of Decorah, who was the candidate for Sec- 
 retary of State upon the fusion ticket in 1878, also de- 
 scribed the meeting as made up mainly of people from 
 the Weaver and Gillette districts. Weaver and Gillette 
 are described as Democrats in whom the writer had no 
 confidence. 390 
 
 In February, 1879, discussion began about candidates 
 for the State election of that year. The Iowa People, 
 the Greenback organ of Iowa, contained several para- 
 graphs and letters mentioning Samuel Sinnett, Leonard 
 Brown, E. N. Gates, and D. N. Campbell — all farmers. 
 The Iowa State Register remarked that this was the 
 usual talk of the party before the campaign. When it 
 came to nominating the ticket, however, "some fancy 
 gentleman, from some one of the professions, and who is 
 a new convert, and never did any of the hard work of the 
 
170 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 party, or some renegade Democrat, is chosen". For in- 
 stance, Mr. Brown was talked of for Congress the year 
 before, but Mr. Gillette was chosen. 391 
 
 In March a meeting was held at Des Moines to express 
 approval of the course taken by Weaver and Gillette, but 
 this meeting was ' ' slimly attended and a rather tame af- 
 fair. " Speeches were made by James Embree, H. S. 
 Wilcox, J. W. Muffly, and Kev. P. P. Ingalls. 392 About 
 the same time another meeting was held at Newton, where 
 Mr. Ingalls was the principal speaker. A correspondent 
 of The Iowa State Register declared that the speech was 
 "the worst specimen of communism and cheap dema- 
 goguery ever delivered in Jasper County. ' ' 393 
 
 A sidelight is thrown upon political conditions by an 
 article in The Iowa State Register which was reprinted 
 early in April from the Fort Dodge Times. The Times, 
 referred to as the leading Greenback paper of the ninth 
 district, announced the resumption of its place among 
 Democratic papers because "the old Republican ring 
 whose defeat two years ago made Webster county the 
 banner Greenback county of Iowa, has taken possession 
 of the new party in this county and diverted the prin- 
 cipal financial resources of the party to the support of a 
 professed Greenback paper, originally started, fed and 
 fostered by the ring". 394 
 
 At the Greenback State Convention, which met in Des_ 
 Moines late in May, two factions developed — one favor- 
 ing the payment of government bonds in legal tender 
 notes, and the other advocating the payment. at. such - 
 bonds in lawful money, gold, silver, or greenbacks. The 
 hard money group won, and the Wapello County dele- 
 gates withdrew. Later a resolution of a similar charac- 
 ter was offered — endorsing Pomeroy's Chicago platform 
 
THE GREENBACK PARTY IN IOWA 171 
 
 — and when this was rejected a second group of dele- 
 gates seceded and met at another place. Dissension also 
 occurred over fusion with the Democrats — a number of 
 members of that party, including the candidate for Gov- 
 ernor, being active before and during the sessions in 
 urging its advantages upon the delegates. Judge John 
 Porter of Eldora brought up the proposition, which was 
 also favored by Leonard Brown. Finally, however, the 
 sentiment prevailed "that nothing less than death" 
 should remove a candidate from the ticket. 305 
 
 Sixty-nine counties were represented, while thirty were 
 unrepresented. General Weaver was praised and pro- 
 posed as the Greenback candidate for President in 1880. 
 While waiting for the report of the platform, Mr. Hog- 
 gatt made a speech, addressing members of the con- 
 vention as "fellow slaves" and praising Kearney as a 
 "noble patriot. . . . He claimed to be, and was 
 proud to be, a Communist after the order of the Com- 
 mune in France. . . . Communism in France was 
 Socialism in Germany, trades-unionism in England, and 
 Greenbackism in America. ' ' 396 On the informal ballot 
 for Governor the results were as follows : P. P. Ingalls, 
 14334; M. H. Moore, 94; E. M. Farnsworth, 12%; Daniel 
 Campbell, 230 ; and H. H. Trimble, 2%. When the vote 
 was announced all candidates withdrew, save Campbell 
 who was then chosen by acclamation. 
 
 The principal difference of opinion in the convention 
 seems to have been in regard to fusion. The candidates 
 nominated were satisfactory to most of the delegates, but 
 the platform caused serious trouble. One group refused 
 to endorse the Chicago platform, and as these men dom- 
 inated the convention and shaped the platform, they 
 aroused opposition which led to the secession of about 
 
172 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 fifty delegates — who claimed to represent 60,000 mem- 
 bers of the ' ' chartered clubs of Iowa, who had organized 
 under Brick Pomeroy". Fundamentally, the controversy 
 waged about the advantages and disadvantages of inde- 
 pendent party action. The articles in the platform in- 
 structing the State committee not to "place on the ticket 
 the names of any person or persons who are identified 
 with either of the old parties" were adopted "enthusi- 
 astically, showing the feeling strong against fusion." 397 
 
 Press opinions of the convention throw some addi- 
 tional light on the political situation. The Iowa State 
 Register notes that "most of the men of brains who were 
 conspicuous in the convention one or two years ago were 
 absent this time. But it is also true that this convention 
 was more thoroughly representative of what the party 
 claims to be, the party of workingmen .... and 
 of farmers with mortgages on their farms, than any it 
 has ever held." Mr. Hoggatt and his speech were re- 
 ferred to as typical of the sort of men who composed it. 
 ' ' The ticket is a fair one. ' ' Mr. Campbell was probably 
 their strongest man. ' ' He is said to be a good man. So, 
 too, is Moore, the nominee for Lieutenant-Governor. He 
 is an ex-President of a national Bank, and only got to be 
 a Greenbacker when he got hard up. Jones, for Supreme 
 Judge, is not so bad. But the chief supreme virtue of 
 the ticket is that Ingalls has no place on it. ' ' 39S 
 
 Efforts were made to bring about fusion through the 
 nomination of Mr. Stubbs for Lieutenant Governor on 
 the Democratic ticket. Some people believed that he was 
 really nominated, but Mr. Irish and his friends claimed 
 that the ballot was informal ; and although the chairman, 
 Augustus C. Dodge, ruled it formal, the convention 
 voted it informal and Stubbs ' name was withdrawn. The 
 
THE GREENBACK PARTY IN IOWA 173 
 
 vote was said to have been two hundred and forty-four 
 for Stubbs and one hundred and ninety-one for his op- 
 ponent. The Iowa State Register said that the "only 
 thing done of any political significance was the severe 
 snubbing it gave the Greenbackers." 39 ° 
 
 In the month of August another convention was held at 
 Marshalltown to complete the "Union Greenback Club 
 Organization in the State of Iowa". The Iowa State 
 Register said that it did "not know what this means un- 
 less it be the call of the Brick Pomeroy Greenbackers of 
 the State." Thirty- three delegates were present, and 
 there was no indication of independent nominations, but 
 rather a disposition to harmonize the two factions and 
 inaugurate a more radical policy for 1880. After a warm 
 discussion the Pomeroy element prevailed by a two- 
 thirds majority. A resolution was adopted for a five- 
 cent assessment per month per member — which upon a 
 membership of 70,000 would give a campaign fund of 
 $42,000 per year. A State committee and a State mis- 
 sionary were chosen. Charters were to be issued in strict 
 conformity to the regulations made by the chairman 
 (Pomeroy) of the national Greenback club organiza- 
 tion. 400 
 
 Various comments made during the course of the cam- 
 paign suggest that there was considerable difference of 
 opinion as to results. In August The Iowa State Regis- 
 ter remarked that "in nearly every local paper in the 
 State there are weekly announcements of honest Green- 
 backers returning to the Republican ranks". 401 An in- 
 terview with General "Weaver in September quoted him 
 as saying that the next President would very likely be 
 elected by the House where the Greenbackers held the 
 balance of power. The "great guns" of the party were 
 
174 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 coming to Iowa to help the Greenbackers increase their 
 vote. Among those expected were Solon Chase and Con- 
 gressman Murch of Maine, De La Matyr and James 
 Buchanan of Indiana, and "Old" Jesse Harper of Il- 
 linois. 402 It was said that Weaver and Gillette had de- 
 cided against fusion. Weaver estimated the Greenback 
 vote at 75,000 ; and he said that the Greenbackers would 
 carry the South. 403 
 
 The election results in 1879 were: Gear, 157,571; 
 Trimble, 85,056 ; and Campbell, 45,429. Thirteen counties 
 gave one thousand or more votes to Greenback candi- 
 dates: these were Jasper, Marion, Madison, Mahaska, 
 Taylor, Polk, Webster, Howard, Warren, Union, Dallas, 
 Davis, and Fayette. The vote for Governor — 45,429 — 
 was the largest ever cast for a Greenback candidate in 
 Iowa and represented the high water mark for a third 
 party up to that time. Two State senators were chosen 
 from Wayne and Appanoose counties, and five repre- 
 sentatives from Davis, Webster, Appanoose, Adams, and 
 Howard counties. 404 
 
XIII 
 
 THE GREENBACK PARTY IN IOWA : THE PERIOD 
 OF DECLINE 
 
 Two expressions upon monetary questions during the 
 winter of 1879-1880 are interesting in throwing light upon 
 the situation. The Iowa State Register declared that 
 "we are opposed to the retirement of the greenback, or 
 the withdrawal of its legal tender quality, and we shall 
 oppose the nomination of any man for the Presidency 
 who is in favor of such retirement or demonetization." 
 The editor was willing to accept Grant, unless he ap- 
 proved the Hayes-Sherman crusade against the green- 
 back, and he believed that he was "reflecting the wishes 
 of the great body of Republicans in Iowa, and of the 
 whole West .... the Republicans of Iowa are op- 
 posed, nine out of ten, to the anti-Greenback movement, 
 and to any man who is to be the candidate of its faction 
 for the Republican nomination for the Presidency. ' ' 405 
 The Iowa State Press, on the other hand, called upon 
 Congress to "lose no time in providing for real resump- 
 tion by repealing the legal tender act. The Democratic 
 party is in the majority in Congress. Let its representa- 
 tives read the papers and they will find that even in Iowa 
 a majority of the party press favors the abolition of the 
 legal tender. It is true that this will drive the Green- 
 backers and Republicans into alliance, but that is what 
 we want. It is time to act from principle and the highest 
 principle demands that we regain the ancient and tra- 
 ns 
 
176 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 ditional ground we have lost in alliances which never 
 gained us a vote. ' ' 406 
 
 Early in May The Iowa State Register declared that 
 the Greenbackers were melting away rapidly because of 
 prosperity. "In one township, in a neighboring county, 
 a canvass has been made of the Greenbackers, by the vote 
 of two years ago, and out of forty-seven .... 
 thirty-two declared themselves done with it ... . 
 twenty-seven of them being Eepublicans. " 407 Again, the 
 same paper, referring to Greenback fusion with the Dem- 
 ocrats, remarked that "of course [they] are ready for 
 the fusion. They have so dwindled in numbers in Iowa 
 that they would gladly hide the fact by merging with the 
 Democrats." 408 
 
 The Greenback State Convention for 1880 met at Des 
 Moines on May 19th and 20th. Seventy-three counties 
 were reported represented the first day, and seventy-six 
 counties the second. A wrangle similar to that of 1879 
 over hard and soft money occurred. Mr. Moore of Du- 
 buque said that he preferred greenbacks worth one hun- 
 dred cents to silver dollars worth only eighty-five or 
 eighty-six cents. Besolutions to present General Weaver 
 as first choice for President to the national convention 
 were objected to, but upon explanation that it was not in- 
 tended to be an instruction to the delegates but only a 
 recommendation it was adopted with three cheers and a 
 tiger upon motion of Mr. L. H. Weller. There was also 
 some discussion over the name of the party. Delegates 
 at large were chosen as follows: J. B. Weaver, Daniel 
 Campbell, E. H. Gillette, and M. H. Moore. A State com- 
 mittee with Mr. Weller as chairman was appointed ; and 
 district delegates, candidates for presidential electors, 
 and State officers were also named. The candidate for 
 
THE GREENBACK PARTY IN IOWA 177 
 
 State Treasurer was described as an "Anti-Monop, a 
 Granger and a Greenbacker." Speeches were made dur- 
 ing the convention by Ingalls, Weller, Hoggatt, Moore, 
 and Porte C. Welch. 409 
 
 The Iowa State Register described the convention as 
 up to the average as to character — "as Greenback Con- 
 ventions go." "June Bug" Welch, "Calamity" Weller, 
 "Blatherskite" Dawley, and "Disaster" Ingalls made 
 the most speeches and the most noise; while the "com- 
 paratively sensible members like Stubbs and Moore, were 
 trying to do the business .... in a decent way. But 
 in its average membership it was the equal if not the 
 superior of any Greenback Conventions there have been 
 in Iowa. Many of its proceedings were ridiculous and 
 disgusting, but that is a habit of the party — and the 
 brass-band promenades on the streets were grotesque and 
 comical, but everybody knows that in the show line the 
 Greenback party is always the next thing to a circus, 
 Porte Welch was really the controlling spirit of this Con- 
 vention, and ran it to his notion. ' ' 41 ° 
 
 Some letters from Leonard Brown, published in The 
 Iowa State Register during July and August, give an in- 
 side view of political affairs at that time. These letters 
 especially attacked Gillette, and their truthfulness was 
 confirmed editorially. "The Greenback party of Des 
 Moines and Central Iowa was originally led by honest 
 men, principally by intelligent farmers like Mr. Beinking, 
 Mr. Hargis, and many others of their class and character. 
 Gradually their places have been usurped by the loafers 
 of the town and the city, by broken-down or played out 
 preachers, by repudiated office-seekers, and by that whole 
 class of town and city gentry who think there is a way in 
 this world to make a living without working for it. Mr. 
 
178 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Eeinking has left the organization entirely. Mr. Hargis 
 is crowded out of sight and sound. . . . He was a 
 Republican in the war days, and is as much of a Repub- 
 lican as ever on the Southern question. A high-minded 
 man, but a patient one, he conceals a disgust for the pres- 
 ent leadership of the party which more impetuous men, 
 like Brown, indignantly express. ' ' 411 
 
 Of course the Iowa State Press commented upon Gen- 
 eral Weaver's conduct as the Presidential candidate of 
 the Greenbackers from the standpoint of a bitter op- 
 ponent. It declared that he had not done one thing fa- 
 vorable to the Democrats. In Alabama, he had urged 
 fusion with Republicans to defeat the Democrats; while 
 in Maine he had denounced fusion. Recently he had been 
 getting into hot water. The most prominent Greenbacker 
 of Pennsylvania and Murch, the Greenback Congressman 
 from Maine, denounced him. In addition, the secretary 
 of the Greenback National Committee charged that he 
 had had his campaign expenses entirely paid by the Ee- 
 publican National Committee. There was added the 
 statement that of course General Weaver emphatically 
 denied the accusation, but a letter was printed, dated at 
 New York on October 8th, that confirmed the charge. 412 
 
 Election results showed 32,780 votes for Greenback 
 candidates, while the Republicans and Democrats gained 
 strength. Dallas County gave the highest vote (1312), 
 and six other counties gave over 1000 each — which in 
 order of votes cast were Davis, Polk, Marion, Mahaska, 
 Jasper, and Madison. This election marked the down- 
 ward trend for the Greenbackers, with the slight excep- 
 tion of the year 1882 — leaving 1879 the banner year for 
 the party in Iowa. 413 In the congressional districts the 
 votes for Greenback candidates varied from 1200 to 5900, 
 
THE GREENBACK PARTY IN IOWA 179 
 
 except in the sixth and seventh districts where fusion took 
 place as in 1878. Gillette was defeated for reelection, al- 
 though he received a few hundred more votes than in 
 1878. Mr. John A. Kasson, his Republican opponent, re- 
 ceived over 19,000 votes, compared with the 15,000 given 
 to the Republican candidate two years before. It need 
 hardly be added that Mr. Kasson was a very strong can- 
 didate, while in 1878 the Republican representative was a 
 weak candidate. The Republican candidate in the sixth 
 district won over his Greenback opponent by a narrow 
 vote — 18,017 to 17,911. 414 
 
 The Iowa State Register recorded a decrease of nearly 
 15,000 in the Greenback vote as compared with the returns 
 of 1879. In the sixth district alone they seem to have pre- 
 sented a solid front. In Howard County, which had been a 
 solid Greenback county, there was a sweeping victory for 
 the Republicans. Adams County had elected a Greenback 
 representative in 1879, but he was defeated in 1880. The 
 "miasma", it was said, would be swept away by the con- 
 tinuance of prosperity, the "good men" would find their 
 way back to the "old moorings" ; while the "arrant dem- 
 agogues" would remain as long as their chance of profit 
 remains. "Satisfaction with the present status in finan- 
 ces" was described as the cause of Greenback decline. 
 "Any successful attempt at ... . radical changes, 
 such as the withdrawal of the greenback, or the demon- 
 etization of the silver dollar will be attended with serious 
 and disastrous results to the party responsible for it. 
 All the financial doctrinaires have the unanimous leave 
 of the masses to keep quiet". 415 
 
 Late in November, 1880, the Greenbackers held a con- 
 ference at Des Moines, at which about fifty persons were 
 present, including Muffly, Weller, Wilcox, Skinner, Cole, 
 
180 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Weaver, Gillette, and Ingalls. Eeporters were excluded; 
 but according to the accounts of the proceedings that got 
 into circulation, Mr. Weller spoke first, emphasizing the 
 need of canvassing the State carefully in order to make a 
 better showing. Dr. Eamsey, who was called to the chair, 
 compared the Greenback party with the Eepublican party 
 in its early days. Mr. Ingalls was chosen to act as secre- 
 tary, but he declined to serve in that capacity. 416 
 
 John P. Irish commented editorially upon the political 
 situation in Iowa in February. "There is", he said, "a 
 third party in the field which will not voluntarily suspend 
 or disband. The Greenbackers will maintain an organ- 
 ization. It is true that Greenbackism is only a form of 
 Republicanism. ' ' He thought that the suggestion which 
 had been made in 1873 that the Democrats nominate no 
 ticket would throw into the Greenback party its 100,000 
 votes and give to it "a temporary inflation". Mr. Irish 
 described Greenbackism as "that most pernicious form 
 of Republicanism .... Both wings of the Repub- 
 lican party in Iowa, the Greenback and bond-holding 
 wings alike, favor sumptuary laws ; they favor disfigure- 
 ment of the constitution. We oppose it. ' ' 417 Again, later 
 in the year the same writer referred to the Greenbackers 
 as "Assistant Republicans", who have "taken a contract 
 to keep the opposition divided and the Republicans in 
 power .... The Republican and Greenback par- 
 ties believe in the government doing as much as possible 
 and the people as little as possible — in paternalism." 418 
 
 In March a meeting was held in Des Moines to arrange 
 for a reception to Weaver and Gillette. According to 
 The Iowa State Register there were present at the begin- 
 ning of this meeting "by actual count, only twenty-six 
 men and eight boys." Arrangements were made and 
 
THE GREENBACK PARTY IN IOWA 181 
 
 funds collected to bring "Old" Jesse Harper of Illinois 
 from Cass County, where he was then staying, to make 
 the principal speech at the proposed rally and reception. 
 It was also suggested that a smaller meeting be held be- 
 fore the larger one. 419 
 
 The Greenback State Convention for 1881 was held at 
 Marshalltown on June 1st and 2nd — this being the first 
 meeting of the kind held outside of Des Moines. Differ- 
 ent reports were given as to the attendance, the figures 
 varying from three hundred to seven hundred ; although 
 The Iowa State Register stated that about two hundred 
 and fifty delegates were present. The Marshalltown 
 meeting was a session of speech-making. Congressman 
 De La Matyr of Indiana, Jesse Harper of Illinois, M. H. 
 Williams of Missouri, and Warren Chase of California 
 were speakers from outside the State; while Weaver, 
 Gillette, Leonard Brown, and Ingalls were the local celeb- 
 rities who were heard from. 
 
 The platform contained many new items, of which the 
 most important was equal political rights for men and 
 women. To give practical effect to this plank, a woman 
 was nominated as a candidate for Superintendent of 
 Public Instruction, although delegates who belonged to 
 the legal profession declared that she could not serve if 
 elected. 420 The candidate, thus nominated, declined in a 
 letter in which she said that the nomination was made 
 without her consent; and in additfon she indicated that 
 she favored the Eepublican party, and that she did not 
 wish to vote. Other resolutions favored the appointment 
 of a volunteer worker in each township and county to 
 spread Greenback doctrine by pamphlets and documents, 
 expressed sympathy for the Irish Land League and down- 
 trodden people everywhere, and declared in favor of the 
 
182 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 election of President, Vice President, and United States 
 Senators by direct vote. A resolution thanking the rail- 
 roads for reduced fare to delegates was lost. Mr. L. H. 
 Weller was reelected as chairman of the State commit- 
 tee. 421 
 
 In the election the Greenbacks rs polled 28,112 votes— 
 a falling off of over 4000 from the preceding year. The 
 Democrats gained 27,000 votes; while the Eepublicans 
 lost 50,000. Evidently many who voted the Republican 
 or Greenback ticket in 1880 voted with the Democrats in 
 1881. Only three counties gave Greenback candidates 
 over 1000 votes — Davis, Dallas, and Mahaska. Six 
 Greenback representatives were elected from Chickasaw, 
 Marion, Davis, Howard, Guthrie, and Adams counties. 422 
 
 Mr. John P. Irish in his spicy way commented upon the 
 results, declaring that the "Greenback Eepublicans" 
 have nearly all got back into the old camp; indeed, in 
 those counties where the greatest Greenback vote was 
 formerly cast, the voters are all back in the regular Ee- 
 publican ranks. In his own county, where "this form of 
 Eepublicanism is comparatively new", he noticed this 
 peculiarity in the men who went from the ' ' regular wing 
 of the Eepublican party into the greenback wing, [that] 
 on election day they vote the regular Eepublican tick- 
 et." 423 
 
 In March, 1882, the editor of the Iowa State Press re- 
 newed his attack on the Greenbackers in anticipation of 
 the coming congressional campaign. He declared that 
 "General Weaver has deserted distinctive Greenback 
 ground and passes as an anti monopolist .... He 
 is a sham reformer, a sort of a $25.00 a day reformer, 
 who sticks his finger into the spigot but refuses to in- 
 vestigate the bung." 424 
 
THE GREENBACK PARTY IN IOWA 183 
 
 The Iowa State Register now joined its ancient op- 
 ponent in denouncing the Greenbackers. It described the 
 Republicans in 1878 in the sixth and seventh districts as 
 defeated by the "Greenback craze — that varioloid of 
 larceny which raged so fiercely then and has not entirely 
 abated yet, and which Gen. Weaver and Mr. Gillette are 
 now trying so energetically to regalvanize into the viru- 
 lent form it had then. It will be remembered by Repub- 
 licans that Weaver and Gillette, and the noisy band of 
 speakers who swarmed at their heels in the county seats, 
 to echo their lunacies in the rural districts, made a very 
 aggressive raid on the Republican ranks in an effort to 
 prove that the specious stuff they preached was the old 
 Republican doctrine." Although Republican speakers 
 could disprove this easily, the Greenback speakers would 
 "draw out a copy of the Inter-Ocean newspaper of Chi- 
 cago, and triumphantly flourish it as Republican proof 
 of their position and claim." They had sent to them 
 daily large numbers of this paper which were distributed 
 free to the crowd. The influence of this paper was 
 greater because as a Republican organ it had been edited 
 by the former member of Congress from Des Moines. 
 Later it became a Greenback paper and "more than all 
 other influences in the West combined, built up that tramp 
 theory in finance .... which was eventually made 
 the principal basis and is now the only basis of the so- 
 called Greenback party. ' ' The defeats of 1878 were due, 
 it was asserted, to the Inter Ocean and to Weaver's and 
 Gillette 's skillful use of it. They are described as busily 
 at work again in 1882, aided by the State Leader, the 
 main organ of the fusion in 1878. "Is it for this purpose 
 that Gen. Weaver boasts he has raised ten thousand dol- 
 lars already, and that he is going to raise fifty thousand 
 
184 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 more 1 Does this give any explanation to the fact of the 
 paper that elected Weaver and Gillette in 1878 being 
 forced into these Districts so actively now, and at such 
 reduced rates ? " 425 
 
 The same paper referred to Mr. B. J. Chambers of 
 Texas, candidate for the Vice Presidency in 1880, as hav- 
 ing "recently said that his party has become 'disorgan- 
 ized and disintegrated beyond the hope of a successful 
 rally 7 ". It declared that General Weaver believed the 
 same thing. "But as long as he can raise a fund of 
 $10,000 a year 'for the cause' by popular subscription, as 
 he is doing now, he isn 't going to say anything about the 
 party being dead, although he knows that it is. " He is 
 described as a typical "sorehead" who "was kept in 
 office by the Republican party for twelve or fifteen years, 
 and a part of the time held two offices at once. But after 
 drawing some $50,000 or $60,000 of such salaries he want- 
 ed to be Governor of Iowa, and was refused the honor by 
 the party. Then he became a sorehead, and next a rene- 
 gade. That is all that ails him now. If he had been 
 nominated for Governor by the Republicans he would 
 have been to-day as ardent if not as sincere a Republican 
 as there is in Iowa". 426 
 
 "The Sioux City Independent, the oldest Greenback 
 paper in the State, and almost the only one of any de- 
 cency that survived the storm and cold of last year's 
 politics, yielded up the ghost with its last issue. Of the 
 thirty or forty Greenback papers that were started during 
 the high prevalence of the disease in Iowa .... 
 only three or four remain", according to The Iowa State 
 Register of April 14, 1882. 427 
 
 An editorial in the same paper compares "Tornadoes 
 and Greenbackers ". "Tornadoes have been responsible 
 
THE GREENBACK PARTY IN IOWA lfC. 
 
 for a great deal of misfortune. So have the Greenback- 
 ers. . . . But the most striking attribute common to 
 the G-reenbackers and to tornadoes is their communism. 
 A Communist advocates the taking from those who have 
 and the giving to those who have not. So does the tor- 
 nado, and neither will listen to any argument to the con- 
 trary. . . . The tornado succeeds, but the Green- 
 backer contents himself with writing poems on the rights 
 of labor, or starting weekly newspapers." 428 
 
 The Greenback State Convention for 1882 met at Des 
 Moines on June 7th and 8th. Four hundred and fifty 
 delegates representing seventy counties were present. 
 The temperance plank, which had a place in the platforms 
 of 1877-1879, produced a lively debate and was approved 
 by a very close vote. Criticism of the national banks 
 was especially emphasized. As in 1881 an effort was 
 made to get Greenback literature before the people. A 
 press association plan was discussed and a committee 
 composed of one member from each district was ap- 
 pointed. 429 
 
 Late in June the committee issued an address to the 
 "Greenback Laborers of Iowa", in which reference was 
 made to the consideration of the formation of a State 
 press association by the recent State convention. The 
 purpose was "to establish Greenback papers in counties 
 where none are published, and to assist those already 
 established". The plan included the raising of $10,000 
 in shares of $10 each; the stockholders in each congres- 
 sional district were to elect one member of the executive 
 committee, and these eleven were to elect a stockholder 
 not of their number as chairman ; the executive commit- 
 tee was to elect a secretary, treasurer, "a financier", and 
 an editor, and "buy and locate at the capital of the State, 
 
186 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 a press and other fixtures sufficient to print a paper and 
 do general job work." 43 ° 
 
 The election resulted in the casting of 30,817 votes for 
 the Greenbackers — a slight gain over the vote of 1881. 
 Apparently many, who in the preceding year voted for 
 the Democrats, this year voted for the Republicans or 
 Greenbackers. There was a Republican gain of about 
 15,000, a Greenback gain of 2,000, and a Democratic loss 
 of about 20,000. Five counties each gave more than 
 1,000 Greenback votes: these were Mahaska, Jasper, 
 Davis, Dallas, and Marion. L. H. Weller was elected 
 to Congress from the fourth district on a fusion ticket. 431 
 
 Light is thrown upon the political situation by two 
 short editorials in The Iowa State Register, in which 
 reference is made to letters from Leonard Brown, who is 
 described as "so long the leader and always the brains 
 of the Greenback party" in Iowa. In these letters he 
 declared "that he was tired of Weaverism, into which 
 the remnant of the Greenback party in Iowa had changed, 
 and that he should vote the Republican ticket." Fur- 
 thermore, he ' ' shows that there is no longer need or ex- 
 cuse for the .... Greenback party. ... All 
 the great leaders .... are pronouncing its race con- 
 cluded. General Butler in accepting the party's nomina- 
 tion for Governor of Massachusetts, boldly tells it is 
 practically defunct. . . . What Butler, Brown and 
 others are saying this year, the Weavers and Gillettes 
 will be admitting next year. ' ' 432 Another phase of the 
 political situation is illuminated by another editorial in 
 the same paper, which appeared under the title of "Buy- 
 ing Iowa with Money". It must be remembered that 1882 
 was the year in which the prohibition amendment to the 
 State Constitution was adopted, only to be declared in- 
 
THE GREENBACK PARTY IN IOWA 187 
 
 valid by the Supreme Court the following year upon a 
 technicality. It was natural that feeling should run high 
 upon the subject and thus bring about the subordination 
 of other issues. The Iowa State Register referred to the 
 "vast amount of corruption money that was being poured 
 into this State to defeat the Republican candidates for 
 Congress. . . . The people of this country are just 
 beginning to see that the liquor interest of the United 
 States can afford to spend ten millions of dollars a year 
 to take care of its interests in politics." This money 
 nearly defeated Republican candidates in three districts, 
 actually did defeat them in two, and in one district elect- 
 ed "Calamity Weller, the greatest political crank that 
 Iowa has yet produced, in any party or in any field out- 
 side of a lunatic asylum." In two other districts, this 
 interest "found neither Mackey or Weaver for sale" and 
 knew money was useless against Mr. Kasson. Finally, 
 three strong agricultural districts were not tried because 
 it was known to be hopeless. 433 
 
 Early in 1883 the Iowa State Press made a bitter edi- 
 torial attack upon General Weaver's position in regard 
 to prohibition. It referred to him as the "new leader of 
 the temperance crusade, the great Greenbacker, and 'the 
 wild ass of the prairies'. The temperance question 
 promises to be a triple alliance, an unholy combination of 
 the greenbacker, the republican and the prohibitionist. 
 It is a fitting and peculiarly appropriate circumstance 
 that a man who is distrusted by all should be the standard 
 bearer of a new attempt to inject an universal panacea 
 into fundamental law of the state. That the most dis- 
 honest politician in the state heads a moral party, is a 
 good send off for it. ' ' * 8 * 
 
 The Greenback State Convention for 1883 met at Des 
 
188 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Moines on July 11th, with sixty-six counties represented 
 by a number of delegates differently reported as from 
 two hundred to four hundred. The Iowa State Register 
 described it as "much the smallest the party has had in 
 Iowa for several years, and the least enthusiastic it has 
 ever had — two facts which show that the party has 
 nearly waned away, and that its members are largely re- 
 turning to their former alliances in the republican and 
 democratic parties." Although there was some opposi- 
 tion to prohibition, the sentiment in its favor was over- 
 whelming. "Calamity" Weller offered a resolution, 
 favoring "the use of all wise means for the suppression 
 of the evils of intemperance", and describing the action 
 of| the Eepublican party in regard to the constitutional 
 amendment as "a delusion and a snare", which was laid 
 on the table by a large majority. This vote did not indi- 
 cate opposition on the part of the delegates to Weller's 
 general position, for, in the platform adopted, there was 
 a plank expressing essentially the same sentiments, but 
 somewhat differently stated. The platform was the long- 
 est yet made. General "Weaver was nominated for Gov- 
 ernor, and "the proceedings closed with a ranting pro- 
 hibition speech" from him in which he "declared the 
 greenbackers the only genuine simon pure prohibs." * 35 
 
 The campaign of 1883 was ' ' one of the most hotly con- 
 tested ever known in the State, not excepting those of 
 war times." A series of joint debates was arranged be- 
 tween the Republican and Democratic candidates for 
 Governor. The request of the Greenback party to have 
 its candidate included was acceded to by the Democratic 
 nominee, but Governor Buren E. Sherman refused to 
 allow General Weaver to participate. The reasons given 
 for this action were that "the real contest" was "he- 
 
T£E GREENBACK PARTY IN IOWA 189 
 
 tween the Republican and Democratic parties" ; "no such 
 wide variance" existed between the Republican and 
 Greenback parties since "the Greenback question" 
 seemed "to have been practically settled by the people 
 themselves"; and "upon the saloon question .... 
 your party has ranged itself on the Republican side of 
 the issue." General Weaver, however, was not left out 
 of the contest, because a series of meetings was arranged 
 for him "in the evenings of the same days and at the 
 same places where the joint discussions were to be held 
 in the afternoon. This gave him the advantage of a large 
 audience without the disadvantages of limited time to 
 which the two other speakers were held. ' ' 
 
 The first meeting was at Independence on August 29th ; 
 and the last of the series of eleven dates was at Des 
 Moines on October 3rd. It was estimated that at least 
 seventy-five thousand persons heard the speeches of the 
 two leading candidates, and a large proportion of this 
 number undoubtedly heard General Weaver. Unusually 
 full reports of these meetings were featured by the news- 
 papers, and they were "read by over a million read- 
 ers." 436 
 
 The Greenbackers polled 23,013 votes at the election — 
 a loss of 7000 from the result in 1882. Both old parties 
 showed gains, indicating that Greenbackers were return- 
 ing to their former allegiances. This was the first year 
 since 1876, excepting the fusion year of 1878, when the 
 Greenbackers did not poll one thousand votes in some 
 county : Mahaska led with 973 votes, and Davis, Jasper, 
 Dallas, and Marion each gave more than 500. Six Green- 
 back representatives were elected from Monona, Marion, 
 Majdjson, Union, Appanoose, and Warren counties. 437 
 \Thfi chief subject of discussion among the Greenbackers 
 
190 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 in Iowa in 1884 was that of fusion with the Democrats, 
 since it was becoming apparent to all but the extremists 
 that practical results could be obtained in no other way. 
 The Iowa State Press in an editorial in May described 
 sentiment in its part of the State as about evenly divided. 
 It referred to the Republicans as the principal objectors, 
 and mentioned those Democrats who believed they could 
 carry the State in 1885. The conclusion was that the 
 matter would be discussed widely before and at the State 
 conventions. 438 
 
 The Greenback State Convention, which was held at 
 Des Moines late in August, consisted of three hundred 
 and ten delegates representing sixty-six counties. It was 
 not at all an harmonious meeting because of differences 
 of opinion over the question of fusion, the vote upon this 
 question standing 225 in favor and 88 against. The con- 
 vention nominated six presidential electors and two can- 
 didates for State offices, leaving the remaining places to 
 be filled by the Democrats. There was a general feeling 
 in favor of trying to obtain six electoral votes for Butler 
 and seven for Cleveland in preference to giving the thir- 
 teen votes of the State to Blaine. The Iowa State Press 
 indulged in unusual praise of the Greenbackers for their 
 adoption of the fusion policy. It described the action as 
 taken by them in their "largest and most thoroughly rep- 
 resentative as well as most enthusiastic convention ever 
 held in Iowa". 439 The Democratic State Convention rati- 
 fied what Congressman Weller aptly described as the "co- 
 operative ticket". Apparently there was unusual unan- 
 imity of opinion, for twenty or more speakers all favored 
 the action which seems to have received the general en- 
 dorsement of the delegates "as a means by which to 
 break the long, insolent domination of the Clarkson ring 
 
THE GREENBACK PARTY IN IOWA 191 
 
 politicians." Ex-Senator Doolittle of Wisconsin was de- 
 scribed as making a "noble speech" after the nomina- 
 tions were completed. 440 
 
 At the Greenback convention the platform was adopted 
 with little discussion. Delegates to the national conven- 
 tion at Indianapolis in May had been nominated by the 
 State committee. The delegates at large were Weaver, 
 Gillette, Weller, and W. S. Kenworthy — the latter hav- 
 ing been described in 1883 as "half preacher, half lawyer 
 [and] entire political blatherskite from Mahaska coun- 
 ty." 441 Weaver was the permanent president of the 
 national convention and Gillette was a member of the 
 committee on resolutions. 442 
 
 A group of Greenbackers, opposed to fusion, arranged 
 for a convention to be held at Cedar Eapids in October 
 to put a regular ticket in the field and to nominate a can- 
 didate for Congress against General Weaver. They 
 finally concluded not to nominate and simply issued an 
 address. 443 
 
 The election resulted in the choice of the Blaine elec- 
 tors, but by a vote that was the smallest given a Eepub- 
 lican candidate for President since 1860. The votes for 
 presidential electors at large were : Eepublican, 197,087 
 and 197,075 ; Fusion, 177,286 and 177,316. The congres- 
 sional delegation stood seven Republicans and four Fu- 
 sion. James B. Weaver was elected to Congress a second 
 time from the sixth district on a fusion ticket. 444 
 
 In October the Iowa State Press declared that "our 
 greenback friends have come up nobly to assist in the 
 fight against the common enemy, and their support in- 
 sures .... the utter rout of the monopolistic can- 
 didates. ' ' 445 The conclusion to be drawn from the results 
 of the election is that the Greenbackers contributed very 
 
192 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 materially to the Democratic success in the country at 
 large. In a certain sense the first Democratic national 
 victory since the Civil War may be regarded as the cul- 
 mination of the Greenback movement : most certainly the 
 Greenback party was a potent factor in the result. As 
 has frequently happened in the history of third parties, 
 real gains are recorded in the votes cast for, or taken 
 away from the two great parties. 
 
 Again, in 1885 fusion with the Democrats was the chief 
 topic of discussion at the Greenback State Convention. 
 Mr. Weller, chairman of the meeting, favored fusion if it 
 did not involve principles, suggesting that a full ticket 
 be nominated, giving the State committee authority to 
 make changes that might seem necessary or desirable. 
 "The speech of the day" was made by Congressman 
 Weaver who said that he was tied to no party, favored 
 cooperation with the Democrats to overthrow the Bepub- 
 licans, and was not afraid of fusion ; for if the Democrats 
 absorbed them they would have to become Greenbaekers 
 to do it. He said there were two methods to be followed 
 by the Greenbaekers. One was the Solon Chase way to 
 go straight and kill the party as Chase did in Maine. 
 ' ' But he ran the party so near to the republicans that the 
 distance was short enough so that he could reach out his 
 hand and receive the money into his palm." 
 
 The second plan was the Michigan method, where "all 
 of our principles are adopted by the democrats and you 
 cannot to-day tell a greenback audience from a demo- 
 cratic audience. . . . The republican party in that 
 state is overthrown by this fusion of the democratic and 
 greenback parties." Mr. Weaver declared that he had 
 known the politics of the State for twenty-five years, and 
 that "we are going to carry the state this fall". The 
 
THE GREENBACK PARTY IN IOWA 193 
 
 Iowa State Register, he said, had denounced Greenback- 
 ers "as cranks and lunatics", but now they have become 
 afraid and call them "pretty good men. . . . When 
 they get afraid of you, that is the next thing to victory. ' ' 
 He believed that fusion would secure a Greenback Lieu- 
 tenant Governor and State Superintendent and an anti- 
 monopoly Governor and Judge and possibly an entire 
 Greenback ticket. 
 
 General Weaver was made permanent chairman of the 
 convention, and a motion to nominate only Lieutenant 
 Governor and State Superintendent was adopted by a 
 vote of 370!/2 to ll- 1 2- The Democratic convention dis- 
 cussed fusion, but as sentiment was overwhelmingly in 
 favor of the proposition no vote was taken. General 
 Weaver addressed the Democrats upon the Greenback 
 position. 446 
 
 The election resulted in the success of the Republicans 
 by a narrow margin, Governor Larrabee receiving 175,- 
 504 votes, compared with 168,525 for the Democratic can- 
 didate. Mr. Larrabee 's plurality was only 5,216. Thus 
 it appears that fusion almost wiped out the Republican 
 margin. The Greenback candidates on the fusion ticket, 
 Gillette for Lieutenant Governor and F. W. Moore of 
 Davis County for Superintendent, received 167,723 and 
 166,306 votes respectively. Dissatisfied Greenbackers vot- 
 ed for Elias Doty for Governor, who received 314 votes — 
 Mahaska County gave sixty-one votes; while Dallas, 
 Davis, Harrison, and Linn were the only other counties 
 that contributed any considerable number. 447 
 
 In a quotation from The Des Moines Leader one gets a 
 view of the political situation after the election. "The 
 democrats are free to accord to Gen. Weaver the credit 
 due him for his invaluable help in the contest just closed. 
 
194 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 He is not only the most effective speaker, but he is one of 
 the best organizers in the state .... With the help 
 of two more such men we should have carried the state by 
 a nice majority. He has the gratitude and the warm 
 esteem of every democrat in the state. 
 
 "Mr. Gillette, likewise, did good service for the joint 
 ticket. He made many speeches, and good ones. He 
 used his influence with the rank and file of his party to 
 prevent local jealousies. And in all respects he main- 
 tained a dignified and sensible course .... the 
 close of the campaign finds them in better humor with 
 each other than the parties to a defeated coalition could 
 reasonably be expected to be. . . . The enemy is 
 staggered by the result, and a happy republican dt>es not 
 exist in Iowa to-day. Everybody sees the handwriting 
 on the wall." 448 
 
 In May, 1886, an anti-fusion Greenback convention met 
 at Cedar Rapids, composed of from thirty to forty dele- 
 gates. The leaders of this section of the Greenbackers 
 declared they were through with General Weaver. Mr. 
 W. S. Kenworthy of Mahaska County was said by the 
 Iowa Tribune to be the leader of this wing of the party. 
 
 Early in July the regular State convention assembled 
 at Des Moines. As in the last two years fusion, coming 
 up at the beginning of the sessions, was the chief matter 
 of discussion. A committee was appointed to confer with 
 a committee named by the Democratic convention which 
 was in session at the same time, and this committee re- 
 ported an agreement made with the Democrats by which 
 the latter were to appoint four persons, one of whom 
 should be a Knight of Labor, and the Greenbackers were 
 to appoint two, both of whom were to be Knights of La- 
 bor; and these six persons were to arrange the terms of 
 
THE GREENBACK PARTY IN IOWA 195 
 
 fusion. This report was described as enthusiastically re- 
 ceived, and later on it was announced that the Democrats 
 adopted the Greenback platform and nominees. 
 
 Although the Cedar Rapids anti-fusion convention 
 nominated candidates, apparently no votes were cast for 
 them. General Weaver was reelected to Congress. 449 
 
 Fusion was still the source of party division in 1887 ; 
 and in June a convention under the name of Union Labor 
 was held at Marshalltown, about thirty-three counties 
 being represented by seventy-eight delegates. This con- 
 vention adopted a platform and nominated candidates, 
 but its proceedings were not satisfactory to those who 
 favored fusion. The ' anti-fusion faction was led by Mr. 
 Weller* and Mr. James R. Sovereign of Atlantic ; while 
 Gillette and Hoggatt led the opposing wing. The latter 
 section far outnumbered the former; but Weller suc- 
 ceeded An passing a resolution allowing those present to 
 cast the full vote of their county, and as a result the dis- 
 tant counties on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers and 
 in northwestern Iowa, though slimly represented, had as 
 much weight as the sixth and seventh districts that had 
 almost a full representation. Consequently, a minority 
 at once obtained a two-thirds vote, giving the anti-fusion- 
 ists control. 
 
 The dissatisfied Greenbackers met in Des Moines late 
 in August and issued an address to farmers and labor 
 men, but they made no nominations. In October the 
 State committee, which had been selected at Des Moines, 
 issued a short address regretting that the convention at 
 Marshalltown had not been harmonious, declaring the 
 platform satisfactory, and advising members of the party 
 to support the ticket since it was too late to select new 
 candidates. The Greenback vote was 14,283, as com- 
 
196 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 pared with 23,013 in 1883, the last year in which there 
 had been a straight Greenback ticket in the field. The 
 Democratic vote was 153,706, a loss of 14,000 from 1885; 
 and the ^Republican vote was 169,595, a loss of 6000 from 
 1885. The Democratic loss corresponds very closely with 
 the Greenback vote. Only one county, Dubuque, cast 
 more than one thousand Greenback votes. 450 
 
 In 1888 the Greenbackers got together and held only 
 one convention, which assembled at Marshalltown in 
 June, and at which it was agreed to put a straight ticket 
 in the field for the State election. The leaders were 
 Weller, Gillette, and Sovereign, and there were present 
 about one hundred delegates representing thirty-three 
 counties. There was considerable discussion over the 
 endorsement of "Weaver and Albert B. Anderson of the 
 eighth district for their action in Congress — Weller op- 
 posing the endorsement of the latter. Hoggatt opposed 
 the prohibition plank, not because he was opposed to pro- 
 hibition, but because its advocacy of that issue was de- 
 stroying the Bepublican party. Both resolutions were 
 adopted with very little opposition. Nominations were 
 made as usual. 
 
 Several Iowa Greenbackers were prominent in the Na- 
 tional Union Labor convention which was held at Cincin- 
 nati on May 14, 1888. Mr. Gillette as chairman of the 
 national committee called the convention to order. There 
 were seventeen Iowa delegates present. M. J. Caine, 
 Greenback candidate for Governor in 1887, was a memher 
 of the committee on credentials ; Weller was on the com- 
 mittee on permanent organization ; and W. H. Eobb of 
 Creston was a member of the committee on resolutions 
 and read the platform. 
 
THE GREENBACK PARTY IN IOWA 197 
 
 Election returns gave the Greenbackers 9005 votes in 
 Iowa — four hundred less than in 1876 and a falling off 
 of 5,278 from 1887. The Democratic vote was 180,455, 
 a gain of 26,749 from 1887 ; while the Republican vote was 
 211,577, a gain of 41,982 over that of the preceding year. 
 The great parties were recovering from the effects of 
 the Greenback movement. The largest Greenback show- 
 ing was in Union County, where 460 such votes were 
 cast. 461 
 
 A Greenback Union Labor convention was held at Des 
 Moines in September, 1889, the sentiment of which was 
 strongly against fusion. Mr. Weller introduced a resolu- 
 tion against fusion which was adopted after a lively de- 
 bate by a vote of 151 to 30. Resolutions were passed 
 favoring the nomination of candidates for the United 
 States Senate by the different political parties and pro- 
 posing the naming of General Weaver as the Union Labor 
 candidate for Senator. Gillette presented the platform, 
 and the usual nominations were made. At the election 
 that year the vote for these candidates was 5,773. Elias 
 Doty also received fifty-four votes as a Greenback can- 
 didate for Governor. The highest vote for Greenbackers 
 was in Davis County, where five hundred votes were cast. 
 
 The election of 1889 was notable in Iowa as giving to 
 the Democrats their first Governor since the Civil "War. 
 Their candidate, Horace Boies, received 180,111 votes, as 
 compared with 173,538 for the Republican candidate. The 
 chief influence in determining the outcome of this cam- 
 paign was the prohibition issue — a great number of Re- 
 publicans in the river counties, where the sentiment for 
 license was strong, voting for Mr. Boies. This accounted 
 for the falling off of 38,039 votes for the Republican 
 
198 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 candidate as compared with the vote of the preceding 
 year. The Greenback issues had ceased for the time to 
 be of any great importance. 452 
 
 In August, 1890, a convention held at Des Moines was 
 composed of Union Labor men, old line GreejibaSferSj 
 Knights of Labor, Grangers, and other representatives: 
 indeed, it is difficult to tell just what was included. Gen- 
 eral Weaver and Daniel Campbell of Monona, Greenback 
 candidate for Governor in 1879, addressed the meeting. 
 W. H. Robb, Gillette, and Hoggatt took a prominent part, 
 but Weller was not mentioned. ' It was said that General 
 "Weaver did not wish to identify himself too closely with 
 Union Labor for fear of hurting himself with the Demo- 
 crats. 453 The committee on credentials reported 135 dele- 
 gates, and the Iowa Tribune claimed that enough came in 
 later to bring the number up to two hundred. Two Des 
 Moines papers reported the number as 161. . 
 
 The candidates nominated by this nondescript conven- 
 tion received 8813 votes, an increase over 1889 of 3234 
 votes, due undoubtedly to the new elements taken inland 
 the growing strength of Populism. One county, Monona, 
 gave twelve hundred votes. The Democratic vote was 
 188,240 as Compared with 180,111 in 1889 ; while the Ee- 
 publican vote was 191,606 as compared with 173,538 in 
 the preceding year. 454 
 
 The next year saw the birth of a newpoliticalpartvjn 
 Iowa — "the Peoples Party" which held its first State 
 convention at Des Moines in June. 
 
 The economic basis of the Greenback movement in 
 Iowa is to be found in * ' a study of the conditions of agri : 
 culture" in the State preceding and during its continu- 
 ance. During the decade of 1860 to 1870 "there was a 
 
THE GREENBACK PARTY IN IOWA 199 
 
 remarkable growth .... in population, in area 
 under cultivation, and in production, and since remunera- 
 tive prices ruled throughout most of this decade the agri- 
 cultural interests were exceedingly prosperous." The 
 increase in the population of the United States during the 
 decade was twenty-two and six-tenths percent, and of 
 Iowa seventy-six and nine-tenths percent. The number 
 of new farms established during the period was 55,129, 
 or an increase of ninety percent in Iowa. ' ' This enormous 
 increase in area under cultivation, of course, meant a 
 great increase in production. ' ' The amount of corn and 
 wheat produced almost doubled. Other factors that en- 
 tered into the increase were the introduction of agricul- 
 tural machinery, the influence of the Homestead Law, and 
 the stimulus of high war prices. 
 
 Again, persons engaged in agriculture under these con- 
 ditions "usually carried on their operations on a very 
 narrow margin: consequently they were among those 
 most seriously affected by the sharp decline in the 
 prices of agricultural products" which occurred in the 
 years from 1870 to 1880. When they found themselves 
 "pinched by the falling prices, they tried three different 
 means to relieve themselves. First, they attempted to 
 reduce the cost of transporting their products; second, 
 they tried to eliminate the commission of the middle man 
 through cooperative buying and selling through the 
 Grange ; and third, they demanded that the United States 
 Government increase the circulating medium. In fact the 
 fight against the railroads, the Granger movement, and 
 the Greenback movement are all phases of one large 
 movement. ' ' 
 
 A comparison of conditions in Iowa and Wisconsin 
 throws considerable light upon the economic factors in 
 
200 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 the Greenback agitation. There was in Iowa ' ' a marked 
 concentration of attention on a few staple grains, while 
 in Wisconsin agriculture was becoming more diversi- 
 fied .... In Iowa a much greater percentage of 
 the population was dependent upon agriculture, while in 
 Wisconsin much more attention had been given to manu- 
 facturing. ' ' 
 
 These different conditions were reflected in the Green- 
 back movement. "The year of the poorest yield per 
 acre of wheat in the history of both of these States was 
 the year of the organization of the Greenback party 
 and .... the years of the lowest prices and great- 
 est agricultural depression were also the years of the 
 greatest strength of the Greenback party, and .... 
 as prosperity returned the strength of the Greenback 
 party waned. If this was more than mere coincidence it 
 would be expected that the heaviest Greenback vote 
 would be found in that State which was more dependent 
 upon agriculture, and that this vote would also be heavier 
 in those sections of each State which were the most de- 
 pendent upon that industry. ' ' 
 
 The election returns show that "the Greenback vote 
 was not only heavier but continued over a longer period 
 of years in Iowa than in Wisconsin." The counties 
 where there was less manufacturing, where the assessed 
 value of land was less, where the total assessed valuation 
 per capita was lower, were the ones in which the Green- 
 back vote was the heaviest. The "Greenback counties" 
 were more frontier in character. 455 Like its predecessor, 
 the Anti-Monopoly party, and its successor, the Populist 
 party, the Greenback party found its economic basis in 
 the conditions of agriculture during its continuance. This 
 economic basis differentiated these parties from the older 
 
THE GREENBACK PARTY IN IOWA 201 
 
 organizations whose roots were largely historical and 
 political. Changing economic conditions were also re- 
 sponsible for the ephemeral nature of the movements to 
 which they gave rise. The distinctive character of these 
 so-called third parties can only be appreciated when they 
 are studied in the economic environment out of which 
 they developed. 
 
XIV 
 
 A CRUCIAL PERIOD — 1880 TO 1890 
 
 The years from 1880 to 1890 were crucial years in the 
 '"history of the struggle for human rights" in the United 
 ' States. 456 The^climax of the Greenback Labor movement 
 
 came in 1880 when General Weaver polledJita, largest 
 vote which had been received since the Civil- WarJjjLa 
 candidate for President not nominated by one of the two 
 leading parties. As has already been suggested the Dem- 
 ocratic victories of 1882 were the outcome of the agitar 
 tion of new issues, resulting in the concentration of the 
 .forces of opposition in the ranks of that party and giving 
 it at least a temporary majority. This situation cul- 
 minated in 1884 when Cleveland defeated Blaine. 
 
 Conditions in 1884 were complex and confusing. On 
 the surface General Butler's nomination seemed merely 
 a continuance of the Greenback Labor party, but more 
 careful observation brings to light a number of complica- 
 tions. Butler was first nominated by a convention of the 
 Anti-Monopoly party, and a few weeks later his can- 
 .didacy was accepted by the Greenback Labor party. He 
 went to the national convention of the Democratic party 
 the same year as a delegate at large from Massachusetts, 
 and after opposing unsuccessfully the ticket and platform — 
 he accepted the Anti-Monopoly and Greenback Labef— 
 nominations and advocated the consolidation of all the 
 elements of opposition into a "People's" party. Thus 
 the campaign was a comprehensive attempt to merge the 
 
 202 
 
A CRUCIAL PERIOD 203 
 
 different radical groups into a single party. The re- 
 duced vote, as compared with 1880, shows that the effort 
 was .premature, but the attempt may have contributed 
 something to later and more successful undertakings. 467 
 
 How radicals viewed the situation is shown by the fact 
 that Henry George regarded Butler as insincere and a 
 mere "decoy duck for the Republican party." He op- 
 posed Blaine because of what he called the "protection 
 humbug", and he was "utterly disgusted with the atti- 
 tude, of the Democratic party. It is a mere party of 
 expediency, and as such can never win." Cleveland's 
 nomination, he declared, was an expediency nomination. 458 
 
 In The Story of a Labor Agitator Joseph R. Buchanan, 
 long identified with organized labor as an editor and 
 leader, says that "General Butler and his platform ap- 
 pealed especially to wage-workers, but they received very 
 little support from that quarter, the greater part of the 
 People 's party vote coming from the farmers. ' ' Buchan- 
 an refers to the doubt as to the genuineness of Butler's 
 campaign and remarks that he does not know as to the 
 truth of the charge, "but it was sufficient to keep many 
 workingmen from voting the People's party ticket. I 
 have always observed", he adds, "that only a slight fog 
 was necessary to obscure the political vision of the av- 
 erage workingman. ' ' 459 
 
 Among the contributing factors to the confused polit- 
 ical situation in 1884 were:- (1) the Knights of Labor; 
 (2) the so-called Single Tax movement, led by Henry 
 George; and (3) an agitation occasioned by the appear- 
 ance of "giant monopolies" controlling "transportation, 
 money, and the transmission of intelligence." 460 
 
 The Knights of Labor were the first organization of 
 labor on a really national scale. Locally they began in 
 
204 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Philadelphia in 1869, but it was not till 1878 that they 
 appeared as a national organization. This was in the 
 same year in which a partial union of Greenback and 
 Labor forces was arranged at Toledo ; and it was also the 
 year in which the Greenback Labor vote reached its larg- 
 est numbers (1,000,365), exceeding that of the presi- 
 dential year 1880. 461 Very naturally these different activ- 
 ities influenced each other, and it was almost impossible 
 for the Knights of Labor to confine themselves to non- 
 political work for the benefit of workingmen. Frequently 
 recurring strikes also added to the difficulties of the situ- 
 ation. 462 Under these conditions the Knights became in- 
 volved in politics, and after reaching a membership of 
 about 500,000 in 1885 463 they began to decline and were 
 gradually replaced by the American Federation of Labor 
 which has very largely limited itself to non-political mat- 
 ters. 
 
 Henry George's Progress and Poverty was published 
 in 1879 and became under his leadership the basis for a 
 discussion of social conditions, especially as influenced 
 by taxation, which has had a far-reaching influence and 
 which in its main contentions has had a very wide ac- 
 ceptance. During these years Henry George was con- 
 spicuous chiefly as a radical and as a labor leader, and 
 his influence upon these movements was noteworthy and 
 extended to foreign countries. His organizing ability 
 and his effectiveness as a public speaker made him one of 
 the vital forces in a formative period. 464 
 
 Reference has already been made to the beginning of a 
 new Anti-Monopoly party and to a remarkable article 
 contributed to the Atlantic Monthly in 1881 by Henry D. 
 Lloyd, which article was occasioned to a considerable ex- 
 tent by the formation of aggregations of capital such as 
 
A CRUCIAL PERIOD 205 
 
 the Standard Oil Company. 465 These industrial combina- 
 tions, added to the unrest already existing as a result of 
 the agitation concerning railroad and money monopolies, 
 aroused the fears of classes that had not been stirred by 
 earlier protests. At the same time the coherence of the 
 general radical movement was reduced and its working- 
 efficiency weakened. The practical outcome was a re- 
 duced vote for General Butler in 1884 and the success of 
 the Democrats. 
 
 In 1886 the so-called "Chicago Anarchists" gave a 
 lurid and violent aspect to the whole radical movement 
 and frightened away many of the more timid and con- 
 servative supporters. A few of the more discerning men 
 of the period interpreted this outbreak in its true rela- 
 tions ; they viewed it as merely a violent incident in what 
 was on the whole a peaceful agitation for the reduction 
 of the hours of labor. The efforts of men like Henry 
 D. Lloyd to have the Anarchists treated with justice was 
 beyond the comprehension of the dominant opinion of the 
 time and was treated, as was the later pardon of the sur- 
 vivors by Governor Altgeld in 1893, as the act of persons 
 either mentally unbalanced or criminally inclined. Prob- 
 ably it was too much to expect men of that period to see 
 things as clearly as they can be seen after the lapse of 
 years. That we have gained in social vision was illus- 
 trated in the trial of the Lawrence Strike leaders when 
 compared with the methods used in dealing with their 
 Chicago predecessors. In both cases the violence was an 
 incident, perhaps an inevitable incident, for which society 
 as well as the individuals was responsible. 466 
 
 The years between 1884 and 1888 witnessed an attempt 
 to organize the radical elements of the country under 
 labor leadership. The Greenback Labor party gradually 
 
206 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 disappeared and ' ' a wave of labor parties swept over the 
 country, with which Socialists in several localities made" 
 common cause. " 467 
 
 The most important of these new parties was the Union ' 
 Labor party which was formed at Cincinnati on February 
 22, 1887, by delegates "from the labor and farmers' or- 
 ganizations, including the Knights of Labor, the Agricul- : ' 
 tural Wheelers, the Corn-growers, the Homesteadry, 
 Farmers' Alliances, Greenbackers, and Grangers." The. 
 party placed State tickets in the field in several States in 
 1887 and in "nearly all the Western States" in 1888. 468 
 
 Buchanan in The Story of a Labor Agitator gives an, 
 excellent description of the situation in 1888, when there 
 were many rumors of parties that were "to wipe the old- 
 parties off the face of the earth and secure the establish- 
 ment of a people's government. Division of the inde- 
 pendent political forces into one, two, or half a dozen 
 parties has ever been the bane of progress in this coun- 
 try. During the sixteen years preceding 1888 there had 
 been attempts under a dozen different banners, and upon : 
 as many platforms, to wrest government from the control 
 of the monopolistic money power of the land. I had 
 taken part in several of these attempts. We had failed 
 utterly in almost every instance ; our successes had been 
 insignificant and of no practical benefit .... Thefts. 
 orf public lands, credits, and franchises had gone on .at a 
 constantly accelerating rate .... Realizing that all, 
 future efforts, if directed along the lines we had been fol- 
 lowing, were doomed in .advance to failure, I made a sug- 
 gestion embodying another policy .... My proposal 
 was discussed in hundreds of reform and labor papers; 
 throughout the country and accepted by many of them, 
 
A CRUCIAL PERIOD 207 
 
 and as 'Buchanan's nine word platform' was for six 
 months a frequent topic .... 
 
 "The writer [of the platform] has sat in two different 
 national conventions which were called for that purpose 
 [union], and he has participated in the failures. . . . 
 Men representing a dozen different shades of opinion 
 have come together, ostensibly to pool their issues and 
 amalgamate the elements .... The upshot of the 
 business has been a few truces ; the stronger faction has 
 written the platform, while the rest have gone home sore- 
 headed and — and the millionaires have continued to run 
 the machine .... There must be a union of the 
 following forces : The Union Labor Party, United Labor 
 Party, Progressive Labor Party, American Eeform Par- 
 ty, the Grange, the Tax Eeformers, The Farmers' Alli- 
 ance, Anti-monopolists, Homesteaders, and all other 
 political and politico-economic organizations of bread- 
 winners. How is this amalgamation to be brought 
 about? .... By putting into it [the platform] the 
 one thing that all the elements approve ; by leaving out 
 everything upon which there is division. Is there one 
 thing that all the elements endorse, regardless of their 
 other demands? There is: Government ownership and 
 operation of the railroads and telegraph. . . . Let 
 each wing of the reform movement withhold for twelve 
 months its hobbies, and all join hands for a united on- 
 slaught upon one of the enemies' weakest, though most 
 important points. ' ' * 69 
 
 The nearest approach which the platform had to con- 
 sideration for political use was at the national conven- 
 tions of the United Labor and Union Labor parties in 
 1888. Dr. Edward McGlynn of New York City had writ- 
 
208 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 ten endorsing it and urging Buchanan to be present in 
 Cincinnati to advocate it as a method of union for the two 
 parties. Charles Gr. Dixon, a labor representative in the 
 Illinois legislature, called upon Buchanan and urged him 
 to go to Cincinnati. The author of the platform, how- 
 ever, felt that the plan should succeed on its merits and 
 refused to go. Of course, the document was never 
 adopted. 470 
 
 The Union Labor party held its first and only nom- 
 inating convention to select candidates for President and 
 Vice President at Cincinnati on May 15, 1888. The con- 
 vention, which was attended by two hundred and seventy- 
 four delegates from twenty-five States, nominated for 
 President Mr. Alson J. Streeter of Illinois and for Vice 
 President Mr. Charles E. Cunningham of Arkansas. The 
 platform opposed land monopoly, the importation of con- 
 tract labor, and Chinese immigration; and it favored the 
 ownership of the means of transportation and communi- 
 cation by the people, a graduated income tax, the direct 
 election of United States Senators, and equal suffrage. 
 "The paramount issues to be solved in the interests of 
 humanity are the abolition of usury, monopoly, and 
 trusts, and we denounce the Democratic and Bepublican 
 parties for creating and perpetuating these monstrous 
 evils." 471 
 
 In his letter of acceptance the candidate for the Presi- 
 dency declared that the "prosperity of a Nation is meas- 
 ured by the prosperity of its industrial people. If they 
 are prosperous, then the Nation is prosperous, indeed: 
 but if its producing people are struggling with poverty, 
 taxes and debt, then the nation is poor, though its treas- 
 ury, like ours, be overflowing with idle money. Such is 
 the condition of our Nation to-day. ' ' 472 
 
 "The Union Labor party drew its support from the 
 
A CRUCIAL PERIOD • 209 
 
 Greenbackers, the farmer organizations, and the older 
 labor-reformers. ' ' 473 Woodburn in his Political Parties 
 and Parti) Problems in the United States describes it as 
 "formed by a union of the 'Greenback Labor Party', of 
 rural constituency, with the city trades-union organiza- 
 tions which have been demanding labor and industrial 
 reforms. ' ' 474 
 
 The United Labor party was the outgrowth of the cam- 
 paign of 1886 in New York City, when Henry George 
 was nominated for mayor and made a phenomenal run, 
 polling 68,110 votes, while Theodore Roosevelt, the Re- 
 publican candidate, and Abram S. Hewitt, the successful 
 Democratic candidate, received 60,435 and 90,552 votes, 
 respectively. 475 This success led to the entry of Mr. 
 George and his supporters into the State campaign; in 
 August, 1887, he was nominated for Secretary of State 
 upon a platform substantially the same as that upon 
 which he had run for the mayoralty. The presence of 
 Socialist delegates in the convention that named him 
 caused trouble and they were finally excluded upon tech- 
 nical grounds. These excluded delegates formed the Pro- 
 gressive Labor party in New York City ; but at the ensu- 
 ing election they cast only 7,500 votes, while George 
 himself polled only a few over 70,000 votes. Thus Henry 
 George failed to receive an appreciably larger vote in the 
 State at large than in the municipality. 476 Whatever in- 
 fluence remained in these groups was apparently used in 
 behalf of their candidate for mayor in 1888, who received 
 fewer than 10,000 votes. 477 As a result of Henry George 's 
 activity in 1886 Mr. Buchanan placed his name on the 
 editorial page of his paper "For President in 1888" and 
 added the comment that many believed that he was 
 "elected, but counted out." 478 
 ^Illinois was the only other State in which the United 
 
210 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Labor party was active. In 1887 in the city election in 
 Chicago the nominees of the party were "all workingmen 
 and members of labor organizations. ' ' The candidate for 
 mayor was an iron-molder regularly employed- in-eireT5f- 
 the foundries. They secured 24,000 out of 78,000 votes 
 and elected one alderman. A few months later they made 
 nominations for judges, but the results were less satisfac- 
 tory as, of course, there were no lawyers among them. 
 In addition the party labored under unusual disadvan- 
 tages because of the very natural confusion between 
 labor organizations and the ' ' Anarchists ' \ 479 
 
 The national convention of the United Labor party met 
 at Cincinnati the day after the [Inion Labor party as- 
 sembled — ninety delegates being in attendance. As its 
 candidate for President it nominated Robert H. Cowdrey 
 of Illinois and for Vice President William H. T. Wake- 
 field of Kansas. The platform emphasized as a "funda- 
 mental wrong — the making of the land on which all must 
 live the exclusive property of but a portion of the com- 
 munity" — and it favored the use of legal tender notes 
 instead of the existing banking system, the government 
 ownership of railroads and telegraphs, labor legislation 
 as merely remedial, the simplification and diminution of 
 the expense of legal processes, and the Australian bal- 
 lot. 480 
 
 Unsuccessful efforts to unite the two labor parties were 
 made, and early in August a conference of leaders was 
 held in Chicago for that purpose ; but as the Union Labor 
 representatives demanded the withdrawal of the entire 
 United Labor ticket, no agreement was reached. The 
 canvass of the smaller party was "not pushed with en- 
 thusiasm, and except in New York and Illinois it polled 
 only a scattering vote. ' ' 481 
 
A CRUCIAL PERIOD 211 
 
 In 1888 Henry George himself, speaking at a series of 
 crowded mass meetings in Cooper Union, supported Mr. 
 Cleveland upon the tariff issue. It was charged that 
 some of the managers of the United Labor party had 
 openly worked for the Republican candidate on election 
 day. Perhaps the charge was made with reason, as one 
 of the early acts of the new administration was to ap- 
 point several members of that party to federal offices. 482 
 
 The olog+in-n rp°"H- g fr>r i««« yixra the Union Lahor 
 party nearly 147,000 votes, 483 of which the distribution 
 geographically 484 was as follows : western and northwest- 
 ern States, 97,236; southern and southwestern States, 
 40,333; middle States, 6,011; Pacific States, 1,629; and 
 New England States, 1,627. 
 
 States contributing more than five thousand votes were 
 the following: Kansas, 37,726; Missouri, 18,632; Iowa, 
 9,105; Wisconsin, 8,552; Illinois, 7,090; Texas, 29,459; 
 and Arkansas, 10,613. 
 
 Consequently the bulk of the vote — 117,000 out of 
 147,000 — came from the "West and South, as had the vote 
 of previous radical and reform parties. In other words 
 the Union Labor party was to a large extent a new name 
 for the Greenback Labor party. Such an opinion is also 
 supported by the presence in the party of many of the 
 leaders who had been active in the earlier party. It 
 failed as have all attempts down to the present time to 
 unite effectively the radicals of the West and South with 
 similar groups in the industrial sections of the East. 
 
 The Greenback Labor party gradually disappeared and 
 in its place emerged the Union Labor party. During 
 1885 the Greenback vote in New York, Pennsylvania, and 
 Ohio was only a little more than two thousand in each 
 State. 485 In 1886 they figured in elections in Missouri, 
 
212 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Michigan, Nebraska, and Ohio in the West, and in Penn- 
 sylvania, New York, and Vermont in the East. 486 A call 
 was issued for a convention of the National Greenback 
 party at Cincinnati on September 12, 1888, but there is 
 no record of such a meeting. Another call signed by the 
 chairman of the national committee, for a conference at 
 Indianapolis in August, 1890, was issued, the purpose 
 stated being "to secure a better organization of the 
 Greenback party for the campaign of '92." 487 
 
 In Wisconsin in 1886 a Labor or People's State Con- 
 vention nominated a full State ticket and at the election 
 the vote for its candidate for Governor was 21,467, of 
 which 12,914 were cast in Milwaukee County. A Labor 
 Representative, Henry Smith, was elected to Congress 
 from the fourth district [Milwaukee]. 488 
 
 Union Labor efforts at State elections during the year 
 1887 led to the following results: 489 
 
 STATE 
 
 OFFICIALS 
 
 UNION LABOR VOTE 
 
 TOTAL V0T 
 
 Michigan 
 
 Judges 
 
 27,000-32,000 
 
 300,000 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Governor 
 Treasurer 
 
 24,711 
 
 700,000 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 Judge 
 
 16,000-18,000 
 
 700,000 
 
 Kentucky- 
 
 Governor 
 
 4,434 
 
 275,000 
 
 Nebraska 
 
 Judges 
 
 2,635 
 
 150,000 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 Governor 
 
 595 
 
 250,000 
 
 In 1888 the Union Labor party was active in nearly all 
 the States, but the statistics are very incomplete, in- 
 formation being available for only a small number of 
 States. In the South it appears that Alabama, Arkansas, 
 and Texas had State organizations, and very frequently 
 the Republicans named no candidates but supported the 
 Union Labor nominees. 490 
 
 In the West it appears that Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, 
 
A CRUCIAL PERIOD 213 
 
 Minnesota, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and Wis- 
 consin had full-fledged parties that nominated State tick- 
 ets and received a considerable vote. Of these States, 
 Kansas cast 35,837 votes for the candidate for Governor, 
 and Missouri recorded 15,438 votes for the same official ; 
 while in the other States named the vote ranged from 
 2000 to 9000. 491 In Minnesota a conference of farmers 
 and labor organizations nominated Ignatius Donnelly for 
 Governor; but a few weeks later Mr. Donnelly declined 
 and announced his intention of supporting "the Repub- 
 lican ticket as the surest way of securing the demands of 
 the laboring man." 492 
 
 In IllinoisJEenry D. Lloyd was nominated for Congress 
 from one of the Chicago districts after the Democrats 
 had asked him to be their candidate. The latter did not 
 actually nominate him when his acceptance bore the con- 
 dition that he would not make a speech or spend one cent 
 for campaign purposes. Because of his refusal to use 
 the customary methods his candidacy was described as 
 "Walking for Congress." 493 
 
 Eev. Gilbert De La Matyr headed the ticket as the 
 nominee for Governor in Colorado. De La Matyr was 
 the pastor of the First Methodist Church in Denver — 
 one of the wealthiest and most aristocratic churches in 
 that city. He had been a prominent Greenbacker and 
 always the friend of the workingmen. ' ' That friendship 
 finally cost him his Denver pulpit. ' ' 494 
 
 Among the eastern States it appears that Connecticut, 
 Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania had Union 
 Labor organizations, but New York and Pennsylvania 
 were the only States in which the party manifested any 
 strength. In New York the candidate for Judge received 
 3,841 votes, while the Socialist candidate received 3,523 
 
214 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 votes. In Pennsylvania the nominee for the same office 
 had 3,877 votes. To he sure this office does not give a 
 lahor party an opportunity to show its real strength be- 
 cause of the nature of the office and the need of legal 
 knowledge. 495 
 
 In December, 1889, at St. Louis an agreement was ar- 
 ranged between committees representing the Farmers' 
 Alliance and the Knights of Labor. The platform of 
 principles that formed the basis for the arrangement con- 
 tained seven main items: (1) the "abolition of national 
 banks and the substitution of legal-tender Treasury notes 
 issued in sufficient volume to do the business of the coun- 
 try on a cash system"; (2) the prevention of dealing in 
 futures of all agricultural and mechanical productions; 
 (3) the free and unlimited coinage of silver; (4) the pro- 
 hibition of alien ownership of land, and the reclamation 
 of land held by railroads and corporations in excess of 
 actual need — such land to be held for actual settlers 
 only; (5) taxation should "not be used to build up one 
 interest or class at the expense of another", and "all 
 revenues .... [should be] limited to the neces- 
 sary expenses of the Government, economically and hon- 
 estly administered"; (6) the issue by Congress of "a 
 sufficient amount of fractional paper currency to facilitate 
 exchange through the medium of the United States 
 mail"; and (7) the means of communication and trans- 
 portation should be "controlled by and operated in the 
 interest of the people, as is the United States postal sys- 
 tem." 498 
 
 The agreement and platform was signed by eighteen 
 representatives of the Farmers' Alliance and by three 
 representatives of the Knights of Labor. The numerical 
 relation of these two committees roughly corresponds to 
 
A CRUCIAL PERIOD 215 
 
 the comparative strength of the two main elements com- 
 posing the new radical party that was in process of for- 
 mation. Allowance, however, must be made for the fact 
 that the Knights of Labor were declining in strength and 
 that the Federation of Labor — which was the growing 
 organization — was unrepresented. The farmers were 
 still, as indeed they had been since the early seventies, 
 the backbone and major portion of the successive reform 
 movements. This St. Louis conference was held on the 
 eve of the appearance on the national stage of the Peo- 
 ple's or Populist party. 
 
 It was agreed that "the legislative committees of both 
 organizations [should] act in concert before Congress for 
 the purpose of securing the enactment of laws in har- 
 mony with the demands." No other kind of combined 
 action resulted from the conference since, because of "the 
 single-tax tendencies of the Knights, the farmers were 
 chary of any closer union." 497 
 
 Political happenings in Arkansas during the years 
 1888-1890 illustrate the relation of the Union Labor and 
 Populist parties as they existed in the South. A conven- 
 tion of the first-named organization met in April, 1888, 
 and adopted resolutions favoring the reforms asked for 
 by the Agricultural Wheel, Farmers' Alliance, and 
 Knights of Labor, and nominated a State ticket. The 
 candidates received the support of labor organizations, 
 "especially those of the farmers, of which the Agricul- 
 tural Wheel is the most considerable in the State." The 
 Republicans also accepted the nominations of the Union 
 Labor party. At the election in November the Demo-* 
 cratic majority was reduced by more than two thousand 
 votes. 498 
 
 The following year when only three judges were to be 
 
216 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 elected the Republicans nominated two candidates, ac- 
 cepting the "Independent or Granger" candidate for the 
 third place. Little interest was taken in the election and 
 only about one-half of the regular vote was cast. 499 
 
 In 1890 the precedent of 1888 was followed, the Repub- 
 licans adopting the nominees of the Union Labor conven- 
 tion. The Democrats carried the election by an increased 
 vote over that of two years before ^- the plurality being 
 21,086 as compared with 1888, when it was 14,981. 500 
 
 Put the Democratic party in the "West in the place of 
 the Republicans in the South, think of the Democrats 
 fusing with the Independents or quietly going over to 
 them without party action, and supplement these forces 
 with many dissatisfied Republicans and you have the 
 genesis of the Populist party in that section and the basis 
 for its successes in 1890 and 1892. Each new party— 
 Granger, Greenback, and Populist — like advancing 
 waves on the beach, progressed a little farther, rose a 
 little higher, and threatened more seriously the rule of 
 the great parties. 
 
 A "Union party" appeared in Oregon in 1889 and 
 1890. It was described as an effort "to form an amal- 
 gamated party, which should include Prohibitionists, 
 Grangers, Free-Traders, Greenbackers, American party 
 men, Knights of Labor, Union Labor men, Woman Suf- 
 fragists, and any others disaffected with the two leading 
 parties. ' ' Many delegates attended the State convention ■ 
 at which the party was organized and the name adopted. 
 The object was declared to be "to secure influence and 
 standing in the canvass of 1890 by a union of forces." 
 
 The platform contained six main articles: (1) prohibi- 
 tion of the use of intoxicating liquors; (2) a national 
 monetary system without the intervention of banks ; (3) 
 
A CRUCIAL PERIOD 217 
 
 regulation of all transportation by national and State 
 law; (4) restoration of unearned land grants for actual 
 settlers; (5) requirement of ten years' residence for for- 
 eigners and "a definite test of knowledge of our institu- 
 tions as conditions of citizenship"; and (6) "arbitration 
 that will prevent strikes and other injurious methods of 
 settling labor disputes. ' ' 501 
 
 The party lasted over into 1890, when there was a 
 partial fusion with the Democrats, whose candidates for 
 Governor and Supreme Court Judge were endorsed. The 
 Democrats had renominated Governor Pennoyer who had 
 been elected in 1886 for the four-year term. They suc- 
 ceeded in reelecting him, but the remainder of the State 
 offices were filled by the Republicans. Pennoyer received 
 38,919 votes, as against 33,786 given to the Eepublican 
 candidate. Where the Union party made separate nom- 
 inations its vote was less than three thousand. The Dem- 
 ocrats favored free silver and the election of United 
 States Senators by direct vote. 502 
 
PART IV 
 THE POPULIST MOVEMENT 
 
XV 
 
 SOUBCES OF THE POPULIST PARTY 
 
 The period from 1880 to 1890 was a complex one. On 
 the surface the great event in politics was the defeat of 
 the Republicans in 1884 and the return to power of the 
 Democrats for the first time since 1860. A more dis- 
 criminating view will recognize the increasing influence 
 of economic forces upon the course of politics — especial- 
 ly in the West. The independent parties which began to 
 appear in the early seventies had come to be relatively 
 permanent features of American political life though 
 under changing names. Their activity assumed broader 
 aspects, extending from railroads and currency to indus- 
 try in general. Merely to mention two significant in- 
 tances, there were the Anti-Monopoly party of 1884 and 
 the Union Labor party of 1888. 
 
 These two parties bridged the interval between the 
 Greenback party and the People's party. The influences ^ 
 that led to the formation of the latter party are to be 
 found in the conditions in the West and South, particu- 
 larly during the years immediately preceding the year 
 1890. The business of farming was unprofitable. With 
 the best of management the average farmer could not/ 
 make both ends meet. ' ' Every year closes with debt, and 
 the mortgage grows till it devours the land. ... A 
 large share of recent corn crops has been consumed for 
 
 fuel ; and over vast areas wheat sells at from 
 
 40 to 50 cents, oats at from 9 to 12 cents, and corn at 
 
 221 
 
222 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS , 
 
 from 10 to 13 cents a bushel, and fat cattle at from ly 2 to 
 3 cents a pound. ' ' 503 
 
 Many reasons were given by the farmers for these con- 
 ditions, such as "mono-metallism, deficient or defective 
 circulating medium, protective tariffs, trusts, dressed- 
 beef combinations, speculation in farm products, over- 
 greedy middlemen, and exorbitant transportation rates." 
 Whatever may be the correct diagnosis of the situation, 
 there are strong reasons for believing that the root of the 
 difficulty was over-production; that more wheat, corn, 
 oats, beef, and pork had been raised than the country 
 could consume. 504 
 
 /'"Another cause of considerable importance was the 
 "enormous tribute which the farmers of the West are 
 j>aying to the money-lenders of the East". In Dane 
 County, Wisconsin, during the year 1889 the number of 
 mortgages filed was four hundred and sixty-seven; the 
 average amount was $1,252 ; the total amount was $584,- 
 727.80; and only nine were given for purchase money. 
 The logical inference must be that the larger proportion 
 of these mortgages were extorted by necessity. "Not 
 their hope of increased prosperity makes them incur 
 these debts so often as the pressure of obligations which 
 have been incurred and which must be met. ' ' 505 
 
 Some Kansas statistics of mortgages, gathered during 
 the spring and summer of 1890, while incomplete and un- 
 official, give a vivid impression of the actual situation. 
 Eighty-two cases show the conditions of 3,107 Kansas 
 farmers. Of these 350 had their farms free from mort- 
 gage, 1,030 occupied rented farms, and 1,727 held farms 
 under mortgage. The amount of money for which the 
 farms were mortgaged was $1,464,706. The average 
 mortgage exceeded one thousand dollars. As Kansas 
 
SOURCES OF THE POPULIST PARTY 223 
 
 was estimated to contain 270,000 farms, the total mort- 
 gage indebtedness among farmers was $146,563,000. 6011 
 Evidently there is in this exhibit one explanation of the 
 prominence of Kansas in the Populist movement — an 
 answer to the famous question "What is the Matter with 
 Kansas?" 
 
 As a matter of course the western settler has always 
 been a borrower of eastern capital. ' ' He needed money 
 at the outset to redeem the barren lands stretching out 
 before him. He has needed extra funds ever since to en- 
 large his original holding .... for years the 
 Western farmer has toiled assiduously, striving to save 
 enough to pay off his Eastern debt after providing at 
 least a decent living for his family. The harder he la- 
 bored, and the greater the amount of produce he sent to 
 Eastern markets, just so much the more difficult — or so 
 it seemed to him — it grew to keep up with the ever- 
 accruing interest on his Eastern farm mortgage. This 
 strange contradiction grew year by year more apparent, 
 and, though he discussed it vigorously with his neighbors, 
 still for a long time the true causes of the difficulty were, 
 beyond his comprehension. ' ' 507 
 
 The silver-miner pointed out to the perplexed farm-t 
 er the cause of the trouble. "Europe and the East' 
 had secretly demonetized" silver "to serve their own 
 ends .... only a war to the very knife with the 
 Money Power of the Eastern States could save" them. 
 While the farmer by increasing production was adding 
 to the number of business exchanges to be made, it was 
 pointed out by the advocates of silver, eastern bankers 
 and moneyed men had through the demonetization of 
 silver reduced by one-half the volume of the circulating 
 medium. That which remained was also constantly in- 
 
224 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 creasing in value from natural causes. Every piece of 
 money must, therefore, be made to do double work in 
 order that all exchanges should be carried out. The in- 
 terest paid to eastern money-lenders must be paid with 
 the reduced amount of money, while no change had been 
 made in the amount of indebtedness. The solution of the 
 problem was to be found in the free and unlimited coin : 
 rage of silver, by which the supply of money would be 
 'made sufficient to facilitate the business transactions 
 made necessary by the development of the last twenty 
 years, and by which the volume of the currency might be 
 constantly expanded to keep pace with the increased ex- 
 changes required by the future growth of agriculture. 
 By an increase in the amount of money better prices for 
 farm products would be secured, and means would be 
 obtained to pay off the burdensome eastern debts. A 
 scarcity of money, it was declared, was at the bottom of 
 all the trouble. 508 
 
 Another phase of the situation is .illustrated by the 
 statement that the "farmer has been content to re- 
 fer questions of finance to the banker. Every an* 
 tumn .... hundreds of millions of dollars worth 
 of crops" make "a demand for millions of currency. 
 The supply of money at that season is inadequate to meet 
 the demand. Hence, the price of crops falls relatively 
 and the price of money advances. / Year after year the 
 farmer has been forced to sell in a glutted market and 
 buy in times of scarcity. He demands a system of finance 
 that shall make the supply of money at all times equal' to 
 the demand.N He wants an elastic currency that shall do 
 the money work of the nation with justice to both buyer 
 and seller, to both creditor and debtor. /But the bankers 
 appear to confess that they cannot produce a medium of 
 
SOURCES OF THE POPULIST PARTY 225 
 
 exchange and a standard of deferred payment that is 
 capable of meeting the exigencies. ' ' 609 
 
 The result of the interaction of these different influ- 
 ences was the growth of a demand for the free coinage of 
 silver that "one might almost liken .... to the 
 religious doctrines of the early Middle Ages, so deep- 
 rooted is the Westerner's belief in its dogma .... 
 to each and every Westerner the free coinage of silver 
 became at once an intensely personal question, involving 
 as they all honestly believe, that most sacred right to the 
 fruits of their own toil. Against them they fancy they 
 see arrayed the great Moneyed Powers of Europe and the 
 East, ready to snatch the very bread from their mouths, 
 and anxious only to shackle them more closely to their 
 vested interests in the future than they have enslaved 
 them already in the past. Can it be a matter of surprise, 
 therefore, that a people who were already socially amal- 
 gamated should now unite in a strong political party to 
 accomplish their end, especially when the personal inter- 
 ests and honest convictions of every one demand the same 
 reform!" 510 
 
 The silver-miner and the farmer of the West found 
 allies in the South. The southern planters were heavily 
 burdened with debts — which had been contracted during 
 the period of Reconstruction — and they had also been 
 compelled to sell their crops "during the last twenty 
 years in a constantly falling market". The same argu- 
 ments could be used there as had been used in the West. 
 In the South, too, criticism of the tariff appealed to the 
 free-trade sentiment and was used to reinforce the argu-* 
 ment for the free coinage of silver. St. Louis as a manu^ 
 facturing district and a commercial center cooperated in 
 the hope of reestablishing the old-time importance of the 
 
226 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Mississippi River. In this way the West planned to boy- 
 cott the East, the manufacturing interests of which "must 
 deCirneTf^they cut off her supply of raw materials ; while 
 at the same time the industries of the Mississippi valley 
 will be forced into prominence. On the basis of free sil- 
 ver and free trade, a nourishing trade must then spring 
 up with the Silver-standard countries, which all need our 
 products, and in the end the Eastern States will find 
 themselves cut off from this market". 511 
 
 Evidently the plan was based upon the break-up of the 
 Solid South as a political unit. The South adopted to a 
 considerable extent the western propaganda for silver by 
 the conversion of the Democratic party to that doctrine, 
 but the Republican antecedents of many western Popu- 
 lists made the situation untenable, and the complete alli- 
 ance necessary to success failed to be accomplished. The 
 same race problem that has continued to prevent the 
 break-up of the Solid South down to the present time ran 
 counter to the plans of the western leaders in the free 
 silver agitation. 
 
 The western farmer found that he could not depend 
 upon the banker, the railroad manager, and. the politi- 
 cians, and that "the solution of the problem of the future 
 of American agriculture and of the American agricul- 
 turist" 512 rested upon himself. Such a conclusion made 
 the organization of the farmers a necessary first step to 
 future progress. Some of these organizations must now 
 be described. 
 
 The National Farmers ' Congress of the United States 
 was organized in 1881 and was composed of delegates 
 from each State, appointed by the Governors. It was 
 "non-partisan, deliberative and advisory" in its activity. 
 "Two hundred members, from the majority of the States, 
 
SOURCES OF THE POPULIST PARTY 227 
 
 attend the annual sessions, paying their own expenses. 
 They represent the more wealthy and better educated 
 agriculturists." B1 * 
 
 The character of the work carried on by the Congress 
 is suggested by the proceedings at some of its sessions. 
 One of "the most interesting" sessions of the body was 
 held at St. Paul on August 25-27, 1886, in which twenty- 
 seven States were represented. Henry Wallace of Iowa 
 discussed the "Farmer in Politics", showing to what ex- 
 tent the agricultural classes had been duped by the mod- 
 ern politician, and suggesting remedies. Mr. L. S. Coffin 
 of Iowa read an exhaustive and able paper on "Trans- 
 portation" which presented the arguments in favor of 
 general legislation on interstate commerce. 514 
 
 A meeting held at Montgomery, Alabama, on November 
 13-15, 1889, was described as "the largest gathering of 
 representative agriculturists of the United States ever 
 assembled." The resolutions adopted declared opposi- 
 tion "to all combinations of capital, in trusts or other- 
 wise, to arbitrarily control the markets of the country 
 to the detriment of our productive industries; and we 
 demand of the Congress of the United States such legis- 
 lation as will secure to farmers and stock raisers of the 
 country the best possible reward for their labor. ' ' Other 
 resolutions demanded that ' ' all farm products shall be as 
 fully protected as the most favored of the manufacturing 
 industries .... if protection to this extent be 
 denied, we call upon the farmers of the United States to 
 assert their power, at the ballot-box and otherwise, to 
 right the wrong and injustice of discrimination against 
 them .... the farmers of the United States are 
 called upon to support the nomination of no man for 
 President, Senator, or Representative in Congress who 
 
228 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 will not, to his utmost ability, aid in carrying out the 
 objects of the foregoing resolutions. ' ' They also favored 
 ' ' commercial treaties which will discriminate in favor of 
 those nations which accept silver as legal-tender money 
 as well as gold, and against those which have demonetized 
 silver." 515 
 
 These resolutions represent the most advanced posi- 
 tion assumed by the National Farmers' Congress upon 
 the live political questions of the time. A partial ex- 
 planation of this fact may be found first in the influence 
 of the president of the Congress, Colonel Reuben F. Kolb 
 of Alabama, who was active in the Farmers' Alliance, and 
 also in the time at which the meeting was held : 1889 was 
 the year when the political activity of the farmers was at 
 the point of actual emergence. The Congress reasserted 
 its non-partisan character in 1892 and condemned politi- 
 cal activity in the supposed interests of farmers directed 
 against the railroads in 1893. 516 
 
 The Grange, or Patrons of Husbandry, has been con- 
 sidered in earlier chapters. 517 "Having experienced the 
 flood and ebb of the tide which accompanies reform move- 
 ments", it has since the seventies occupied itself with 
 "the promotion of social intercourse and of distributive 
 cooperation. ' ' 518 
 
 The National Farmers' Alliance was formed in 1880 
 when the Grange was in a weakened condition as a result 
 of its political activity. It originated in Illinois ; it was 
 not secret ; and its purpose was to unite the farmers for 
 protection against class legislation. Each State organ- 
 ization was practically independent and consequently 
 there was little upon which to build up a national union. 
 "Dakota, Missouri and New York were its outlying posts, 
 within which the transportation question furnished a 
 
SOURCES OF THE POPULIST PARTY 229 
 
 common bond. ' ' Minnesota and Nebraska were its cbief 
 strongholds. This organization was commonly referred 
 to as the "Northern" Alliance. 519 
 
 The most powerful of the organizations was the Na- 
 tional Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union, usually 
 known as the "Southern" Alliance. As early as 1875 an 
 organization was formed in Texas. After an interval of 
 inactivity it was revived in 1880, but in 1886 the break-up 
 of this body seemed imminent. Through the efforts of 
 Mr. C. W. Macune correspondence was opened with the 
 representatives of the National Farmers' Alliance and 
 the Louisiana Farmers ' Union. In January, 1887, internal 
 differences were skillfully avoided by the proposal of a 
 general movement for the "organization of the cotton 
 belt of America." A fusion with the Louisiana Farm- 
 ers* Union was arranged and the name of National 
 Farmers' Alliance and Co-operative Union was adopt- 
 ed. 520 
 
 Another organization, the Agricu ltural Wh^ el, origi- 
 nated from the "common practice for the small planter" 
 in the South ' ' to mortgage his ungrown crop to the coun- 
 try merchant for seed and food supplies. As a rule these 
 mortgages were held to give only an equitable interest in 
 the produce, but in Arkansas, where they were known as 
 'anacondas' .... the mortgagee was given a lien 
 not only on a^j0fhe mortgagor had, but also on all that 
 he might in any manner acquire during the specified 
 time .... the planter was bound to harvest his' 
 crop at the earliest possible date and turn all of it over 
 to his creditor, who would give back the surplus, if there 
 was any." The result was practically a condition of; 
 serfdom. This condition of affairs resulted in the for- 
 mation of an organization in 1882 in. Arkansas which had 
 
230 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 by 1887 become a national body, claiming 500,000 mem- 
 bers scattered through the States from Wisconsin to 
 Alabama and Texas. 521 
 
 These two organizations were working in the same 
 field and some understanding became a necessity. A 
 union was formed and the first meeting of the new body, 
 which had adopted the name of the Farmers' and Labor- 
 ers' Union of America, was set for December, 1889, at 
 St. Louis. The National Farmers' Alliance had also 
 appointed the same time and place for its annual meeting, 
 and negotiations were started for the union of the two 
 great orders then remaining. Three demands were made 
 by the "Northern" Alliance: (1) a change of the name; 
 (2) negroes were to be eligible to membership; and (3) 
 secrecy should be optional with each State organization. 
 The first two points were granted, but the third was 
 refused — resulting in the failure of the attempt at union. 
 Kansas, North Dakota, and South Dakota deserted the 
 "Northern" Alliance and joined the secret organization. 
 
 At this St. Louis meeting a new constitution was adopt- 
 ed, and the name proposed by the "Northern" Alliance 
 
 — the National Farmers ' Alliance and Industrial Union 
 
 — was accepted. ' ' The legislative power is vested in the 
 Supreme Council of the Order. This council is composed 
 of the national officers, together ^Undelegates from the 
 various state organizations. It meeflNH^ally, elects the 
 usual officers, and makes all laws. The pUfcident, elected 
 by this council, is empowered to interpret the laws 
 through official rulings. Appeals from these rulings may 
 be heard by the judiciary department, which is composed 
 
 ' of three judges, elected for three-year terms, one judge 
 retiring each year. In addition to farmers, membership 
 is open to preachers, teachers and doctors residing in 
 
SOURCES OF THE POPULIST PARTY 231 
 
 rural districts, as well as to mechanics and editors of 
 agricultural journals. The two last-named classes were 
 restricted in 1890, the former by the requirement of 
 country residence, the latter by that of unquestioning 
 adherence to all Alliance demands. ' ' B22 
 
 The platform adopted at St. Louis was accepted by the 
 Knights of Labor and arrangements were made for joint 
 action for the purpose of securing legislation from Con- 
 gress. 623 The objects of the Alliance as stated in a "Dec- 
 laration" were similar to those of the original Texas 
 organization, which were ' ' substantially the same as that 
 of the National Grange in 1874. ' ' 
 
 The membership in the South was made up of small \ 
 farmers and mechanics; and in 1890 it claimed 3,000,000 
 male members, women being also eligible. It was "by 
 all odds the strongest and most aggressive of the farm- 
 ers' organizations". The requirement of secrecy, instead 
 of being an element of weakness, became "under the 
 skilful management of the men who have controlled it 
 from the first", a means of establishing a central author- 
 ity which gave to the order an effectiveness it could not 
 otherwise have attained. The location of the headquar- 
 ters at Washington also contributed to bring about a 
 similar result. 524 
 
 In 1883 the Faja^p' Mutual Benefit Association was 
 formed in IljigiJ^nd in 1887 a national organization 
 was establish^a which occupied "the country from Ne- 
 braska to North Carolina, between the two Alliances", 
 with its greatest strength in Illinois and Indiana. In 
 December, 1890, it claimed a membership of 150,000. It 
 came to be regarded, however, as ' ' only an appendage to 
 the 'Southern' Alliance", and like that body it was a 
 secret organization. 525 Its most significant activity was 
 
232 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 in connection with the senatorial election in 1891, when 
 three of its members held the balance of power in the 
 Illinois legislature and delayed the election of General 
 Palmer until one hundred and fifty-four ballots had been 
 taken. 526 
 
 Besides the organizations already mentioned there 
 were a number of others working along similar lines, 
 some in unison and others in opposition. The Colored 
 Farmers' National Alliance was founded in Texas in 
 1886, and in 1891 its adult male membership was esti- 
 mated as 700,000. Its work was mainly educational. The 
 Supreme Association of the Patrons of Industry of North 
 America originated in Michigan. It claimed a member- 
 ship of 80,000, and its avowed purpose was "to labor 
 together for the promotion of the interests of farmers 
 and employees, and the good of the nation of which we 
 are a part. ' ' 527 
 
 As the various organizations were formed, friction be- 
 tween them became frequent, and the desirability of com- 
 bination was generally recognized. The leaders of the 
 "Southern" Alliance were especially active in their ef- 
 forts to bring about a union of all the farmers ' organiza- 
 tions. At Ocala, Florida, a merger was effected between 
 the "Southern" Alliance, the Mutual Benefit Associa- 
 tion, and the Colored Alliance; an^^t Washington in 
 January, 1891, delegates met repreH^tottthe "South- 
 ern" Alliance, the Knights of Labor, anrrthe Citizens' 
 Alliance, a secret organization whose purposes were 
 similar to those of the farmers and which aimed to in- 
 clude "the great body of business and professional men" 
 who "come in daily contact with the farmer" and "not 
 only sympathize with him, but in a business way are com- 
 pelled to share his losses and misfortunes." According 
 
SOURCES OF THE POPULIST PARTY '233 
 
 to "the terms of the Ocala agreement the confederation 
 which was formed was bound to accept the St. Louis plat- 
 form as a basis. In the confederation the committee 
 from each order is 'entitled to as many votes as it has 
 members who are legal voters'." The American Feder- 
 ation of Labor would not cooperate with the Alliances on 
 the ground that they were "composed of employing 
 farmers. ' ' 528 
 
 The "demands" of the farmers were contained in plat- 
 forms adopted by different meetings of their representa- 
 tives in 1889 and 1890, of which the St. Louis and Ocala 
 conventions were more often referred to. The St. Louis 
 platform of December, 1889, contained eight planks, 
 "concerning the free coinage of silver, abolition of na- 
 tional banks, sub-treasuries, plenty of paper money, gov- 
 ernment ownership of railroads, non-ownership of land 
 by foreigners, prohibition of futures in grain, and the 
 reduction of the nation's income to expenses." The 
 Ocala platform of December, 1890, differed very little 
 from the one adopted at St. Louis. "The sub-treasury 
 scheme was not endorsed .... and the govern- 
 ment ownership of railroads and telegraphs was changed 
 to government control. A reduction of heavy tariff du- 
 ties was here demanded". 529 
 
 The St. Louis and Ocala platforms represent the views 
 of the "Southern" Alliance. At the same time the 
 "Northern" Alliance adopted a platform, of which the 
 chief points were opposition to alien and corporate own- 
 ership of land; abolition of national banks and the gov- 
 ernment issue of money "in sufficient volum^ for the 
 requirements of business ' ' ; government bonds ; a graded 
 income tax; economy and retrenchment in governmental 
 expenditure; revision and reduction of the tariff; "the 
 
234 
 
 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 moral, manual and intellectual training of the young"- 
 government ownership and management of the railroads; 
 the payment of the debt of the Union and Pacific rail- 
 roads ; " a ship canal connecting the great lakes with the 
 Gulf of Mexico, and a deep water harbor on the southern 
 coast in view of opening trade relations with the Central 
 and South American states"; national aid to "experi- 
 ments to determine the practicability of irrigation''; 
 sympathy with the just demands of labor ; the Australian 
 ballot "or some similar system of voting"; "the enact- 
 ment of laws regulating the nomination of candidates for 
 public office"; and the "diversification of our productive 
 resources." Upon the points emphasized in these three 
 documents the political campaign of 1890 was waged. 
 Though no definite political party was formed until the 
 following year, the members of the Alliances had common 
 principles and to a considerable extent common leader- 
 ship. 530 
 
 In July, 1890, an official census of the National Farm- 
 ers ' Alliance and Industrial Union, made by the secretary 
 showed the membership as follows : 
 
 In the Southern States 
 
 Alabama 
 
 75,000 
 
 Missouri 
 
 150,000 
 
 Arkansas 
 
 100,000 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 100,000 
 
 Florida 
 
 20,000 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 50,000 
 
 Georgia 
 
 100,000 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 100,000 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 80,000 
 
 Texas 
 
 150,000 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 20,000 
 
 Virginia 
 
 50,000 
 
 Maryland 
 
 5,000 
 
 West Virginia 
 
 2,000 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 60,000 
 
 
 
 
 
 Total 
 
 1,062,000 
 
SOURCES OF THE POPULIST PARTY 235 
 
 
 In the "Western States 
 
 
 Colorado 
 
 5,000 Kansas 
 
 100,000 
 
 Illinois 
 
 2,000 North Dakota 
 
 40,000 
 
 Indiana 
 
 5,000 South Dakota 
 
 50,000 
 
 Total 202,000 
 The secretary stated that the membership, including 
 some estimates for States not fully organized, was 
 1,269,500, scattered through twenty-two States. "Since 
 Aug. 1, 1890, when these figures were compiled, the 
 growth of the order has been large in nearly all the 
 States, and the claim that the Alliance contains 3,000,000 
 members is perhaps correct. ' ' BS1 
 
XVI 
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OF 1890 AND THE FORMATION 
 OF THE NEW PARTY 
 
 The "campaign of 1890 was the most thrilling ever 
 known in the West. The country school-houses were 
 packed with excited throngs. County, district and State 
 conventions were attended by great crowds of eager, 
 earnest and indignant farmers. The excitement and en- 
 thusiasm were contagious, and the Alliance men deserted 
 their former parties by thousands. Putting a gill of fact 
 and grievance into a gallon of falsehood and lurid decla- 
 mation, these oratorical Alliance quacks doled out an in- 
 toxicating mixture. In vain the reports of the meetings 
 were suppressed by the partisan press. In vain the Ee- 
 publican and Democratic leaders sneered at and ridiculed 
 this new gospel, while they talked tariff and War issues 
 to small audiences. . . . All the ridicule, abuse and 
 evasion aided wonderfully the Alliance cause. Its mem- 
 bers shouted that they were being persecuted in their 
 'battle for human rights,' and converts came more rapid- 
 ly. Thus was produced that clamoring brood of Peffers, 
 Simpsons, Kems and McKeighans and the hundred other 
 political rain-makers who proclaimed their virtue on the 
 Western prairies in 1890. ' ' 532 
 
 The startling features of this remarkable campaign 
 were not confined to the West, but extended to the South 
 where "the action of the farmers was analagous to that 
 tersely described by the president of a state Alliance in a 
 
 236 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OP 1890 237 
 
 private letter: 'Being Democrats and in the majority, 
 we took possession of the Democratic party. ' " 533 
 
 As a result of the congressional and State elections in 
 November, 1890, there were elected in the South through 
 Alliance influence three Governors, one United States 
 Senator, and thirty Congressmen — exclusive of the four- 
 teen from Missouri, where a Union Labor ticket compli- 
 cated the situation. The Alliance also controlled a ma- 
 jority in five State legislatures. In the "West the farmers 
 elected two United States Senators and eight Congress- 
 men. They had a majority in two State legislatures. 534 
 
 Again in this election "for a second time since 1874", 
 the Eepublicans Avere overwhelmed "by a tidal wave of 
 popular anger." "Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, 
 Kansas, and Nebraska elected forty-four Democrats and 
 Independents, and fifteen Eepublicans, in place of forty- 
 four Republicans and eighteen Democrats in 1888. The 
 Democrats gained a majority even in New England." 535 
 The most influential issue in this election was undoubted- 
 ly the McKinley Tariff Act, so far as the country at large 
 was concerned; but in the Middle West the "political 
 revolution" was just as certainly determined by the ac- 
 tivity of the farmers. As in 1874 and 1882 the strength 
 of the "third party" was registered in the votes taken 
 away from the Republicans and given partly to inde- 
 pendent candidates and partly to the Democrats. The 
 new force in politics ' ' sided uniformly with the Democra- 
 tic party" in the South, "but in the Western States it 
 worked, for the most part, outside of both the Republi- 
 can and the Democratic party, although its strength was 
 drawn more largely from the Republicans." 53e 
 
 The way in which the general results of the election 
 were accomplished is shown by an examination of the 
 
238 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 campaign in the different States. In Florida "members 
 of the Farmers ' Alliance formed a large portion of the 
 convention [Democratic], and were conspicuous in its 
 proceedings. The platform is as much a declaration of 
 alliance principles as of Democratic doctrine." At the 
 November election the Democrats elected nearly all the 
 members of the legislature, "a majority of whom are 
 also members of the Farmers' Alliance." 537 
 
 During 1889 the growth of the Farmers' Alliance in 
 Georgia was so rapid, that when early in 1890 it became 
 active in politics, it found itself able to dictate terms to 
 the Democrats. It announced through its officials "that 
 every candidate for office, in order to receive the Alli- 
 ance support, must pledge himself to certain principles", 
 among which were legislation restricting railroads, the 
 revision of the tariff, the prevention of speculation and 
 combines, the abolition of the national banking system, 
 and the enactment of ' ' the Sub-Treasury bill of the Na- 
 tional Alliance now pending in Congress, or some better 
 system for the relief of the struggling masses". The 
 farmers controlled the Democratic convention and nom- 
 inated their candidate for Governor without opposition. 
 The Eepublicans made no nominations, and at the election 
 the Democratic candidates received the entire vote cast. 
 Only four members of Congress (out of ten) were reelect- 
 ed, "the others being defeated for renomination at the 
 primaries by the influence of the Farmers' Alliance." 538 
 
 In North Carolina the Democratic platform was "sub- 
 stantially a reaffirmation of the principles of the Farm- 
 ers' Alliance, whose members were in a majority in the 
 convention. ' ' 539 
 
 The campaign in South Carolina lasted more than nine 
 months, beginning in January, when the "Farmers' As- 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OP 1890 239 
 
 sociation" issued a call for a convention to be held in 
 March at which "the demands of the farmer were to be 
 formulated and a ticket for State officers put in the field, 
 for ratification or rejection by the regular Democratic 
 State Convention. . . . The convention adopted a 
 platform which recognized the allegiance of the delegates 
 to the Democratic party. The convention selected Ben- 
 jamin R. Tillman as its candidate for Governor". Their 
 candidate for Lieutenant Governor declined later "on 
 the ground that he could not subscribe to the platform, 
 although he was in sympathy with the farmers' move- 
 ment." No other nominations were made and it was 
 understood that the action of the convention was subject 
 to ratification by the Democratic State Convention. An 
 active canvass before the primaries was begun in May by 
 Mr. Tillman, who ' ' sought to unite the farmers under his 
 leadership against what he termed the ruling aristocracy 
 of the State." When the party conventions were held 
 in August and September, the "Tillmanites" outnum- 
 bered their opponents "nearly five to one." The Re- 
 publicans nominated no candidates and an independent 
 Democratic candidate nominated in October received only 
 14,828 votes to 59,159 votes cast for Mr. Tillman. "The 
 members of the Legislature, elected at the same time, 
 were all Democrats and largely followers of Tillman. ' ' 54 ° 
 
 Kansas was the State in the West where the farmers 
 won their most startling successes, and it came somehow 
 to be regarded as particularly representative of the Pop- 
 ulist movement. The statement made by a New York 
 editor that "we do not want any more States until we 
 can civilize Kansas" was answered by the question "Is 
 New York more Civilized than Kansas ? " M1 
 
 The campaign was ' ' remarkable for the breaking down 
 
240 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 of old party lines." The Farmers' Alliance began its 
 activity in 1888, and "during 1889 it enjoyed a surpris- 
 ing growth, absorbing the State Grange ", and beginning 
 the year 1890 with over 100,000 members. The growing 
 power of the organization tempted the leaders to enter 
 politics, and in order to avoid "transforming the Alli- 
 ance directly into a political organization, they united in 
 creating a so-called People's party, which adopted the 
 Alliance principles and which every Alliance man was 
 urged to support." The State convention of the new 
 party, which was held in August at Topeka, nominated a 
 State ticket and adopted a platform containing the cus- 
 tomary statements about the currency and banks. "The 
 Eepublicans became thoroughly alarmed at the defections 
 from their ranks, and, in their endeavors to hold the 
 party together went so far as to assail the character of 
 the gubernatorial candidate of the People's party. The 
 charges .... were based upon the official records 
 of the county court, and it is probable that the publication 
 of these records saved the Republicans from defeat. 
 They elected their entire ticket, with one exception, but 
 their plurality of nearly 80,000 in 1888 was reduced to 
 barely one tenth of those figures. ' ' The farmers elected 
 ninety members of the lower house of the legislature, 
 while the Republicans and Democrats elected twenty- 
 seven and eight, respectively. Of the ninety Alliance 
 representatives sixty-two had been Republicans. Of the 
 congressional delegation two were Republican and five 
 were People's and fusion. 542 
 
 The political contest in Nebraska, "exceeded in interest 
 any in recent years." There was a State-wide discus- 
 sion of prohibition, and at the same time the Alliance was 
 active among the farmers in arousing opposition to the 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OP 1890 241 
 
 railroads because of alleged excessive freight rates on 
 agricultural products. The tariff policy of the Repub- 
 licans was also attacked, and "the farmers were urged 
 to protest against the wrongs they were suffering, by 
 independent political action. ' ' In July a convention met 
 at Lincoln to form a "People's Independent" party, 
 composed of representatives of the State Grange, the 
 Farmers' Alliance, and the Knights of Labor. It also 
 named a State ticket and adopted a platform. There 
 were eight hundred and seventy-three delegates present, 
 representing seventy-seven counties. The proceedings 
 were stormy and the convention was described as "an 
 uncontrollable mob. " 543 "At the November election the 
 defection from the Republican ranks was so great as to 
 wipe out the usual Republican plurality for the head of 
 the ticket and to reduce the Republican plurality for the 
 remaining offices to a few thousand votes." On the face 
 of the returns the Democratic candidate for Governor 
 was elected by 1,224 votes over the Independent candi- 
 date. As soon as the results were "officially ascertained", 
 however, the Independents declared their intention of 
 contesting the election upon the grounds of ' ' fraud, con- 
 spiracy, intimidation, bribery, unlawful voting, and un- 
 lawful procedure in the election at Omaha, as well as 
 charges of bribery, unlawful voting, and unlawful pro- 
 cedure" in at least eleven specified counties. In the 
 State Senate the Independents had a majority and in the 
 House of Representatives they had fifty out of the one 
 hundred members. The congressional delegation was 
 composed of one Democrat, one Democrat and Independ- 
 ent, and one Independent. 544 
 
 A convention of the Farmers' Alliance and Knights 
 of Labor, held in South Dakota in June, decided by a vote 
 
242 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 of four hundred and thirteen to eighty-three to form a 
 new political party to be called the Independent Party. 
 Candidates were nominated by the new party at a conven- 
 tion held early in July. Mr. H. L. Loucks, President of 
 the State Farmers' Alliance, was the candidate nom- 
 inated for Governor. During the campaign the Independ- 
 ents ' ' showed unexpected activity, attracting large num- 
 bers of the agricultural class to its support ; but, although 
 its growth was largely at the expense of the Eepublican 
 party, the strength of that party was so great that its 
 entire ticket was elected by a considerable majority." 
 The Independents elected fourteen members of the State 
 Senate and forty-five members of the House of Bepre- 
 sentatives. 545 
 
 Independent action was taken in Minnesota during the 
 State campaign under Alliance leadership. At a conven- 
 tion held at St. Paul in July a platform was adopted and 
 nominations made for Governor and other State officers. 
 Some of these candidates were also nominees of other 
 parties. "The rapid growth in popularity of Alliance 
 principles was a marked feature of the canvass." All 
 the Eepublican candidates except one were elected, but 
 the independent candidates made a respectable showing. 
 They elected twelve members of the State Senate and 
 thirty-three members of the lower house. The congres- 
 sional delegation was made up of three Democrats, one 
 Republican, and one Alliance. 546 
 
 Representatives of the Patrons of Industry, the Farm- 
 ers ' Alliance, and various labor organizations formed the 
 Industrial party and nominated a State ticket in Michi- 
 gan. The election "resulted in the first complete triumph 
 of the Democratic party since the State election in 1854." 
 Eight Democratic and three Republican Congressmen 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OP 1890 243 
 
 were elected. The Industrial party candidate for Gov- 
 ernor polled 13,198 votes. 547 
 
 In Indiana ' ' delegates representing the former Green- 
 back-Labor party, the Farmers' Mutual Benefit Associa- 
 tion, the Farmers' Alliance, the Grange, and other farmer 
 organizations, political and otherwise, assembled at In- 
 dianapolis to form a new party in the interest of the 
 agricultural classes." They named the new party "the 
 People's party". Of the thirteen members of Congress, 
 the Republicans elected only two. Altogether 17,354 
 votes were cast for the head of the People's party 
 ticket. 548 
 
 The Prohibitionists and the Farmers ' Alliance formed 
 a coalition in North Dakota and a fusion ticket made up 
 of four Eepublicans, four Democrats, and four Independ- 
 ents was agreed upon. The candidate for Governor, an 
 Independent, received 4,821 votes, but all the Republican 
 nominees were elected. 549 
 
 In Colorado delegates from the "Farmers' Alliance, 
 the Union Labor party, and other organizations" met at 
 Denver in August to agree upon an "independent fusion 
 ticket for State officers." The election, though compli- 
 cated by local issues, resulted favorably to the Republi- 
 cans by a reduced vote. 650 
 
 Although the farmers in Illinois made no efforts to 
 nominate an independent State ticket, they were active 
 and in some cases nominated their own candidates for the 
 legislature. The only State officers to be elected were a 
 Treasurer, Superintendent of Public Instruction, and 
 Trustees of the State University. The Republicans 
 elected only six of the twenty Congressmen — a loss of 
 seven. They were also defeated in the election for State 
 officers. 551 
 
244 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 The Farmers 7 Congress in 1889 declared that the farm- 
 ers were not bound to support any candidates "for Pres- 
 ident, Senator, or Representative in Congress" who did 
 not aid in carrying out the measures desired by them. 552 
 A State convention of farmers' organizations in Dela- 
 ware proposed in 1890 that a committee in each county 
 hold meetings "as speedily as possible after the tickets 
 of the political parties are nominated, to consider whether 
 or not the men so nominated are men who, if elected, will 
 represent the interests of the people, and recommend the 
 election of such only as in their judgment will represent 
 the people's interest." 553 
 
 The plan of action of the Farmers' Alliance (the 
 "Southern" Alliance) was "to agree first upon a needed 
 reform, and then endeavor to persuade each political 
 party to use its influence to legislate to that effect, and if 
 all the parties fail, it will devise ways to enforce it. . . . 
 If legislation can not be shaped in any other way, it will 
 nominate its own candidates." In its annual convention 
 at St. Louis in 1889 "friendly greetings were exchanged 
 with the Greenback party and the Single-tax party." 554 
 
 The Alliance in the South maintained a non-partisan 
 position. ' ' Governor Tillman of South Carolina was not 
 nominated but only indorsed by the Alliance ; and so in 
 the other Southern states, all that was done was accom- 
 plished within the old party lines; when defeated there, 
 the farmers accepted the situation. ' ' 555 
 
 "In the West, and especially in Kansas, the extreme 
 bitterness of the old party press contributed principally 
 to swell the demand for a third party, which was sup- 
 ported at Ocala mainly by the representatives from that 
 region. . . . The over-eager advocates .... 
 led by the socialist-union-labor wing of the Kansas dele- 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1890 245 
 
 gation at Ocala, on December 15 issued a call for a na- 
 tional convention to meet in Cincinnati February 23, 
 1891. But the Supreme Council of the 'Southern' Alli- 
 ance refused to unite in the call. Instead, it referred the 
 matter to its committee on confederation, — the commit- 
 tee authorized to work for the consolidation of the many 
 unions on the basis of the St. Louis platform. This 
 committee met in Washington January 22, 1891, and is- 
 sued invitations to all industrial organizations in the 
 nation to send delegates to its next annual meeting. By 
 thus referring the matter to the states, it bides the time 
 when its constituents shall speak. The cold reception of 
 the call for February, 1891, led its agitators to postpone 
 the date until May 19." 556 
 
 A People's party was organized in Kansas to avoid the 
 transformation of the Alliance into a partisan organiza- 
 tion; but the membership was practically the same be- 
 cause every Alliance member was urged to join the new 
 movement. In Nebraska a "Peoples Independent" 
 party was made up of members of the Grange, the Alli- 
 ance, and the Knights of Labor; while in South Dakota 
 an "Independent party" was organized by the joint 
 action of the Alliance and the Knights of Labor. Final- 
 ly, in Minnesota independent political action was taken 
 by similar organizations, while Michigan formed the "In- 
 dustrial" party and Indiana a "People's" party. All 
 these organizations came into existence during 1890 and 
 consequently preceded the call for the formation of a 
 national party. 567 
 
 The successes won by the farmers in the various States 
 in November, 1890, made almost certain an attempt to 
 form a national party which would be ready to take a 
 hand in the next presidential campaign. In an editorial 
 
246 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 dated December 12, 1890, a Democratic newspaper in 
 Iowa declared that "it looks now as though the Third 
 Party movement would materialize into something more 
 than talk." The editor thought that "the farmers could 
 better and surer and quicker secure the principal good 
 things they ask for, by uniting their forces with the dem- 
 ocratic party, yet it sees no great objection to the forma- 
 tion of such a party." Probably this conclusion was 
 reached more easily because the States most effected 
 were Republican States in the West and the voters most 
 affected were Republicans. Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, 
 Iowa, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Kansas 
 seemed ' ' likely to go democratic, because the larger share 
 of the farmers vote is republican. . . . Possibly the 
 new party might develop enough strength to carry Kan- 
 sas, Nebraska, the Dakotas and Minnesota." 558 
 
 During December the call was issued from Kansas for 
 a national conference at Cincinnati to form a "National 
 Union" party, for which preparations had been made at 
 Ocala. The chairman of the State committee of the 
 People's party refused to join in the call for a meeting 
 in February because the Kansas legislature would then 
 be in session and the leaders there could not attend at 
 that time. The call invited the "Independent, the Peo- 
 ple's and Union Labor parties, Federal and Confederate 
 soldiers, the Farmers' Alliance, the Farmers' Mutual 
 Benefit Association, the Citizens' Alliance, the Knights 
 of Labor and the Colored Farmers' Alliance" to send 
 delegates. All other organizations that supported "the 
 principles of the St. Louis agreement of December, 
 1889," were also included. 559 
 
 In January, 1891, representatives from the Knights 
 of Labor, the Colored Farmers' Alliance, the National 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OP 1890 247 
 
 Farmers' Alliance, the Farmers' Union, and the Citi- 
 zen's Alliance met at Washington to consider a plan of 
 confederation based on the St. Louis platform of 1889. 
 Such a plan was drawn up and adopted : it provided for 
 an association to be known as the Confederation of In- 
 dustrial Organizations or the Industrial Federation. 
 There was to be a national committee composed of the 
 chairmen of the different organizations in each State; 
 and the next meeting was to be held in February, 1892, 
 unless sooner called. The Federation, however, did not 
 contemplate a third party movement. 660 
 
 The Cincinnati Conference, as already stated, was post- 
 poned until May 19, 1891, when over 1,400 delegates, 
 three-fourths of whom were from Kansas, Ohio, Indiana, 
 Illinois, Missouri, and Nebraska, assembled and formed 
 the "People's Party of the United States of America". 
 Eesolutions were adopted calling for a conference of ' ' all 
 progressive organizations" at Cincinnati on February 
 22, 1892, and a national committee was authorized, "if 
 no satisfactory coalition with other reform organizations 
 could be effected, to call a convention of the People's 
 party for the nomination of a President, to be held not 
 later than June 14, 1892." A platform was adopted on 
 May 20th which endorsed "the demands of the platforms 
 as adopted at St. Louis, Mo., in 1889, Ocala, Fla., in 1890, 
 and Omaha, Neb., in 1891 ". B61 
 
 The definite results of the conference were not accom- 
 plished without considerable controversy and confusion. 
 Prohibition, universal suffrage, and the immediate forma- 
 tion of a new party were subjects of heated discussion. 
 Prohibition was "overwhelmingly defeated", and uni- 
 versal suffrage "met with a rather chilly reception." 
 Mr. L. L. Polk bv letter advised the issue of an address 
 
248 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 and the postponement of the formation of a third party 
 until 1892 ; while the delegates from Massachusetts and 
 Minnesota favored immediate action. The Governor of 
 Wisconsin began a speech against the organization of a 
 new party, but he was forced to give up by the uproar of 
 the opposition. The platform as presented by the com- 
 mittee, with some additional resolutions, was adopted 
 almost unanimously, amid great confusion. "A portion 
 of the convention in thunderous chorus sung to the tune 
 of 'Good-By, My Lover, Good-By,' the words 'Good-by, 
 old parties, good-by,' and then the doxology." 562 
 
 Among the leaders of the new party were Senator 
 William A. Peffer of Kansas, who was permanent chair- 
 man of the conference; General James B. Weaver of 
 Iowa, who presided at some of the sessions ; Mr. H. E. 
 Taubeneck of Illinois, who was chosen as the chairman 
 of the national executive committee ; and Ignatius Don- 
 nelly of Minnesota and Robert Schilling of Wisconsin, 
 who were members of the committee on resolutions. Mr. 
 T. V. Powderly of the Knights of Labor was present, but 
 not as a delegate. Of minor State leaders who were 
 present mention may be made of Jesse Harper of Illinois 
 (a former Greenbacker) , H. L. Loucks of South Dakota, 
 Congressman John G. Otis of Kansas, and A. J. Westfall 
 of Iowa. Discussion over presidential candidates cen- 
 tered around the names of Senator Peffer, Congressman 
 Simpson, General Weaver, and Ignatius Donnelly, all of 
 whom, according to the Clinton Weekly Age, "have light- 
 ning rods on their houses." 563 
 
 A Republican newspaper in Iowa referred to the 
 conference as the "most grotesque political convention 
 of magnitude that has ever assembled in the United 
 States .... more farcical than the St. Louis or 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1890 249 
 
 Ocala convention for the reason that it lacked the unity 
 of purpose and the courage of action of those assem- 
 blages. It was a medley of malcontents, one-idea hobby- 
 ists, unreasoning fiatists, steadily unfortunates, 'born- 
 tired' theorists, and blatant demagogues." 504 
 
 One of the organizations that gave its adherence to the 
 People's party was the so-called "Nationalists" which 
 originated in the novel, Looking Backward, a book pub- 
 lished by Edward Bellamy in January, 1888, and which 
 pictured life in the year 2000 A. D. Published at a time 
 when public attention was directed towards social ques- 
 tions, it had a very large sale for a few years and became 
 "the book of the hour." Nationalist clubs were formed, 
 beginning with one in Boston in December, 1888. The 
 purpose of the club was described as "the promotion of 
 the brotherhood of man through the nationalization of in- 
 dustry." Clubs were formed in four or five large cities 
 in the East, but a large proportion were to be found in 
 California. The movement never had any firm founda- 
 tion : it disappeared entirely after a few years. 565 
 
 In June five members of the executive committee of the 
 People's party met at St. Louis to prepare for the cam- 
 paign of 1892. Beports were received from the various 
 States, and it was determined to make special efforts in 
 Kentucky and Ohio during the current year. Secretary 
 Bobert Schilling was instructed to establish a literary 
 bureau to furnish items to the reform press, which num- 
 bered between six and seven hundred papers. A weekly 
 letter was prepared for this purpose, and a medal com- 
 memorative of the Cincinnati convention was to be sold 
 for campaign expenses. A constitution was adopted for 
 People's party clubs, which it was planned to form in 
 wards, townships, and counties with a central club in each 
 
250 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 county. Moreover, the statement was made that the 
 campaigns of the new party were to be conducted on an 
 entirely different plan from those of the old parties. 
 After the organization was completed in Kentucky and 
 Ohio, the States of Mississippi, Minnesota, and Iowa 
 were to be visited. 566 
 
 In three senatorial contests early in 1891 the new party 
 took an important part. In Illinois it appears that Gen- 
 eral John M. Palmer had been nominated for Senator by 
 the Democratic State Convention, had spent six months 
 campaigning, and had succeeded in electing the Demo- 
 cratic State ticket. The balance of power in the legisla- 
 ture was held by three members of the Farmers' Mutual 
 Benefit Association, since the Democrats and Republicans 
 had one hundred and one, and one hundred votes, respec- 
 tively, on joint ballot. Neither the Democratic nor Ee- 
 publican candidates for Senator were satisfactory to the 
 "Big Three", and they selected as their candidate Hon. 
 A. J. Streeter, 567 who had been an active figure in Illinois 
 politics since 1872, when he was elected a member of the 
 lower house of the State legislature. Later he served a 
 term in the State Senate; and in 1888 was the Union 
 Labor candidate for President. He had always been a 
 farmer and was known to the agriculturists of the entire 
 West. His public life had been characterized by opposi- 
 tion to corporations and the championship of farmers' 
 interests. 568 The contest began on January 20th and 
 lasted till March 11th, when on the one hundred and fifty- 
 fourth ballot, General Palmer was elected. After a time 
 the Republicans became convinced that they could not 
 elect their candidate and abandoned him. They next at- 
 tempted to transfer their strength to Streeter, but a few 
 Republicans refused to support him. Finally, two of the 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OP 1890 251 
 
 "Big Three" declared that Streeter in the course of his 
 negotiations with the Republicans had made concessions 
 that unfitted him to represent the farmers, and although 
 he denied such concessions, they decided to vote for 
 Palmer as the next best candidate. Mr. Taubeneck cast 
 the only vote for Streeter upon the final ballot. 009 
 
 In Kansas it appears that upon the first joint ballot 
 William A. Peffer was elected Senator over his Repub- 
 lican opponent, Senator John J. Ingalls, who had repre- 
 sented the State since 1873. Mr. Peffer was born of 
 Dutch parentage in Pennsylvania in 1831. In 1850 he 
 went to California and remained two years, returning to 
 Pennsylvania with considerable money. Soon after this 
 he moved to Indiana and later to Missouri. After serv- 
 ing during the Civil War in an Illinois regiment, he 
 settled in Tennessee as a lawyer ; and in 1870 moved to 
 Kansas. At different times he edited various papers, 
 served in the State Senate, and was a delegate to the 
 National Republican Convention in 1880. The same year 
 he moved to Topeka and became editor of the Kansas 
 Farmer, with the publication of which he was occupied 
 in 1891. Always a temperate man, he was at the time of 
 his election a prohibitionist. He was a member of the 
 Episcopal church, a Master Mason, and belonged to the 
 Knights of Labor. He believed "the Government should 
 aid in improving harbors and rivers in the south and in 
 building north-and-south railroads in the west, and in 
 irrigating lands wherever and as fast as settlement de- 
 mands, and first of all the issuance of money enough to 
 set the people on their feet again. ' ' 670 
 
 In South Dakota forty ballots were required to settle 
 the senatorial contest. As a result Rev. James H. Kyle 
 of Aberdeen, the Independent candidate, was elected, re- 
 
252 THIED PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 ceiving seventy-five votes against fifty-five for Thomas 
 Sterling, the Republican candidate. The result was re- 
 garded "as having been brought about in some measure 
 by the agitation of the Illinois- South Dakota reciprocity 
 scheme." The purpose was understood to be the elec- 
 tion in Illinois of the Democratic candidate by Independ- 
 ent help, in return for Democratic help to the Independ- 
 ents in South Dakota. 571 
 
 Eev. James H. Kyle was a Congregational minister, 
 born in New York State, and was about thirty-seven 
 years old at the time of his election. A graduate of 
 Oberlin College and of Allegheny Theological Seminary, 
 he had held pastorates since 1884 in Colorado and South 
 Dakota, and recently had become financial agent for 
 Yankton College. In the election of 1890 he had been 
 chosen to the State Senate as an Independent, "having 
 attracted the favorable attention of the Farmers' Alli- 
 ance party, it is said, by his utterances in a Fourth of July 
 oration at Aberdeen." Early in the contest he refused 
 to be a candidate and only yielded when he realized that 
 it was the only possible chance for Independent success: 
 his name first appeared on the thirty-first ballot. He 
 was a staunch Prohibitionist and a Eepublican before the 
 last election. He took his seat on the Democratic side of 
 the Senate chamber. 572 
 
 The political activity of the People's party has over- 
 shadowed certain other features of its program which 
 were regarded by many of its members as of equal if not 
 greater importance. 573 Early in June, 1891, delegates 
 from the farmers' alliances and industrial unions of Mis- 
 souri, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, and Indian Territory 
 met at Kansas City to establish an interstate union, the 
 object of which was "to effect a business organization 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1890 253 
 
 and to establish an alliance newspaper. The business 
 organization will be on the cooperative plan, and will be 
 conducted not as a profit-making concern, but for the pur- 
 pose of doing away with the middlemen and marketing 
 farm products at the lowest possible cost. It will also 
 purchase direct from the manufacturer all farm imple- 
 ments, etc., and will sell at first cost, thus effecting a con- 
 siderable saving." BT * 
 
 In September newspaper statements announced that 
 the "farmers' alliance of Kansas proclaims to the world 
 that it proposes to establish co-operative stores in every 
 county in the west and ultimately in every county in the 
 United States." Editorial comment declared that "Co- 
 operative stores have had a checkered existence. . . . 
 The present system of conducting mercantile business is 
 the result of a thousand or more years of experience and 
 study. . . . The co-operative system is an innovation 
 on the custom of those centuries .... co-operative 
 stores are an unnatural system of conducting mercantile 
 business. . . . It is injurious to legitimate trade and 
 obnoxious to the communities where such stores are lo- 
 cated." 575 
 
 In November the business department of the Alliance 
 in twenty-two States united with the leading business 
 men of New York City, and formed a company similar in 
 its plan of operation to the celebrated "Eochdale" sys- 
 tem in England and the Zion cooperative stores of Utah. 
 The National Union Company was the name given to the 
 combination, and its plan of procedure was ' ' to buy out a 
 merchant in every trade center of importance, stock him 
 up with everything he wants in the line of general every 
 day goods demanded by the farmers, and make him the 
 local manager of the concern." Under this arrangement 
 
254 THIRD PAETY MOVEMENTS 
 
 the business men would provide management and capital 
 and the Alliance patronage. 576 
 
 The Supreme Council of the "Southern" Alliance met 
 at Indianapolis in November, and at this session the ques- 
 tion of independent political action was again discussed 
 very thoroughly. President L. L. Polk, in his annual 
 address, recommended a conference with the Eeform 
 Press Association to consider the most satisfactory 
 means of disseminating reform literature ; he referred to 
 the success of the lecture system in connection with which 
 the demand for speakers exceeded the supply; and de- 
 clared that the Alliance must be kept free from entangle- 
 ment with any party. The suggested third party ticket 
 of Stanford and Polk was described as the work of paid 
 boomers, who had written all the "published articles". 
 Stanford, he declared, would not get one Alliance vote 
 for constable, as "his circulation bill was a pernicious 
 measure and dreaded from the very start. ' ' 577 
 
 The references to the non-partisan character of the 
 Alliance were ' ' received with about equal evidence of ap- 
 proval and disapproval." General Weaver was "called 
 for and made a speech on the general situation, which 
 was received with enthusiasm. He was followed by Con- 
 gressman Jerry Simpson, of Kansas, in the same strain." 
 The People's party leaders claimed that the " 'Big 
 Five ' — Polk, Macune, Livingstone, Tillman, and Ter- 
 rill — alone stand in the way of indorsing" the new 
 party. The result of the discussion was that neither side 
 won a decisive victory. President Polk was reelected 
 and H. L. Loucks of South Dakota, a member of the na- 
 tional committee of the People's party was made vice 
 president. Congressmen elected by Alliance votes were 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OP 1890 255 
 
 to support no one for Speaker who would not declare for 
 the Alliance platform. 678 
 
 Sessions of allied organizations and committees were 
 held in connection with the general meetings of the Alli- 
 ance. Of these the Reform Press Association, the State 
 agents and the committee on the confederation of the 
 various industrial organizations were the most impor- 
 tant. The State agents adopted "the Roachdale plan, 
 which contemplates cash sales at the alliance stores and a 
 division of profits among the patrons. This is regarded 
 as a hlack eye for the National Union Company." 579 
 
 The committee on confederation referred to a sub- 
 committee the question of calling a congress of all labor 
 and industrial classes on February 22, 1892. It was first 
 determined to meet at Washington, but the members fromi 
 the South and West objected, and finally the selection of 
 a place was left to a committee — a number of middle 
 western cities being named as suitable. Considerable 
 discussion was had as to the advisability of having nom- 
 inations made at the February meeting; and it was de- 
 cided at that session to draft a platform, leaving nomina- 
 tions for a later convention after the other parties had 
 met. A committee was appointed to prepare an address 
 to the laboring people on the objects of the February 
 meeting. 580 
 
 The greatest activity prevailed in reform circles early 
 in 1892 — manifested especially in efforts to unite these 
 forces into one strong party that would be able to meet 
 the older parties more nearly upon a basis of equality. 
 These plans in connection with the labor organizations 
 and the Alliance have been described. In January, 1892, 
 an organization known as the Knights of Industry was 
 
256 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 formed in New York City ' ' not as a rival to the Knights 
 of Labor, but to supplement the work of that organiza- 
 tion by political action." The plan was "to establish a 
 labor bureau, where will be printed and published many 
 documents written by union men belonging to the various 
 trades. The documents will be forwarded to all parts of 
 the country, and will be circulated in factories and shops 
 by delegates. The central council will establish branches 
 in all large cities of the United States, hold meetings, dis- 
 tribute documents, and organize the workingmen for 
 political action. Delegates will be sent to conventions of 
 the Republican and Democratic parties, and requests will 
 be made that certain planks shall be put into the plat- 
 forms. These will include protection to American labor 
 and capital, reduction of the hours of labor, demands for 
 legislation in favor of factory-inspection bills, against 
 child, prison, and convict labor, and in favor of a system 
 of arbitration and profit sharing that will tend to unite 
 capital and labor and do away with strikes. ' ' 581 
 
 During the same month a Reform Conference was held 
 in Chicago, made up of delegates representing the Farm- 
 ers' Alliance, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, 
 "the greenback faction, the prohibitionists, the national 
 reform party, the people's party and the union labor 
 party. ' ' Miss Frances E. Willard presided, and in her 
 opening address, said the plan was "to form a union of 
 all the reform elements of the country." Another ac- 
 count stated that Miss Willard in the same address de- 
 clared that the object was "to devise ways and means of 
 electing a president of the United States who will 'with 
 one blow kill the rum traffic. ' ' ' General Weaver ' ' spoke 
 at some length favoring the plan ' ', and was followed by 
 other speakers before the conference broke up into sec- 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1890 257 
 
 tions to decide upon planks to be proposed by the differ- 
 ent interests represented. 
 
 After reassembling the conference discussed and 
 adopted an "address in the form of suggestions to the 
 meeting" to be held at St. Louis on February 22nd. The 
 address favored greenback money ; denounced the saloon ; 
 and favored government control of railroads, the limiting 
 of land ownership, and municipal suffrage for women. 
 A committee, composed of Dr. Gr. De La Matyr, Miss Wil- 
 lard, General Weaver, Mr. Donnelly, and three others, 
 was appointed to present it. Considerable discussion oc- 
 curred over the question of prohibition. Members of the 
 People's party urged that the importation, manufacture 
 and sale of intoxicating liquors be conducted by the gov- 
 ernment and States at cost under conditions and restric- 
 tions laid down by the States. Donnelly, Taubeneck, and 
 others expressed the opinion that the address would not 
 be acceptable to their party and that the prohibition 
 clause should be modified to provide for the personal 
 rights of foreigners as to beer-drinking. Some of the 
 members of the party refrained from voting upon the 
 address as a whole. 582 
 
 On February 22, 1892, representatives of nearly a 
 dozen national organizations met in St. Louis. Ben Ter- 
 rill of Texas called the conference to order, and after 
 prayer and music he read "a type written document 
 urging the convention to confine its demands to land, 
 transportation, taxation and money, leaving 'moral re- 
 forms' till they had more time. ' ' Upon the stage, among 
 the distinguished guests, was Miss Willard who showed 
 dissatisfaction by a "frown of portentious proportions 
 while, the 'third party or bust' delegates throughout the 
 hall gave equal signs of dissatisfaction." President Polk, 
 
258 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 the next speaker, confined his attention to the money 
 question. He was followed by Mr. Powderly who re- 
 ferred to General "Weaver's nomination in 1880. Mr. 
 Donnelly of Minnesota closed the speech-making by pre- 
 dicting the union of the Democrats and Bepublicans. 
 The wedding "ceremony would be performed at the altar 
 of plutocracy ; Grover Cleveland and Ben Harrison would 
 act as bridesmen, the devil himself give away the bride, 
 and Jay Gould pronounce the benediction." 
 
 Considerable difficulty arose over the permanent organ- 
 ization of the convention. The committee on credentials 
 favored the seating of two hundred and forty-six dele- 
 gates from the Farmers' Alliance, fifty-three from the 
 Farmers' Mutual Benefit Association, eighty-two from 
 the Knights of Labor, ninety-seven from the National 
 Farmers' Alliance, twenty-five from the National Citi- 
 zens' Alliance, ninety-seven from the colored Farmers' 
 Mutual Benefit Association, twenty-seven from the Na- 
 tional Citizens' Independent Alliance, sixty Patrons of 
 Industry, and twenty-five Patrons of Husbandry. "The 
 Farmers' Alliance was given 25 delegates at large and 
 thirteen minor detached organizations and individuals 
 [were] given a representation of 58." The total mem- 
 bership approximated seven hundred and fifty. Dele- 
 gates from organizations not admitted protested and de- 
 clared their intention of forming a separate conference. 
 Among the latter were the "Beform Press Association, 
 Women's Alliance, United Order of Anti-Monopolists, 
 Union Beform Association, Central Nationalists, Farm- 
 ers' League, Alliance Assemblies, Industrial, and many 
 smaller organizations. ' ' 
 
 Prohibition and woman suffrage were the subjects of 
 
THE CAMPAIGN OP 1890 259 
 
 heated discussion. Miss Willard made a minority report 
 from the committee on resolutions favoring prohibition 
 and equal suffrage. Congressman Simpson declared he 
 was satisfied with the majority report made by Mr. Don- 
 nelly. "They must cure poverty before they could in- 
 temperance." The convention split almost evenly on 
 prohibition. Woman suffrage gave rise to a more dra- 
 matic debate than had taken place over prohibition. Mr. 
 Powderly undertook to coach the representatives of this 
 plank — with the result that protests were "made against 
 the Powderly-Hayes domination" of the platform; and 
 even the eighty-two Knights of Labor votes, cast for it 
 after the roll call ended, did not save it from defeat, ac- 
 cording to unofficial tally keepers, although Secretary 
 Hayes declared that the plank carried by a vote of two 
 hundred and fifty-four to two hundred and forty-six. 
 
 A serious split was threatened by southern delegates 
 who were opposed to independent political action. Dele- 
 gates from Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Maryland, Vir- 
 ginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina announced 
 their intention of withdrawing if definite action was 
 taken. Efforts to have the convention appoint a com- 
 mittee to act with the People's party committee failed, 
 but a mass meeting of delegates was held immediately 
 following adjournment for this purpose. Without even 
 leaving their seats they went right on with General 
 Weaver in the chair, and appointed a committee to act 
 with the national committee of the People's party to call 
 a national nominating convention. This "much talked 
 of committee" was composed of fifteen members, among 
 whom were General Van Wyck of Nebraska, C. W. 
 Macune of Texas, L. L. Polk of North Carolina, J. F. 
 
260 THIED PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Willits of Kansas, Ben Terrill of Texas, and Mrs. Mary 
 E. Lease of Kansas. These two committees decided upon 
 the date of meeting, July 4th, while the determination of 
 the place was left to a sub-committee, Omaha and Kansas 
 City receiving favorable mention. 583 
 
XVII 
 
 THE CAMPAIGNS OF 1892 AND 1894: THE POLICY 
 OF PERMEATION 
 
 The first national nominating convention of the Peo- 
 ple's Party met at Omaha on July 2, 1892, and was called 
 to order by Chairman Taubeneck of the national com- 
 mittee. Mr. C. H. Ellington of Georgia was chosen tem- 
 porary chairman; and speeches were made by Ignatius 
 Donnelly of Minnesota, by J. C. Manning, "the eloquent 
 boy orator from Alabama", and by Colonel S. F. Norton 
 of Illinois, who introduced Alexander Campbell of the 
 same State "as the original greenbacker, formerly known 
 among politicians as 'Old Greenbacks'." A committee 
 on resolutions was named and the convention adjourned 
 until Monday, July 4th. One thousand three hundred 
 and sixty-six delegates were reported by the committee 
 on credentials, and there were no contests. 
 
 When the convention reassembled on Monday, H. L. 
 Loucks of South Dakota was made permanent chairman. 
 Great confusion arose as the result of the efforts of 
 supporters of rival candidates to hasten or delay pro- 
 ceedings as they thought such action would prove advan- 
 tageous or disadvantageous. A large element in the 
 convention, including Powderly and Hayes of the Knights 
 of Labor, hoped to induce Judge Walter Q. Gresham, a 
 prominent Republican, to accept a nomination. His pop- 
 ularity with the Populists was due to ' ' several decisions 
 and actions in his judicial capacity affecting the manage- 
 
 261 
 
262 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 ment and control of railways, notably his dealings with 
 the Wabash system". 584 Hope that he might finally be 
 induced to accept, if tendered the nomination unanimous- 
 ly, postponed nominations until late in the evening. Sup- 
 porters of General Weaver were inclined to hasten 
 proceedings. The platform was reported and discussed 
 in the midst of the moves of the managers of rival can- 
 didates for tactical advantage. After its acceptance a 
 remarkable demonstration of enthusiasm broke out and 
 continued for more than "twenty-five minutes". 585 
 
 Finally, definite word coming in the form of a telegram 
 from Judge Gresham, in which he declined to accept a 
 nomination under any conditions, the way was open to 
 proceed to the selection of a candidate. General Weaver 
 was nominated by Morris L. Wheat of Iowa, and this 
 nomination was seconded by Mrs. Lease. Senator James 
 H. Kyle was nominated by Colonel Norton ; while Wash- 
 burn of Massachusetts and Schilling of Wisconsin made 
 notable speeches urging the selection of a new man like 
 Kyle. The balloting was a "struggle between the 'new 
 blood', represented by Senator Kyle, of South Dakota, 
 and the 'old guard' of the Greenbackers represented by 
 Gen. Weaver", who won easily with nine hundred and 
 ninety-five votes to two hundred and sixty-five for Kyle. 
 New Hampshire, Vermont, Ehode Island, Maryland, and 
 South Carolina were unrepresented in the vote. The 
 greater part of Kyle 7 s support came from the following 
 States : Arkansas, twenty ; Colorado, ten ; Georgia, thir- 
 ty-nine; Illinois, forty-two; Massachusetts, eighteen; 
 Montana, twelve; Nevada, seven; Ohio, twenty-two; 
 South Dakota, fifteen; and Wisconsin, forty-one. The 
 nomination of a candidate for Vice President was quickly 
 accomplished, General James G. Field of Virginia receiv- 
 
THE CAMPAIGNS OF 1892 AND 1894 263 
 
 ing seven hundred and thirty-three votes to five hundred 
 and fifty-four cast for Ben Terrill of Texas. The con- 
 vention then adjourned at three o'clock in the morning. 586 
 
 A graphic description of the convention by a critical 
 and somewhat unsympathetic observer points out that 
 "no intelligent man could sit in that audience at the Col- 
 iseum building in the city of Omaha .... and 
 listen to the wild and frenzied assaults upon the existing 
 order of things, without a feeling of great alarm at the 
 extent and intensity of the social lunacy there displayed. 
 And when that furious and hysterical arraignment of the 
 present times, that incoherent intermingling of Jeremiah 
 and Bellamy, the platform, was adopted, the cheers and 
 yells which rose like a tornado from four thousand 
 throats and raged without cessation for thirty-four min- 
 utes, during which women shrieked and wept, men em- 
 braced and kissed their neighbors, locked arms, marched 
 back and forth, and leaped upon tables and chairs in the 
 ecstasy of their delirium, — this dramatic and historical 
 scene must have told every quiet, thoughtful witness that 
 there was something at the back of all this turmoil more 
 than the failure of crops or the scarcity of ready cash. 
 And over all the city during that summer week brooded 
 the spectres of Nationalism, Socialism and general dis- 
 content." B87 
 
 Contemporary judgments of the Omaha convention are 
 of interest in an estimate of its importance. The editor 
 of The Review of Reviews expressed the opinion that "if 
 a man of Judge Cresham's record and standing could 
 have been induced to leave his old party and assume the 
 role of a Moses for the new movement, there would have 
 been a great stirring up of dry bones. The People's 
 party would have carried several States, and would have 
 
264 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 upset all calculations in a number of others .... 
 As a matter of policy, Mr. Weaver's nomination was a 
 mistake. A new party can only rise to strength by lead- 
 ing away masses of men from other parties. But the 
 masses will not readily flock to new standards, except 
 under the generalship of some trusted leader who goes 
 with them .... But Mr. "Weaver has belonged to 
 the group of third-party 'come-outers' for so many years 
 that his name is not one to conjure with in either of the 
 old camps. He is a public speaker of great force and 
 ability ; but his nomination suggests too strongly the abor- 
 tive third-party movements of the past to excite much 
 hope or enthusiasm .... The wicked politicians of 
 the Republican and Democratic parties breathed easier 
 and ate with better appetites when the Gresham bogie 
 disappeared and they found their familiar old enemy, 
 General Weaver, in the lead of the People's move- 
 ment." 58S 
 
 The People's party carried on a vigorous campaign 
 during the summer, while the Republicans and Democrats 
 were inactive. Rumors that Judge Gresham would come 
 out for Weaver gained currency, but were always denied. 
 Both parties were more anxious about the strength of 
 the new party than they cared to admit. That party 
 fought its first great battle in Alabama early in August 
 and the result favored the regular Democratic candi- 
 dates, although there were "charges of wholesale fraud". 
 Governor Thomas G. Jones, the regular Democratic can- 
 didate, was declared elected by a plurality of about 
 11,000; while R. F. Kolb, the opposing candidate sup- 
 ported by the People's party and the Republicans, 
 claimed to have carried the State by 40,000. Kolb had 
 been successful in the so-called "white" counties, but 
 
THE CAMPAIGNS OP 1892 AND 1894 265 
 
 his vote had been overcome by his opponent's larger plu- 
 rality in the "black" counties where it was claimed that 
 there had been fraud. 589 
 
 On September 17th Weaver and Field issued an ad- 
 dress from Pensacola in which they formally accepted 
 the nominations. They referred to the request made of 
 them by the national committee "to visit the various 
 states of the Union. Already one or both of us have vis- 
 ited fifteen states, and if our health and strength are 
 spared we intend to continue the work until the campaign 
 is closed. ' ' 590 About a week later Weaver addressed a 
 letter to the chairman of the Georgia State committee, 
 in which he announced the abandonment of the campaign 
 in that State, because of ' ' the spirit of organized rowdy- 
 ism at some of the points visited within the state so great 
 as to render it inadvisable for me to attempt to fill the 
 engagements at the points not already reached. . . . 
 The members of our party, although apparently largely 
 in the majority in the state, are unable to secure for us a 
 peaceful and respectful hearing .... the disorder 
 is almost exclusively confined to young roughs who infest 
 the towns and who are incited to violence by persons who 
 keep in the background. The country people are uni- 
 formly respectful and anxious to hear." Mrs. Lease, 
 who accompanied General Weaver during his campaign 
 in Georgia, described the situation there as the result of 
 the fact that the "political lines .... are tightly 
 drawn by the so-called organized Democracy in the cities 
 as against the populists of the rural population." 591 
 
 The general situation in the South was very different 
 from that in the West. The fight in the former section 
 between the People 's party and the leaders of the Demo- 
 cratic party was exceedingly bitter; while in the West 
 
266 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 the contest was with the Republicans, as the dominant 
 party. As a result the People 's party allied itself with 
 the Republicans in the South and quite generally fused 
 with the Democrats in the West. Back of all these super- 
 ficial conditions was the race problem, which has kept the 
 South from breaking up politically to the present day. 
 Probably the fact that General Weaver had been a Union 
 soldier had some influence, but the "impelling motive" 
 was to preserve the Solid South. A year before he had 
 been there and was given a hearing — in fact he had been 
 visiting the South ever since the days of the Greenback 
 party. In 1892 he represented "a new movement that 
 threatens their disintegration". 592 
 
 In South Carolina it appears that Governor Tillman 
 had beaten the older leaders of the Democracy and had 
 converted that party to Populism — doing in 1892 some- 
 thing similar to Bryan's accomplishment with the na- 
 tional party in 1896. The regular Democratic conven- 
 tion, controlled by the State administration, described 
 Cleveland's prospective nomination "as a prostitution of 
 the principles of Democracy, as a repudiation of the de- 
 mands of the Farmers' Alliance, which embody the true 
 principles of Democracy, and a surrender of the rights of 
 the people to the financial kings of the country." Gov- 
 ernor Tillman was renominated and reelected without 
 organized opposition. The Republicans nominated no 
 State ticket ; while the People's party had electors but no 
 candidates for State offices. 693 
 
 A combination of circumstances in Illinois brought 
 about the election of John P. Altgeld as Governor. As 
 the candidate of the Democrats he "travelled from place 
 to place, visiting all parts of the State and seeking to 
 meet the voters personally by entering their workshops, 
 
THE CAMPAIGNS OF 1892 AND 1894 267 
 
 offices, and other places of business, as well as by holding 
 public receptions. This plan of campaign appears to 
 have been effective, for at the November election the vic- 
 tory of the Democratic ticket was complete. ' ' The Peo- 
 ple 's party nominated candidates for all offices, State and 
 national, but the vote cast for them was small — less than 
 20,000 out of a total of over 800,000. 594 General Palmer's 
 successful campaign for the United States Senate in 
 1890, together with the advanced position which he main- 
 tained in the debate in that body which arose out of the 
 Homestead riot in July, undoubtedly added strength to 
 the Democratic campaign. He maintained "the right of 
 factory and railroad employes to continuous employment 
 at reasonably fair rates of compensation. ' ' 595 Governor 
 Altgeld showed his interest in the people by his novel 
 method of campaigning, and his views were known to be 
 radical in the extreme. His pardon of the three An- 
 archists in June, 1893, illustrated his independence and 
 courage; while his advocacy of free silver in 1896 indi- 
 cated that his sympathies were with the masses of the 
 people. From 1892 to 1896 he was the unquestioned 
 leader of the Illinois Democracy. 596 
 
 In Kansas the Democrats "after a heated discussion, 
 voted to adopt all the nominations made by the People's 
 party .... both for the State offices and for presi- 
 dential electors. The Democratic national ticket was ap- 
 proved". A large number of Democrats were opposed to 
 the surrender of the State convention and they called a 
 new convention, early in October, which was attended by 
 more than five hundred delegates, representing about 
 fifty counties. No nominations were made because it was 
 deemed too late in the campaign ; but an address was is- 
 sued to the Democrats of the State, "advising the voters 
 
268 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 to defeat the ticket of the People's party". In spite of 
 this opposition the People's party carried the State for 
 both of its tickets and also elected five out of the seven 
 Congressmen. 597 
 
 At the general election in November, Cleveland re- 
 ceived 5,554,226 votes, Harrison 5,175,202, and Weaver 
 1,041,577. Of the four hundred and forty-four electoral 
 votes Cleveland received two hundred and seventy-seven, 
 Harrison one hundred and forty-five, and Weaver twen- 
 ty-two. For the first and only time between 1860 and 
 1912 a third party candidate had won a place in the 
 electoral college. The States that voted for Weaver were 
 Colorado four votes, Idaho three, Kansas ten, Nevada 
 three, North Dakota one, and Oregon one. The Demo- 
 crats nominated no electors in Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, 
 North Dakota, and Wyoming, but voted for the People's 
 party candidates. In Nevada they named a ticket, but 
 voted chiefly for the Populist electors. In North Dakota 
 and Minnesota there was partial fusion, and in Oregon 
 one of the People's party electors was accepted by the 
 Democrats. In Louisiana there was a fusion of the Re- 
 publicans and the People 's party. 598 
 
 Of the 1,041,577 votes cast for Weaver, the geograph- 
 ical distribution by sections was as follows : 599 New 
 England States, 6,627 ; Middle States, 31,089 ; western and 
 northwestern States, 471,660 ; southern and southwestern 
 States, 374,558; and the Pacific States, 157,643. 
 
 Comparing the popular vote for the presidential can- 
 didates of the third parties from 1876 to 1892 we have the 
 following result expressed in percentages : 60 ° 
 
 Year 1876 1880 1884 1888 1892 
 
 New England 0.35 1.39 4.26 1.98 0.76 
 
 Middle 0.49 1.79 1.45 0.14 1.01 
 
THE CAMPAIGNS OF 1892 AND 1894 269 
 
 Southern & Southwestern 0.17 3.02 0.39 1.64 15.13 
 
 Western & Northwestern 2.04 5.10 2.23 2.07 9.45 
 
 Pacific 0.27 1.83 1.43 0.11 25.39 
 
 Average 0.97 3.34 1.74 1.26 8.79 
 
 The meaning of the election in 1892 was stated in a dis- 
 criminating editorial in The Review of Reviews for De- 
 cember, 1892. "The Bepublican party was condemned 
 because the voters believed that its policies had come to 
 be too favorable towards the concentration of weatb. It 
 was felt to be growing plutocratic .... In the 
 West, the Republicans were accounted more closely con- 
 nected than the Democrats with corporate wealth in rail- 
 roads, banks and capitalistic undertakings in general, and 
 the Republican party suffered accordingly. . . . Mr. 
 Reid, the vice-presidential candidate, was, moreover, ac- 
 counted a representative of the plutocracy and a long- 
 time enemy of organized labor. It is not for us to say 
 that these views were just; but that they prevailed very 
 extensively is true. And they carried the election. They 
 underlay the People's party movement in the West and 
 South, and they accelerated the Democratic movement in 
 both East and West. There are plenty of millionaire 
 Democrats, of course, and a long list of names enter the 
 mind at once ; but it remains true, nevertheless, that this 
 campaign involved to some extent a movement of the 
 poor against the rich, and that the Republican party was 
 more generally thought to stand for the rich. ' ' 601 
 
 The New York Tribune expressed the same conclusion 
 in different terms. ' ' The chief cause of Republican de- 
 feat and Democratic victory is the modern tendency 
 toward socialism. . . . There is not the slightest 
 desire to overturn the existing government and the rav- 
 
270 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 ings of anarchists they repudiate altogether. But since 
 1873, .... political and social conditions in the 
 United States have been thought of on the quiet, and 
 there has been discontent among certain thousands. The 
 Greenback party then had its origin. It is within the last 
 decade, however, that social discontent has manifested 
 itself more markedly in the formation of political parties, 
 all of which, according to the leaders of them, were des- 
 tined to glorious futures when the Democratic and Ee- 
 publican parties should be wiped out of existence. This 
 unsettled state of affairs showed itself in the formation 
 of the Greenback party, the Labor party, Socialist party, 
 Farmers' Alliance and finally the People's party." 6Q2 
 
 General Weaver in a letter to Herman E. Taubeneck, 
 chairman of the national committee of the People 's party 
 after the election, declared that "unaided by money our 
 grand young party has made an enviable record and 
 achieved surprising success at the polls. We are but 
 little behind the Republican party in the number of states 
 carried .... we will doubtless hold the balance of 
 power in the Senate of the United States, have doubled 
 the number of our adherents in the house of representa- 
 tives, secured control of a number of state governments, 
 hold the balance of power in a majority of the states in 
 the Union, and have succeeded in arousing a spirit of 
 political independence among the people of the Northwest 
 which cannot be disregarded in the future. ' ' 603 
 
 The activity of reform organizations continued after 
 the successes of the election of 1892. "The Industrial 
 Legion of the United States ' ' was formed by prominent 
 leaders of the People 7 s party to carry out politically the 
 measures contained in the Omaha platform, "together 
 with free speech, a free ballot and a fair count. ' ' It was 
 
THE CAMPAIGNS OF 1892 AND 1894 271 
 
 modelled upon the Grand Army and was a secret organ- 
 ization. The founders were "prominent leaders of the 
 seven great industrial organizations composing the Peo- 
 ple's party, together with the foremost People's party 
 members." Among the charter members were H. E. 
 Taubeneck of Illinois, Geo. F. "Washburn of Massachu- 
 setts, Congressman Otis of Kansas, H. L. Loucks of 
 South Dakota, Marion Butler of North Carolina, and 
 Paul Vandervoort of Nebraska. The prediction was made 
 by Taubeneck that it would be organized in every State 
 within thirty days and within a year would have 1,500,000 
 members. The real occasion for its establishment was 
 the belief that the People 's party candidates in Georgia 
 and Alabama had been counted out in the last elections. 
 Organization was going on in the South and West. Kan- 
 sas was the first State to be organized, J. F. Willits being 
 western organizer. Fifty lodges were claimed in Texas 
 by the end of December. The order seems t6 have been 
 composed of the most radical elements, who were for a 
 fair ballot or a revolution. It failed to develop into a 
 body of lasting importance, however, and serves merely 
 as a sign of the unrest and agitation of the period. 604 
 
 Naturally such an organization as the American Bi- 
 metallic League increased its activity as a result of the 
 successes of the year 1892. The close connection between 
 the League and the People 's party may be inferred from 
 the fact that many of the leaders were identical. The 
 first national convention of the League had been held at 
 St. Louis in the fall of 1889. 605 During 1893 meetings 
 were held at Washington in February, at Chicago in 
 August, and at St. Louis in October. Among those in 
 attendance at these meetings were Congressman William 
 J. Bryan, Governors Davis H. Waite of Colorado and 
 
272 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Benjamin R. Tillman of South Carolina, Senator William 
 M. Stewart and Congressman Francis G. Newlands of 
 Nevada, Robert Schilling, Terence V. Powderly, and Ig- 
 natius Donnelly. General Adoniram J. Warner, president 
 of the League, had been the spokesman of the People's 
 party in its efforts to get the consent of Judge Gresham 
 to be its candidate for President in 1892. 606 The session 
 at Chicago reported forty-two States and Territories rep- 
 resented and eight hundred and ten delegates in atten- 
 dance. At the Washington meeting an invitation was 
 extended to every labor and industrial organization in the 
 United States to send delegates to future meetings of 
 the League. Thus, during these years efforts were aimed 
 at the union of the masses of the people politically, in- 
 dustrially and along the lines of economic interest: the 
 People's party, the Bimetallic League and the Industrial 
 Federation focussed these undertakings. 607 
 
 The senatorial contests of 1893 contributed one strong 
 and able member of the People 7 s party to the upper house 
 of Congress. The Nebraska legislature, as a result of 
 the election of 1892, was almost evenly divided between 
 the Republicans on one side and the Independents and 
 Democrats on the other. Balloting began January 17th 
 and lasted till February 7th when Judge William V. Al- 
 len secured the entire Democratic and Independent sup- 
 port and was elected by a vote of seventy to fifty-nine. 608 
 
 Senator Allen was born in Ohio in 1847, moved to Iowa 
 in 1856, and enlisted in an Iowa regiment at the age of 
 fifteen. After the war he studied law in the office of L. 
 L. Ainsworth 609 of West Union, Iowa, and in 1884 re- 
 moved to Madison, Nebraska. He had been a Republican 
 before 1890, and from 1891 to 1893 he was a district 
 judge. He was described as " a giant in stature, and it is 
 
THE CAMPAIGNS OF 1892 AND 1894 273 
 
 said his mental calibre is consistent with his physical 
 make up." 610 The editor of The Review of Reviews in 
 July, 1894, advised "the people of Nebraska, regardless 
 of party affiliations, not to apologize to anybody for Sen- 
 ator William V. Allen. If Populism can produce men of 
 Senator Allen's mould, and lift them into positions of the 
 highest responsibility, one might be tempted to suggest 
 that an epidemic of this Western malady would prove 
 beneficial to some Eastern communities and have salutary 
 results for the nation at large. ' ' S11 
 
 Another competent observer, writing in The Forum in 
 October, 1893, in an article entitled the Rise and Doom 
 of the Populist Party, said that "in spite of all the great 
 pressure of the corporations, the Populists, by the aid of 
 the Democrats, elected to the Senate an honest man, 
 William Vincent Allen, against the chosen friend of the 
 monopolists, the Republican candidate, 612 the general so- 
 licitor of the Union Pacific railway. That election cost 
 Mr. Allen just $74.25. This was probably the smallest 
 sum by which a seat in the present United States Senate 
 was secured. Mr. Allen is a Populist, with a head filled 
 with wrong financial notions; but he is a conservative, 
 pure, incorruptible man, who won renown as an eminent 
 attorney and a just, upright judge, whose acts of kindness 
 and charity are legion. ' ' 613 
 
 In Kansas the contest between the Republicans and the 
 Populists for the control of the House of Representatives 
 resulted in the organization of rival houses which con- 
 tended for the use of the quarters occupied by that body 
 in the State capitol. The Governor, L. D. Lewelling, 614 
 ordered out the State militia, but as the officers were Re- 
 publicans many refused to act. Republicans came to 
 Topeka in large numbers, and there was grave danger of 
 
274 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 an armed conflict. Cooler counsels prevailed, however, 
 and the matter was brought before the courts, which de- 
 cided in favor of the Republicans. The contest lasted 
 from early in January to the end of February. As the 
 Populists controlled the Senate without question and had 
 fifty-eight members in the House, compared with sixty- 
 three Republican members, they had a majority upon 
 joint ballot. The peculiar legislative situation resulted 
 in the election of a free silver Democrat, John Martin, 
 as United States Senator. Many Populists strongly op- 
 posed his election, but General Weaver expressed the 
 opinion "that the very best possible result was accom- 
 plished .... Judge Martin is a man of splendid 
 character and first-class ability. He has for years been 
 openly in accord with the doctrines of the People's party 
 and hence incurred the bitter opposition of the machine 
 Democrats in his own state .... opposed to the 
 National banks and in favor of an increase of the circu- 
 lating medium until the volume is sufficient to place the 
 business of the country on a cash basis." 615 
 
 The Fifty-second Congress meeting in December, 1891, 
 contained two Populist Senators and eight members of 
 the House of Representatives from the same party. Kan- 
 sas and South Dakota sent the Senators ; while the Con- 
 gressmen came from Kansas, Nebraska, and Minnesota. 616 
 The Fifty-third Congress assembled in extra session in 
 August, 1893, with three Populist Senators and eight 
 members of the House. The new Senator was from 
 Nebraska and the members of the House from Colorado, 
 Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Nevada. 617 
 
 Although the Senate is the less democratic of the two 
 houses, both in its manner of election and in its composi- 
 tion, the various independent political movements since 
 
THE CAMPAIGNS OP 1892 AND 1894 275 
 
 the seventies have had a more conspicuous representation 
 in it than in the House. Such representation has been 
 made more prominent by reason of the size of the Senate 
 and the longer term of its members. The Anti-Monopoly 
 movement of 1873-1875 had two representatives in the 
 Senate ; and the Greenback party by the election of Judge 
 David Davis to the Senate in 1877 exercised a profound 
 influence upon the settlement of the disputed presidential 
 election of 1876. The small group of Populist Senators 
 from 1892 to 1896 held the balance of power in that body, 
 because of the fact that the Republicans and Democrats 
 had nearly the same number of members. The free silver 
 issue breaking through party lines also aided the same 
 group. More recently the Progressives have had a sim- 
 ilar influence due to the presence in the Senate of a small 
 group of influential leaders. 
 
 The year 1893 was an " off year ' ' politically, with elec- 
 tions in very few of the States in which Populism was 
 strong. So far as can be noted the significant feature of 
 the State elections was a reaction from the Democrats to 
 the Eepublicans, due almost certainly to the policy of the 
 administration in forcing the repeal of the silver pur- 
 chase section of the Sherman Act of 1890. In Ohio and 
 Massachusetts the tariff was the chief issue, while in 
 Iowa prohibition was abandoned by the Republicans. 
 Two of these States were recovered by the Republicans 
 from Democratic Governors. These successes were of a 
 superficial character and did not indicate the real polit- 
 ical situation. The defeat of the Democrats merely 
 showed disappointment at their use of the power given 
 to them in 1892. This action, added to the defeat of the 
 Republicans in 1890 and 1892, suggested widespread dis- 
 satisfaction with both old parties. Such a condition of 
 
276 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 affairs would in the long run strengthen the People's 
 party, unless one of the old parties should adopt some of 
 their issues to absorb their strength. This the Demo- 
 crats did in 1896. 618 
 
 The Populists kept up a continuous campaign through- 
 out the year, as in fact they had been doing for a number 
 of years. Their methods were unlike those of the older 
 parties because they had not the machinery and finance 
 to carry on their work. At the St. Louis conference in 
 February, 1892, Secretary Schilling reported only fifty 
 dollars in the treasury and that of the twelve hundred 
 dollars subscribed at Cincinnati only one subscriber had 
 paid. 619 The national committee, at the close of the Oma- 
 ha convention of 1892, urged the reform press to use its 
 influence to get every party club and labor organization 
 to meet on July 24th for the purpose of collecting funds, 
 and to adjourn to meet again on August 16th, the anni- 
 versary of the battle of Bennington, for the same pur- 
 pose. Four funds were established to be known as the 
 "ten dollar", "five dollar", "one dollar", and "fifty 
 cent campaign ' ' funds ; and the proceeds were to be sent 
 to the treasurer of the national committee. In addition, 
 all speakers for the party were asked to take up collec- 
 tions at all party meetings, and ladies in sympathy with 
 the party were urged to form clubs to raise funds and to 
 assist in the work. 620 In South Dakota the county com- 
 mittees decided to hold meetings "for the purpose of fill- 
 ing up the ranks of the faithful. ' ' The meetings were to 
 be "conducted on the same principle as oldtime religious 
 revival meetings. ' ' 621 
 
 The year 1894 was one of industrial and social unrest 
 in the United States, due among other reasons to the pre- 
 vailing business depression that followed the crisis of 
 
THE CAMPAIGNS OF 1892 AND 1894 277 
 
 the preceding year. Coxey or industrial armies tra- 
 versed the country from the Pacific Coast to Washington 
 during the months from March to June. They were ' ' but 
 the byplay of the social movement. They lie merely upon 
 the surface of the situation, and indicate nothing in par- 
 ticular excepting a considerable amount of unrest and 
 uneasiness in the world of labor .... The largest 
 ingredient in the great mixture of impulses to which this 
 fantastic industrial army movement is due is the Ameri- 
 can love of adventure, excitement and change. ' ' 622 
 
 Much more serious were the labor conflicts of the year, 
 culminating in the great railroad strike of July, 1894. 
 Beginning in a dispute between the Pullman Company 
 and its employees, it gradually extended to nearly all the 
 railways west of Chicago. The center of the conflicts 
 was Chicago, where the United States government found 
 it necessary to interfere to protect mail trains. Against 
 this interference Governor Altgeld protested vigorously, 
 declaring it to be unnecessary and an autocratic assump- 
 tion of power upon the part of President Cleveland. 
 Altgeld and Eugene V. Debs, the leader of the strike, 
 voiced the sentiment of many radicals ; 6 " while President 
 Cleveland seemed to represent the money power. Thus 
 a conflict between labor and capital came to be regarded 
 as a part of the conspiracy of Wall Street to control the 
 nation in its own selfish interests. Mistakes made by 
 the federal courts in straining too far the use of their 
 power of injunction and Mr. Pullman's unwillingness to 
 waive his legal rights by consenting to arbitration gave 
 considerable basis for the radical view of the situation. 
 President Cleveland's firmness, however, brought to an 
 end "the most pretentious industrial war that was ever 
 declared in the United States". 824 His exercise of fed- 
 
278 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 eral power was approved by the Supreme Court; while 
 the Strike Commission, appointed by him, brought out 
 clearly the mistakes made by the railroad managers. 625 
 
 Almost inevitably the industrial unrest and conflict 
 reacted upon the Populist party. Bef erring to its repre- 
 sentatives in Congress the editor of The Review of Re- 
 views declared that an impression prevailed in the East 
 that the party was "fanatical in the extreme; that its 
 doctrines are those of advanced socialism, and that its 
 principal motive is the virtual repudiation of public and 
 private indebtedness, the confiscation of the property of 
 railway and other corporations, and the plunging of the 
 country into a cheap-money debauch .... that the 
 Populists who have come to the front as leaders in sev- 
 eral Western and Southern States, and those who have 
 been sent to Washington as Senators and Bepresenta- 
 tives, are either fanatics and cranks of limited intelli- 
 gence and exceedingly pernicious ideas, or else are am- 
 bitious demagogues who are Populists at this particular 
 moment for their own interest and advancement. . . . 
 In a session when absenteeism has been most scandalous, 
 and when the party in power, despite its overwhelming 
 majority, has for weeks together found it well-nigh im- 
 possible to secure a quorum, the little band of Popnlists 
 have been in their seats, .... If on the one hand 
 they have shown no transcendent ability as statesmen, 
 orators or parliamentarians, they have on the other hand 
 maintained an exceedingly good average in these regards. 
 Very few of them could by any possibility be regarded as 
 belonging to the politician class. Speaking generally, 
 they may be said to be fair representatives of the honest, 
 well-intentioned citizenship of the States from which they 
 
THE CAMPAIGNS OF 1892 AND 1894 279 
 
 The strongest positive force exercised, by the Populist 
 party was a "permeating" influence — an effect upon 
 the policy of the two old parties resulting from the pres- 
 tige that came to them because of their successes. The 
 most striking instance of permeation was the adoption by 
 the Democratic party of the income-tax idea and its in- 
 clusion in the Tariff Act of 1894. That party had come 
 into power upon a platform that demanded a revenue 
 tariff. Although nothing had happened to make neces- 
 sary a change of policy, yet the income-tax was intro- 
 duced and survived all the changes to which the new 
 tariff was subjected. The income-tax was a Populist de- 
 mand and "may justly be called a mighty manifestation 
 of the working of the Populist leaven. So great a third- 
 party triumph as the acceptance by the dominant party 
 of this income-tax demand, is almost without a par- 
 allel." 627 
 
 The primary issue of the Populists was free coinage of 
 silver. "Nobody can deny the working of the Populist 
 leaven as regards the Income Tax .... But .... 
 the Populist leaven in the direction of free silver at the 
 ratio of 16 to 1 is working yet more deeply and ominous- 
 ly." 628 The truth of this assertion was borne out in 1896 
 when the Democracy adopted free coinage as its chief 
 issue and selected its candidate because of his emphasis 
 upon that demand. Conspicuous as were the electoral 
 successes of the Populists, they were small when com- 
 pared with the influence of the party upon contemporary 
 legislation and upon contemporary party readjustments. 
 The greatest of the earlier group of social parties was 
 also the last for a long period of years, because it cap- 
 tured one of the great parties and has dominated it ever 
 since. 
 
280 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 The elections of 1894 resulted in the defeat of the Pop- 
 ulists in most of the western States in which they had 
 had great success in 1892. These defeats, as the figures 
 show, were not caused by a falling off in strength: they 
 were due to local influences and political complications. 
 Although they lost the governorship in Kansas, their 
 vote increased from 115,000 in 1892 to 118,329 in 1894. 
 In Oregon, although the erratic Pennoyer was defeated, 
 the Populist vote increased from 15,000 to 25,461. The 
 election of a Populist governor in Nebraska, on the other 
 hand, was hardly due to an increase of Populist strength, 
 but was chiefly the result of a bad nomination on the part 
 of the Republicans. The great gains made were in the 
 South. South Carolina elected as Governor a Tillman 
 Democrat, while Tillman himself was sent to the United 
 States Senate. The Tillman Democracy received nearly 
 40,000 votes out of a total of less than 70,000. They 
 adopted the Ocala platform of the Farmers' Alliance, 
 asserting that its demands were not inconsistent with 
 those of the Chicago platform of the national Democracy. 
 A fusion of Republicans and Populists in North Carolina 
 resulted in the election of an anti-Democratic legislature 
 and the sending to "Washington of one Republican and 
 one Populist Senator, — two Populists with Republican 
 affiliations. In Texas, too, a Republican-Populist fusion 
 succeeded in electing two Congressmen. In Alabama a 
 similar fusion resulted in the election of a Republican 
 Congressman. 
 
 The Populist vote in Minnesota showed a remarkable 
 increase from 29,313 in 1892 to 87,931 in 1894. In 
 California the Populists also developed extraordinary 
 strength. Their vote ran from 45,749 for their weakest 
 candidate to 68,000 for their strongest candidate. For 
 
THE CAMPAIGNS OF 1892 AND 1894 281 
 
 attorney-general the Populist vote was only a little over 
 14,000 behind the Democratic vote. The campaign was 
 characterized by extreme hostility to the Southern Pacific 
 Railway monopoly, and the Democratic programme was 
 avowedly for government control of the Central and 
 Union Pacific Railroads. The Democratic candidate for 
 Governor, Mr. Budd, offered as a practical policy the tak- 
 ing of these roads by the federal government and their 
 management as government highways, over which, under 
 proper regulations, any railroad might run its cars. This 
 policy was peculiarly his own, for he originated it ten 
 years before while a member of Congress. He stumped 
 the State upon this issue, the first instance of a campaign 
 conducted by one of the leading parties in this country 
 in favor of government control of railroads. It was 
 chiefly due to the popularity of such a policy that a Dem- 
 ocratic Governor was elected in California in the face of 
 general Democratic defeat. 629 
 
 The elections of 1894 represented the high-water mark 
 in the electoral strength of the Populists. Compared 
 with the vote in the presidential election of 1892 there 
 was a gain of forty-two percent. Whereas in 1892 the 
 total vote was 1,041,028, in 1894 it was 1,471,590. In 1892 
 the Populists elected five United States Senators, ten 
 Congressmen, twenty-two Electors, fifty State officials, 
 and fifteen hundred county officials and members of State 
 legislatures, while in 1894 they elected six United States 
 Senators, seven Congressmen, twenty-one State officials, 
 one hundred and fifty State senators and three hundred 
 and fifteen State representatives. 630 
 
XVIII 
 
 THE CAMPAIGN OF 1896 : UNION OF POPULISTS 
 AND DEMOCRATS 
 
 The year 1895 was characterized by preparation for 
 the presidential contest of 1896. On the surface the one 
 great issue was the free coinage of silver. The Repub- 
 licans seemed likely to declare for the gold standard, and 
 if they did they would face the danger of a holt of the 
 silver States. If the Democrats should adopt free coin- 
 age, they in their turn would risk a loss of the gold 
 States. In any event the old parties were threatened 
 with serious losses. Party lines and real issues no longer 
 corresponded. Careful observers estimated that two- 
 fifths of the Republicans and three-fifths of the Democrats 
 favored a silver standard. The southern and far western 
 States were "almost unanimous for free coinage"; the 
 central States leaned "toward silver with bimetallic qual- 
 ifications"; and "only in New York, New England and 
 adjacent eastern states" were there "any avowedly gold 
 standard men. ' ' 631 
 
 While free coinage threatened to break up the old par- 
 ties, leaders of the People's party were active in their 
 efforts to fuse all the silver forces into a compact party. 
 They felt sure that if all these elements could be united 
 they would sweep the country; and there is little doubt 
 of the correctness of their conclusion. There were strong 
 reasons for the belief that in 1894 and 1895 all that pre- 
 vented the passage of a free coinage bill by Congress was 
 
 282 
 
UNION OF POPULISTS AND DEMOCRATS 283 
 
 the certainty of a presidential veto. General Weaver 
 was understood to be " the principal mover in this effort 
 to secure the union of the silver forces .... and it 
 is stated that he has the co-operation of Gen. A. J. War- 
 ner and the sympathy of Representative Bland." 632 
 
 The concerted action of these three men promised to 
 bring together the People's party, the Bimetallic League, 
 and the free silver wing of the Democratic party — a re- 
 sult that was accomplished in 1896. An address was 
 issued by the "bimetallic party" in March and a vigorous 
 campaign begun. Ex-Congressman Joseph S. Sibley of 
 Pennsylvania was mentioned as a candidate for the Pres- 
 idency. 633 
 
 Not only were efforts made to unite existing organi- 
 zations, but as in every period of social unrest new under- 
 takings were attempted to deal with real and imaginary 
 difficulties. Late in March, 1895, announcement was 
 made of plans for a great labor organization "to foster 
 colonization on a voluntary cooperative basis, providing 
 profitable employment for the unemployed and fostering 
 independent political action among wage workers. ' ' The 
 new organization aimed at the elimination of strikes and 
 the substitution of arbitration. "By taking up the sur- 
 plus labor of the great cities and starting it into pro- 
 ductive employment" it would "benefit not only the 
 unemployed but those already engaged in every line of 
 productive activity .... the movement had prac- 
 tically been started in nearly every city of any impor- 
 tance in the United States. As soon as a little more head- 
 way is made a convention will be called and a plan of 
 organization adopted. ' ' 634 
 
 Lyman Trumbull, former United States Senator from 
 Illinois and a leader among the Liberal Republicans, 
 
284 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 was asked to become the head of the new labor organiza- 
 tion. Probably this selection was due to the fact that 
 Trumbull had been one of the counsel for Mr. Debs, and 
 with Henry D. Lloyd had addressed a large meeting held 
 at Chicago in October, 1894, under the auspices of the 
 People's party, his subject being "The Eights of Man 
 as Affected by Accumulated Wealth and Favored Monop- 
 olies. ' ' His speech was published in the newspapers and 
 in pamphlet form was used as a Populist campaign docu- 
 ment. 635 
 
 Important State elections were held in 1895 in only- 
 seven States. The Republicans were successful in all 
 but one State, Mississippi. No elections of importance 1 
 occurred in Kansas and Nebraska, and none at all in the 
 other free silver States. The Eepublican victory was 
 "not so overwhelming in its majorities as that of last 
 year. . . . There is nothing in the situation to justify 
 confident predictions on the one side or on the other. 
 Everything shows that the independent voter is holding 
 a wider and wider margin of disputed territory, and that 
 he can with increasing facility turn the balance of 
 power." 636 
 
 How little competent political observers understood the 
 nature of the movement and how little they anticipated 
 the events of the year 1896 is shown by an article in The 
 Century for November, 1895, written by Mr. Eoosevelt, 
 in which he described the Populists as representing "very 
 little except an angry but loose discontent with affairs 
 as they actually are, and a readiness to grasp after any 
 remedy proposed either by charlatanism or by an igno- 
 rance as honest as it is abysmal. The Populist party, 
 therefore, waxes and wanes inversely as prosperity in- 
 creases or declines. ... At present, affairs over the 
 
UNION OF POPULISTS AND DEMOCRATS 285 
 
 country seem to be on the mend, and the Populist party 
 is therefore losing power. ' ' 0S7 
 
 The great event of 1896 politically was the adoption of 
 free silver as an issue by the Democrats and their nomi- 
 nation of Mr. Bryan as their candidate. These events 
 were the culmination of the developments that have just 
 been traced, especially since 1890. To the country at 
 large they came as startling surprises; but as a matter 
 of fact they had been prepared for gradually ; and favored 
 by a combination of circumstances, they produced the un- 
 expected climax. Thus the Populists won their greatest 
 victory, while at the same time they lost their identity as 
 a political party. Their work of "permeation" eclipsed 
 all the records of previous independent movements by 
 giving to one of the great parties its chief issue and its 
 presidential candidate. No greater success could be at- 
 tained. "A landmark in party history" 638 had been es- 
 tablished. The final steps in the process and what re- 
 sulted therefrom remain to be described. 
 
 "Democratic State conventions in several of the Mis- 
 sissippi valley States had declared for free coinage of 
 silver in 1895 ; but until the spring of 1896 it was not sup- 
 posed that that sentiment would control the Democratic 
 organization or the framing of the declaration of prin- 
 ciples at its national convention. A free-silver organiza- 
 tion had, however, been formed within the Democratic 
 party late in 1895, and through its work and that of an 
 organization calling itself the Silver party a sentiment 
 rapidly developed throughout the South and the West 
 in behalf of silver, and before the election of delegates 
 to the Democratic National Convention had been com- 
 pleted it was apparent that the silver sentiment would 
 control that convention. ' ' 63fl 
 
286 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 McKinley's nomination was "practically assured" 640 
 before the meeting of the Republican convention through 
 the efficient work of Mark Hanna, the manager of the 
 campaign for his nomination and his personal friend for 
 many years. McKinley and his supporters had expected 
 that the tariff would be made the leading issue in 1896, 
 but the impending declaration of the Democrats for free 
 silver compelled a change of plans. Like a good many 
 western Republicans, McKinley's record upon currency 
 matters had been one of expediency. A definite and un- 
 equivocal declaration for the gold standard would hardly 
 be consistent with his previous course, and would almost 
 certainly lead to the bolt of a good many far western Re- 
 publicans. Still these were minor difficulties, and the 
 Republican leaders, urged on by eastern business inter- 
 ests, finally decided to declare definitely for the mainte- 
 nance of the gold standard. 641 This decision was followed 
 by the withdrawal from the convention of delegates from 
 Montana, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, and South Dakota — 
 headed by Senator Henry M. Teller of Colorado, "whose 
 farewell speech to the convention of the party with which 
 he had acted since its organization made an intensely 
 dramatic scene". The practical effect of this secession 
 was slight, however, for only twenty-one delegates with- 
 drew and less than one-tenth of the total number voted 
 against the gold plank when the platform was adopted. 642 
 
 With the Republicans the candidate had been deter- 
 mined upon before the convention met, but with the Dem- 
 ocrats the reverse was true — the platform in its domi- 
 nant issue was settled in advance, while the candidate 
 remained to be chosen. The Republicans adapted their 
 candidates to the requirements of the platform ; the Dem- 
 
UNION OF POPULISTS AND DEMOCEATS 287 
 
 ocrats chose the candidate who seemed best fitted to 
 represent the platform. 
 
 The minority in the Democratic convention recognized 
 that those in favor of free coinage were "largely in the 
 ascendency", but they hoped through the two-thirds rule 
 to "prevent the nomination of an extreme advocate of 
 free coinage. Strong speeches were made in the conven- 
 tion against the adoption of the free-coinage plank, but 
 without avail, the majority in its favor being overwhelm- 
 ing." 643 The leaders of the silver forces were Senator 
 James K. Jones of Arkansas, Governor Altgeld of Illi- 
 nois, and Senator Tillman of South Carolina. They pro- 
 ceeded from the opening of the convention ' ' rapidly and 
 relentlessly to carry their programme through to the 
 end." By a vote of five hundred and fifty-six to three 
 hundred and forty-nine they elected their candidate for 
 temporary chairman in place of the nominee of the 
 national committee which was in the hands of the gold 
 men. Next they carried a free silver platform by a vote 
 of six hundred and twenty-eight to three hundred and one 
 after having rejected substitutes proposed by their op- 
 ponents. 6 ** 
 
 The closing speech in the debate upon the platform was 
 made by William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska who "had 
 come to the convention at the head of the contesting silver 
 delegation from his State. . . . Mr. Bryan's speech 
 is said, by very experienced and competent men who 
 heard it, to have been undoubtedly the most electrifying 
 oratorical effort in all the annals of American political 
 history. . . . His great effort at Chicago in answer 
 to Senator Hill, though adapted extemporaneously to 
 meet the precise situation at every point, was full of 
 
288 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 carefully phrased periods and of carefully studied argu- 
 ments which had done service more than once in the 
 speeches which Mr. Bryan had been delivering elsewhere. 
 Very few persons were aware, at that time, how con- 
 stantly and how extensively in various portions of the 
 West and South Mr. Bryan had for two or three years 
 been making effective addresses in behalf of free silver 
 . . . . the immense effect produced by his speech at 
 Chicago was due to the coincidence that a consummate 
 oratorical occasion had found a man consummately pre- 
 pared to take advantage of it. . . . Mr. Bryan could 
 have been nominated by acclamation at the conclusion of 
 his speech .... if he had been willing to allow the 
 regular order of proceedings to be overruled." 645 
 
 Before the delivery of Bryan's "Cross of Gold" speech, 
 Bichard P. Bland of Missouri, Horace Boies of Iowa, 
 and Henry M. Teller of Colorado were regarded as the 
 leading candidates for the presidential nomination. 
 Bland had been for many years the congressional leader 
 of the free silver advocates ; Boies had been twice elected 
 as Governor in the otherwise always Republican State 
 of Iowa; Teller's dramatic retirement from the Republi- 
 can convention had seemed to the leaders of the Demo- 
 crats to make him the natural candidate. It was under- 
 stood to be the intention of Governor Altgeld, "the 
 Hanna of the democratic convention", 646 to bring about 
 the nomination of Teller after several preliminary ballots 
 had been taken. Governor Altgeld himself was not eligi- 
 ble because of his German birth. 
 
 The platform was objectionable to the eastern dele- 
 gates, not only because of the silver plank, its most strik- 
 ing feature, but because of other declarations which it 
 contained, such as its denunciation of President Cleve- 
 
UNION OP POPULISTS AND DEMOCRATS 289 
 
 land's "policy of issuing bonds to maintain the gold 
 reserve in the Treasury, the use of Federal troops and 
 injunctions by Federal courts to suppress riots and inter- 
 ference with interstate traffic, and an attack on the Su- 
 preme Court because of its reversal of the action of 
 Congress in favor of a tax on incomes." When to all 
 these objections was added the prospect of the nomi- 
 nation of an extreme advocate of all of them, many 
 eastern delegates, "as well as a small portion of those 
 from the Mississippi valley", declined to take part in 
 the balloting. 647 
 
 Bryan was nominated upon the fifth ballot, receiving 
 more than the five hundred and twelve necessary votes. 
 His chief competitors were Bland and Boies, who re- 
 ceived two hundred and thirty-five and eighty-five votes, 
 respectively, upon the first ballot. Bland's support in- 
 creased to two hundred and ninety-one votes on the third 
 ballot; while for Boies the number of votes cast declined 
 to twenty-six on the final ballot. Five ballots were also 
 required for a nomination for the Vice Presidency. The 
 leading aspirants were ex-Congressman Sibley of Penn- 
 sylvania, Arthur Sewall of Maine, and John E. McLean 
 of Ohio. Sibley's vote fell off rapidly and the real 
 contest was between Sewall and McLean. The fourth 
 ballot showed McLean in the lead with two hundred and 
 ninety-six, compared with two hundred and sixty-two for 
 Sewall. During the progress of the fifth ballot the con- 
 vention turned to Sewall and his nomination was made 
 unanimous. 
 
 Mr. Bryan was thirty-six years old at the time of his 
 nomination and was the youngest candidate ever selected 
 for the Presidency by any great American party. Some 
 eastern newspapers and prominent persons pretended 
 
290 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 never to have heard of him before his Chicago speech. 
 Their failure to have heard of him, if they were honest 
 in their expressions, was due to a failure to keep posted 
 on events in the West during the preceding eight years; 
 for during that time Mr. Bryan had served two terms as 
 a member of Congress and was "by all odds the ablest 
 and strongest orator on the Democratic side of the House. 
 His subsequent canvass for the United States Senator- 
 ship in Nebraska was noteworthy and conspicuous on 
 many accounts. He had been often mentioned as a pres- 
 idential possibility among the Democrats of the West, but 
 his youth had been considered a conclusive argument 
 against his availability. ' ' 648 
 
 Mr. Sewall, the candidate for Vice President, was an 
 eastern bank president and had been known as a free 
 silver man only since June, 1895. He was the head of a 
 well known firm of ship-builders at Bath, Maine, and was 
 a director in various railroad and other corporations. 
 He was ' 'a man of force and character, in his sixty-first 
 year. ' ' His nomination was ' ' a surprise to almost every 
 one" and was due to the belief of the leaders that it was 
 "expedient to choose an Eastern man rather than one 
 from the West or South. ' ' 649 It is noteworthy that both 
 the chief candidates for the Vice Presidency were men 
 of wealth — their wealth being regarded as of importance 
 in the conduct of the campaign. The basis for his selec- 
 tion did not recommend him to the rank and file of the 
 free silver Democracy. The Populists rejected him alto- 
 gether. 650 
 
 The Populists assembled late in July in the same build- 
 ing in which the Republicans had met the month before. 
 The chief problem before this convention was the en- 
 dorsement of the results of the work of the Democrats. 
 
UNION OF POPULISTS AND DEMOCRATS 291 
 
 There was no objection to the nomination of Mr. Bryan 
 as a candidate, but there was a question as to the prob- 
 able effect of such an action upon the future of the Popu- 
 list party. The foremost advocates of the endorsement 
 of Mr. Bryan were Senator Allen of Nebraska and Gen- 
 eral Weaver of Iowa. The opponents of the plan were 
 chiefly southern Populists who came from States where 
 there were very few Republicans and where there was 
 intense hostility between Democracy and Populism. 
 Some northern Populists like Ignatius Donnelly of Min- 
 nesota, General Jacob S. Coxey of Ohio, Col. S. F. Nor- 
 ton of Illinois, and Senator Peffer of Kansas favored a 
 separate ticket. 651 
 
 The fusionists proved strong enough at the beginning 
 of the convention to make Senator Allen permanent chair- 
 man and General Weaver chairman of the committee on 
 resolutions. Allen's choice was by a vote of seven hun- 
 dred and fifty-eight to five hundred and sixty-four for 
 James A. Campion of Maine, the candidate of the 
 minority. The opposition also submitted a substitute 
 platform in which both the Democratic and Republican 
 parties were denounced "for their mutual cooperation 
 with the money-power", but it was defeated by a large 
 majority. Mr. Bryan in addition urged the withdrawal 
 of his own name unless Mr. Sewall was endorsed. Slow 
 progress was made, and it became evident that Mr. 
 Sewall, "as president of a bank, director in railway 
 companies and other corporations, and a wealthy em- 
 ployer of labor", would not be acceptable to the Populist 
 party. Finally "the separate ticket men" obtained the 
 consent of the convention by a vote of seven hundred 
 and eighty-five to six hundred and fifteen to select the 
 vice presidential candidate first. The balloting resulted 
 
292 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 in the choice of Thomas E. Watson of Georgia by a vote 
 of four hundred and sixty-nine to two hundred and fifty- 
 seven. The following day Bryan was nominated by a 
 vote of one thousand and forty-two out of the thirteen 
 hundred delegates. S. F. Norton was the only other 
 person nominated who received substantial support. 652 
 His vote probably represented the strength of tbose who 
 favored a separate ticket. 653 
 
 Ex-Congressman Watson was "a man of intense con- 
 victions, fanatical fervor and undoubted integrity and 
 sincerity .... a country editor .... a pow- 
 erful personality in the politics of his own state. He is 
 still a young man, being thirty-eight or thirty-nine years 
 of age." His nomination represented the element in the 
 party which came to be known as "Middle-of-the-Road" 
 Populists whose chief anxiety was to preserve party 
 identity and not to be drawn aside by any temporary 
 advantage to be derived from fusion with the great 
 parties. 654 This section was the only portion of the party 
 that maintained an independent existence after 1896. 655 
 
 With the Democrats and Republicans the platform had 
 been the chief problem, but with the Populists under the 
 circumstances the platform was of secondary importance. 
 "The great and pressing issue" was the financial ques- 
 tion and this issue had been taken over by the Democrats. 
 Hence the platform played a much less prominent part 
 in the proceedings of the Populist convention of 1896 
 than it had in 1892. The real problem was the endorse- 
 ment of the Democratic candidates upon a platform large- 
 ly adopted from the program of the Populists. A few 
 items appeared in the Populist platform that were not 
 to be found in the Democratic, but these were recognized 
 to be issues of future rather than immediate importance, 
 
UNION OF POPULISTS AND DEMOCEATS 293 
 
 as was the free coinage plank. The government control 
 of railroads and telegraphs, the initiative and referen- 
 dum and the election of President, Vice President, and 
 United States Senators by direct vote of the people com- 
 prised the more important of these future issues. 656 
 
 According to a sympathetic observer, Mr. Henry D. 
 Lloyd, the Populist convention of 1896 "lacked the drill 
 and distinction and wealth" of the Republican gathering 
 and it did not have "the ebullient aggressiveness of the 
 revolutionary Democratic assembly at Chicago, nor the 
 brilliant drivers who rode the storm there. Every one 
 commented on the number of gray heads — heads many 
 of them grown white in previous independent party move- 
 ments. The delegates were poor men. . . . Cases 
 are well known of delegates who walked because too poor 
 to pay their railroad fare. It was one day discovered 
 that certain members of one of the most important dele- 
 gations were actually suffering for food. . . . The 
 unexpected length of the proceedings had exhausted their 
 little store of money. ' ' 657 
 
 "Within ten days after the adoption of the platform 
 at Chicago, more than 100 daily papers that had been 
 accustomed to support the nominees of the Democratic 
 party announced their opposition to the ticket and the 
 platform. This was especially the case in the large cities 
 east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio. . . . 
 Meantime, great dissatisfaction with the platform 
 .... was developing among eminent Democrats in 
 all the States between the Mississippi and the Atlantic 
 and north of the extreme Southern States. . . . The 
 friends and supporters of President Cleveland were in- 
 dignant at the attack made in the convention upon his 
 administration." The result was a. gathering at In- 
 
294 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 dianapolis early in September at which eight hundred 
 and eighty-eight delegates were present from over forty 
 States and at which a platform was adopted denouncing 
 the action of the Chicago convention relative to currency 
 and federal interference in governmental matters. The 
 name of "the National Democratic party" was adopted, 
 and General John M. Palmer of Illinois and General 
 Simon B. Buckner of Kentucky put forward as candi- 
 dates for President and Vice President. The convention 
 "contained a remarkable number of men of high culture 
 and attainments who are versed in politics and affairs, 
 whose motives are above suspicion, and whose political 
 action is free from any taint of self-seeking." 658 Never- 
 theless, this party proved of little importance in the elec- 
 tion ; the main contest was waged between the hosts led 
 by McKinley and Bryan. 659 
 
 The campaign of 1896 660 was of necessity one of edu- 
 cation, with the great battleground in the agricultural 
 States of the Mississippi Valley. The northeastern and 
 Middle States were committed to the gold standard ; while 
 it was just as certain that the South and the mining 
 States would support free coinage. A campaign of edu- 
 cation had been carried on in the South and "West for 
 nearly three years by the Bimetallic League and other 
 pro-silver organizations, and any hope of success there 
 for the Bepublicans meant that in a three months' can- 
 vass they must counteract the efforts of nearly as many 
 years — a stupendous task only to be successfully accom- 
 plished by the most thorough and efficient work. Conse- 
 quently, a remarkable feature of this campaign of educa- 
 tion was the enormous distribution of literature, amount- 
 ing to thousands of tons sent out by the different 
 parties. 661 
 
UNION OP POPULISTS AND DEMOCRATS 295 
 
 The character of the free silver propaganda that had 
 to be met during the canvass of 1896 is well illustrated 
 by the sale of a little book entitled Coin's Financial 
 School. Its author, W. H. Harvey, was born in Vir- 
 ginia about 1854. He studied law and practiced in Cleve- 
 land, Ohio. In 1878 he went West where he tried ranch- 
 ing and silver-prospecting, and made money, but lost it 
 all in 1893. He then settled in Chicago and started a 
 weekly paper which failed. Finally, he wrote his book 
 in 1894 and by May, 1895, 300,000 copies had been sold. 
 Harvey's book did not create the silver movement, but 
 the strength of the silver movement created the market 
 for that kind of literature. The book is cleverly written 
 with suggestive diagrams intended to appeal to the aver- 
 age mind. A combination of circumstances, plus a book, 
 resulted in the free silver campaign of 1896. "Coin's 
 Financial School" furnished the argument; free silver 
 sufficed for the creed, and "Sixteen to One" became the 
 cry. 662 
 
 A spectacular feature of the campaign was the "ora- 
 torical canvass for the presidency" made by Mr. Bryan 
 which was undoubtedly "the most remarkable tour in all 
 the annals of political ' stumping'. ' ' The official notifica- 
 tion of the nomination was made in Madison Square Gar- 
 den, New York, early in August. Speeches were made 
 by the candidate from the rear platform of his car on his 
 way from Nebraska to New York and afterwards he 
 made a tour through "the enemy's country", the north- 
 eastern and Middle States. "His tour attracted much 
 attention, phenomenal crowds gathered to listen to 
 him. ... It was found also that speeches delivered 
 in this unusual manner attracted the attention of the 
 press and the public, and were printed even in the most 
 
296 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 hostile papers as a matter of news. This suggested to 
 him and his managers the practicability, by continuing 
 this process, of utilizing the press of the country to 
 spread their arguments despite its hostility to their 
 views. Accordingly, Mr. Bryan remained in the field 
 during the entire canvass .... traveling first in 
 an ordinary passenger coach, then in the Pullman parlor 
 car or sleeper, then by special car, and finally by special 
 train, accompanied by a corps of secretaries and corre- 
 spondents of newspapers and press associations." 663 
 
 During fourteen weeks Mr. Bryan made four hundred 
 speeches in twenty-nine States and traveled 18,000 miles. 
 His average number of speeches was about five a day. 
 All together he probably addressed several million voters. 
 His itinerary took him as far East as Bath, Maine, as far 
 South as Memphis, Tennessee, and West as far as Kear- 
 ney, Nebraska, and Aberdeen, South Dakota. Merely as 
 a test of physical endurance his undertaking would be 
 hard to match, and in addition "it must be remembered 
 that he has had to discuss before vast audiences, — in 
 such a way as to hold their attention and win their ap- 
 plause, — • a class of subjects which lend themselves with 
 the greatest difficulty to popular oratory." 664 
 
 Mr. McKinley, though remaining at his home in Can- 
 ton, Ohio, carried on "an oratorical campaign .... 
 which in its own kind has .... never been paral- 
 leled. ' ' Almost every day he was visited by delegations 
 that expected an address upon the issues of the day. In 
 the busiest part of the canvass it was estimated that as 
 many as 30,000 persons visited him in a single day. From 
 June 19th to November 2nd he made three hundred 
 speeches to more than 750,000 persons from about thirty 
 States. The plan of delegations representing "a locality 
 
UNION OF POPULISTS AND DEMOCRATS 297 
 
 or else belonging to some one craft or calling or interest" 
 gave classified audiences to Mr. McKinley for which he 
 could prepare in advance, while Mr. Bryan's "whirl- 
 wind campaign" from the rear platform did not permit 
 such concentrated efforts. "His speeches, like those of 
 Mr. Bryan, were telegraphed to all parts of the coun- 
 try .... so that each of the candidates was able 
 thus to address the entire reading population of the 
 country more frequently, and to discuss the issues more 
 thoroughly, than had been the case in any presidential 
 campaign of former years. ' ' G05 
 
 The cost of the campaign was of especial interest 
 because of the charges of coercion upon the part of 
 employers and because of the large amount of money 
 supposed to be at the command of the Republicans. 
 There was a great deal of discussion, but "comparatively 
 little" was known, for no formal accounting for funds 
 was even thought of at the time. The fears of business 
 men as to the effects of free coinage upon property 
 interests caused them to contribute more freely than 
 usual to the Republican campaign expenses : directors of 
 banks and life insurance companies made contributions 
 in the belief that they were protecting the property of 
 their stockholders from almost certain depreciation and 
 loss. On the other hand silver-mine owners contributed 
 to the campaign funds of the Democrats. The canvass 
 of 1896 was an exceptionally expensive one on account 
 of the enormous distribution of literature by the Repub- 
 licans and the widespread "stumping" activities of Mr. 
 Bryan. The legitimate expenses would be very great 
 even with the most careful management. 606 
 
 The dominant figure in the management of the cam- 
 paign was Marcus A. Hanna, 667 chairman of the National 
 
298 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Eepublican Committee, and the close personal friend of 
 Mr. McKinley. He was primarily the big business man 
 in politics and in the popular mind he personified the 
 money-power of the country. In deference to this pop- 
 ular belief the cartoonist always pictured him as dressed 
 in clothes completely covered with dollar marks. Under 
 such circumstances it was only natural that the opinion 
 should become prevalent that the Eepublican campaign 
 was one of money waged against the interests of the 
 common people of the country — the embodiment in 
 concrete form of the idea that had been so carefully 
 propagated by the advocates of free coinage. Mr. Bryan 
 himself made charges that money was used to determine 
 the results, and that if the Eepublicans had not influ- 
 enced the electorate unfairly, his election would have 
 been certain. Mr. Herbert Croly in his biography of 
 Hanna considers these charges carefully and reaches the 
 conclusion that he was "not to be held responsible for 
 its blameworthy aspects. All he did was to make it 
 more effective by virtue of his able expenditure of the 
 money, of his systematization of the collections, and by 
 the confidence he inspired that the money would be well 
 spent. The real responsibility is much more widely dis- 
 tributed. The system was the inevitable result of the 
 political organization and ideas of the American democ- 
 racy and the relation which had come to prevail between 
 the American political and economic life. As soon as it 
 began to work in favor of only one of the two political 
 parties it was bound to be condemned by public opin- 
 ion". 668 
 
 The actual cost of the campaign has been "grossly 
 exaggerated". Estimates as high as $12,000,000 have 
 been made and a favorite estimate has been $6,000,000 or 
 
UNION OF POPULISTS AND DEMOCRATS 299 
 
 $7,000,000, but such figures are "almost twice as large 
 as the money actually raised. The audited accounts of 
 the Committee exhibited collections of a little less than 
 $3,500,000, and some of this was not spent. ' ' 86!) 
 
 Careful observers of the progress of the campaign 
 have expressed the opinion that if the election had been 
 held in August Bryan's election would have been almost 
 certain. Even the Republican National Committee itself 
 had no confidence in the success of its efforts until early 
 in October. "Mr. McKinley was gravely concerned, and 
 chided certain of his friends for their participation in the 
 decisive definition of the currency issue. ' ' 670 The East 
 failed to appreciate the intensity and sincerity of the 
 western free coinage propaganda, with the result that 
 there was grave danger that their efforts would be mis- 
 placed. Only the "vigorous, exhaustive and systematic 
 work" 6n under Mr. Hanna's management made possible 
 the final outcome. 672 
 
 The election was held November 3rd and "good weather 
 in nearly all parts of the United States made it possible 
 to bring out an unusually full vote. This was especially 
 so in the agricultural States, on whose vote the result 
 was expected to depend. . . . Elaborate preparations 
 had been made for gathering the returns from the polls 
 and announcing the result. . . . The consequence was 
 that before midnight a large portion of the 70,000,000 
 people of the United States were cognizant of the fact 
 that McKinley and Hobart had been elected. ' ' 673 The 
 popular vote stood as follows : McKinley, 7,107,304 
 Bryan (Democrat), 6,287,352 ; Bryan (Populist), 245,728 
 Palmer, 133,542; Prohibition, 144,708; Socialist, 33,545 
 total vote, 13,952,179. 
 
 The electoral vote was recorded as follows : For 
 
300 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 President, McKinley, 271, Bryan, 176; for Vice Presi- 
 dent, Hobart, 271, Sewall, 149, Watson, 27. 
 
 Bryan lost by a popular vote of only about 500,000 in 
 a total of nearly 14,000,000 votes. The electoral vote was 
 less evenly divided. He carried all the States south of 
 Virginia and Tennessee, including those States, and all 
 west of the Mississippi except Iowa, Minnesota, North 
 Dakota, Oregon, and California. This sectional division 
 of the vote is noteworthy and indicates why a new sec- 
 tionalism 674 was talked about in those years. Watson's 
 twenty-seven electoral votes came from the following 
 States: Arkansas, 3; Louisiana, 4; Missouri, 4; Mon- 
 tana, 1; Nebraska, 4; North Carolina, 5; South Dakota, 
 2 ; Utah, 1 ; Washington, 2 ; and Wyoming, 1. 
 
 The popular vote cast for Watson was in round num- 
 bers 217,000 and was distributed through seventeen 
 States. In twenty-eight States a Democratic Populist 
 fusion was arranged for the electoral vote. The merger 
 of the two parties makes any comparison with the vote of 
 1892 impossible, but it may be noted that the Democrats 
 carried South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri 
 " in all of which the Populist party had cast heavy votes 
 in the preceding presidential and congressional elec- 
 tions". 675 
 
 The presidential election so greatly overshadowed the 
 State elections that little attention was paid to the results. 
 In some of the close States there was a divergence be- 
 tween the national and local outcome. The House of 
 Bepresentatives would be "strongly Republican", while 
 the prospects were good for a sound money majority in 
 the Senate. 676 
 
 The significance of the campaign and election of 1896 
 
UNION OF POPULISTS AND DEMOCRATS 301 
 
 in the history of social politics in the United States is 
 independent of the economic soundness of its chief issue 
 as a remedy to meet existing evils. As has already been 
 suggested, it marked a new epoch in our political life in 
 which the lines began to be drawn between the rich and 
 poor — democracy and the power of wealth engaged in 
 open conflict. It represented the culmination of agita- 
 tions that had their beginnings back in the early seven- 
 ties and which were aimed at the eradication of special 
 privileges the effects of which had been steadily growing 
 worse and worse for a quarter of a century. A part of 
 the unrest was a blind protest against conditions regard- 
 less of consequences, but some persons of social vision 
 believed that behind the superficial aspects they saw "the 
 first great protest of the American people against monop- 
 oly — the first great struggle of the masses in our country 
 against v. 1e- privileged classes. It was not free silver that 
 frightened the plutocratic leaders. What they feared 
 then, what they fear now, is free men." Tom Johnson 
 of Cleveland never accepted free silver as sound, but 
 supported Bryan in 1896 and in 1900. 677 
 
 Henry George supported Bryan in 1896, although "he 
 regarded the silver coinage proposal as another form of 
 the protective idea — to raise, artificially, the price of the 
 silver commodity." He preferred it "to the principle 
 of privilege which the monopolistic powers gathered 
 around the gold, or so-called 'sound money' candidate". 
 At first doubtful of Bryan's success, he became later 
 certain of his election and was bitterly disappointed at 
 his defeat. 678 
 
 Henry D. Lloyd wrote to a correspondent in 1896 that 
 "this Free Silver movement has convinced me that the 
 people do not begin to understand the money question. 
 
302 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 The Greenback movement, though nearer mere monetary 
 truth than the Silver one, failed and I think deservedly 
 for this reason. It did not see that as money is only an 
 intermediary, the money question is only an intermediary 
 one. We shall have a true money only when we have one 
 produced in connection with a positive and creative pro- 
 gramme of social reconstruction. . . . The failure 
 of all our past agitations on tariff, land, transportation, 
 trusts, labour, and capital indicates strongly that the 
 body of reform thought has not yet been complet- 
 ed. . . . The revolution now in progress is not a 
 little one. ... It will move slowly until the leaders 
 of the party are in possession of a definite and symmetri- 
 cal body of truths, in which they can drill their followers 
 so that these will have a common standard by which they 
 can act together without leaders." 679 He wrote in Octo- 
 ber, 1896 : "I may vote for Bryan as the Knight of the 
 Disinherited, like Ivanhoe, but he will not be the next 
 President, and I am content." He finally voted the 
 Socialist Labor ticket. 680 
 
 Professor Prank Parsons described free silver as 
 ' ' only one step, — the financial goal must be to place the 
 movement of the currency volume under intelligent con- 
 trol, acting in the broad daylight in the interests of the 
 whole nation. . . . Then monopoly and special privi- 
 lege of every kind must be redeemed to the public use. 
 Government must be purified and improved and labor out 
 of place must be helped to readjustment and rendered 
 secure in the opportunity to make an honest living. . . . 
 
 "I stand at the junction of three great roads" wrote 
 Professor Parsons, "one leads to the right up a smiling 
 slope to the public ownership of monopolies, security of 
 employment, elevation of labor, a national currency and 
 
UNION OF POPULISTS AND DEMOCRATS 303 
 
 postal savings banks, progressive taxation of incomes 
 and inheritances, direct legislation, etc., etc. ; on the left, 
 is the road of gold, that is full of puddles and mud and 
 rocks, and leads forever down, over gulch and precipice, 
 to a vaster congestion of wealth, a strengthened money 
 power, a more corrupted government, and a nation in 
 slavery to privilege; the middle road is the silver road, 
 and it looks as though it had a gully at the start, and 
 some rocks and puddles beyond, but it has an upward 
 slope upon the whole and turns after a while and runs 
 into the road on the right. ' ' 681 
 
XIX 
 
 CONDITIONS IN IOWA IN 1890 AND 1891 
 
 Iowa was not one of the States in which Populism was 
 most pronounced, since conditions here were less favor- 
 able to its development than in the three States to the 
 west — Kansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota. As in 
 earlier movements of a similar character the center of 
 greatest unrest was in the section more recently settled, 
 where the need and opportunity for capital for develop- 
 ment was most keenly felt. These regions had succeeded 
 themselves across the continent from western Massachu- 
 setts with its Shay's Rebellion in 1786 until the latest and 
 greatest of these outbursts centered in the second tier of 
 States west of the Mississippi from 1890 to 1896. 
 
 Iowa, however, was by no means untouched, although 
 the record of its share must be studied in the effect upon 
 the old parties rather than in the number of votes cast 
 or the proportion of candidates elected. A study of these 
 influences, as indicated in the press and other records of 
 the period, will show how strong was the undercurrent, 
 although it never broke through the banks of party or- 
 ganization with the violence which characterized its his- 
 tory in Kansas and Nebraska. 
 
 A casual view of the situation leaves the observer sur- 
 prised that a State so little moved should have contrih- 
 uted the national leader in the one presidential contest 
 in which the party acted independently. And yet Gen- 
 eral Weaver's candidacy was no accident, but resulted 
 
 304 
 
CONDITIONS IN IOWA IN 1890 AND 1891 305 
 
 from conditions of which he was a typical product. A 
 Bepublican and a Union soldier he found himself in the 
 middle seventies one of the minority in his party who 
 were out of sympathy with some of its settled policies. 
 This minority continued to grow and took various forms 
 of independence from 1872 to 1890. After 1877 General 
 Weaver was always with the protestants who step by 
 step were trying to adjust party organization in the 
 United States to new conditions and new problems. 
 Social and economic issues were forcing themselves upon 
 public attention in place of the political questions con- 
 nected with slavery and reconstruction. General Weaver 
 was one of the pioneers who recognized that the politics 
 of the future were to be social in character. 
 
 From 188-t to 1891, influenced by conditions in the 
 country at large, the Greenback party in Iowa merged 
 first with the Union Labor party and finally was absorbed 
 into the Populist party. Proof of the continuity of these 
 movements under changing names is to be found in the 
 reappearance of leaders like General Weaver, E. H. Gil- 
 lette, L. H. Weller, W. H. Robb, and L. Q. Hoggatt in 
 the conventions of the successive parties. A competent 
 observer of the Omaha convention in 1892 described a 
 delegate from Iowa as a "logical" Populist, who had 
 been a Granger, then "successively a Greenbacker, a 
 Prohibitionist and a Populist. He is a man in more than 
 comfortable circumstances, intelligent, honest and a 
 Christian." 682 
 
 During the years of Populist activity a vigorous cam- 
 paign was in operation in Iowa over the question of 
 prohibition. An amendment to the State Constitution 
 adopted in 1882 by a vote of 155,436 to 125,677 was 
 declared invalid the following year because of a technical 
 
306 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 flaw in its adoption by the General Assembly. In 1884 
 two laws were enacted "which imposed prohibition as 
 absolute as that contemplated by the Amendment." 683 
 In 1889 and 1891 the Eepublicans were defeated in the 
 State elections for the only times since the Civil War. 
 The most prominent issue during these campaigns, as it 
 had been during the years immediately preceding, was 
 that of prohibition. Democratic success was probably 
 helped by dissatisfaction with other Republican policies, 
 but prohibition was certainly more largely responsible 
 than any other single cause. Such a situation makes it 
 very difficult to interpret the influence of a party lite the 
 Populist which must be described in terms of its reactions 
 upon other parties instead of positively in terms of votes 
 cast and candidates elected. 684 
 
 The attitude of the People 's party was made clear in 
 its first platform adopted in 1891 in which it censured 
 "the leaders of the Republican and Democratic parties 
 for the constant effort to re-open the temperance question 
 in this State, to the exclusion of the grave economic 
 questions which now confront the people. ' ' 685 Again in 
 1893 the new party charged that the Republicans and 
 Democrats were "engaged in an attempt to outbid one 
 another for the support of the saloon element in the state, 
 and are seeking to drown by their cry for the saloon 
 every other important consideration relating to the public 
 welfare. We demand that the present law shall remain 
 until such time as it can be replaced by what is known 
 as State and National control with all profits eliminated 
 — which we believe to be the true method of dealing with 
 the question. ' ' 68e While there should have been cooper- 
 ation between the forces working for moral and social 
 reform, the two groups have usually failed to work 
 
CONDITIONS IN IOWA IN 1890 AND 1891 307 
 
 harmoniously. Each has insisted that its own particular 
 reforms were the most essential and fundamental, with 
 the result that prohibitionists and saloon-keepers have 
 often unintentionally united to defeat the program of 
 social reform. 
 
 Two editorials which appeared just before the election 
 of 1889 in The Saturday Evening Post (Burlington), a 
 Republican paper, are interesting and suggestive in re- 
 gard to the party conditions in Iowa. One of these 
 editorials calls attention to the fact that "Dr. Beard- 
 sley 68T closes his list of campaign addresses to-day. . . . 
 That is all he will do for the next two years to earn a 
 salary of $333 a month from the state as oil inspector. 
 In other words, the doctor draws this large salary, and 
 lives on it in princely style, while his deputies do all the 
 work and receive their pay in fees. It is such things 
 as this that renders the republican majority problemati- 
 cal in Iowa this off year." The other editorial in the 
 same issue of the paper described General Weaver as 
 "undoubtedly a man of ability and a man of the people. 
 We have never had any sympathy for the partisan spirit 
 that for years talked him down and finally brought about 
 his overthrow." 688 
 
 In the General Assembly which convened early in 
 January, 1890, the Republicans controlled the Senate by 
 "a majority of six"; but the House contained "two 
 factions, each having fifty votes", made up on one side 
 of Republicans and "an alliance of Democrats, Union 
 Labor men, and Independents on the other side. " Asa 
 result the House was not permanently organized for 
 more than five weeks. Finally, on February 19th a com- 
 promise was arranged by which the Republicans yielded 
 the speakership, "obtaining in return the clerkship, 
 
308 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 nearly all of the minor offices, and a majority of the 
 committees." John T. Hamilton of Cedar Rapids became 
 Speaker under this agreement, after one hundred and 
 thirty-six ballots had been taken. 689 
 
 The same General Assembly, immediately after the 
 completion of organization by the House, proceeded to 
 the choice of a successor to Senator Wm. B. Allison. 
 The final vote stood as follows : In the Senate, Allison, 
 28, S. L. Bestow, 20, "Wm. Larrabee, 2; in the House, 
 Allison, 51, S. L. Bestow, 43, Wm. Larrabee, 6. Ex-gov- 
 ernor Larrabee received support from the Labor and 
 Independent members. 690 
 
 The legislation of the session included the "joint- 
 rate" law in regard to freight rates which was bitterly 
 opposed by the railroads, and an anti-trust law which 
 increased the penalty for the violation of the provisions 
 of the law passed in 1888. "All attempts to secure a 
 resubmission to the people of the prohibitory constitu- 
 tional amendment, or to nullify the prohibitory law, failed 
 through the opposition of the Republican members." 691 
 
 The Union Labor and Greenback parties which had 
 met separately in 1889 united the following year under 
 the name of the Union Labor Industrial Party, holding a 
 State convention at Des Moines on August 14, 1890. The 
 platform endorsed "the demands and declaration of 
 principles adopted by the Farmers' and Laborers' Indus- 
 trial Union of America, at the meeting at St. Louis, on 
 the 6th of December last, and we favor government loans 
 to be made directly to the people at a rate of interest not 
 to exceed two per cent per annum. ' ' The platform also 
 favored the Australian ballot and demanded its adoption 
 in Iowa, and denounced "the last General Assembly for 
 withholding it from the people .... [and] the 
 
CONDITIONS IN IOWA IN 1890 AND 1891 309 
 
 present Congress, and particularly the Iowa members 
 thereof, for defeating the bill for the free coinage of 
 silver. ' ' Another plank was added upon motion of Gen- 
 eral Weaver demanding the election of United States 
 Senators by direct vote of the people. "And until we 
 can properly amend the constitution .... we 
 favor the nomination of United States senators in the 
 State conventions, pledging in the same resolution all 
 Representatives elected by our party to vote for the 
 nominee at the meeting of the Legislature. ' ' 692 
 
 E. H. Gillette, former Greenback Congressman from 
 the Des Moines district, was chosen chairman of the State 
 committee, and nominations were made for Secretary of 
 State and minor State offices. These candidates at the 
 election in November received votes varying from 9,090 
 for Eailroad Commissioner to 8,371 for Treasurer. 693 
 
 It was in the year 1890 that the Farmers ' Alliance first 
 took a hand in elections in the West and South. How 
 little anticipation there had been of the startling results 
 may be inferred from a news item in The Saturday Even- 
 ing Post (Burlington) in June in which reference is made 
 to a rumor that "in a number of districts .... the 
 Knights of Labor are uniting [with] the democrats in the 
 congressional campaign, but there is not likely to be any 
 change in the general results. The Knights and Farm- 
 er's alliance closed a joint picnic .... yesterday. 
 It is said there was an attempt at a combination of the 
 two orders politically, but what was accomplished is not 
 known." 694 
 
 Possibly an editorial in the same paper a month earlier 
 may throw some light on the situation. "Bankers and 
 brokers are opposed to the free coinage of silver. They 
 say there is money enough to carry on trade and traffic. 
 
310 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 The common people, the small tradesmen, shop keepers 
 and truck raisers, all know better than that. The cur- 
 rency has been contracted until a dollar in money is 
 worth about twice as much as a dollar's worth of any 
 other sort of property." 695 The Populist demand for 
 free coinage of silver was strongly endorsed by thousands 
 who never voted for its candidates nor were represented 
 in its membership. "Widespread belief in the inadequacy 
 of the currency was latent in the West and South — it 
 only needed the occasion or opportunity for it to mani- 
 fest itself. Conditions were less favorable in Iowa than 
 in Kansas. 
 
 The Farmers' Alliance had only one candidate for 
 Congress in Iowa in 1890 — A. J. Westfall in the eleventh 
 district, which was made up of the thirteen counties in 
 the northwestern part of the State bordering upon South 
 Dakota and Nebraska. He received 4,658 votes, while 
 the Republican and Democratic candidates each had 
 over 15,000. The successful Republican candidate, George 
 D. Perkins, won by only 907 votes over his Democratic 
 opponent. The significance of this election hardly needs 
 emphasis; the one district where an Alliance candidate 
 was in the field was located in the newest part of the 
 State very close to the chief center of Alliance activity 
 in the West. 696 
 
 In two other districts Union Labor candidates received 
 a considerable vote — 1,243 in the ninth district, com- 
 posed of nine counties in the southwestern part of the 
 State, and 1,048 in the sixth district, made up of seven 
 counties in the south central portion. These votes repre- 
 sent the remnant chiefly of the earlier independent move- 
 ments and have not the importance of those cast in the 
 
CONDITIONS IN IOWA IN 1890 AND 1891 311 
 
 eleventh district which formed the nucleus of the Populist 
 party in Iowa. 697 
 
 The congressional elections as a whole resulted in the 
 return of six Democrats and five Republicans, a loss of 
 five for the Republicans, giving to the Democrats a ma- 
 jority of the delegation for the first time since the Civil 
 War. Iowa simply shared in the political revolution that 
 swept the country. That one of the factors helping to 
 produce the unusual result may have been the influence 
 of the Farmers' Alliance was suggested by the Clinton 
 Weekly Age, which referred to the fact that the Democra- 
 tic candidates were receiving "the united support" of 
 their party and "in several districts the Farmers' Alli- 
 ance are rallying to the support of such candidates. In 
 two or three instances the farmers have named the can- 
 didates, and the democrats are giving them the most en- 
 thusiastic support. ' ' 698 
 
 A State Farmers ' Alliance had been formed in 1881 as 
 the result of a conflict between the farmers and a syndi- 
 cate that had obtained the control of the supply of 
 barbed wire. The successful efforts of the Alliance in 
 this matter made clear the possibilities of cooperation in 
 public affairs and led to permanent organization, non- 
 partisan and limited exclusively to the interests of the 
 farmers. It belonged to the so-called "Northern" Alli- 
 ance, the activities of which, like those of the Grange and 
 the Farmers' Congress, were non-political in character. 699 
 
 In December, 1890, the State Grange met at Des Moines 
 at the same time that the executive committee of the State 
 Farmers' Alliance was in session. Consolidation of the 
 two organizations was considered and it was decided to 
 "remain separate in name .... but that the work 
 
312 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 should be consolidated and that they would act in unison 
 on all issues. The particular end sought is a wider influ- 
 ence in politics, which the two organizations will probably 
 seek through the nomination of a State ticket next year" 
 (1891). 700 
 
 Again in February, 1891, "the subordinate organiza- 
 tions of the Farmers' Alliance" were reported to be 
 "unusually active". In one county (Montgomery) plans 
 were preparing for the establishing of a weekly paper, 
 and in another (Buchanan) the county alliance was gain- 
 ing rapidly and would undoubtedly ' ' figure conspicuously 
 in the next fall election. . . . Information from other 
 parts of the state indicate a studied purpose on the part 
 of the farmers to organize for separate political action 
 next fall." 701 
 
 During February, also, a meeting of Farmers' Alliance 
 representatives from Iowa, Minnesota, Dakota, and Ne- 
 braska was held at Sioux City, several hundred being 
 present and the session lasting two days. Presidents J. 
 H. Powers of the National Alliance and Furrow of the 
 State Alliance were present. The main object of the 
 meeting was to inaugurate a third party movement, al- 
 though the plan was strongly opposed. "The strength 
 of the Alliance movement is in northwestern Iowa, where 
 the influence of Nebraska and South Dakota is felt." 
 President Furrow was mentioned as the probable nom- 
 inee for Governor. 702 
 
 The Sioux City conference authorized the establish- 
 ment of an Alliance newspaper and decided to employ a 
 secretary and purchasing agent through whom machinery 
 and mercantile supplies might be bought by the farm- 
 ers. 703 The Saturday Evening Post of Burlington, early 
 in March, declared that "many persons do not realize 
 
CONDITIONS IX IOWA IN 1890 AND 1891 313 
 
 what a power the farmer alliance has grown to be in this 
 state. In the interior they have their own miscellaneous 
 stores and have stopped trading at hap hazard in the 
 towns. They have thus made existence a serious problem 
 for the mercantile interest. ' ' 704 
 
 During the early part of March the "Southern" 
 Farmers ' Alliance completed a State organization at Des 
 Moines with J. M. Joseph as president, and Daniel Camp- 
 bell as vice president. The national president, Col. L. L. 
 Polk, was present and installed the new officers. Con- 
 gressman-elect Otis of Kansas, General Weaver, and J. R. 
 Sovereign were among the speakers. The most impor- 
 tant differences between the two Alliances were that the 
 "Northern" organization only permitted members to act 
 politically in the parties of their choice, while the 
 "Southern" Alliance was also secret, using "some simple 
 grips and pass- words. ' ' 70i 
 
 Efforts were made to organize local Alliances all over 
 Iowa. Postmasters and prominent men in particular 
 towns received announcements of mass meetings to be 
 held in the interests of the Farmers' Alliance and Indus- 
 trial Union which they were asked to post in conspicuous 
 places. The committee in charge of the arrangements 
 was made up of General Weaver, J. E. Anderson, J. E. 
 Sovereign, W. H. Robb, and others. 706 
 
 The leaders of "the old Alliance" which had a mem- 
 bership of about 50,000, were strong Republicans and 
 tried to use it to the advantage of that party. They 
 were worried, however, by the ' ' rapid growth of the new 
 organization" which was drawing from their members 
 and was "strong and compact" and could not be con- 
 trolled and seemed likely ' ' to direct its energies .... 
 against the republican party. ' ' 707 
 
314 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Early in May The Iowa State Register referred to a 
 circular letter sent out by A. J. Westfall and "a few 
 other Democratic stool pigeons" to the members of the 
 Alliances and other industrial organizations asking for 
 permission to use their names in calling an independent 
 convention at Des Moines on June 3rd. General "Weaver 
 and Mr. Sovereign were also associated with the plan, 
 which undertook to do in the State at large what had 
 been done in the eleventh district in 1890. The scheme 
 was described as in the interests of Democracy, because 
 by a comparison of the votes in 1888 and 1890 Westfall's 
 vote was shown to have come almost entirely from the 
 Republicans, as the Democratic vote changed very lit- 
 tle. 708 
 
 The Clinton Age, a Democratic paper, refers to the call 
 for a "people's independent convention" by "leaders of 
 various labor and farmer organizations" as "a republi- 
 can move". "The method of making up the convention 
 will be very interesting. If the delegates are chosen in 
 secret meetings, and the convention is held with closed 
 doors, not one good democrat can consistently attend, nor 
 can one good democrat vote the ticket of the convention. 
 Any oath bound, secret, dark lantern political conclave 
 . . . . is in antagonism to the republican and demo- 
 cratic institutions of this country". 709 
 
 The People's Independent Convention met at the time 
 appointed at Des Moines, was called to order by M. L. 
 Wheat, and J. E. Anderson of Forest City was chosen 
 chairman. About four hundred and twenty-five delegates 
 from sixty counties were present; the largest numbers 
 came from the eighth, sixth, eleventh, and seventh con- 
 gressional districts, in the order indicated. Speeches 
 were made by Congressman Otis and Mr. Willits of 
 
CONDITIONS IN IOWA IN 1890 AND 1891 315 
 
 Kansas, and by Mr. Wheat and Mr. Gillette of Iowa. An 
 unknown delegate said that it had been reported that the 
 only men in the convention were sore-headed Republicans 
 and Democrats and no soldiers. He proposed a rising 
 up of all soldiers. When some one shouted "which sol- 
 diers?" the answer was returned "Both sides stand up". 
 After some delay a number of soldiers stood up. The 
 convention was described as "a turbulent and at times 
 uncontrollable body". 710 
 
 Contributions to meet expenses were collected by pass- 
 ing the hat, and over one hundred dollars were received. 
 Subscriptions were then asked for and pledges of two 
 hundred dollars each were made from Crawford, Wood- 
 bury, Polk, Plymouth, Dallas, Monona, Pottawattamie, 
 Union, and Cass counties; of one hundred dollars each 
 from Mills, Montgomery, Lyon, Buena Vista, Taylor, 
 Fremont, Ida, Wapello, and Madison; of fifty dollars 
 each from Clarke, Decatur, and Mahaska ; of twenty-five 
 dollars from Floyd; and of ten dollars from Worth. 
 The delegate from Floyd County said he did not know 
 whether they could raise any money "because the crops 
 looked so well" in his county "that he didn't know 
 whether the people would have any use for a third party 
 up there. ' ' 711 Of the eighteen counties subscribing two 
 hundred or one hundred dollars sixteen were in the west- 
 ern half of the State. 
 
 After finances had been provided for, Mr. C. H. Van 
 Wyck 712 of Nebraska, former Bepublican United States 
 Senator from that State, was introduced and received 
 with great enthusiasm, after which he "read an essay on 
 the political ills of the farmer", which lasted three-quar- 
 ters of an hour and contained "nothing striking or orig- 
 inal or worthy of special attention". 713 
 
316 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Mr. W. H. Robb, as chairman of the committee on 
 resolutions, reported the platform which was adopted 
 unanimously. The "People's Party of the State of 
 Iowa" ratified and confirmed "the movement inaugu- 
 rated at the Cincinnati conference, May 19, 1891, and the 
 wise and patriotic platform of principles there adopted." 
 In regard to State issues it condemned "the action of 
 our executive council for its refusal to increase the rail- 
 road assessment to an average equal to that of farm 
 and other property"; it demanded the adoption of the 
 Australian ballot system ; it denounced the action of the 
 last two General Assemblies for defeating "the two-cent 
 fare", "the uniform school book" bills, and "the bill for 
 the taxation of mortgages"; it sympathized "with the 
 miners of Iowa in their struggle for the eight hour 
 day", promised support for "the abolition of the truck 
 store system", and favored "weekly pay for the miner"; 
 it censured the leaders of "the old parties" for their 
 efforts "to re-open the temperance question .... 
 to the exclusion of the grave economic questions which 
 now confront the people ' ' ; and it favored State legisla- 
 tion directed at the ultimate suppression of all private 
 corporations "as soon as it can be done with safety to 
 business interests. ' ' 71i 
 
 Mr. A. J. Westfall, the Alliance candidate for Congress 
 in the eleventh district in 1890, was nominated for Gov- 
 ernor. He was ' ' formerly a Republican ' ', but had ' ' since 
 those good days passed through all the stages of in- 
 flammatory and inflated politics." He was said "to he 
 a man of some ability, but very erratic." The candi- 
 date for Lieutenant Governor was Walter S. Scott, the 
 president of the Miners' Association, Avhose claim upon 
 the party "consisted in the fact that he is an old Green- 
 
CONDITIONS IN IOWA IN 1890 AND 1891 317 
 
 backer and probably that he failed to successfully man- 
 age the recent miners' strike." When the nomination 
 was under consideration a delegate asked if he was a 
 temperance man, a Greenbacker, and a deserter from 
 the Republican party. Several members of the conven- 
 tion vouched for him as not a drinking man. 715 
 
 According to The Iowa State Register "the old third 
 party leaders" were conspicuous in the management of 
 the convention, and the new party was "composed of the 
 same men who years ago started out to reform the world 
 under the Greenback banner and later as the Union La- 
 bor party. The convention did not represent new ideas, 
 but old ones relabelled. It was not composed of new 
 men, but of old time agitators with new hopes." 716 
 
 The Clinton Age maintained that the party "must not 
 be confounded with the Farmers' Alliance. The People's 
 party of Iowa is in no respect a farmer's party. The 
 convention was not called by the Alliance and its proceed- 
 ings do not have the endorsement of the farmers. . . . 
 [It] may be termed the soreheads party." Another ed- 
 itorial severely condemned the references to railroad as- 
 sessments and prohibition, as the Democrats had been 
 advocating the same reforms for twenty-five years. ' ' On 
 the whole the platform of the new party is altogether too 
 weak". 7 " 
 
 Plans were made for an active campaign by the leaders 
 of the new party. "Kansas third party orators will be 
 brought across the Big Muddy in shoals and turned loose 
 to board round among the farm houses on the Iowa 
 prairies. There will be such a mussing up of spare bed- 
 rooms and antique china as has not been known out in the 
 country since the first settlements. ' ' 718 Another reference 
 to the same matter declared that the party would bring 
 
318 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 "all its big guns — male and female" into the campaign: 
 "the new senator from Kansas and Congressman S-k-l-ss 
 Simpson .... and two or three ladies from abroad 
 whose names have escaped us". 719 
 
 In September the eleventh district Alliance declared 
 itself independent of the Iowa Farmers' Alliance as the 
 result of a controversy over the violation of the rule in 
 regard to political action. Two representatives were 
 sent to the semi-annual meeting of the district Alliance 
 and they finally succeeded in inducing Westfall and his 
 supporters to admit partisan action "because both of 
 the old parties were controlled by the blood thirsty cor- 
 porations." Westfall had been district organizer until 
 July, and it was stated that the State Alliance had spent 
 three times as much money upon the eleventh district 
 Alliance as upon any other in the State. 720 
 
 In October an attempt was made at Des Moines to unite 
 the two State Alliances. Colonel Polk and Mrs. Lease 
 addressed the National Alliance and urged consolidation 
 with the Southern Alliance. The conference committee 
 reported in favor of the admission of the latter organiza- 
 tion into the older body and the adoption of the secret 
 work after consolidation. President Sanders promptly 
 ruled the report out of order; "Calamity" Weller ap- 
 pealed from the chair; but the Alliance sustained the 
 president by a vote of one hundred and twenty-three to 
 ninety-two. 721 
 
 After the failure of the plan of union, the Southern 
 Alliance reelected J. M. Joseph, president, and Daniel 
 Campbell, vice president. There was much disappoint- 
 ment over the result of the meeting, since the one object 
 for which they had come to Des Moines had failed. Only 
 forty-eight delegates were present. 722 Evidently in the 
 
CONDITIONS IN IOWA IN 1890 AND 1891 319 
 
 State as a whole the farmers were opposed to indepen- 
 dent political action. Those committed to such action 
 were confined to the western portion. 
 
 Some idea of the feeling aroused during the campaign 
 may be obtained from an editorial in The Iowa State 
 Register, in which Weaver and Gillette are referred to as 
 "Iowa's Twin Demagogues". In spite of their continued 
 repudiation" 'Jumping Jim' [Weaver] and 'Heifer Calf 
 Gillette ' have steadily harangued the people of the State 
 over 'the oppressions of labor' and 'unequal taxation of 
 the people', and have passed the hat at the close . . . . 
 to gain contributions from laboring men toward the sup- 
 port of themselves and the Tribune ! " In the same paper 
 denial was made that "the members of the People's party 
 in Iowa" had been called "Kansas lice". The editor 
 had spoken of and "properly classed the 'Kansas lice' 
 that have crawled from the dust of the sandy plained 
 state .... into Iowa .... but in no instance 
 have we criticised the honest men who have been in- 
 veigled into the People's party trap." 723 Such an ex- 
 planation was not likely to allay the feeling already 
 aroused, especially when it is considered in connection 
 with the existence of widespread sympathy for many of 
 the opinions held by the Populists. 
 
 Governor Boies was reelected, according to The 
 Iowa State Register, "by a lavish expenditure of 
 'boodle', fraudulent voting .... the prejudice of 
 railway employes in regard to the railroad legislation of 
 recent years, the betrayal of the honest Eepublicans who 
 voted the People 's party ticket in good faith and did not 
 realize that their new party was utilized wholly as a trap 
 to catch Republican voters and in which nearly every 
 Democrat was only a stool pigeon for Democracy and 
 
320 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 voted the Democratic ticket on election day, and those 
 Independent Republicans who voted for Gov. Boies to 
 again voice their opposition to prohibition. ' ' 724 
 
 The vote for Governor was as follows: Hiram C. 
 Wheeler (Republican), 199,381; Horace Boies (Demo- 
 crat), 207,594; and A. J. Westfall (People's), 12,303. 
 
 Of the four counties that gave Westfall over five hun- 
 dred votes all were in the western part of the State. 
 One of these, Monona, he carried with 1,049 votes, while 
 the Republican and Democratic candidates received 1,039 
 and 801 respectively. The vote for other State officers 
 on the People's party ticket was larger than for Gov- 
 ernor, ranging from 12,890 to 13,201. One State senator 
 and one representative were also elected by the People's 
 party from Montgomery and Mills counties. 725 The real 
 contest was between the Republicans and Democrats over 
 prohibition, and the reelection of Governor Boies by an 
 increased plurality and the election of the entire State 
 ticket of the Democrats was the decisive feature. 726 The 
 efforts of the People's party were obscured by the pres- 
 ence of a single overshadowing issue in a State election 
 where national questions did not interfere. There is no 
 basis for an estimate of the real strength of the new 
 party under the circumstances. 
 
XX 
 
 THE IOWA CAMPAIGNS OF 1892 AND 1893 
 
 The chief interest in the political situation in Iowa in 
 1892 was national in character. In the April number of 
 The Forum there was an article by a prominent Iowa 
 Republican, entitled "Is Iowa a Doubtful State?" in 
 which reasons were given for the recent defeats — anti- 
 railroad policy, prohibition, and "petty quarrels and 
 jealousies .... On the other hand, of late years 
 the Democratic party in the State has been ably led. The 
 old 'bourbons' of the party have been retired and the 
 young men have become leaders. Eecruits from the Re- 
 publican party have been given places of honor. At the 
 last State elections the candidates for governor, lieuten- 
 ant-governor, and supreme judge on the Democratic 
 ticket were all men who had in recent years been Repub- 
 licans." 72T 
 
 Governor Boies 's successes in 1889 and 1891 attracted 
 the attention of political observers to him as a presiden- 
 tial possibility, and early in the year there seemed good 
 ground to expect that he might defeat ex-President Cleve- 
 land for the Democratic nomination. He was "said to 
 have been both a Republican and a 'Blaine man' of the 
 most pronounced description" in 1884. 728 These com- 
 ments suggest that party lines were holding less rigidly 
 than in former years. The pressure of economic and 
 social questions was undermining political divisions 
 founded upon traditional differences. More fluid condi- 
 
 321 
 
322 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 tions manifested themselves in movements from the Ke- 
 publican party to the Democratic as well as to the so- 
 called independent or third parties. The process of 
 "permeation" which has produced the readjustments 
 and uncertainties of recent years was at work — gradu- 
 ally the political partisanship of the post-bellum period 
 was passing over into the social politics of to-day. 
 
 In June the People's party held a meeting at Des 
 Moines to choose delegates to the national convention at 
 Omaha. About two hundred and fifty persons were pres- 
 ent of whom one hundred were from Des Moines. The 
 backward spring interfered with the attendance, prevent- 
 ing the farmers from gathering in as large numbers as 
 would have been the case under more favorable condi- 
 tions. 729 Among the more prominent persons present 
 were General Weaver, E. H. Gillette, A. J. Westfall, 
 Perry Engle, "Walter S. Scott, and J. F. Willits, national 
 lecturer of the Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union. 
 
 J. Belangee was temporary chairman and Professor 
 Edward A. Ott of Drake University offered prayer. 
 While the committees were deliberating Willits ad- 
 dressed the convention. Mr. F. F. Roe of Woodbury 
 County was made permanent chairman; and his speech 
 was declared to be the same old one. "Belangee made 
 it ; Willits made it ; Weaver makes it two or three hun- 
 dred times a year. Willits makes it better than any of 
 the others, Weaver comes next, then Belangee, and Eoe 
 drivels along at the tail of the oratorical procession, 
 mumbling the same old speech. ' ' r30 
 
 W. H. Robb presented the platform which was made 
 up of "all the denunciations and glittering generalities 
 of former conventions held by this little clique under one 
 name or another. ' ' 731 General Weaver was recommended 
 
THE IOWA CAMPAIGNS OP 1892 AND 1893 323 
 
 to the Omaha convention as a candidate for president and 
 delegates were chosen, who met after adjournment, made 
 W. H. Robb chairman, and selected M. L. Wheat to nom- 
 inate General Weaver. 732 The interest attached to this 
 convention is increased because of General Weaver's 
 nomination at Omaha early in July. Iowa had two presi- 
 dential possibilities in 1892, one Democratic and one in- 
 dependent or third party — an indication again of the 
 growing fluidity of party relations. 
 
 General Weaver's nomination made him again the na- 
 tional leader of his party as he had been in 1880, thus in 
 a personal way illustrating the fact that the Populist 
 party was a direct descendant from the Greenback party. 
 The circumstances of his selection and the general polit- 
 ical significance have been considered in another place. 733 
 Comment by Iowa papers upon his candidacy are of in- 
 terest in an interpretation of the local situation. The 
 Clinton Age considered his nomination as having more 
 significance than any third party nomination "since the 
 birth of the republican organization." Probably that 
 party "would be injured far worse than the democratic 
 party. Should the silver states be satisfied with Weaver 
 and the people's platform, at least eight states may cast 
 their electoral votes for the people's ticket. We refer to 
 Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, North and South Dakota, 
 Kansas, Nebraska, and Minnesota. These have forty-five 
 electoral votes. It is possible for the states of South 
 Carolina and Arkansas to give their electoral votes to 
 the same ticket. ' ' 734 
 
 The same paper reprinted from the Des Moines Leader 
 an account of the preparations made to give General 
 Weaver "a rousing reception upon his return. . . . 
 It is quietly hinted that one of the most prominent repub- 
 
324 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 licans in Iowa .... a lawyer and once member of 
 the bench, will introduce the general .... and 
 publicly endorse the principles of the people 's party. If 
 the rumor proves true it will create the greatest excite- 
 ment ever known among Iowa republicans. ' ' 735 
 
 Later in July it was announced that Judge C. C. Cole 
 of Des Moines had "joined the Weaver crowd of cranks 
 and deadbeats. " "A libelous exchange ' ' offered ' ' as ex- 
 planation that it" had "become hard work to collect a 
 bill from the ex- jurist. " 736 
 
 The proposed reception to General Weaver was held at 
 the Y. M. C. A. quarters in Des Moines about the middle 
 of July. It lasted over three hours, during which four 
 hundred persons were present. Seated upon the plat- 
 form were General Weaver, Judge C. C. Cole, J. J. Ham- 
 ilton, J. Belangee, Leonard Brown, Captain J. W. Muffly, 
 and Professor Ott. Judge Cole was the first speaker, 
 and he talked "for over an hour". He was followed by 
 Hamilton, Muffly, Professor Ott, and others, after which 
 General Weaver was introduced by Judge Cole to close 
 the meeting. He declared that the platform was prac- 
 tically the same as the one on which he ran in 1880. 737 
 
 In August a State convention held at Des Moines nom- 
 inated a full State ticket and candidates for Electors. 
 E. H. Gillette was nominated for Secretary of State, and 
 C. C. Cole and J. M. Joseph for Electors at Large. 738 
 Considerable difficulty was experienced in getting nom- 
 inees to accept and the attendance was smaller than 
 usual — less than two hundred delegates being present. 
 Probably the need of two conventions during the year 
 partly accounted for the falling off in numbers. 
 
 "Belangee, Scott, Davis, Maine, Robb, Gillette — the 
 
THE IOWA CAMPAIGNS OP 1892 AND 1893 325 
 
 same old roll of calamity howlers [were present]. . . . 
 A couple of recruits have been secured since the last 
 yearly convention", Judge Cole and A. W. C. Weeks of 
 Winterset. The permanent chairman was W. H. Cal- 
 houn of Marshall County. ' ' He has been a howler ever 
 since 1876, and consequently is about perfect." W. H. 
 Rohb reported the resolutions — "he always does". 
 Others present, in addition to those already named, were 
 J. R. Sovereign, J. E. Anderson, and Leonard Brown. 
 A letter was read from Senator Perry Engle. 739 
 
 A partisan account of the People 's party picnic held in 
 Polk County in October described the weather as fine and 
 everything favorable, and yet only three hundred persons 
 were present when Mrs. Lease began to speak and not 
 more than six hundred when she closed. General Weaver 
 was present and made an address. In the evening the 
 Y. M. C. A. quarters were "packed by an expectant 
 crowd" to listen to Mrs. Lease, General Weaver, and 
 Professor Ott. The rally was "a conspicuous failure in 
 point of numbers and served only to reveal the utter pov- 
 erty of votes in the People 's party. ' ' 7i0 
 
 At the general election in November, Iowa cast 20,595 
 votes for General Weaver as president out of a total of 
 443,159 — a little less than five percent. E. H. Gillette, 
 who headed the State ticket as candidate for Secretary 
 of State, received 20,356 votes. 741 In the congressional 
 districts the Populists had candidates in all except the 
 third and fourth, while in the eleventh the Populist 
 nominee was accepted by the Democrats. There was a 
 difference of only 1,277 votes between Daniel Campbell, 
 fusion, and Geo. D. Perkins, Republican. As in 1890 the 
 margin was narrow and the district contained the largest 
 
326 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Populist constituency in the State. The candidates and 
 votes arranged in order of number of votes received 
 were as follows : 742 
 
 Walter S. Scott Eighth District 3,687 votes 
 
 E. S. Owens Sixth District 2,889 votes 
 
 F. W. Myers Ninth District 2,610 votes 
 Ed. A. Ott Seventh District 2,562 votes 
 John E. Anderson Tenth District 1,689 votes 
 Thomas J. Sater First District 691 votes 
 Thomas E. Mann Fifth District 637 votes 
 Charles Dalton Second District 557 votes 
 
 Negotiations were carried on between the Democrats 
 and Populists for fusion upon the electoral ticket, but as 
 the last named party insisted upon the endorsement of 
 its ticket in full no arrangement was made. 743 
 
 A Republican judgment after the election concluded 
 that ' ' a party that can carry four or five States in a pres- 
 idential election certainly has reason to hope .... 
 The Democratic party is now in the ascendency, and it 
 remains to be seen if the Republicans can hold even sec- 
 ond place. "We think it probable that the People's will 
 advance to second place by the action of the farmers, who 
 will not ally themselves to any extent with the democratic 
 populations of the city .... politics will take on 
 more and more a commercial and industrial aspect, as 
 the Republican party has intended that it should, and 
 that greater good is possible under such a system than 
 where it is a question of patriotism on one side and office 
 on the other." 
 
 Another editorial in the same paper diagnosed the Re- 
 publican defeat under the title of "The Smash-Up". 
 "For twenty years it [the Republican party] has been 
 suspected of consorting with designing men. Its great 
 
THE IOWA CAMPAIGNS OP 1892 AND 1893 327 
 
 strength has gone out in a sinful and lustful way to com- 
 binations of capital .... Yet the Republican pol- 
 icy of recent years was not the choice of a majority of its 
 members. The party has been in the hands of machine 
 politicians and office holders .... The country was 
 and is wonderfully prosperous. The public, however, de- 
 cided to entertain the suspicion that all of this great 
 prosperity was too much one-sided in its application, the 
 bulk of it going to the few and the modicum to the 
 many." 7ii 
 
 Contrast with this searching confession and analysis 
 the implication contained in the imaginary prayer sup- 
 posed to be uttered daily by General Weaver : "0, Lord, 
 thou knowest we have undertaken to organize a new 
 party, thou knowest also that to succeed we must have 
 thy help. So we come to thee humbly and beseech thee 
 for thy aid. "We pray thee not to favor the farmer, for 
 should he be blessed with good crops he would not be in a 
 state of discontent, and we would be unable to get in our 
 work. Therefore, Lord, visit him with droughts and 
 thy other multitudinous misfortunes. Make the chinch- 
 bugs plentiful, let grasshoppers multiply abundantly, and 
 foster insects of every description. And, Lord, in 
 those districts where these means cannot move the farm- 
 ers, visit them with sweeping hail storms and kindred 
 disasters. And Lord, make the times hard for the la- 
 boring man ; increase the number of strikes and see to it 
 that wages are greatly reduced. All this we ask for the 
 sake of our new party, and again beseech thee to grant 
 our very humble petition. Amen. ' ' T46 
 
 A "symposium" in The Iowa State Register early in 
 December was devoted to a discussion of the election re- 
 sults by General "Weaver for the Populists, Hon. "W. "W. 
 
328 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Witmer for the Democrats, and Hon. W. M. McFarland 
 for the Republicans. The "Triangular Opinion" repre- 
 sented excellently the point of view of the three parties. 
 General Weaver's presentation was given first place and 
 was first in importance. It was the only one that under- 
 took a real analysis of the situation and tried to get at 
 fundamentals; the others played upon the surface of 
 things or repeated political platitudes. General Weaver 
 reviewed the political situation from 1876 to 1892 ; showed 
 how the Greenback party had failed ; referred to the Re- 
 publican defeat in 1884 as " a mere verbal accident in a 
 small meeting in a single state ' ' ; and described the fail- 
 ure of the Democratic party to formulate a policy to allay 
 the popular discontent and the resulting return of the 
 Republicans to control, only to be swept out again in 
 1892. "The Republican administration .... was 
 a complete disappointment. . . . With money pools, 
 railroad pools, meat pools, wheat pools, and business 
 whirlpools menacing society on every hand, they [the 
 Democrats] sit dumb in the midst of it all like the un- 
 thinking anvil, while a million hands wielding a million 
 hammers, continue to forge out by sturdy blows a higher 
 and more humane civilization." 
 
 The Democratic contributor did not mention the new 
 political factor represented by General Weaver, and the 
 Republican contributor devoted two lines to it referring 
 to "the People's party vote of the west, drawn almost 
 exclusively from the Republican party". 746 
 
 The Clinton Age indicated the Democratic opinion in 
 an editorial entitled the "Balance of Power", in which it 
 referred to a prediction that General Weaver would be 
 the next United States Senator from Iowa. The predic- 
 tion was "based on the supposition that he will work up 
 
THE IOWA CAMPAIGNS OF 1892 AND 1893 329 
 
 fusions on legislative candidates in counties where the 
 Populists have the balance of power, and that these fu- 
 sion representatives will hold the balance of power in 
 joint ballot in the next assembly. And if democrats con- 
 tinue to vote the people's ticket Weaver will more than 
 likely be the next United States Senator. ' ' 747 
 
 The successes of 1892 naturally led to renewed effort 
 during the following year, when the State election for 
 Governor gave another opportunity to test the strength 
 of the new party. That the background of popular senti- 
 ment which furnished the real foundation for its impor- 
 tance had not changed is shown by newspaper comments 
 during the early part of the year before the active cam- 
 paign had begun. Governor Boies told an interviewer 
 that he was "in favor of an unlimited coinage of both 
 gold and silver upon a ratio that will preserve the parity 
 of the two metals when coined into money. ' ' 748 There 
 had been persistent rumors that he planned to be a can- 
 didate for the Senate, nominated, as Palmer of Illinois 
 had been, in State convention. 749 The Democratic plat- 
 form of 1892 had declared its "purpose to nominate can- 
 didates for the United States Senate in general conven- 
 tion, and demand such a change in our National Constitu- 
 tion as will permit the election of the same by direct vote 
 of the people." 750 
 
 A Eepublican paper at Burlington expressed itself re- 
 peatedly in favor of silver coinage. In March it said 
 "the new Congress ought to clean out the hoard of Silver 
 bullion now in the treasury vaults by coining a billion 
 dollars of it and placing it in general circulation by pay- 
 ing it out for pensions, salaries and the general expenses 
 of the government." 751 Again in May it described "the 
 free coinage of silver" as "but simple justice to both the 
 
330 THIKD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 debtor and the creditor. This is the view that has been 
 growing rapidly all over the West for several years, and 
 recent financial events have served to crystallize and 
 solidify it ' \ 752 And again in June it declared that the 
 friends of the "proposed free silver coinage measure" 
 were "so numerous all over the West and South, and 
 have so large a voice in shaping congressional action, 
 that it requires no prophet to see into the financial legis- 
 lation of the near future .... no amount of man- 
 ipulating by the Eastern conspirators . . . . is go- 
 ing to change the spirit or the demand of the South and 
 West." 753 
 
 The Washington correspondence of the same paper at 
 about the same time contained some interesting comments 
 upon currency matters. Beginning with a reference "to 
 the well-settled doctrine of the Republican party that the 
 currency should be sound, stable, and of sufficient volume 
 to transact the business of the country", the writer ex- 
 pressed the opinion that the stock of silver held by the 
 government was sufficient for the present and that it 
 would be well to stop purchase "until such time as the 
 value of the two metals shall more nearly correspond. 
 But it is said the country needs more money. Yes it 
 does, and it should be forthcoming. The old legal tender 
 greenback, or treasury note, redeemable in coin, is the best 
 and most satisfactory money we ever had and now is the 
 time for a new issue of it. If the country could float $300,- 
 000,000 at its face value as it did twenty years [ago], it 
 could now float twice or three times that amount just as 
 readily. The republican party gave the country the 
 original greenback .... and for twenty years they 
 have stood the equal of the best dollars in the world, 
 based as they are upon the worth, the faith and the credit 
 
THE IOWA CAMPAIGNS OF 1892 AND 1893 331 
 
 of the country, and now that our ability to pay has been 
 so many times doubled I would like to see the republican 
 party of Iowa take the lead in demanding the issue of six 
 hundred millions of dollars more of the same old brand 
 invented by Chase and approved by Lincoln. ' ' 7 " 
 
 In July free silver meetings were held in Des Moines, 
 addressed by General Weaver, Judge C. C. Cole, Con- 
 gressman Bryan, and J. R. Sovereign. The open-air 
 meeting was described as "well attended" and there was 
 an overflow meeting held in connection with the one at 
 the courthouse. One of the speakers said that he was 
 present as a Republican representative of the mining in- 
 terests of Utah, Montana, and Nevada. "We took care 
 of $450,000,000 of greenbacks once and I guess we can 
 handle $50,000,000 of silver", was his startling conclu- 
 sion. 755 
 
 When the repeal of the Silver Purchase Act was under 
 consideration The Iowa State Register expressed the 
 opinion editorially that "every Republican senator and 
 representative ought to be very careful about aiding Wall 
 street and free trade Democracy to repeal the Sherman 
 silver law .... We need more money, and it is 
 much better to float silver certificates on a silver bullion 
 basis than it would be for the government to issue bonds 
 and pay interest thereon to provide the necessary in- 
 creased circulation. . . . The Register is not in fa- 
 vor of free silver coinage, but greatly prefers the con- 
 tinued purchase of silver bullion, and the issuance of 
 silver certificates thereon, to the government being com- 
 pelled to issue bonds and pay interest on the increased 
 circulation we must have as the population and business 
 of the country increases." 766 
 
 After the repeal the same Republican paper declared 
 
332 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 that it had "no hesitation in saying that it believed in the 
 Sherman law. It has been a good law. It is sorry to 
 see it repealed without a substitute. The country has 
 been cut adrift from the long established Eepnblican 
 principle of silver money as well as gold. ' ' 75T 
 
 These opinions coming from a variety of sources illus- 
 trate the popular knowledge and feeling as to currency 
 matters, especially in the party chiefly responsible for 
 legislation and administration because of long continued 
 occupation of power and responsibility — a party which 
 within three years was to wage an epoch-making cam- 
 paign in favor of "sound money". Such considerations 
 help one in understanding the position of the Populists 
 during these years. They were much more representa- 
 tive of the prevailing currency views of the time than has 
 usually been recognized. We have learned by experience 
 and sometimes have been saved only by accident and in 
 spite of ourselves from disaster. Neither the eastern 
 banker nor the western farmer was entirely correct in 
 his conclusions upon the money problem. Each could 
 learn much from the other about certain aspects of the 
 question. Each overlooked something vital that the other 
 knew by experience and observation. Could traditional 
 and partisan obstacles have been overcome even a State 
 like Iowa might have voted by a large majority for some- 
 thing closely approaching free coinage through a sincere 
 belief in the need of more money. 
 
 The social unrest of the time was increased by business 
 panic and trade depression; not only financial reorgan- 
 ization was demanded, but wider discussion was common. 
 Rev. Geo. D. Herron had come to Burlington in January, 
 1892, as assistant to Dr. "William Salter, whose growing 
 infirmities compelled him to give up his work. His 
 
THE IOWA CAMPAIGNS OP 1892 AND 1893 333 
 
 success as a preacher was immediate and his sermons 
 were published in the local papers. His position was 
 that of a Christian Socialist, inasmuch as he urged the 
 need of social reform upon Christian principles ; and his 
 point of view and method of approach led to the accep- 
 tance of many extreme views by conservative church 
 people. He came to be greatly in demand as a speaker, 
 and in 1893 he went to Grinnell College, where a chair 
 of Applied Christianity had been founded for him by a 
 wealthy admirer. His ' ' sermons read well ; they remind 
 one of the expressions of an inspired prophet ; they have 
 the ring of genuine sentiment and conviction. ' ' 75S 
 
 In June, 1893, Dr. Herron made an address at Lincoln, 
 Nebraska, during the University commencement season 
 in which he declared that there was "no justice in the 
 courts, that anarchy had its origin in this country, that 
 the American nation has failed of its mission, and that 
 'except the nation repent it cannot survive'." Governor 
 Lorenzo Crounse had "the fortitude and heroism to fol- 
 low Dr. Herron 's anarchistic address to the graduating 
 class with a talk of very differing tenor in which he 
 properly denounced the Herron philosophy as false and 
 misleading and very harmful. ' ' 759 
 
 The trustees of Grinnell College had already appointed 
 a committee to define the field to be covered by the chair 
 of Applied Christianity the "day before Dr. Herron as- 
 tonished and pained so many of his friends by his intem- 
 perate and foolish remarks at Lincoln". The College 
 was embarrassed by such public utterances and friends 
 and supporters alienated. This action marked the begin- 
 ning of the end of a promising career. Dr. Herron 
 finally resigned in 1900. Since that time he has lived in 
 retirement in Italy. 760 
 
334 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Another Iowan who attracted considerable attention 
 for a time was James E. Sovereign, who in November, 
 1893, succeeded T. V. Powderly as head of the Knights 
 of Labor. He had been Grand Master Workman of the 
 Iowa State Knights of Labor, and Governor Boies had 
 appointed him Labor Commissioner in 1890 and again in 
 1892. The appointment was described by contempo- 
 raries as made because of the votes he was ' ' supposed to 
 have 'delivered' as an influential member of the Knights 
 of Labor". 761 At another time he was referred to as 
 "Blunder" Boies 's "chief of staff, corn statistics falsi- 
 fier, and real leader of Iowa Democracy. ' ' 762 He was 
 radical and controversial in his attitude, and as head of 
 the Iowa Knights of Labor he waged "a heavy war 
 . . . . on poor Calamity Weller .... because 
 of Weller 's opposition to him personally." 763 While 
 still Labor Commissioner he was active in the Populist 
 party and advocated the free coinage of silver. As head 
 of the Knights he was associated with Eugene V. Debs 
 in the railroad strike of 1894. 
 
 Naturally there was difference of opinion about such a 
 man among those who were familiar with his activities. 
 The Clinton Age regarded him as "well equipped. . . . 
 No man in the land has given all phases of the labor 
 question more study than he. He is well educated, pos- 
 sesses a headful of brains, carries about with him a large 
 amount of horse sense, and is an honest man." 764 On 
 the other hand The Saturday Evening Post of Burling- 
 ton, referring to Mr. Powderly 's retirement, remarked 
 that the election of Mr. Sovereign would not "have a 
 tendency to strengthen the Knights. The nature of their 
 affair is such that they cannot hope to enlist really com- 
 
THE IOWA CAMPAIGNS OP 1892 AND 1893 335 
 
 petent leaders in it. Like the Democratic party, the 
 Knights of Labor can have no great leaders. ' ' 705 
 
 It is certainly a significant fact that Iowa should 
 furnish at the same time three national leaders in dif- 
 ferent phases of the radical movement of the period. As 
 already suggested it was in such ways that the real 
 strength of the People's party was manifested, rather 
 than in the results in State and national contests. The 
 early nineties constituted a period of unrest which ap- 
 peared concretely in the form of a new political party, in 
 the rise of social reformers like Bellamy and Herron, 
 and in a radical and aggressive labor movement like the 
 Knights of Labor under the leadership of Sovereign. 
 
 The State convention of the People's party met at Des 
 Moines on September 5, 1893, with an attendance of three 
 hundred and nineteen delegates from seventy-eight coun- 
 ties. J. M. Joseph was temporary chairman and made a 
 speech lasting one and one-half hours mainly devoted to 
 the silver question. A. J. Westfall was elected perma- 
 nent chairman ; while General Weaver ran the convention, 
 wrote the platform, and presented it. The meeting was 
 noisy and irregular in its proceedings. 766 
 
 The platform was devoted largely to the coinage of 
 silver, and declared that "the one overshadowing, all- 
 absorbing issue before the American people" was 
 "whether the debtors of the United States shall be 
 allowed to pay their debts in the money of the constitu- 
 tion, or whether their homes and property shall be con- 
 fiscated for the benefit of pirates. The only party that 
 votes as a unit against the tricks of the millionaires is 
 the People 's party. There are only two parties to-day — 
 the People 's party and the gold party. ' ' 767 
 
336 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 J. M. Joseph was nominated for Governor after A. J. 
 Westfall had been proposed as a candidate and had de- 
 clined, and in spite of the opposition of W. H. Robb, 
 who tried to stampede the convention for A. W. C. 
 Weeks of Winterset. Joseph was described as "a rich 
 man". Professor E. A. Ott 768 of Drake University, "a 
 preacher by profession" and a candidate for Congress 
 in 1892, received the nomination for Lieutenant Gov- 
 ernor; and a woman, Mrs. E. J. Woodrow, was nominated 
 for Superintendent of Public Instruction. She was re- 
 ferred to as "a pretty woman and a school teacher at 
 Marshalltown." 769 
 
 Before adjournment General Weaver presided over a 
 meeting to raise money for campaign expenses. At first 
 money was thrown upon the platform, about two hundred 
 and sixty-nine dollars being raised in this manner. Alto- 
 gether four hundred and thirteen dollars and seven cents 
 in cash and seven hundred and thirty-three dollars in 
 pledges was collected. 770 
 
 The Populists carried on "a tremendously active and 
 audible campaign" during the last four weeks before 
 the election. They brought in about fifteen of the best 
 speakers they could secure from Texas, Colorado, and 
 Kansas. The first meeting was held in Des Moines. "It 
 was a big show. They .... secured a good min- 
 strel man and he, with his banjo and his funny songs and 
 burlesques", was a "great part of the attraction and 
 will be throughout the campaign. But the principal 
 speaker .... is no less a show, and the way lie 
 ' skins ' the Democracy is worth going miles to hear. ' ' m 
 
 The election resulted in a vote for Governor distributed 
 as follows: 772 Kepublican, 206,821; Democratic, 174,660; 
 and People's, 23,980. Governor Boies had been renom- 
 
THE IOWA CAMPAIGNS OF 1892 AND 1893 337 
 
 mated for a third term, but lie failed of reelection by 
 32,161 votes ; compared with the vote of 1891 the Repub- 
 lican candidate gained 7,440 and the Populist 11,677, 
 while the Democratic candidate lost 32,934. The Re- 
 publican, Populist, and Prohibition gain about equalled 
 the Democratic loss. The Populist candidates for other 
 offices received more votes than did the candidate for 
 Governor, ranging from 24,141 to 24,266. The Clinton 
 Age believed that the Democratic loss and Populist gain 
 could be accounted for partly by the hard times and 
 partly by recent silver legislation. It regarded the pro- 
 hibition issue as of less importance. 773 
 
XXI 
 
 INDUSTRIAL UNREST IN IOWA 
 
 The most dramatic event during the year 1894 in Iowa 
 was probably the passage of "Kelly's Army" through 
 the State during April and May. This "army" was one 
 of the most important of a number of groups of unem- 
 ployed men and tramps that traversed the country from 
 the Pacific coast to "Washington during this year. About 
 three hundred and fifty men- left San Francisco on April 
 3, 1894. After a variety of experiences and an increase 
 of numbers to about fifteen hundred, they arrived in 
 Council Bluffs on April 15th in a Union Pacific train of 
 twenty-five coal and cattle cars which they had seized at 
 Unita, Utah, on April 12th. They had been supplied 
 with provisions at several places en route on condition 
 that they continue upon their journey. Governor Jack- 
 son of Iowa proceeded to Council Bluffs to meet Kelly; 
 five militia companies were ordered to rendezvous at 
 Council Bluffs, but there was no disturbance. Kelly 
 was described as "a shrewd, well-read young man"; and 
 the men under him had confidence in his management. 774 
 
 The following day the "army", increased by one hun- 
 dred and fifty recruits and supplied with food, marched 
 out a few miles to a town named Weston, where it still 
 further increased to 1,900 and received fourteen wagon 
 loads of provisions. Sympathizers seized a train, but 
 Kelly refused to make use of it fearing some trick. It 
 next marched to a neighboring town where it was received 
 
 338 
 
INDUSTRIAL UNREST IN IOWA 339 
 
 by the mayor, council and citizens. Kelly declared that 
 the unemployed ought to be set to work in irrigating the 
 arid lands of the West. On April 29th the "army" ar- 
 rived at Des Moines in a very fatigued condition. Food 
 and shelter were provided for them and the people were 
 sympathetic. 
 
 Kelly tried to secure transportation for his men, but 
 failed. On May 3rd there was a demonstration 775 of 
 laboring people in Des Moines and a march to the capitol 
 building to demand that Governor Jackson secure a train. 
 General Weaver was described as the "master of cere- 
 monies." 776 Governor Jackson read letters from the 
 railroads refusing to transport the men for less than full 
 fare ; and he promised to lay the matter before the Execu- 
 tive Council and he thought that funds might be obtained 
 to carry the army in boats to the Mississippi Eiver. 777 
 On May 6th the construction of boats to transport the 
 army down the Des Moines Eiver began. The citizens of 
 Des Moines paid the cost of the boats and supplied pro- 
 visions for one day. On May 9th Kelly started with one 
 hundred and four boats each containing from eight to ten 
 men. They met with rough weather as the river was 
 swollen with the spring rains, but on May 28th they 
 arrived at St. Louis, where the force divided. 778 
 
 Contemporary comments upon the "army" throw light 
 upon the opinions of the people of the State. The Sat- 
 urday Evening Post noted that it "consumed a month in 
 crossing this State. . . . They found it an easy coun- 
 try to get into and a hard one to get out of." The re- 
 ception was "characteristic of Iowa people. The 'army' 
 was not at any time in danger of starvation, but there 
 were no ovations tendered it." 779 
 
 Professor Jesse Macy believed that there were "large 
 
340 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 numbers of men who were out of work, and they wanted 
 to get from the West to the East. After the movement 
 was started there were many who availed themselves of 
 the cheap transportation." Some of the men who left 
 Kelly's army and visited Grinnell "frankly stated that 
 they joined the army for this purpose. . . . The 
 Populist movement in Iowa is not formidable. . . . 
 The present financial distress has not borne heavily upon 
 this section of the country. It is always difficult to pro- 
 mote a new party in the absence of a grievance." 780 
 
 Governor Jackson seems to have used excellent judg- 
 ment in dealing with a difficult situation. He went him- 
 self to Council Bluffs to meet the "army" and to deal 
 with it in a way that would mean the least loss and 
 trouble to the State. He asked the Rock Island Railroad 
 to furnish a train of box cars to transport the men to 
 Davenport and promised that the State would pay the 
 actual cost. The Rock Island at first offered to transport 
 half of the men if the Milwaukee would carry the re- 
 mainder, but later withdrew the offer, probably because 
 of pressure from Illinois people, unless all the trunk lines 
 would transport their quota. Governor Jackson then 
 wrote these other lines and received refusals from all 
 three, the Milwaukee, the Northwestern, and the Bur- 
 lington. He then tried to secure transportation from the 
 Missouri Pacific to Kansas City; and he also attempted 
 to get steamboats from Sioux City. 781 
 
 Judge N. M. Hubbard, attorney for the Northwestern 
 Railroad, was the aggressive opponent of conciliatory 
 measures in dealing with the ' ' army". He insisted upon 
 the calling out of the militia and in general conducted 
 himself in a way to bring down upon himself the severe 
 criticism of many people. His extreme position was 
 
INDUSTRIAL UNREST IN IOWA 341 
 
 shown by his declarations that if a train were seized he 
 would "ditch it if it destroys every car and hurts a lot 
 of men." 782 He also threatened to use "a wild engine, 
 open the throttle and send it down to meet the captured 
 train, and the wreck will solve the problem as to whether 
 we are obliged to carry these men without remunera- 
 tion." 783 
 
 The Iowa State Register described the "army" as not 
 made up of tramps as many people thought. They were 
 "legitimate unemployed men, admitting to their ranks 
 only legitimate unemployed and barring professional 
 tramps." 784 After the arrival of the "army" at Des 
 Moines the "stories" of over eighty of the men were 
 collected and printed and they confirmed the judgment 
 expressed above. Kelly declared in a speech made in 
 Des Moines that eighty percent of the men were American 
 citizens and one-third married men. The recruits from 
 Des Moines, numbering about fifty, were drawn not from 
 residents but from unemployed men from other cities. 785 
 
 After the army had gone the same paper declared edi- 
 torially that the cost to the people of Iowa had been at 
 least $50,000, while five hundred dollars would have been 
 a good price for a train across the State. ' ' The Register 
 went on record early, on rushing Kelly's army across the 
 state, and that record is endorsed by all intelligent people 
 except the railroad managers, who were determined to 
 keep the army out of Chicago at all hazards, and the 
 organs they are able to control by the distribution of 
 thousand-mile tickets. The army that will pass Iowa in 
 a month ought to have been sent across the state in a 
 night." 786 
 
 A really penetrating and constructive discussion was 
 contained in The Midland Monthly for June, 1894. "The 
 
342 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 real responsibility", it declared, "for the presence of 
 'General' Kelly's 'Industrial Army' in our midst attaches 
 to the Central Pacific Eailroad, or to certain of its offi- 
 cials, presumably acting with authority, who practically 
 invited the capture of a train .... and actually 
 hauled the alleged captors all the way across Utah, Colo- 
 rado and Nebraska, making every arrangement for their 
 comfort on the trip and landing them at the very eastern- 
 most point of the line upon the western border of Iowa. 
 This 'army' is entirely exceptional. . . . It is a deep- 
 ly interesting surface development of the industrial un- 
 rest of the period, an unrest chiefly due to the sudden 
 and sharp transition from a period of industrial activity 
 to one of general stagnation. . . . The people are not 
 doing much philosophizing on the situation, and yet they 
 are sorrowfully aware that many conditions do exist 
 which should not. . . . These conditions are unfor- 
 tunate, for, divested of prejudice, can any reasonable 
 mind reject the general proposition that labor as well as 
 capital has claims which governments are bound in duty 
 and in self-interest to respect and, within reasonable 
 limits, allow. This brings us face to face with the real 
 question behind this general confusion of ideas and con- 
 ditions. . . . "Why should not government apply to 
 the labor market the same business common sense which 
 it applies to the money market for the prevention of 
 disaster? Temporary relief from strained conditions in 
 the labor market, as in the money market, should be 
 given not as a gratuity, but as an exchange, — in the 
 one case, so much gold for so many bonds ; in the other, 
 so much currency, or its representative notes, for so much 
 labor. . . . Why should a government that spends 
 millions for navies and fortifications, and millions more 
 
INDUSTRIAL UNREST IN IOWA 343 
 
 for the improvement of rivers and harbors, refuse to 
 irrigate the vast arid regions of the territories? .... 
 The only warrantable appearance of the government 
 on the labor market is for the employment of labor to 
 expedite public works which must be pushed to speedy 
 completion, and for the employment of labor upon works 
 — for instance such as the Hennepin Canal — to which 
 government is committed and yet upon which more or 
 less labor may be performed in any given period, as the 
 conditions of the labor market suggest as wise and 
 profitable. Our national government and most of the 
 states are already committed to the Bureau of Labor 
 Statistics. This is well, but it logically calls for some 
 use of the statistics which are from year to year obtained, 
 some application of the suggestions which these statistics 
 make. . . . The economy of prevention must force 
 us as a people into systematic regulation of the labor 
 market. Suppose, for example, our government had been 
 prepared with plans and specifications for the prosecu- 
 tion of work all along the line of the Hennepin Canal, 
 between Chicago and Moline .... what a relief 
 it would have been to communities everywhere, had the 
 men discharged from factories and shops been able to 
 temporarily enter government service on such works at 
 even a minimum wage ! " 78T 
 
 The suggestions made in the discussion just quoted are 
 as pertinent in 1914 as twenty years earlier, and unfor- 
 tunately entirely untried even to the present time when 
 we are again wrestling with the same problem under even 
 more complicated social conditions. 
 
 A more important manifestation of industrial unrest in 
 1894 was the great railroad strike of June and July ; but 
 Iowa fortunately was much less seriously involved in 
 
344 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 that outbreak. The American Railway Union had only 
 three lodges in the State at the beginning of the strike 
 — ■ in Des Moines, Davenport, and Council Bluffs. 788 Very 
 little interruption of traffic occurred until July 2nd and 
 practically all trouble was over by July 10th. 
 
 The most serious disturbances took place at Sioux City 
 where, on July 2nd, a mob invaded the railroad yards, 
 ' ' spiked switches, threw cars off the track and stoned the 
 engineers and firemen in the cabs." The two local militia 
 companies were called to their armories, but they were 
 unable to handle the situation, and an appeal was made 
 to the Governor for assistance. Eight companies from 
 neighboring towns were ordered to the city where they 
 arrived on the evening of July 4th. As they marched 
 up town the mob, swollen by the crowds out for the holi- 
 day, numbered six or eight thousand and the situation 
 looked ominous. Some missiles were thrown and the 
 soldiers pricked a few people with their bayonets; and 
 two militia men were injured, but not seriously. On 
 July 10th the troops were withdrawn as there had been 
 no trouble since the day of their arrival. 789 
 
 On July 3rd there was a labor demonstration held near 
 the courthouse in Des Moines, attended by five or six 
 thousand people to express sympathy with the strikers. 
 Eesolutions were adopted and speeches made by several 
 labor leaders and Populists. Mr. Willits of Kansas 
 urged the careful avoidance of all lawlessness; W. W. 
 Pattee, president of the local American Railway Union, 
 Andrew Engle, and a clergyman by the name of Ford 
 were the remaining speakers. 790 On July 11th Grand 
 Master Sovereign called upon all Knights of Labor to 
 join in a sympathetic strike, but there was no general 
 response, The Iowa State Register referring to it as 
 
INDUSTRIAL UNREST IN IOWA 345 
 
 "Sovereign's fiasco" and remarking that lie had "frit- 
 tered away what little strength his order had when Mr. 
 Powderly was compelled to lay down the leadership 
 through the intrigue of Sovereign and other nincompoops 
 who are not worthy to walk in even Powderly 's foot- 
 steps. ' ' r91 Sovereign claimed that one million men would 
 obey his order, while it was doubtful if his organization 
 had 50,000 members in good standing — in its best days 
 it did not claim more than 700,000 members.™- 
 
 Of the strike as a whole The Iowa State Register con- 
 cluded that it had "accomplished nothing directly. The 
 most that has been done is to agitate the minds of men 
 anew in regard to the questions of labor and capital, 
 and to that extent the disturbances have been use- 
 ful. . . . We also hope that congress will have the 
 courage to take in hand the matter of regulating the 
 Pullman sleeping and dining car methods and prices. 
 The railroad stockholders and the traveling public have 
 both been robbed systematically. This is why the com- 
 pany has a surplus of $18,000,000 after paying enormous 
 dividends on watered stocks and stock dividends, while 
 at the same time it has made beggars of its employes. " 703 
 
 Here again is a suggestion from Iowa which has not 
 yet been acted upon to any considerable extent, although 
 the Interstate Commerce Commission has very mildly 
 touched the matter by making a slight difference in the 
 charges allowed for low T er and upper berths. Such pro- 
 posals as have been noted in regard to unemployment 
 and to Pullman rates represent the solid substratum that 
 underlay the Populist party in Iowa and gave it a signi- 
 ficance beyond numerical majorities and successful can- 
 didates. 
 
XXII 
 FEEE SILVER AND POPULIST GAINS IN IOWA 
 
 The agitation for the free coinage of silver continued 
 actively during 1894 although it was somewhat obscured 
 by the industrial disturbances which have just been 
 described. An Interstate Silver Conference was held at 
 Des Moines on March 21st and 22nd made up of delegates 
 from Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Ne- 
 braska, Kansas, Alabama, Iowa and "possibly several 
 additional states. . . . The largest, most enthusiastic 
 and representative delegation in attendance was that 
 from Butte and other great mining centers in the state 
 of Montana .... headed by Hon. Lee Mantle, an 
 eminent Republican and able free silver advocate ' '. Gen- 
 eral A. J. "Warner of Ohio called the conference to order; 
 Judge C. C. Cole gave the address of welcome; and 
 General Warner delivered the principal speech. The 
 attendance was ' ' only fair, but the enthusiasm unbound- 
 ed". The purpose "appears to be 'to obliterate party 
 lines and unite all elements upon the silver issue." 794 
 
 On the second day there was a noticeable increase in 
 the number of delegates and the general attendance was 
 much better. Leonard Brown obtained the floor and 
 ' ' paralyzed the convention with a rabid socialistic speech, 
 teeming with paternal suggestions and common weal sen- 
 timents." Ignatius Donnelly of Minnesota was called 
 for and made an address. He was followed by other 
 speakers ; resolutions were adopted ; and at the end of 
 the evening session the conference adjourned. 795 
 
 346 
 
FREE SILVER AND POPULIST GAINS IN IOWA 347 
 
 In April The Saturday Evening Post of Burlington 
 declared editorially that the "agitation in favor of free 
 coinage of Silver continues all over the country with 
 unabated strength and is evidently meeting with in- 
 creased favor among the people. Mr. James S. Clarkson 
 stated in a recent interview that the next National cam- 
 paign would be fought over the silver idea, and that he 
 believed it would prevail because a majority of the people 
 really want its rehabilitation. . . . During the ses- 
 sions of the National Silver convention held in Des 
 Moines recently, some interesting facts were brought 
 out. . . . Friends of the Silver movement see in the 
 unlimited coinage of that metal a release of the people 
 from the web spun so carefully around them by the old- 
 world monetary system. While prices of commodities 
 would advance, and the people might suffer somewhat at 
 first from the sudden inflation, it would in the long run 
 confer a lasting benefit on them by furnishing them with 
 the ready money necessary to the active prosecution of 
 business. ' ' 796 
 
 The campaign of 1894 in Iowa was for minor State 
 officials and for members of Congress. Early in the 
 summer there was considerable talk of fusion between 
 the Democrats and Populists, both upon the State and 
 congressional candidates, and it was planned to hold 
 both party State conventions at the same time. 797 The 
 arrangement was not carried out, and the Democratic 
 convention was held at Des Moines on August 1st. It 
 was managed by the administration machine and there 
 was little opposition and discussion except over the ques- 
 tion of silver. A substitute for the committee report, 
 which declared for the use of both gold and silver and the 
 maintenance of the parity of values, was offered by 
 
348 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Colonel C. H. Mackey of Keokuk County, who claimed he 
 represented a large part of the Democrats of Iowa, but 
 was rejected by a vote of six hundred and ninety-seven 
 to three hundred and twenty-nine. The only roll call 
 was in the vote upon silver which occurred when many 
 entire delegations had left the convention and only a few 
 for each were present. Ex-Governor Boies was perma- 
 nent chairman and made a speech which was described as 
 the only noteworthy feature of the sessions. His address 
 was conservative upon silver and labor disturbances and 
 was not received with much enthusiasm. The platform 
 repeated the demand for the election of United States 
 Senators "by direct vote of the people". 798 
 
 The Populist State convention assembled at Des Moines 
 during the first week in September with six hundred and 
 twenty-four delegates in attendance. The largest num- 
 ber of delegates came from the eighth congressional dis- 
 trict which had one hundred and four representatives; 
 while the eleventh, sixth, and ninth districts, ranked next 
 with eighty-five, eighty-three, and eighty-one delegates, 
 respectively. All these districts but the sixth were in 
 the western part of the State. General Weaver, Dr. 
 Perry Engle, M. L. Wheat, Leonard Brown, F. F. Eoe, 
 W. H. Robb, and A. W. C. Weeks were the leaders present 
 — -described by The Ioica State Register as the "old 
 gang" with "some new recruits from the Democratic 
 party and some misguided working men." There was 
 no talk of fusion on the State ticket, but General Weaver 
 claimed that there was a chance to carry seven congres- 
 sional districts by fusion with the Democrats. 799 
 
 Mr. W. H. Robb, who was both temporary and per- 
 manent chairman, made a long speech upon silver, the 
 Democratic administration, and the national banks. His 
 
FKEE SILVER AND POPULIST GAINS IN IOWA 349 
 
 references to silver were ' ' received with yells of delight. ' ' 
 After the appointment of committees, General "Weaver 
 was called for and responded with a speech in which he 
 urged breadth and liberality ' ' to build up a great party. 
 You can't have all honest men in any party — it would 
 live forever, and no party ought to live more than three 
 terms of power. 'I am a middle-of-the-road man, but I 
 don't propose to lie down across it so no one can get over 
 me. Nothing grows in the middle of the road'." 
 
 In the afternoon M. L. Wheat, "the Jasper county 
 wind-bag, was given the opportunity for the first time in 
 several years to 'blow off'. He favored fusion with the 
 Democrats". Some money was raised for "the Pullman 
 and A. E. U. strikers" and for party expenses. 800 
 
 The platform declared for free coinage of silver, op- 
 posed the issue of bonds "under any pretext whatever", 
 protested against an increase of railroad rates in the 
 State, and demanded a maximum two-cent passenger rate 
 and a "mileage book good on all railroads." In addi- 
 tion it maintained that there should be "no discrimina- 
 tion on account of rank ' ' in the payment of pensions ; and 
 that "the people should have the power to propose legis- 
 lation as well as vote direct upon all general laws passed 
 by legislative bodies. ' ' 801 
 
 A resolution was proposed for "the adoption of a 
 comprehensive amendment to the federal constitution, 
 which shall re-enact all valuable portions of the consti- 
 tution of 1789 as subsequently amended and incorporate 
 therein those necessary reforms which are now constitu- 
 tionally impracticable, including elective United States 
 senators, a single term of the presidency, determined by 
 popular vote, an elective supreme court holding office for 
 a definite term, with similar subordinate courts, direct 
 
350 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 legislation by the people through the initiative and refer- 
 endum, and such broad extensions of popular rights as 
 shall set the people absolutely free to govern themselves 
 in their own way and to conduct in their national or local 
 capacity such industries as may be withdrawn by monop- 
 oly from individual competition, and such other enter- 
 prises as may meet the public approval as properly sub- 
 ject to popular conduct." The resolution closed with a 
 call for "a mass convention of the American people to 
 assemble in ... . Des Moines on the first Monday 
 in December, 1894, to consider the necessary amendment 
 of the fundamental law of the land." General Weaver 
 expressed approval, but the resolution was laid on the 
 table by a large majority. 808 
 
 The proposal for the amendment of the federal Con- 
 stitution is interesting both because of the mere fact of 
 the suggestion itself and because of the proposed amend- 
 ments. After the first few decades under the Constitu- 
 tion any proposal to alter the document came to be re- 
 garded as unpatriotic and as hostile to the Union. Only 
 recently have such suggestions begun again to appear as 
 a way out from the use of the power of the courts to 
 block social progress by declaring- legislation unconsti- 
 tutional. Mr. Croly in his Progressive Democracy states 
 that "Professor Munroe Smith is justified in declaring 
 'that the first article of any sincerely intended progres- 
 sive program must be the amendment of the amending 
 clause of the Constitution.' In practice the monarchy 
 of the Law hangs suspended to the nail of this particular 
 bit of writing, and as long as it remains intact the poli- 
 tical destinies of the American people will have to rest 
 to an unnecessary and unwholesome extent upon the dicta 
 of a board of judicial trustees." 803 
 
FREE SILVER AND POPULIST GAINS IN IOWA 351 
 
 Again, as in the editorial comments upon the Industrial 
 Army of "General" Kelly and the railroad strike, here 
 is a constructive proposal which has remained dormant 
 for nearly twenty years, but which is now forcing itself 
 upon public attention. "The absurd effort to make the 
 world over" "« of 1894 is the serious proposal of one of 
 the most thoughtful students of modern democracy in the 
 United States. 
 
 Nominations were made with little discussion and 
 usually by acclamation — except in the case of Railroad 
 Commissioner, for which W. W. Pattee, president of the 
 local A. R. U., was proposed in order to please the labor 
 element. Mr. Westfall opposed the suggestion "chiefly 
 because he wanted a man from his part of the state." 
 Finally, Mr. Pattee was named by acclamation. 
 
 W. H. Calhoun of Marshalltown advocated a resolution 
 to substitute State ownership of all intoxicants and the 
 repeal of the mulct tax law. M. L. Wheat opposed the 
 resolution and the committee upon platform said that 
 the matter had been omitted by them because it could not 
 be affected by the coming election. The resolution was 
 defeated by a large vote. 805 
 
 The election resulted in the following vote for the head 
 of the State ticket, the Secretary of State : Republicans, 
 229,376; Democrats, 149,980; and People's, 34,907. The 
 Populist candidate for Secretary of State led his party 
 ticket in point of votes ; the others received votes ranging 
 from 34,850 to 34,633 — except in the case of Supreme 
 Court Judge where there was partial fusion and of Su- 
 preme Court Reporter where the fusion was complete. 8 ™ 
 
 In the congressional elections 807 there were fusions in 
 the third, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth districts, the 
 candidates being Populists in four out of the five. 808 The 
 
352 
 
 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 votes and candidates in the other districts were as fol- 
 lows : J. 0. Beebe, first district, 2,065 ; Chas. A. Lloyd, 
 second district, 1,573 ; L. H. Weller, fourth district, 1,256 ; 
 W. H. Calhoun, fifth district, 1,218; Allen Clark, sixth 
 district, 5,663 ; and J. L. Bartholomew, eleventh district, 
 5,265. General Weaver was defeated by 3,057 votes in 
 the ninth district — which was referred to as a "notable 
 incident" by The Review of Reviews*™ 
 
 A comparison of the votes in Congressional districts 
 in 1892 and 1894 follows: 
 
 
 1892 
 
 1894 
 
 First district 
 
 691 
 
 2065 
 
 Second district 
 
 557 
 
 1573 
 
 Third district 
 
 No Populist candidate 
 
 Fusion 
 
 Fourth district 
 
 No Populist candidate 
 
 1256 
 
 Fifth district 
 
 637 
 
 1218 
 
 Sixth district 
 
 2889 
 
 5663 
 
 Seventh district 
 
 2562 
 
 Fusion 
 
 Eighth district 
 
 3687 
 
 Fusion 
 
 Ninth district 
 
 2610 
 
 Fusion 
 
 Tenth district 
 
 1689 
 
 Fusion 
 
 Eleventh district 
 
 Fusion candidate 
 
 5265 
 
 Every district shows a gain for the Populists either 
 numerically, or by the fact of fusion or the presence of a 
 candidate or fusion in 1894 where there was neither in 
 1892. These facts compared with the increase on the 
 State ticket from 23,980 to 34,907 suggests that Populism 
 was not declining even in the number of votes cast. 810 
 
 The only issue in the State election of 1895 was the 
 free coinage of silver. The control of the Democratic 
 organization by the administration through federal office- 
 holders caused the free silver Democrats to attempt a 
 preconvention union of forces by which they might be 
 
FREE SILVER AND POPULIST GAINS IN IOWA 353 
 
 able to assert themselves more effectively than in 1894. 
 Accordingly, a conference of silver Democrats was called 
 to meet at Des Moines on June 6th, and, at the time 
 designated, about fifty persons assembled. Ex-Lieuten- 
 ant Governor Bestow presided, and among the persons 
 present were ex-Congressman Fred White, W. H. Mc- 
 Henry of Des Moines, S. B. Evans of Ottumwa, General 
 Weaver, and Rev. S. H. Bashor, organizer for the Bi- 
 metallic League of Iowa. Speeches were made, resolu- 
 tions adopted, and committees appointed to make ready 
 for effective action at the State convention. 811 
 
 On the preceding day a non-partisan silver conference 
 had been held in Des Moines with an attendance of about 
 one hundred. The meetings were called to order by the 
 Secretary of the Bimetallic League, and among the lead- 
 ing men present were ex-Congressman White, Colonel G. 
 L. Godfrey, B. F. Gue, Judge C. C. Cole, W. H. Robb, 
 General Weaver, F. Q. Stuart, J. R. Sovereign, S. H. 
 Bashor, Amos Steekel, and Ex-Lieutenant Governor 
 Bestow. Mr. Steekel was made chairman, Judge Cole 
 delivered the address of welcome, Mr. Sovereign made a 
 radical silver speech, and resolutions were adopted. In 
 the evening ex-Congressman White, Mr. Bashor, and 
 General Weaver were the chief speakers. 812 
 
 These two conferences were parts of the same plan 
 "to so shape events that the coming democratic state 
 convention" would "name free silver men and thus take 
 advantage of the non-partisan action." 813 The signifi- 
 cance of the action was recognized by the conservative 
 Democrats, such as the editor of The Clinton Age, who 
 asked if the call for a "silver" convention was not pre- 
 mature. "Ought not the issues to be first decided in 
 state convention, regularly called by the state committee? 
 
352 
 
 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 votes and candidates in the other districts were as fol- 
 lows : J. 0. Beebe, first district, 2,065 ; Chas. A. Lloyd 
 second district, 1,573 ; L. H. Weller, fourth district, 1,256; 
 W. H. Calhoun, fifth district, 1,218 ; Allen Clark, sixth 
 district, 5,663 ; and J. L. Bartholomew, eleventh district, 
 5,265. General Weaver was defeated by 3,057 votes in 
 the ninth district — which was referred to as a "notable 
 incident" by The Review of Reviews.* 09 
 
 A comparison of the votes in Congressional districts 
 in 1892 and 1894 follows : 
 
 
 1892 
 
 1894 
 
 First district 
 
 691 
 
 2065 
 
 Second district 
 
 557 
 
 1573 
 
 Third district 
 
 No Populist candidate 
 
 Fusion 
 
 Fourth district 
 
 No Populist candidate 
 
 1256 
 
 Fifth district 
 
 637 
 
 1218 
 
 Sixth district 
 
 2889 
 
 5663 
 
 Seventh district 
 
 2562 
 
 Fusion 
 
 Eighth district 
 
 3687 
 
 Fusion 
 
 Ninth district 
 
 2610 
 
 Fusion 
 
 Tenth district 
 
 1689 
 
 Fusion 
 
 Eleventh district 
 
 Fusion candidate 
 
 5265 
 
 Every district shows a gain for the Populists either 
 numerically, or by the fact of fusion or the presence of a 
 candidate or fusion in 1894 where there was neither in 
 1892. These facts compared with the increase on the 
 State ticket from 23,980 to 34,907 suggests that Populism 
 was not declining even in the number of votes cast. 810 
 
 The only issue in the State election of 1895 was the 
 free coinage of silver. The control of the Democratic 
 organization by the administration through federal office- 
 holders caused the free silver Democrats to attempt a 
 preconvention union of forces by which they might he 
 
FREE SILVER AND POPULIST GAINS IN IOWA 353 
 
 able to assert themselves more effectively than in 1894. 
 Accordingly, a conference of silver Democrats was called 
 to meet at Des Moines on June 6th, and, at the time 
 designated, about fifty persons assembled. Ex-Lieuten- 
 ant Governor Bestow presided, and among the persons 
 present were ex-Congressman Fred White, W. H. Mc- 
 Henry of Des Moines, S. B. Evans of Ottumwa, General 
 Weaver, and Bev. S. H. Bashor, organizer for the Bi- 
 metallic League of Iowa. Speeches were made, resolu- 
 tions adopted, and committees appointed to make ready 
 for effective action at the State convention. 811 
 
 On the preceding day a non-partisan silver conference 
 had been held in Des Moines with an attendance of about 
 one hundred. The meetings were called to order by the 
 Secretary of the Bimetallic League, and among the lead- 
 ing men present were ex-Congressman White, Colonel G. 
 L. Godfrey, B. F. Gue, Judge C. C. Cole, W. H. Robb, 
 General Weaver, F. Q. Stuart, J. R. Sovereign, S. H. 
 Bashor, Amos Steckel, and Ex-Lieutenant Governor 
 Bestow. Mr. Steckel was made chairman, Judge Cole 
 delivered the address of welcome, Mr. Sovereign made a 
 radical silver speech, and resolutions were adopted. In 
 the evening ex-Congressman White, Mr. Bashor, and 
 General Weaver were the chief speakers. 812 
 
 These two conferences were parts of the same plan 
 "to so shape events that the coming democratic state 
 convention" would "name free silver men and thus take 
 advantage of the non-partisan action. ' ' 813 The signifi- 
 cance of the action was recognized by the conservative 
 Democrats, such as the editor of The Clinton Age, who 
 asked if the call for a "silver" convention was not pre- 
 mature. "Ought not the issues to be first decided in 
 state convention, regularly called by the state committee ? 
 
354 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 . . . . There is certainly no cause yet for a bolt. 
 There is nothing to bolt from. ' ' 814 
 
 The Populist State Convention met at Des Moines a 
 few days after the holding of the free silver conferences. 
 About three hundred and sixty delegates were present 
 out of four hundred and fifty-five chosen and very few 
 counties were unrepresented. The first discussion was 
 over party finances in connection with the appointment 
 of a financial committee : it resulted from the statement 
 that the party was one hundred and sixty-nine dollars 
 in debt. A collection of silver was taken up, and with 
 the assistance of General Weaver the financial problem 
 was solved. 
 
 E. H. Gillette was made permanent chairman, and 
 upon taking his place he delivered a short speech in 
 which he referred to ' ' this movement which began twenty 
 years ago." 815 
 
 The platform was adopted without discussion or 
 amendment. It contained the usual statements about 
 finance, declared for the initiative and referendum, de- 
 manded that "until such time as a government system 
 of finances can be established, that all banking institu- 
 tions, national, state and private, be required to give 
 security to depositors for all moneys received for de- 
 posits", and further demanded "adequate legislation for 
 the inspection of all workshops and factories where more 
 than ten persons are employed". 816 
 
 Nominations were made without contest and "the 
 only trouble experienced was in getting enough men to 
 take the nominations. ' ' Sylvanus Crane was named for 
 Governor by acclamation; the other offices were filled 
 after several declinations and sometimes by naming a 
 person not present — as in the case of Railroad Com- 
 
FEEE SILVER AND POPULIST GAINS IN IOWA 355 
 
 missioner. After the business had been transacted, Mr. 
 L. Q. Hoggatt of Ames was introduced and gave "a 
 witty address, telling a couple of good stories to illus- 
 trate his points." The evening session was entirely 
 devoted to speech-making. 817 
 
 A secret conference of Populist leaders, including 
 General Weaver, Judge Cole, Thomas Meredith of the 
 Farmers' Tribune, the candidate for Governor, and the 
 chairman of the State committee (Anderson), was held 
 at Des Moines during the last week in July to consider 
 plans for fusion with the Democrats. The plan seems to 
 have been to withdraw the Populist candidates for State 
 offices in favor of the Democrats, and to arrange fusions 
 in the legislative districts so as to control the next Gen- 
 eral Assembly in the interest of General Weaver as a 
 candidate for United States Senator — Senator Allison's 
 term would expire in 1897, and Senator Gear had been 
 seriously ill so that there was a possibility of the election 
 of two Senators in the near future. Judge Cole was also 
 a prospective candidate under these circumstances. The 
 scheme had been under consideration for four months 
 and had been "carried into the non-partisan silver con- 
 ference" and into the Populist State Convention. In 
 addition to the persons present at the conference, Rev. 
 S. H. Bashor, E. H. Gillette, and Mr. Belangee were en- 
 gaged in working the scheme. Meredith, who was said 
 to have put $25,000 into the Populist party, was financing 
 the project. 818 
 
 There was considerable opposition to the undertaking 
 from middle-of-the-road Populists, as is shown by various 
 rumors 819 afloat as to Weaver's relation with his party. 
 Soon after the State convention he wrote the candidate 
 for Governor assuring him of his support and stating 
 
XXIH 
 THE CLIMAX OF POPULISM IN IOWA 
 
 In 1896 the one absorbing issue in Iowa, as well as in 
 the United States at large, was the free coinage of silver. 
 For two successive years the free silver Democrats had 
 struggled for control of their State conventions, but had 
 met with defeat through the superior organization of the 
 gold Democrats led by the office-holders appointed by the 
 national administration. The Populists bad partly fused 
 with the Democrats, but no complete union had been ar- 
 ranged. The year 1896 was to witness in State and 
 nation an almost complete fusion of the two wings of the 
 silver forces. The stages in the accomplishment of the 
 result are the significant features of the year in Iowa. 
 
 The Populists held a State convention on April 22nd 
 in Des Moines, to nominate delegates to the national con- 
 vention which was to be held at St. Louis. "With the 
 largest attendance in its history" 826 the convention met 
 with only four counties unrepresented. The sessions 
 were largely devoted to speech-making, and General J. 
 S. Coxey of Ohio and Chairman H. E. Taubeneck of the 
 national committee were present from outside the State. 
 General Coxey and General Weaver, who was temporary 
 chairman, made the principal addresses. A delegation 
 of thirty members, headed by General Weaver, was 
 chosen to go to St. Louis. The committee upon resolu- 
 tions reported in favor of instructing the delegates "to 
 do all in their power to secure a union of all reform 
 
 358 
 
THE CLIMAX OP POPULISM IN IOWA 359 
 
 forces on a common ticket or a platform embodying the 
 fundamental principles of the Omaha platform". A 
 minority report signed by three members of the com- 
 mittee omitted all reference to the "union of reform 
 forces". Apparently the majority report made by seven 
 members of the committee was accepted. 827 
 
 It was apparent before the meeting of the Democratic 
 convention that the silver wing would control. The sec- 
 retary of the State committee used every means at his 
 disposal to help them ; the name of Horace Boies was put 
 forward to advance the interests of free coinage. "With 
 less than ten per cent of the Democrats of the state ex- 
 pressing an opinion upon the subject the state will send 
 a majority of silver delegates to the Chicago convention, 
 and it may be that the Iowa vote will determine the char- 
 acter of the money plank in the national platform. ' ' 828 
 
 The convention, which was described as "the most 
 turbulent" in the history of the party in the State, met at 
 Dubuque on May 20th. The silver element, as had been 
 predicted, was in complete control. They allowed the 
 State committee to name a gold man for temporary chair- 
 man, but that was their only concession. They selected 
 the permanent chairman and he declared that Boies was 
 named, unanimously, as delegate-at-large — although all 
 the gold men, nearly a third of the convention, voted 
 against him. A vote for the second delegate-at-large 
 resulted in six hundred and forty-nine for the silver can- 
 didate and two hundred and eighty for the gold repre- 
 sentative. The vote upon the platform, which endorsed 
 the free coinage of silver was six hundred and eighty- 
 four for and two hundred and twenty-eight against. The 
 delegates to the national convention were instructed "to 
 vote as a unit as the majority present shall direct on all 
 
360 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 questions coming before said National convention for 
 settlement by vote of its delegates, and especially upon 
 all questions relating to the adoption of a platform for 
 the party, and the nomination of candidates for president 
 and vice president". In addition the platform declared 
 it to be "the bounden duty of every patriot in Iowa, with- 
 out regard to former party affiliations, to use all honora- 
 ble means to secure ' ' the nomination of Horace Boies for 
 President, and the delegates were "expressly authorized 
 and instructed to place his name in nomination at Chi- 
 cago." 
 
 Many times the convention became disorganized and it 
 was feared it would break up with violence. The chair- 
 man appealed to the delegates for order, explaining that 
 the good name of Democracy and of the State was threat- 
 ened. A Dubuque man begged the delegates not to dis- 
 grace the city. "Howling and hissing were interspersed 
 with abject pleadings from the chair for order and at- 
 tention. . . . They hissed like snakes, howled like 
 hyenas and roared like mad bulls. ... It was pro- 
 nounced by sober men as the most outrageous convention 
 ever held in Iowa. ' ' 829 
 
 The managers of the Boies campaign for the Presi- 
 dency encountered the hostility of trades-unionists and 
 the opposition of Governor Altgeld because of his speech 
 on the labor troubles in 1894. As the Illinois Governor 
 was the dictator in the State and national conventions the 
 situation was a serious one for Boies. 830 Immediately 
 before the opening of the national convention the sup- 
 porters of Bland were circulating stories about "seventy- 
 five petitions, with the signatures of 100,000 wage-work- 
 ers", presented to Governor Altgeld in opposition to 
 Governor Boies' nomination because of his speech in 
 
THE CLIMAX OF POPULISM IN IOWA 361 
 
 reference to the Pullman strike. The gold men from 
 Iowa were also active in spreading the opinion that Boies 
 could not carry Iowa. Even without the appearance of a 
 candidate like Bryan, the nomination of Boies seems to 
 have been hardly a possibility in 1896. 831 
 
 The remarkable character of the national convention 
 has already been described, and there remains to be con- 
 sidered only the incidents connected with the presentation 
 of the name of Ex-Governor Boies as a candidate for the 
 presidential nomination. Under more normal conditions 
 his chances for success might have been excellent for he 
 had twice carried a strong Republican State for the 
 Governorship, was a well-to-do farmer, was not a violent 
 advocate of silver, and had the respect and liking of many 
 men who did not endorse his views. His former Repub- 
 lican affiliations also strengthened him in some directions, 
 while his attitude towards prohibition had gained support 
 in other quarters. Such qualifications would have count- 
 ed for much under other circumstances ; but they amount- 
 ed to very little in such a convention as that of 1896. 
 
 Congressman Bland of Missouri had been the leading 
 candidate before the spectacular appearance of Mr. 
 Bryan. He was the first to be put forward as a candidate 
 and his nomination by Senator George G. Vest was fol- 
 lowed by a demonstration that lasted for ' ' fourteen min- 
 utes before" the chairman "attempted to check" it. 
 
 Ex-Congressman Fred White "placed Horace Boies in 
 nomination. Mr. White, who looked like a plain farmer, 
 proved to be a forcible speaker." As he began to speak 
 a Boies banner was raised by the Iowa delegates. He 
 caused a laugh by remarking that there "would be no 
 sensational performance on the political trapeze while 
 Horace Boies was in the White House." He was given 
 
362 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 careful attention and there was no demonstration until 
 he concluded. The Boies delegates cheered, but "the 
 gallaries appeared cold. To a young woman in the 
 south terrace belonged the honor of forcing a demonstra- 
 tion second only to that which followed the nomination 
 of Bland. She was dressed in simple white. She mount- 
 ed a chair and began waving a small American flag fran- 
 tically to and fro. For fully a minute she was unob- 
 served. Then some one noticed her. Eyes began to turn 
 in her direction. She continued to wave the flag with 
 rhythmic motion, crying as she did so: 'Boies, Boies, 
 Boies!' The delegates got on their chairs, the galleries 
 began to cheer and in another minute the Coliseum was 
 aflame. . . . The Boies banner was carried from the 
 pit up to the terrace to where the striking figure stood, 
 like Joan of Arc, urging the nomination of Iowa's favor- 
 ite son. The staff of the banner was placed in her hands 
 and she swung it to and fro while the galleries yelled. 
 Once she sank back exhausted by her efforts, and the din 
 was subsiding. But, gathering her waning strength for a 
 final effort, she sprang up again and once more seizing 
 the banner she moved forward and was almost carried 
 down the slope by the maddened crowd about her. Swift- 
 ly she went forward to the platform where the Iowa dele- 
 gation came forward to meet her and escorted her with 
 shouts to the place of the delegation. For fourteen min- 
 utes the demonstration led by the girl in white kept 
 up. . . . The young woman who had led 25,000 peo- 
 ple proved to be Miss Minnie Murray, of Nashua, Iowa. 
 This incident reminded old convention goers of the great 
 Blaine demonstration at Minneapolis, ' ' 832 
 
 Boies received eighty-six votes upon the first ballot and 
 stood fourth in order of number of votes. In addition 
 
THE CLIMAX OP POPULISM IN IOWA 363 
 
 to the twenty-six votes of Iowa he received twenty-two 
 from Alabama, four from California, one from Florida, 
 five from Michigan, four from Minnesota, six from North 
 Dakota, six from Utah, and one from the District of 
 Columbia. On the second ballot he received thirty-seven 
 votes and stood sixth. His vote remained about station- 
 ary during the nest two ballots and on the fifth the con- 
 vention swung to Bryan with a rush. Boies received 
 sixteen votes upon the first ballot for Vice President. 833 
 
 After the close of the convention Mr. Boies wrote Miss 
 Murray, ' ' the woman in white ' ', a long letter in which he 
 thanked her for her part ' ' in the one episode in this most 
 extraordinary of political conventions, which lifts Iowa 
 Democracy into the light of day, and relieves it of the 
 utter gloom in which it would have been left in spite of 
 every effort of the most loyal of friends, had you not been 
 present in that convention. For your heroism at the 
 critical moment every Democrat in Iowa is supremely 
 grateful". He explained the reasons for his defeat as 
 three in number: (1) the "advocacy of the limitation 
 of the legal tender power of silver"; (2) the "endorse- 
 ment of Cleveland's action in sending troops to Chicago 
 during the riot of 1894"; and (3) the "advocacy of the 
 conditional free coinage of silver at 16 to 1, his plan in- 
 cluding the fixing of some other ratio if 16 to 1 did not 
 meet the expectations of its advocates." He summed up 
 his faults: "Three times had I sinned, and this was 
 more than could be forgiven. ' ' 8S4 
 
 The revolt against the action of the Democratic Na- 
 tional Convention among Iowa sound-money Democrats 
 was more general in Davenport and Scott County than in 
 any other part of Iowa. Leading German-Americans 
 ever since the Dubuque convention had been publicly 
 
364 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 declaring that they would not vote for a free silver can- 
 didate for President. Many announced their intention 
 of voting for the Republican candidates. 835 
 
 On the other hand, sound-money Democrats like the 
 editor of The Clinton Age took the position that Bryan 
 was ' ' fairly nominated by a regularly appointed conven- 
 tion, and the average democrat can discover no good 
 reason why he should not support him, especially as lie 
 agrees with him upon all points save one. The tendency 
 to Bryan grows stronger each day, and in time the demo- 
 crats all over the country will be well lined up for 
 him." 836 
 
 On August 4th a conference of gold Democrats was held 
 at Des Moines to select delegates to attend a meeting at 
 Indianapolis on August 7th to consider the advisability 
 of calling another national Democratic convention. It 
 was described as "quite largely attended, and by a class 
 of men representing the best citizenship of the party in 
 the state." Twenty-seven counties were represented hy 
 delegates: Des Moines, Lee, Henry, Louisa, Jefferson, 
 Clinton, Johnson, Scott, Iowa, Dubuque, Black Hawk, 
 Buchanan, Franklin, Cerro Gordo, Jones, Marshall, Lu- 
 cas, Pottawattamie, Cass, Hamilton, Webster, Greene, 
 Crawford, Cherokee, Woodbury, Dickinson, and Sioux. 
 Of these seventeen were in the eastern part of the State 
 and most of the remainder contained a city like Sioux 
 City or Council Bluffs or large towns. Thus they repre- 
 sented either the older communities or the business in- 
 terests in the newer portions of the State. 
 
 Judge John Cliggitt of Mason City was made chairman 
 and gave the principal address in which he discussed the 
 silver question at considerable length. He referred to 
 
THE CLIMAX OP POPULISM IN IOWA 365 
 
 Tilden and Thurman and Cleveland as the inspiration of 
 genuine Democracy, rather than Tillman and Altgeld and 
 Bryan "who is willing to exchange free trade for the 
 free coinage of silver. ' ' At the close of his remarks he 
 referred to "his aged friend, Ed. Campbell", who was 
 present, as being recognized as a Democrat twenty years 
 ago "instead of being compelled to cool his heels in the 
 corridor of neglect, as had been the case at Chicago last 
 month." Resolutions were adopted endorsing the ad- 
 ministration of President Cleveland, favoring a new 
 Democratic convention, and providing for representation 
 at the Indianapolis conference. A provisional State 
 committee was selected to act for the sound-money Dem- 
 ocrats and to call a State convention, if necessary, to 
 choose delegates and nominate State and congressional 
 tickets. 837 
 
 The regular Democratic convention met at Ottumwa on 
 August 12th to nominate State and electoral tickets. It 
 endorsed the action of the Chicago convention and named 
 tickets made up of Democrats, Populists, and Silverites. 
 A complete fusion was provided for in the congressional 
 districts. The division of candidates was as follows: 
 the Democrats got nine Congressmen, one Elector-at- 
 large, and five State officers ; the Populists got one Con- 
 gressman, one Elector-at-large, and one State officer ; and 
 the silver non-partisans got one Congressman and one 
 State officer. Horace Boies and General "Weaver were 
 nominated as Electors-at-large. General Weaver was the 
 author of the plan of complete fusion of Democrats and 
 Populists and he was the "hero" and "dictator" of the 
 convention. After the business had been completed, he 
 was called for and made a speech in which he referred to 
 
366 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 the Chicago convention as "a political miracle". With 
 the Populists and free silver Republicans the entire at- 
 tendance was not over six hundred. 838 
 
 The Clinton Age described "everything" at the con- 
 vention as passing off "pleasantly and without friction. 
 The candidates were unanimously agreed upon and will 
 be supported by all the voters in the state who favor the 
 election of Mr. Bryan. The impression in circles possess- 
 ing a reasonable amount of knowledge upon the subject, 
 is that the Ottumwa ticket will be elected from top to 
 bottom." 839 
 
 The gold Democrats met in convention at Des Moines 
 on August 26th and unanimously declared against the 
 free coinage of silver, selected delegates to a national 
 convention and chose presidential electors. Seven hun- 
 dred "representative business men" from ninety-three 
 counties were in attendance. "It was an enthusiastic 
 convention. . . . There were no controversies ; every- 
 thing was harmonious. Personal glory was made sub- 
 servient to the welfare of the party, and with the same 
 spirit that brought them here they transacted what they 
 had to do. ' ' Judge W. I. Babb was permanent chairman 
 and delivered a long speech. W. W. Witmer and J. E. 
 E. Markley were named as Electors-at-large — the latter 
 after Judge John Cliggitt had declined the honor. 840 
 
 The Populist State Convention met at Des Moines on 
 September 10th and endorsed the entire ticket nominated 
 by the Democrats at Ottumwa on August 12th. W. H. 
 Eobb, "the omniscient Weaver .... and many 
 others of the bewhiskered veterans of the political aggre- 
 gation of calamity howlers who have had infinite hope in 
 the face of continual and discouraging defeat, were there, 
 and of course they all inflicted their never tiring chin 
 
THE CLIMAX OF POPULISM IN IOWA 367 
 
 music upon the assembled multitude of long suffering 
 patriots who, from frequent punishment, have become 
 calloused to misery that would drive less hardened people 
 to a life of dissipation or an untimely tomb." The reso- 
 lutions congratulated "the Populists of Iowa and the 
 people of the whole country upon the fact that we have 
 at last compelled the adversaries of equal rights to join 
 issues with the producers of wealth. . . . The break- 
 ing down of the lines of bitter partisanship, we hail as 
 additional evidence of the capacity of the people for free 
 government, and the exalted patriotism of the masses." 
 The resolutions and endorsement of candidates were 
 adopted unanimously. 841 
 
 Professor Macy of G-rinnell described the campaign 
 in the State as "characterized by earnest and sincere 
 discussion of one issue — viz., the free coinage of silver. 
 There are no processions, few brass bands, and little 
 noise; but there is intense and unusual interest in the 
 debate. Men and women sit for hours listening to a pre- 
 sentation of facts and statistics. Political meetings are 
 numerous and large, yet they constitute the smallest part 
 of the discussion. Wherever men meet in shop or by the 
 way they engage in financial discussion. Old party lines 
 and former issues are in large part ignored. Early in 
 the campaign Republican speakers were disposed to give 
 prominence to the tariff question, but this feature has 
 largely disappeared. A few Republicans are working 
 for the election of Mr. Bryan; while no class is laboring 
 more earnestly for his defeat than are the gold standard 
 Democrats. Each party seeks to convince the voter that 
 dire disaster is impending in case of the success of their 
 opponents. The silver party makes much of 'the crime 
 of 73', and kindred crimes in the Old World." 842 
 
368 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Dr. Newell D. Hillis, a native Iowan but then located in 
 Chicago, lectured during the summer in Ohio, Illinois, 
 Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa, and gave a very 
 interesting account of a meeting of farmers in a country 
 schoolhouse in Iowa. "The chief feature of the speak- 
 er's address", he observes, "was his charts. Upon one 
 end of a blackboard was written an estimate of the num- 
 ber of millions of bushels of oats raised this year by the 
 farmers of Iowa, and a further estimate of the value of 
 the crop at the market price of 13 cents a bushel. The 
 Populist portrayed the farmer working like a slave 
 through eight months of the year to produce this 13-cent 
 bushel of oats, while the railway in a single day and night 
 hauled the grain to Chicago, where it receives 7 of the 13 
 cents as its recompense. Now the first cent of the seven 
 extorted will, urged the orator, take away all hope of the 
 farmer paying the interest on his mortgage; the second 
 cent will take from wife or daughter woolen dress warm 
 against the winter ; the third will take the boy and girl 
 out of school and college and condemn them to the drud- 
 gery of the farmhand or housemaid ; the fourth cent will 
 take away all possibility of purchasing the review, the 
 newspaper, the book, and drive men back to barbarism. 
 "When the orator reached this point in his discussion the 
 audience was inflamed to the highest point. At that mo- 
 ment self-interest and prejudice armed his listeners 
 against all arguments for sound money. Had the Ee- 
 publican committee been there when the assembly dis- 
 persed to present each farmer with a library devoted to 
 the exposure of the silver heresy, even the multitude of 
 books would not have availed for reversing the farmer's 
 judgment or convincing him that the gold standard is not 
 
THE CLIMAX OF POPULISM IN IOWA 369 
 
 responsible for his misfortunes, or that free silver is not 
 the unfailing panacea for all his ills. ' ' 843 
 
 His conclusion was that the East did "not fully under- 
 stand either the strength of the silver sentiment or the 
 methods and arguments" by which it was being advanced. 
 A new kind of campaign of education was needed to meet 
 the unusual conditions. 844 
 
 Reference has already been made to Coin's Financial 
 School and its influence in the national campaign. The 
 Clinton Age gave a very suggestive description of a 
 meeting held at Clinton in October by the author, W. H. 
 Harvey. When it is remembered that the editor was 
 opposed to the committal of the Democratic party to free 
 silver, his opinion becomes even more striking. His ac- 
 count speaks of the meeting as "something singularly 
 impressive and at times dramatically affecting .... 
 the opera house was filled almost to the ceiling with as 
 intelligent an assemblage of people as ever met at one 
 time at any place in this city. ... It was an audi- 
 ence anxious to hear the facts stated by one presumed 
 to know them. . . . No man ever addressed a more 
 magnificent audience for three hours than did Mr. Harvey 
 on Monday night, and we do not believe a man ever be- 
 fore in one meeting convinced so many who were in doubt. 
 His sledge hammer logic was irresistible. ... It 
 was a meeting that will never be forgotten in Clinton. 
 Judged by everything that constitutes a successful poli- 
 tical meeting it was the grandest of successes." 84B 
 
 Conflicting views in regard to the outcome of the 
 election appearing in October throw light upon the 
 political situation. The Saturday Evening Post of Bur- 
 lington described the campaign "viewed as an educative 
 
370 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 force" as "one of the most wonderful and enlightening 
 that the world has ever experienced." In another edi- 
 torial the same paper referred to "the end of the most 
 sinister contest ever waged in American politics. Mr. 
 Bryan and his followers have fought the campaign with 
 but two issues — free silver and class hostility — and 
 early in the fight it appeared as if they might have ground 
 for hope. But that chance passed weeks ago .... 
 A long farewell to Altgeld, Tillman, Vest, Bland, and the 
 whole coterie of unbalanced agitators who only come to 
 the surface when there is a chance to breed distur- 
 bances." 846 
 
 At about the same time The Clinton Age printed news 
 items from Chicago that declared "the McKinley goldbug 
 combine is on the run. Its leaders admit as much, while 
 the leaders of the free silver party are growing more and 
 more confident .... From Iowa come reports that 
 the democrats will sweep nearly every county in the cen- 
 tral and western portions of the state." 847 
 
 A few days later the same paper printed another esti- 
 mate from Chicago that stated that ' ' the republican man- 
 agers have become so badly frightened over Iowa that 
 they have .... been compelled within the past 
 three days to place several hundred thousands of dollars 
 in that state .... It is known positively at na- 
 tional democratic headquarters that the last republican 
 poll of Iowa gave that state to Bryan .... This 
 explains the solicitude for Iowa .... The poll 
 shows a republican defection for Bryan in every county 
 in the state .... The banner Republican counties 
 in the state are those most seriously affected, and they 
 will go for Bryan." 848 
 
 In November the election of Electors-at-large resulted 
 
THE CLIMAX OF POPULISM IN IOWA 
 
 371 
 
 as follows: 849 Republican, 289,293 and 289,057; Demo- 
 cratic, 223,741 and 223,447. The Republican plurality 
 was 65,552. The gold Democratic vote was 4,516 and 
 4,519. Compared with 1892 when the vote was distributed 
 as follows: Republican, 219,795; Democratic, 196,367; 
 and Populist, 20,595 ; total, 216,962 — a plurality of only 
 2,833, the Republican vote increased 69,498. The com- 
 bined Democratic and Populist vote advanced only 6,779. 
 The "sound money" Democrats claimed that 40,000 to 
 50,000 Democrats voted for McKinley. 850 
 
 There were fusion candidates in all the congressional 
 districts, except in the second where the Populists had a 
 separate candidate who polled only 639 votes, and in the 
 third where the contest was between Republicans and 
 Democrats. The heaviest fusion vote was in the four 
 western districts and ranged from 23,956 to 22,522. The 
 total Republican vote in the eleven districts was 287,951 ; 
 the total fusion and Democratic vote was 226,245. 851 
 
 The Clinton Age estimated that about one-fourth of the 
 fusion vote was cast by the Populists. 852 On such a basis 
 that vote amounted to upwards of 50,000. The vote of 
 the party from its formation in 1891 to 1896 based upon 
 the head of the ticket was as follows : 
 
 1891 
 
 For Governor 
 
 12,303 
 
 1892 
 
 For Elector at Large 
 
 20,595 
 
 1893 
 
 For Governor 
 
 23,980 
 
 1894 
 
 For Secretary of State . 
 
 34,907 
 
 1895 
 
 For Governor 
 
 32,189 
 
 1896 
 
 Estimated vote 
 
 50,000 
 
 Probably the year 1896 witnessed the climax of the 
 strength of the Populist party in Iowa ; but an estimate 
 based upon number of votes is only a partial and super- 
 ficial method of judging its actual influence. The merger 
 
372 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 with the Democratic party was the contemporary political 
 manner of measuring its importance. Since that union 
 social politics has had its recognized place in the older 
 parties. 
 
 A conservative Democratic view of the results declared 
 that "bimetallism by this country alone, has been beaten 
 under circumstances exceedingly favorable to that pol- 
 icy .... The fight was skilfully and ably managed 
 on the part of the reformers. It seemed as though Prov- 
 idence had provided the proper man to lead the agitators. 
 No man could have led with greater power or more 
 marked effect than did he .... It is defeated by a 
 popular vote of the people. We believe that bimetallism 
 has been given an impetus and force that will lead to its 
 adoption by an international congress .... The 
 incomparable struggle of 1896 will hurry the calling of 
 that congress and judging from the expression in high 
 quarters of opinions in foreign countries during the cam- 
 paign, bimetallism is either likely to be adopted before 
 another presidential election, or such advanced steps 
 taken in its adoption by the world that it would not be 
 made a leading issue in the campaign. ' ' 85S 
 
 A different view was expressed by Eepublicans who 
 concluded that "the recent election established the fact 
 that the majority of prosperous and industrious Iowa 
 people are not in sympathy with the Populist plan to de- 
 base and cheapen the currency. The leaders of the Sil- 
 ver movement realize that to enlist a respectable follow- 
 ing in Iowa there will be needed years of downright hard 
 work on the part of a respectable advocacy in forum and 
 press." 854 
 
 More partisan, but with discrimination, The Iowa State 
 Register declared that "when the history of this cam- 
 
THE CLIMAX OF POPULISM IN IOWA 373 
 
 paign is written it will be recorded there that in 1896 for 
 the first time in the history of American politics an at- 
 tempt was made to array the masses against the classes, 
 the rich against the poor, the 'common people' against 
 the corporations and against all forms of wealth and suc- 
 cess. But best of it all it will be recorded there that the 
 American people, recognizing no classes, gave an over- 
 whelming verdict against those who had made such ig- 
 noble appeals. ' ' 855 
 
 General Weaver was the outstanding figure in the Pop- 
 ulist movement in Iowa and was probably the best 
 equipped leader in the national organization as judged 
 by ability and experience in public life. He dominated 
 the party in his own State, planned fusions with the Dem- 
 ocrats, and was himself a candidate for Congress and for 
 the United States Senate. His great aim was to unite 
 all the forces of reform and opposition into one compact 
 organization. He failed in his immediate object, but he 
 laid the foundation for later progress. 
 
 Associated with him from Greenback party days was 
 E. H. Gillette, Congressman for the Des Moines district 
 1879 to 1881, candidate for various offices thereafter, 
 chairman of State conventions, and delegate to national 
 conventions. 
 
 Another name of importance was that of J. R. Sov- 
 ereign of Atlantic, head of the State Assembly of the 
 Knights of Labor, Labor Commissioner, and the suc- 
 cessor in 1893 of T. V. Powderly as Grand Master Work- 
 man of the national organization of the Knights of Labor. 
 He was a Democrat who allied himself with the Popu- 
 lists on account of his free silver and radical views. 
 
 Mr. A. J. Westfall came into prominence through his 
 
374 THIRD PAETY MOVEMENTS 
 
 remarkable campaign in the eleventh district in 1890 
 which led to the organization of the People's party in 
 Iowa and his nomination for Governor in 1891. He was 
 a typical representative of the substantial farmer become 
 a Populist through economic pressure. He was a man 
 of ability and of considerable wealth. 
 
 Mr. M. L. Wheat of Colfax was another recruit from 
 the ranks of organized labor, who had been head of the 
 first district assembly of the Knights of Labor of Iowa, 
 which later reorganized as the State assembly. He was 
 also a member of the national board of labor officials un- 
 der Powderly. His selection to present General Weaver 
 as a candidate for President to the Populist convention 
 at St. Louis in 1892 was an indication of his recognized 
 ability as a speaker. The Iowa State Register referred 
 to him as "the colossal K. of L. fraud." 656 
 
 Mr. W. H. Robb was the editor of the Independent 
 American of Creston, and one of the minor leaders 
 grouped around Weaver and Gillette. The Iowa State 
 Register described him as always preparing the party 
 platforms. 857 
 
 Mr. W. H. Calhoun of Marshalltown was another of the 
 lesser lights of Populism, a candidate for Congress and 
 chairman of State conventions at different times. He 
 was characterized by The Iowa State Register as "a 
 howler ever since 1876, and consequently is about per- 
 fect." 858 
 
 Judge C. C. Cole of Des Moines was the most distin- 
 guished of the men who left the Republican party to join 
 the Populists. He was several times a candidate be- 
 tween 1892 and 1896, and it was rumored that his ambi- 
 tion was to become United States Senator. He was par- 
 
THE CLIMAX OF POPULISM IN IOWA 375 
 
 ticularly active in the different organizations working 
 for the free coinage of silver. 
 
 Of those who had been active in the Greenback party, 
 in addition to those already mentioned, L. H. Weller of 
 Nashua was the most influential after Weaver and Gil- 
 lette. Like these men he had been Congressman, serving 
 from 1883 to 1885. Leonard Brown of Des Moines and 
 L. Q. Hoggatt of Ames, then a very old man, were other 
 survivors from the earlier party. 
 
 Mr. J. M. Joseph of Creston, candidate for Governor 
 in 1893, and Sylvanus B. Crane of Scott County, candi- 
 date for Governor in 1895, were other minor leaders who 
 represented the party in various capacities. 
 
 The names by which some of the leading Populists 
 were known in the newspapers of the day illustrate the 
 contemptuous attitude assumed by the strict partisans 
 who then included the larger portion of the community. 
 Political independence was still too rare for popular ap- 
 preciation and politicians had not yet begun to consider it 
 seriously. General Weaver was referred to as "Jump- 
 ing Jim"; Gillette as "Heifer Calf "; Weller as "Calam- 
 ity"; Wheat as the ' ' Jasper County Windbag ". A minor 
 leader was known as "Sub-Squirt". "Kansas lice" was 
 a collective name for the Populists. 
 
 There is probably little need of emphasizing the real 
 contribution of Populism to the present political situa- 
 tion. That we use the term "social politics" to describe 
 party activities illustrates how far we have gone along 
 the road to the recognition of the social and economic 
 factors that underlie our political life. To the despised 
 People's party of the early nineties we owe much of the 
 impulse toward subsequent social reform. 
 
PAET V 
 THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT 
 
 377 
 
XXIV 
 
 THE PIONEER PROGRESSIVES : BRYAN AND 
 LA FOLLETTE 
 
 After 1896 Mr. Bryan was almost the undisputed leader 
 of the Democratic party. The gold Democrats, as a dis- 
 tinct organization, disappeared and only a conservative 
 opposition continued in the East. The accidental issue of 
 1896 gave Mr. Bryan his opportunity, but his retention 
 of leadership for nearly twenty years has shown his pos- 
 session of something more than mere oratorical ability. 
 
 In 1900 he was again the candidate of his party for 
 President. The Spanish War had occurred and had 
 given rise to the issue of imperialism. Opposition to the 
 trusts was made a second great issue and free coinage of 
 silver was reasserted. The campaign was devoid of the 
 sensational aspects of 1896. Mr. Bryan made "one 
 statesmanlike speech" at Indianapolis in August, but 
 afterwards the campaign ' ' degenerated into a mere trial 
 of endurance between himself and the talking candidate 
 of the other side [Mr. Roosevelt], the telegraph day by 
 day recording the number of speeches made by each. A 
 less inspiring competition could hardly be imagined ; and, 
 as the papers, in flaring, modern-time headlines, declared 
 that Mr. Roosevelt had the previous day broken all rec- 
 ords by making eighteen speeches, they went on gravely 
 to announce that Mr. Bryan had arranged a programme 
 for the morrow under which he would ' see ' his opponent 
 and 'go him two better', orating to a square score of dis- 
 tinct audiences between 10 a, m. and midnight." 859 
 
 379 
 
380 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 The return of prosperity made people less inclined to 
 change ; the annexation of the Philippines seemed the in- 
 evitable outcome of the war with Spain ; and the urgency 
 of currency reform was much less apparent than it had 
 been in 1896. The result was a gain for the Republicans 
 and a loss for the Democrats. The popular vote for 
 McKinley was 7,219,530, a gain of 183,892; while for 
 Bryan it was 6,358,071, a loss of 109,875. Bryan gained 
 Kentucky, but lost Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, 
 Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. 860 
 
 The election of 1900 was a reflection of that of 1896, 
 with an entirely new background. "There was no suffi- 
 cient practical reason why the great Democratic party, in 
 its convention at Kansas City, should have declared again 
 for the immediate free coinage of silver. Labeling some- 
 thing else the 'paramount issue' could not atone for the 
 mistake of forcing the silver question again upon the 
 country at so inappropriate a time. As for 'imperial- 
 ism' .... [it was] not accepted by the country" 
 as a party question. ' ' The war with Spain had been due 
 to the action of Democrats no less than to that of Repub- 
 licans, and there had been no distinction of party lines 
 in the public sentiment which was responsible for each 
 succeeding step. ' ' 861 
 
 Bryan refused to be a candidate in 1904, leaving to the 
 conservative eastern Democrats the choice of a party 
 leader. The two leading candidates for the Democratic 
 nomination were Judge Alton B. Parker of New York and 
 William R. Hearst, the newspaper publisher, represent- 
 ing respectively the conservative and radical wings of the 
 party. Mr. Bryan exercised no influence upon the choice 
 of candidates, although it was understood that he did not 
 approve of either of the men. Parker represented the 
 
BRYAN AND LA POLLETTE 381 
 
 anti-silver wing of the party, while Hearst's candidacy 
 was based chiefly upon his great wealth and his owner- 
 ship of a number of newspapers. 
 
 In the convention, according to the testimony of preju- 
 diced and partisan observers, Bryan was "the most influ- 
 ential and effective figure", and he compelled a revision 
 of the platform after it had been completed and given to 
 the press for publication. He changed the tariff and 
 trust planks and "compromised" the gold plank out of 
 the platform. 862 Judge Parker's telegram in regard to 
 the gold plank, after his nomination, made the conserva- 
 tive character of his candidacy perfectly clear, and also 
 weakened it by making support of it more difficult in 
 those sections where silver sentiment had been strongest. 
 
 The election results showed conclusively that the rad- 
 icals were stronger than the conservatives in their appeal 
 to popular support, and consequently confirmed Bryan as 
 unquestioned leader of his party — from 1904 to 1912 no 
 other man disputed his leadership. The popular vote for 
 Roosevelt was 7,628,834, a gain of 409,304 votes; while 
 for Parker it was only 5,084,491, a loss of 1,273,580 from 
 Bryan's vote of 1900. Parker carried Maryland which 
 voted against Bryan in 1900, but lost the States of Colo- 
 rado, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, and Nevada which had 
 supported him in 1900. 863 The remarkable personal pop- 
 ularity of President Roosevelt and his progressive leader- 
 ship undoubtedly tended to make the conservative char- 
 acter of the Democratic candidate more pronounced. It 
 emphasized anew the fact that American politics were 
 more and more social politics and that since 1896 any 
 return to earlier conditions was impossible. 
 
 During the interval between the campaigns of 1904 
 and 1908, Mr. Bryan made a tour around the world, 
 
382 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 reaching New York on his return late in August, 
 1906. A remarkable feature of his home-coming was 
 the fact "that all elements and factions of the Demo- 
 cratic party" were "in full agreement" that he was 
 to be nominated for President a third time in 1908. 
 "In 1896 and again in 1900, a great number of the 
 most conspicuous and influential leaders of the Demo- 
 cratic party not only opposed Mr. Bryan's nomination, 
 but openly refused to support him, and either committed 
 themselves, to an independent ticket or else went the 
 whole length and supported McKinley. Yet at this 
 time .... most of these anti-Bryan leaders have 
 fallen into line and are loudly proclaiming their alle- 
 giance to the ' Great Commoner'. ' ' A great reception was 
 given him at Madison Square Garden where he made a 
 speech which was expected to sound the keynote of the 
 approaching campaign of 1906 and prepare the way for 
 that of 1908. 864 
 
 His address contained three references to "Democratic 
 policy" which are worthy of careful attention. In the 
 first place, he admitted that the question of bimetallism 
 was a dead issue. ' ' The unlooked-for and unprecedented 
 increase in the production of gold has brought a victory 
 to both the advocates of gold and the advocates of bi- 
 metallism — the former keeping the gold standard which 
 they wanted and the latter securing the larger volume of 
 money for which they contended. We who favor bimet- 
 allism are satisfied with our victory if the friends of 
 monometallism are satisfied with theirs." 
 
 Secondly, he declared trust legislation and policy "to 
 be the paramount political issue. He congratulated Pres- 
 ident Roosevelt upon his attempts to enforce the anti- 
 trust laws", and expressed the opinion that "extermina- 
 
BRYAN AND LA FOLLETTE 383 
 
 tion of the monopoly principle should be the end in 
 view. ' ' He thought that new laws were needed and that 
 "such new legislation should include the forbidding of 
 campaign contributions from corporations, and should 
 make it illegal for the same man to act as director or 
 officer of two corporations ; while a still more far-reach- 
 ing remedy would be to require corporations to take out a 
 Federal license before doing inter-State business." 
 
 In the third place, his declaration in regard to govern- 
 ment ownership of railroads aroused more attention than 
 anything else in his address and was regarded at the time 
 as "the most significant of his utterances". He had 
 reached the conclusion that railroads "must ultimately 
 become public property and be managed by public officials 
 in the interest of the whole community, in accordance 
 with the well-defined theory that public ownership is 
 necessary where competition is impossible." He did not 
 know that the country was ready for such a change and 
 he did not know that a majority of his own party favored 
 it. To avoid centralization that would destroy State 
 lines, he proposed that "only the trunk lines" should be 
 "operated by the Federal Government, and the local lines 
 by the several State Governments." Investigation in 
 Europe had convinced him that such dual ownership was 
 entirely practicable, and there could be no question of the 
 right of federal and State governments to own and op- 
 erate railroads. 865 
 
 The proposal of government ownership of railroads 
 produced considerable discussion at the time, but the 
 country was not ready for the innovation and Bryan him- 
 self did not urge it strongly. It was put forth tenta- 
 tively, and as the response was not favorable, it was 
 allowed to slumber. Experience with regulation of rail- 
 
384 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 roads has brought us eight years later- to the point where 
 a thoughtful journal like The New Republic can declare 
 that ' ' the country is plainly drifting towards public own- 
 ership without being sufficiently aware of the fact." 886 
 
 When the great national conventions met in the sum- 
 mer of 1908, "it had been practically certain for two 
 years that the Eepublicans would nominate Taft and that 
 the Democrats would nominate Bryan. As the time for 
 the holding of the conventions approached, the well- 
 informed were aware that more than the necessary ma- 
 jority of delegates were pledged in advance to Taft, and 
 that more than the requisite two-thirds of the Democratic 
 delegates were instructed for Bryan or else had so de- 
 clared themselves," 867 President Roosevelt had elim- 
 inated himself as a candidate at the time of his election 
 in 1904, and Secretary Taft was known to be his choice as 
 his successor. The real party platform of the Eepub- 
 licans in 1908 consisted of the achievements of the Roose- 
 velt administration — the so-called "Roosevelt policies". 
 
 The Democratic platform adopted at Denver in July 
 began by declaring that the government was in the "grip 
 of those who have made it a business asset of the favor- 
 seeking corporations", while other preliminary para- 
 graphs referred to the "frightful extravagance" of the 
 government and "the absolute domination of the Speak- 
 er" of the House of Representatives. The real platform 
 started out "with elaborate statements on the subject of 
 campaign publicity ' ', and then demanded immediate re- 
 duction of import duties. The plank on the control of 
 railroads contained nothing at variance with the policy of 
 the Republican administration, and was "diametrically 
 opposed to the railroad policy advocated by Mr. Bryan 
 on his return from Europe. ' ' The only noteworthy finan- 
 
BRYAN AND LA FOLLETTE 385 
 
 cial proposal was that favoring "the guarantee of bank 
 deposits as a means of preventing distrust in times of 
 panic". 868 
 
 Issues were not clearly defined 869 in 1908. Both parties 
 appealed through their candidates and platforms to the 
 progressive sentiment of the country. President Roose- 
 velt's great popular endorsement in 1904, and the failure 
 of the Parker candidacy the same year, had convinced the 
 politicians that there was no political salvation except in 
 the acceptance, outwardly at least, of the popular de- 
 mands. Under such conditions the advantage was with 
 the party in power which could point to actual accom- 
 plishments rather than with the opposition which had 
 only promises to offer. 
 
 The popular vote for Taft was 7,679,006, a gain of 
 50,172 over that for Roosevelt in 1904, while for Bryan it 
 was 6,409,106, a gain of 1,324,615 in excess of the vote for 
 Parker in 1904. 870 The increase was a notable one and 
 indicated very clearly Bryan's great popular strength. 
 At the same time, the vote of 1908 was smaller by over 
 50,000 than that cast for him in the bitterly contested 
 election of 1896. What explanation can be offered for 
 such a result of twelve years ' campaigning under circum- 
 stances that seem to indicate increased and confidential 
 support by his own party and greater respect on the part 
 of the public generally? 871 
 
 One explanation is to be found in the fact that Bryan 
 was no longer the one great tribune of the people as he 
 had been in 1896. President Roosevelt, accused of ap- 
 propriating many of his demands, had carried his own 
 party far on the road into which the Bryan of 1896 had 
 been the pioneer leader. The progressive sentiment was 
 divided between two candidates in 1908, while in 1896 it 
 
386 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 had been drawn to Bryan by bis dramatic appearance as 
 a popular leader. Tbe "New Bryan" 872 of 1908 was a 
 stronger and more experienced leader than he had been 
 in 1896, but tbe mature man of forty-eight had lost some 
 of the magnetism of youthfulness and was no longer the 
 sole advocate of reform. 
 
 Another answer is reached through an analysis of bis 
 policies and a consideration of bis qualities as a leader. 
 In the opinion of Dr. Lyman Abbott, "Mr. Bryan has 
 many qualities which fit him for a popular leader. . . . 
 But these qualities alone do not make a great statesman. 
 They make a preacher, a lecturer, a moral reformer, per- 
 haps a legislator. But a statesman must have other qual- 
 ities .... Has Mr. Bryan these qualities? So far 
 he has not manifested them. He appears to me to belong 
 rather to the oratorical than to the executive type ; to be 
 an O'Connell rather than a Parnell, a Patrick Henry 
 rather than an Alexander Hamilton, a Wendell Phillips 
 rather than an Abraham Lincoln." 873 
 
 Again in 1912 as in 1904 Mr. Bryan refused to be a can- 
 didate, leaving the party to choose a new leader. The 
 break in the Republican ranks due to the conflict between 
 President Taft and ex-President Roosevelt made the 
 prospect of success better than at any time since 1892. 
 The events at the Baltimore Democratic convention are 
 as yet too close for discriminating analysis. It is prob- 
 ably safe to declare that Mr. Bryan's part in it will rank 
 with his speech at Chicago in 1896 as an instance of his 
 remarkable ability as a speaker and as a political leader. 
 More than any other one man or influence, he was re- 
 sponsible for the nomination of Woodrow Wilson for 
 President — a result which practically assured his elec- 
 tion because of tbe presence of a third candidate. Noth- 
 
BRYAN AND LA FOLLETTE 387 
 
 ing like the successive episodes in Mr. Bryan's career — 
 in 1896, 1904, 1906, 1908, and 1912 — are to be found any- 
 where in history. His place and power are absolutely 
 unique. His place in the present administration was the 
 inevitable result of his position as the unrivalled leader 
 of his party. His place in history as the first great leader 
 in the Progressive Democracy of the last twenty years is 
 now fully recognized by opponents as well as by friends. 
 
 And yet when we come to examine the election results 
 in 1912, the return of the Democrats to power appears to 
 have been due, not to the final triumph of the principles 
 for which the party had been contending under Bryan's 
 leadership, but to the divisions in the Republican party. 
 The popular vote for Wilson was 6,286,214, less by 122,- 
 892 than that cast for Bryan in 1908, and also less by 
 181,732 than the vote for Bryan in 1896. The combined 
 vote for Taft and Roosevelt was 7,609,942, showing a fall- 
 ing-off of only 69,064 from the Republican vote of 1908. 874 
 Hence the history of the Democratic party since 1896, 
 although it has led to its complete control of the federal 
 government, has been described as "The Decline of the 
 Democratic Party" by a recent writer. 875 
 
 The percentage of the total popular vote cast for the 
 Republicans and Democrats in each presidential election 
 from 1896 to 1912 is as follows: 878 
 
 TEAR REPUBLICAN DEMOCRATIC 
 
 In 1896 50.9 46.8 
 
 In 1900 51.7 45.5 
 
 In 1904 56.4 37.6 
 
 In 1908 51.6 43.1 
 
 In 1912 50.5 {g'.JZiXLdt 418 
 
 Although in possession of the national government the 
 
388 THIRD PAETY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Democratic party controls slightly less than forty-two 
 percent of the total popular vote, while in 1896 forty- 
 seven percent was given to its candidate for the Presi- 
 dency. 
 
 The larger portion of the Populists became Democrats 
 after 1896, leaving only a remnant of extremists to con- 
 tinue separate party organizations. The Populists who 
 had voted for Watson in 1896 were called "Middle-of-the- 
 Eoad" Populists and they were strongest in the South, 
 where any alliance with the Democrats was difficult to 
 arrange; but a minority in the North also opposed the 
 complete merger with the Democrats. In 1900 the regu- 
 lar or fusionist wing of the party met at Sioux Falls, 
 South Dakota, in May and nominated Bryan for Presi- 
 dent and Charles A. Towne for Vice President. Later 
 Mr. Towne withdrew and for him the executive committee 
 substituted Adlai E. Stevenson, the regular Democratic 
 candidate. While the regular Populists were in session 
 the Middle-of-the-Roaders met at Cincinnati and nom- 
 inated Wharton Barker of Pennsylvania for President 
 and Ignatius Donnelly of Minnesota for Vice President. 
 The platform described the free coinage of silver as 
 merely a temporary ' ' expedient until a system providing 
 for a 'scientific and absolute paper money' could be se- 
 cured. ' ' 877 
 
 In November the popular vote for the Middle-of-the- 
 Eoad Populists amounted to 50,232. The States contrib- 
 uting more than one thousand votes were as follows: 
 Texas, 20,981; Georgia, 4584; Missouri, 4244; Alabama, 
 4178 ; Kentucky, 2017 ; Mississippi, 1644; Tennessee, 1322; 
 and Florida, 1070. A total of 40,040 votes came from 
 these States, four-fifths of the entire amount. The only 
 
BRYAN AND LA FOLLETTE 389 
 
 other States contributing one thousand votes were Indi- 
 ana, Illinois, and Nebraska. 878 Plainly the bulk of the 
 strength of the faction was in the South. 
 
 The refusal of Bryan to be a candidate in 1904 pre- 
 pared the way for the reunion of the two branches of the 
 Populist party. At a meeting at St. Louis on February 
 22, 1903, ' ' it was decided to dissolve the alliance with the 
 Democratic party and nominate an independent party 
 ticket." A nominating convention was held at Spring- 
 field, Illinois, on July 4, 1904, and Thomas E\ Watson of 
 Georgia was nominated for President and Thomas H. 
 Tibbies of Nebraska for Vice President. 879 
 
 The Populist vote in November was only 114,753 — of 
 which Georgia and Nebraska contributed 22,635 and 
 20,518 respectively. The other States where as many as 
 five thousand votes were cast were Texas, 8062, New 
 York, 7459, Illinois, 6725, Kansas, 6253, and Alabama, 
 5051. 880 The conservative reaction in the Democratic 
 party more than doubled the Populist vote, but the real 
 strength had gone to that party in 1896 and could not be 
 withdrawn. 
 
 In 1908 Watson was again the candidate for President, 
 while the vice presidential nomination went to Samuel W. 
 Williams of Indiana. 881 Only 28,131 votes were polled 
 by these candidates, nearly 17,000 of which came from 
 Georgia. The other States casting more than one thou- 
 sand votes were Florida, 1946; Alabama, 1568; Missis- 
 sippi, 1276; Indiana, 1193; Missouri, 1165; Tennessee, 
 1081; and Arkansas, 1026. 882 
 
 In 1912 the national convention was held at St. Louis 
 in August, but no nominations were made. Only about 
 one hundred delegates were present, and they were di- 
 
390 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 vided on the question of whether to endorse Roosevelt or 
 Wilson. Merely a handful of members remained of a 
 party which in 1892 had cast over one million votes. 883 
 
 Eobert M. La Follette was "the first among the Repub- 
 lican political leaders to comprehend the character of the 
 irrepressible conflict within the party, between public in- 
 terests and the present day organization of private busi- 
 ness", according to the opinion of Senator Jonathan P. 
 Dolliver expressed in a speech in Wisconsin a few weeks 
 before his death in 1910. 884 La Follette began his reform 
 work in 1894. In 1896 and 1898 he lost the Republican 
 nomination for Governor, after entering the conventions 
 with enough delegates instructed and pledged to vote for 
 him, because the delegates were lured away by money and 
 promises of place by the party machine. His experience 
 led him to study out some substitute for the convention 
 and caucus by which nominations might be made directly 
 by the people. 
 
 Finally, he won the nomination in 1900 and was elected 
 that year and reelected in 1902 and 1904. His chief re- 
 form measures, in addition to the direct primary, were 
 laws by which the railroads were to be compelled to pay 
 their proper share of taxes, and by which they were to be 
 regulated by a commission in the interest of the people 
 of the State, rather than for the benefit of corporations 
 and big business. All three of these laws he succeeded 
 in placing upon the statute books in the face of bitter op- 
 position during the years from 1903 to 1905. He was 
 elected United States Senator in January, 1905, but did 
 not take his seat until January, 1906, after his program 
 for Wisconsin had been completed. He was reelected in 
 1911. 885 
 
BRYAN AND LA FOLLETTE 391 
 
 When he entered the Senate he was alone in that body 
 as the representative of a new movement in the Repub- 
 lican party which had "its beginning in a desire to take 
 party control away from men who, as parts of the man- 
 aging organization .... maintained a close cor- 
 poration in manipulation of party affairs and in distribu- 
 tion of rewards, and were too intimate with and sub- 
 servient to railroad companies and other capitalistic 
 combinations. It rapidly spread to agitation against the 
 corporations themselves, chiefly railroads. ... In 
 short, it is a movement to emancipate the party from the 
 domination of the established 'system', and to make the 
 party more directly responsive to the popular will. ' ' 
 
 At first La Follette was ignored by the older members 
 of the Senate, but he forced them to recognize him by re- 
 fusing to be suppressed. He broke traditions by speak- 
 ing a score of times before the end of his first session as 
 a Senator. His place in the Senate was made, however, 
 by a speech on the railroad rate bill of 1906 which revised 
 the powers of the Interstate Commerce Commission. He 
 knew the railroad problem thoroughly, having studied it 
 for years; and when Senators "tried to haze him by 
 emptying the chamber", he paused to say that he could 
 not be indifferent to the want of interest in what he had 
 to present, but that the public was interested, and if the 
 question was not "rightly settled, seats now temporarily 
 vacant may be permanently vacated by those who have 
 the right to occupy them at this time. ' ' 
 
 In 1909 he was one of the small group of Republican 
 Senators who refused to vote for the Payne-Aldrich Tar- 
 iff Act, which was one of the chief causes for the forma- 
 tion of an Insurgent faction in that party, and which 
 finally resulted in the division of 1912. No longer alone 
 
392 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 in the Senate, he had been joined by Senators Dolliver, 
 Beveridge, and Clapp, who were in the Senate when he 
 came; by Dixon and Bourne who entered in 1907; by 
 Borah and Cummins in 1908; and by Bristow in 1909. 886 
 
 In 1904 Governor La Follette and his supporters con- 
 trolled the State committee in Wisconsin and dominated 
 the State convention. "Each faction had nearly one- 
 half of the delegates without dispute. There were con- 
 tested seats of sufficient number to make the control of the 
 convention depend upon the settlement of the contests." 
 These contests were all settled in favor of La Follette, 
 and his opponents led by the two United States Senators, 
 Spooner and Quarles, withdrew and named delegates to 
 the Republican convention. Contesting delegations, there- 
 fore, appeared at Chicago, and the national committee 
 by unanimous vote seated the Spooner-Quarles delegates, 
 excluding La Follette and his associates. 887 
 
 In 1908 La Follette was in complete control in Wiscon- 
 sin and the delegation from that State came to the na- 
 tional convention to present him as a candidate for Presi- 
 dent and "had prepared in advance a strong platform, 
 ably written, going into much greater detail as respects 
 railroad regulation, trusts, and some other economic and 
 political questions than the platform favored by the ma- 
 jority. This platform was brought before the convention 
 as a minority report by Congressman Cooper, of Wiscon- 
 sin, and several of its proposals were made the subjects 
 of separate roll calls in the convention. One of the de- 
 mands thus voted on was that of publicity for campaign 
 contributions; another was that calling for a physical 
 valuation of railroad properties as a basis for the fixing 
 of just rates, and another was that for the direct election 
 
BRYAN AND LA FOLLETTE ;jW 
 
 of United States Senators. A good many delegates from 
 other States than Wisconsin recorded their votes for one 
 or another of these propositions. . . . Wisconsin was 
 strongly represented in the convention, and the speeches 
 made in presenting the name of Mr. La Follette for Presi- 
 dent were among the best of all those the convention 
 heard." 888 
 
 A demonstration, lasting twenty-three minutes, follow- 
 ing the speeches presenting Mr. La Follette as a candi- 
 date, was interpreted by an experienced Massachusetts 
 Congressman as meaning ' ' that the western country want- 
 ed more hot stuff in the way of public regulation and cor- 
 porate supervision than yet had been served to it ; that the 
 appetite had grown by what it had fed on, until a surpris- 
 ingly large number of the onlookers .... welcomed 
 the La Follette idea. Another congressman .... 
 from the west, declared that this showed the hand of 
 Chautauqua and that the east had overlooked the impor- 
 tance of the Chautauqua movement. For years La Fol- 
 lette and Champ Clark and Tillman and Dolliver and 
 all the other glib-tongued speakers holding progressive 
 views have been addressing Chautauqua audiences, tell- 
 ing of their new and popular reforms, until they have 
 built up an amount of public sentiment which it is hard 
 to gauge. La Follette had absolutely no means of doing 
 anything with that convention .... no tickets were 
 distributed by him and no claquers were stationed in the 
 galleries. He could create no artificial sentiment in his 
 favor. But he has become a great hero of the Chau- 
 tauqua circles and similar aggregations of earnest people 
 in this great valley .... the demonstration in be- 
 half of La Follette, following the rejection with such 
 
394 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 emphasis of the three planks on which his followers asked 
 a roll call, give[s] an extremely valuahle hint" of the 
 trend of public opinion. 889 
 
 Senator La Follette's program and his accomplish- 
 ments and those of his associates have come to be known 
 as the Wisconsin Idea, and that State is pointed out as 
 the ideal type of a progressive democratic Common- 
 wealth — it is regarded as embodying in a peculiarly suc- 
 cessful way the purposes and objects of the Progressive 
 movement. It is therefore of interest to examine the 
 sources of its success. 
 
 Wisconsin was settled by Germans who came fresh 
 from the revolutionary struggles of 1848 in Europe. 
 They were reinforced later by Norwegians and New Eng- 
 landers. All of these elements have been characterized 
 by a persistent love for liberty and orderly government, 
 and by high educational ideals. Under such influences 
 the University of Wisconsin was founded and among its 
 first regents was Carl Schurz. One of its great presi- 
 dents was John Bascom, a graduate of Williams College 
 and Andover Theological Seminary, who served from 
 1874 to 1887 and whose class room work in those years 
 was most potent in its influence upon the future of the 
 State. "In his classes were men like Senator Robert M. 
 La Follette, Judge Robert Gr. Siebecker of the Wisconsin 
 supreme court, and Charles R. Van Hise, now president 
 , of the University of Wisconsin. ' ' 
 
 President Bascom declared "that, while the laws of 
 legitimate acquisition look to the good of all, and not to 
 the plunder of any, any illegitimate action which violates 
 a higher, a moral law, will usually violate a lower, 
 an economic law, and measure the gains of one by 
 the losses of another. There is a harmony of pro- 
 
BRYAN AND LA FOLLETTE 395 
 
 ductive action by which the gains of all are secured, 
 and the laws of this harmony are those of Political Econ- 
 omy. . . . The state of highest production not only 
 may be, but must be, the state of highest intelligence and 
 virtue; and the highest intelligence and virtue cannot 
 fail to be productive of the greatest wealth." 
 
 The same philosophy which President Bascom was 
 teaching at the University of Wisconsin was also "becom- 
 ing the dominating influence in Germany. . . . The 
 belief that it pays the state to concern itself in the better- 
 ment of human beings and the protection of human wel- 
 fare, in order that it may receive in return a rich reward 
 from this investment". While this theory of economics, 
 with its practical applications, was developing in Ger- 
 many and Wisconsin, other economic and political prin- 
 ciples had held sway in England and had been trans- 
 planted to the United States. The philosophy of laissez 
 faire, advocated by Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill, 
 appealed to the American spirit and ' ' found its way into 
 our law and into the teachings of our professors. ' ' Un- 
 der such an able and inspiring teacher as Professor 
 William G. Sumner of Yale these views were widely dis- 
 seminated in the eastern part of the country at the same 
 time that President Bascom was laying the foundations 
 for the opposing doctrine which did not taJke definite form 
 in practical ways until a later time. 
 
 While these conditions existed ' ' a student left Columbia 
 university and went to Germany to study under Carl 
 Knies and Wagner ; there he absorbed the inspiration of 
 New Germany .... Imbued with inspiration by 
 these great teachers, this young man returned to Amer- 
 ica ... . Finally, after many vicissitudes, he be- 
 came an instructor at Johns Hopkins university. Grad- 
 
396 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 ually the country began to understand that a new teacher 
 had appeared in America .... A group of think- 
 ers began to follow the leadership of this man. Richard 
 T. Ely finally came [1892] to the University of Wisconsin 
 as a professor of economics. . . . The pupil of Knies 
 and Wagner, coming from Germany with his German 
 political ideals, succeeded Bascom as a teacher of political 
 economy in the German university of the German state of 
 Wisconsin. ' ' 
 
 Professor Ely's influence was not limited to the uni- 
 versity nor to the State. "At a recent meeting of the 
 American economic association it was found that there 
 were present seventy professors or instructors in colleges 
 who at some time in their career had been his pupils." 89 ° 
 
 The doctrine "that business and human welfare can 
 increase side by side", and "that laws can be so con- 
 structed as to lead to progress and at the same time pre- 
 serve "to the fullest all human betterment", 891 has been 
 applied in Wisconsin and in Germany. The "Wisconsin 
 Idea" has had the same source as the "Monarchical So- 
 cialism" S92 of Germany. It has aimed at efficiency and 
 social and industrial betterment; but it has been based 
 upon democracy, while that of Germany has been founded 
 upon monarchical principles. Each has brought the life 
 of the community and education into the closest relations. 
 The University of Wisconsin has been a model for such 
 institutions in the United States. Railroad regulation, 
 sanitation, and social legislation have been in the hands 
 of experts and they have undertaken to deal justly and 
 wisely with every interest in the State. The ultimate 
 success of the so-called Progressive Movement depends 
 upon the application generally of similar methods both 
 in our national affairs and the activities of local divisions. 
 
BRYAN AND LA FOLLETTE 397 
 
 That the results in Wisconsin have been brought about 
 without injuring business or retarding prosperity is 
 admitted "by hard-headed men in Wall Street" who are 
 opposed to the "Wisconsin Idea", and by "bonding 
 houses" which concede that stocks and bonds of all kinds 
 are upon a sound basis in the State. 893 
 
XXV 
 
 THE EEIGN OF KOOSEVELT 
 
 The succession of Theodore Eoosevelt to the Presi- 
 dency in 1901 gave an opportunity to the Progressive 
 movement in the national sphere that had not been possi- 
 ble under either Bryan or La Pollette. The conjuncture 
 of a man and an occasion made Eoosevelt the protagonist 
 for nearly eight years of a veritable revolution in national 
 policy. So many and varied were his activities, so diver- 
 sified his interests that there was hardly a phase of the 
 national life that was not renovated and stimulated; so 
 completely did he dominate the stage that it was hardly 
 an exaggeration to call his administration, as one writer 
 did, the ' ' Epoch of Eoosevelt. ' ' 894 Indeed, his adminis- 
 tration might well be described, as Von Hoist character- 
 ized that of Andrew Jackson, as the "Beign" of Theodore 
 Eoosevelt. The parallel, perhaps, extended one step 
 further in the selection of successors by each of these 
 masterful men — successors, too, who proved disappoint- 
 ing to the men who selected them. 
 
 Mr. Eoosevelt announced his intention of continuing 
 the policy of his predecessor, so that his actual admin- 
 istration falls into two periods that of "the MeKinley 
 inheritance, and the conduct of the political estate" in his 
 ' ' own right. ' ' So far as it was possible for ' ' one man to 
 do another's work in that other's way", he kept his 
 promise, and the "contrast between the free and inde- 
 pendent Eoosevelt of the last four years, and the Boose- 
 
 398 
 
THE REIGN OF ROOSEVELT 399 
 
 velt of the first administration, is the proof of the man 's 
 real capacity for self-control and continence." At the 
 same time it was apparent that a new spirit had entered 
 American political life. The policy of appealing to the 
 people directly that marked his whole administration, 
 appeared in the first period as well as in the second stage 
 after his own election in 1904. 895 
 
 In August and September, 1902, Mr. Eoosevelt made a 
 series of speeches in New England and in the South and 
 West in which he advocated "legislative control of the 
 great corporations commonly called trusts." These 
 speeches marked the beginning of a policy on the part of 
 the President which had for its object the establishment 
 of governmental regulation of big business in the interest 
 of the nation as a whole. His immediate purpose was 
 to bring about a greater amount of publicity in order that 
 fuller information might be obtained as a basis for a 
 reasonable exercise of government supervision. The 
 first legislative result was the establishment of a Bureau 
 of Corporations as a part of the new Department of 
 Commerce and Labor in 1903. 896 
 
 Another phase of his policy concerned itself with the 
 enforcement of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act against 
 illegal combinations of capital in restraint of trade — a 
 law which had been disregarded for years. Many people 
 had accepted the opinion that it could not be enforced 
 against the power of great combinations of capital. 
 Roosevelt proved that it could be done, and by that very 
 fact showed the strength of a government based upon real 
 popular support. 897 A series of suits were filed by the 
 Attorney-General against a number of great combinations 
 that were accused of violating the Sherman Law. One 
 of the notable cases was the so-called Northern Securities 
 
400 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Case, originating in Minnesota where a corporation had 
 been formed for the purpose of controlling "two natural- 
 ly competing lines of railroad in each of which as a 
 holding company it had acquired a majority of the stock". 
 An appeal to the Supreme Court resulted in the decision 
 that the action involved a violation of the law in regard 
 to restraint of trade. 808 
 
 The anthracite coal strike of 1902 gave President 
 Roosevelt another opportunity to use his influence in the 
 interests of the people. The strike had begun in May, 
 but did not cause any considerable inconvenience until 
 the approach of October brought serious embarrassment 
 to many industries and threatened a total cessation of the 
 supply before many weeks. The fuel supply is a neces- 
 sity second only in importance to the food supply and the 
 severe cold of the American winter meant intense suffer- 
 ing and even loss of life unless some way could be found 
 to relieve the situation. The striking miners led by John 
 Mitchell were willing to submit matters to arbitration, 
 but the coal operators guided by George F. Baer declined 
 to consider the proposal. Although President Roosevelt 
 had no warrant for intervention as an administrator, he 
 invited Mr. Mitchell and the group of presidents of the 
 coal-carrying railroads to meet at Washington on October 
 3rd to confer upon the situation with a view to the dis- 
 covery of some satisfactory adjustment. After a state- 
 ment of the purpose of the conference by the President, 
 Mr. Mitchell offered, on the part of the strikers, to accept 
 the decision of any arbitrators appointed by the President 
 and pending the decision to resume Avork. The coal oper- 
 ators, however, refused to accept the proposal and one 
 after another "read to the President a series of type- 
 written lectures, denouncing the strikers, refusing arbi- 
 
THE REIGN OF ROOSEVELT 401 
 
 tration .... and calling upon the President to 
 send federal troops to support the operators, ' ' 80 ° 
 
 After this failure to arrive at a settlement public indig- 
 nation "ran higher than it has gone over any recent 
 event except the assassination of President McKinley." 
 The coal question became an issue in the pending congres- 
 sional and State elections; the Democrats of New York 
 called for the ownership and operation of the anthracite 
 mines by the federal government; the Republican Sena- 
 tors from Pennsylvania and the Republican Governor of 
 New York exerted themselves to secure some concessions 
 from the operators, but they were emphatically rebuffed. 
 "Newspapers, mass meetings, boards of trade, and vari- 
 ous organizations throughout the United States were at 
 this time denouncing the Coal Trust and demanding its 
 prosecution. Conspicuous lawyers like ex- Attorney-Gen- 
 eral Olney were scathing in their denunciations of the 
 trust, and frank in their statements that it could be crim- 
 inally prosecuted under the laws." 900 
 
 Finally, Mr. J. P. Morgan, in whose hands the real 
 authority rested, realized that the country was holding 
 him personally responsible and that the position of his 
 lieutenants "was untenable, and must be given up. " Ac- 
 cordingly on October 13th he went to "Washington, con- 
 ferred with the President and agreed to leave all issues to 
 a board to be appointed by the President. This board 
 was to consist of an army or navy engineer; an expert 
 mining engineer ; a man of experience as an operator or 
 merchant engaged in the coal business ; a United States 
 Judge for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania; and a 
 sociologist of reputation. President Roosevelt later 
 persuaded the operators to allow him to add a sixth 
 member, and thus modified the plan was accepted by Mr. 
 
402 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Mitchell for the miners. The appointment of a strong 
 board by the President brought to an end one of the most 
 serious industrial conflicts in the history of the coun- 
 try. 901 
 
 Henry D. Lloyd described the action of President 
 Roosevelt "in substituting arbitration for government 
 by injunction and military usurpation" as "the greatest 
 stroke of recent statesmanship, 'a short-cut across lots 
 in real American style'." On the announcement of the 
 award he wrote to a friend as follows: "the miners got 
 exactly what they asked for. They did not demand any 
 'hard and fast' terms with regard to wages, hours, and 
 other conditions of employment. They asked only for 
 such concessions in these regards as they might be found 
 entitled to by arbitration. ' ' In another place Lloyd de- 
 clared that "a greater victory has not been won in the 
 social history of our race". In a letter to the Minister 
 of Commerce of New Zealand he said : "Beyond a doubt 
 the resort of President Roosevelt to this arbitration, the 
 favour with which it was received by the public, and its 
 successful settlement of the questions submitted to it, 
 were due to the initiative and the inspiration derived 
 from the laws of your country. ' ' 902 
 
 In 1904 came President Roosevelt's election directly to 
 the office to which he had first come as a result of the act 
 of an assassin. His great personal popularity, set over 
 against the colorless candidacy of Judge Parker, resulted 
 in a great popular endorsement. His second term, as he 
 chose to regard it, was even more noteworthy in its 
 achievements and in its influence upon popular opinion. x 
 
 During the same year he took up the problem of rail- 
 road regulation, recommending in his annual message 
 legislation giving power to the Interstate Commerce Com- 
 
THE REIGN OF ROOSEVELT 403 
 
 mission "to prescribe rates upon complaint and after full 
 hearing, such rates to be effective until reversed by a 
 court of review." The House of Representatives imme- 
 diately took up the problem and on February 9, 1905, 
 passed the Esch-Townsend Bill by a vote of three hundred 
 and twenty-six to seventeen. The railroads succeeded in 
 inducing the Senate to postpone action for a year in order 
 to give them time to present their side of the case. The 
 Senate committee on interstate commerce held sessions 
 during the recess of Congress to take testimony and con- 
 sider plans for rate regulation. "Railroad representa- 
 tives, shippers, government officials, and students of the 
 question" were heard by the committee, which reported 
 in five volumes, containing the most valuable material yet 
 gathered in the United States upon the problem of rail- 
 road control. 
 
 But the railroads did not limit their efforts to testi- 
 mony before the Senate committee. They carried on a 
 campaign of education such as has been rarely known 
 in the country, ' ' organizing publicity bureaus in charge 
 of expert students of the railroad question, and flooding 
 the country with literature in support of the railroad 
 position. ' ' These efforts proved unavailing and the sen- 
 timent in favor of greater powers for the Commission 
 was strengthened in the summer of 1905 by revelations 
 of abuses in connection with private car lines and by 
 disclosures of discriminations and rebates. 
 
 President Roosevelt renewed his recommendation of 
 railroad regulation in his annual message of 1905, and on 
 February 8, 1906, the House passed the Hepburn Bill, 
 containing many features of the bill passed the previous 
 session, by a vote of three hundred and forty-six to seven. 
 
 The Senate committee reported the bill unamended, 
 
404 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 but for the purpose of discrediting the measure the con- 
 servatives of the committee put it in charge of Senator 
 Tillman, one of the President's bitterest opponents. As 
 a result the bill was really put into final form on the floor 
 of the Senate, and gave rise to "as brilliant and able a 
 debate as the Senate has known for many years. Party 
 lines were never drawn. The radical Eepublicans com- 
 bined with a majority of the Democrats against the great 
 body of conservative Eepublicans, and every step in the 
 framing of the measure was stubbornly contested. Ex- 
 tensively amended, the bill passed the Senate with but 
 three dissenting votes ' '. 
 
 The bill then went to a conference committee, and after 
 two failures, it finally emerged on June 28th in acceptable 
 shape and was signed the following day, becoming effec- 
 tive by joint resolution on August 28th. The final con- 
 troversies were concerned chiefly "with pipe-lines, passes, 
 sleeping-car and express companies, and the transporta- 
 tion by railroads of products owned by them. ' ' 
 
 In its final passage the bill was greatly helped by an 
 unusual series of events, including several reports that 
 revealed extensive violations of the Interstate Commerce 
 Law, as well as other discreditable and unsuspected con- 
 ditions that were assumed to be indicative of the railroad 
 situation in general. These influences, in addition to the 
 results of the insurance investigation of 1905, and the 
 ' ' disclosure of deplorable conditions in the packing in- 
 dustry" during the summer of 1906, caused so complete a 
 loss of confidence in corporate activity that the movement 
 to regulate transportation agencies more vigorously be- 
 came irresistible. The measure as finally passed was "a 
 much more radical statute" than the President and his 
 
THE REIGN OF ROOSEVELT 405 
 
 supporters had originally expected. Two other laws of 
 great importance, the pure food and meat inspection bills, 
 were carried through a reluctant Congress by the same 
 wave of popular indignation aroused by the repeated dis- 
 covery of corporate abuses. 903 
 
 Another great accomplishment of the Roosevelt admin- 
 istration was the initiation of the movement for the con- 
 servation of the natural resources of the Nation. The 
 President first took up reclamation work and, as a result 
 of his activity, the Reclamation Act of 1902 was passed, 
 by which the proceeds of the sale of public lands were set 
 aside ' ' for the purpose of reclaiming the waste areas of 
 the arid West" by irrigation. 
 
 A little later he helped to broaden the scope of the for- 
 estry work of the federal government which was under 
 the direction of Gifford Pinchot. "The Conservation 
 movement was a direct outgrowth of the forest move- 
 ment. . . . The first formal step" was the appoint- 
 ment of the Inland Waterways Commission in March, 
 
 1907. Out of the work of this Commission grew the Con- 
 ference of Governors held at the White House in May, 
 
 1908, at which the subject for discussion was conserva- 
 tion. This meeting was the real beginning in a definite 
 way of what has come to be known as the conservation 
 movement. 
 
 Closely allied with it was the effort to improve rural 
 life and agricultural methods which led to the appoint- 
 ment of the Country Life Commission in August, 1908. 
 Its report contained ' ' a most valuable body of first-hand 
 information, and laid the foundation for the remarkable 
 awakening of interest in country life which has since 
 taken place throughout the Nation. ' ' 
 
406 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 The President also used his powers extensively in pre- 
 serving the remaining public lands for the people, dealing 
 with frauds in a relentless fashion. The question of the 
 concentration of water-power control was another matter 
 of immense importance which was first given serious con- 
 sideration during his administration. 904 
 
 During all the years of his administration President 
 Roosevelt was constantly making speeches in which he 
 took advanced positions upon a multitude of subjects. 
 His wide information and wonderful activity made it 
 possible for him to use his office for the benefit of all 
 sorts of enterprises. Swollen fortunes, inheritance taxes, 
 race suicide, international peace, national defence, out- 
 door life, simplified spelling, child labor, naval develop- 
 ment, and our relations with Latin America are only a 
 few of the many subjects which he discussed in his public 
 addresses and official messages. He was continually 
 preaching upon all sorts of subjects for all sorts of people 
 because, as he once said while reading a message to half 
 a dozen friends in his library, he had ' ' such a bully pul- 
 pit". 905 It is difficult to estimate the results of such 
 multitudinous activity, but that it contributed to the 
 changed attitude of the public at the close of his admin- 
 istration can not be reasonably doubted. Only a man of 
 his remarkable energy, physical strength, and limitless 
 interest could have inaugurated the Progressive move- 
 ment in the national sphere as completely as he did in the 
 seven and a half years of his presidency. 
 
 All of these greater enterprises were carried on while 
 he was holding an office charged with greater executive 
 responsibilities, probably, than that of any other in the 
 world. These responsibilities were not only carried, but 
 
THE REIGN OF ROOSEVELT 407 
 
 his remarkable executive ability led to the elevation of 
 the standard of administration by the toning up of the 
 machinery of government. All classes came within the 
 range of his interests and responded to the stimulus of 
 his energetic personality. Never before in its history 
 had the Presidency been so broadly representative of all 
 that is best and most distinctive in American life. 908 
 
XXVI 
 
 THE PROGRESSIVES IN THE STATES 
 
 The remarkable success of President Roosevelt in the 
 sphere of national politics was due to the preliminary 
 work which had been done in the different States begin- 
 ning about 1890 — work similar to that done by La Fol- 
 lette in Wisconsin, but less well known because it had not 
 carried its leaders on into the national field. Michigan, 
 Ohio, Oregon, Missouri, and Iowa were the most con- 
 spicuous of the States where the foundations were laid 
 locally for the progressive movement. 
 
 One of the earliest of these local leaders was Hazen 
 S. Pingree of Detroit, who was elected mayor of that 
 city in 1889 and served four terms. His most noteworthy 
 achievement was the so-called Potato Patch plan which 
 he inaugurated in 1894 and 1895 in order to aid the un- 
 employed in those years. Vacant lots in the suburbs 
 were used in parcels of a quarter or half acre each, upon 
 which potatoes and garden truck were planted and culti- 
 vated by needy families under the supervision of a com- 
 mittee, funds being raised by subscriptions and the use 
 of the land permitted by its owners. The first year 3,000 
 applications were received, but only 945 families could be 
 provided for, who produced from $12,000 to $14,000 worth 
 of crops at an expense of $3,600 to the committee or abont 
 $3.45 per lot. The second year 1,546 families cultivated 
 455 acres, producing crops of the value of over $27,000 
 at a cost of $4,900. The plan was adopted in many cities 
 
 408 
 
THE PROGRESSIVES IN THE STATES 409 
 
 and in various forms has continued to be used down to the 
 present time. It illustrated the application of business 
 ability and inventiveness to an urgent social problem. 907 
 
 Another object to which Mayor Pingree gave consid- 
 erable attention was the reduction of fares upon the street 
 cars. After he had been in office nine or ten months a 
 strike of the employees of the local car lines occurred, 
 giving rise to rioting in the streets and some destruction 
 of property. The street car company was very unpop- 
 ular and public sympathy was with the strikers. The 
 Mayor "harangued the strikers and told them in effect 
 that they were right and that he endorsed their conduct. ' ' 
 Under the circumstances the company surrendered and 
 made terms with its employees. This result made him 
 a hero in the eyes of the working classes, but greatly em- 
 bittered the capitalistic class against him. The great 
 majority of the voters supported him and he overcame 
 almost all opposition. 908 
 
 Mayor Pingree 's warfare against the street car com- 
 pany — "the octopus" as he called it — : continued until 
 the close of his career ten years later; in the course of 
 the controversy he came into contact with Tom L. John- 
 son of Cleveland, who was associated with the New York 
 capitalists who purchased the interests of the company to 
 which the mayor was opposed. He fought the consolida- 
 tion of the street railways in every possible way, but was 
 finally defeated by the decision of the Supreme Court 
 of the United States. An interesting account is given in 
 Johnson's My Story of the relations between the reform 
 mayor of Detroit and the future reform mayor of Cleve- 
 land. 909 
 
 In 1896 Pingree was elected Governor of the State of 
 Michigan by a vote of 304,431 as against 221,022 for his 
 
410 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Democratic opponent, his vote exceeding that of McKin- 
 ley by 10,849. He undertook to hold both offices for a 
 year, as his term as mayor did not expire for twelve 
 months. His reason for such action was to enable him 
 to oppose the consolidation of all the street railways of 
 the city. Proceedings were started to oust him as mayor, 
 and "the Supreme Court held that, since the law pro- 
 vides that the Mayor is subject to be removed by the 
 governor, both offices could not properly be held by the 
 same person at the same time." 910 
 
 His two issues as Governor were primary election 
 reform and railroad taxation, but he was unable to do 
 much more than to urge them upon the attention of the 
 legislature. He also "paid his respects" to the profes- 
 sional lobbyist, and "dealt somewhat" with the question 
 of public franchises. He objected to the consideration 
 of his nominations by the Senate in secret sessions and 
 threatened "to break in and listen to the harsh things 
 said about himself. . . . Nevertheless, in spite of all 
 this friction, nearly all his nominations were confirmed; 
 at least he fared no worse in this respect than the average 
 of governors. ' ' 911 He was reelected in 1898 by a plural- 
 ity of 75,000. Altogether he was an interesting person- 
 ality and a pioneer whose work is now largely forgotten. 
 He anticipated in many ways the developments of social 
 policies of later years. Arousing great bitterness, he 
 nevertheless possessed a strong hold upon the confidence 
 of the people of Michigan. 912 
 
 Mayor Samuel M. Jones of Toledo, Ohio, was elected 
 first as a Republican in 1897 and reelected three times as 
 an Independent, receiving at his second election 16,752 
 votes to 4,260 for his Republican opponent and 3,155 for 
 
THE PROGRESSIVES IN THE STATES 411 
 
 his Democratic opponent, notwithstanding the opposition 
 of all the newspapers and both political machines. In 
 his last campaign the newspapers adopted the plan of 
 keeping absolutely silent about his candidacy, while the ' 
 corporations were hostile and many of the churches op- 
 posed him because he had not closed the saloons. Some- 
 how the simplicity and genuineness of the man drew to 
 him a support that remained loyal until his death in office 
 in 1904 and then the people gave him such a burial as 
 rarely falls to the lot of any man. "I know not how 
 many thousands were there [at his funeral] ; they were 
 standing on the lawns in a mass that extended across the 
 street and into the yards on the farther side. Down to 
 the corner, and into the side streets, they were packed, 
 and they stood in long lines all the way .out to the ceme- 
 tery. In that crowd there were all sorts of that one sort 
 he knew as humanity without distinction — judges, and 
 women of prominence and women whom he alone would 
 have included in humanity, there were thieves, and prize- 
 fighters — and they all stood there with the tears stream- 
 ing down their faces. ' ' 913 
 
 His sobriquet, "Golden Eule" Jones, suggests the 
 fundamental character of his life and work. He was of 
 Welsh ancestry, coming to America when three years old. 
 As a young man he began work in the oil regions of 
 Pennsylvania. About 1893 he invented an improvement 
 in the apparatus of oil-wells, and established a factory 
 for its manufacture at Toledo, in which he posted the 
 Golden Eule as a basis for the regulation of his business. 
 A minimum wage, an eight-hour day, and welfare benefits 
 were the concrete manifestations of his application of the 
 biblical rule to industrial problems. He recognized the 
 fact that his patent enabled him to disregard the competi- 
 
412 THIRD PAETY MOVEMENTS 
 
 tive rate of wages in his factory and every year he dis- 
 tributed a dividend of five percent upon the amount 
 earned by each man who had worked for him six months. 
 As his business prospered he built a fine house on one of 
 the beautiful residence streets, but when he had the 
 house-warming, his workmen and their families were the 
 guests. ' ' It used to amuse Jones to reflect that his literal 
 acceptance of the fundamental principle of Christianity 
 should have been such a novel and unprecedented thing 
 that it instantly marked him out from all the other Chris- 
 tians and made him famous in Christendom." 9 " 
 
 His political-municipal platform was thus announced 
 by him: (1) equal opportunities for all and special priv- 
 ileges for none, (2) public ownership of all public utilities, 
 (3) no grant of new nor extension of existing franchises, 
 and (4) the abolition of the private-contract system of 
 doing city work. 915 His great contribution to the better- 
 ment of municipal government was nonpartisanship in 
 local affairs. He used to describe himself as "a Man 
 Without a Party"; 916 but he was really and fundamen- 
 tally a representative of that democratic spirit of which 
 Lincoln was a type. He recognized instinctively that 
 there is but one issue locally — • that which is represented 
 by the conflict of wealth and democracy. His career in 
 Toledo was a part of -the common war waged all over the 
 country for the restoration of popular government. 917 
 
 Tom L. Johnson of Cleveland, whom Lincoln Steffens 
 declared was "the best Mayor of the best-governed city 
 in the United States", 918 was another of the men who by 
 local work made possible the success of the Progressive 
 movement in the nation at large. Johnson had become 
 a rich man through street railroads and iron manufacture 
 
THE PROGRESSIVES IN THE STATES 413 
 
 before his election to Congress in 1890. He served for 
 two terms in the House of Representatives, being de- 
 feated in 1894 for reelection. Through his interest in the 
 Single Tax and his acquaintance with Henry George his 
 views underwent a complete transformation and he be- 
 came a "reformed business man" or "converted special 
 privilege man ' '. In 1901 he was elected mayor of Cleve- 
 land and remained in office until his defeat in 1909. 
 
 His great fight in Cleveland was for a three-cent fare 
 upon the street cars; as an expert in the business he 
 maintained that there was profit in such a fare under 
 proper business conditions. He waged a long fight for 
 his doctrine and lived to see it successful in a way, though 
 not exactly as he hoped. But that was only the chief 
 feature of a municipal policy that justified the statement 
 given above. He gathered around him a remarkable 
 group of young men — Peter Witt, ' ' a fiery young radi- 
 cal", who was originally an opponent and who was city 
 clerk under all his administrations and later street rail- 
 way commissioner under one of his successors; Newton 
 D. Baker, who was city solicitor from 1902 to 1912, and 
 has been mayor of the city since 1912 ; Frederic C. Howe, 
 who had been elected to the council as a Republican from 
 one of the aristocratic wards, won over by Johnson, and 
 renominated on the Democratic ticket (he is now Com- 
 missioner of Immigration at New York and an authority 
 on municipal government) ; and Rev. Harris R. Cooley, 
 director of charities and corrections, who has made a 
 name for himself by his methods of handling dependents 
 and criminals, and of whom Johnson used to say that 
 instead of being a preacher he had become a minister. 
 These men were all working for the city. "They had 
 the city sense, a love of their town like that love which 
 
414 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 undergraduates have for their university, the esprit de 
 corps of the crack regiment. ' ' It was an interesting coin- 
 cidence that three cities at the western end of Lake Erie 
 — Detroit, Toledo, and Cleveland — should have had 
 such mayors as Pingree, Jones, and Johnson — "differ- 
 ent in everything except their democracy". 
 
 Johnson made an unsuccessful attempt in 1903 to re- 
 deem the State as he had the city. He used his big 
 French touring car and held "immense meetings in a 
 circus tent which was taken down and sent on ahead each 
 night. In this way he was entirely independent of local 
 committees, and they did not like that very well ; it had 
 been his wealth more than his democracy that had made 
 him seem so logical as a candidate to some of the Demo- 
 crats. " His platform during this campaign demanded ' ' a 
 two-cent-a-mile railway fare and the taxation of railroad 
 property at something like its value ' '. Within two years 
 of his defeat his first proposal became law with but one 
 dissenting vote. His Republican opponent, Myron T. 
 Herrick, defeated him by 120,000 votes. 919 
 
 Another important contribution to the up-building of 
 the Progressive movement came from the State of Ore- 
 gon. No prominent single leader has focused the work 
 there, but a real democracy has been skillfully led by men 
 who have not cared to struggle for office, choosing rather 
 to devote themselves to quiet work of a fundamental 
 kind. One man, William S. IT 'Ren, has been described 
 as the "father" of much of the democratic legislation. 
 Apparently he is as near being the originator of it as any 
 single individual. 
 
 Mr. U 'Ren's early history is exceedingly suggestive 
 
THE PROGRESSIVES IN THE STATES 415 
 
 for the study of the development of the Progressive 
 movement. He was born in Wisconsin in 1859; moved 
 with his family to Nebraska, Colorado, and Wyoming; 
 and finally, after a wandering life as a young man in 
 search of health, reached Oregon in 1891. His father 
 had been a reader of "Greeley's Paper", he himself had 
 studied law in Denver, and about 1889 or 1890 had read 
 Progress and Poverty. A little later he ran across a 
 pamphlet describing the initiative and referendum, and 
 through it became a convert to direct legislation. Just at 
 this time the Populist party was gathering strength, and 
 U'Een joined its ranks. In 1896 he was elected to the 
 State assembly, taking part in a long, corrupt senatorial 
 contest the following year, in which he became familiar 
 with all the methods of the commercial politics of the 
 period. In 1898 he was a candidate for the Senate, but 
 was defeated. 920 
 
 Afterwards he was not a candidate for office, but lob- 
 bied for an amendment to the State Constitution provid- 
 ing for the initiative and referendum. He declared he 
 was going to secure their adoption if it cost him his soul ; 
 he would do "nothing selfish, dishonest, or dishonoura- 
 ble"; but he would "trade off parties, offices, bills — 
 anything for that." "We helped through measures we 
 didn't believe in", U'Ren said, "to get help for our 
 measures from members who didn't believe in them. 
 That's corruption, yes; that's a kind of corruption, but 
 our measures were to make corruption impossible in the 
 end." 
 
 In 1902 he was finally successful in having the direct 
 legislation amendment ratified by the people by a vote of 
 eleven to one. Two years later a thoroughgoing primary 
 
416 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 law, which included the nomination and election of sen- 
 atorial candidates, was presented to the people and 
 adopted by a large majority. 921 
 
 The original feature of the Oregon primary election 
 law was its unique provision for nominating and electing 
 candidates for the United States Senate. Members of 
 the legislature could be pledged to vote for the candi- 
 date who received the highest number of votes at the 
 general election, regardless of party or individual pref- 
 erence. This pledge was known as "Statement No. 1". 
 If the candidate for the legislature was unwilling to 
 make such a pledge, he could sign "Statement No. 2", 
 which declared the vote of the people merely a "recom- 
 mendation". Obviously the candidate who refused to 
 sign "Statement No. 1" would find himself distinctly at 
 a disadvantage as against a competitor who had signed 
 it. The effect of "Statement No. 1" was to make the 
 legislature a mere registration body as is the Electoral 
 College. Virtually it was popular election of Senators 
 without amendment of the federal Constitution. As the 
 ' ' Oregon Plan ' ' it played an important part in the contest 
 for the adoption of the Seventeenth Amendment. 
 
 The first Senator elected under the new plan was Jon- 
 athan Bourne, Jr., who made "Statement No. 1" the 
 issue of his campaign, "sending out numerous circulars 
 explaining and defending that feature of the primary 
 law." He was successful in his canvass, obtaining a 
 majority of one on joint ballot, in spite of the fact that 
 fifteen Senators held over from the election of 1904. The 
 legislature confirmed his election with only four opposi- 
 tion votes. 922 
 
 The real test came two years later in 1908 when Gov- 
 ernor George E. Chamberlain, a Democrat, was the "peo- 
 
THE PROGRESSIVES IN THE STATES 417 
 
 pie's choice" by a plurality of nearly 2,000, while a 
 majority of the legislators were pledged to "Statement 
 No. 1". In spite of the opposition of political partisans 
 a legislature, five-sixths Republican, confirmed the elec- 
 tion of a Democrat to the Senate. 023 A similar instruc- 
 tion was voted for another Democrat, Harry Lane, in 
 1912. 92 * Thus the plan seemed firmly established before 
 the adoption of the amendment to the federal Constitu- 
 tion providing for the popular election of United States 
 Senators made it unnecessary. Oregon has been for many 
 years regarded as reliably Republican so that its election 
 of Democratic Senators has been a real test of the merits 
 of the plan and the political independence and intelli- 
 gence of the people of the State. 925 
 
 Joseph W. Folk's "Fight for Missouri" began with his 
 attempts to punish political corruption in St. Louis as 
 Circuit Attorney in 1900. His exposure and prosecution 
 of municipal boodling and bribery led him on to uncover 
 the relations of the city ring with big business and its 
 affiliations in State and nation. The punishment of the 
 city hoss and nearly all the members of the "boodle 
 combine" did not destroy the ring, because behind the 
 ring stood the big business-man, and behind the big busi- 
 ness-man were his relations with other men and interests 
 throughout the country. To make even a beginning of 
 reform the sphere of activity must be State-wide; and 
 so Folk became a candidate for Governor in 1904 and was 
 elected as a Democrat, although the Republicans elected 
 the Presidential Electors, the lower house of the legis- 
 lature, and all the other State officers. The Democrats 
 had heen the ruling party in the State for many years, 
 and their overthrow was largely due to the exposure of 
 
418 THIRD PAETY MOVEMENTS 
 
 political corruption accomplished by Folk. This triumph 
 of independent voting was made in spite of the difficulty 
 of splitting tickets in Missouri. The simple issue was 
 presented and the people responded by electing Folk in 
 1904 and the complete Republican ticket in 1908. In 1912 
 the State returned to its former Democracy. The nega- 
 tive work of exposure had not been followed by positive 
 constructive legislation as in Wisconsin and Oregon. 926 
 
 William Allen White of Kansas described the Pro- 
 gressive movement as "one of the big self-evident things 
 in our national life. ' ' 927 The common characteristics of 
 all the local and State activities just discussed may be 
 grouped under two main divisions and classified as war- 
 fare against political bosses and as warfare against 
 special privilege; and these two classes are practically 
 one, because they have a common source and a common 
 purpose. They constitute what Senator A. J. Beveridge 
 so aptly described as "the invisible government". Lin- 
 coln Steffens in his studies The Shame of the Cities and 
 The Struggle for Self-Government repeatedly makes the 
 assertion: "Not the political ring, but big business — 
 that is the crux of the situation. . . . The trail of 
 the political leader and the trail of the commercial leader 
 are parallels". 928 
 
 That the Progressive movement has been non-partisan 
 is shown by the fact that of the eight leaders above named 
 four were Republicans, three Democrats, and one a Pop- 
 ulist. Doing public business in the open, dethroning 
 bosses, giving the people a direct voice in public affairs, 
 restoring popular government, and abolishing special 
 privilege — these activities have no essential or funda- 
 mental political relations. Hence the breaking up of the 
 
THE PROGRESSIVES IN THE STATES 419 
 
 older parties into Progressives and Standpatters — 029 
 the real divisions being based upon social and economic 
 differences, while the nominal party lines are traditional 
 and historical. Again we meet the fact of the growth of 
 social politics in place of the older political separations. 
 
 As Roosevelt's accession to the Presidency marked an 
 epoch in the development of the Progressive movement 
 so his retirement produced a momentous effect. The last 
 months of his administration were stormy ones : it almost 
 seemed as though unconsciously he divined the fact that 
 his great work would not be carried forward by his suc- 
 cessor. His restless energy was never more evident. 
 On the other hand his opponents in his own party began 
 to rally as the end of his rule approached. Even before 
 the inauguration there were indications of the break be- 
 tween him and his successor which slowly widened until 
 it resulted in the split in the Republican party in 1912. 930 
 
XXVII 
 
 THE SPLIT IN THE REPUBLICAN PAETY 
 
 The first real division in the Republican party came in 
 the House of Representatives and was directed against 
 the arbitrary power of the Speaker which had grown up 
 since the adoption of the "Reed Rules" in 1890. .Joseph 
 G. Cannon of Illinois had been Speaker since 1903, and 
 had used his power to maintain the established system 
 and in opposition to many Progressive measures. The 
 regular Republicans grouped themselves about the Speak- 
 er, while their opponents made an issue of what they 
 called "Cannonism". The members of the opposition 
 came to be known as "Insurgents", although they pre- 
 ferred to be called "progressive Republicans". At the 
 beginning of the special session in March, 1909, they pro- 
 tested against the election of Mr. Cannon for another 
 term, and a few voted against him. 931 
 
 The first serious contest came in March, 1910, when 
 about forty Insurgents joined with the Democrats to 
 overrule a formal decision of the Speaker. The struggle 
 continued for four days and ended with a vote of one 
 hundred and ninety-one to, one hundred and fifty-six that 
 the Committee on Rules be reorganized. This committee, 
 instead of consisting of five members appointed by the 
 Speaker with the Speaker as chairman, was to be made 
 up of ten members appointed by the House, with the pro- 
 viso that the Speaker should not be a member. Speaker 
 Cannon announced that he would entertain a motion to 
 
 420 
 
THE SPLIT IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 421 
 
 declare the chair vacant, and such a motion was made 
 and supported by all the Democrats, but was supported 
 by only nine of the Insurgent Republicans. In 1911 the 
 Democratic majority entrusted the appointment of com- 
 mittees to the Committee on Ways and Means which was 
 appointed by the Democratic caucus. 932 
 
 By far the most dramatic and important struggle be- 
 tween the regular Republicans and the Insurgents oc- 
 curred in the Senate in the debate upon the Payne- Al- 
 drich Tariff Bill. The chief issue of the campaign of 
 1908 was the revision of the tariff and the Republican 
 party stood committed to it. A special session of Con- 
 gress was called by President Taft, immediately follow- 
 ing his inauguration, to redeem the party promise. By 
 revision had been meant reduction ; but when the House 
 bill reached the Senate it was amended by the Finance 
 Committee, of which Senator Aldrich was chairman, in a 
 way which made it very unsatisfactory to the Progressive 
 Eepublican Senators from the West. They spoke against 
 the measure as amended and urged its rejection, declar- 
 ing that it did not redeem the party promise. 933 
 
 Upon the final vote in the Senate ten Republican mem- 
 bers voted against it. These were Beveridge of Indiana, 
 Bristow/of Kansas, Brown and Burkett of Nebraska, 
 Clapp^of Minnesota, Crawford of South Dakota, Cum- 
 mins and Dolliver of Iowa, La Follette of Wisconsin, and 
 Nelson of Minnesota. 934 Seven of the Senators voted 
 against the bill as amended in the Conference Committee 
 when it was before the Senate upon its final passage. 
 The three members who changed their final vote were 
 Senators Brown and Burkett of Nebraska and Crawford 
 of South Dakota. 935 President Taft had used his influ- 
 ence to bring about the improvement of the bill, but 
 
422 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 finally signed it. The Progressive Republicans felt that 
 he might have helped them in a more positive way; and 
 when in September, 1909, in a speech at Winona, Min- 
 nesota, he described the tariff as "the best that had ever 
 been passed", the break between the President and the 
 Progressives rapidly developed. 936 
 
 The campaign of 1910 was dominated by the division 
 within the ranks of the Republican party. Progressives 
 attacked the old party leaders, who in turn accused them 
 of party disloyalty. These controversies inevitably re- 
 duced the Republican strength and as a result the Demo- 
 crats made great gains. The return of former President 
 Roosevelt from his African journey in the summer of 
 1910 and his tour of the West helped to make more 
 marked the lack of harmony, although Roosevelt himself 
 refrained from direct criticism of party policies. His 
 great speech at Osawatomie, Kansas, in August set forth 
 a personal program which he described as the "New 
 Nationalism". President Taft tried to mediate between 
 the rival wings of his party, but without success. 987 
 
 As was to be expected under such circumstances, the 
 State elections resulted in a "landslide" for the Demo- 
 crats. In nine States the Republicans lost the legisla- 
 ture which was to elect a Senator, while they gained 
 only one such legislature, "thereby reducing their number 
 in the Senate, after 1911, from 59 to 46 ; and raising the 
 Democratic Senators from 33 to 38." In the House of 
 Representatives, also, the Republicans lost heavily, re- 
 turning only one hundred and sixty-three members while 
 the Democrats elected two hundred and twenty-seven 
 members. The apparent strength of the Republicans 
 was reduced by the success of the Progressives who car- 
 ried most of the western seats for the Republicans. The 
 
THE SPLIT IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 423 
 
 election was a distinct rebuke to the regular Republicans 
 and President Taft was necessarily involved. It indi- 
 cated that the country supported the position of the Pro- 
 gressive Republicans : they could no longer be ignored. 938 
 
 The political importance of the Progressives was plain- 
 ly shown in April, 1911, when they demanded represen- 
 tation in the ' ' Republican membership of the Senate Com- 
 mittees in the ratio of 1 to 4, and that their assignments 
 should be made by the four of their group who were on 
 the Republican steering committee, La Follette, Bourne, 
 Cummins, and Bristow." Senator La Follette, who 
 made the motion to this effect, mentioned as the Progres- 
 sives, Senators Clapp, La Follette, Bourne, Bjprah, 
 Brown, Dixon, Cummins, Bristow, Crawford, Gronna, 
 Poindexter, and Works ; ' ' and declared that the division 
 between them and the Regular Republicans 'is recog- 
 nized in the Senate and throughout the country as based 
 upon clearly defined differences on important legislative 
 measures and questions of great public interest'." The 
 regular Republicans refused these demands, but agreed 
 to give the Progressives "their full proportionate share 
 of appointments" insisting, however, that the assign- 
 ments be made by the caucus, ' ' and that the Progressives 
 should not be recognized as an organization distinct from 
 the Republican majority of the Senate." 939 
 
 During the special session from April to August, 1911, 
 the Progressives "acted virtually as a third party, and 
 for a time, by an alliance with the Democrats, practically 
 controlled Congress. As a group they vigorously op- 
 posed .... Canadian reciprocity", although this 
 measure was proposed and urged by President Taft. 
 
 "The three Democratic measures, the farmers' free- 
 list, the wool and the cotton bills received from 23 to 30 
 
424 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Progressive Republican votes in the House of Repre- 
 sentatives. In the Senate the first two bills were passed 
 in amended form by a coalition of the Progressives and 
 the Democrats. This Senate alliance was broken during 
 the consideration of the cotton bill, for a majority of the 
 Regular Republicans, incensed at the previous action of 
 the Progressives, left the Senate Chamber and allowed 
 the Democrats to perfect the measure without regard to 
 the wishes of their former allies. When, however, the 
 President vetoed the three tariff measures, more than 
 two-thirds of the Progressives in the House of Represen- 
 tatives joined the Democrats in their unsuccessful at- 
 tempt to pass the farmers' free-list and the wool bills 
 over the veto." 94 ° 
 
 In a speech in the Senate in July upon the reciprocity 
 bill Senator La Follette attacked the administration of 
 President Taft, "declaring that he had deserted the 
 Roosevelt policies .... had placed in his Cabinet 
 men devoted to the great corporations ; had surrendered 
 to the financial interests in Alaska; and had supported 
 the indefensible Payne- Aldrich tariff." 
 
 Senator Cummins issued a "signed statement" in Sep- 
 tember in which he said that President Taft had allied 
 himself with "Senators and members of the House who 
 are known from one border of the country to the other 
 as reactionaries or stand-patters". He criticised Presi- 
 dent Taft's attitude upon the Payne- Aldrich tariff, his 
 vetoes of the tariff bills during the special session, his 
 advocacy of reciprocity, and his conservation policy. 9 * 1 
 
 In October two hundred Progressives met in Chicago 
 and "adopted a declaration of principles, drawn up by 
 Ex-Secretary Garfield, C. E. Merriam and Amos Pin- 
 chot; and endorsed Senator La Follette as their candi- 
 
THE SPLIT IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 425 
 
 date for the presidency." The importance of this en- 
 dorsement was greatly lessened because most of the 
 prominent Progressive Congressman and Senators re- 
 mained away from the conference. Even before the Chi- 
 cago meeting, Senator La Follette had opened extensive 
 headquarters in Washington and had been carrying on 
 an energetic campaign for the Republican presidential 
 nomination. 942 
 
 During the last week in the year 1911 Senator La 
 Follette "made a speaking tour of the Middle West. 
 . . . He affirmed that the progressive movement was 
 a fight as ' old as human liberty, for the rights of all the 
 people against the encroachments of a powerful few' 
 . . . . The purpose of the progressive movement 
 . . . . was so to modify constitutions, statutes, courts 
 and the complex details of government as to restore the 
 sovereignty of the people and carry out their will." 
 
 His program included "congressional legislation to 
 prevent unreasonable restraints of trade, based on phy- 
 sical valuation of corporate properties and the cost of 
 production." He would establish "a permanent, non- 
 partisan, scientific tariff commission" to ascertain the 
 difference in the cost of production in this and competing 
 countries as a basis for protective duties. He favored 
 "the direct primary for selection of delegates to Presi- 
 dential conventions, together with a Presidential prefer- 
 ence primary, the popular vote to be binding upon the 
 action of the delegates. He stood for the initiative and 
 referendum and the recall, including the recall of 
 judges." 943 
 
 A division arose among the Progressives as to the 
 candidate who would be most likely to defeat President 
 Taft's renomination. Senator La Follette was first en- 
 
426 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 couraged to announce himself, but later lie was urged to 
 withdraw in favor of Mr. Roosevelt as a more popular 
 leader with a better chance of defeating the President. 
 Dissension and recrimination resulted and became the 
 basis for a bitter personal feud between La Follette and 
 Roosevelt. The former declared that he had been used 
 to test the situation, and when it had been found favor- 
 able, Roosevelt announced his willingness to enter the 
 race as he had all along intended to do. On the other 
 hand, it was declared that La Follette had been supported 
 faithfully until his own physical breakdown, as evidenced 
 in his address in Philadelphia in February, 1912, made it 
 plain that another candidate must be found. 944 
 
 Later in the same month (on February 10th) a confer- 
 ence was held in Chicago, which was attended by seven 
 Republican Governors and seventy Republican leaders 
 representing twenty-four States. The purpose of this 
 meeting was to promote the nomination of Roosevelt. 
 The Governors present were Stubbs of Kansas, Osborn 
 of Michigan, Hadley of Missouri, Aldrich of Nebraska, 
 Bass of New Hampshire, Glasscock of "West Virginia, 
 and Carey of Wyoming. These seven Governors ad- 
 dressed a letter to Colonel Roosevelt stating their belief 
 that "a large majority of the Republican voters of the 
 country favor your nomination and a large majority of 
 the people favor your election as the next President of 
 the United States. ' ' They asked him to ' ' declare wheth- 
 er, if the nomination was offered to him unsolicited and 
 unsought, he would accept it." 
 
 Two weeks later Mr. Roosevelt replied that he would 
 accept the nomination "if it were tendered to him", and 
 "expressed the hope that as far as possible the people 
 might be given a chance, through direct primaries, to 
 
THE SPLIT IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 427 
 
 express their preference as to who should be the nominee 
 of the Republican National Convention." 046 
 
 Three days earlier Mr. Roosevelt had delivered "a 
 notable address before the Obio Constitutional Conven- 
 tion" at Columbus in which he declared himself a Pro- 
 gressive and announced his support of ' ' all governmental 
 devices which will make the representatives of the people 
 more easily and certainly responsible to the people's 
 will." Among these devices he included the "recall of 
 judicial decisions", which he "explained to mean that 
 when a court decides a constitutional question .... 
 the people should have a right to recall that decision if 
 they think it wrong." He distinctly limited the use of 
 the recall to the States. He also favored the initiative 
 and referendum, the short ballot, popular election of 
 Senators, direct nominations, presidential preference 
 primaries, and popular election of delegates to national 
 nominating conventions. He closed the address ' ' with an 
 earnest plea for social justice, for the moralization not 
 only of political conditions, but of industrial conditions". 
 
 This speech was regarded as his political platform, and 
 with the announcement of his candidacy in reply to the 
 letter of the Governors "an active and by no means 
 friendly campaign" for the Republican nomination was 
 begun. President Taft and Mr. Roosevelt waged a vigor- 
 ous campaign against each other by means of public 
 addresses during the interval before the assembling of 
 the nominating convention in June. The ex-President 
 accused Taft of being "a reactionary and of being in 
 league with bosses and the beneficiary of their crooked 
 politics". The President replied by referring to direct 
 primaries as "soap-box" primaries and their advocates 
 as "political emotionalists or neurotics". 
 
428 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 The bitterness of this unfortunate personal campaign 
 was increased by the fact that ten States had provided by 
 law for a presidential preference primary — namely, 
 Oregon, California, Nebraska, North Dakota, South 
 Dakota, New Jersey, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Mary- 
 land, and Illinois. In all the primaries except in Mas- 
 sachusetts, Wisconsin, and North Dakota, Mr. Roosevelt 
 won, generally by large majorities. In Massachusetts 
 the result was "close and inconclusive", and in North 
 Dakota Senator La Follette won a majority over both of 
 the other candidates. In Wisconsin the vote was 131,920 
 for La Follette, and 47,629 for Taft — Mr. Roosevelt's 
 name not appearing on the ballot. The results left the 
 decision in the hands of the convention because of the 
 partial character of the presidential primary. So far 
 as there was an opportunity for a popular expression, it 
 plainly indicated Roosevelt as the choice. 946 
 
 The Republican National Convention met in Chicago 
 on June 18th. The preliminary arrangements were in 
 the hands of the national committee, chosen four years 
 before, which favored the renomination of President 
 Taft, and this committee selected Senator Elihu Root 
 of New York to act as temporary chairman. When the 
 announcement of the choice was made Mr. Roosevelt is- 
 sued a statement in which he urged Progressive Repub- 
 licans to oppose Senator Root's election as one "put for- 
 ward by the bosses and the representatives of special 
 privileges and as opposed to progressive principles with- 
 in the Republican party. ' ' 
 
 According to established custom, it is the business of 
 the national committee to make up a temporary roll of 
 members by deciding between the claims of contesting 
 
THE SPLIT IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 429 
 
 delegates, subject to reversal by tbe convention itself 
 after organization. The Eoosevelt supporters claimed 
 that the committee ought to carry out the popular will 
 and not seek to thwart it. As the work progressed and it 
 became apparent that the committee proposed to use its 
 power against Mr. Roosevelt, he decided to go to Chicago 
 and watch the struggle in person. On his arrival on 
 June 15th he declared that he felt "like a bull moose" — 
 a phrase which later gave a "popular name and symbol" 
 to the Progressive party. 
 
 After the roll had been prepared it became certain that 
 the Taft forces would control the convention. Governor 
 McGovern of Wisconsin was named by the Roosevelt dele- 
 gates as their candidate for temporary chairman, but 
 Senator Root was chosen by a vote of five hundred and 
 fifty-eight to five hundred and two. After the ' ' keynote ' ' 
 speech of the temporary chairman who ' ' appealed to the 
 minority to yield to the majority and to work for a united 
 party", Governor Hadley of Missouri moved that ninety- 
 two of the Roosevelt delegates be seated, but the motion 
 was referred to the committee on credentials, which had 
 been made up by the Taft organization, and it was soon 
 made plain that no concessions would be made. On June 
 20th Mr. Roosevelt declared that he was "through" and 
 advised his delegates not to act longer with "a fraudu- 
 lent majority ' '. The ' ' steam-roller ' ' continued its work, 
 and Mr. Roosevelt published another statement in which 
 he expressed his willingness to accept a Progressive 
 nomination. 
 
 On June 22nd "Henry J. Allen 947 of Kansas announced 
 that the Roosevelt delegates would no longer share the 
 responsibility for the convention's acts." He also read 
 
430 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 a message from Mr. Roosevelt in which, he reiterated his 
 charges of fraud and repeated his advice for his dele- 
 gates to refuse to vote. 
 
 Mr. Fairbanks of Indiana, as chairman of the resolu- 
 tions committee, read the platform. A substitute Pro- 
 gressive platform was offered by delegates from Wiscon- 
 sin, but was laid on the table after a brief debate. For 
 the platform offered by the committee six hundred and 
 sixty-six votes were cast, fifty-three opposed it, and 
 three hundred and forty-three remained silent. Presi- 
 dent Taft was nominated by W. G. Harding of Ohio, the 
 nomination being seconded by John Wanamaker of Phila- 
 delphia and by President Butler of Columbia University. 
 Senator La Follette was nominated by a "Wisconsin man 
 and his nomination was seconded by a North Dakota 
 delegate. When the roll was called five hundred and 
 sixty-one voted for Taft, one hundred and seven for 
 Roosevelt, forty-one for La Follette, seventeenfor Cum- 
 mins, and two for Hughes ; while three hundred and forty- 
 four remained silent. Vice President Sherman was re- 
 nominated, receiving five hundred and ninety-seven 
 votes; while three hundred and fifty-two delegates re- 
 mained silent. 948 
 
 The severity of the contest within the Republican 
 party absorbed public attention to such an extent that the 
 struggle in the Democratic party received slight notice, 
 although the conflict in the majority party made it very 
 probable that the Democratic nominee would be elected. 
 In that party, too, there was ' ' a notable struggle between 
 the radical and conservative wings." 
 
 The three leading candidates were Governor Judson 
 Harmon of Ohio, Speaker Champ Clark, and Governor 
 
THE SPLIT IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 431 
 
 "Woodrow Wilson of New Jersey. Governor Harmon 
 was regarded as a conservative and his nomination was 
 vigorously opposed by Mr. Bryan. As between the other 
 two candidates he remained neutral until the meeting of 
 the convention. Speaker Clark entered the convention 
 "considerably in the lead in the number of delegates 
 pledged, but without a majority pledged to his nomina- 
 tion." 
 
 A succession of events just before and after the as- 
 sembling of the convention led Mr. Bryan to abandon 
 Speaker Clark and announce his support of Governor 
 Wilson. This action was the culmination of a series of 
 remarkable efforts by Mr. Bryan during the convention 
 to bring about the nomination of a Progressive Democrat. 
 His announcement settled the contest in favor of Gov- 
 ernor Wilson who was nominated on the forty-sixth bal- 
 lot by a vote of nine hundred and ninety, Clark receiving 
 eighty-four and Harmon twelve. Mr. Bryan's part in the 
 Baltimore convention was as dramatic as his action in 
 that of 1896; and its practical importance consisted in 
 the fact that it determined which of two men was to be 
 the next President of the United States. 949 
 
 At the close of the Republican convention "the Roose- 
 velt delegates .... with their alternates and thou- 
 sands of Roosevelt followers, held a meeting in Orchestra 
 Hall" in Chicago. Resolutions were adopted, and Mr. 
 Roosevelt made a long speech 950 in which he declared that 
 the time had come for all Progressives to get together in 
 one party. He expressed his willingness to be a candi- 
 date, but any other man nominated would receive his 
 "heartiest support." A provisional committee was ap- 
 pointed to arrange for the new organization. 
 
432 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 On July 8th a call was issued for a convention to meet 
 in Chicago on August 5th to organize the new party. This 
 call was signed by men representing forty States, in- 
 cluding Governor Hiram Johnson of California, Judge 
 B. B. Lindsay of Colorado, James E. Garfield of Ohio, 
 and Gifford Pinchot of Pennsylvania. 951 
 
 "The National Progressive Convention met at Chicago 
 Aug. 5. There were 18 women delegates .... 
 prominent among whom was Miss Jane Addams of Chi- 
 cago. ' ' Ex-Senator Albert J. Beveridge of Indiana was 
 temporary chairman and made an eloquent address which 
 aroused the delegates "to a high pitch of enthusiasm. 
 The convention, with ten thousand people in attendance, 
 sang fervently the 'Battle Hymn of the Bepublic', and 
 'Onward Christian Soldiers', and the demonstrations and 
 spirit that was manifested led even hostile newspapers' 
 correspondents to report that nothing like this conven- 
 tion had ever before been known in American politics; 
 that it seemed more like a religious assembly imbued with 
 a humanitarian spirit of enthusiasm and devotion. ' ' 
 
 On the second day of the convention Mr. Roosevelt was 
 received with great enthusiasm, and made his "Confes- 
 sion of Faith", which a New York newspaper strongly 
 opposed to him described as "the best, the ablest, the 
 most persuasive of all his public utterances. ' ' 
 
 On the third day a platform was adopted, candidates 
 nominated, and the convention adjourned. Roosevelt 
 and Johnson were nominated for President and Vice 
 President. The official name of the party was designated 
 as the "Progressive Party". The distinctive feature of 
 the platform was its program of social and industrial 
 justice, in which it was declared that "the supreme duty 
 of the Nation is the conservation of human resources". 
 
THE SPLIT IN THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 433 
 
 This program included "legislation regarding industrial 
 health and accidents, child labor, wage standards, wom- 
 en's labor, hours and days of labor, convict labor, indus^ 
 trial education, and industrial research." 962 
 
 The significance of the convention was finely stated by 
 Miss Addams in her brief address seconding the nomina- 
 tion of Mr. Eoosevelt. "Measures of industrial ameli- 
 oration", she said, "demands for social justice, long 
 discussed by small groups in charity conferences and 
 economic associations, have here been considered in a 
 great National Convention and are at last thrust into the 
 stern arena of political action. A great party has pledged 
 itself to the protection of children, to the care of the aged, 
 to the relief of overworked girls, to the safeguarding of 
 burdened men .... The new party has become the 
 American exponent of a world-wide movement toward 
 juster social conditions, a movement which America, lag- 
 ging behind other great nations, has been unaccountably 
 slow to embody in political action. ' ' 953 
 
 The campaign was an exceptional one, with a number 
 of dramatic incidents. On October 14th an attempt was 
 made to assassinate Mr. Roosevelt in Milwaukee and he 
 was seriously wounded. On October 30th Vice President 
 Sherman died after a long illness. Senator La Follette 
 repeatedly made bitter personal attacks upon Mr. Roose- 
 velt, and "he was understood to be throwing his influence 
 privately" for Governor Wilson. 954 
 
 The result of the election was ' ' a sweeping Democratic 
 victory .... by pluralities in so many states as to 
 give that party's candidate the largest vote and the 
 largest majority in the Electoral College ever given to 
 a party candidate." President Taft carried two States, 
 Vermont and Utah; Mr. Roosevelt carried five States, 
 
434 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota, South Dakota, and 
 Washington, and received eleven of the thirteen electoral 
 votes of California; Governor Wilson carried all the 
 other States and received four hundred and thirty-five 
 electoral votes to eight for President Taft and eighty- 
 eight for Mr. Roosevelt. The popular vote was as fol- 
 lows: Wilson, 6,290,818; Roosevelt, 4,123,206; Taft, 
 3,484,529; and Debs, 898,296. Governor Wilson had "a 
 popular plurality of more than 2,160,000 over his nearest 
 competitor", but there was a popular majority against 
 him of nearly 2,460,000. "The combined vote for Taft 
 and Roosevelt would make a majority of 1,316,927 against 
 Wilson .... It is known that many Independents, 
 Anti-Bryan Democrats and Republicans voted for Mr. 
 Wilson, and it is therefore obvious that very many for- 
 mer Bryan Democrats must have voted for Roosevelt or 
 for Debs, or refrained from voting." 955 
 
XXVIII 
 
 THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT IN IOWA: GOV- 
 ERNOR LARRABEE 
 
 Iowa has been fortunate in its Governors in times of 
 unrest and agitation. Minor parties have not developed 
 as great strength within her borders as in other States 
 partly because the majority party has become moderately 
 inoculated with the new demands and has conceded a por- 
 tion of them. In 1873, for instance, Governor Cyrus C. 
 Carpenter favored the regulation of railroads by the 
 State and his attitude probably saved the Republicans 
 from defeat. Very fortunately he had urged railroad 
 legislation in his inaugural in 1872 so that he was not 
 open to the criticism that he was a late convert for polit- 
 ical reasons. Railroad regulation was the first object to 
 which the Progressive movement gave attention. 
 
 The railroad law of 1874 was a radical measure adopt- 
 ed under the influence of the Anti-Monopoly party of that 
 period, but approved and administered by the Republican 
 Governor. This act was "perhaps the best example of 
 an attempt to establish a fixed schedule of maximum rates 
 and remained unrepealed longer than the similar acts 
 of any of the other states. ' ' 956 According to Peter A. 
 Dey, who did not believe in the method used, "the 
 rates and classification .... were certainly rea- 
 sonable .... and were the production of a mind 
 familiar with the cost of railroad service and disposed to 
 act justly." 9 " 
 
 435 
 
436 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 This measure was finally repealed in 1878 as the result 
 of a systematic campaign waged against it by the rail- 
 roads, 958 and in its place was substituted a commission 
 appointed by the Governor "with the power to give ad- 
 vice .... but with no authority to enforce the 
 advice. Excellent and well-known men were appointed 
 and for many years a truce was established between 
 the people and the railroad managers on terms that had 
 been devised by the corporations. All that had been 
 gained by years of agitation .... was now sur- 
 rendered .... It took ten years to recover the 
 lost ground and cost the people of the State millions of 
 dollars." 959 
 
 A more conservative view of the situation was pre- 
 sented by Governor William Larrabee in his study of 
 The Railroad Question, which was published in 1893 and 
 in which he described the repeal of the law in 1878 as 
 brought about by the efforts of the railroad managers to 
 discredit it. ' ' There had been, however, no expression of 
 public dissatisfaction during the campaign preceding the 
 session of the General Assembly. There were doubtless 
 individuals and even communities to whom the law had 
 been made so odious that they felt they had but little to 
 lose by a change, but the masses of the people believed 
 that the law was based upon just principles and desired 
 its perfection rather than its repeal." Mr. Larrabee, 
 who had been a member of the State Senate since 1867, 
 "was convinced that a strong and conscientious commis- 
 sion would be a much more potent agency to secure rea- 
 sonable rates for the shipper than a maximum tariff law 
 without proper provisions for its efficient enforcement." 
 After "many animated debates in both houses of the 
 General Assembly .... the commissioner system 
 
GOVERNOR LARRABEE 437 
 
 at last prevailed .... The law was extensive in its 
 scope and stringent for that time, and, if strictly enforced 
 in letter and in spirit, promised to be, and would have 
 been, entirely sufficient for the thorough control of rail- 
 road corporations. ' ' 
 
 An interval of ten years elapsed before the next gen- 
 eral change was made in railroad legislation. The de- 
 velopments that led to it are described by Mr. Larrabee. 
 "Nevertheless, in the course of time it became apparent 
 that either the law had not lodged sufficient authority in 
 the commission or the commission did not make use of 
 the authority which the law had given them .... 
 The people soon found that the new system of control was 
 almost as inadequate as that which it had displaced. 
 Some attributed the weakness of the commission to its 
 personnel, others to the law. There is no doubt that 
 the commission might have accomplished more than it 
 did." 960 
 
 The agitation that finally produced the railroad act of 
 1888 gradually took shape. "Every year seemed to add 
 to the grievances of the public. Success greatly em- 
 boldened the railway companies. Discriminations seemed 
 to increase in number and gravity. At many points in 
 the western part of the State freight rates to Chicago 
 were from 50 to 75 per cent higher than from points in 
 Kansas and Nebraska. . . . The rate on coal in car- 
 load lots from Cleveland, Lucas County, to Grlenwood was 
 $1.80 per ton, and from the same point to Council Bluffs 
 only $1.25, although the latter was about thirty miles 
 longer haul .... Eepeated attempts were made in 
 the General Assembly to secure the passage of an act 
 looking to that end [that is, a more thorough control of 
 railroads], but, owing to shrewd manipulations on the 
 
438 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 part of the railroad lobby, every attempt was defeat- 
 ed. .. . Railroad politicians gradually lost their in- 
 fluence, and the symptoms of public discontent greatly 
 increased. ' ' 961 
 
 The preliminary battles were fought in the General 
 Assembly of 1886, while the contest reached a conclusion 
 in 1888. James G. Berryhill was the recognized leader 
 in the House of Representatives in both of these Assem- 
 blies. He framed the legislation with great care in re- 
 spect to the constitutional points involved. The railroad 
 companies never allowed the controversy to go to the 
 Supreme Court of the United States because they were 
 so thoroughly convinced of its constitutionality. Because 
 of the Glenwood coal case in which the railroads charged 
 an excessive rate for transporting coal to a State institu- 
 tion Governor Larrabee was convinced of the need of 
 legislation. He appealed to the Railway Commissioners, 
 and they decided that they had no power to remedy the 
 abuse complained of since their functions were merely 
 advisory. 
 
 Although forty-five bills were introduced in the House 
 and sixteen in the Senate all the legislation proposed by 
 the reformers in the session of 1886 was defeated. The 
 three chief points aimed at were to prohibit free passes 
 to public officials, to make the Railroad Commissioners 
 elective, and to give them power to fix freight and pas- 
 senger rates. During this session the Senate gave much 
 less attention to the subject than did the House. 962 
 
 In his second inaugural address in 1888 Governor Lar- 
 rabee made a strong plea for the control of railroad 
 charges by the legislature. He declared that "the main 
 issue ' ' concerned the ' ' mutual relations between the peo- 
 ple and the great corporations." He then took up the 
 
GOVERNOR LARRABEE 439 
 
 subject of railway transportation, in the course of which 
 discussion he gave "a retrospective view and a survey" 
 of the situation. He described the way in which the legis- 
 lation of 1874 was passed, the attitude of the railroad 
 managers toward the act, and their successful efforts to 
 have it repealed in 1878. He proceeded to say that "the 
 charges for transportation .... are by far too 
 high, and bear little or no relation to the cost of the ser- 
 vice. Although steel rails can now be purchased for 
 one-third of the price paid for the iron rails that were 
 laid upon roads built fifteen years ago, and engines, cars 
 and coal have depreciated in value in nearly the same 
 proportion, local freight and passenger rates have not 
 decreased to any perceptible degree. Railroad companies 
 should not be allowed to reap all the profits growing out 
 of modern inventions and the reduced cost of equipping 
 and operating their roads". 
 
 "The railroads of Iowa have received as donations 
 from various sources a value of over fifty million dol- 
 lars .... The men who control our railroads labor 
 under a serious delusion, inasmuch as they entertain an 
 exaggerated opinion of the obligations under which they 
 have placed the public. They attribute to themselves the 
 unparalleled material progress which this country has 
 made, and claim the wealth which by their agency has 
 been accumulated as their reward .... this argu- 
 ment, if carried to its logical result, would transfer the 
 title to a large share of their income to the heirs of Mr. 
 Watt, the inventor of the steam engine. A similar rea- 
 soning would also give to McCormick all the profits of the 
 reaper, and to Whitney those of the cotton gin. Owners 
 of railroads are no more entitled to a perpetual royalty 
 than inventors." 
 
440 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Continuing his searching analysis of the situation in 
 the State the Governor pointed out the fact that the rail- 
 roads had ' ' usurped powers dangerous to the public wel- 
 fare, and have practiced extortions perhaps less cruel, 
 but in the aggregate more gigantic, than those of the 
 British landlord. It has been found necessary to limit 
 the power of public officers to levy taxes for the main- 
 tenance of our schools and the support of State, county 
 and municipal government — notwithstanding the fact 
 that those taxes are used for the benefit of the people. 
 Yet a few railroad managers are free to meet in Chicago 
 and levy an extra tax of one, three or even five million 
 dollars upon the people of Iowa without giving them any- 
 thing in return". 
 
 ' ' The assertion has often been made that railroads do 
 not take sides in politics. It is doubtless true that they 
 do not cast their fortunes with those of political parties, 
 but it is not true that they do not concern themselves in 
 the affairs of the political arena. It has been for years 
 their well defined policy to favor their friends and pun- 
 ish their enemies". 
 
 Governor Larrabee's recommendation at the close of 
 his arraignment of the railroads was that the Railroad 
 Commissioners "should be authorized and required to 
 exercise full and complete supervision over the railroads 
 of the State, compelling them to comply with the laws 
 and to furnish adequate facilities at reasonable compen- 
 sation. With less than this the people of Iowa will not 
 and should not be satisfied. ' ' 96S 
 
 The day before, in his biennial message, he had made 
 more detailed recommendations as follows: (1) "the 
 passage of a law destroying the pass system root and 
 branch"; (2) "that maximum passenger fares on first 
 
GOVERNOR LARRABEE 441 
 
 class roads be fixed at two cents a mile"; (3) "the pas- 
 sage of a law fixing reasonable maximum rates of freight 
 on the principal commodities transported by rail; and 
 also authorizing and requiring the Railroad Commission- 
 ers to reduce said rates at any time when, in their judg- 
 ment, they are too high. . . . Railroads should not 
 be permitted to raise any freight rate at any time with- 
 out the written approval of the Railroad Commission- 
 ers"; and (4) election of the Railroad Commissioners by 
 the people or their choice through nomination by the 
 executive and confirmation by the Senate. Moreover, 
 the salaries of the Commissioners should be paid by the 
 State and not by the railroad companies. 964 
 
 Such a message and such recommendations from the 
 Governor of a State nearly thirty years ago are worthy 
 of especial attention since most of the matters referred 
 to are yet to be fully accomplished in many parts of the 
 country. Governor Larrabee was a pioneer, antedating 
 every one of the Progressive leaders thus far considered. 
 His advanced position is all the more remarkable for he 
 was a successful business man and a banker. 
 
 In the preface to his study of The Railroad Question 
 he described himself as "not an entire novice in railroad 
 affairs. ' ' He had had ' ' experience as a shipper and as a 
 railroad promoter, owner and stockholder ' ', and had even 
 had "thrust upon him for a short time the responsibility 
 of a director, president and manager of a railroad com- 
 pany. . . . He came to ... . Iowa before any 
 railroad had reached the Mississippi. Engaging early 
 in manufacturing, he suffered all the inconveniences of 
 pioneer transportation, and his experience instilled into 
 him liberal opinions concerning railroads and their pro- 
 moters. He extended to them from the beginning all the 
 
442 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 assistance in his power, making not only private dona- 
 tions to new roads, but advocating also public aid upon 
 the ground that railroads are public roads. As a mem- 
 ber of the Iowa Senate" for eighteen years he "favored 
 always such legislation as would most encourage the 
 building of railroads, believing that with an increase of 
 competitive lines the common law and competition could 
 be relied upon to correct abuses and solve the rate prob- 
 lem. He has since become convinced of the falsity of 
 this doctrine. . . . It is the object of this work to 
 show that as long as the railroads are permitted to be 
 managed as private property .... they are not 
 performing their proper functions ; and that they will not 
 serve their real purpose until they become in fact what 
 they are in theory, highways to be controlled by the gov- 
 ernment as thoroughly and effectually as the common 
 road, the turnpike and the ferry, or the post-office and the 
 custom-house. ' ' 965 
 
 The strong position taken by the Governor for legis- 
 lative control of the railroads encouraged the advocates 
 of such a measure in the legislature to frame a bill to deal 
 adequately with the problem. It met with "the most de- 
 termined opposition" from the railroads, but for the first 
 time since 1874 they "found an organization equal to 
 their own", which could not be "circumvented, intim- 
 idated nor beaten. ' ' 968 Bills making the Commissioners 
 elective for a term of three years and giving them power 
 to regulate railroads and other common carriers (street 
 railways excepted) easily passed the General Assembly. 
 ' ' Public sentiment had become irresistible and there was 
 little opposition to the reform in either branch of the 
 General Assembly. ' ' The abolition of free passes to pub- 
 lic officials, however, failed again and that reform had to 
 
GOVERNOR LARRABEE 443 
 
 await another forward movement in the struggle between 
 the people and the railroads. 067 
 
 Governor Larrabee's last message in February, 1890, 
 reviewed the working of the new railroad laws after 
 nearly two years of experience. He referred to the ' ' fact 
 that the act [eh. 28] passed both houses without a dis- 
 senting voice" as proving "that great care and intelli- 
 gence had been exercised in framing it. Experience has 
 since demonstrated the wisdom and justice of the meas- 
 ure. The companies made strenuous efforts to defeat the 
 enactment and afterwards the enforcement of the law. 
 Failing in the attempt, they advanced local freight rates, 
 immediately after the adjournment of the General As- 
 sembly, from 20 to 30 per cent. 
 
 "The commissioners proceeded under the law to pre- 
 pare a schedule of rates for the roads. They endeavored 
 to give, as far as it was possible, relief to the business 
 interests of the State, which had been greatly depressed 
 by unjust rates ; and at the same time to grant the carrier 
 a reasonable compensation for the service rendered". 
 
 "After having secured from the commissioners such 
 modifications of the schedule as they could, the railroad 
 managers proceeded to enjoin them in the federal court 
 from enforcing it. The Attorney-General commenced a 
 large number of penalty suits in the state courts against 
 various companies, to compel compliance with the law. 
 Soon after, upon the application of a number of shippers, 
 the commissioners modified the original schedule by the 
 adoption of the Western Classification. The railroad 
 managers now again applied to the federal court for an 
 injunction, but were refused ; whereupon they adopted the 
 commissioners' tariff, and I directed the Attorney-Gen- 
 eral to discontinue the prosecution of the penalty suits. 
 
444 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 "They showed their resentment, however, by discharg- 
 ing a large number of employes and greatly reducing the 
 train-service. This reduction caused much inconvenience 
 to the public, and doubtless diminished the revenues of 
 the companies, while the discharge of so many faithful 
 employes was an act of great injustice. The discontinued 
 trains have since been restored, and the roads have never 
 been so crowded with business as at present, nor has the 
 service ever been more satisfactory to the people. 
 
 "Quite recently the companies also dismissed their 
 injunction suits, thus admitting the reasonableness of 
 our rates and the groundlessness of their complaints 
 against the legislation of the last General Assembly. It 
 is now generally admitted that our present local freight 
 tariffs are more equitable than any previously in force 
 in the State ; and it affords me pleasure to say that there 
 is at present little friction between the railroad com- 
 panies and the people." 98S 
 
 For the period when this legislation was obtained its 
 completeness and results were really remarkable ; but the 
 power of the railroads was only limited and an interval 
 of relaxation of agitation was bound to allow them to 
 recover in other ways a considerable portion of their in- 
 fluence. The fact that the Commissioners were elective 
 gave the railroads an opportunity to control the election 
 of useful and friendly men. As soon as the popular in- 
 terest relaxed, it proved easy to weaken the law in this 
 way. While a vigorous Governor and a group of leading 
 men were on hand, little could be accomplished; but the 
 railroad managers were constantly at work, while pop- 
 ular opinion and public servants vary in interest and 
 efficiency. After another ten years much of the work 
 had to be done over again and done more thoroughly. 
 
GOVERNOR LARRABEE 445 
 
 Governor Larrabee's effective leadership in the settle- 
 ment of the railroad question had made him a popular 
 leader and many citizens desired that he should be re- 
 tained in the service of the State. Some suggestions 
 were made that he would be a suitable successor to Sen- 
 ator James F. Wilson in 1888, but he refused positively 
 to allow his name to be used. Again in 1890 he was 
 "mentioned as the proper man for the senatorship" in 
 succession to Senator William B. Allison, who had al- 
 ready served three terms. The Democrats had carried 
 the State at the last election for Governor and the Ee- 
 publicans retained control in the legislature by "such 
 a small majority that complete harmony was necessary 
 within the party to elect a United States Senator." Gov- 
 ernor Larrabee refused to be a candidate. "He was 
 tendered the influence of combinations in the legislature 
 that would have made him senator .... If he had 
 tried he would have succeeded. He came almost [near] 
 succeeding without trying — and he would have done so 
 if he had not stopped his friends and advocates in the 
 legislature." 969 Even after his refusal to be a candidate 
 he received eight votes. Moreover, it should be remem- 
 bered that it took nearly six weeks and one hundred and 
 thirty-seven ballots to organize the House in this legis- 
 lature, and the compromise candidate for Speaker was a 
 Democrat. How easy it would have been to bring about 
 a deadlock in the senatorial election with Governor Lar- 
 rabee as a compromise candidate ! 97 ° 
 
 The relation between the Progressive movement in 
 Iowa and Wisconsin was literally that of both cause and 
 effect so far as Iowa was concerned. Iowa was in ad- 
 vance of Wisconsin in 1894 when La Follette began his 
 work in the latter State, and Iowa's experience was used 
 
446 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 by him as an example of better conditions as to railroad 
 control. 971 La Follette's agitation was the inspiration, 
 at least in part, of the reforms made under the admin- 
 istrations of Governor Albert B. Cummins from 1901 to 
 1908. 
 
 Governor Larrabee has a remarkable chapter in his 
 book upon The Railroad Question in which he describes 
 the influence of the "Itailroads in Politics". While lie 
 makes only occasional references to conditions in Iowa 
 there is every reason to suppose that his account is based 
 upon experience in his own State, which was similar to 
 that of other States. 
 
 In concluding this chapter he declared that it was 
 "probably true that railroad managers" had "lost much 
 of their former influence in politics. As their means of 
 corruption have become generally known they have be- 
 come less effective. The public is more on the alert, 
 and corrupt politicians often find themselves unable to 
 carry out their discreditable compacts. But it is un- 
 reasonable to expect the evil to cease until the cause is 
 removed .... when there shall be established a 
 most thorough and efficient system of State and National 
 control over the railroad business of the whole coun- 
 try. ' ' 972 Such a statement published in 1893 gives a con- 
 temporary view of the situation at the beginning of the 
 last decade of the last century. 
 
XXIX 
 
 THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT IN IOWA: 
 GOVERNOR CUMMINS 
 
 The railroad influence in politics did not again arouse 
 attention until in 1894, when the contest over the election 
 of a successor to Senator James F. Wilson, who declined 
 to be a candidate for another term, was being fought out. 
 "Among the candidates .... was Mr. A. B. Cum- 
 mins, of Des Moines. He was one of the acknowledged 
 leaders at the Iowa bar, a railway lawyer of high pro- 
 fessional rank, and a Republican of well-known individu- 
 ality of thought and speech .... he had not gone 
 very far in his campaign for the Senate before he dis- 
 covered the location of the private [Railroad] offices in 
 which .... it had been decided that he was an 
 undesirable citizen. His defeat neither disappointed nor 
 discouraged him. He called his friends about him, and 
 announced his purpose, with their help, to keep up the 
 fight." 
 
 A group of able railroad lawyers had for many years 
 attended political conventions and sessions of the General 
 Assembly. Their chief business was to see that "nobody 
 was nominated for a State office who had morbid views 
 upon the subject of railway taxation", and to discourage 
 "unfriendly" legislation. They also took an interest in 
 the election of United States Senators to prevent any one 
 "of an erratic turn of mind" from getting into "that 
 ancient retreat of sane and safe statesmen". They man- 
 
 447 
 
448 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 aged these matters "with such suavity of manner that 
 their activities seldom produced a disagreeable impres- 
 sion upon the public mind. ' ' 973 
 
 Mr. Cummins had come to Des Moines in 1878 after a 
 varied experience as express messenger, surveyor, and 
 railroad engineer. Before his removal to Iowa he had 
 read law and had had three years of practice in the Chi- 
 cago courts. He opened an office in the capital city and 
 rose rapidly in his profession until he became one of the 
 best known lawyers in the State. 
 
 In 1881 he became the chief attorney for the farmers in 
 their litigation with the syndicate that had obtained con- 
 trol of the best patents covering the manufacture of 
 barbed wire. A "Protective Association" had been 
 formed to resist the advance of price and to test the mat- 
 ter in the courts. The contest continued for more than 
 five years, and in the end the monopoly was broken. 
 Mr. Cummins acquired a State-wide reputation as the 
 result of his handling of this important series of cases. 974 
 
 In 1888 he took his seat in the lower house of the Gen- 
 eral Assembly as an anti-prohibition Republican. "In 
 all legislation aside from prohibition he acted with the 
 Republicans." He was a man of independence and his 
 course in the legislature, added to his part in the break- 
 ing up of the barb-wire monopoly, made him unsatisfac- 
 tory to the big business interests and the corporations. 
 Hence their objection to him as a United States Sen- 
 ator. 975 
 
 Mr. John H. Gear, the successful candidate for the 
 United States Senate in 1894, had been the compromise 
 Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1874 when 
 that body had been equally divided between Republicans 
 and Anti-Monopolists. He had been Governor from 1878 
 
GOVERNOR CUMMIXS 449 
 
 to 1882, and was elected to Congress in 1886, 1888, and 
 1892. During his campaign for the senatorship he "had 
 been accustomed to say, as an argument in his own be- 
 half, that he only desired the office .... to round 
 out his career" — a plausible statement because he was 
 then nearly seventy years of age. But as the end of his 
 term approached and he decided to be a candidate again, 
 Mr. Cummins announced his own candidacy and "a 
 struggle ensued which has ever since been famous in 
 Iowa political affairs. ' ' 976 
 
 A significant argument used against Gear was that 
 "he was the candidate of a 'Senatorial Trust', a danger- 
 ous political machine which was endeavoring to assume 
 a dictatorship in Iowa politics. The men who made up 
 this 'Senatorial Trust' or 'Regency' were said to be the 
 members of the Iowa delegation in the lower house of 
 Congress, a number of Federal officials from Iowa, and 
 five or six candidates who had run against Gear for the 
 senatorship in 1894. . . . The danger of permitting 
 this alleged machine to gain control of the State was 
 again and again pointed out by those who were working 
 for the success of Albert B. Cummins." 
 
 The contest waged fiercely throughout the year 1899 
 in county and district conventions as well as in connec- 
 tion with the fall elections of members of the General 
 Assembly. "Both sides claimed the victory almost up 
 to the date of the legislative caucus; but an impartial 
 count would doubtless have foreshadowed the success of 
 Senator Gear." 977 
 
 Senator Gear was reelected by a vote of one hundred 
 and eleven to thirty-two over his Democratic opponent, 
 without any opposing candidate among the Republicans. 
 Mr. Cummins had withdrawn his name in the Repub- 
 
450 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 lican caucus when it had become evident by the defeat of 
 his candidate for the speakership that his opponents were 
 in control. The deciding vote in the contest was forty- 
 three to thirty-eight. The Iowa State Register described 
 the fight made by Cummins as a "marvel", considering 
 that he had against him ' ' a railroad with millions back- 
 ing the biggest 'boss' the state ever knew, and a balf 
 dozen allied railroads with the shrewdest men in Iowa 
 political life in their employ, half or more of the con- 
 gressmen, the entire organization of the great Republican 
 party of Iowa, most of the office holders and aspirants, 
 an army of paid agents, hundreds of influential news- 
 papers whose editors are repaying obligations incurred 
 by accepting postmasterships, and scores of federal office 
 holders whose salaries the nation had paid while tbey 
 have spent three years in steady, continuous work for 
 their benefactor. ' ' 978 
 
 Senator Gear, however, died in July, 1900, before the 
 close of his first term, and Governor Shaw appointed 
 Congressman Jonathan P. Dolliver as his successor. 
 "The appointment of Mr. Cummins was not considered, 
 because he had offended and defied a power greater than 
 the government of the State." 979 The same opposition 
 that had prevented his election in 1894 and 1900 inter- 
 posed its veto. How little did the forces that dictated 
 the appointment of Mr. Dolliver realize that he was to 
 close his career as a co-laborer with the man whom they 
 had refused to endorse ! Before the next session of the 
 General Assembly in 1902, Mr. Cummins had been elected 
 Governor of Iowa and his contest for the Senate was 
 postponed to a future date after the completion of his 
 work as the executive of the State. 
 
 In February, 1901, Mr. Cummins announced his can- 
 
GOVERNOR CUMMINS 451 
 
 didacy for Governor, and in a letter, written to another 
 avowed aspirant to the same office, he declared that his 
 "great object in what" he had "done in a political way" 
 had been "to bring the individual voter into more prom- 
 inence, and to diminish the influence of permanent or- 
 ganization in the ranks of the party. ' ' 98 ° 
 
 At the Polk County convention he said that he was ' ' not 
 a candidate because J. W. Blythe or N. M. Hubbard" 
 wanted him to be. He had had occasion "to feel the 
 power of the passes and patronage distributed by" his 
 friends "from Burlington and Cedar Bapids". When 
 they sent him "a challenge, which one of them did", that 
 he must retire from his candidacy or be pounded into the 
 earth it fixed his ' ' determination beyond all reconsidera- 
 tion to ask the people of Iowa whether they intended this 
 distinguished coterie, who had honored" him "by their 
 enmity, to name who should be the Governor of Iowa. ' ' 981 
 
 Thus began "the most notable contest within the Re- 
 publican party since the famous Harlan-Allison sena- 
 torial campaign of thirty years before. Every county in 
 the State was fought for most vigorously by the contend- 
 ing wings of the party. . . . The former headers 
 were for some time unsettled as to the choice of a can- 
 didate .... to unite all elements of opposition to 
 Mr. Cummins". They finally decided to support Major 
 Edwin H. Conger, ' ' the American Minister to China, who 
 had recently won world-wide fame in the defense of 
 Pekin against the Boxers. ' ' He was willing to allow the 
 use of his name, but did not make an active canvass. In 
 spite of the efforts of the opposition Mr. Cummins en- 
 tered the convention at Cedar Bapids on August 7th with 
 866 delegates out of 1,641 and was nominated upon the 
 first ballot. 982 
 
452 THIRD PAETY MOVEMENTS 
 
 The proposal for tariff revision which came to be 
 known as the "Iowa Idea" appeared in the platform 
 adopted at Cedar Eapids, but it did not originate with 
 Mr. Cummins. These resolutions read as follows : 
 
 "We favor such changes in the tariff from time to time 
 as become advisable through the progress of our indus- 
 tries and their changing relations to the commerce of the 
 world. We indorse the policy of reciprocity as the nat- 
 ural complement of protection, and urge its development 
 as necessary to the realization of our highest commercial 
 possibilities." 
 
 "We favor such amendment of the inter-state com- 
 merce act as will more fully carry out its prohibition of 
 discrimination in rate making, and any modification of 
 the tariff schedules that may be required to prevent their 
 affording shelter to monopoly." 
 
 These declarations were written by George E. Roberts 
 and "adopted without debate or objection by the full 
 Committee on Resolutions, and when reported to the 
 convention were adopted by unanimous vote." There 
 was nothing especially original in the resolutions, since 
 they were "a mere paraphrase" of the national Repub- 
 lican platform of 1896 and were "taken almost literally 
 from the State platform of Connecticut". President 
 McKinley expressed the same idea a month later in his 
 speech at Buffalo just before his assassination, and in 
 the preparation for that speech he had read and com- 
 mended the declarations. As the "Iowa Idea", however, 
 the sentiments thus expressed enjoyed "a remarkable 
 celebrity" for a number of years. They represented 
 what was regarded as a progressive policy in regard to 
 the tariff, such as was held by the Progressive Repub- 
 
GOVERNOR CUMMINS 453 
 
 lican Senators in their opposition to the Payne-Aldrich 
 tariff act. 
 
 Mr. Cummins was without knowledge of these declara- 
 tions until after their adoption by the convention, but he 
 endorsed them fully and gave them an important place 
 in his campaign. 983 
 
 Another subject which Mr. Cummins emphasized in his 
 speeches was the assessments of railroads for taxation. 
 Such assessment, he maintained, should be upon the same 
 basis as was applied to farms and city lots. Undoubt- 
 edly his emphasis in this matter was due to his own ex- 
 perience with the hostility of the railroads towards him 
 simply because of his independence. In fact his program 
 was largely a personal one, resulting from his own ex- 
 perience in politics. He appealed from the party leaders 
 to the people ; he felt that the railroad influence was in- 
 evitably hostile to democracy and independence; he 
 turned inevitably to the methods and measures by which 
 more popular control and less party management would 
 prevail. 984 
 
 His opponents maintained that the senatorship was the 
 main object of his ambition, and that his election as Gov- 
 ernor was desired so that he might "place friends in 
 positions where they would be more influential and help- 
 ful in the coming contest for the senatorship. ' ' 985 "What- 
 ever may have been the real truth behind the controversy, 
 it resulted in legislation and administration that has 
 greatly benefited the State. Before Mr. Cummins re- 
 tired from the governorship, the domination of the rail- 
 roads had been broken, a primary law adopted, and 
 railroad taxation made more equitable. In short the 
 Progressive movement had been inaugurated in Iowa 
 
454 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 and concrete reforms had been accomplished. To be sure 
 Iowa had not advanced as far as Wisconsin, but the 
 movement had made notable progress. 
 
 The vote for Governor was as follows: Republican, 
 226,902; Democrat, 143,783; Prohibition, 15,659; Social- 
 ist, 3,463 ; and People 's, 782. The total vote cast was less 
 by 42,000 than that cast for Governor in 1899 and less by 
 47,000 than that for Governor in 1897. In fact it was 
 the smallest total vote cast in the State since 1889. The 
 Peoples party vote was only seven hundred and eighty- 
 two, showing that the 50,000 Populists had been absorbed 
 by the Democrats in Iowa as in the country at large. 
 The vote for the People's paxty candidate in 1897 and 
 1899 was 5,295 and 1,698 respectively. The Socialist 
 vote (3,463) had grown from eight hundred and seventy- 
 six and seven hundred and fifty-seven for the same years. 
 The gold Democrats voted very generally for the Repub- 
 licans and "served notice on the silver wing of the 
 party" that they would continue to do so "as long as 
 the Democratic platform of Iowa endorses the Kansas 
 City platform and Mr. Bryan. ' ' 
 
 The Iowa State Register described the victory as 
 mainly the result of Mr. Cummins 's "own energetic en- 
 deavor during the nine months of a contest that has not 
 been exceeded in strenuousness in Iowa's political his- 
 tory .... he had the unyielding and unending as- 
 sistance of Republican personal friends, and an organiza- 
 tion that has not been equaled in this state, but greater 
 than all have been his own personal endeavors in the pre- 
 convention contest and in the campaign. He appealed to 
 the people for their support and gained it without pledg- 
 ing himself to faction or interest." 986 
 
 The inaugural address of Governor Cummins in Janu- 
 
GOVERNOR CUMMINS 455 
 
 ary, 1902, presented for the first time in a formal way 
 his program as chief executive of the State. Significant- 
 ly, the first topic after the introductory paragraphs dealt 
 with "reform", of which he said that it was "unfortu- 
 nately as common, as it is unpatriotic, to sneer at the idea 
 of reform and to deride the reformer ; but the sneers and 
 derision proceed either from a corrupt heart or an un- 
 thinking mind. Eeform and betterment in laws are as 
 essential to the advance of the republic as is the growth 
 of its industrial life. . . . The true friend of prog- 
 ress recognizes that what we have is good, but perceives 
 that we may have better .... he knows that gov- 
 ernment, to be just and effective, must adapt itself to the 
 changing relations of men and the varying tendencies of 
 the age. He understands that this generation has some- 
 thing more to do than to glorify the past and enjoy the 
 fruits of its victories. ' ' 
 
 The next subject considered was that of "industrial 
 combinations." After a statement of their advantages 
 and disadvantages, the Governor concluded by saying 
 that it seemed plain to him "that whenever a consolida- 
 tion of manufacturers with respect to any commodity 
 stifles competition at home, or so restricts its operation 
 that its force is not fairly felt, then it is the imperative 
 duty of Congress to immediately remove the artificial 
 restraints we have created. I am not an advocate of a 
 general revision of the tariff ; but I stand for competition, 
 the competition of the Republic if possible, but of the 
 world if necessary. I regard the consequences of a 
 monopoly, or substantial monopoly, in any important 
 product, as infinitely more disastrous than the conse- 
 quences of foreign importations." 
 
 Concerning the tariff and reciprocity he declared his 
 
456 THIED PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 profound belief in the wisdom of the protective tariff 
 policy and its value in the past as the most important 
 factor in gaining ' ' the gratifying position we hold in the 
 affairs of the world"; but he believed that conditions 
 were "somewhat changed", and that the United States 
 was now interested in foreign markets as much as in 
 home markets. Consequently reciprocity might well be 
 arranged with countries to enlarge our markets "even 
 though some particular industry is curtailed in its pro- 
 duction .... Protection was established for man, 
 not man for protection. Eeciprocity that takes without 
 giving is an idle dream and a contradiction in terms ; and 
 if its scope embraces only non-competitive products, it is 
 of little future value in the economy of the nation." 
 
 Furthermore, he remarked that ' ' some changes [in the 
 tariff] might well be made, not through the medium of 
 reciprocal treaties, but directly. ' ' The permanent trade 
 policy of selling goods abroad at a less price than they 
 were sold at home would not be tolerated by the people 
 and if there are "lines of industry in which this practice 
 is likely to become permanent", Congress should declare 
 "they no longer need the fostering care of protective 
 duties. ' ' 
 
 Another subject to which considerable attention was 
 given was the subject of corporations, of which he said: 
 "Wealth, and especially incorporate wealth, has many 
 rights; but it should always be remembered that among 
 them is not the right to vote. Corporations have, and 
 ought to have, many privileges ; but among them is not 
 the privilege to sit in political conventions or occupy 
 seats in legislative chambers. Corporations, as such, 
 should be rigorously excluded in every form from par- 
 ticipation in political affairs. ' ' 
 
GOVERNOR CUMMINS 457 
 
 "One phase of corporate interference", in his opinion, 
 "ought speedily to disappear under the righteous in- 
 dignation of honest men. The professional lobbyist 
 has .... become one of the features of legislative 
 assemblies; he has become a stench in the nostrils of a 
 decent community; and he ought to be driven with the 
 lash of scorn, pursued by the penalties of the law, from 
 the presence of every official and from the precincts of 
 every legislative body in the republic." 
 
 Taxation in general and railroad taxation especially 
 were two topics to which reference was made, following 
 naturally after the discussion of corporations. The prob- 
 lems involved and the needed legislation were considered. 
 The powers and duties of the Executive Council in regard 
 to railroad assessments were particularly emphasized. 987 
 
 The "Iowa Idea", as stated in the platform of 1901, 
 gave rise to considerable discussion throughout the coun- 
 try, and produced some differences of opinion among 
 members of the party in Iowa. Especially, was this true 
 in regard to the ' ' shelter to monopoly ' ' clause, which was 
 regarded by many as "the distinctive feature" of the 
 real "Iowa Idea". Governor Cummins made a number 
 of speeches in different parts of the country in which he 
 dwelt upon the relation of the tariff and trusts and urged 
 reciprocity as a necessary supplement to the protective 
 policy. This discussion became involved with the cam- 
 paign against the trusts begun by President Roosevelt 
 about the same time. The lines of division began to be 
 .defined between those who favored a liberal tariff policy 
 and the more conservative members of the party — the 
 Progressives and the Standpatters. 
 
 Early in 1903 conferences were held to agree "upon 
 the language of the tariff and trust resolutions to be 
 
458 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 adopted" at the next Republican State Convention in 
 Iowa. The result was "a general understanding that 
 Senator Allison .... should submit .... a 
 declaration the general purport of which was agreed to 
 with the language subject to his revision. Senator Al- 
 lison accepted the task with the understanding that he 
 would be a medium through which the parties in dis- 
 agreement might compose their differences rather than 
 an arbitrator." The resolutions presented to the con- 
 vention of 1903, and unanimously adopted, were "more 
 definite" in their expressions in regard to reciprocity, 
 and "more favorable to the policy than the old resolu- 
 tion." They were "more acceptable to those who saw in 
 the latter something too much like an admission that the 
 tariff did in fact afford shelter to monopoly. ' ' 988 
 
 The Republican convention held at Des Moines early 
 in July was very harmonious; Governor Cummins was 
 renominated by acclamation ; J. W. Blythe, who had en- 
 dorsed him in a significant interview in April, was chair- 
 man of the resolutions committee ; while Mr. Cummins's 
 future opponent, George D. Perkins, was temporary 
 chairman. No new issues were introduced and an in- 
 terval of quiet prevailed before the outbreak of the bitter 
 controversies that were to mark the later years of the 
 State administration under Mr. Cummins. 989 
 
 The Iowa State Register gave considerable attention 
 to primary election laws during 1903. Before the con- 
 vening of the Republican convention in an editorial, it 
 noted that ' ' a number of the newspapers of the state are 
 discussing a thorough-going primary election law for 
 Iowa. ' ' After referring to laws passed or under consid- 
 eration in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and New Jersey, it con- 
 tinued with the statement that "Senator Crossley, of 
 
GOVERNOR CUMMINS 459 
 
 Winterset, presented a meritorious bill to the last Iowa 
 legislature, but it was not seriously considered. He has 
 been making a thorough study of the subject since, and 
 will undoubtedly present a new bill in the coming ses- 
 sion . . . . If he does, it will meet with a different 
 reception." 090 
 
 During the campaign tariff revision and trusts were 
 the chief subjects of discussion and to these subjects 
 Governor Cummins devoted most of his attention. In 
 opening the campaign at Des Moines early in October 
 these were the exclusive objects of his consideration. He 
 maintained that "the tariff bears exactly the same rela- 
 tion to the trusts that the Chinese exclusion law and the 
 prohibition against immigrants under contract for labor 
 do to labor unions ; and I am impatient to know from my 
 worthy opponent whether the democratic party is in 
 favor of abolishing these laws in order to destroy labor 
 unions." 991 
 
 The vote for Governor in November resulted as fol- 
 lows: Republican, 238,804; Democrat, 159,725; Prohibi- 
 tion, 12,375 ; Socialist, 6,421 ; and Peoples, 594. The vote 
 showed an increase of 11,902 for the Republican candi- 
 date and 15,942 for the Democratic candidate, while there 
 was an increase of 27,328 in the total vote polled. The 
 Republican vote had resumed the proportions formerly 
 maintained before the defeat of that party in 1889 and 
 1891. 992 
 
 At the opening of the General Assembly in January, 
 1904, Governor Cummins presented his biennial message, 
 in which the only new subject considered was a primary 
 election law. Concerning this matter he remarked that 
 there had been "much discussion in Iowa during the past 
 few years", and he believed that there was "a great pre- 
 
460 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 ponderance of sentiment in favor of some regulation" 
 that would ' ' insure common decency and fairness in the 
 nomination of candidates for office." There was "prac- 
 tically no fraud, dishonesty, or even unfairness in the 
 conduct of general elections, but the manner in which 
 caucuses, party primaries, and other proceedings leading 
 up to nominations are held; and the practices which at- 
 tend them in many parts of the State, have become intol- 
 erable with clean, fair-minded people." He recommended 
 "the passage of a law" which would "surround the selec- 
 tion of candidates with the same safeguards against 
 intrigue, dishonesty and unfairness, that already exist 
 with regard to the election of candidates to office." 993 
 
 Senator J. J. Crossley introduced his primary election 
 bill at each session of the General Assembly until it was 
 finally passed in 1907. Another general election, how- 
 ever, was to intervene, and three General Assemblies 
 failed to pass such a law before it was finally placed on 
 the statutes. The subject came to be an object of con- 
 troversy between the Progressive and Standpat wings of 
 the Republican party. The former regarded "the pas- 
 sage of the law as one of the greatest political reforms 
 ever accomplished in Iowa"; while the latter maintained 
 ' ' that it was passed only to serve the ambitions of lead- 
 ing Progressives." 994 
 
 The next general State election was not held in Iowa 
 until 1906, because of the adoption of an amendment to 
 the State Constitution, providing for biennial elections, 
 incidental to which the terms of officials were extended 
 one year. 995 The preliminary part of the campaign in the 
 Republican party which ended with the State convention 
 at Des Moines on August 1st was exceedingly bitter, sur- 
 passing in this respect the sharply contested struggle hy 
 
GOVERNOR CUMMINS 461 
 
 which Governor Cummins won his first election. No 
 other Governor of Iowa had ever asked for three consecu- 
 tive terms ; he had already had an extra year of service 
 as a result of the adoption of the biennial elections 
 amendment; and these two influences were added to the 
 bitterness of the previous conflicts and the increasing 
 divisions between Progressives and Standpatters. 
 
 The actual contest, preparing during 1905, began in the 
 first week of the session of the General Assembly in Jan- 
 uary, 1906. J. "W. Blythe, general solicitor of the Bur- 
 lington Railroad, held conferences at the Savery Hotel 
 with those friendly to the railroads and the Standpat 
 Bepublicans. It was decided that the Progressive Re- 
 publicans must be destroyed and especially that Governor 
 Cummins must be retired. The Register and Leader de- 
 scribed the three points of the railroad and Standpat 
 program as follows: "Kill the primary; keep Cummins 
 busy; center strength on George D. Perkins as the most 
 available candidate for governor." 
 
 Ex-Governor William Larrabee was invited to visit 
 the legislature upon his seventy-third birthday, and al- 
 though the invitation was not openly opposed, it was se- 
 cretly criticized as a Progressive political move. Ex- 
 Governor Larrabee was received on January 21st, and 
 two days later The Register and Leader printed an inter- 
 view with him practically endorsing Governor Cummins. 
 Later he made two speeches at Waukon and Indepen- 
 dence. 
 
 On January 22nd Mr. Perkins announced his candi- 
 dacy; and at a mass meeting held at Sioux City it was 
 declared that he stood for the same principles for which 
 Governor Cummins stood. A month later Governor 
 Cummins declared himself a candidate for reelection in 
 
462 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 a letter in which he outlined the issues and urged the 
 overthrow of the railroad politicians. 
 
 In the General Assembly the Standpatters combined 
 with the Democrats to oppose all Progressive measures, 
 including the primary bill which was lost in the Senate 
 by a vote of twenty-nine to twenty-one. The alliance be- 
 tween the Standpatters and the Democrats continued 
 during the contests for the election of delegates to the 
 State convention. 
 
 Senator Dolliver favored Mr. Perkins for personal 
 reasons, but he took no active part in the campaign, and 
 his position was not open to criticism. Senator Allison 
 was in poor health and had no part in the controversies, 
 although in the background the conflict was one for the 
 ultimate succession to Mr. Allison's seat in the United 
 States Senate. 
 
 As the campaign continued it grew in bitterness, and 
 it seemed almost impossible to avoid an open break in 
 the party ranks. A good many contested delegations ap- 
 peared and Mr. Perkins urged their reference to the 
 national committee. His opponents declared they 'fere 
 mostly "fake contests" and refused to consider the pro- 
 posal. During the campaign Mr. Perkins made "per- 
 haps" thirty speeches, while Governor Cummins made 
 about two hundred. 996 
 
 So serious seemed the situation just before the meeting 
 of the convention that the congressional delegation "held 
 a conference at which the fake contest programme" of 
 the anti-Cummins men was repudiated, and it was de- 
 cided for the sake of the party to urge the State Central 
 Committee "to settle the contests solely with regard to 
 their merit". All the Congressmen in the city, except 
 two, were present and Senator Dolliver presided. 997 
 
GOVERNOB CUMMINS 463 
 
 As a result the State convention was an harmonious 
 one; and Governor Cummins was renominated upon the 
 first ballot by a vote of nine hundred and thirty-three to 
 six hundred and three for Mr. Perkins. The platform 
 was made "agreeable all around", 998 and consequently 
 was somewhat colorless. It commended "the inspiring 
 character, important achievements and undaunted lead- 
 ership of Theodore Roosevelt"; rejoiced "in the prom- 
 inence and influence" of the Iowa "representatives in 
 the cabinet and in congress" ; and approved "most heart- 
 ily the work of the Iowa delegation in the recent session." 
 
 After these general phrases there followed an endorse- 
 ment of the ' ' courageous leadership and practical admin- 
 istration of Governor Cummins. . . . The Republican 
 party has always stood for the enlarged participation of 
 the individual voter in public affairs .... we 
 pledge ourselves and our party in this state to the enact- 
 ment of a wise and judicious primary election law which 
 will provide for the nomination by direct vote of all can- 
 didates for office to be filled at the general election and 
 an expression of party preference in the selection of 
 United States Senators." 
 
 Furthermore, the platform declared the party "unal- 
 terably opposed to the domination of corporate influences 
 in public affairs. We favor the enactment of stringent 
 statutes, to purge the politics of our state and nation 
 from the corrupting influences of corporate power. . . . 
 The abolishment of the free pass on railways is a most 
 important step in curbing the influence of corporations 
 in political affairs, and we commend the Republican legis- 
 lature which has enacted a law to this end. ' ' 
 
 Finally, "the American system of protection" was 
 "uncompromisingly" favored. "Wise and unselfish tar- 
 
464 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 iff laws maintained in the interest of the general welfare, 
 equally opposed to foreign control and domestic monop- 
 oly, are essential to our commercial and industrial pros- 
 perity. "We believe that all inequalities in the tariff 
 schedules which inevitably arise from changing industrial 
 and commercial conditions should be adjusted from time 
 to time; and condemning without reserve all assaults 
 upon the protective system, we favor such reasonable and 
 timely changes as will keep the tariff in harmony with 
 our industrial and commercial progress. We favor the 
 reciprocity inaugurated by Blaine, advocated by McKin- 
 ley and Roosevelt and recognized in Republican plat- 
 forms and legislation." 999 
 
 The real contest in Iowa was within the ranks of the 
 Republican party: the nomination once secured election 
 followed as a matter of course, a reduced vote being the 
 only indication of party dissatisfaction or of party dis- 
 sensions. The vote for Governor was as follows: Re- 
 publican, 216,995; Democrat, 196,123; Prohibition, 9,872; 
 Socialist, 8,728 ; and People's, 347. These figures show a 
 reduction of 21,809 votes from the vote for Governor 
 Cummins in 1903, and of 9,907 from the vote of 1901; 
 while the Democratic vote increased 36,398 above that of 
 1903 and 52,340 over that of 1901. 1000 
 
 In his biennial message of 1907 Governor Cummins re- 
 ported upon the results of the convention held in Des 
 Moines "for the purpose of furthering the application of 
 sufficient States to require Congress to call a Constitu- 
 tional Convention, to the end that an amendment may be 
 submitted providing for the election of United States 
 Senators by direct vote. ' ' The Governors of twenty-five 
 States named delegates and the convention met on De- 
 
GOVERNOR CUMMINS 465 
 
 cember 5th. Thirteen States were represented in person 
 and the remainder by correspondence. The sessions 
 lasted two full days. Resolutions were adopted which 
 were ordered to be sent ' ' to the Chairman of the National 
 Committee, and of the several State committees of the 
 two leading political parties; also to the Governors of 
 the respective states, to each member of Congress, and 
 to the President." The Governors were urged to lay the 
 resolutions before the State legislatures. The scope of 
 the constitutional convention asked for by the resolutions 
 was not limited, because it was not believed that Congress 
 had power to limit the convention to the consideration of 
 a single amendment. 
 
 Governor Cummins strongly endorsed the proposed 
 constitutional convention because there was "no hope" 
 that the Senate would ever "give the States the oppor- 
 tunity to express their desires. ' ' 1001 In his inaugural ad- 
 dress a few days later Governor Cummins discussed the 
 need of a constitutional convention to make the ' ' organic 
 law as great and broad and strong as the subjects it is to 
 control." He favored an amendment that would "give 
 the voters a chance to say, directly, who their Senators 
 shall be " ; an amendment that would give the voters an 
 opportunity to say "who their President and Vice-Presi- 
 dent shall be " ; an amendment that would make the inter- 
 state commerce clause strong enough "to enable Congress 
 to control and regulate things which the developments of 
 commerce have nationalized"; and "an amendment that 
 will allow Congress to unify our marriage and divorce 
 laws." 1002 
 
 Subjects considered in the biennial message were lob- 
 bying and the lobbyist ; contributions by corporations for 
 
466 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 political purposes ; primary elections ; two-cent passenger 
 fares ; and additional legislation in regard to the issue of 
 passes. 1003 
 
 The inaugural address was devoted to the need of pro- 
 gressive legislation in a progressive democracy. "We 
 should emancipate ourselves from idolatry with respect 
 to things that are. We should emancipate ourselves from 
 the desire to change simply to effect a change. Because 
 there is much good in the existing order, we should not 
 be turned away from the effort to make it better ; but we 
 should not overthrow what has been done simply to prove 
 that we can overthrow it." 1004 
 
 The campaign of 1906 settled definitely the position of 
 Governor Cummins in Iowa politics. The Standpatters 
 were decisively beaten, but they were not annihilated. 
 They were to continue opposition for a number of years. 
 
 In 1908 the contest for the United States senatorship 
 was renewed, and in this campaign the new primary law 
 was used for the first time. The struggle was opened by 
 Senator Dolliver in November, 1907, and throughout he 
 was the principal speaker for Senator Allison, whose age 
 and health prevented his participation in such a stren- 
 uous campaign. Senator Dolliver had been reelected 
 without opposition in 1907. The emphasis in the cam- 
 paign by the opponents of Governor Cummins was laid 
 upon the fact that he had declared himself not a candidate 
 for Senator Allison's seat in 1905 when the gubernatorial 
 succession was under consideration. His opponents 
 claimed that this promise was without limit of time, while 
 his friends maintained it applied only to that campaign. 
 There was also a strong feeling in the State that Senator 
 Allison's long service entitled him to a nomination with- 
 out opposition. In the background were all the old 
 
GOVERNOR CUMMINS 467 
 
 controversies of the contests between the Eegular and 
 Progressive Republicans, embittered by the defeat of the 
 former. 1005 
 
 Senator Allison won at the primaries in June by a 
 majority of 10,635 votes, but his death on August 4th 
 reopened the whole question. A special session of the 
 General Assembly met on August 31st and amended the 
 primary law so that the people could vote again in No- 
 vember in case of the death, resignation, or removal for 
 any cause of a candidate nominated at the regular pri- 
 mary in June. The amendment applied only to the sen- 
 atorial term beginning in March, 1909, and left unsettled 
 the filling of the unexpired term. An attempt to elect 
 by the legislature failed because of the refusal of the 
 Standpat representatives to participate. Adjournment 
 was accordingly taken to November 24th, when the result 
 of the primary vote would be known. Governor Cum- 
 mins won over his opponent, John F. Lacey, by a major- 
 ity of over forty-two thousand. At the appointed time 
 the legislature reassembled and elected Governor Cum- 
 mins Senator by a vote of one hundred and seven to 
 thirty-five for the Democratic candidate. The last act in 
 the political drama which began in the contest of 1894 
 occurred when the General Assembly confirmed the choice 
 of the November primaries and elected Senator Cummins 
 for the full term. 1006 
 
 Curiously enough Senator Dolliver and Senator Cum- 
 mins were to fight shoulder to shoulder in the Senate 
 against the Payne-Aldrich Tariff Bill. In the national 
 sphere their views were similar. Their differences were 
 chiefly due to the diverse ways in which they had entered 
 political life. Senator Dolliver had entered public office 
 "very young and everything came to him easily. He did 
 
468 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 not have to encounter opposition in his own district. He 
 did not have to fight for anything in his own state." 1007 
 Senator Cummins 's contests formed a large part of the 
 political life of the State for fifteen years before he at- 
 tained the object of his ambition. 
 
 No two men were more powerful in giving voice and 
 definiteness to the new Progressive wing of the Repub- 
 lican party than were Dolliver and Cummins. Dolliver's 
 alignment with the Progressives was the crowning fea- 
 ture of a public career that had been wonderfully suc- 
 cessful and brilliant. La Follette gives in his Autobi- 
 ography a very interesting account 1008 of his gradual 
 awakening to the political situation, until he broke com- 
 pletely with those who had been his friends in the early 
 years of his congressional career. His sudden death in 
 1910 was an irreparable loss to Progressivism, as he 
 seemed but to have entered upon the greatest period of 
 his career. 
 
 The formation of the Progressive party is so recent 
 and its future so uncertain that only the briefest refer- 
 ence will be made to it. Progressive Republicanism was 
 very strong in Iowa, and in 1910 Senators Dolliver and 
 Cummins controlled the State Convention. In 1912 Sen- 
 ator Cummins failed to receive the full support of his 
 own State in his candidacy for President. The opposi- 
 tion made a last rally and sent to Chicago a delegation 
 of sixteen for Taft and ten for Cummins. The absence 
 of a presidential primary favored the success of the 
 Standpatters. After the renomination of President Taft, 
 Senator Cummins issued a statement in which he an- 
 nounced his intention of voting for Roosevelt, but de- 
 clined to join the new Progressive party. 1009 
 
 There was considerable hesitation about forming a 
 
GOVERNOR CUMMINS 469 
 
 State organization of the new party in Iowa. Senator 
 Cummins 's position has just been stated. Senator Wil- 
 liam S. Kenyon, who had been elected the previous year 
 after a contest lasting from January 9th to April 12th, 
 declared for President Taft, but denounced the methods 
 of the national Eepublican convention. Finally, in Sep- 
 tember a State convention met at Des Moines and nom- 
 inated Progressive candidates for State offices. The can- 
 didate for Governor of the new party, John L. Stevens, 
 received 71,877 votes at the election. The Republican 
 candidate for Governor won by 1,699 over his Democratic 
 opponent, while in the presidential contest the Democrats 
 were successful by a vote of 185,325 to 161,819 for Roose- 
 velt and 119,805 for Taft. 1010 
 
XXX 
 
 SOCIAL POLITICS 1011 
 
 The special service of minor parties in the United 
 States has been to call attention to economic and social 
 conditions that require consideration and readjustment. 
 The two great political parties have had for their prin- 
 cipal interests political and constitutional reforms, while 
 the group of lesser parties — beginning with the Anti- 
 Monopoly and Reform parties of the seventies, contin- 
 uing with the Greenback and Labor parties of the eighties, 
 and ending with the Populist party of the nineties — 
 have voiced the protests of people who felt keenly the 
 need of economic and social change. The West has been 
 the cradle of these parties, chiefly because of the economic 
 conditions of the region and the temperament of the 
 people. 
 
 The regulation of railroads and other corporations, 
 the kind and volume of the currency, and the control of 
 monopoly constituted the foundation for the wider 
 economic and social legislation which has developed in 
 recent years. To be sure there has been little recogni- 
 tion of the service of minor parties in these movements: 
 their real place in American political life has been little 
 appreciated. That they were the pioneers in the conver- 
 sion of American politics from almost exclusive attention 
 to constitutional and governmental matters to the vital 
 needs of the people has only begun to be understood in 
 the last few years. 
 
 470 
 
SOCIAL POLITICS 471 
 
 It is a far cry from 1871 when the National Labor Con- 
 gress declared "that pauperism and crime are the pre- 
 vailing questions of all modem statesmanship" 1012 to the 
 year 1912 when the platform of the Progressive party 
 devoted a large section to the problems of social and in- 
 dustrial justice. Such au accomplishment has been chiefly 
 the result of the protests and demands of successive 
 minor parties. Indeed, these long neglected and often 
 apparently extreme groups have slowly but surely made 
 American politics social. Their work has been done so 
 gradually that the term "social politics" has been little 
 used aud consequently requires definition. 
 
 "Social politics, as I understand it", writes Professor 
 Charles E. Merriam of the University of Chicago, "in- 
 volves the conscious systematic control exercised by the 
 government over the economic and social life of the 
 given society or group. It is contrasted with a 'police' 
 system in which the government contents itself with 
 merely preventing violence and fraud. No government 
 has ever practically confined itself to this course, but 
 some governments have come much nearer to it than 
 others, and some have given the idea theoretical as- 
 sent." 1013 This definition makes the term synonymous 
 with social legislation or social policy. 
 
 There is another aspect of the term which includes 
 something other than legislative or governmental action : 
 social politics describes the entrance into the activities of 
 political parties of new kinds of issues which seem to 
 have been forced upon politicians by economic and social 
 forces that can not be ignored. Social politics is a by- 
 product of the acceptance of the essential truth of the 
 economic interpretation of history upon which the social- 
 ists have based so much of their agitation. The positive 
 
472 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 side of social politics is found in the acceptance of these 
 new issues as the vital and constructive part of political 
 activity. Social legislation is the record of the result of 
 the recognition of the economic and social factors in a 
 comprehensive party policy. The impulse to social legis- 
 lation has come out of the transformation of political 
 activity from a matter of constitutional principle and 
 governmental machinery to the consideration of social 
 and industrial welfare. Social politics and social legis- 
 lation are inseparable but not identical, and it is mislead- 
 ing to speak of one in terms of the other. Doubtless the 
 confusion is partly to be explained by the novelty of both 
 terms in our political vocabulary. 
 
 The gradual conversion of our politics from purely 
 constitutional and governmental discussion has been a 
 growth of many years — becoming apparent in a slight 
 way in the campaign of 1872 and reaching full recogni- 
 tion only in 1912. The forty years intervening com- 
 prise a period of remarkable development in every phase 
 of American life, and in no form of activity has the 
 change been more complete than in politics which, prop- 
 erly understood, mirror or reflect what has been going 
 on in the nation as a whole. Just as the federal Consti- 
 tution resulted from the political and intellectual environ- 
 ment of the eighteenth century, so social politics have 
 grown out of the industrial and social revolution of the 
 succeeding century. The demand for some amendments 
 to that great document involves no disrespect to its fram- 
 ers : it merely records the fact that unexampled material . 
 progress made possible under its protection has finally 
 reached»a stage where some readjustments have become 
 necessary to facilitate further advance. Definite sugges- 
 tions for amendment of the Constitution have been made 
 
SOCIAL POLITICS 473 
 
 from time to time during the period when politics have 
 been assuming a social character. As one Populist ex- 
 pressed it, "things in this country are one big mess with 
 the Constitution sitting on top". 1014 
 
 A few farsighted men realized soon after the close of 
 the Civil War that serious economic and social problems 
 were developing; but the great majority, absorbed in the 
 problems of Reconstruction, were blind to the gathering 
 difficulties. They confidently believed that individual 
 freedom would inevitably bring with it economic and 
 social prosperity and general well-being. One group, 
 the workingmen in the great cities of the East, were 
 aroused to the dangers of the situation because their own 
 experience informed them. They organized a Labor Re- 
 form party which in 1872 tried to nominate a candidate 
 for President. 1015 
 
 In November, 1871, Henry Ward Beecher preached a 
 sermon in which he referred to "enormous corporations 
 — like the New York Central railroad, Erie, or the Penn- 
 sylvania Central. ' ' He asked his people to consider ' ' how 
 the nation stands open to these gigantic pecuniary cor- 
 porations ; how they are constantly opening in a thousand 
 directions, and I need not say how much we have to dread 
 from them .... we are to-day in more danger 
 from overgrown pecuniary institutions — from organ- 
 ized money — than we ever were from slavery, and the 
 battle of the future is to be one of gold and silver." 1016 
 
 About the same time Cushman K. Davis of Minnesota, 
 later Governor and Senator, in a "great speech entitled 
 'Modern Feudalism' .... voiced in most eloquent 
 and convincing terms the grievances complained of and 
 the reforms desired by the masses of the people. That 
 speech which he delivered in many places, and his atti- 
 
474 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 tude on those great questions of public concern led him 
 into the governor's chair, came near sending him to the 
 United States Senate at that time, and forever endeared 
 him to all our people, who from that day never ceased to 
 have confidence in his integrity, his wisdom, and his hon- 
 esty of purpose." These words of another Minnesota 
 Governor and Senator give us a picture of a man who 
 early sensed the situation. 1017 
 
 A congressional committee reporting in February, 
 1873, "with stern appreciation of the popular senti- 
 ment", described the country as "fast becoming filled 
 with gigantic corporations- wielding and controlling im- 
 mense aggregations of money and thereby commanding 
 great influence and power. It is notorious in many state 
 legislatures that these influences are often controlling, 
 so that in effect they become the ruling power of the 
 State. Within a few years Congress has to some extent 
 been brought within similar influences, and the knowl- 
 edge of the public on that subject has brought great dis- 
 credit upon the body, far more, we believe, than there 
 were facts to justify. But such is the tendency of the 
 time, and the belief is far too general that all men can be 
 ruled with money, and that the use of such means to 
 carry public measures is legitimate and proper." 1018 
 
 A conservative student of the period declares that this 
 investigation (Credit Mobilier) "marked the beginning 
 of agitation against the effort of financial interests to 
 influence legislation for their advantage. The struggle 
 became a political question, and is still unsettled, so elu- 
 sive and subtle are the forms of bribery invented and 
 tried. ' ' 1019 We can safely conclude that the decades of 
 the late sixties and early seventies brought face to face 
 " an upstart plutocracy and a frenzied democracy. Where 
 
SOCIAL POLITICS 475 
 
 now is serious effort to understand and obviate their con- 
 flict, there was then astute aggravation of it. ' ' 1020 In the 
 intervening years — between 1873 and 1915 — American 
 politics have been socialized, and the work has been done 
 largely outside the ranks of the great parties. 
 
 In the preceding pages the various organizations that 
 from the early seventies have struggled to produce the 
 better relations of the present day have been described 
 in some detail. Incidentally some account has been given 
 of the work of the different leaders who during the long 
 struggle have contributed to the growth of social de- 
 mocracy. Frequently a leader's influence has been un- 
 connected with any candidacy for office, and of course 
 minor party leaders had little, if any, real hope of actual 
 election to office. Consequently, any complete survey 
 must include consideration of men whose connection and 
 place in the minor parties was slightly recognized. 
 
 The early Labor Reformers and Greenbackers were 
 too weak to hope for any success through their unaided 
 efforts: they turned, therefore, to men who had shown 
 themselves independent in their political relations. Two 
 men seem to have attracted their attention- — Judge 
 David Davis of Illinois and Governor Newton Booth of 
 California. Through many years Judge Davis was the 
 perennial refuge of Independents and Radicals. He was 
 friendly and sympathetic, but never allowed himself to 
 be placed in a position where he could perform conspicu- 
 ous service. Governor Booth became the leader of the 
 first great revolt from the domination of the Central 
 Pacific Railroad. He waged successful warfare and was 
 elected to the United States Senate, where he served one 
 term and then went into retirement. According to the 
 Chicago Tribune he was, with Allen G. Thurman and 
 
476 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Thomas A. Hendricks, "the subject of general inquiry 
 among the Democrats " as a candidate for President in 
 1876. He was nominated for the vice presidency by the 
 Greenbackers in the same year, but declined the nomina- 
 tion. President Hayes also considered his appointment 
 as a member of his Cabinet in the following year, and he 
 might have appointed him but for the fact that his seat 
 in the Senate would be filled by a Democrat. 1021 
 
 Other men to whom the Greenbackers turned were 
 Peter Cooper, the philanthropist, and General Benj. F. 
 Butler, both of whom as candidates have been considered 
 in connection with the campaigns of 1876 and 1884. 1022 
 Neither of these men was in a position to perform really 
 noteworthy service for the New Democracy. 
 
 The first great tribune of the people was General James 
 B. Weaver of Iowa, candidate for President of the Green- 
 backers in 1880. He had achieved a place of prominence 
 in the Eepublican party before he left it to join with 
 the protestants against certain of its policies — especial- 
 ly in regard to the currency. He was a speaker of dis- 
 tinction, made an aggressive campaign, and continued for 
 the remainder of a long life to strive for a union of all 
 the scattered forces of reform. He was identified with 
 the Greenback, Union Labor, and Populist parties, and 
 was again a presidential candidate in 1892 for the last 
 named organization. For twenty years from 1877 he 
 spent himself in the service of those who were trying to 
 socialize politics. 1023 
 
 A leader of a different character was Henry George of 
 California and New York, the originator of the Single 
 Tax idea. His great service was with the workingmen in 
 the older industrial communities of the East where his 
 great ability as a speaker and agitator made him a power. 
 
SOCIAL POLITICS 477 
 
 His great campaign for Mayor of New York in 1886 was 
 his nearest approach to official position, but from that 
 time to his death in 1897, while again engaged in a cam- 
 paign for the same office, he was the unquestioned leader 
 of the Labor wing of the reform movement. His lead- 
 ership extended beyond the limits of the United States, 
 and his remedy for economic and social evils has re- 
 ceived a large degree of recognition. 1024 
 
 The Populist party produced no great leaders. Its 
 only candidate for President was General Weaver who 
 had already served the Greenbackers in a similar capac- 
 ity. It was a party of western farmers of average abil- 
 ities, caricatured by the metropolitan press as "hay- 
 seeds", but representing creditably and honorably the 
 communities from which they came. William A. Peffer 
 of Kansas, William V. Allen of Nebraska, and James H. 
 Kyle of South Dakota were able men, but they lacked the 
 special qualities needed to make national leaders. They 
 would have strongly supported a great leader, but they 
 could not themselves fill the place. Like the earlier La- 
 bor Reformers and Greenbackers they turned to the 
 great parties with the hope of inducing some man of 
 leadership in their ranks to undertake the role of Moses. 
 Judge Walter Gresham of Illinois was their choice and 
 great efforts were made to induce him to accept the nom- 
 ination of the party for President. He gave some en- 
 couragement at first, but seems finally to have concluded 
 that the chance of success was too slight. That he was 
 not averse to leaving the Republican party was shown by 
 his later alignment with the Democrats and his accep- 
 tance of a position in President Cleveland's Cabinet. 1025 
 It is interesting to speculate as to what might have been 
 the result if, in 1892, a well-known Republican like Judge 
 
478 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Gresham had accepted the Populist nomination and had 
 made an aggressive campaign. 
 
 The significance of the union of the Populists and Dem- 
 ocrats in 1896 was rendered greater because it gave to the 
 elements represented in the minor parties for the first 
 time a leader of first class ability. In a certain sense 
 they obtained control of one of the great parties, and, 
 as an incident of that control, acquired what had so far 
 been beyond their reach, a really great leader. The con- 
 vergence of these two facts meant that the work of minor 
 parties was complete for a time, and since 1896 there 
 have been no such parties except the Progressive party 
 of 1912. The significance of Mr. Bryan's work as a 
 political leader is greatly increased if we think of it in 
 connection with the development of minor parties. His 
 place is a large one in the history of social politics. 
 
 Bryan's leadership of the Democrats compelled the 
 Bepublicans to take notice of the demands of the New 
 Democracy. La Follette and Cummins in their respec- 
 tive States performed notable services, but the national 
 leader who was to eclipse all others in the variety and 
 magnitude of his work was Theodore Boosevelt. Just as 
 in the study of party movements his place is preeminent, 
 so in a study of leadership in social politics his position 
 is unquestioned. He was not a pioneer; he came a little 
 late upon the field; Bryan and La Follette anticipated 
 him. "But just this has been his great work in Ameri- 
 can history. He has taken reforms and opinions which 
 belonged to sects and localities and given them a national 
 setting". 
 
 "He is not as progressive as the best thought of this 
 country, but he is at least as progressive as, if not more 
 progressive than the great weight of our citizenship. He 
 
SOCIAL POLITICS 479 
 
 has remained close to them, never forgetting that we are 
 a conglomerate people of all stocks, of all grades of life, 
 of a thousand conflicting interests. He has done what no 
 man has ever done before him, made himself not only a 
 ruler but a leader of so vast and intricate a population. 
 It is this which has enabled him to be the great middle- 
 man of reform. He is the man above all others who has 
 carried new thought into the common consciousness of 
 the American people ' \ 
 
 "If democracies require men to mediate between the 
 sect and the mass, between the locality and the nation, 
 between one interest and other interests, then they re- 
 quire men like Mr. Roosevelt, conventional but sensitive, 
 popular but willing to learn, not too far ahead but always 
 ready to move forward. ' ' 1026 
 
 Two campaigns stand out as landmarks in the develop- 
 ment of social politics since the Civil "War : first, that of 
 1896 when nearly six million and a half votes, out of a 
 total of less than fourteen millions, were cast for Mr. 
 Bryan; and second, that of 1912 when the combined vote 
 for Mr. Wilson and Mr. Roosevelt was nearly ten and a 
 half million out of a total of a little over fifteen millions. 
 The great significance of the contest of 1912 consists in 
 the fact that for the first time the country had gone pro- 
 gressive; the vote of the Democrats and Progressives 
 exceeded the Republicans by over seven million. 
 
 The nation as a whole has come to the position urged 
 by the successive minor parties — the socialization of 
 politics. The gradual development of a social program 
 has brought us so far upon the road of social progress. 
 There remains one step more to be taken : in some way all 
 the progressives must be brought within one party, if 
 they are to be most effective, and if our traditional two 
 
480 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 party system is to survive. Such a realignment of parties 
 has seemed imminent for many years. 
 
 The formation of the Progressive party in 1912 raised 
 the hopes of people who were of the opinion that there 
 was need of a union of forward-looking men ; hut as yet 
 there is no clear sign that the much desired result has 
 been attained. The conversion of one of the great parties 
 to progressivism rather than the formation of a new 
 party is suggested by the party history of England and 
 the United States. We must still await the future. The 
 issue is in "the lap of the Gods". 
 
NOTES AND REFERENCES 
 
NOTES AND REFERENCES 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 i Turner's Social Forces in American History in the American Historical 
 Review, Vol. XVI, pp. 217-233. This paragraph is taken from the writer's 
 Forward Movements in Politics since the Civil War in The Iowa Journal of 
 History and Politics, Vol. XI, pp. 147, 153, 154. 
 
 -Buck's Independent Parties in the Western States, 1873-1876, in 
 Turner Essays in American History, p. 164; Lowell's Public Opinion and 
 Popular Government, pp. 79, 80. 
 
 3 Kellogg 's The Industrial Platform of the New Party in The Survey, 
 Vol. XXVIII, p. 669. 
 
 * The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), November 19, 1880. 
 
 ^ McLaughlin 's The Courts the Constitution and Parties, pp. 170, 171. 
 
 sBryce's The American Commonwealth, Vol. II, p. 352. 
 
 ' Von Hoist 's The Constitutional and Political History of the United 
 States, Vol. I, p. 64. 
 
 » The best discussions of third parties are to be found in Fess 's The 
 History of Political Theory and Party Organization in the United States, 
 pp. 241-268; Ostrogorski's Democracy and the Party System in the United 
 States, pp. 294-320; Eay's An Introduction to Political Parties and Practical 
 Politics, pp. 40-73. 
 
 CHAPTEE II 
 
 'J The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1870, pp. 516-522; Bancroft's 
 Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl Schurz, Vol. I, pp. 
 510-518. 
 
 wThe American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1871, p. 750; Bancroft's Speeches, 
 Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl Schurz, letter to Jacob D. Cox, 
 April 4, 1871, Vol. II, pp. 254, 255 ; Sioux City Daily Times, February 12, 
 1S72. 
 
 u The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1872, p. 773 ; The Reminiscences of 
 Carl Schurz, Vol. Ill, p. 332. 
 
 483 
 
484 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 12 The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1872, p. 552 ; The Nation, Vol. 
 XIV, February 1, 1872, p. 65; Rhodes 's History of tlie United States, Vol. 
 VI, p. 412 ; The Reform Movement in Political Pamphlets, 1870-1890, in the 
 Donnelly Collection of the Minnesota Historical Society, Vol. LXX, no. 15. 
 The same volume contains a speech made by Gov. Brown before the Kansas 
 Liberal Mass convention at Topeka, April 10, 1872. 
 
 13 The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1872, p. 776. 
 
 14 The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1872, p. 776, 777. 
 is Lloyd's Henry Demarest Lloyd, Vol. I, pp. 24, 25. 
 
 16 See quotation from the New York Herald in the Burlington Weekly 
 Hawk-Eye, February 29, 1872. The Sioux City Daily Times of February 
 
 10, 1872, estimated the Liberal Eepubliean vote at 465,000. 
 
 17 The meeting against Tweed was held on April 4, 1871. Ehodes's 
 History of the United States, Vol. VI, p. 405; The Nation, Vol. XIV, 
 April 18, 1872, p. 249. 
 
 is The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1872, p. 777. 
 
 is Rhodes 's History of the United States, Vol. VI, pp. 417, 418; Ban- 
 croft's Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl Schurs, letter 
 to Greeley, May 11, 1872, Vol. II, p. 371. 
 
 20 The Clinton Age, May 26, 1876 ; The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 
 1872, p. 778; Ehodes's History of the United States, Vol. VI, p. 412; 
 Cunning's Reconstruction Political and Economic, p. 195; Watterson's The 
 Humor and the Tragedy of the Greeley Campaign in The Century, Vol. 
 LXXXV, pp. 27-45; The Reminiscences of Carl Schure, Vol. Ill, pp. 338-353. 
 
 2i Ehodes's History of the United States, Vol. VI, pp. 419, 420; Ban- 
 croft's Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl Schurz, Vol. 
 
 11, pp. 354-361. 
 
 22 The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XXX, July, 1872, p. 127; White's The 
 Life of Lyman Trumbull, p. 391. 
 
 23 Rhodes 's History of the United States, Vol. VI, pp. 421-423. 
 
 24 White's The Life of Lyman Trumbull, pp. 380, 381; Lloyd's Henry 
 Demarest Lloyd, Vol. I, pp. 27-31; Williams's The Life of Rutherford 
 Birchard Hayes, Vol. I, pp. 366, 367. 
 
 25 White's The Life of Lyman Trumbull, pp. 382-385; Williams's The 
 Life of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Vol. I, pp. 373, 374. 
 
 26 Bancroft 's Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl 
 
NOTES AND REFERENCES 485 
 
 Schurs, Vol. II, pp. 361-368, and letter to Samuel Bowles, dated May 11, 
 1872, Vol. II, pp. 369, 370. 
 
 27 White's The Life of Lyman Trumbull, pp. 402, 403. 
 
 as Lloyd's Henry Demarest Lloyd, Vol. I, pp. 31, 32. 
 
 29 Lloyd's Henry Demarest Lloyd, Vol. I, pp. 33-36; Curtis 's, The Re- 
 publican Party, Vol. II, pp. 9, 10. 
 
 30 Curtis 's The Republican Party, Vol. II, pp. 9, 10; The Nation, Vol. 
 XIV, June 27, 1872, pp. 413, 416, 417 ; Bancroft 's Speeches, Correspondence 
 mid Political Papers of Carl Schurz, Vol. II, pp. 378, 380, 384. 
 
 si Bhodes 's History of the United States, Vol. VI, pp. 427, 428. 
 
 32 Dunning 's Reconstruction Political and Economic, p. 200. 
 
 33 Pess 's Political Theory and Party Organization in the United States, 
 p. 257. 
 
 s*Ehodes lists Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee, and 
 Texas. — History of the United States, Vol. VI, p. 437. Dunning lists 
 Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee, Texas, and Louisiana. — - 
 Reconstruction Political and Economic, p. 201. 
 
 35 The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XXX, December, 1872, p. 762. 
 
 36 The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XXXI, May, 1873, p. 640. 
 
 CHAPTEB III 
 
 37 Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, July 6, 1871. 
 si The Clinton Age, November 17, 1871. 
 
 39 Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, November 2, 1871. 
 
 *QThe Clinton Age, December 8, 1871. 
 
 4i Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, February 1, 1872. 
 
 42 The Clinton Age, February 23, 1872. 
 
 43 Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, April 11, 1872. 
 
 44 It appears from the Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye of August 1, 1872, 
 that Jacob Butler was called ' ' Crazy Jake ' ' in his home town, Muscatine. 
 From the Burlington Hawk-Eye of April 9, 1874, it is learned that Mr. 
 Butler was declared insane and taken to an asylum. 
 
 43 Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, May 2, 1872; The Saturday Evening 
 Post (Burlington), June 18, 1892. 
 
486 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 *6 Sioux City Weekly Times, August 26, 1871. 
 
 47 Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, May 9, 1872. 
 
 48 Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, May 16, 1872. 
 o The Clinton Age, March 8, 1872. 
 
 so Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, May 9, 1872. 
 
 si Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, March 28, 1872. 
 
 52 Rhodes 's History of the United States, Vol. VI, pp. 417, 418. 
 
 ssMunroe's The Hayes-Tilden Electoral Commission in The Atlantic 
 Monthly, Vol. LXXII, October, 1893, pp. 528, 529. The author of this 
 article, James Munroe, was a member of the House of Representatives from 
 1871 to 1881. 
 
 54 The Clinton Age, September 13, 1872. 
 
 55 Gue's History of Iowa, Vol. Ill, p. 52. 
 
 se Iowa Official Register, 1913-1914, pp. 517-520. 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 57 Rhodes 's History of the United States, Vol. VI, pp. 314, 325, 330, 331; 
 Bancroft's Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl Schurz, 
 Vol. II, pp. 257-306; Sioux City Weekly Times, August 26, September 30, 
 1871. 
 
 58 The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1873, pp. 609-611. Besides the 
 fusion candidates, the Republicans, the regular Democrats, and the Pro- 
 hibitionists made nominations. The regular Democratic candidate, William 
 Allen, was elected over his Republican opponent by the close vote of 214,654 
 to 213,837. 
 
 59 The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1874, pp. 240, 241. 
 
 so Appletons ' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1875, pp. 218, 219. The Governor, 
 Charles R. Ingersoll, served three terms. 
 
 si The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1874, p. 523. 
 
 62 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1875, pp. 477-479. 
 
 63 The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1874, pp. 610, 611. 
 
 64 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1875, pp. 563, 564. 
 
 65 Bancroft 's Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl 
 Schurz, Vol. Ill, p. 153. For the activity of the independents during 1875 
 and 1876 see The Beminiscences of Carl Schurs, Vol. Ill, pp. 361-372. 
 
NOTES AND REFERENCES 487 
 
 •« Bancroft 's Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl 
 Schurz, Vol. Ill, pp. 155, 156. 
 
 67 Bancroft's Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl 
 Schurz, Vol. Ill, p. 160. 
 
 «s Bancroft's Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl 
 Schurz, Vol. Ill, p. 161. 
 
 «s Bancroft's Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl 
 Schurz, Vol. Ill, pp. 217, 21S; Williams's The Life of Eutherford Birchard 
 Hayes, Vol. I, pp. 419, 420, 431, 437. 
 
 to Bancroft's Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl 
 Schurz, Vol. Ill, pp. 219, 220. 
 
 7i Bancroft's Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl 
 Schurz, Vol. Ill, pp. 224, 225. 
 
 '- Bancroft's Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl 
 Schurz, Vol. Ill, p. 230. 
 
 73 Bancroft's Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl 
 Schurz, Vol. Ill, p. 233. , 
 
 74 The Clinton Age, May 26, 1876. 
 
 75 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1876, pp. 779, 780. The States repre- 
 sented were Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Bhode 
 Island, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Mich- 
 igan, Wisconsin, West Virginia, North Carolina, Missouri, and Minnesota. 
 Among the twenty-nine vice presidents were Henry L. Pierce, Martin Brim- 
 mer, J. H. Seelye, Mark Hopkins, James Preeman Clarke of Massachusetts, 
 T. W. Higginson of Ehode Island, J. D. Cox of Ohio, and Robert Collyer of 
 Illinois. One of the four secretaries was Henry Cabot Lodge. 
 
 See also The Nation, Vol. XXII, April 20, 1876, p. 255; May 18, 1876, 
 p. 313; Daily Press (Iowa City), May 16, 1876; Bancroft's Speeches, Cor- 
 respondence and Political Papers of Carl Schurz, Vol. Ill, pp. 228, 229, 240- 
 248; Williams's The Life of Eutherford Birchard Hayes, Vol. I, p. 430. 
 
 76 The Clinton Age, May 26, July 14, September 29, 1876. The last ref- 
 erence gives a list of forty-nine former Republicans who would support 
 Tilden. In the list were Charles Francis Adams, Lyman Trumbull, Andrew 
 G. Curtin, David A. Wells, Gideon Welles, David Davis, B. Gratz Brown, 
 W. G. Sumner of Yale University, A. L. Perry of Williams College, and 
 Charles A. Dana of the Neiv York Sun. 
 
 77 Bancroft's Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl 
 Schurz, Vol. Ill, pp. 258, 259. 
 
488 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 78 Bancroft 's Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl 
 Schurs, Vol. Ill, p. 274. 
 
 "» Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1876, p. 603. 
 
 so Appletons ' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1876, p. 205. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 si The Clinton Age, March 23, 1877; The Weekly Iowa State Register 
 (Des Moines), May 11, June 2, 1877; The Reminiscences of Carl Scliurz, 
 Vol. Ill, pp. 375, 376. 
 
 82 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), March 16, 1877. 
 
 83 Bancroft's Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl 
 Schurs, Vol. Ill, pp. 494, 495. 
 
 84 Bancroft's Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl 
 Schurs, Vol. Ill, pp. 495, 496. 
 
 85 Appleton's Annual Cyclopaedia, 1880, pp. 693, 694; Sparks's National 
 Development, p. 168; The Reminiscences of Carl Schurs, Vol. Ill, pp. 394, 
 395. Doctor Edward A. Guilbert of Dubuque was secretary of the conven- 
 tion. In 1872 he was nominated by the Liberal Republicans and Demo- 
 crats for Secretary of State. 
 
 86 The Nation, Vol. XXX, May 13, 1880, pp. 362, 363. 
 8? Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1880, p. 497. 
 
 ss The Nation, Vol. XXX, May 13, 18S0, pp. 362, 363. 
 
 89 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1884, pp. 767-773; Sparks's National 
 Development , pp. 334-343 ; The Reminiscences of Carl Schurs, Vol. Ill, pp. 
 403-407. 
 
 so Bancroft's Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl 
 Schurs, Vol. IV, p. 286. 
 
 91 Bancroft's Speeches, Correspondence and Political Papers of Carl 
 Schurs, Vol. IV, pp. 308, 309. 
 
 92 The Reminiscences of Carl Schurs, Vol. Ill, pp. 397-399. 
 
 93 The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. XXX, October, 1872, p. 509; The Nation, 
 Vol. XIV, May 9, 1872, p. 300, May 16, 1872, p. 317. 
 
 94 The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1870, p. 520. 
 9= The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1872, p. 776. 
 
 96 McPherson's A Hand-Booh of Politics for 1872, p. 207. 
 
NOTES AND EEPEEENCES 489 
 
 97 The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1873, p. 610. 
 
 98 The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1874, p. 241. 
 
 99 Schurz was intellectually an aristocrat, believing in leadership by the 
 few and with little sympathy for the average man. — The Reminiscences of 
 Carl Sehurs, Vol. Ill, pp. 360, 401. 
 
 CHAPTEE VI 
 ioo Buck's The Granger Movement, p. 100. 
 ioi The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1873, pp. 362, 363. 
 
 102 The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1873, pp. 622, 625, 626. 
 
 103 Buck's Independent Parties in the Western States, 1873-1876, in Tur- 
 ner Essays in American History, p. 140. 
 
 104 The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1873, p. 363. 
 
 ioo Buck's The Granger Movement, p. 82; The American Annual Cyclo- 
 paedia, 1873, p. 379. 
 
 ioo The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1873, p. 364. 
 
 in? Buck's The Granger Movement, pp. 82-87. 
 
 108 The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1873, pp. 367-369; Buck's The 
 Granger Movement, pp. 88, 89. 
 
 109 Buck's The Granger Movement, pp. 89-92; The American Annual 
 Cyclopaedia, 1873, pp. 510, 511, 775-776. 
 
 no The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1873, p. 527. 
 
 in Buck's The Granger Movement, pp. 92, 93. 
 
 112 The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1872, pp. 80-82. 
 
 us The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1873, pp. 83, 84; Buck's The 
 Granger Movement, p. 93; Newton Booth of California: His Speeches and 
 Addresses, Ch. II, pp. 122-336, especially pp. 124-138. 
 
 in Buck's The Granger Movement, p. 93. 
 
 us The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1874, pp. 412-415; Buck's The 
 Granger Movement, pp. 93, 94. 
 
 no The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1874, p. 559; Buck's The Granger 
 Movement, p. 94. 
 
 ii7 The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1874, pp. 402-404; Buck's The 
 
490 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Granger Movement, pp. 94-96; McPherson's A Sand-Book of Politics for 
 1876, p. 255. 
 
 us The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1-874, p. 811. 
 
 us The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1874, pp. 577-579; Buck's The 
 Granger Movement, p. 97. 
 
 120 The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1874, pp. 435-437. The vote for 
 the Independent Reform candidate for Governor was 35,308. — See McPher- 
 son 's A Band-Booh of Politics for 1876, p. 255. 
 
 121 The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1874, pp. 586, 587. The vote for 
 the Independent candidate for Governor was 3,987. — See McPherson's A 
 Hand-Booh of Politics for 1876, p. 255. 
 
 122 The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1874, pp. 673, 674; Buck's The 
 Granger Movement, pp. 97, 98; McPherson's A Hand-Booh of Politics for 
 1876, p. 255. 
 
 123 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1875, pp. 763, 764; Buck's The 
 Granger Movement, pp. 98, 99. 
 
 124 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1875, pp. 609, 610; Buck's The 
 Granger Movement, p. 99. 
 
 125 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1875, pp. 98-101; Buck's The Granger 
 Movement, p. 98. 
 
 126 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1875, pp. 509-511; Buck's The 
 Granger Movement, p. 99. 
 
 127 Buck's The Granger Movement, p. 98. 
 
 128 Buck's The Granger Movement, pp. 99, 100. 
 
 129 Buck 's The Granger Movement, pp. 100, 101. 
 
 130 Commons's A Documentary History of American Industrial Society, 
 Vol. IX, p. 49. 
 
 131 The Chicago Weekly Tribune, January 28, 1874. 
 
 Horace White was editor of the Tribune at this time. J. Medill resumed 
 editorial control and Mr. White retired in November, 1874. 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 132 Larrabee's The Bailroad Question, pp. 329-332. 
 
 133 The WeeUy Iowa State Register (Des Moines), May 2, 1873; Bur- 
 lington Weehly Hawh-Eye, June 12, 1873. 
 
 134 27U. Weehly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), June 13, 1873; The 
 
NOTES AND REFERENCES 491 
 
 Clinton Age, July 11, 1873 ; Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, August 21, 1873, 
 October 29, 1874, November 19, 1874, October 7, 1875. 
 
 135 Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, August 7, 1873; The Weekly Iowa 
 State Eegister (Des Moines), June 27, 1873; The Clinton Age, January 9, 
 1874. 
 
 136 The Weekly Iowa State Eegister (Des Moines), June 13, 1873. 
 
 137 Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, October 15, 1874. 
 
 138 The Clinton Age, May 1, 1874, June 19, October 23, 1874. 
 
 139 T7w? Weekly Iowa State Eegister (Des Moines), November 28, 1873; 
 Buck's The Granger Movement, pp. 58, 89; Buck's Manuscript. 
 
 "I find .... that my first draft contains considerable more detail 
 about the political aspects of the movement in Iowa than I ultimately used 
 so I am sending you a few sheets of the manuscript. ' ' — From letter of 
 Solon J. Buck. 
 
 140 Buck's Manuscript ; Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, March 6, 1873; 
 Buck's The Granger Movement, p. 169. 
 
 1*1 Buck 's Manuscript ; Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, September 10, 
 1874; Buck's The Granger Movement, p. 89. 
 
 1*2 Tlie Clinton Age, March 14, 1873. 
 
 143 The Clinton Age, May 9, 1873. 
 
 144 The Weekly Iowa State Eegister (Des Moines), May 2, 1873. 
 
 145 The Weekly Iowa State Eegister (Des Moines), April 25, 1873. 
 
 ue Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, May 29, 1873, June 12, 1873; The 
 Weekly Iowa State Eegister (Des Moines), June 13, 1873. 
 
 147 The Weekly Iowa State Eegister (Des Moines), June 13, 1873. 
 
 i48Z7ie Weekly Iowa State Eegister (Des Moines), July 4, 1873; The 
 Clinton Age, July 11, 1873. 
 
 149 The Weekly Iowa State Eegister (Des Moines), August 15, 1873; 
 Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, August 21, 1873. 
 
 iso Buck's Manuscript. 
 
 i5i Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, June 19, 1873, February 25, 1875. 
 
 152 Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, August 21, 1873. 
 
 153 Buck 's Manuscript. 
 
 154 The Weekly Iowa State Eegister (Des Moines), January 17, 1873; 
 
492 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 Shambaugh's Messages and Proclamations of the Governors of Iowa, Vol 
 IV, pp. 20, 21. 
 
 i=3 The Clinton Age, August 22, 1873. 
 
 ise Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, September 10, 1874. 
 
 !37 Quotation from The Des Moines Leader in Burlington Weekly Hawl:- 
 Eye, August 7, 1873. 
 
 i3s Buck's Manuscript; The Clinton Age, December 5, 1873, January 23, 
 1874; Buck's The Granger Movement, p. 90. 
 
 139 Buck's Manuscript; Buck's The Granger Movement, p. 91. 
 
 i6o The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), October 17, 1873; 
 Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, October 23, 1873. 
 
 is 1 Buck's Manuscript. 
 
 162 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), October 24, 1873; 
 The Clinton Age, December 5, 1873. The Iowa Official Register for 1913- 
 1914, pp. 518, 519, gives the following figures: 
 
 Republican Opposition 
 
 1872 — 132,719 74,447 
 
 1873 — 105,132 81,020 
 
 27,587 6,573 
 
 i<» The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), January 30, 1874; 
 Buck's Manuscript. 
 
 104 The Clinton Age, February 6, 1874. 
 
 163 Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, March 12, 1874; Buck's Manuscript; 
 Buck's The Granger Movement, p. 171. 
 
 166 Buck's Manuscript; Buck's The Granger Movement, pp. 171, 172. 
 
 16? Gue's History of Iowa, Vol. Ill, pp. 66-68; The Clinton Age, March 
 20, 1874; The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), February 20, 
 March 13, 1874. 
 
 i6s Larrabee's The Railroad Question, pp. 332, 333. 
 
 i«> The Chicago Weekly Tribune, January 7, 1874. 
 
 no Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, January 8, 1874. 
 
 i"i The Clinton Age, January 9, 1874. 
 
 i" 2 Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, January 8, 1874. 
 
NOTES AND REFERENCES 493 
 
 iT8 Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, March 5, 1874; The Weekly Iowa State 
 Eegister (Des Moines), February 27, 1874; The Clinton Age, February 27, 
 March 6, 13, 1874 ; The Chicago Weekly Tribune, March 4, 1874 ; Sioux City 
 Weekly Times, January 10, February 28, 1874. 
 
 17* The Clinton Age, June 26, July 3, 1874 ; The Chicago Daily Tribune, 
 June 25, 27, July 1, 1874. 
 
 175 Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, July 2, October 1, 1874. 
 
 "6 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), July 3, 1874. 
 
 177 Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, July 9, 1874. 
 
 178 The Weekly Iowa State Eegister (Des Moines), July 3, 1874. 
 
 179 The Weekly Iowa State Eegister (Des Moines), June 26, 1874; Sioux 
 City Weekly Times, June 27, August 15, 1874. 
 
 i8o Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, October 15, 1874. 
 
 isi Tlie Clinton Age, October 16, 1874. 
 
 182 The Weekly Iowa State Register, October 23, 1874. 
 
 is3 Tlie Chicago Daily Tribune, October 14, 1874. 
 
 is4T7te Clinton Age, November 20, 1874. 
 
 185 The Clinton Age, December 11, 1874. 
 
 isej'fce Clinton Age, February 12, 1875. 
 
 187 The Clinton Age, March 12, 1875. 
 
 188 The Clinton Age, April 16, 1875. 
 
 i89T7ie Clinton Age, May 14, 1875; The Weekly Iowa State Eegister 
 (Des Moines), May 14, 1875. 
 
 isoTfte Weekly Iowa State Eegister (Des Moines), July 2, 1875; Bur- 
 lington Weekly Hawk-Eye, July 1, 1875. 
 
 i9i Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, July 1, 1875. 
 
 192 The Clinton Age, July 16, 1875. 
 
 193 The Clinton Age, July 23, 1875. 
 
 19* The Clinton Age, August 6, 1875; Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, July 
 8, 1875. 
 
 195 Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, October 21, 1875. 
 
 196 The Clinton Age, October 29, 1875. 
 
494 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 197 The Clinton Age, November 19, 1875. 
 
 198 Buck's Manuscript. 
 
 199 Buck's Manuscript. 
 
 zoo Muzzey 's An American History, p. 515. 
 
 201 Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, November 26, 1874; Burlington Weekly 
 Hawk-Bye, March 4, 1875. 
 
 202 The Clinton Age, February 25, March 3, March 17, April 14, 1876. 
 
 203 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), March 16, 1870. 
 
 204 The Clinton Age, October 25, 1872. 
 
 205 The Clinton Age, April 17, 1874. 
 
 206 The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), July 18, 1873. 
 
 207 The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), May 29, 1874. 
 
 208 The Clinton Age, November 12, 1875. 
 
 209 Buck's The Granger Movement, p. 239. 
 
 210 The Chicago Weekly Tribune, January 7, February 11, 1874; Buck's 
 The Granger Movement, p. 243. 
 
 2ii Buck's The Granger Movement, pp, 268, 269; Chicago Daily Tribune. 
 April 25, 1874. 
 
 212 Buck's The Granger Movement, p. 269. 
 
 213 The Chicago Weekly Tribune, January 7, February 11, 1874. 
 an The Chicago Weekly Tribune, February 11, 1874. 
 
 215 The Chicago Daily Tribune, April 25, 1874. 
 
 216 Buck's The Granger Movement, pp. 238-278. — See especially pp. 239- 
 255, 260-267, 270-273. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 217 Rhodes 's History of the United States, Vol. VI, p. 162, Vol. VII, p. 56. 
 
 218 Commons 's A Documentary History of American Industrial Society, 
 Vol. IX, pp. 33-42 (especially note 8 at bottom of p. 34); Usher's The 
 Greenback Movement of 1875-1884 and Wisconsin's Part in It, pp. 6-9; 
 White's The Life of Lyman Trumbull, pp. 380, 381 (see references under 
 note 225) ; The Chicago Daily Tribune, March 15, 1875. 
 
 219 The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1870, pp. 731, 732. 
 
NOTES AND REFERENCES 495 
 
 220 The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1870, pp. 473-477. 
 
 221 The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1870, pp. 536-539. 
 
 222 The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1871, pp. 751, 732. 
 
 223 The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1871, p. 494. 
 
 22* McPherson 's A Band-Book of Politics for 187%, pp. 211, 212. 
 
 225 McPherson 's A Band-Book of Politics for 1872, pp. 210-212; The 
 American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1872, pp. 773-775. 
 
 226 The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1S72, p. 217. 
 
 227 The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1872, p. 503. 
 
 228 The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1872, p. 665. 
 
 229 The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1873, pp. 238-240. 
 
 230 The American Annual Cyclopaedia, 1873, pp. 471, 472. 
 
 231 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1S75, pp. 479, 4S0. 
 
 232 Daily Press (Iowa City), July 30, 1877. 
 
 233 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1877, p. 620. 
 
 234 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1877, pp. 750-752. 
 
 235 Rhodes 's The Eailroad Biots of 1877 in Scribner's Magazine, Vol. L, 
 pp. 86-96; McNeill's The Labor Movement, pp. 154-163. 
 
 236 Daily press (Iowa City), July 30, 1877. 
 
 237 Daily Press (Iowa City), August 3, 1877. 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 238Rhodes's History of the United States, Vol. VI, pp. 160-162, 164, 165, 
 193, 194. 
 
 239 Ruck's Independent Parties in the Western States in Turner Essays 
 in American Bistory, p. 160 and note; Buck's The Granger Movement, p. 
 98 and note. 
 
 240 The letter from Iowa was from Mr. D. A. Mahoney of the Dubuque 
 Telegraph. 
 
 Mi The Chicago Daily Tribune, November 26, 1874; The American An- 
 nual Cyclopaedia, 1874, p. 415. 
 
 242 The Chicago Daily Tribune, November 14, 1874. 
 
 243 The Chicago Daily Tribune, March 11, 12, 13, 14, 1875. 
 
496 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 244 Daily Press (Iowa City), March 25, September 10, 1875; Sioux City 
 Weekly Times, April 24, 1875. 
 
 24= The Chicago Daily Tribune, August 26, 1875. 
 
 **« Daily Press (Iowa City), January 11, 1876. 
 
 247 Daily Press (Iowa City), February 16, 1876 ; The Weekly Iowa State 
 Register (Des Moines), February 25, March 24, 1876; Appletons' Annual 
 Cyclopaedia, 1876, p. 392; Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1876, p. 808; 
 Usher's The Greenback Movement of 1875-1884 and Wisconsin's Part in It, 
 p. 30 
 
 248 The Chicago Daily Tribune, May 18, 1876. 
 
 249 McPherson 's A Hand-Book of Politics for 1876, p. 224; Williams's 
 The Life of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Vol. I, p. 388. 
 
 2 "0 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1876, p. 782; McPherson 's A Hand- 
 Book of Politics for 1876, p. 224. 
 
 2"'i The Chicago Daily Tribune, May 19, 1876. 
 
 2"2 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), May 26, 1876. 
 
 2-j3 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1876, p. 212. 
 
 254 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), June 2, 1876. 
 
 2-..J Political Pamphlets, 1877-1878, Vols. XXIII, XXIV, in the Library 
 of the Chicago Historical Society. 
 
 -'•"Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography, Vol. V, p. 60; Apple- 
 ton's Annual Cyclopaedia, 1896, p. 579; The Saturday Evening Post (Bur- 
 lington), June 27, 1896. 
 
 2-"'" Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1876, pp. 204-206. 
 
 ■^Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1876, pp. 599, 600, 602, 604, 605. 
 
 2">o Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1876, pp. 410, 411; The Weekly Iowa 
 State Register (Des Moines), November 3, 1876. 
 
 2io Appletons ' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1876, pp. 392, 393. 
 
 - el Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1876, p. 437. 
 
 2i2 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), September 1, 1876. 
 
 203 See references under note 239 above; Campbell's The Hayes-Tilden 
 Contest in the Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society, 1909, 
 pp. 184-189; Haworth's The Hayes-Tilden Disputed Presidential Election of 
 1876, pp. 218, 219. 
 
NOTES AND REFERENCES 497 
 
 204 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1877, p. 384. 
 
 205 Indianapolis Journal quoted in The Weekly Iowa State Register (Dea 
 Moines), November 3, 1876. < 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 206 Appletons ' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1877, pp. 488, 489; Daily Press (Iowa 
 City), September 12, 1877. 
 
 20' Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1877, pp. 634-636. 
 
 208 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1877, pp. 620, 621. 
 
 209 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1877, p. 553. 
 
 270 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1877, pp. 565, 566. 
 
 27i McPherson 's A Hand-Booh of Politics for 1878, p. 168 ; The Weekly 
 Iowa State Register (Des Moines), March 1, 1878. 
 
 272 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1878, pp. 807, 808. 
 
 273 McPherson 's A Hand-Book of Politics for 1878, p. 168. 
 
 2"4 Usher's The Greenback Movement of 1875-1884 and Wisconsin's Part 
 in It, p. 54. 
 
 275 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1878, p. 807. 
 
 276 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1878, p. 808; McPherson 's A Band- 
 Book of Politics for 1880, p. 201. 
 
 277 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1878, pp. 431-434. 
 
 278 McPherson 's A Hand-Book of Politics for 1878, pp. 161, 162. 
 
 279 Appletons ' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1878, pp. 441-443. 
 
 280 McPherson 's A Hand-Book of Politics for 1878, p. 163; Appletons' 
 Annual Cyclopaedia, 1878, p. 560. 
 
 28i Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1878, p. 668. 
 
 282 Appletons ' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1878, p. 577; McPherson >s A Hand- 
 Book of Politics for 1878, pp. 220, 221. 
 
 283 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1878, p. 514; McCall's The Life of 
 Thomas Brackett Seed, p. 85. 
 
 284 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1878, pp. 514, 516; McPherson 's A 
 Band-Book of Politics for 1878, p. 162. 
 
 285 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1878, p. 220. 
 
 280 McPherson 's A Hand-Book of Politics for 1878, pp. 163, 164. 
 
498 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 287 McPherson 's A Hand-Boole of Politics for 1878, pp. 166, 167. 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 288 Congressional Record, 46th Congress, 1st session, March 18 and May 
 13, 1879, Vol. IX, Part 1, p. 5. 
 
 289 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1878, p. 808. 
 
 290 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1879, pp. 838, 839; The Weekly Iowa 
 State Register (Des Moines), March 21, 1879. 
 
 29i Daily Press (Iowa City), March 28, 1879. 
 
 292 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), January 17, 1879. 
 
 293 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1879, pp. 580, 581. 
 
 294 Daily Press (Iowa City), November 15, 17, December 3, 10, 18, 19, 23, 
 1879; The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), December 26, 1879, 
 January 2-30, 1880; Iowa State Press, January 28, 1880; Appletons' Annual 
 Cyclopaedia, 1879, pp. 581-587; 1880, pp. 486, 487; Annals of Iowa, Janu- 
 ary, 1913, p. 637; MeCall's The Life of Thomas Brackett Reed, pp. 86, 87. 
 
 29 '= Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1879, pp. 602-605. 
 
 296 McPherson 's A Hand-Book of Politics for 1880, p. 201. 
 
 -y Daily Press (Iowa City), August 12, 1S7S. 
 
 298 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), January 16, 1880. 
 
 299 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), March 12, 1880. 
 
 300 There was in Canada for thirty years before 1861 from time to time 
 a demand for a government issue of paper currency. ' ' The first systematic 
 and persistent advocate" was the Hon. Isaac Buchanan, of Hamilton, On- 
 tario, who in the early sixties urged a national system of protection in con- 
 nection with an irredeemable paper currency. His views received little 
 attention until the severe depression from 1S73 to 1S79 "disposed the minds 
 of many for the favorable reception of plausible remedies for the existing 
 evils. ' ' Mr. Buchanan 's plan was taken up by "a small but active number 
 of fairly influential people ' ', who were probably ' ' more or less influenced by 
 the developments and experiences in the United States. ' ' Mr. Buchanan 
 was ' ' an active promoter ' ' and he was assisted by Mr. William Wallace, 
 M. P., who in 1879 submitted to Parliament a series of resolutions in favor 
 of the new currency proposals. No action was taken, and in the following 
 year Mr. Wallace again brought up the subject in connection with the ex- 
 tension of the Dominion note issue. From 1878 to 1880 considerable dis- 
 cussion took place in the newspapers of central Ontario. 
 
NOTES AND REFERENCES 499 
 
 "The term ' beaverback ' was not commonly used to designate the pro- 
 posed issue of irredeemable Government notes. The term, however, was 
 evidently suggested by the American one of 'greenback'. The beaver, be- 
 fore Confederation, was the national emblem of the old Province of Canada, 
 being engraved on its postage stamps, and was, therefore, evidently sug- 
 gested by the friends of the Currency League as a fitting emblem for the 
 backs of the proposed Government notes. ' ' — From a letter by Mr. Adam 
 Shortt of Ottawa, Canada, to the writer. 
 
 301 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1880, pp. 696, 697; The Weekly Iowa 
 State Register (Des Moines), June 18, 1880; McPherson's A Hand-Book of 
 Politics for 1880, pp. 195, 196; Usher's The Greenback Movement of 1875- 
 1884 and Wisconsin's Part in It, pp. 58, 59; The Daily Inter Ocean (Chi- 
 cago), June 9-11, 1880; The Weaver Papers in possession of Mr. J. B. 
 Weaver, Des Moines, Iowa. 
 
 302 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines*), May 21, 1880. 
 
 so3 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), July 16, October 1, 
 1880. 
 
 304 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1880, pp. 696, 697. 
 
 305 McPherson's A Hand-Book of Politics for 1880, pp. 196-198; The 
 Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), July 9, 1880. Mr. Weaver was 
 referred to as "Wordy Weaver ". 
 
 306 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), October 22, 1880. 
 
 307 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), August 6, September 
 3, 24, 1880. 
 
 308 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), October 29, 1880. 
 
 309 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), October 15, 1880. 
 sio McPherson's A Hand-Book of Politics for 1882, p. 186. 
 
 3u The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), November 19, 1880. 
 
 312 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), November 26, 1880. 
 
 3i3 Daily Press (Iowa City), July 5, 1878. 
 
 si* The Independent (New York), Vol. LXXVII, p. 30. 
 
 sis The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), May 28, 1880. 
 
 3ie The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), November 10, 17, 1882. 
 
 317 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1882, p. 809. 
 
 sis The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), August 6, 1880. 
 
500 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 3is> The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), July 8, 1881, editorial 
 on "America and the Commune ". 
 
 320 Daily Press (Iowa City), May 8, 1878. 
 
 321 Daily Press (Iowa City), July 15, 1878. 
 
 322 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1878, p. 76. 
 
 323 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1878, p. 530. 
 
 324Bryce's The American Commonwealth (Eevised edition, 1910), Vol. 
 II, Ch. XC, p. 448. 
 
 325 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), March 17, May 12, 
 1882. 
 
 326 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), May 12, 1882. 
 
 327 The .Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), March 17, 1882; 
 McPherson's A Band-Book of Politics for 1882, p. 158; Appletons' Annual 
 Cyclopaedia, 1882, p. 82. 
 
 328 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines ) , March 4, 1881. 
 
 329 Sioux City Daily Times, April 2, 1883. In December, 1882, the same 
 paper published a list of rich men under the caption ' ' Wealth of our Amer- 
 ican Nobility" In March, 1883, it devoted two columns to an "Oriental 
 Ball ' ' given by Mr. and Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt which was said to have cost 
 $250,000. 
 
 330 McPherson 's A Hand-Book of Politics for 1884, p. 219. The States 
 were Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Michigan, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Cal- 
 ifornia, Kansas, Minnesota, Oregon, New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, 
 Vermont, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. The Wetter Papers, belonging 
 to the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, contain a printed call for a 
 conference at Chicago, July 4, 1883. 
 
 33i McPherson 's A Sand-Book of Politics for 1884, p. 219; Appletons' 
 Annual Cyclopaedia, 1884, p. 773. 
 
 332 McPherson's A Sand-Book of Politics for 1884, pp. 215-218; Apple- 
 tons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1884, pp. 773, 774. 
 
 333 McPherson 's A Sand-Book of Politics for 1884, pp. 229-239. 
 
 334 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1878, p. 530. 
 
 335 Butler's Autobiography and Personal Reminiscences, pp. 919-984. 
 ' ' Butler 's Book " is a characteristic product and reveals very clearly his 
 strength and his weaknesses. His comment (p. 976) upon the refusal of 
 Harvard to give him the customary degree usually conferred upon the Gov- 
 
NOTES AND EEPERENCES 501 
 
 ernor of Massachusetts illustrates his qualities: "I can read my diploma 
 in the Latin tongue, as perhaps one half of my predecessors in the executive 
 office who got the degree could not do. ' ' He also adds that he already had 
 the degree from Williams College and in 1892 held the same degree from 
 colleges in three New England States. 
 
 336 The Chicago Daily Tribune, November 13, 1874. 
 
 337 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), January 13, 1893. 
 
 338 The Review of Reviews, Vol. VII, p. 12. 
 
 339judson's American Politics — a Study of Four Careers (Blaine, 
 Lamar, Hayes, Butler) in The Revieto of Reviews, Vol. VII, pp. 169-173. 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 340 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), May 26, 1876. 
 34i The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), May 19, 1876. 
 
 342 Buggies 's The Greenback Movement in Iowa, a manuscript thesis in 
 the Library of the State University of Iowa. 
 
 343 Buggies 's The Greenback Movement in Iowa; The Weekly Iowa State 
 Register (Des Moines), May 19, 1876. 
 
 344 The Clinton Age, May 26, 1876. 
 
 345 Buggies 's The Greenback Movement in Iowa. 
 
 340 Buggies 's The Greenback Movement in Iowa ; The Weekly Iowa State 
 Register (Des Moines), September 29, 1876. 
 
 347 Buggies 's The Greenback Movement in Iowa. 
 
 348 Buggies 's The Greenback Movement in Iowa. 
 
 34» Buggies 's The Greenback Movement in Iowa; The Weekly Iowa State 
 Register (Des Moines), July 20, 1877. 
 
 3=0 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), August 3, 1877. This 
 man should not be confused with United States Senator Jones who repre- 
 sented Iowa from 1848 to 1859. 
 
 351 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), September 21, 1877. 
 
 352 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), September 14, 1877. 
 
 353 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), August 17, September 
 14, 1877. 
 
 354 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), September 14, 1877. 
 
502 THIRD PARTf MOVEMENTS 
 
 355 j) a iiy p ress (Iowa City), October 18, 1877. 
 
 sse Daily Press (Iowa City), August 29, 30, 1877. 
 
 357 Ruggles 's The Greenback Movement in Iowa; Iowa Official Begister 
 1913-1914, p. 518. 
 
 sss Daily Press (Iowa City), October 20, 1877. 
 
 359 The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), December 21, 1877. 
 
 360 Daily Press (Iowa City), January 20, 1878. 
 sei Daily Press (Iowa City), January 28, 1878. 
 
 362 The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), February 22, 1878. 
 
 363 The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), March 8, 1878. 
 
 sei The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), March 1, 1878. 
 
 365 The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), April 19, 1878; 
 Ruggles's The Greenback Movement in Iowa; Daily Press (Iowa City), 
 April 11, 1878. 
 
 see The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), April 19, 1878. 
 
 367 The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), April 19, 1878. 
 
 368 The Weekly Ioiea State Begister (Des Moines), April 26, May 10, Hay 
 17, 1878. 
 
 369 The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), May 17, 1878. 
 
 370 The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), July 12, 1878. 
 
 3"i The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), August 23, 30, 187S; 
 The Weaver Papers in the possession of Mr. J. B. Weaver, Des Moines, Iowa. 
 
 372 The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), July 26, 1878. 
 
 373 The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), July 26, 1878. 
 
 374 The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), October 11, 1878. 
 
 375 The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), October 18, 1878. 
 
 376 The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), June 21, 1878. 
 
 377 The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), June 28, 1878. 
 37S The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), July 5, 1878. 
 a™ Daily Press (Iowa City), August 5, 1878. 
 
 380 Daily Press (Iowa City), August 12, 1878. 
 
NOTES AND REFERENCES 503 
 
 ssi Daily Press (Iowa City), October 1, 3, 1878; The Weekly Iowa State 
 Register (Des Moines), October 4, 1878. 
 
 382 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), November 15, 1878; 
 Daily Press (Iowa City), November 12, 1878; Euggles's The Greenback 
 Movement in Iowa. 
 
 383 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), October 11, 1878. 
 
 ssi The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), October 25, 1878. 
 
 ass The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), August 2, 1878. 
 
 3se Daily Press (Iowa City), August 19, 1878. 
 
 ssi Daily Press (Iowa City), October 23, 1878. Hoggatt received 12,338 
 votes; Carpenter received 16,489 votes; and the Democratic candidate re- 
 ceived 1,202 votes. 
 
 388 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), December 20, 1878. 
 
 389 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), January 10, 1879. 
 380 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), January 17, 1879. 
 sol The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), February 21, 1879. 
 
 302 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), March 14, 1879. 
 
 303 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), March 21, 1879. 
 
 304 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), April 11, 1879. 
 
 395 Euggles's The Greenback Movement in Iowa; The Weekly Iowa State 
 Register (Des Moines), June 6, 1879; Daily Press (Iowa City), May 29, 
 1879. 
 
 396 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), June 6, 1879. 
 
 307 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), June 6, 1879; 
 Euggles's The Greenback Movement in Iowa; Daily Press (Iowa City), May 
 29, 1879. , 
 
 smThe Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), June 6, 1879; Daily 
 Press (Iowa City), December 26, 1878, contains Irish's opinion of Ingalls. 
 
 sm The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), May 30, 1879; Daily 
 Press (Iowa City), August 20, 1879. 
 
 400 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), July 18, August 15, 
 1879; Daily Press (Iowa City), August 12, 1879. 
 
 401 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), August 29, 1879. 
 
 402 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), September 19, 1879. 
 
504 THIRD PARTF MOVEMENTS 
 
 403 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), August 1, 1879. 
 
 404 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), November 7, 1879 ■ 
 Ruggles's The Greenback Movement in Iowa. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 405 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), January 9, 1880. 
 toe Iowa State Press (Iowa City), January 7, 1880. 
 
 407 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), May 7, 1880. 
 
 408 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), July 30, 1880. 
 
 409 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), May 28, 1880- 
 Ruggles's The Greenback Movement in Iowa. 
 
 410 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), May 28, 1880. 
 
 4ii The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), August 6, 1880. 
 
 m Iowa State Press (Iowa City), October 13, 1880; see references under 
 notes 308 and 309. 
 
 413 Ruggles's The Greenback Movement in Iowa. 
 
 414 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), November 19, Decem- 
 ber 10, 1880. 
 
 415 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), November 12, 19, 1880. 
 
 416 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), December 3, 1880. 
 4" Iowa State Press (Iowa City), February 9, 1881. 
 
 4is Iowa State Press (Iowa City), June 1, 1881. 
 
 419 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), March 18, 1881. 
 
 420 Mr. Gue in his History of Iowa, Vol. Ill, p. 108, says this was the first 
 woman nominated for a State office by any political party in Iowa. He 
 gives the name as Mrs. A. M. Swain of Fort Dodge. The Weekly Iowa 
 State Register (Des Moines), June 10, 1881, gives the name as Mary E. 
 Nash of Des Moines. 
 
 421 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), June 10, 1881; 
 Ruggles's The Greenback Movement in Iowa. 
 
 422 Ruggles's The Greenback Movement in Iowa. 
 
 423 iowa State Press (Iowa City), October 5, 1SS1. 
 
 424 Zo«:a State Press (Iowa City), March 29, April 5, 1882. 
 
 423 Th e Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), March 31, 1882. 
 
NOTES AND BEFERENCES 505 
 
 42s The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), April 7, 1882. 
 
 42T Sioux City Daily Times, March 3, 1882 ; The Weekly Iowa State Reg- 
 ister (Des Moines), April 14, 1882. 
 
 42s The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), April 28, 1882. 
 
 429 Buggles's The Greenback Movement in Iowa. 
 
 430 The Weller Papers in the Library of the Wisconsin Historical Society ; 
 printed circular from ' ' Office of the Chairman of the Greenback Press Asso- 
 ciation of Iowa, Maquoketa, June 24th, 1882". 
 
 431 Buggles's The Greenback Movement in Iowa; The Weekly Iowa State 
 Register (Des Moines), December 15, 1882; Iowa State Press (Iowa City), 
 December 13, 1882. 
 
 4S2 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines) , October 20, 1882. 
 
 433 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), November 17, 1882. 
 
 434 7 «;a State Press (Iowa City), February 21, 1883. John P. Irish hail 
 removed to California in September, 1882. 
 
 435 R U ggles's The Greenback Movement in Iowa; Iowa State Press (Iowa 
 City), July 18, 1883. 
 
 436 Fairall's Manual of Iowa Politics, Vol. I, Part IV, pp. 79-90. 
 
 437 Buggies 's The Greenback Movement in Iowa. 
 
 438/owo State Press (Iowa City), May 28, 1884. 
 
 *3s>Iowa State Press (Iowa City), September 3, 1884; Buggies 's The 
 Greenback Movement in Iowa. 
 
 no Iowa State Press (Iowa City), September 10, 1884. 
 
 441 Iowa State Press (Iowa City), August 1, 1883. 
 
 442 Buggies 's The Greenback Movement in Iowa. 
 
 443 Buggies 's The Greenback Movement in Iowa. 
 
 mlowa State Press (Iowa City), December 10, 1884; Buggles's The 
 Greenback Movement in Iowa; Gue's History of Iowa, Vol. Ill, p. 132. 
 
 445 Iowa State Press (Iowa City), October 8, 1884. 
 
 446 Buggles's The Greenback Movement in Iowa; Iowa State Press (Iowa 
 City), July 15, August 26, 1885. 
 
 447 Buggles's The Greenback Movement in Iowa; Iowa State Press (Iowa 
 City), November 25, 1885. 
 
506 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 448 Quotation from The Des Moines Leader in the Iowa State Press (Iowa 
 City), November 11, 1885. 
 
 44° Buggies *s The Greenback Movement in Iowa. 
 
 450 Buggies 's The Greenback Movement in Iowa. 
 
 45i Buggies 's The Greenback Movement in Iowa. 
 
 452 Buggies 's The Greenback Movement in Iowa ; Iowa Official Begister, 
 
 1889, p. 192, 1890, p. 190. 
 
 453 The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, August 10, 1890. 
 
 454R u ggles's The Greenback Movement in Iowa; Iowa Official Begister, 
 
 1890, p. 190, 1891, p. 174. 
 
 455 Buggies 's The Economic Basis of the Greenback Movement in Iowa 
 and Wisconsin in Proceedings of the Mississippi Valley Historical Associa- 
 tion, Vol. VI, pp. 142-165. 
 
 CHAPTEB XIV 
 
 456 Lloyd's Henry Demarest Lloyd, Vol. I, p. 139; Buchanan's The Story 
 of a Labor Agitator, pp. viii, ix. 
 
 457 See chapter XIII above. 
 
 458 George 's The Life of Henry George, Vol. X, p. 449, in the Complete 
 Works of Henry George (library edition). 
 
 459 Buchanan's The Story of a Labor Agitator, p. 101. 
 
 460 McPherson's A Hand-Book of Politics for 1884, p. 219. 
 46i Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1878, p. 808. 
 
 462 Appletons ' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1887, p. 742. 
 
 463 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1885, pp. 516-518. 
 
 464 Johnson's My Story, pp. 48-58. 
 
 465 See chapter XIII above. 
 
 *™ Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1886, pp. 12-15; Lloyd's Henry 
 Demarest Lloyd, Vol. I, Ch. V; Buchanan's The Story of a Labor Agitator, 
 pp. 373-426; Bussell's These Shifting Scenes, Ch. VI; Whitlock's Forty 
 Tears of It, pp. 37-41; The Saturday Evening Post (Burlington), July 1, 
 1893. 
 
 467 Hughan's American Socialism of the Present Day, pp. 37, 38. These 
 were the last instances of fusion. There were Independent candidates in 
 1892 and afterwards. 
 
NOTES AND REFERENCES 507 
 
 «s Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1888, p. 778. 
 
 460 Buehanan 's The Story of a Labor Agitator, pp. 426-431. 
 
 470 Buehanan 's The Story of a Labor Agitator, pp. 433, 434. 
 
 471 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1888, p. 778; MePherson 's A Hand- 
 Booh of Politics for 1888, p. 189. The name is given as Alson J. Streeter 
 in The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), January 16, 1891. 
 
 472 MePherson 's A Hand-Boole of Politics for 1888, p. 190. 
 47S Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1888, p. 778. 
 
 474 Woodburn's Political Parties and Party Problems in the United States 
 (second edition), p. 221. 
 
 475 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1886, pp. 648, 649. 
 
 476 Appletons ' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1887, pp. 550, 552, 555. 
 
 477 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1888, pp. 20, 21. 
 
 478 Buchanan's The Story of a Labor Agitator, p. 313. 
 
 479 Buchanan 's The Story of a Labor Agitator, pp. 347-349. 
 
 no Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1888, pp. 778, 779. 
 
 \4si Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1888, pp. 778, 782; The Weller 
 Papers, letter from Streeter to "Weller, dated May 28, 1888. 
 
 482 George's The Life of Henry George, Vol. X, pp. 511-513, in the Com- 
 plete Works of Henry George (library edition). 
 
 4S3 Appletons ' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1888, p. 782; MePherson 's A Hand- 
 Book of Politics for 1890, p. 273. 
 
 484 MePherson 's A Hand-Book of Politics for 1890, p. 273. 
 
 485 MePherson 's A Hand-Book of Politics for 1886, p. 236. 
 
 486 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1886, pp. 560, 575, 576, 605, 647, 732, 
 750, 834. 
 
 487 MePherson 's A Hand-Book of Politics for 1888, p. 191 ; The Clinton 
 Age, May 30, 1890 ; The Weekly Iowa State Register, October 28, 1892. 
 
 One Greenbacker was elected to the Mississippi legislature in 1891 besides 
 seven Independents. — Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1891, p. 533. 
 
 488 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1886, p. 840. A Biographical Con- 
 gressional Directory, 1774-1903, p. 805. 
 
 489 Appleton's Annual Cyclopaedia, 1887, pp. 506, 642, 643, 659, 411, 527, 
 463. Arranged in the order of the States in table. 
 
508 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 490 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1888, pp. 9, 40, 766, 767. 
 
 «i Appletons ' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1888, pp. 181, 4.43, 462, 550, 559 567 
 587, 671, 847. 
 
 492 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1888, pp. 559, 560. 
 
 *93 Lloyd 's Henry Demurest Lloyd, Vol. I, p. 120. 
 
 49* Buchanan 's The Story of a Labor Agitator, p. 138. 
 
 495 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 188S, pp. 241, 521, 609, 611, 678. 
 
 496 McPherson 's A Hand-Boole of Politics for 1890, pp. 265, 266. 
 
 497 Drew's The Present Farmers' Movement in the Political Science Quar- 
 terly, Vol. VI, p. 285. 
 
 498 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1888, pp. 39, 40. 
 
 499 A ppletons ' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1889, p. 36. 
 
 soo Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1890, pp. 23, 24. 
 sot Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1889, p. 680. 
 
 502 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1890, pp. 699, 700. 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 503 Gladden 's The Embattled Farmers in The Forum, Vol. X, pp. 315, 316, 
 
 504 Gladden 's The Embattled Farmers in The Forum, Vol. X, p. 316; The 
 Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), May 8, 1891. 
 
 =05 Gladden 's The Embattled Farmers in The Forum, Vol. X, pp. 316-318; 
 Walker's The Farmers' Movement in the Annals of the American Academy 
 of Political and Social Science, Vol. IV, pp. 790, 791. 
 
 506 Goodloe 's Western Farm Mortgages in The Forum, Vol. X, pp. 352- 
 354. 
 
 507 Keasbey 's The Neiv Sectionalism in The Forum, Vol. XVE, p. 580. 
 
 508 Keasbey 's The New Sectionalism in The Forum, Vol. XVI, pp. 580- 
 583. 
 
 509 Walker 's The Farmers ' Movement in the Annals of the American 
 Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. IV, p. 791. 
 
 5io Keasbey 's The New Sectionalism in The Forum, Vol. XVI, pp. 578, 
 584, 585 ; Gleed 's The True Significance of Western Unrest in The Fomm, 
 Vol. XVI, pp. 255, 256. — See letter about the "gold-bug" written by the 
 Populist Secretary of State of Kansas to the Chancellor of the State 
 University. 
 
NOTES AND REFERENCES 509 
 
 511 Keasbey 's The New Sectionalism in The Forum, Vol. XVI, p. 586. 
 
 512 Walker's The Farmers' Movement in the Annals of the American 
 Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. IV, p. 792. 
 
 oi3 Walker's The Farmers' Movement in the Annals of the American 
 Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. IV, p. 792. 
 
 514 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1886, pp. 330-332. 
 
 sis Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1889, p. 307. 
 
 5ie Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1892, pp. 263, 264; 1893, p. 294. 
 
 si? See earlier chapters. 
 
 sis Walker's The Farmers' Movement in the Annals of the American 
 Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. IV, p. 793 ; Drew 's The Pres- 
 ent Farmers' Movement in the Political Science Quarterly, Vol. VI, p. 282. 
 
 5io Drew's The Present Farmers' Movement in the Political Science Quar- 
 terly, Vol. VI, pp. 282, 283 ; McVey 's The Populist Movement in Economic 
 Studies, Vol. I, No. 3, p. 196. 
 
 520 Drew's The Present Farmers' Movement in the Political Science Quar- 
 terly, Vol. VI, pp. 283, 284; Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1890, p. 299; 
 McVey's The Populist Movement in Economic Studies, Vol. I, No. 3, p. 196. 
 
 521 Drew's The Present Farmers' Movement in the Political Science Quar- 
 terly, Vol. VI, p. 284; Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1886, p. 42; McVey's 
 The Populist Movement in Economic Studies, Vol. I, No. 3, p. 196. 
 
 522 Drew's The Present Farmers' Movement in the Political Science Quar- 
 terly, Vol. VI, pp. 284, 285. 
 
 523 See Chapters VI and VII, above. 
 
 524 Drew's The Present Farmers' Movement in the Political Science Quar- 
 terly, Vol. VI, pp. 285-287; Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1890, p. 299. 
 
 525 Drew 's The Present Farmers ' Movement in the Political Science Quar- 
 terly, Vol. VI, p. 288 ; McVey 's The Populist Movement in Economic Studies, 
 Vol. I, No. 3, p. 196. 
 
 526 Clinton Weekly Age, November 21, 1890, January 23, February 13, 
 March 13, 1891; The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), January 16, 
 March 13, 20, 1891. 
 
 527 Drew's The Present Farmers' Movement in the Political Science Qv^ar- 
 terly, Vol. VI, pp. 287-289; McVey's The Populist Movement in Economic 
 Studies, Vol. I, No. 3, p. 196. 
 
510 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 528 Drew's The Present Farmers' Movement in the Political Science Quar- 
 terly, Vol. VI, pp. 289, 290; Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1890, p. 300. 
 The Weller Papers contain a letter from the secretary of the National Cit- 
 izens' Alliance, dated February 9, 1891, stating the purpose of the organ- 
 ization. 
 
 529 MeVey 's The Populist Movement in Economic Studies, Vol. I, No. 3 
 pp. 137, 138; Drew's The Present Farmers' Movement in the Political Sci- 
 ence Quarterly, Vol. VI, pp. 291, 292; Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1890, 
 pp. 299, 300. 
 
 530 Drew's The Present Farmers' Movement in the Political Science Quar- 
 terly, Vol. VI, pp. 292-294; Personal Scrap Book in the Donnelly Collection 
 of the Minnesota Historical Society, Vol. XIII. 
 
 531 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1890, p. 301. The figures are for the 
 ' ' Southern ' ' Alliance. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 532 Tracy 's Rise and Boom of the Populist Party in The Forum, Vol. 
 
 XVI, pp. 243, 244. 
 
 533 Drew's The Present Farmers' Movement in the Political Science Quar- 
 terly, Vol. VI, p. 306. 
 
 53* Drew's The Present Farmers' Movement in the Political Science Quar- 
 terly, Vol. VI, p. 307; Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1890, p. 301. 
 
 535 Dewey's National Proolems in The American Nation : A History, Vol. 
 XXIV, p. 181. 
 
 536 Appletons ' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1890, p. 301. 
 
 537 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1890, pp. 319, 320. 
 
 538 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1890, pp. 365, 366. 
 
 539 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1890, p. 625. 
 
 5*0 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1S90, pp. 778, 779. 
 
 5*1 Gleed 's Is New York More Civilized than Kansas in The Forum, Vol. 
 
 XVII, pp. 217-234; Gleed 's Mr. GodMn on the West: A Protest in The 
 Forum, Vol. XXI, pp. 641-650; The Saturday Evening Post (Burlington), 
 April 7, 1894; Steevens's in The Land of the Dollar, p. 70, described Kansas 
 as the ' ' drunken helot of American Politics. ' ' 
 
 542 Appletons ' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1890, pp. 471, 472. 
 
 543 Clinton Weekly Age, July 29, 1890. 
 
 544 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1890, pp. 584, 585. 
 
NOTES AND REFERENCES 511 
 
 tas Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1890, pp. 782, 783. 
 
 646 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1890, pp. 556, 557; Clinton Weelcly 
 Age, July 18, 1890. 
 
 547 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1890, p. 553. 
 
 548 Appletons ' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1890, p. 440. 
 
 549 Appletons ' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1890, p. 629. 
 
 550 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1890, pp. 153, 154. 
 55i Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1890, p. 429. 
 
 ssa Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1889, p. 307. 
 
 553 Appletons ' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1890, p. 248. 
 
 554 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1890, p. 299. 
 
 555 Drew's The Present Farmers' Movement in the Political Science Quar- 
 terly, Vol. VI, p. 308. 
 
 sse Drew's The Present Farmers' Movement in the Political Science Quar- 
 terly, Vol. VI, pp. 308, 309. 
 
 557 See pp. 239-243, above. 
 
 558 Clinton Weelcly Age, December 12, 1890. 
 
 559 Clinton Weekly Age, December 19, 1890. 
 
 560 The Weelcly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), January 30, 1891. 
 
 56i Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1891, p. 832; Bliss's The New Ency- 
 clopaedia of Social Beform, pp. 888, 889. 
 
 562 Clinton Weelcly Age, May 22, 1891 ; The Weelcly Iowa State Register 
 (Des Moines), May 22, 29, 1891. 
 
 563 Clinton Weelcly Age, May 22, 1891 ; The Weelcly Iowa State Register 
 (Des Moines), May 22, 1891. 
 
 564 The Weelcly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), May 29, 1891. 
 
 565 Clinton Weelcly Age, May 22, 1891 ; Gilman 's Socialism and the Amer- 
 ican Spirit, pp. 191-221, see especially pp. 197, 201, 202. 
 
 see The Weelcly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), June 19, 1891. 
 
 567 Clinton Weelcly Age, February 13, 1891. 
 
 568 The Weelcly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), January 16, 1891. 
 
 569 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1891, p. 364; Clinton Weelcly Age, 
 
512 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 March 1."}, 1891; The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), March 13 
 20, 1891. The Republicans cheered Taubeneck's loyalty. After voting he 
 ilropped into his seat and ' ' burst into tears. His sincere sorrow no one 
 doubted ". 
 
 ■"'"o The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), January 30, 1891- 
 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1891, p. 401. 
 
 ■~'<i Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1891, p. 800; The Weekly Iowa State 
 Register (Des Moines), February 20, 1891. 
 
 572 Appletons ' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1891, p. 800; The Weekly Iowa State 
 Register (Des Moines), February 20, 1891. 
 
 ■"■■ '3 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1890, p. 299. 
 
 •"•7* Clinton Weekly Age, May 29, 1891. 
 
 ">"3 Clinton Weekly Age, September 4, 1891. 
 
 '>'>' The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), November 20, 1891; 
 Personal Scrap Book in the Donnelly Collection of the Minnesota Historical 
 Society, Vol. XI, and letters dated March 23, 26, and April 1, 8, 1892. 
 
 "»" The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), November 20, 1891. 
 
 "■™ Clinton Weekly Age, November 20, 1891 ; The Weekly Ioica State Reg- 
 ister (Des Moines), November 20, 27, 1891. 
 
 •"■Til Clinton Weekly Age, November 20, 1891. 
 
 •"'"o The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), November 27, 1891. 
 
 " ,sl Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1892, p. 374. 
 
 s« Clinton Weekly Age, January 29, 1892; The Weekly Iowa State Reg- 
 ister (Des Moines), February 5, 1892. 
 
 A letter from Frances E. Willard, February 2, 1892, urges the importance 
 of getting the ''Consensus of Opinion" adopted. — See the Donnelly Col- 
 lection of the Minnesota Historical Society. 
 
 5sa Clinton Weekly Age, February 26, 1S92; Tlie Weekly Iowa State Reg- 
 ister (Des Moines), March 4, 1892; the Donnelly Collection of the Minne- 
 sota Historical Society, letters dated February 22, 29, and March 1, 1892. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 584 Donnelly Collection of the Minnesota Historical Society, letters dated 
 June 17 and 20, 1892; The Review of Reviews, Vol. VI, p. 9; Vol. XII, p. 3. 
 
 585 The Weekly Ioica State Register (Des Moines), July 8, 1892. 
 
 "■»« Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1892, p. 753; The Weekly Iowa State 
 
NOTES AND REFERENCES 513 
 
 Eegister (Des Moines), July S, 1892; McVey 's The Populist Movement in, 
 Economic Studies, Vol. I, No. :i, pp. 143-150; McPherson's A Hand-Bool; 
 of Politics for 1892, pp. 269-271; Personal Scrap Booh in the Domicilii Col- 
 lection of the Minnesota Historical Society, Vol. XIII. 
 
 5ST Tracy's Menacing Socialism in the Western States in The Forum, 
 Vol. XV, p. 332. 
 
 sss The Review of Reviews, Vol. VI, p. 9. 
 
 589Tfte Review of Reviews, Vol. VI, pp. l:',.j, 136; Appletons' Annual 
 Cyclopaedia, 1892, pp. 3-5. 
 
 sac The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), September 30, 1892. 
 
 59i The Wearer Papers in the possession of Mr. J. B. Weaver, Des Moines, 
 Iowa; The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), September 30, 1892. 
 
 592 Tlie Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), October 21, 1892; 
 The Saturday Evening Post (Burlington), May 14, 1892. 
 
 593 Appletons ' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1892, pp. 705, 706. 
 
 594 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 189?, pp. 342, 343. 
 
 595 Appletons ' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1892, pp. 209-211; The Weekly Iowa 
 State Register (Des Moines), July 15, 1892. 
 
 596 The Review of Reviews, Vol. VI, p. 518; Vol. XV, pp. 89, 90. 
 
 597 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1892, pp. 370, 371. 
 
 598 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1892, pp. 755, 756; McPherson's A 
 Band-Book of Politics for 1894, p. 272. 
 
 599 McPherson 's A Hand-Book of Politics for 1894, p. 274. 
 
 eoo MePherson 's A Band-Book of Polities for 1894, p. 273. 
 
 6oi The Review of Reviews, Vol. VI, p. 517. 
 
 602 Quoted from the New York Tribune in The Weekly Iowa State Reg- 
 ister (Des Moines), November 25, 1892. 
 
 «03 The Weekly loiva State Register (Des Moines), November 18, 1892; 
 Clinton Weekly Age, November 18, 1892. 
 
 so* See letter from H. E. Taubeneck to Donnelly, November 26, 1892, in 
 the Donnelly Collection of the Minnesota Historical Society; The Weekly 
 Iowa State Register (Des Moines), November 25, December 23, 30, 1892, 
 January 6, 1893. 
 
 605 Cyclopedia of American Government, Vol. Ill, pp. 312, 673. 
 
514 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 60s Clinton Weekly Age, June 28, 1892. 
 
 got The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), March 3, August 4 
 1893 ; Clinton Weekly Age, October 6, 1893. 
 
 608 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1893, p. 503; The Weekly Iowa State 
 Register (Des Moines), February 10, 1893. 
 
 609 Elected to Congress as an Anti-Monopolist in 1874. 
 
 6io The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), February 10, 1893. 
 
 en The Review of Reviews, Vol. X, p. 30. 
 
 612 Algernon S. Paddock, United States Senator, 1875-1881, 1887-1893. 
 
 6i3 Tracy's Rise and Doom of the Populist Party in The Forum, Vol. 
 XVI, pp. 247, 248. 
 
 6i* The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), June 24, 1892. 
 
 sis The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), February 3, 1893; 
 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1893, pp. 420-422. 
 
 tie Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1892, pp. 176, 178. 
 
 en Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1893, pp. 222, 224. 
 
 6i8 The Review of Reviews, Vol. VIII, pp. 629, 649; Appletons' Annual 
 Cyclopaedia, 1893, pp. 410, 478, 591. 
 
 6i9 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), March 4, 1892. 
 
 620 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), July 8, 1892. 
 
 621 Clinton Weekly Age, March 2, 1894. 
 
 622 The Review of Reviews, Vol. IX, pp. 649, 650, Vol. X, pp. 4, 5, 63-66; 
 Stead's Coxeyism in The Review of Reviews, Vol. X, pp. 47-59. 
 
 623 A. J. Streeter described President Cleveland in 1892 as " a fossilized 
 reminiscence. ' ' — The Weekly Iowa State Register, July, 1, 1892. 
 
 624 The Review of Reviews, Vol. X, p. 134. 
 
 625 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1894, pp. 728-731; McPherson's A 
 Hand-Book of Politics for 1894, pp. 253-259 ; The Review of Reviews, Vol. 
 X, pp. 132-137, 299-301, 603, 604; Fletcher's The Railway War in The At- 
 lantic Monthly, Vol. LXXIV, pp. 534-541; Robinson's The Humiliating 
 Report of the Strike Commission in The Forum, Vol. XVIII, pp. 523-531; 
 Report on the Chicago Strike of June-July, 1894; Bacon's The Railroad 
 Strike in California in The Yale Review, Vol. Ill, pp. 241-250 ; The Railroad 
 Strike of 1894 (pamphlet). 
 
NOTES AND REFERENCES 515 
 
 626 The Review of Reviews, Vol. X, pp. 7, 10, 11; The Senate in the Light 
 of History in The Forum, Vol. XVI, pp. 275, 276. The Populist Senators 
 are classed as "oddities and accidents." 
 
 627 The Review of Seviews, Vol. X, p. 8. See the writer 's The New Sec- 
 tionalism in The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. X, pp. 272, 273. 
 
 628 The Review of Reviews, Vol. X, p. 9. 
 
 629 Quoted from the writer 's The New Sectionalism in The Quarterly 
 Journal of Economics, Vol. X, pp. 279, 280; Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 
 1894, pp. 5, 6, 392, 393, 490, 491, 506, 507, 552, 553, 719. 
 
 63oMcVey's The Populist Movement in Economic Studies, Vol. I, No. 3, 
 pp. 197, 198; The Review of Reviews, Vol. X, pp. 595-597, 599, 600, 621- 
 625, Vol. XI, p. 681; Townsend's Adoph Sutro : Mayor-Elect of San Fran- 
 cisco in The Review of Reviews, Vol. X, pp. 626-629. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 631 Clinton Weekly Age, February 15, 22, March 8, June 7, 1895. 
 
 632 Clinton Weekly Age, March 1, 1895. 
 
 633 Clinton Weekly Age, March 8, 1895. 
 
 634 Clinton Sunday Age, March 29, 1895. 
 
 ess Clinton Weekly Age, October 5, 1894; Lloyd's Henry Demarest Lloyd, 
 Vol. I, pp. 249-251 ; White 's The Life of Lyman Trumbull, pp. 413-415. 
 
 636 The Review of Reviews, Vol. XII, pp. 646, 647, 666; Clinton Semi- 
 Weekly Age, October 29, November 8, 1895. 
 
 637 Roosevelt's The Issues of 1896 in The Century, Vol. LI, p. 69. 
 
 638 Woodburn's Political Parties and Party Problems in the United States 
 (second edition), pp. 131, 132. 
 
 639 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1896, p. 667. 
 
 640 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1896, p. 667. 
 
 64iCroly's Marcus Alonzo Hanna, pp. 192-204; Wellman's Mr. Kohlsaat 
 of Chicago, and His Part in the Political History-Making of 1896 in The 
 Review of Reviews, Vol. XV, pp. 41-43. 
 
 <*2 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1896, pp. 667, 760-762; The Review 
 of Reviews, Vol. XIV, pp. 3-10; Clinton Semi-Weekly Age, June 19, 23, 
 1896; The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), June 19, 1896; Croly's 
 Marcus Alonzo Hanna, pp, 190-208. 
 
 643 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1896, p. 667. 
 
516 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 si* The Bevieic of Reviews, Vol. XIV, pp. 148, 149. 
 
 "5 The Review of Reviews, Vol. XIV, pp. 135-137; Clinton Semi-Weekly 
 Age, August 11, 1896. 
 
 6« The Review of Reviews, Vol. XIV, p. 133, Vol. XV, pp. 89, 90; Clin- 
 ton Semi-Weekly Age, July 3, 1896. 
 
 647 Appletons ' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1896, p. 667. 
 
 ei&The Review of Reviews, VoL XIV, pp. 138, 139; Abbot's William 
 Jennings Bryan in The Review of Reviews, Vol. XIV, pp. 161-173; Apple- 
 tons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1896, pp. 765, 766. 
 
 649 The Review of Reviews, Vol. XIV, p. 140. 
 
 650 General references for the Democratic Convention are: Appletons' 
 Annual Cyclopaedia, 1896, pp. 667, 762-766; The Review of Reviews, Vol. 
 XIV, pp. 133-141, 174-176 (Bryan's "Cross of Gold" Speech); Clinton 
 Semi-Weekly Age, June 23, 1896; The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des 
 Moines), July 10, 17, 24, 1896; Leupp's The Dark Horse Convention in 
 The Outlook, Vol. CI, pp. 297-302. 
 
 65i The Review of Reviews, Vol. XIV, pp. 142, 265, 299, 300, 303 ; Clinton 
 Semi-Weekly Age, July 21, 1896; Lloyd's Henry Demarest Lloyd, Vol. I, 
 pp. 259, 260. See letters from H. E. Taubeneck to Donnelly, June 22, July 
 29, and from Donnelly to Taubeneck, November 7, 1896, in the Donnelly 
 Collection of the Minnesota Historical Soeiety. A letter from J. A. Edger- 
 ton, Secretary of the Populist National Committee to Donnelly, October 14, 
 1896, refers to his "radical middle of the road stand at St. Louis" 
 
 652 The Review of Reviews, Vol. XIV, pp. 265, 266; Appletons' Annual 
 Cyclopaedia, 1896, p. 768; Clinton Semi-Weekly Age, July 24, 1896; The 
 Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), July 24, 31, 1896. 
 
 653 Clinton Semi-Weekly Age, August 4, 1896. 
 
 654 The Review of Reviews, Vol. XIV, pp. 265, 266, 391, 392. 
 
 ess "Woodburn's Political Parties and Party Problems in the United States 
 (second edition), pp. 166, 167. 
 
 656 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1896, pp. 767, 768. 
 
 "57 Lloyd's The Populists at St. Louis in The Review of Reviews, Vol. 
 XIV, pp. 298, 299; Lloyd's Henry Demarest Lloyd, Vol. I, pp. 260-264. 
 
 ess The Review of Reviews, Vol. XIV, p. 395. 
 
 &™ Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1896, pp. 668, 768., 769; The Review 
 
NOTES AND REFERENCES 517 
 
 of Renews, Vol. XIV, pp. 259, 260, 394-396; Bunnell's The Rise of the 
 "Xational Democracy" in The Review of Reviews, Vol. XIV, pp. 434-445. 
 
 oeo Croly's Marcus Alonzo Banna, pp. 209-227; Bryan's The First Battle: 
 A Story of the Campaign of 1896; Steevena's The Land of the Dollar, pp. 
 164-175; Beard's Contemporary American History, pp. 164-198. 
 
 6" Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1896, pp. 668-670; The Review of Re- 
 views, Vol. XIV, p. 407 (map) ; Croly's Marcus Alonzo Hu him, pp. 217, 218, 
 
 easMcE wen's Letter (San Francisco), May 4, 1895; Harvey's Coin's 
 Financial School; The Review of Reviews, Vol. XI, pp. 627, 675-679, Vol. 
 XIV, pp. 131, 132. 
 
 663 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1896, p. 671. 
 
 664 The Review of Reviews, Vol. XIV, pp. 397, 514 (map), 519, 558; Ap- 
 pletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1896, p. 671; Bryan's The First Battle: A 
 Story of the Campaign of 1896, p. 604 (maps, pp. 384 and 600). 
 
 665 Appletons ' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1896, pp. 441, 671; The Review of Re- 
 views, Vol. XIV, pp. 397, 519, 558; Croly's Marcus Alonzo Hanna, pp. 215, 
 216; Steevens's The Land of the Dollar, pp. 124-132. 
 
 666 Woodbum 's Political Parties and Party Problems in the United 
 States, pp. 409, 410; Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1896, pp. 672, 673. 
 
 66" Halstead 's Marcus A. Hanna in The Review of Reviews, Vol. XIV, 
 pp. 421-426; Croly's Marcus Alonzo Hanna, pp. 209-227. 
 
 669 Croly's Marcus Alonzo Hanna, p. 220. 
 
 670 Croly's Marcus Alonzo Hanna, pp. 209, 226; The Review of Reviews, 
 Vol. XIV, pp. 262, 518. 
 
 67i Croly's Marcus Alonzo Hanna, p. 226. 
 
 6T2Hillis's An Outlook Upon the Agrarian Propaganda in the West in 
 The Review of Reviews, Vol. XIV, pp. 304, 305. 
 
 6-3 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1896, p. 673. 
 
 6T4 The Review of Reviews, Vol. XIV, p. 644 (map). 
 
 675 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1896, p. 673. 
 
 676 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1896, pp. 673, 770-774; The Review 
 of Reviews, Vol. XIV, pp. 643-647, 653, 661, Vol. XV, p. 18; McKee's The 
 
518 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 National Conventions and Platforms of all Political Parties (Third Edi- 
 tion), pp. 326-328. 
 
 6n Johnson's My Story, pp. 108, 109; Steevens's The Land of the Dol- 
 lar, p. 84. 
 
 678 George's Life of Henry George, Vol. X, pp. 581-583, in Complete 
 Works of Henry George (library edition). 
 
 679 Lloyd's Henry Demarest Lloyd, Vol. II, pp. 19, 20. 
 
 680 Lloyd's Henry Demarest Lloyd, Vol. I, pp. 264, 265. 
 
 68i Parson's The Issue of 1896 in The Arena, Vol. XVI, p. 891. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 682 Tracy's Sise and Doom of the Populist Party in The Forum, Vol. 
 XVI, p. 246. 
 
 683 Clark 's The History of Liquor Legislation in Iowa in The Iowa Jour- 
 nal of History and Politics, Vol. VI, p. 540. 
 
 684 Clark's The History of Liquor Legislation, in Iowa in The Iowa Jour- 
 nal of History and Politics, Vol. VI, pp. 503-604. 
 
 685 Iowa Official Register, 1892, p. 172. 
 ese Iowa Official Register, 1894, p. 107. 
 
 687 Dr. Charles Beardsley, editor of The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye. 
 
 688 The Saturday Evening Post (Burlington), October 26, 1889. 
 
 689 Appletons ' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1890, pp. 445, 446; Journal of the 
 House of Representatives, 1890, pp. 1-83. 
 
 690 Appletons' Annual Cyclopedia, 1890, pp. 446; Journal of the House 
 of Representatives, 1890, p. 168. 
 
 Mi- Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1890, pp. 446, 447. 
 
 692 Iowa Official Register, 1891, pp. 84-87; Appleton's Annual Cyclo- 
 paedia, 1890, p. 448. 
 
 693 i owa Official Register, 1891, pp. 174, 175. 
 
 694 The Saturday Evening Post (Burlington), June 14, 1890. 
 
 695 The Saturday Evening Post (Burlington), May 17, 1890. 
 
 696 Iowa Official Register, 1893, p. 198; Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 
 1890, p. 449; Drew's The Present Farmers' Movement in the Political Sci- 
 ence Quarterly, Vol. VI, p. 308. 
 
NOTES AND REFERENCES 519 
 
 697 Iowa Official Register, 1893, pp. 195, 197; Appletons' Annual Cyclo- 
 paedia, 1890, p. 449. 
 
 ess Clinton Weekly Age, September 16, 1890. 
 
 699Gue's History of Iowa, Vol. Ill, pp. 103-107; The Weekly Iowa State 
 Register (Des Moines), April 8, 1881, January 6, 13, 1882. 
 
 'oo Clinton Daily Age, December 12, 1890. 
 
 701 Clinton Weekly Age, February 6, 1891. 
 
 702 The Weekly Iowa Stale Register (Des Moines), February 27, March 
 6, 1891 ; Clinton Weekly Age, March 3, 1891. 
 
 703 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), March 6, 1891. 
 
 704 The Saturday Evening Post (Burlington), March 7, 1891. 
 
 705 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), March 27, 1891. 
 
 706 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), May 1, 1891. 
 
 707 Clinton Weekly Age, May 1, 1891. 
 
 ■!os The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), May 8, 1891. There 
 is a copy of the call in The Weller Papers under date of April 20, 1891. 
 
 709 Clinton Weekly Age, May 12, 1891. 
 
 7io The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), June 5, 1891. 
 
 7ii The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), June 5, 1891. 
 
 712 Mr. Van Wyck was the Populist candidate for Governor of Nebraska, 
 1892. 
 
 713 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), June 5, 1891. 
 
 71* Iowa Official Register, 1892, pp. 171, 172 ; Clinton Weekly Age, June 
 5, 1891; The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), June 5, 1891. 
 
 715 Iowa Official Register, 1892, p. 170 ; The Weekly Iowa State Register 
 (Des Moines), June 5, 1891; Clinton Weekly Age, June 5, 1891. 
 
 7i6 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), June 5, 1891. 
 
 717 Clinton Weekly Age, June 9, 1891. 
 
 718 The Saturday Evening Post (Burlington), June 13, 1891. 
 
 719 Clinton Weekly Age, June 12, 1891. 
 
 720 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), September 11, 1891. 
 72i The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), October 16, 1891. 
 
520 THIED PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 722 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), October 23, 1891. 
 
 723 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), October 30, 1891. 
 
 724 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), November 6, 1891. 
 
 "5 l owa Official Register, 1892, pp. 214, 233 ; Clinton Weekly Age, No- 
 vember 6, 1891. 
 
 726 Horace Boies was the only Democratic State officer elected in 1889. 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 727 Irwin's 7* Iowa a Doubtful State? in The Forum, Vol. XIII, pp. 257- 
 264; The Review of Reviews, Vol. V, p. 270. 
 
 728 The Review of Reviews, Vol. V, p. 519. 
 
 -29 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), June 10, 1892. 
 
 730 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), June 17, 1892. 
 
 73i The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), June 10, 1892. 
 
 7=2 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), June 17, 1892; Apple- 
 tons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1892, p. 359; Clinton Weekly Age, June 10, 1892. 
 
 733 See Chapter XVII, above. 
 
 734 Clinton Weekly Age, July 8, 1892. 
 
 735 Clinton Weekly Age, July 12, 1892. 
 
 736 Clinton Weekly Age, July 22, 1892. 
 
 737 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), July 29, 1892. 
 73s Iowa Official Register, 1893, pp. 112, 113. 
 
 739 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), September 2, 1892. 
 
 740 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), October 21, 1892. 
 74i Iowa Official Register, 1893, pp. 202-204. 
 
 742 7 0! c a Official Register, 1893, pp. 193-19S. 
 
 74= The Weekly loiva State Register (Des Moines) , August 19, 1S92. 
 
 744 The Saturday Evening Post (Burlington'), November 12, 1892. 
 
 745T/se Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), April 29, 1892. 
 
 740 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), December 2, 1892. 
 
 747 Clinton Weekly Age, December 16, 1892. 
 
 7is The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), March 3, 1893. 
 
NOTES AND REFERENCES 521 
 
 749 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), February 10, June 16, 
 1893. 
 
 'so Ioica Official Register, 1893, p. 108 ; 1892, p. 168. 
 
 75i Tfce Saturday Evening Post (Burlington), March 11, 189;;. 
 
 is? The Saturday Evening Post (Burlington), May 6, 1893. 
 
 J53 The Saturday Evening Post (Burlington), June 10, 189::. 
 
 75i The Saturday Evening Post (Burlington), June 3, 1893. 
 
 755 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), July 14, August 4, 
 1893. 
 
 756 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), July 28, 1893. 
 
 7-"7 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), November 3, 1893. 
 7."s The Saturday Evening Post (Burlington), January 7, 1893. 
 
 759 The Saturday Evening Post (Burlington), June 16, 1894. 
 
 Two articles by Iowa men upon Professor Herron are McCowan's A Mis- 
 understood Man in The Midland Monthly, Vol. II, pp. 204-208; and Beard- 
 sley's Professor Herron in The Arena, Vol. XV, pp. 784-796. 
 
 760 The Saturday Evening Post (Burlington), June 23, 1894. 
 
 76i The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), March 31, 1893. 
 
 762 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), April 3, 1891. 
 
 763 Tlie Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), February 13, 1891. 
 
 764 Clinton Weekly Age, December 1, 1893. 
 
 765 The Saturday Evening Post (Burlington), December 2, 1893. 
 
 766 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), September 8, 1893; 
 Clinton Weekly Age, September 8, 1893. 
 
 767 Iowa Official Register, 1894, p. 106; Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 
 1893, p. 410. 
 
 768 Iowa Official Register, 1894, pp. 105, 186, gives J. E. or J. T. Ander- 
 son as the candidate for Lieutenant Governor. 
 
 7«9 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), September 8, 1893. 
 
 770 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), September 8, 1893. 
 
 771 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), October 6, 1893. 
 772/0,™ Official Register, 1894, p. 1 S,J : Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 
 
 1893, p. 410. 
 
522 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 773 Clinton Weekly Age, November 10, 1893. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 77* Clinton Weekly Age, April 20, 1894; The Daily Iowa State Register 
 (Des Moines), April 17, 1894. 
 
 775 The Daily Iowa State Register (Des Moines), May 4, 1894. 
 
 776 General Weaver devoted almost his entire time to the army while it 
 was in Des Moines. He referred to it as "a revolution without arms". 
 See The Daily Iowa State Register (Des Moines), May 1, 1894; Weaver's 
 The Commonweal Crusade in The Midland Monthly, Vol. I, pp. 590-594. 
 
 777 Clinton Weekly Age, May 4, 1894. 
 
 778 The Review of Reviews, Vol. X, pp. 57-59, gives the route of Kelly's 
 army from April 3 to June 14, 1894. The Daily Iowa State Register (Des 
 Moines), April 15 to May 20, 1894, contains the detail of events during the 
 time the army spent in Iowa. See also The National Guard in The Mid- 
 land Monthly, Vol. II, pp. 418, 419. 
 
 779 The Saturday Evening Post (Burlington), May 26, 1894. 
 
 780 The Review of Reviews, Vol. X, p. 43. 
 
 78i The Daily Iowa State Register (Des Moines), April 22, 1894, contains 
 official documents. 
 
 782 The Daily Iowa State Register (Des Moines), April 20, 1894. 
 
 783 The Daily Iowa State Register (Des Moines), April 21, 1894. See 
 also interview with E. St. John, general manager of the Eock Island Rail- 
 road. — Hubbard 's Kelly 's Tramps in The Midland Monthly, Vol. I, pp. 
 588-590. 
 
 784 The Daily Iowa State Register (Des Moines), April 17, 1894. 
 
 785 The Daily Iowa State Register (Des Moines), May 1, 2, 1894. 
 
 786 The Daily Iowa State Register (Des Moines), May 11, 1894. 
 
 787 Editorial comment in The Midland Monthly, Vol. I, pp. 612-614. 
 
 788 The Daily Iowa State Register (Des Moines), June 29, 1894. 
 
 789 The National Guard in The Midland Monthly, Vol. II, pp. 419-421; 
 The Daily Iowa State Register (Des Moines), July 4, 5, 6, 1894. 
 
 790 The Daily Iowa State Register (Des Moines), July 3, 4, 1894. 
 79i The Daily Iowa State Register (Des Moines) , July 12, 1894. 
 792 The Daily Iowa State Register (Des Moines), July 11, 1894. 
 
NOTES AND REFERENCES 523 
 
 T93 The Daily Iowa State Register (Des Moines), July 15, 1894. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 794 The Daily Ioica State Register (Des Moines), March 22, 1894; Clin- 
 ton Weekly Age, March 23, 1894. 
 
 795 The Daily Iowa State Register (Des Moines), March 23, 1894. 
 706 The Saturday Evening Post (Burlington), April 14, 1894. 
 
 797 The Daily Iowa State Register (Des Moines), July 1, 1894. 
 
 798 The Daily Iowa State Register (Des Moines), August 2, 1894; Clinton 
 Weekly Age, August 3, 1894. 
 
 799 The Daily Iowa State Register (Des Moines), September 5, 1894. 
 
 800 The Daily Iowa State Register (Des Moines), September 5, 1894. 
 
 sol The Daily Iowa State Register (Des Moines), September 5, 1894; 
 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1894, pp. 381, 382; Iowa Official Register, 
 1895, p. 103. 
 
 802 The Daily Iowa State Register (Des Moines), September 5, 1894. 
 
 803 Croly's Progressive Democracy, pp. 230, 231; The New Republic, Vol. 
 I, No. 12, p. 4. 
 
 so* Sumner's The Absurd Effort to Make the World Over in The Forum, 
 Vol. XVII, p. 92. 
 
 805 The Daily Iowa State Register (Des Moines), September 5, 1894. 
 
 806 Iowa Official Register, 1895, pp. 184, 185. 
 
 807 Iowa Official Register, 1895, pp. 186-191. 
 
 80s The Daily Iowa State Register (Des Moines), September 5, November 
 6, 1894. 
 
 8oo The Review of Reviews, Vol. X, p. 624. 
 8io Iowa Official Register, 1895, pp. 186-191. 
 
 8ii The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), May 17, June 14, 
 1895; Clinton Weekly Age, June 7, 1895; Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 
 1895, p. 369. 
 
 812 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), June 7, 1895; Apple- 
 tons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1895, p. 369. 
 
 8i3 Clinton Weekly Age, June 7, 1895. 
 
 8i4 Clinton Weekly Age, May 17, 1895. 
 
524 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 sis The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), June 14, 1895. 
 
 sis The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), June 14, 1895; Iowa 
 Official Begister, 1896, p. 142. 
 
 si? The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), June 14, 1895. 
 
 sis The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), August 2, 1895. 
 
 8i9 Clinton Weekly Age, April 5, 1895. 
 
 820 The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), June 14, 1895. 
 
 821 Clinton Weekly Age, August 9, 1895. 
 
 822 The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), August 9, 1895; Clin- 
 ton Weekly Age, August 9, 1895; Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1895, p. 
 370. 
 
 823 Iowa Official Begister, 1896, p. 222. 
 
 824 Iowa Official Begister, 1894, p. 186. 
 
 825 iowa Official Begister, 1895, p. 184. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 826 Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1896, p. 362. 
 
 827 The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), April 24, 1896. 
 
 828 Clinton Semi-Weekly Age, May 19, 1896. 
 
 829 The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), May 22, 1896; Clin- 
 ton Semi-Weekly Age, May 22, 1896; Appletons' Annual Cyclopaedia, 1896, 
 p. 362. 
 
 830 The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), July 3, 1896. 
 83i The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), July 10, 1896. 
 
 832 The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), July 17, 1896. 
 
 833 The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), July 17, 1896. 
 
 834 The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), July 31, 1896. 
 sss The Weekly Ioioa State Begister (Des Moines), July 24, 1896. 
 
 836 Clinton Semi-WeeMy Age, July 31, 1896. 
 
 837 The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), August 7, 1896. 
 sss The Weekly Iowa State Begister (Des Moines), August 14, 1896. 
 830 Clinton Semi-Weekly Age, August 14, 1896. 
 
NOTES AND REFERENCES 525 
 
 sio The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), August 28, 1896. 
 
 84i The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), September 18, 1896; 
 Iowa Official Register, 1897, pp. 137-139. 
 
 842 The Review of Revieus, Vol. XIV, p. 526. 
 
 8*3Hillis's An Outlook Upon the Agrarian Propaganda in the West in 
 The Review of Reviews, Vol. XIV, p. 304. 
 
 s«Hillis's An Outlook Upon the Agrarian Propaganda in the West in 
 The Review of Reviews, Vol. XIV, pp. 304, 305. 
 
 s« Clinton Semi-Weekly Age, October 9, 1896. 
 
 846 The Saturday Evening Post (Burlington), October 24, 1896. 
 
 sir Clinton Semi-Weekly Age, October 13, 1896. 
 
 -■is Clinton Semi-Weekly Age, October 16, 1896. 
 
 S49 Iowa Official Register, 1897, p. 244. 
 
 w Clinton Semi-Weekly Age, November 6, 1896. 
 
 s-i Iowa Official Register, 1897, pp. 250-255. 
 
 «2 Clinton Semi-Weekly Age, November 6, 1896. 
 
 8^3 Clinton Semi-Weekly Age, November 6, 1896. 
 
 s-4 The Saturday Evening Post (Burlington), November 28, 1896. 
 
 855 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), November 6, 1896. 
 
 sss Tlie Daily Iowa State Register (Des Moines), September 5, 1894. 
 
 85- The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), September 2, 1892. 
 
 ass The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), September 2, 1892. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 859 Adams's An Undeveloped Function in the Annual Report of the Amer- 
 ican Historical Association, 1901, Vol. I, p. 52. 
 
 860 McLaughlin and Hart's Cyclopedia of American Government, Vol. 
 Ill, pp. 40, 41. 
 
 86i The Review of Reviews, Vol. XXII, p. 656; Spahr's Mr. Bryan, the 
 Democratic Leader, in 1900 in The Review of Reviews, Vol. XXII, pp. 41- 
 47; Wellman's The Kansas City Convention in The Review of Reviews, Vol. 
 XXII, pp. 175-178. 
 
 862 The Review of Reviews, Vol. XXX, p. 133; The National Democratic 
 Convention at St. Louis in The Review of Reviews, Vol. XXX, pp. 186-190. 
 
526 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 863 McLaughlin and Hart's Cyclopedia of American Government, VoL 
 III, pp. 41-43. 
 
 864 The Review of Reviews, Vol. XXXIV, pp. 259-264. 
 
 865 The Outlook, Vol. LXXXIV, pp. 51-53. 
 see The New Republic, Vol. I, No. 3, p. 12. 
 
 867 The Review of Reviews, Vol. XXXVIII, p. 131. 
 
 ses The Review of Reviews, Vol. XXXVIII, pp. 136-138 ; The New In- 
 ternational Year Booh, 1908, pp. 581, 590, 591. 
 
 869 The New International Year Book, 1908, pp. 586, 587. 
 
 870 McLaughlin and Hart's Cyclopedia of American Government, Vol. 
 Ill, p. 44. 
 
 87i Quoted from the writer's Forward Movements in Politics since tlie 
 Civil War in The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. XI, p. 161. 
 
 872 Abbot 's The New Bryan in The Review of Reviews, Vol. XXXVIII, 
 pp. 41-44. 
 
 873 Abbott 'a William Jennings Bryan in The Outlook, Vol. LXXXIV, pp. 
 66-68. 
 
 874 McLaughlin and Hart 's Cyclopedia of American Government, Vol. 
 Ill, pp. 45, 46. 
 
 875 Robinson's The Decline of the Democratic Party in The American 
 Journal of Sociology, Vol. XX, pp. 313-334. 
 
 876 McLaughlin and Hart 's Cyclopedia of American Government, Vol. 
 Ill, pp. 40-46. 
 
 877 McLaughlin and Hart's Cyclopedia of American Government, VoL 
 
 II, p. 758; The Wetter Papers contain a printed address to the People's 
 party and Independent voters of the United States, giving an account of the 
 controversies between the fusion and "mid-road" Populists. 
 
 878 McLaughlin and Hart 's Cyclopedia of American Government, Vol. 
 
 III, p. 41. 
 
 879 McLaughlin and Hart's Cyclopedia of American Government, Vol. 
 
 II, p. 758; The Wetter Papers contain letters from Jas. H. Ferriss of 
 •Joliet, Illinois, chairman of the Populist National Committee, expressing 
 expectation of a large convention at St. Louis on July 4, 1904. The plat- 
 form drafted there is also preserved. 
 
 880 McLaughlin and Hart's Cyclopedia of American Government, Vol. 
 
 III, pp. 42, 43. 
 
NOTES AND REFERENCES 527 
 
 ssi Watson 'a Why I am Still a Populist in The Review of Reviews, Vol. 
 
 XXXVIII, pp. 303-306. 
 
 882 McLaughlin and Hart 's Cyclopedia of American Government, Vol. 
 II, p. 758, Vol. Ill, p. 44. 
 
 888 Sioux City newspapers. A letter from Tom E. Watson, January 24, 
 1910, to Weller reads as follows : ' ' You ask me what we are to do. Frank- 
 ly, I don't know. The Democratic party is chaotic; the Republican party 
 is becoming so; the Populist party is dead, and we are all at sea" — • The 
 Weller Papers. 
 
 884 Sioux City Tribune, September 1, 1910. 
 
 885 La Follette's Autobiography, Chs. V-VIII; Howe's Wisconsin : An 
 Experiment in Democracy, pp. 3-24; Steffens's The Struggle for Self -Gov- 
 ernment, pp. 79-119; Allen's America's Awakening, pp. 59-89; Wellman's 
 The Sise of La Follette in The Review of Reviews, Vol. XXXI, pp. 299-302. 
 
 886 Wellman 's The Rise of La Follette in The Review of Reviews, Vol. 
 XXXI, p. 299; La Follette's Autobiography, pp. 411, 412, 428. 
 
 887 The Review of Reviews, Vol. XXX, pp. 12-14. 
 
 sss The Review of Reviews, Vol. XXXVIII, p. 16; The New Interna- 
 tional Year Bool; 1908, pp. 579-581. 
 
 889 Quoted in the Sioux City Tribune, June 24, 1908; Taylor's Indus- 
 trial Issues at the Chicago Convention in Charities, Vol. XX, pp. 430-432. 
 
 890 McCarthy 's The Wisconsin Idea, pp. 20-30; Commons's Labor and 
 Administration, preface, p. vi. 
 
 89i McCarthy 's The Wisconsin Idea, pp. 30, 31. 
 
 892 Roberts 's Monarchical Socialism in Germany, pp. 136-143. 
 
 893 McCarthy 's The Wisconsin Idea, pp. 287, 288. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 894 Welliver 's The Epoch of Roosevelt in The Review of Reviews, Vol. 
 
 XXXIX, pp. 339-346. 
 
 895 Welliver 's The Epoch of Roosevelt in The Review of Reviews, Vol. 
 XXXIX, p. 339. 
 
 896 The Outlook, Vol. XC, p. 14; The Review of Reviews, Vol. XXVI, 
 pp. 394-397. 
 
 897 Quoted from the writer 's Forward Movements in Politics since the 
 Civil War in The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. XI, p. 164. 
 
528 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 "as McLaughlin and Hart's Cyclopedia of American Government, Vol. 
 II, pp. 560, 561; Ripley's Railroads: Finance and Organization, pp. 491- 
 498, 554, 555; Northern Securities Co. vs. United States, 1904, 193 IT. S. 197. 
 
 During Hoosevelt 's administration there were twenty -five indictments and 
 eighteen bills in equity compared with five indictments and ten bills in 
 equity during the entire three preceding presidential administrations. 
 
 ass The Review of Reviews, Vol. XXVI, pp. 515-521. 
 
 900 The Review of Reviews, Vol. XXVI, pp. 521, 522. 
 
 90i Tlie Review of Reviews. Vol. XXVI, pp. 522-527; Lloyd's Henri/ 
 Vemarest Lloyd, Vol. II, pp. 187-238. 
 
 902 Lloyd's Henry Vemarest Lloyd, Vol. II, pp. 236-238. 
 
 903 Dixon's The Interstate Commerce Act as Amended in The Quarterly 
 Journal of Economics, Vol. XXI, pp. 22-25; La Follette's Autobiography, 
 pp. 399-418. 
 
 904 Theodore Roosevelt: an Autobiography, pp. 428-461; Van Hise's The 
 Conservation of Natural Resources in the United States, pp. 5-13. 
 
 905 Abbott's A Review of President Roosevelt's Administration in The 
 Outlool; Vol. XCI, p. 430. 
 
 906^4 Review of President Roosevelt's Administration in four articles in 
 The Outlool; Vol. XCI, pp. 298-307, 350-357, 389-393, 430-434; Theodore 
 Roosevelt: an Autobiography, Chs. XXV. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXVI 
 
 90- Pingree 's Potato Patch Plan in Public Opinion, Vol. XX, pp. 109, 
 205, 206. 
 
 008 Utley and Cuteheon's Michigan as a Province, Territory and State, 
 Vol. IV, pp. 227, 228. 
 
 909 utley and Cuteheon's Michigan as a Province, Territory and State, 
 Vol. IV, pp. 228, 229; Johnson's My Story, pp. 91-97. 
 
 9io The Review of Reviews, Vol. XIV, p. 653; Appletons' Annual Cy- 
 clopaedia, 1896, p. 486; Utley and Cuteheon's Michigan as a Province, 
 Territory and State, Vol. IV, p. 230. 
 
 on Utley and Cuteheon's Michigan as u Province, Territory and State, 
 Vol. IV, pp. 230-234. 
 
 932 The Outlook, Vol. LXVIII, pp. 465, 466; De Witt's The Progressive 
 Movement, pp. 57-60. 
 
 9i3Whitlock's Forty Tears of It, p. 139. 
 
NOTES AND KEFERBNCES 529 
 
 si* Whitlock 's Forty Years of It, p. 145; Gladden 's Mayor Jones of To- 
 ledo in The Outlook, Vol. LXII, pp. 17-21. 
 
 sis Gladden 's Mayor Jones of Toledo in The Outlook, Vol. LXII, pp. 20, 
 21; The Outlook, Vol. LXXVII, pp. 674, 675. 
 
 9i« Whitlock 's Forty Tears of It, p. 138. 
 
 9" Whitlock 's Forty Years of It, pp. 112-150 gives a sympathetic and in- 
 teresting account of Jones's unique personality. 
 
 9is Steffens's The Struggle for Self-Government, p. 183. 
 
 919 Whitlock 's Forty Tears of It, pp. 167-173. Johnson's My Story is 
 his own account of his career written in the last months of his life when i 
 health and fortune had been spent in his struggle for better conditions. 
 
 920 Steffens 's Upbuilders, pp. 285-315; Hendrick's The Initiative and 
 Referendum and How Oregon Got Them in McClure's Magazine, Vol. 
 XXXVII, pp. 235-24S. 
 
 92i Schafer's Oregon as a Political Experiment Station in The Review of 
 Reviews, Vol. XXXIV, pp. 172, 173; Steffens's Upbuilders, pp. 316-318. 
 
 922Schafer's Oregon as a Political Experiment Station in The Review of 
 Reviews, Vol. XXXIV, pp. 174, 175. 
 
 923 The Review of Et views, Vol. XXXVIII, p. 20. 
 
 924 McLaughlin and Hart's Cyclopedia of American Government, Vol. II, 
 p. 590. 
 
 925 B. J. Hendriek gives a popular account of Oregon 's progressive legis- 
 lation in McClure's Magazine, Vol. XXXVII, pp. 235-248, 435-450, 505-519; 
 Eaton's The Oregon System. 
 
 926 Steffens's The Struggle for Self -Government, pp. 3-39; Allen's Amer- 
 ica's Awakening, pp. 1C2-138; White's Folk in McClure's Magazine, Vol. 
 XXVI, pp. 115-132. 
 
 927 White's The Old Order Changeth, p. 30. 
 
 928 Steffens 's The Struggle for Self-Government, pp. 4, 5. 
 
 929 Croly's Marcus Alomo Manna, pp. 417-419. 
 
 930 Letter to Theodore Koosevelt from Gifford Pinehot, dated December 
 31, 1909, and quoted from The Saturday Evening Post in the Sioux City 
 Tribune, October 6, 1911. 
 
 CHAPTEE XXVII 
 
 93i The American Tear Book, 1910, pp. 47, 48 ; McLaughlin and Hart 's 
 Cyclopedia of American Government, Vol. II, p. 193. 
 
530 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 932 The American Year Book, 1910, pp. 49, 139, 140, 165, 166. 
 
 933 The American Tear Booh, 1910, pp. 34, 35, 321-324; Dolliver'B The 
 Forward Movement in the Republican Party in The Outlook, Vol. XCVI, pp. 
 161-172; Baker's Is the Republican Party Breaking Up? in The American 
 Magazine, Vol. LXIX, pp. 435-448 ; Baker 's On the Political Firing Line in 
 The American Magazine, Vol. LXXI, pp. 3-16. 
 
 934 The Review of Reviews, Vol. XL, p. 138. 
 
 935 The Review of Reviews, Vol. XL, p. 262. 
 
 936 The American Year Book, 1910, pp. 35, 36. 
 
 937 The American Year Book, 1910, pp. 50-53 ; Mr. Roosevelt in the West 
 in The Outlook, Vol. XCVI, pp. 64-67; The New Nationalism and The Old 
 Moralities in The Outlook, Vol. XCVI, pp. 157-160; Roosevelt's The New 
 Nationalism, pp. 3-33, 231-244. 
 
 ass The American Year Book, 1910, pp. 53, 54. 
 
 939 The American Year Book, 1911, p. 69. 
 
 9*o The American Year Book, 1911, pp. 49-52, 69. 
 
 94i The American Year Book, 1911, pp. 69, 70. 
 
 9*2 The American Year Book, 1911, pp. 71, 72. 
 
 943 The American Year Book, 1912, pp. 2, 3. 
 
 944 The American Year Book, 1912, pp. 3, 4; La Follette's Autobiography, 
 Chs. XI-XIII. 
 
 s '4s The American Year Book, 1912, pp. 4, 5. 
 
 946 The American Year Book, 1912, pp. 5-10, 61, 62. 
 
 947 The Progressives' Protest in The Outlook, Vol. CI, p. 478. 
 
 948 The American Year Book, 1912, pp. 10-14 ;The Chicago Convention, 
 and the Birth of a New Party in The Outlook, Vol. CI, pp. 470-477; Bry- 
 an's A Tale of Two Conventions, pp. 3-106; The Review of Reviews, Vol. 
 XL VI, pp. 191-195. 
 
 949 The American Year Book, 1912, pp. 14-20; The Game at Baltimore in 
 The Outlook, Vol. CI, pp. 522-527; Bryan's A Tale of Two Conventions, 
 pp. 109-243. 
 
 950 The Outlook, Vol. CI, pp. 479, 480. 
 
 95i The American Year Book, 1912, pp. 20, 21. 
 
 952 The American Year Book, 1912, pp. 23-25; The Outlook, Vol. CI, pp. 
 
NOTES AND REFERENCES 531 
 
 857-864; The Review of Reviews, Vol. XLVI, pp. 268-274; Menkel's The 
 Progressives at Chicago in The Beview of Reviews, Vol. XLVI, pp. :',10-:tl7; 
 Bryan's A Tale of Two Conventions, pp. 247-307, contains Mr. Eoosevelt's 
 speech, pp. 250-278, and the platform, pp. 279-295; The Kansas City Star, 
 August 5-7, 1912, published the platform, speeches, and other features of 
 the convention in a special supplement for general distribution. 
 
 953 The OutlooTc, Vol. CI, pp. 861, 862; Kellogg 's The Industrial Plat- 
 form of the New Party in The Survey, Vol. XXVIII, pp. 668-670. 
 
 954 The American Tear Book, 1912, pp. 34-40. 
 
 955 The American Tear Bool', 1912, pp. 41, 42; The Review of Reviews, 
 Vol. XLVI, pp. 643-652, 675 (map). The campaign as ;i whole is covered 
 in Beard's Contemporary American History, pp. 344-381, and in Haworth's 
 America in Ferment, pp. 367-410. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 9=6 Buck's The Granger Movement, p. 171. 
 
 957Dey's Railroad Legislation in Iowa in the Iowa Historical Record, 
 Vols. VII, VIII, IX, 1891-92-93, pp. 556, 557. 
 
 »5s Aldrich's The Repeal of the Granger Law in Iowa in The Iowa Jour- 
 nal of History and Politics, Vol. Ill, pp. 256-270. 
 
 959 Gue's History of Iowa, Vol. Ill, pp. 94, 95. 
 
 9»o Larrabee 's The Railroad Question, pp. 333-337. 
 
 96i Larrabee 's The Railroad Question, pp. 337-339. 
 
 962 Gue's History of Iowa, Vol. Ill, p. 150; Journal of the House of 
 Representatives, 1886, pp. 849, 850; Journal of the Senate, 1886, p. 847. 
 
 963 Shambaugh 's Messages and Proclamations of the Governors of Iowa, 
 Vol. VI, pp. 92-106. 
 
 964 Shambaugh 's Messages and Proclamations of the Governors of Iowa, 
 Vol. VI, pp. 73, 74. 
 
 965 Larrabee 's The Railroad Question, pp. 8, 9. 
 
 966 Gue 's History of Iowa, Vol. Ill, p. 143. 
 
 <•" Gue's History of Iowa, Vol. Ill, pp. 151, 102; Laivs of Iowa, 1888, 
 pp. 33-51. 
 
 »ws Shambaugh 's Messages and Proclamations of the Governors of Iowa, 
 Vol. VI, pp. 171-173. 
 
 909 The Cedar Rapids Sunday Republican, November 17, 1912. 
 
532 THIED PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 9™ Clark's History of Senatorial Elections in Iowa, pp. 211, 214, 216, 
 217, 221; Journal of the House of Representatives, 1890, pp. 167, 168- 
 Gue's History of Iowa, "Vol. Ill, p. 161. 
 
 971 La toilette's Autobiography, pp. 282, 341. 
 9f2Larrabee's The Railroad Question, p. 230. 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 973 Dolliver 's The Forward Movement in the Republican Party in The 
 Outlook, Vol. XCVI, pp. 166, 167. 
 
 974 Gue's History of Iowa, Vol. Ill, pp. 101-107; Brigham's The Gov- 
 ernor of Iowa in The Review of Reviews, Vol. XXXIV, p. 293. 
 
 975 Brigham's The Governor of Iowa in The Review of Reviews, Vol. 
 XXXIV, p. 295. 
 
 976 Dolliver 's The Forward Movement in the Republican Party in The 
 Outlook, Vol. XCVI, p. 167; Clark's History of Senatorial Elections in 
 Iowa, p. 239. 
 
 977 Clark's History of Senatorial Elections in Iowa, pp. 241-244. 
 
 97s The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), January 12, 1900; 
 Clark's History of Senatorial Elections in Iowa, pp. 244, 245. 
 
 979 Dolliver 's The Forward Movement in the Republican Party in The 
 Outlook, Vol. XCVI, p. 167. 
 
 980 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), February 15, 1901. 
 
 98i The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), May 10, 1901. 
 
 982 G U e's History of Iowa, Vol. Ill, pp. 206, 207; Dolliver 's The For- 
 icard Movement in the Republican Party in The Outlook, Vol. XCVI, p. 167. 
 
 983/owa Official Register, 1902, p. 274; Roberts's The Origin and His- 
 tory of the Iowa Idea in The Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. 
 II, pp. 69-73 ; Dolliver 's The Forward Movement in the Republican Party 
 in The Outlook, Vol. XCVI, p. 167; Brigham's The Governor of Iowa in 
 The Review of Reviews, Vol. XXXIV, p. 294. 
 
 984 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), September 27, 1901. 
 
 985 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), May 31, 1901. 
 
 see i 0W a Official Register, 1902, p. 563 ; The Weekly Iowa State Register 
 (Des Moines), November 8 and 15, 1901. 
 
 987 Inaugural Address, pp. 3-17, in the Iowa Legislative Documents, 1902, 
 Vol. I. 
 
NOTES AND REFERENCES 533 
 
 ass Roberts's The Origin and History of the Iowa Idea in The Iowa 
 Journal of History, and Politics, Vol. II, pp. 76-79. 
 
 939 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), April 10 and July 3, 
 1903. 
 
 990 The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), May 1, 1903; Hor- 
 aek's Primary Elections in Iowa in the Iowa Applied History Series, Vol. I, 
 p. 275. 
 
 99i The Weekly Iowa State Register (Des Moines), October 2, 1903. 
 
 992 Iowa Official Register, 1904, p. 563. 
 
 993 Biennial Message, p. 15, in the Iowa Legislative Documents, 1904, 
 Vol. I. 
 
 99iHorack's Primary Elections in Iowa in the Iowa Applied History 
 Series, Vol. I, pp. 275, 277. 
 
 99= Shambaugh's The Constitution of the State of Iowa, pp. 107-112. 
 
 996 The Register and Leader (Des Moines), July 29, 1906; Brigham's 
 Tlie Governor of Iowa in The Review of Reviews, Vol. XXXIV, pp. 291-295. 
 
 997 The Register and Leader (Des Moines), August 1, 1906. 
 99s The Review of Reviews, Vol. XXXIV, p. 268. 
 
 999 Iowa Official Register, 1907-1908, pp. 389, 390. 
 
 iooo Iowa Official Register, 1907-1908, p. 527. 
 
 iooi Biennial Message, pp. 16-18, in the Iowa Legislative Documents, 
 1907, Vol. I. 
 
 1002 Inaugural Address, pp. 8-10, in the Iowa Legislative Documents, 
 1907, Vol. I. 
 
 1003 Biennial Message, pp. 22-34, in the Iowa Legislative Documents, 
 1907, Vol. I. 
 
 1004 Inaugural Address, p. 13, in the Iowa Legislative Documents, 1907, 
 Vol. I. 
 
 1005 Clark's History of Senatorial Elections in Iowa, pp. 250-254. 
 iooo Clark's History of Senatorial Elections in Iowa, pp. 254-258. 
 1007 La Follette 's Autobiography, p. 429. 
 
 loosto Follette' s Autobiography, pp. 428-436. 
 
 1009 The New International Year Book, 1910, pp. 382, 383, 1912, pp. 
 338, 339. 
 
534 THIRD PARTY MOVEMENTS 
 
 1010 Iowa Official Register, 1913-1914, pp. 381-383, 519, 522. 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 ion The best recent discussions of the subject of this chapter are: Weyl's 
 The New Democracy; Croly's Promise of American Life and Progres- 
 sive Democracy; Lipmann's Drift and Mastery and A Preface to Politics- 
 Wilson's The New Freedom; Roosevelt's The New Nationalism. 
 
 1012 See p. 96, above. 
 
 1013 Merriam 's Outlook for Social Politics in the United States in The 
 American Journal of Sociology, Vol. XVIII, p. 676. 
 
 1014 Poole's The Harbor, p. 63. 
 
 1015 See p. 99, above. 
 
 ioi6 The Clinton Age, December 1, 1871. 
 
 1017 Senator Knute Nelson in Memorial Addresses on the Life and Char- 
 acter of Cushman Kellogg Davis, pp. 9-16; Holmes's Minnesota in Three 
 Centuries, Vol. IV, p. 60; Folwell's Minnesota, p. 295. 
 
 mis Rhodes 's Bistory of the United States, Vol. VII, p. 19. 
 
 ioi9Sloane's Party Government in the United States of America, p. 230. 
 
 1020 Commons's A Documentary History of American Industrial Society, 
 Vol. IX, p. 20. 
 
 1021 Williams 's Life of Rutherford Birchard Hayes, Vol. II, p. 17 ; The 
 Chicago Daily Tribune, June 6, 1874. 
 
 1022 See Chapters IX and XI, above. 
 
 1023 See Chapters XI and XVII, above. 
 
 1024 See Chapter XIV, above. 
 1023 See Chapter XVII, above. 
 
 1026 The New Republic, Vol. Ill, No. 27, pp. 4, 5. 
 
INDEX 
 
 535 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abbott, Lyman, 386 
 
 Aberdeen (South Dakota), 296 
 
 Academies, admission to, 120 
 
 Adams, Brooks, 35 
 
 Adams, Charles Francis, 13, 14, 15, 17, 
 25, 33, 34, 38, 427 
 
 Adams, Dudley W., 71 
 
 Adams, John Quincy, 20 
 
 Adams County, 174, 179, 182 
 
 Addams, Jane, 432, 433 
 
 Administration, proposed changes in, 59 
 
 Agricultural classes, uprising of, 62 
 
 Agricultural machinery (see farm imple- 
 ments) 
 
 Agricultural products, cooperative sale of, 
 85; decline in price of, 199; dealing 
 in futures in, 214, 222; price of, 224; 
 protection of, 227; freight rates on, 
 241 
 
 Agricultural Wheel, 215; facts concern- 
 ing, 229, 230 
 
 Agricultural Wheelers, 206 
 
 Agriculture, encouragement of, 149 ; re- 
 lation of, to Greenback movement, 198- 
 201 
 
 Ainsworth, L. L., 79, 272 
 
 Alabama, 27, 43, 131, 133, 140, 178, 
 212, 230, 234, 259, 264, 265, 280, 
 346, 363, 388, 389, 424 
 
 Aldrich, Chester H., 426 
 
 Aldrich, N. W., 421 
 
 Alien ownership, 214, 233 
 
 Allegheny Theological Seminary, 252 
 
 Allen, Henry J., 429 
 
 Allen, William, 113, 486 
 
 Allen, William V., election of, to Sen- 
 ate, 272; character and career of, 272, 
 273; reference to, 291, 477 
 
 Alliance Assemblies, 258 
 
 Allis, Edward P., 110, 138 
 
 Allison, William B., 23, 308, 355, 445, 
 458, 462 ; contest between Cummins 
 and, 466, 467 
 
 Altgeld, John P., 205, 266, 267, 277, 
 287, 288, 360, 365, 370 
 
 Alton Railroad, 53 
 
 American Emigrant Company, 165 
 
 American Reform party, 207, 216 
 
 Ames, 355, 375 
 
 Amnesty, general, 11 
 
 Anarchists, activities of, in Chicago, 205; 
 reference to, 210, 270; pardon of, 267 
 
 Anarchy, origin of, 333 
 
 Anderson, Albert E., 196 
 
 Anderson, John E., 313, 314, 325, 326, 
 355 
 
 Andover Theological Seminary, 394 
 
 Anthony, Susan B., 136 
 
 Anthracite coal strike, settling of, 400- 
 402 ; public opinion on, 401 
 
 Anti-Monopolists, United Order of, 258 
 
 Anti-Monopoly party, 51, 64, 109, 200, 
 202, 204, 207, 221, 435, 448, 470; 
 success of, 55, 56, 57; history of, in 
 Iowa, 67-88 ; reasons for organization 
 of, 67-69 ; different names of, 67 ; or- 
 ganization of, 69, 70; State conven- 
 tion of, 70, 76, 77, 79, 80; campaigns 
 of, 70-82 ; disorganization in, 72 ; sup- 
 port of, by Democrats, 72, 73 ; ele- 
 ments in, 77; change of name of, 78; 
 fusion of, with Democrats, 79 ; last 
 campaign of, 81 ; principal issues of, 
 82-84 ; cooperative features of, 84-88 ; 
 new agitation of, 147 ; convention of, 
 148, 149 ; outgrowth of, 153 ; mem- 
 bers of, in Senate, 275 
 
 Anti-trust law, 308 
 
 Appanoose County, 174, 189 
 
 Arbitration, proposal for courts of, 103 ; 
 reference to, 148, 217, 256, 283; set- 
 tling of strike by, 400-402 
 
 Arkansas, 140, 211, 212, 229, 234, 262, 
 300, 323, 389; Union Labor party in, 
 215, 216 
 
 Army, 126 
 
 Atkinson, Edward, 12, 14, 18 
 
 Atlantic, 195, 373 
 
 Atlantic Monthly, The, 20, 147, 204 
 
 Attorney-General, 167, 399, 401, 443 
 
 537 
 
538 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Auditor of State, 167 
 
 Australian ballot, 210, 234, 308, 316 
 
 Babb, Washington I., nomination of, 
 356; reference to, 366 
 
 Baer, George F., 400 
 
 Ballinger, Mr., 161 
 
 Ballot, 139 
 
 Baltimore, 104, 113 
 
 Baltimore Convention, part of Bryan in, 
 386, 431 
 
 Baker, Newton D., 413 
 
 Bank deposits, guarantee of, 354, 385 
 
 Bank notes, retirement of, demanded, 95, 
 96, 155 
 
 Bankers, 94, 309 ; relation of farmers 
 to, 224, 225; currency views of, 332 
 
 Banking, 59 ; cooperative plan in, 88 
 
 Banking corporations, 58, 354 
 
 Banking system, 61, 210 
 
 Banks, N. P., election of, 31 
 
 Banks, 92, 97, 139, 216 
 
 Barbed wire syndicate, conflict of farm- 
 ers with, 311, 448 
 
 Barker, Wharton, 388 
 
 Bartholomew, J. L., 352 
 
 Bartlett, William F., 14, 32, 102 
 
 Bascom, John, 394, 395, 396 
 
 Bashor, S. H., 353, 355 
 
 Bass, Robert P., 426 
 
 Bath (Maine), 290, 296 
 
 Beardsley, Charles, 307, 518 
 
 Beaverback currency, 136, 499 
 
 Beebe, J. O., 352 
 
 Beecher, Henry Ward, 473 
 
 Beef, 222 
 
 Belangee, J., 322, 324, 355 
 
 Bellamy, Edward, 249, 335 
 
 Bennington, anniversary of battle of, 276 
 
 Berryhill, James G., 438 
 
 Bestow, S. L., 308, 353, 356; nomina- 
 tion of, 356, 357 
 
 Beveridge, Albert J., 392, 418, 421, 432 
 
 Biennial elections, 460 
 
 Bimetallic League, American, activities 
 of, 271, 272; reference to, 283, 294, 
 353 
 
 Bimetallism, defeat of, 372; passing of, 
 as issue, 382 
 
 Bird, Frank W., 14, 37 
 
 Black Hawk County, 73, 364 
 
 Blaine, James G., 34, 35, 46, 82, 128, 
 190, 191, 202, 203, 362, 464; opposi- 
 
 tion of Independent Republicans to, 
 43-45; defeat of, 46 
 
 Blair, Austin, 14, 17 
 
 Blanc, Louis, book by, 92 
 
 Bland, Richard P., 283, 288, 289, 360, 
 361, 370 
 
 Bloomfield, 138, 156 
 
 Blythe, J. W., 451, 458, 461 
 
 Bohemians, 103 
 
 Boies, Horace, election of, 197; reference 
 to, 288, 289, 334, 348, 359, 365, 520; 
 method of securing reelection of, 319, 
 320; number of votes received by, 320; 
 presidential boom for, 321 ; currency 
 views of, 329; defeat of, 336, 337; 
 campaign of, for presidential nomina- 
 tion, 360-363; reasons for defeat of, 
 363 
 
 Bolter, Lemuel R., 74 
 
 Bondholders, 94 
 
 Bond Syndicates, 126 
 
 Bonds, relation of currency to, 93, 94; 
 payment of, 105, 170; reference to, 
 111, 233, 289, 331, 342, 349; taxa- 
 tion of, 123; hostility to, 126; funding 
 of, 139 
 
 Booth, Newton, 35, 63, 65, 112; election 
 of, 57; nomination of, 112; leadership 
 of, 475, 476 
 
 Borah, William E., 392, 423 
 
 Bosses, 418, 450 
 
 Boston, 31, 34, 44, 45, 140, 249 
 
 Bourne, Jonathan, Jr., 392, 416, 423 
 
 Bowker, R. R., 45 
 
 Bowles, Samuel, 14, 15, 34, 35 
 
 Brewster, George W., 135 
 
 "Brickdust Sketches", 115 
 
 Brimmer, Martin, 487 
 
 Bristow, Henry, 34, 36, 392, 421, 423 
 
 Brokers, 309 
 
 Brooklyn (New York), 116 
 
 Brown, B. Gratz, agitations begun by, 
 9; nomination of, 10, 16; accounts of 
 trick by, 16, 17; reference to, 24, 
 108, 487; description of, 25 
 
 Brown, Henry A., 33 
 
 Brown, Leonard, platform drawn up by, 
 161; character of, 162; reference to, 
 168, 169, 170, 171, 178, 181, 324, 
 325, 346, 348, 375; letters from, 177, 
 186 
 
 Brown, Norris, 421, 423 
 
 Browning, O. H., 142 
 
INDEX 
 
 o 
 
 39 
 
 Bryan, William J., 143, 266, 271, 285, 
 294, 297, 331, 361, 364, 365, 366, 
 367, 370, 389, 398, 454, 479; "Cross 
 of Gold" speech of, 287, 288; nom- 
 ination of, for President, 289, 363, 
 388; career of, 289, 290, 379-390; 
 endorsement of, by Populists, 291-293 ; 
 speech-making tour of, 295, 296; 
 charges made by, 298; number of 
 votes received by, 299, 300, 380, 385; 
 supporters of, 301, 302; vote for, in 
 Iowa, 371; tour of, around world, 
 381, 382; qualities of, 386; support of 
 Wilson by, 431; leadership of, 478 
 
 Bryant, William Cullen, 12, 14, 18, 35, 
 36 
 
 Bryce, James, 6, 146 
 
 Buchanan, Isaac, 498 
 
 Buchanan, James, 106, 109, 110, 112, 
 174; description of, 107; plans and 
 doctrines of, 107, 108 
 
 Buchanan, Joseph R., book by, 203 ; 
 statements by, 206, 207 ; reference to, 
 208, 209 
 
 Buchanan County, 312, 364 
 
 Buck, Solon J., 81 
 
 Buckalew, Charles R., 101 
 
 Buckner, Simon B-, nomination of, 294 
 
 Budd, Mr., 281 
 
 Buena Vista County, 315 
 
 Buffalo, 452 
 
 Bull moose, origin of term, 429 
 
 Bullock, Alexander G., 35, 36 
 
 Burkett, Elmer J., 421 
 
 Burlington, 157, 329, 332, 451 
 
 Burlington Hawk-Eye, 25, 26, 80, 158 
 
 Burlington Railroad, 340, 461 
 
 Business, 396, 418; government regula- 
 tion of, 399 
 
 Business men, campaign contributions 
 by, 297 
 
 Butler, Benj. F., 76, 102, 105, 124, 134, 
 138, 159, 186, 190, 202, 203, 205, 
 476; nomination of, 149; letter of, 
 149, 150; career of, 150, 151; charac- 
 ter of, 151, 152, 500, 501 
 
 Butler, Jacob, 24, 25, 485 
 
 Butler, Marion, 271 
 
 Butler, Nicholas Murray, 430 
 
 Butte (Montana), 346 
 
 Cabinet, Greeley supporters in, 41, 42 
 Caine, M. J., 196 
 
 Cairo (Illinois), 87 
 
 Calhoun, W. H., 325, 351, 352, 374 
 
 California, success of Independents in, 
 51; Anti-Monopoly party in, 56, 57; 
 campaign of 1875 in, 63, 64; refer- 
 ence to, 64, 65, 68, 125, 129, 144, 
 145, 146, 300, 363, 428, 432, 434, 
 475, 476, 500; Greenback vote in, 
 134; Nationalist clubs in, 249; Popu- 
 list party in, 280, 281 
 
 Cameron, A. C, 107 
 
 Cameron, Simon, 42 
 
 Campaign contributions, 383, 392, 465, 
 466 
 
 Campaign expenses of 1896, 297-299 
 
 Campaign literature, 294 
 
 Campaign publicity, 384 
 
 Campbell, Alexander, 107, 109, 138, 261 
 
 Campbell, Daniel, 155, 160, 169, 172, 
 176, 198, 313, 318, 325; nomination 
 of, 171; votes received by, 174 
 
 Campbell, Ed., 78 
 
 Campbell, Frank T., 74 
 
 Campion, James A., 291 
 
 Canada, currency reform in, 498, 499 
 
 Canadian Currency Reform League, 136 
 
 Canal, 234 
 
 Candidates, method of nominating, 234, 
 390, 460 
 
 Cannon, Joseph G., 420 
 
 Canton (Ohio), 296 
 
 Capital, need of, 46, 154, 304; duty of 
 government toward, 47, 48 ; relation 
 of labor to, 101; arbitration of dis- 
 putes between labor and, 103 ; widen- 
 ing of gulf between labor and, 104; 
 reference to, 106, 127, 128, 302, 345; 
 protection of, 256 
 
 Capitalists, 95, 97, 150 
 
 Carey, Joseph M., 426 
 
 Carpenter, Cyrus C, nomination of, for 
 Governor, 71 ; campaign of, 72 ; refer- 
 ence to, 73, 168, 435, 503 
 
 Carpenter, Matt., 76, 110 
 
 Cary, Samuel F., nomination of, 112; 
 reference to, 118, 156 
 
 Cass County, 74, 181, 315, 364 
 
 Casserly, Eugene, 57 
 
 Cattle, price of, 222 
 
 Caucus, substitute for, 390 
 
 Cedar County, 74 
 
 Cedar Rapids, convention at, 191, 194, 
 451, 452; reference to, 308, 451 
 
540 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Central America, 234 
 
 Central Nationalists, 258 
 
 Central Pacific Railroad, 281, 342, 475 
 
 Century, The, 284 
 
 Cerro Gordo County, 364 
 
 Chamberlain, Daniel H., 35 
 
 Chamberlain, Edwin M., 99 
 
 Chamberlain, George E., election of, 416, 
 417 
 
 Chambers, B. J., 135, 138, 184 
 
 Chase, Salmon P., 331 
 
 Chase, Solon, 128, 138, 149, 174, 192 
 
 Chase, Warren, 181 
 
 Chattel slavery, 96 
 
 Chautauqua, 393 
 
 Cherokee County, 364 
 
 Chicago, 85, 87, 115, 118, 176, 213, 
 280, 284, 294, 295, 341, 343, 359, 
 360, 365, 368, 370, 386, 437, 440, 
 448, 468; convention at, 135, 136- 
 
 138, 148, 293, 366, 428, 432; con- 
 ference at, 141, 210, 256, 426; an- 
 archists in, 205; United Labor party 
 in, 210; meeting at, 271, 272, 424, 
 425; strike in, 277, 363; Bryan's 
 speech at, 287, 288 
 
 Chicago, University of, 471 
 
 Chicago Tribune, 12, 14, 65, 75, 87, 
 
 107, 109, 141, 151, 475 
 Chickasaw County, 182 
 Child labor, 95, 96, 101, 103, 120, 126, 
 
 256, 433 
 Chinese exclusion law, 459 
 Chinese immigration, 94, 124, 128, 129, 
 
 139, 208 
 
 Cincinnati, conference at, 10 ; conven- 
 tion at, 11-17, 47, 109, 110, 206, 208, 
 210, 245, 247; dissatisfaction with 
 nominations made at, 17-19 ; reference 
 to, 32, 35, 36, 212, 246, 276, 316; 
 results of convention at, 38; labor 
 congress at, 93, 94; Iowans at con- 
 vention at, 196 
 
 Cincinnati Commercial, 14 
 
 Citizens' Alliance, 232, 246, 247, 258, 
 510 
 
 Citizenship, conditions of, 217 
 
 Civil service reform, 10, 11, 15, 39, 44, 
 46 
 
 Civil Service Reform League, National, 
 39 
 
 Civil War, 30, 473, 479; political issues 
 before, 68 ; first Democratic victory 
 since, 192 
 
 Claggett, Thomas W., 25 
 
 Clapp, Moses E., 392, 421, 423 
 
 Clark, Allen, 352 
 
 Clark, Champ, 393, 430 
 
 Clark, Dan E., acknowledgment to, ix 
 
 Clarke County, 315 
 
 Clarke, James Freeman, 487 
 
 Clarkson, James S., viii, 347 
 
 Clarkson ring, 190 
 
 Class hostility, 370 
 
 Clerk of Supreme Court, 167 
 
 Cleveland, Grover, nomination of, for 
 President, 44; support of, by Inde- 
 pendents, 44, 45; reference to, 190, 
 202, 203, 211, 258, 266, 293, 321, 
 363, 365, 477, 514; number of votes 
 received by, 268; action of, in strike 
 of 1894, 277, 278; denunciations of, 
 288, 289 
 
 Cleveland (Iowa), 437 
 
 Cleveland (Ohio), 58, 301, 409; conven- 
 tion at, 107, 109; career of Johnson 
 in, 412-414 
 
 Cliggitt, John, 364 
 
 Clinton, meeting at, 369 
 
 Clinton Age, The, viii, 22, 23, 26, 67, 80, 
 81, 248, 311, 314, 317, 323, 328, 334, 
 337, 353, 364, 366, 369, 370, 371 
 
 Clinton County, 364 
 
 Cloud, David C, 24 
 
 Coal operators, arbitration forced upon, 
 400-402 
 
 Coal Trust, 401 
 
 Coffin, L. S., 227 
 
 Coin's Financial School, 295, 369 
 
 Colfax, 374 
 
 Colfax Sentinel, 165 
 
 Cole, C. C, 179, 324, 325, 331, 346, 
 353, 355, 374 
 
 Colleges, admission to, 120 
 
 Collyer, Robert, 487 
 
 Colonization, 283 
 
 Colorado, 144, 212, 213, 235, 243, 252, 
 262, 268, 274, 286, 323, 336, 342, 
 346, 381, 415, 432 
 
 Colored Farmers' Mutual Benefit Associa- 
 tion, 258 
 
 Colored Farmers' National Alliance, 232, 
 246 
 
 Columbia University, 395, 430 
 
 Columbus (Ohio), 20, 427; convention 
 at, 26, 30, 31, 99 
 
 Combinations, 222, 227, 238, 399, 455 
 
 Commerce, 452 
 
INDEX 
 
 541 
 
 Commerce and Labor, Department of, 399 
 
 Commercial monopolies, 97 
 
 Commissioner of Immigration, 413 
 
 Common carriers, 130 (see also Rail- 
 roads) 
 
 Commune, 103, 162, 163, 500; growth 
 of, 145 
 
 Communism, meaning of, 104 ; opposi- 
 tion to, 126, 127; reference to, 166, 
 170, 171 
 
 Communists, 162, 165, 166, 185 
 
 Competition, 62, 350, 455 
 
 Confederation of Industrial Organiza- 
 tions, 247 
 
 Conference Committee, 421 
 
 Conference of Governors, 405 
 
 Conger, Edwin H., 451 
 
 Congress, new rules for, 137; lobbying 
 in, 148 ; campaign of Greenbackers 
 for, 164-168; election of Weaver and 
 Gillette to, 167; election of Weller to, 
 186; election of Weaver to, 191, 195; 
 representatives of farmers in, 237; 
 members of, 238; Populists in, 274, 
 275, 281; record of Bryan in, 290; 
 legislation by, during Roosevelt's ad- 
 ministration, 402-406 ; Insurgent move- 
 ment in, 420-422 ; losses of Repub- 
 licans in, 422, 423 ; activities of Pro- 
 gressives in, 423, 424 ; reference to, 
 465 ; influence of corporations over, 
 474 
 
 Congressional districts, election results in, 
 325, 326, 351, 352, 371 
 
 Conkling, Roscoe, 42, 148 
 
 Connecticut, union of parties in, 31, 40; 
 platform of Liberals in, 48; reference 
 to, 99, 106, 132, 144, 213, 452, 487; 
 Labor Reform party in, 100, 101, 102 ; 
 Greenback party in, 116, 129 
 
 Conservation, 405, 424, 432 
 
 Constitution of Iowa, amendment to, 186, 
 187, 305, 306, 460 
 
 Constitution of United States, attitude of 
 third parties toward, 3, 4; proposal to 
 amend, 100, 349, 350, 464, 465; sev- 
 enteenth amendment to, 416; demand 
 for amendments to, 472, 473 
 
 Consumer, 139 
 
 Contract labor, 124, 148, 208 
 
 Contract system, 129 
 
 Contraction, 84 
 
 Convention, substitute for, 390 
 
 Conventions (see various parties) 
 
 Convict labor, 127, 256, 483 
 
 Cooley, Harris R., 413 
 
 Coolies, importation of, 98 
 
 Co5peration, 98 
 
 Cooperative enterprises, operation of, by 
 farmers, 84-88; reference to, 199, 312, 
 313; plans for, 253 
 
 Cooperative stores, 253 
 
 Cooper, Peter, vote for, in Iowa, 28 ; ref- 
 erence to, 111, 118, 143, 155, 476; 
 nomination of, 112; career of, 113, 
 114 
 
 Cooper, Henry A., 392 
 
 Cooper and Cary Club, 156 
 
 Cooper Institute, meeting at, 13 ; charac- 
 ter of, 113, 114; reference to, 140 
 
 Cooper Union, 211 
 
 Corn, increase in production of, 199; 
 price of, 221, 222 
 
 Corn-growers, 206 
 
 Corn-producing States, 51 
 
 Corporations, regulation of, 46, 47 ; need 
 of restraints on, 48; reference to, 110, 
 316, 390, 391, 424, 438, 448; power 
 of, 139, 142; reclamations of land 
 from, 214; legislation relative to, 383; 
 control of government by, 384; gov- 
 ernment regulation of, 399, 470 ; pop- 
 ular feeling against, 404, 405 ; par- 
 ticipation of, in politics, 456, 457, 
 463 ; campaign contributions by, 465, 
 466; danger from growth of, 473, 
 474 ; influence of, over legislation, 474 
 
 Corporations, Bureau of, 399 
 
 Corruption, 37, 47, 154, 417 
 
 Cotton bill, 423, 424 
 
 Council Bluffs, 157, 340, 344, 364, 437; 
 Kelly's army at, 338 
 
 Country Life Commission, 405 
 
 Courts, 121, 349; lack of justice in, 333 
 
 Cowdrey, Robert H., nomination of, 210 
 
 Cox, Jacob D., 10, 12, 18, 487 
 
 Coxey, Jacob S„ 291, 358 
 
 Coxey's army, 277 
 
 Crane, Sylvanus B., 354, 375 
 
 Crawford, C. I., 421, 423 
 
 Crawford County, 315, 364 
 
 Credit Mobilier, 47, 474 
 
 Creditors, 123 
 
 Credits, theft of, 206 
 
 Creston, 196, 374, 375 
 
 Crime, 96, 471 
 
 Crisis of 1873, 91, 124 
 
 Crisis of 1893, 276, 277 
 
542 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Croly, Herbert, 298, 350 
 
 Crops, failure of, 144; price of, 224 
 
 "Cross of Gold" speech, 288 
 
 Crossley, J. J., 458, 460 
 
 Crounse, Lorenzo, 333 
 
 Crucial period, 202-217 
 
 Cummins, A. B., 392, 421, 423, 430, 
 446 ; statement by, 424 ; career of, 
 447-469 ; contests of, for Senatorship, 
 447, 448, 449, 466, 467; first cam- 
 paign of, for Governor, 450-454; num- 
 ber of votes received by, 454, 459, 
 464, 467 ; administrations of, as Gov- 
 ernor, 464-466; career of, in Senate, 
 467-469 ; support of, for President, 
 468; service of, 478 
 
 Cunningham, Charles E., nomination of, 
 208 
 
 Currency, debasing of, 48 ; reference to, 
 61, 65, 107, 123, 214, 221, 233, 302, 
 330, 470, 476; attitude toward, in 
 Iowa, 83 ; position of greenbacks in, 
 91 ; lack of, 91, 222 ; relation of bonds 
 to, 93, 94 ; demand for board of man- 
 agement of, 97, 98 ; effect of contrac- 
 tion of, 111; inflation of, 128; views 
 of Irish on, 159, 160; views of Weaver 
 on, 164; demand for increase of, 199; 
 method of increasing, 224 ; attitude of 
 Republicans on, 286, 287; attitude of 
 people toward, 301, 302, 332; con- 
 traction of, 310 ; newspaper comments 
 on, 330; discussion of, 347; reform in, 
 in Canada, 498, 499 
 
 Currency League, 499 
 
 Curtin, Andrew G., 14, 487 
 
 Curtis, George William, 42, 44, 45, 83 
 
 Dakota, 87, 228, 312 
 
 Dallas County, 174, 178, 182, 186, 189, 
 
 193, 315 
 Dalton, Charles, 326 
 Dana, Charles A., 487 
 Dane County (Wisconsin), 222 
 Davenport, convention at, 24; reference 
 
 to, 27, 340, 344, 363 
 Davis, C. F., 24 
 
 Davis, Cushman K., speech by, 473 
 Davis, David, suggestion of, for presi- 
 dency, 13; supporters of, 16; refer- 
 ence to, 20, 25, 64, 143, 149, 160, 
 275, 475, 487: popularity of, in West, 
 26; characterization of, 26, 27; nom- 
 
 ination of, 99; effort to nominate, 112; 
 election of, to Senate, 119; letter of, 
 142, 143 
 
 Davis, Mr., 324 
 
 Davis County, 174, 178, 182, 186, 189, 
 193, 197 
 
 Dawley, A. C. N., 155, 177 
 
 Day, Horace H., 107 
 
 Debs, Eugene V., 277, 284, 334; popu- 
 lar vote for, 434 
 
 Decatur County, 315 
 
 Declaration of Independence, 95 
 
 Decorah, 169 
 
 Defalcations, 48 
 
 De La Matyr, Gilbert, 132, 137, 174, 
 181, 213, 257 
 
 Delaware, 144 ; activities of farmers in, 
 244 
 
 Delegates, popular election of, 427 
 
 Dellaye, Stephen B., 135, 137 
 
 Democracy, influences favoring, 2; refer- 
 ence to, 65, 139, 396; struggle be- 
 tween wealth and, 68, 301 
 
 Democratic party, 1, 6, 10, 28, 51, 95, 
 96, 99, 113, 119, 454, 459, 464, 469; 
 origin of planks in platform of, 2; 
 readjustments in, 5, 6; Greeley nom- 
 inated by, 19, 20; reasons for defeat 
 of, 22 ; course to be pursued by, 22, 
 23 ; attitude of Liberals toward, 37, 
 38 ; effect of Liberal movement on, 
 48 ; weak condition of, 68 ; loss of 
 votes by, 81 ; revival of, 81 ; sectional 
 lines in, 84 ; Greenback movement in, 
 116, 117; victories of, 144, 321; rela- 
 tion of Butler to, 151 ; relations be- 
 tween Anti- Monopoly party and, 153 ; 
 reasons for victory of, 269, 270; adop- 
 tion of Populist issues by, 278; union 
 of Populist party and, 282-303, 358- 
 367, 478; adoption of free silver issue 
 by, 285, 359, 360; national convention 
 of, in 1896, 287-289; endorsement of, 
 by Populists, 290-293 ; dissatisfaction 
 with platform of, 293, 294; bolters 
 from, 294; cost of campaign of 1896 
 to, 297; effect of prohibition issue on, 
 306; inactivity of, 328; defeat of, 336, 
 337; discussion of silver question by, 
 347, 348, 352, 353, 356, 357; discus- 
 sion of fusion with, 355, 356; ser- 
 vices of Bryan to, 379-390; struggle 
 in, in 1912, 430, 431 
 
INDEX 
 
 543 
 
 Democrats, attitude of, toward Adams, 
 17; attitude of, toward Greeley, 25; 
 attitude of, toward Davis, 26; union 
 of Liberals and, 31, 32, 40; Cleveland 
 nominated by, 44; fusion of, with Re- 
 formers, 55, 56; reference to, 57, 58, 
 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 100, 101, 102, 
 122, 129, 133, 134, 150, 215, 216, 
 217, 236, 237, 243, 250, 258, 268, 
 280, 281, 307, 315, 319, 367, 371, 
 404, 418, 478, 479; fusion of Inde- 
 pendents with, 64. 65 ; influence of, 
 in Anti-Monopoly convention, 70, 76; 
 support of Anti-Monopoly ticket by, 72, 
 73 ; fusion of, with other parties, 79 ; 
 greenback movement among, 105 ; fu- 
 sion of Greenbackers with, 118, 167, 
 171, 172; attempt of, to play trick on 
 Weaver, 140; ridicule of Greenbackers 
 by, 141, 142; plans for union of 
 Greenbackers and, 146 ; lack of lead- 
 ers among, 147; relation of, to Green- 
 backers, 154 ; attitude of, toward coin- 
 age of silver, 159, 160; gains made 
 by, 178, 182, 189, 422, 423; discus- 
 sion of fusion of Greenbackers with, 
 190, 192, 193, 194, 195, 197; victory 
 of, 197, 198, 221, 237, 311; relations 
 of Farmers' Alliance with, 238, 239, 
 242; relations of Populists with, 265- 
 268 ; reaction against, 275 ; attitude 
 of, on money question, 282 ; revolt 
 against free silver among, 363-365, 
 366; losses by, 380; percentage of 
 popular vote cast for, 387, 388; union 
 of Insurgents and, in Congress, 420, 
 421; union of Progressives with, 423, 
 424; union of Standpatters and, 462 
 
 Denver, 213, 415; convention at, 243, 
 384 
 
 Des Moines, 24, 140, 162, 165, 344, 350, 
 374, 447, 448, 459, 522; meeting at, 
 68, 170, 180, 311, 313, 318, 331, 336; 
 convention at, 70, 76, 77, 79, 154, 
 155, 156, 161, 176, 185, 187, 188, 
 190, 194, 195, 197, 198, 308, 314, 
 322, 324, 335, 347, 348, 354, 355, 
 358, 366, 458, 460, 469; cooperative 
 agency in, 85 ; mass meeting at, 157 ; 
 conference at, 168, 179, 180, 346, 
 353, 364; reception of Weaver at, 
 324; Kelly's army at, 339, 341; labor 
 demonstration at, 344; convention of 
 Governors at, 464, 465 
 
 Des Moines County, 24, 364 
 
 Des Moines Leader, The, 193, 323 
 
 Des Moines River, Kelly's army on, 339 
 
 Depositories, 107 
 
 Depression, 332 
 
 Detroit, convention at, 110; career of 
 Filigree in, 408, 409; reference to, 414 
 
 Devens, Charles, 4 1 
 
 Dey, Peter A., 435 
 
 Dickinson County, 364 
 
 Discriminations, 437, 452 
 
 District of Columbia, 363 
 
 Direct legislation, 303, 349, 350, 415 
 (see also initiative and referendum) 
 
 Dix, John A., 18 
 
 Dixon, Charles G,, 208 
 
 Dixon, Mr., platform presented by, 24 
 
 Dixon, Joseph M., 392, 423 
 
 Doctors, 230 
 
 Dodge, Augustus C, 172 
 
 Dolliver, Jonathan P., 390, 392, 393, 
 421, 450, 462; speeches by, 466; ca- 
 reer in Senate, 467, 468 ; death of, 468 
 
 Donnelly, Ignatius, papers of, ix; refer- 
 ence to, 112, 213, 248, 257, 258, 259, 
 261, 272, 291, 346, 388 
 
 Doolittle, James R., 14, 191 
 
 Doty, Elias, votes received by, 193, 197 
 
 Drake University, 322, 336 
 
 Dubuque, convention at, 359; reference 
 to, 488 
 
 Dubuque County, 196, 364 
 
 Dubuque Daily Telegraph, 162 
 
 Durant, Thomas J., 109, 111, 112, 113 
 
 Duties (see tariff) 
 
 East, objections to Blaine in, 43, 44; 
 character of Liberal Republican move- 
 ment in, 46 ; reference to, 92, 369, 
 473, 476; conditions in, 122; strength 
 of Greenback party in, 125 ; Union 
 Labor party in, 213"; financial relations 
 of West with, 222, 223, 224; demon- 
 etization of silver by, 223 ; plan of 
 West to boycott, 226; Nationalist 
 clubs in, 249 ; attitude toward Popu- 
 lists in, 278 ; dissatisfaction among 
 Democrats in, 293 ; desire of unem- 
 ployed to reach, 340 
 
 Eastman, Enoch W., 161 
 
 Economic forces, 4, 6, 221, 321, 375, 
 419, 471, 472 
 
 Economic issues, 305 
 
 Economic problems, importance of, 5; 
 
544 
 
 INDEX 
 
 relation of Liberal Republican move- 
 ment to, 46-48; relation of Greenback 
 party to, 198-201 
 
 Economics, theories of, 395 
 
 Economy, 123, 126, 233 
 
 Edgerton, J. A., 516 
 
 Editors, 134, 135, 231 
 
 Education, 98, 104, 120, 123, 129, 433 
 
 Eight-hour day, 94, 98, 148, 316, 411 
 
 Eldora, 156, 171 
 
 Election laws, 126 
 
 Electoral Commission, 119 
 
 Electors-at-Large, 324, 366, 370, 371 
 
 Elevators, operation of, 86, 87 
 
 Ellington, C. H., 261 
 
 Ely, Richard T., career of, 395, 396 
 
 Embree, James, 170 
 
 England, 138, 253, 395, 480; trades- 
 unionism in, 171 
 
 Engle, Andrew, 344 
 
 Engle, Perry, 322, 325, 348 
 
 Erie Railroad, 473 
 
 Esch-Townsend Bill, 403 
 
 Europe, immigration from, 51, 139; rad- 
 icalism in, 92, 93 ; communism of, 
 126 ; demonetization of silver by, 223 ; 
 government ownership in, 383 
 
 Evans, S. B., 353, 356 
 
 Evarts, William M., 41 
 
 Exchange, freedom of, 98 
 
 Executive Council, 339, 457 
 
 Exemptions, 47 
 
 Exposition Hall, convention in, 136 
 
 Express companies, 404 
 
 Factories, operation of, by Grangers, 85- 
 88; hours of labor in, 96, 98, 100, 
 101; safety law for, 122; child labor 
 in, 126; inspection of, 256, 354 
 
 Fairbanks, Charles W., 430 
 
 Faneuil Hall, 140, 146 
 
 Farmers, organizations of, 51, 226-235 
 origin of political agitation among, 51 
 political activities among, in West, 51 
 66 ; organization of Clubs among, 52 
 character of organizations of, 65, 66 
 political activities of, in Iowa, 67-88 
 need of, for more currency, 83, 84 
 universal suffrage for, 93 ; conference 
 of, 110; reference to, 135, 169, 477 
 place of, in reform movements, 215 
 economic conditions among, 221-226 
 relation of, to bankers, 224, 225 
 political action of, condemned, 228 
 
 platforms of, 233, 234; activities of, 
 in campaign of 1890, 236-246; co- 
 operative enterprises among, 253, 312 
 313; conflict of, with syndicate, 311; 
 currency views of, 332; account of 
 meeting of, 368, 369; attorney for, 
 448 
 
 Farmers' Alliance, 146, 206, 207, 215 
 228, 246, 252, 256, 258, 266, 270, 
 280; union of Knights of Labor and, 
 214, 215; political activities of, in 
 1890, 236-246; meeting of, 254, 255, 
 318; activities of, in Iowa, 309-314 
 (see also Northern Alliance, Southern 
 Alliance, etc.) 
 
 Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union, 
 313, 322 
 
 Farmers' and Laborers' Industrial Union, 
 308 
 
 Farmers' and Laborers' Union of Amer- 
 ica, 230 
 
 Farmers' and Laboring Men's party, 67 
 
 Farmers' clubs, 111 
 
 Farmers' Congress, 244, 311 
 
 Farmers' Convention, State (Illinois), 54 
 
 Farmers' Declaration of Independence, 54 
 
 Farmers' free-list, 423 
 
 Farmers' League, 258 
 
 Farmers' movement, history of, 49-88; 
 significance of, 65, 66 ; subsidence of, 
 91 
 
 Farmers' Mutual Benefit Association, 
 facts concerning, 231, 232, 243, 246, 
 250, 258 
 
 Farmers' Tribune, 355 
 
 Farmers' Union, 247 
 
 Farm implements, cooperative purchas- 
 ing of, 85, 253, 312; manufacture of, 
 by Grangers, 85-88 
 
 Farms, increase in number of, 199 
 
 Farnsworth, E. M., 169, 171 
 
 Farwell Hall, convention in, 136 
 
 Fayette County, 174 
 
 Federation of Labor, American, 204, 233 
 
 Fenton, Reuben E., 14 
 
 Ferriss, James H., 526 
 
 Feudalism, Modern, 473 
 
 Fiat money (see money, currency, green- 
 backs, etc.) 
 
 Field, Cyrus W., 33, 34 
 
 Field, David Dudley, 12 
 
 Field, James G., nomination of, 262, 263 ; 
 address issued by, 265 
 
 Field, Moses W., 110, 112, 113 
 
INDEX 
 
 545 
 
 Fifth Avenue Conference, 37 
 
 Finance Committee, 421 
 
 Florida, 133, 234, 238, 363, 388, 389 
 
 Floyd County, 315 
 
 Folk, Joseph W., career of, 417, 418 
 
 Folsom, George \V\, 45 
 
 Ford, Rev., 344 
 
 Forest City, 314 
 
 Forestry work, 405 
 
 Fort Dodge, 504 
 
 Fort Dodge Times, 170 
 
 Forwm, The, 273, 321 
 
 France, Communism in, 171 
 
 Franchise, limitation of, 9 ; reference to, 
 98 
 
 Franchises, theft of, 206; reference to, 
 410, 412 
 
 Franklin County, 364 
 
 Free silver, need for, 224 ; demand for, 
 225; reference to, 226, 233, 275, 309, 
 310, 349, 388; influence of demand 
 for, 229 ; importance of, as political 
 issue, 282, 283, 301-303; adoption of, 
 by Democrats, 285, 287-289, 359, 360; 
 effect of book on movement for, 295 ; 
 Republican view of, 329, 330; gains 
 in movement for, 346-357; contest 
 over question of, in Iowa, 358-375; 
 attitude of Boies on, 363 ; revolt 
 against, 363-365, 366; character of 
 discussion of, 367; readoption of issue 
 of, 380 (see also Silver) 
 
 Free silver meetings, 331 
 
 Free Silver party, 2 
 
 Free trade, 225, 226 
 
 Free Trade League, American, members 
 of, 12 
 
 Free Trader, The, 12 
 
 Free Traders, 216 
 
 Freight rates, 52, 56, 121, 241, 308, 438, 
 439, 441, 443, 444; failure of law reg- 
 ulating, 69; discriminations in, 437 
 
 Fremont County, 315 
 
 French commune, 103, 145 
 
 Frontier, influence of, 2 
 
 Frothingham, O. B., 12 
 
 Furrow, Mr., 312 
 
 Fusion, effect of, 4, 51, 55, 56, 60, 190- 
 197; instances of, 64, 65, 167, 351; 
 reference to, 79, 100, 118, 144, 146, 
 329, 373, 506; opposition to, 111, 
 155, 164, 168, 172; failure to secure, 
 158; discussion of, 171, 326, 347, 348, 
 349, 355, 356 
 
 Futures, dealing in, 214, 233 
 
 Garfield, James A., attitude of Indepen- 
 dents toward, 43; reference to, 132, 
 140; assassination of, 145 
 
 Garfield, James R„ 424, 432 
 
 Garrison, William Lloyd, 12 
 
 Gates, E. N., 169 
 
 Gear, John H., 158, 159, 174, 355; 
 career of, 448-450; death of, 450 
 
 General Assembly, political complexion of, 
 73, 81, 307; bills for railroad regula- 
 tion in, 74; agitation for repeal of 
 railroad law in, 82; Greenbackers in, 
 182, 189; contests in, 307, 308; de- 
 nunciation of, 316; Populists in, 320; 
 struggle for Railroad Commission in, 
 436, 437; contest with railroads in, 
 438; General Assembly, reference to, 
 442, 443, 461, 462; railroad influence 
 in, 447 ; Cummins in, 448 ; senatorial 
 contest in, 449, 450; primary elec- 
 tion law enacted by, 460 
 
 George, Henry, 12, 211, 301, 413; opin- 
 ions of, 203 ; single tax movement of, 
 203; influence of, 204; campaigns of, 
 209; service of, 476, 477 
 
 Georgia, 43, 133, 234, 259, 262, 271, 
 388, 389, 485; Farmers' Alliance in, 
 238; campaign of 1892 in, 265 
 
 German-Americans, 363 
 
 Germans, attitude of, toward Adams, 17 ; 
 loss of votes of, 81 ; reference to, 103, 
 394 
 
 Germany, socialism in, 171; reference to, 
 395, 396 
 
 Godfrey, G. L., 353 
 
 Godkin, E. L., 12 
 
 Gold, 123, 228, 332, 347, 356, 381; pay- 
 ment of bonds in, 170; coinage of, 
 329; effect of increased production of, 
 382 
 
 Gold reserve, 289 
 
 Gold standard, 282; support of, by 
 Democrats, 363-365, 366 
 
 "Golden Rule" Jones, 411 
 
 Gordon, John B., 110 
 
 Government, duty of, 47, 48; principles 
 of, 94; duty of, to laborers, 101, 342, 
 343; plan to purify, 106, 206, 207; 
 charges against, 114; functions of, 
 123, 471 ; operation of railroad by, 
 128; construction of public works by, 
 130; control of, by corporations, 139, 
 
546 
 
 INDEX 
 
 384; demand for control by, 147; 
 public improvements by, 251 ; inter- 
 ference of, in strike, 277; plan for 
 loans by, 308; effect of Eoosevelt's ad- 
 ministration on, 398-407; need of re- 
 forms in, 455 
 
 Government ownership, 207, 208, 210, 
 214, 233, 234, 281, 302, 383, 384, 
 401 
 
 Governor, candidates for, 70, 71, 80, 
 156, 171, 193, 196, 197, 316, 336, 
 354, 356 ; desire of Weaver to be, 
 184; reference to, 371; first campaign 
 of Cummins for, 450-454; career of 
 Cummins as, 454-466 
 
 Governors, letters of, to Roosevelt, 426, 
 427; convention of, 464, 465 
 
 Gould, Jay, 148, 258 
 
 Gillette, E. H., 137, 140, 149, 168, 169, 
 170, 174, 176, 180, 181, 183, 184, 
 186, 191, 195, 196, 197, 198, 305, 
 309, 315, 322, 324, 354, 355, 373, 
 374; campaign of, for Congress, 164- 
 168; attacks on, 165, 166, 177; elec- 
 tion of, to Congress, 167; defeat of, 
 179 ; plans for reception to, 180, 181 ; 
 votes received by, 193, 325 ; service 
 of, to Democrats, 194 ; name applied 
 to, 319, 375 
 
 Glasscock, William E., 426 
 
 Glenwood, 437 
 
 Glenwood coal case, 438 
 
 Grain, difficulties in shipping, 51, 52 ; co- 
 operative sale of, 86 ; rates of trans- 
 portation of, 368 
 
 Grain monopolies, 97 
 
 Grand Castle of the Order of American 
 Farmers and Mechanics of Nebraska, 
 56 
 
 Grange, meeting of, 68, 69; bill drafted 
 by, 74 ; factories of, 86 ; reference to, 
 207, 228, Z31, 240, 241, 243, 245, 
 311 
 
 Granger laws, 53, 65, 74 
 
 Granger party, 2, 216; demand of, 4; 
 origin of, 53 
 
 Grangerism, 146 
 
 Grangers, attitude of Carpenter toward, 
 71, 72 ; cooperative enterprises of, 85- 
 88, 199; reference to, 104, 109, 198, 
 206, 216 
 
 Granges, organization of, 52 ; cooperative 
 enterprises of, 52, 53; influence of, 
 
 in Iowa, 68, 69; political activities of, 
 69, 70 
 
 Grant, Ulysses S., dissatisfaction with 
 administration of, 10; reference to, 15, 
 16, 19, 21, 27, 30, 83, 100, 117,. 134^ 
 150, 151, 175; opposition to, 18, 23, 
 24; victory of, 20; vote for, in Iowa, 
 28,' 29; retirement of, 41; threat of 
 third term for, 42; opposition to third 
 term for, 43 ; failures of administra- 
 tion of, 46; bill vetoed by, 91, 105 
 
 Great Lakes, canal to Gulf from, 234 
 
 Greeley, Horace, 12, 19, 30, 46, 70, 78, 
 82, 100, 108, 156; suggestion of, for 
 presidency, 13 ; nomination of, for 
 President, 15 ; means of securing 
 choice of, 17, 18; defeat of, 20; atti- 
 tude of Iowa toward, 25; vote for, 
 in Iowa, 28, 29 ; supporters of, in 
 Cabinet, 41, 42 
 
 Greenback Clubs, organization of, 111, 
 114, 115 
 
 Greenback Labor party, 92, 243; disap- 
 pearance of, 211 
 
 Greenback Labor Press Association, 135 
 
 Greenback movement, economic basis of, 
 198-201; climax in, 202; reference to, 
 302 
 
 Greenback party, 2, 64, 216, 221, 244, 
 256, 266, 270, 305, 317, 328, 375, 
 470, 477; history of, 89-217; organ- 
 ization of, 105-119; origin of, 105, 
 106; platform of, 106, 107, 112, 113, 
 121, 123, 124, 125-130, 137, 146, 148, 
 154, 155, 181, 182, 185 ; early leaders 
 in, 107, 109, 110, 111, 475-477; con- 
 ventions of, 110, 111, 112, 113, 134- 
 138, 212; candidates of, 112, 138, 
 149, 171, 176, 177, 178, 188, 191, 
 193, 195, 196, 197, 198; propaganda 
 in favor of, 114; campaigns of, 116- 
 118, 125-130; 132-134, 138-141, 146- 
 152; votes cast by, 118, 119, 141, 
 158, 159, 167, 174, 178, 179, 182, 
 186, 189, 191, 193, 195, 196, 197, 
 198; union of Labor Reform party 
 and, 120-130; growth in strength of, 
 124, 125; strength of, by States, 125; 
 decline of, 131-152; greatest strength 
 of, 131; activities of, in Congress, 131, 
 132; ridicule of, 141, 142; importance 
 of, 142, 143 ; reasons for decline of, 
 143-145; growth of, in Iowa, 153- 
 
INDEX 
 
 547 
 
 174; reasons for rise of, in Iowa, 153, 
 154; formation of, in Iowa, 154; 
 State convention of, in Iowa, 154, 155, 
 156, 161, 162, 170-172, 173, 176, 177, 
 181, 182, 185, 187, 188, 190, 191, 
 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198; 
 character of campaign of, 157, 158; 
 Iowa delegates to national conventions 
 of, 160, 161; organ of, in Iowa, 169; 
 decline of, in Iowa, 175-201; economic 
 basis of, 198-201; members of, in 
 Senate, 275; union of Union Labor 
 party and, 308 
 Greenbackers, 3, 206, 209, 216; fusion 
 of Democrats and, 167; conference of, 
 168, 169; prediction of successes of, 
 173, 174; denunciation of, 182, 183; 
 comparison of tornadoes and, 184, 
 185 ; establishment of newspapers by, 
 185, 186; Democratic praise of, 190, 
 191, 193, 194; discussion of fusion of, 
 with Democrats, 190, 192, 193, 194, 
 195, 197 
 Greenbackism, originator of, 92 ; devel- 
 opment of, 92, 93; character of doc- 
 trine of, 93 
 Greenbacks, early agitation regarding use 
 of, 91-104; desire for, in West, 91, 
 92; payment of bonds in, 105, 170; 
 bill providing for, 107, 108; plan of 
 Buchanan relative to, 107, 108 ; con- 
 traction of, 124 ; Butler's attitude 
 toward, 150, 151; reference to, 155, 
 164, 257; withdrawal of, 179; atti- 
 tude of Republicans toward, 195 ; 
 commendation of, 330, 331 
 
 Greene County, 364 
 
 Gresham, Walter Q., 261, 263, 264, 272, 
 477, 478 ; refusal of, to be candidate, 
 262 
 
 Grinnell, Josiah B., 24, 78 
 
 Grinnell, farmers' exchange at, 87; refer- 
 ence to, 340 
 
 Grinnell College, 333 
 
 Grist-mills, cooperative operation of, 87 
 
 Groceries, cooperative purchasing of, 53 
 
 Gronna, A. J., 423 
 
 Groesbeck, William S., nomination of, 19 
 
 Grosvenor, William M., 12, 14, 33, 34 
 
 Gue, B. F., 28, 353 
 
 Guilbert, Edward A., 488 
 
 Gulf of Mexico, canal to, 234 
 
 Guthrie County, 155, 182 
 
 Hadley, Governor, 426, 429 
 
 Hager, John S., election of, 57 
 
 Halstead, Murat, 14, 16, 34 
 
 Hamilton, Alexander, 4 
 
 Hamilton, J. J., 324 
 
 Hamilton, John T., 308 
 
 Hamilton (Ontario), 498 
 
 Hamilton County, 364 
 
 Hanna, Marcus A., 286; management of 
 
 campaign by, 297, 298 
 Harbors, 234, 251; improvement of, 343 
 Harbour, T. E., 155 
 Harding, W. G., 430 
 Hard money, 59, 84, 154, 176; support 
 
 of, by Republicans, 105 
 Hargis, H. C, 155, 177, 178 
 Harlan, James, 71 
 Harlan-Allison campaign, 451 
 Harmon, Judson, 430 
 Harper, Jesse, 149, 174, 181, 248 
 Harrison, Benjamin, 117, 258; number 
 
 of votes received by, 268 
 Harrison County, 74, 193 
 Harvard University, 500 
 Harvesters, cooperative manufacture of, 
 
 85 
 Harvey, James M., 56 
 Harvey, W. H., book by, 295 ; speech by, 
 
 369 
 Hayes, Mr., 259, 261 
 Hayes, Rutherford B., vote for, in Iowa, 
 28; reference to, 38, 39, 81, 117, 118, 
 135, 150, 153, 154, 160, 164, 175, 
 476 ; effect of nomination of, 41 ; 
 members of Cabinet of, 41, 42 
 Hearst, William R., 380, 381 
 Henderson, J. B., 43 
 Hendricks, Thomas A., 476 
 Hennepin Canal, suggestion relative to, 
 
 343 
 Henry County, 73, 74, 364 
 Henry of Navarre, 108 
 Hepburn Bill, 403, 404 
 Herrick, Myron T., 414 
 Herron, George D., career of, 332, 333; 
 
 reference to, 335 
 Hewitt, Abram S., 209 
 Higginson, T. W., 487 
 Hill, O. D., 287 
 Hillis, Newell D., statement by, 368, 
 
 369 
 History, economic interpretation of, 471 
 Hoadley, Judge, 12 
 
548 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Hobart, G. A., electoral votes received 
 by, 300 
 
 Hogg'att, L. Q., 161, 167, 168, 171, 172, 
 177, 195, 196, 198, 305, 355, 375, 
 503 
 
 Homestead Law, 199 
 
 Homestead riot, 267 
 
 Homesteaders, 207 
 
 Homesteadery, 206 
 
 Honest Money League of the Northwest, 
 114 
 
 Hooten, Professor, 109 
 
 Hopkins, Mark, 487 
 
 Hours of labor, 127, 256, 433 
 
 House of Representatives (United States), 
 Greenbackers in, 131, 132; Demo- 
 cratic majority in, 144; Insurgent 
 movement in, 420, 421 
 
 Howard County, 174, 179, 182 
 
 Howe, Frederic C, 413 
 
 Hoyt, Ralph, 135, 136 
 
 •Hubbard, N. M., attitude of, toward 
 Kelly's army, 340, 341 ; reference to, 
 451 
 
 Hughes, Charles E., 430 
 
 Human welfare, 396 
 
 Ida County, 315 
 
 Idaho, 268, 286, 323, 381 
 
 Illinois, 14, 43, 51, 64, 65, 67, 68, 69, 
 74, 86, 87, 99, 103, 106, 112, 118, 
 125, 131, 132, 159, 210, 211, 228, 
 235, 237, 246, 247, 252, 262, 340, 
 368, 389, 428, 475, 477, 487, 500; 
 success of Independents in, 51 ; three- 
 cent wars in, 53 ; activities of farm- 
 ers in, 53-55, 243 ; Independent 
 Reform party in, 59, 60 ; Independent 
 party in, 106 ; Greenback party in, 
 118, 119, 125, 126, 141; United La- 
 bor party in, 209, 210 ; Union Labor 
 party in, 213 ; farmers' organization 
 in, 231, 232 ; senatorial contest of 
 1891 in, 250, 251; Populist party in, 
 266, 267 
 
 Illinois Central Railroad, 53 
 
 Immigrants, prohibition against, 459 
 
 Immigration, 51, 139 
 
 Imperialism, 379, 380 
 
 Implied powers, doctrine of, 4 
 
 Import duties, 384 (see also Tariff) 
 
 Income tax, 123, 129, 149, 208, 233, 
 279, 289, 303 
 
 Independence, meeting at, 189; refer- 
 ence to, 461 
 
 Independent American, 374 
 
 Independent party, 51, 78, 221, 241, 
 242, 243, 245, 246; success of, 56; 
 summary of history of, 64-66; charac- 
 ter of, 65, 66; origin of, 105; early 
 conventions of, 105-109; votes cast 
 by, 126; convention of, 154 
 
 Independent Reform party, 61 
 
 Independent Republican party, history 
 of, from 1880 to 1884, 41-48; opposi- 
 tion oT, to Grant, 42 ; activities of, in 
 1880, 42, 43; campaign of, against 
 Blaine, 43-45 
 
 Independent voter, influence of, in pol- 
 itics, 46 
 
 Independents, successes of, 51; activities 
 of, 55-66; platforms of, 58; election 
 of, 237 
 
 Indian Territory, 252 
 
 Indiana, 20, 36, 43, 64, 78, 86, 99, 103, 
 112, 118, 125, 131, 132, 133, 212, 
 231, 235, 237, 245, 247, 368, 389, 
 421, 487, 500; activities of Independ- 
 ents in, 57, 58; Independent party in, 
 106; Greenback party in, 117, 118; 
 strength of Greenback party in, 119; 
 Greenback vote in, 141 ; People's party 
 in, 243 
 
 Indiana Financial Plan, 107 
 
 Indianapolis, convention at, 57, 58, 105, 
 106, 112, 113, 149, 293, 294; refer- 
 ence to, 109, 117, 365, 379; Iowa 
 delegates to convention at, 191; con- 
 ference at, 212; meeting at, 254, 364 
 
 Industrial Age, The, 109 
 
 Industrial armies, 277 
 
 Industrial classes, grievances of, 48 
 
 Industrial combinations, 205, 455 
 
 Industrial education, 433 
 
 Industrial Federation, 247 
 
 Industrial justice, 471 
 
 Industrial Legion of the United States, 
 activities of, 270, 271 
 
 Industrial legislation, 433 
 
 Industrial organization, 258 
 
 Industrial party, 242, 245 
 
 Industrial schools, 120, 127 
 
 Industrial unrest, period of, in Iowa, 
 338-345 
 
 Inflation, 114, 347 
 
 Inflation Bill, 91, 105, 151 
 
INDEX 
 
 549 
 
 Ingalls, John J., 251 
 
 Ingalls, P. P., 168, 170, 171, 172, 177, 
 180, 181 
 
 Inheritances, taxation of, 303 
 
 Initiative, 293, 349, 350, 354, 415, 425, 
 427 
 
 Injunctions, 289, 402, 443, 444 
 
 Inland Waterways Commission, 405 
 
 Insurance, cooperative plan of, 87, 88 
 
 Insurance investigation, 404 
 
 Insurgents, 391; activities of, in Con- 
 gress, 420-422 (see Progressives) 
 
 Interest, rate of, 84, 126 
 
 Interior Department, 98 
 
 Inter-Ocean, 183 
 
 Interstate commerce, regulation of, 62, 
 139, 148, 227 
 
 Interstate Commerce Commission, 346, 
 391, 402, 403 
 
 Interstate Commerce Law, violations of, 
 404, 452, 465 
 
 Interstate Silver Conference, 346 
 
 Intoxicating liquors, State ownership of, 
 351. 
 
 Inventions, profit from, 439 
 
 Iowa, Liberal Republicans in, 22-29 ; 
 election results in, 27, 28, 158, 167, 
 174, 178, 179, 182, 186, 189, 191, 
 193, 195, 196, 197, 198, 320, 325, 
 336, 337, 351, 357, 371, 454, 459, 
 464, 467, 469; reference to, 43, 51, 
 64, 65, 67, 87, 99, 106, 118, 125, 
 131, 133, 135, 136, 137, 211, 227, 
 237, 246, 248, 250, 262, 272, 275, 
 288, 291, 300, 312, 363, 368, 408, 
 421, 476, 500; history of Anti-Monop- 
 oly party in, 67-88; influence of 
 granges in, 68, 69; cooperative enter- 
 prises in, 85-88; Greenback vote in, 
 134, 141 ; growth of Greenback party 
 in, 153-174; commune in, 162, 163; 
 Greenback clubs in, 168, 169, 172; 
 banner Greenback county in, 170; de- 
 cline of Greenback party in, 175-201; 
 increase in population of, 199; com- 
 parison of conditions in Wisconsin and, 
 199, 200; conditions in, in 1890 and 
 1891, 304-321; prohibition movement 
 in, 305-307; Farmers' Alliance in, 
 309-314; campaign of 1891 in, 317- 
 320; campaigns of 1892 and 1893 
 in, 321-337; radical leaders from, 335; 
 industrial unrest in, 338-345; Kelly's 
 
 army in, 338-343; strike in, 343-345; 
 Populist gains in, 346-357; campaign 
 of 1896 in, 358-375; revolt against 
 free silver by Democrats in, 363-365, 
 366; fears of Republicans concerning, 
 370; leaders of Populist party in, 
 373-375; Progressive movement in, 
 435-469 ; struggle with railroads in, 
 435-446; relation between Progressive 
 movement in Wisconsin and, 445, 446; 
 career of Cummins in, 447-469; cam- 
 paign of 1901 in, 450-454; first nom- 
 ination of woman in, 504 
 
 Iowa City, 79, 166, 364 
 
 Iowa Idea, 452 ; discussion of, 457 
 
 Iowa People, 169 
 
 loica Tribune, 198 
 
 Irish, John P., viii, 25, 70, 78, 154, 172, 
 180, 182, 505; nomination of, 158; 
 votes received by, 158 
 
 Irish Land League, 181 
 
 Irrigation, 234, 251, 339, 343, 405 
 
 Issues, change in character of, 67, 68 
 
 Italians, 103 
 
 Jackson, Andrew, 139, 398 
 Jackson, Frank D., 338, 339, 340 
 Jasper County, 73, 74, 170, 174, 178, 
 
 186, 189, 349, 375 
 Jefferson, Thomas, 139 
 Jefferson City (Missouri), convention at, 
 
 9, 10, 11, 23, 47, 60 
 Jefferson County, 364 
 Johns Hopkins University, 395 
 Johnson, Hiram, ndmination of, 432 
 Johnson, Tom L., 301, 409; career of, 
 
 412-414 
 Johnson County, 364 
 Joint debates, 188, 189 
 Joint-rate law, 308 
 Joliet (Illinois), 526 
 Jones, Mr., 172 
 
 Jones, George W., speeches by, 157, 162 
 Jones, James K., 287 
 Jones, Samuel M., career of, 410-412; 
 
 reference to, 414 
 Jones, Thomas G., 264 
 Jones County, 364 
 Joseph, J. M., 313, 318, 324, 335, 375; 
 
 nomination of, 336 
 Judges, recall of, 425 
 Judicial decisions, recall of, 427 
 Judson, Harry Pratt, 152 
 
550 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Justice, gratuitous administration of, 121 
 
 Kansas, 1, 43, 64, 65, 86, 87, 99, 112, 
 118, 125, 144, 211, 212, 230, 235, 
 237, 246, 247, 252, 253, 268, 271, 
 274, 284, 300, 304, 318, 323, 336, 
 346, 380, 389, 418, 421, 426, 437, 
 477, 500, 508, 510; Independents in, 
 51, 56; Independent Reform party in, 
 61 ; Greenback party in, 118, 141 ; 
 Union Labor party in, 213; mortgages 
 in, 222, 223; Farmers' Alliance in, 
 239, 240; Populist party in, 244, 245, 
 267, 268; senatorial contest of 1891 
 in, 251 ; senatorial contest of 1893 in, 
 273 
 
 Kansas City, 252, 253, 260, 340, 380, 
 454 
 
 Kansas Farmer, 251 
 
 "Kansas lice", 319, 375 
 
 Kasson, John A., election of, 179 ; refer- 
 ence to, 187 
 
 Kearney, Dennis, 65, 135, 136, 165, 
 171; agitation by, 145, 146 
 
 Kearney (Nebraska), 296 
 
 Kellogg, Edward, book by, 92 
 
 Kelley, W. D., 110 
 
 Kelly's army, passage of, through Iowa, 
 338-343; character of men in, 341; 
 conditions giving rise to, 342, 343; 
 reference to, 351, 522 
 
 Kem, Mr., 236 
 
 Kentucky, 43, 86, 106, 212, 234, 249, 
 250, 380, 388, 485; Greenback vote 
 in, 134, 141 
 
 Kenworthy, W. S., 191, 194 
 
 Kenyon, Wm. S., 469 
 
 Keokuk County, 348 
 
 Key, David M., 41 
 
 Kinne, Mr., 161 
 
 Kirkwood, Samuel J., popularity of, 81 
 
 Knies, Carl, 395, 396 
 
 Knights of Industry, formation of, 255, 
 256 
 
 Knights of Labor, 146, 194, 198, 203, 
 204, 206, 215, 216, 231, 232, 241, 
 245, 246, 248, 251, 258, 261, 309, 
 344, 345, 373, 374; political activities 
 of, 204; union of Farmers' Alliance 
 and, 214, 215; supplement to, 256; 
 new head of, 334, 335 
 
 Koerner, Gustav, 35 
 
 Kolb, Keuben F., 228, 264 
 
 Kyle, James H., 251; career of, 252; 
 reference to, 262, 477 
 
 Labor, duty of government toward, 47 
 48, 342, 343; organization of, 93, 
 203, 204; relation of, to wealth, 96, 
 98, 101 ; unfortunate condition of, 96, 
 97; arbitration of disputes between 
 capital and, 103; widening of gulf be- 
 tween capital and, 104; speeches on 
 subject of, 109; encouragement of, 
 123; bureaus of, 124; reference to, 
 127, 128, 234, 302, 345; lectures on 
 dignity of, 129; protection of, 256; 
 plans for benefit of, 283 
 
 Labor Agitator, The Story of a, 203, 206 
 
 Labor and other Capital, 92 
 
 Labor Commissioner, 334, 373 
 
 Labor Congress, resolutions of, 93, 94; 
 platform of, 96-98; reference to, 471 
 
 Labor disputes, arbitration of, 148, 217 
 
 Labor legislation, 210 
 
 Labor party, 270, 470 
 
 Labor Eeform agitation, 46; history of, 
 91-104 
 
 Labor Reform movement, 13 
 
 Labor Reform party, 14, 20, 473, 477; 
 candidates of, 26, 99, 100; campaigns 
 of, 94-104; organization of, 94; plat- 
 forms of, 94-104, 121, 122; national 
 convention of, 99, 100; union of 
 Greenback party and, 120-130; lead- 
 ers of, 475 
 
 Labor statistics, bureau of, 101, 129, 
 148, 343 
 
 Labor troubles, 144, 145 
 
 Labor unions, 459 (see trade unions) 
 
 Laborer, duty of government to, 101 ; 
 protection for, 130 
 
 Lacey, John F., victory of Cummins 
 over, 467 
 
 La Crosse (Wisconsin), 115 
 
 La Follette, Robert M., political career 
 of, 390-397; reference to, 398, 408, 
 421, 423, 428, 430, 433, 445, 446, 
 468; speech by, 424; endorsement of, 
 for presidency, 424, 425; speaking 
 tour of, 425 ; campaign of, for presi- 
 dential nomination, 425, 426; service 
 of, 478 
 
 Laissez faire philosophy, 395 
 
 Lake Erie, 414 
 
 Lake Michigan, 140 
 
INDEX 
 
 551 
 
 Land, 257, 302; ownership of, 233, 257 
 (see also Public land) 
 
 Land-grants, 110, 217 
 
 Land leagues, 146 
 
 Land monopolies, 97, 208 
 
 Land Office, Register of, 167 
 
 Lane, Harry, election of, 417 
 
 Larrabee, William, votes received by, 
 193; reference to, 308; career of, 436- 
 446 ; support of Cummins by, 461 
 
 Lassalle, program of, 92 
 
 Lawrence Strike, 205 
 
 Lawyers, 134 
 
 Leader, State, 183 
 
 Leaders, lack of, 147 
 
 Lease, Mrs. Mary E., 260, 262, 265, 318, 
 32"5 
 
 Lee County, 364 
 
 Leffler, Shepherd, nomination of, for 
 Governor, 80; campaign of, 80, 81 
 
 Legal processes, expense of, 210 
 
 Legal tender, demand for repeal of, 175; 
 reference to, 363 
 
 Legal tender notes, payment of bonds in, 
 170; reference to, 210, 214 
 
 Legislators, holding of, responsible, 97 
 
 Legislature, opposition to frequent ses- 
 sions of, 60, 61 
 
 Lewelling, L. D., 273 
 
 Liberal Republican movement, history of, 
 9-48 ; beginnings of, 9-21 ; history of, 
 in Iowa, 22-29; history of, after 1872, 
 30-48 ; effect of, 48 ; , relation of, to 
 economic unrest, 46-48 
 
 Liberal Republican party, organization 
 of, 9-21; convention of, 11-17; leaders 
 in, 14, 24 ; candidate and platform of, 
 accepted by Democrats, 19, 20 ; cam- 
 paign of, in Iowa in 1872, 22-29; ac- 
 cessions to, in Iowa, 27 ; number of 
 votes cast by, 28, 29, 484; campaigns 
 of, from 1872 to 1876, 30-40; union 
 of Democrats and, 31, 32, 40; letter 
 of Schurz relative to, 33-36, 38, 39; 
 courses open to, 37; last campaign of, 
 41; gaining of objects of, 41; change 
 of name of, 43; program of, 46; ref- 
 erence to, 63, 79, 100, 283 
 
 Liberals (see Liberal Republicans) 
 
 License plank, 78 
 
 Lieutenant Governor, candidates for, 172, 
 193, 316, 336, 356 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham, 139, 331 
 
 Lincoln (Nebraska), meeting at, 56, 61, 
 241, 333 
 
 Lindsay, B. B., 482 
 
 Linn County, 193 
 
 Liquor traffic, 64 (see also Prohibition) 
 
 Livingstone, Mr., 254 
 
 Lloyd, Charles A., 352 
 
 Lloyd, Henry D., 12, 18, 19, 205, 213, 
 284, 293; article by, 147, 204; state- 
 ment by, 301, 302, 402 
 
 Lobbying, 148, 438, 465 
 
 Lobbyists, 410, 457 
 
 Lodge, Henry Cabot, 34, 35, 42, 487 
 
 Logan, John A., 159 
 
 Looking Backward, 249 
 
 Loucks, H. L., 242, 248, 254, 261, 271 
 
 Louisa County, 364 
 
 Louisiana, 133, 234, 268, 300, 485 
 
 Louisiana Farmers' Union, 229 
 
 Louisville (Kentucky), convention at, 
 20; reference to, 103 
 
 LouisviUe Courier-Journal, 14 
 
 Lucas County, 364, 437 
 
 Lyon County, 315 
 
 McCormick, Cyrus, 439 
 
 McFarland, W. M., 328 
 
 McGlynn, Edward, 207 
 
 McGovern, F. E., 429 
 
 McHenry, W. H., 353 
 
 McKeighan, Mr., 236 
 
 McKinley, William, nomination of, 286; 
 record of, on currency question, 286; 
 reference to, 294, 370, 382, 398, 401, 
 410, 452, 464; oratorical campaign of, 
 296, 297; cost of campaign of, 298, 
 299; fears of defeat of, 299; number 
 of votes received by, 299, 300, 371, 
 380 
 
 McKinley Tariff Act, 237 
 
 McLean, John R., 289 
 
 Mackey, C. H., 187, 348, 356 
 
 Macune, C. W., 229, 254, 259 
 
 Macy, Jesse, statement by, 339, 340, 367 
 
 Madison County, 169, 174, 178, 189, 315 
 
 Madison (Nebraska), 272 
 
 Madison Square Garden, speech in, 295, 
 382 
 
 Mahaska County, reform convention in, 
 22; reference to, 73, 174, 178, 182, 
 186, 189, 191, 193, 194, 315 
 
 Mahoney, D. A., 110, 495 
 
 Maine, Mr., 324 
 
552 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Maine, 12, 125, 131, 132, 140, 165, 178, 
 192, 487; Greenback party in, 128, 
 129, 133, 134 
 
 Mann, Thomas E., 326 
 
 Manning, J. C, 261 
 
 Mantle, Lee, 346 
 
 Manufacturing, protection of, 227 
 
 Manufacturing monopolies, 97 
 
 Maquoketa, 505 
 
 Marion County, 174, 178, 182, 186, 189 
 
 Markets, difficulties in shipping grain to, 
 
 51, 52; control of, 227 
 Markley, J. E. E., 366 
 Marriage and divorce laws, 465 
 Marshall, Charles M., 12 
 Marshall, John, 4 
 
 Marshall County, 325, 364 
 
 Marshalltown, convention at, 158, 173, 
 181, 195, 196; reference to, 336, 351, 
 374 
 
 Martin, John, election of, 274 
 
 Marx, Karl, 92, 93 
 
 Maryland, 103, 234, 259, 262, 381, 428, 
 485, 500 
 
 Mason, Charles, 25 
 
 Mason City, 364 
 
 Masons, 52 
 
 Massachusetts, union of parties in, 31; 
 reference to, 43, 45, 93, 99, 118, 120, 
 125, 144, 150, 186, 202, 212, 213, 
 248, 262, 275, 304, 428, 487, 500, 
 501 ; Labor Reform party in, 94, 95, 
 98, 99, 100-102; Greenbaekers in, 
 134 ; career of Butler in, 151 
 
 Matthews, Mr., 161 
 
 Matthews, Stanley, 10 
 
 Meat inspection bill, 405 
 
 Mechanics, 231 
 
 Medill, Joseph, 490 
 
 Memphis (Tennessee), 87, 296 
 
 Meredith, Thomas, 355 
 
 Merriam, Charles E., 424, 471 
 
 Merritt, Mr., 161 
 
 Michigan, 43, 64, 65, 99, 106, 118, 125, 
 132, 144, 192, 212, 213, 232, 245, 
 246, 363, 368, 408, 426, 434, 487, 
 500; National Reform party in, 58, 
 59; Greenbaekers in, 127, 141; Farm- 
 ers' Alliance in, 242 ; career of Pin- 
 gree in, 408-410 
 
 Middleman, effort to eliminate profits of, 
 
 52, 53; reference to, 199, 222, 253 
 Middle-of-the-road Populists, 292, 355, 
 
 388 
 
 Middle States, third party vote in, 268; 
 
 reference to, 295 
 Midland Monthly, The, article in, 341- 
 
 343 
 Militia, 340, 344 
 Mill, John Stuart, 395 
 Mills County, 315, 320 
 Milwaukee, 212, 433 
 Milwaukee County (Wisconsin), 212 
 Milwaukee Railroad, 340 
 
 Minimum wage, 411 
 
 Miners, 316 
 
 Mines, safety provisions in, 126 
 
 Minneapolis, 362 
 
 Minnesota, 12, 43, 51, 64, 65, 67, 112, 
 125, 213, 229, 237, 245, 246, 248, 
 250, 268, 274, 300, 312, 323, 346, 
 363, 400, 421, 434, 458, 473, 474, 
 487, 500; granges in, 52; Anti-Mo- 
 nopoly party in, 55, 56; Reform party 
 in, 64; Union Labor party in, 213; 
 Farmers' Alliance in, 242 ; Populist 
 party in, 280 
 
 Minor parties, service of, 470-480; 
 leaders in, 475-479 (see also Third 
 parties) 
 
 Minors (see Children) 
 
 Minturn, Robert B., 12 
 
 Mississippi, 133, 234, 250, 284, 388, 
 389, 507 
 
 Mississippi River, 226, 293, 339 
 
 Mississippi Valley, 226; campaign of 
 1896 in, 294, 296 
 
 Missouri, beginning of Liberal Republi- 
 can movement in, 9-11; reference to ; 
 22, 30, 43, 47, 64, 65, 86, 87, 103, 
 125, 129, 131, 211, 213, 228, 234, 
 247, 252, 300, 381, 388, 389, 408, 
 417, 418, 426, 485, 487, 500; prob 
 lems in, 48 ; Peoples' party in, 60, 61 
 Greenbaekers in, 127, 128, 141; Un- 
 ion Labor party in, 213; career of 
 Folk in, 417, 418 
 
 Missouri Pacific Railroad, 340 
 
 Missouri River, proposal for railroad to 
 Atlantic from, 62 
 
 Mitchell, John, 400, 402 
 
 Mitchell, Thomas, announcement of, 84 
 
 Mobile (Alabama), 140 
 
 Moline, 343 
 
 Monarchial Socialism, 396 
 
 Money, need of more, 83, 84, 92, 154, 
 331; non-productiveness of, 96; power 
 of government with regard to, 123; 
 
INDEX 
 
 553 
 
 resolutions relative to, 123; theory of 
 fiat, 167; increase in value of, 223, 
 224 ; method of increasing amount of, 
 224; reference to, 257; amount of, 
 used in campaign, 297-299; attitude 
 of people toward question of, 301, 302 
 (see currency, sound money, hard 
 money, paper money, etc.) 
 
 Money question, solution of, 106, 107 
 
 Mono-metallism, 222 
 
 Monona County, 189, 198, 315, 320 
 
 Monopolies, fostering of, 47; opposition 
 to, 59, 62 ; effect of, 97 ; reference to, 
 98, 123, 137, 139, 203, 205, 208, 284, 
 302, 350, 455, 457, 458, 470; plan 
 to oppose, 206, 207 
 
 Montana, 262, 286, 300, 331, 346, 381 
 
 Montgomery (Alabama), meeting at, 227 
 
 Montgomery County, 312, 315, 320 
 
 Moore, F. \V., votes received by, 193 
 
 Moore, M. H., 171, 172, 176, 177 
 
 Morgan, J. P., 401 
 
 Mortgages, 84, 221, 222, 229, 368; bill 
 for taxation of, 316 
 
 Muffly, J. W., 160, 170, 179, 324 
 
 Mugwumps, success of, 46 
 
 Mulct law, 351 
 
 Municipal government, reforms in, 412 
 
 Munroe, James, 486 
 
 Mureh, Mr., 174, 178 
 
 Murray, Minnie, 362, 363 
 
 Muscatine, 87, 485 
 
 Muscatine County, 73 
 
 Mutual fire insurance companies, 88 
 
 Myers, F. W„ 326 
 
 Nash, Mary E., 504 
 
 Nashua (Iowa), 362, 375 
 
 Nation, The, 12, 13, 16, 19 
 
 National banking law, 110 
 
 National banking system, demand for 
 abolition of, 94, 138, 238 
 
 National banks, opposition to subsidies 
 to, 47; reference to, 126, 214, 233; 
 criticism of, 185 
 
 National Citizens' Independent Alliance, 
 258 
 
 National debt (see public debt) 
 
 National Democratic party, formation of, 
 294 
 
 National Farmers' Alliance, facts con- 
 cerning, 228. 229; reference to, 246, 
 247, 258 (see also Northern Alliance) 
 
 National Farmers' Alliance and Co-op- 
 erative Union, 229 
 
 National Fanners' Alliance and Indus- 
 trial Union, 229; facts concerning, 
 
 230, 231; membership of, 234, 235 
 National Farmers' Congress, facts con- 
 corning, 226-228 
 
 National Labor Congress (see Labor Con- 
 gress) 
 
 National Labor Reform party (see La- 
 bor Reform party) 
 
 National Labor Union, 92, 93 
 
 National party (see Greenback party) 
 
 National Reform party, activities of, 58, 
 59 
 
 National Union Company, 253, 255 
 
 National Union Greenback Labor Con- 
 vention, 135 
 
 National Union party, organization of, 
 31 
 
 Nationales, 161, 162 
 
 Nationalists, 249 
 
 Nationals (see Greenback party) 
 
 Naturalization law, 217 
 
 Nebraska, farmers' movement in, 56 ; In- 
 dependent party in, 61, 62; reference 
 to, 64, 87, 99, 125, 212, 213, 229, 
 
 231, 237, 245, 246, 247, 252, 274, 
 284, 295, 300, 304, 310, 312, 323, 
 342, 346, 380, 389, 415, 421, 426, 
 428, 437, 477, 500, 519; Farmers' 
 Alliance in, 240, 241 ; senatorial con- 
 test of 1893 in, 272, 273; Populist 
 party in, 280; career of Bryan in, 
 290 
 
 Negro question, 22 
 
 Negroes, betrayal of, 150 
 
 Nelson, Knute, 421 
 
 Nevada, 144, 262, 268, 274, 331, 381 
 
 New England, 35, 159, 237, 282, 399; 
 
 third party vote in, 268 
 New Hampshire, 12, 13, 95, 96, 262, 
 
 426, 487 
 New Haven (Connecticut), 116 
 New Jersey, 99, 103, 106, 121, 125, 
 
 132, 428, 458, 487, 500 
 New Nationalism, 422 
 New Orleans, 87 
 New Party, 67 
 New Republic, The, 384 
 New York, 11, 14, 34, 42, 43, 84, 99, 
 
 103, 106, 121, 125, 132, 144, 210, 
 
 211, 212, 228, 239, 282, 295, 389, 
 
554 
 
 INDEX 
 
 401, 476, 487, 500; Liberal Repub- 
 lican activities in, 32, 33 ; differences 
 among Liberals in, 39 ; labor party in, 
 104; Greenback party in, 116, 117, 
 129, 134, 141; United Labor party 
 in, 209 ; Union Labor party in, 213, 
 214 
 
 New York Central Railroad, 473 
 
 New York City, meeting in, 13, 18, 
 111, 124; reference to, 36, 43, 45, 
 115, 140, 145, 162, 163, 253, 256, 
 295, 382, 477; conferences in, 37, 39, 
 44, 100; convention in, 116; cam- 
 paign of 1886 in, 209 
 
 New York Evening Post, 16 
 
 New York Herald, 12 
 
 New York Staats-Zeitung, 39 
 
 New York Star, The, 140 
 
 New York Sun, 487 
 
 New York Tribune, 14, 159, 269 
 
 New Zealand, 402 
 
 Newbold, Joshua G., 74 
 
 Newlands, Francis G., 272 
 
 Newspapers, conspiracy of, 140; estab- 
 lishment of, by Greenbackers, 185, 186 
 
 Newton, meeting at, 170 
 
 Nordhoff, Mr., 34 
 
 Noonan, J. A., 109 
 
 North Carolina, 131, 231, 234, 259, 
 300, 487; Farmers' alliance in, 238; 
 Populist party in, 280 
 
 North Dakota, 230, 235, 246, 268, 300, 
 323, 346, 363, 428; Farmers' Alli- 
 ance in, 243 
 
 Northern Alliance, 229, 311; demands 
 of, 230; platform of, 233, 234 (see 
 also National Farmers' Alliance) 
 
 Northern Securities Case, 399, 400 
 
 Northwest, opposition to railroads in, . 67 
 
 Northwestern Railroad, 340 
 
 Norton, S. F., 261, 262, 291, 292 
 
 Norwegians, 394 
 
 Oats, 221, 222 
 
 Oberlin College, 252 
 
 Ocala (Florida), meeting at, 232; plat- 
 form made at, 233, 244, 245, 247, 
 249, 280 
 
 O'Conor, Charles, 20, 100 
 
 Odd Fellows, 52 
 
 Officers, election of federal, 59 ; reduc- 
 tion of number of, 59 
 
 Offices, abolition of, 123 
 
 Ohio, reform movement in, 10, 11; ref- 
 erence to, 20, 43, 45, 47, 57, 78, 99, 
 103, 125, 132, 133, 211, 212, 213^ 
 246, 247, 249, 250, 262, 275, 368, 
 408, 432, 487; independent conven- 
 tion in, 30, 31 ; workingmen's ticket 
 in, 104; union of parties in, 120, 121; 
 Greenbackers in, 127; career of Jones 
 in, 410-412; career of Johnson in, 
 412-414 
 
 Ohio Constitutional Convention, 427 
 
 Ohio idea, 105 
 
 Ohio River, 293 
 
 Oil inspector, 307 
 
 Olleman, E. A., 106, 109 
 
 Olmsted, Frederick Law, 19 
 
 Olney, Richard, 401 
 
 Omaha, platform made at, 247, 359; 
 reference to, 260, 270; convention at, 
 261, 276, 305, 322, 323 
 
 Ontario (Canada), 498 
 
 Oregon, Independent party in, 62, 63; 
 reference to, 64, 268, 300, 408, 418, 
 428, 500; Union party in, 216, 217; 
 Populist party in, 280; career of 
 U'Ren in, 414-416 ; primary election 
 law in, 416, 417 
 
 Oregon plan, 416 
 
 Orth, Godlove S., bill introduced by, 108 
 
 Osawatomie (Kansas), 422 
 
 Osborn, Chase S., 426 
 
 Otis, John G., 248 
 
 Otis, Mr., 271, 313, 314 
 
 Ott, Edward A., 322, 324, 325, 326; 
 nomination of, 336 
 
 Ottendorfer, Oswald, 39 
 
 Otto, Helen, acknowledgment to, ix 
 
 Ottumwa, 157, 353, 356, 366; conven- 
 tion at, 365 
 
 Over-production, 222 
 
 Owens, E. S., 326 
 
 Pacific Coast States, third party vote in, 
 269 
 
 Paddock, Algernon S., 514 
 
 Palmer, John M., 14, 232, 250, 251, 267, 
 329; nomination of, 294; number of 
 votes received by, 299 
 
 Panic, 332 
 
 Paper money, issue of, 58; reference to, 
 110, 214, 233, 388, 498, 499; print- 
 ing of burlesque, 142 
 
 Parker, Alton B., nomination of, 380, 
 
INDEX 
 
 555 
 
 381; popular vote for, 381; reference 
 to, 385, 402 
 
 Parker, Joel, nomination of, 99 
 
 Parker, Mr., 20 
 
 Parsons, Frank, statement by, 302, 303 
 
 Party ties, weakening of, 76 
 
 Passenger rates, 53, 69, 121, 349, 438, 
 439, 440, 441 
 
 Passes, 59, 404, 438, 440, 442, 451, 463, 
 466 
 
 Patents, purchase of, 86 
 
 Patrons of Husbandry, 52, 69, 228, 242, 
 258 
 
 Patrons of Industry, 232, 258 
 
 Pattee, W. W., 344, 351 
 
 Pauperism, 96, 471 
 
 Payne-Aldricb. Tariff Act, 391, 424, 453, 
 467; debate on, 421 
 
 Peffer, William E., 236, 291, 477; ca- 
 reer of, 251 
 
 Pell, Alfred, 12 
 
 Pelzer, Louis, v 
 
 Pendleton, George H., "Ohio idea" of, 
 105 
 
 Pennoyer, Governor, 217, 280 
 
 Pensacola (Florida), 265 
 
 Pensions, 349 
 
 Pennsylvania, 20, 43, 99, 103, 106, 125, 
 131, 132, 133, 144, 178, 211, 212, 
 401, 411, 432, 434, 487, 500; Labor 
 Reform party in, 101 ; union of parties 
 in, 120; Greenbackers in, 129, 130, 
 134, 141 ; Union Labor party in, 213, 
 214 
 
 Pennsylvania Central Railroad, 473 
 
 People, policy of appealing to, 399 
 
 People's Independent Convention, 314 
 
 People's Independent party, activities of, 
 in California, 63, 64; reference to, 
 241, 245 
 
 People's party, activities of, in Missouri, 
 60, 61; reference to, 67, 198, 202, 
 215, 240, 246, 256 (see Populist par- 
 ty) 
 
 People's party clubs, plan for, 249, 250 
 
 People's Reform Convention, 63 
 
 Perkins, George D., 310, 325, 458; 
 campaign of, 461-463 
 
 Permeation, policy of, 261-281 ; success 
 in, 285; results of, 322 
 
 Perry, A. L., 487 
 
 Perry, Professor, 18 
 
 Phelps, Mr., 34 
 
 Philadelphia, convention at, 100, 102, 
 109; reference to, 204, 426 
 
 Philippines, annexation of, 880 
 
 Phillips, Wendell, 95, 102, 110, 120, 159 
 
 Pierce, Henry L., 487 
 
 Pinchot, Amos, 424 
 
 Pinchot, Gifford, 405, 432, 529 
 
 Pingree, Hazen S., career of, 408-410; 
 reference to, 414 
 
 Pioneers, democracy of, 2 
 
 Pipe-lines, 404 
 
 Planters, economic conditions among, 225 
 
 Platforms, origin of, 2-5 ; reference to, 
 15, 19, 24, 58, 61, 62, 64, 65, 109, 
 149, 158, 188, 195, 231, 241, 247, 
 259, 287, 322, 324, 356, 359, 427, 
 430, 460, 481, 492, 526; contents of, 
 47, 48, 95, 96-98, 100, 101, 106, 107, 
 110, 112, 113, 121-124, 125-130, 137, 
 146-149, 181, 182, 185, 210, 214, 
 216, 217, 233, 234, 238, 256, 270, 
 288, 289, 292, 293, 308, 309, 316, 
 335, 348, 349, 354, 432, 433, 452, 
 463, 464 
 
 Plows, factories for making of, 86 
 
 Plymouth County, 315 
 
 Poindexter, Miles, 423 
 
 Poles, 103 
 
 Political issues, new kinds of, 471, 472 
 
 Politics, participation of railroads in, 
 440, 446, 447, 448; participation of 
 corporations in, 456, 457, 463 ; grad- 
 ual change in, 472 
 
 Polk, L. L., 247, 254, 257, 259, 313, 318 
 
 Polk County, farmers' convention in, 70; 
 reference to, 84, 156, 174, 178, 315, 
 325, 451 
 
 Pomeroy, Marcus M., activities of, 114, 
 115; character of, 115, 116; reference 
 to, 135, 136, 166, 170, 172, 173 
 
 Pools, 328 
 
 Poor, struggle between rich and, 301 ; 
 attempt to array rich against, 373 
 
 Population, increase of, 199 
 
 Populism, 146, 198 ; climax of, in Iowa, 
 358-375; contribution of, 375 
 
 Populist clubs, 111 
 
 Populist party, 1, 2, 200, 215, 470, 476; 
 origin of, 216; history of, 221-375; 
 sources of, 221-235; formation of, 236- 
 260 ; convention for formation of, 
 247-249; platform of, 247, 248, 292, 
 293, 316, 335, 349, 354; leaders of, 
 
556 
 
 INDEX 
 
 248, 373-375, 477; early activities of, 
 249-252; non-political features of, 252- 
 260; cooperative enterprises of, 253; 
 campaigns of, in 1892 and 1894, 261- 
 281; national convention of, 261-264, 
 290-293, 322, 323, 388, 389; candi- 
 dates of, 262, 263, 291, 292, 316, 336, 
 354, 365, 388, 389; votes cast by, 
 268, 269, 320, 325, 326, 336, 337, 
 351, 357, 454, 459, 464; effect of, in 
 campaign of 1892, 269, 270; Senators 
 elected by, 272, 273, 274; members of, 
 in Congress, 274, 275, 281; activities 
 of, in 1893, 275, 276; subscription 
 funds of, 276; effect of industrial un- 
 rest on, 278 ; permeating influence of, 
 278; State campaign of, in 1894, 280, 
 281 ; attitude of Roosevelt toward, 284, 
 285; greatest victory of, 285; absorb- 
 ing of Greenback party by, 305 ; atti- 
 tude of, on prohibition issue, 306, 307; 
 early activities of, in Iowa, 306-320; 
 State convention of, in Iowa, 314-317, 
 324, 325, 335, 336, 348-351, 354, 355, 
 358, 359, 366, 367; campaign of, in 
 Iowa in 1891, 317-320; name applied 
 to members of, 319, 375 ; campaigns 
 of, in Iowa in 1892 and 1893, 321- 
 337; newspaper views of, 326-329; 
 basis of, 345 ; gains of, in Iowa, 346- 
 357; discussion of fusion of, with Dem- 
 ocrats, 355, 356; climax of, in Iowa, 
 358-375 ; fusion of Democrats and, 
 358-367, 478; contributions of, to re- 
 sult in 1896, 371, 372 
 
 Pork, 222 
 
 Pork-packing, cooperation in, 87 
 
 Port Huron (Michigan), 36 
 
 Porter, John, 156, 161, 171 
 
 Post Office Department, 98 
 
 Postal savings banks, 129, 303 
 
 Potato Patch plan, operation of, 408, 409 
 
 Pottawattamie County, 315, 364 
 
 Potter, Howard, 12 
 
 Poverty, 98, 259 
 
 Powderly, Terence V., 248, 258, 259, 
 261, 272, 345, 373, 374; successor to, 
 334 
 
 Powers, J. H., 312 
 
 Preachers, 230 
 
 President, candidate for, 15, 19, 20, 26, 
 43, 44, 93, 99, 100, 105, 112, 135, 
 149, 208, 210, 262, 289, 294, 323, 
 
 388, 389, 431, 432; results of election 
 of, 20, 28, 268, 269, 371, 380, 381, 
 385, 387, 434; popular election of, 61, 
 62, 126, 182, 293, 465; demand for 
 western candidate for, 84; one term 
 for, 100, 110, 349; nomination of 
 Weaver for, 137, 138; campaign of 
 Boies for nomination for, 360-363; 
 movement for nomination of La Fol- 
 lette as, 392-394, 425, 426; adminis- 
 tration of Roosevelt as, 398-407 
 
 Presidential election dispute, 124 
 
 presidential preference primary, 425, 
 427, 428, 468 
 
 Press, Iowa State, viii, 158, 166, 168, 
 175, 178, 182, 187, 190, 191 
 
 Primary election law, 415, 416, 463; 
 agitation for, 459, 460 
 
 Primary elections, 390, 410, 425, 427, 
 453, 458, 459, 466 
 
 Principles, adoption of, 5 
 
 Private-contract system, 412 
 
 Private property, exemption of, 123 
 
 Privilege (see Special privilege) 
 
 Privileged classes, 98, 123 
 
 Profit-sharing, 256 
 
 Progress and Poverty, 204, 415 
 
 Progressive Democracy, 350 
 
 Progressive Labor party, 207, 209 
 
 Progressive movement, history of, 377- 
 469; effect of, in Wisconsin, 394-397; 
 influence of Roosevelt's administration 
 on, 398-407; early leaders of, 408-419; 
 character of, 418, 419; early phases of, 
 in Iowa, 435-469 ; beginnings of, in 
 Iowa, 453, 454 
 
 Progressive party, members of, in Senate, 
 275; formation of, 431, 432; nomina- 
 tion of Roosevelt by, 432 ; platform of, 
 432, 433, 471; campaign of, 433, 434; 
 votes cast by, 433, 434 
 
 Progressives, sketches of careers of early, 
 379-419; leaders of, in States, 408- 
 419, 479; reference to, 419^.457, 460, 
 461 ; early successes of, (422; activi- 
 ties of, in Congress, 423.W24; meet- 
 ing of, 424, 425; division among, 425, 
 426; movement among, in favor of 
 Roosevelt, 426-428; coalition against, 
 462; influence of Cummins and Dol- 
 liver among, 468; need for union of, 
 479, 480 
 
 Prohibition. 81, 196. 240, 247, 256, 
 
INDEX 
 
 557 
 
 257, 258, 259, 275, 317, 320, 321: 
 attitude of Greenbackers toward, 188; 
 question of, in Iowa, 305-807 
 
 Prohibition party, 1, 2, 95, 99, 158, 299, 
 454, 459, 464 
 
 Prohibition plank, 196, 216 
 
 Prohibitionists, 216, 243, 256, 337 
 
 Prohibitory amendment, 186, 187, 305, 
 306, 308 
 
 Prosperity, effect of, 284, 380; unequal 
 distribution of, 327; relation of rail- 
 roads to, 439; reference to, 473 
 
 Protection, 110, 227, 256, 463, 464; 
 attitude of Cummins toward, 456 
 
 Protection Protect?, Does, 12 
 
 Protective Association, 448 
 
 Proudhon, book by, 92 
 
 Public debt, opposition to repudiation of, 
 10; payment of, 55, 58, 61, 95, 97, 
 98, 128; funding of, 138, 139; refer- 
 ence to, 164 
 
 Public improvements, 343 
 
 Public lands, disposal of, 10, 47, 94, 
 96, 97, 123, 139, 149, 210; thefts of, 
 206; proceeds of sale of, 405; preser- 
 vation of, 406 
 
 Public opinion, effect of, in coal strikes, 
 401 
 
 Public "utilities, public ownership of, 412 
 
 Public works, construction of, 130 
 
 Pullman Company, strike of employees 
 of, 277, 278, 360, 361 
 
 Pullman rates, regulation of, 345 
 
 Pure food bill, 405 
 
 Quarles, Joseph V., 392 
 
 Race problem, 226 
 
 Radical Republicans, 9, 10 
 
 Railroad Commission, 390; establishment 
 of, 436, 437; lack of power of, 437 
 
 Railroad Commissioners, 309, 351, 354; 
 agitation for increased powers of, 438, 
 440, 441 ; increased powers given to, 
 442 ; rates fixed by, 443 ; election of, 
 controlled by railroads, 444 
 
 Railroad Question, The, 436, 441, 446, 
 
 Railroad rates, demand for regulation 
 of, 68; law fixing, 74, 75; right of 
 State to regulate, 82 ; reference to, 
 349, 368, 392, 403 ; fixing of, in Iowa, 
 435-446 
 
 Railroad strikes, facts concerning, in 
 
 1877, 102-104; reference to, 121, 157; 
 influence of, 162; settling of, in 1894, 
 277, 278; featureB of, in Iowa, 343- 
 345 
 Railroads, demand for regulation of, 4, 
 53, 54, 55, 392, 396, 470; political 
 activities of, 23, 447, 448; opposition 
 to land grants to, 47 ; dissatisfaction 
 with, 51, 52; opposition to, in Illi- 
 nois, 53 ; struggle with, in California, 
 56, 57 ; pools by, 62 ; change of atti- 
 tude toward, 67 ; prediction of Carpen- 
 ter concerning, 71 ; bills for regulation 
 of, 74; lobbying by, 75, 76; decline 
 of agitation against, 82, 91 ; refer- 
 ence to, 97, 126, 221, 228, 238, 241, 
 251, 391 ; feeling against, 103 ; vic- 
 tory of, 104; State control of, 121; 
 fight against, 199 ; government own- 
 ership of, 207, 210, 214, 233, 234, 
 383, 384; reclamation of land from, 
 214; government control of, 257, 281, 
 293, 384; law opposed by, 308; as- 
 sessment of, for taxation, 316, 453 ; 
 attitude of, toward Kelly's army, 340- 
 342; taxation of, 390, 410, 447, 457; 
 control of, by trust, 400; law for reg- 
 ulation of, 402-405; struggle with, in 
 Iowa, 435-446 ; opposition of, to Cum- 
 mins, 450; breaking of domination of, 
 453 
 
 Railway Union, American, 344 
 
 Ramsey, Dr., 180 
 
 Randall, Samuel J., 132 
 
 Randolph, Theodore F., 12, 18 
 
 Reactionaries, 424 
 
 Rebates, 130 
 
 Recall, 425, 427 
 
 Reclamation Act, 405 
 
 Reciprocity, 424, 452, 455, 456, 457, 
 458 
 
 Reconstruction, passing of, as issue, 41 ; 
 reference to, 473 
 
 Reed Rules, 420 
 
 Referendum, 293, 349, 350, 354, 415, 
 425, 427 
 
 Reform, popular attitude toward, 3, 455; 
 reference to, 21; desire for, 37; ser- 
 vice of Populist party to, 375 
 
 Reform Conference, 256 
 
 Reform conventions, 22 
 
 Reform party, 51, 64, 67, 256, 470; 
 success of, 55, 56 
 
558 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Reform Press Association, 254, 255, 258 
 
 Register, The Iowa State, viii, 83, 84, 
 147, 151, 154, 160, 161, 162, 163, 
 165, 167, 169, 170, 173, 175, 176, 
 177, 179, 180, 181, 183, 184, 187, 
 188, 193, 314, 317, 319, 327, 331, 
 341, 344, 345, 348, 372, 374, 450, 
 454, 458 
 
 Register and Leader, The, 461 
 
 Registration law, 9 
 
 Reid, Whitelaw, 14, 269 
 
 Retaking, Mr., 177, 178 
 
 Republican Anti-Third Term Convention, 
 43 
 
 Republican party, 1, 6, 94, 95, 96, 99, 
 113, 117, 119, 454, 459, 464, 469; 
 origin of planks in platforms of, 2 ; 
 readjustments in, 5, 6; split in, 9*11, 
 386, 387, 420-434; movement for re- 
 form in, 10, 11 ; loss of majority by, 
 30; attitude of Liberals toward, 37, 
 38; denunciation of, 47; effect of 
 Liberal movement on, 48 ; dominance 
 of, 68 ; State convention of, 71 ; re- 
 duction of majority of, 73 ; dissatis- 
 faction with, 76 ; effect of Anti-Mo- 
 nopoly party on, 77; gains made by, 
 81, 82, 336, 337; attempt to connect 
 Weaver with, 140, 141 ; control of, 
 by capitalists, 150 ; return of Green- 
 backers to, 173 ; relation of Butler to, 
 151; relation of Weaver to, 184; ef- 
 fect of fusion on, 192, 193 ; reasons 
 for defeat of, 269, 270; cost of cam- 
 paign of 1896 to, 297-299; effect of 
 prohibition issue on, 306 ; recruits 
 from, 321 ; effect of Weaver's nomi- 
 nation on, 323, 324; misrule of, 328; 
 policy of, on currency, 330, 331, 332; 
 place of La Follette in, 390-397; con- 
 test for nomination of, 427-430; place 
 of Cummins in, 448-469 
 
 Republicans, attitude of, toward Adams, 
 17 ; unpopularity of Hayes with, 41 ; 
 reference to, 56, 57, 60, 61, 62, 63, 
 64, 70, 82, 83, 108, 122, 129, 133, 
 134, 154, 215, 216, 217, 236, 240, 
 241, 243, 246, 250, 258, 268, 280, 
 307, 313, 315, 319, 320, 367, 371, 
 404, 418, 478, 479; greenbacks fa- 
 vored by, 105 ; lack of leaders among, 
 147 ; attitude of, toward coinage of 
 silver, 159, 160; attitude of, toward 
 Greenbackers, 175; gains made by, 
 
 178, 189, 380, 381; relations between 
 Weaver and, 178; relation of Green- 
 backers to, 180; votes lost by, 182, 
 422, 423; effect of Greenback move- 
 ment on, 183 ; efforts of liquor interest 
 against, 187; defeat of, 197, 198, 
 221, 237, 311; relations of Populists 
 with, 266; contest between Populists 
 and, in Kansas, 273, 274; reaction in 
 favor of, 275; attitude of, on cur- 
 rency question, 282, 286, 287; suc- 
 cesses of, 284; campaign of educa- 
 tion by, 294; fears of, in 1896, 299, 
 370; view of Populists by, 326; per- 
 centage of popular vote cast for, 387 
 
 Repudiation, opposition to, 95, 96 
 
 Resumption Act, 91, 105, 110, 151, 155 
 
 Revenue, board of management of, 97, 98 
 
 Review of Reviews, 152, 263, 273, 278, 
 352 
 
 Revolutions, 128 
 
 Rhode Island, 43, 262, 487 
 
 Rhodes, James Ford, 26, 104 
 
 Rich, struggle between poor and, 301; 
 attempt to array poor against, 373 
 
 Riots, 104; suppression of, 289 
 
 Rivers, improvement of, 127, 128, 251, 
 343 
 
 Robb, W. H., 196, 198, 305, 313, 316, 
 322, 323, 324, 325, 336, 348, 353, 
 366, 374 
 
 Roberts, George E., Iowa Idea formu- 
 lated by, 452 
 
 Rochdale plan, 87, 253, 255 
 
 Rock Island Railroad, 340 
 
 Roe, F. F., 322, 348 
 
 Roosevelt, Theodore, 143, 209, 382, 385, 
 390, 408, 419, 424, 457, 463, 464, 
 468, 469, 479, 528, 529; article by, 
 284, 285; campaign between Bryan 
 and, 379; popular vote for, 381, 387, 
 434; choice of successor by, 384; lead- 
 ership of, 385, 478, 479; conflict be- 
 tween Taft and, 386, 427-430; admin- 
 istration of, as President, 398-407; 
 tour of West by, 422; feud between 
 La Follette and, 426; movement for 
 nomination of, 426-428; nomination of, 
 432; campaign of, 433; attempt to as- 
 sassinate, 433 ; electoral vote for, 433, 
 434 
 
 Root, Elihu, 428, 429 
 
 Rorer, David, 24 
 
 Rules, Committee on, 420 
 
INDEX 
 
 559 
 
 Safety law, 122, 128 
 St. John, E., 522 
 
 St. Louis, 9, 87, 104, 214, 215, 225, 
 231, 245, 248, 257, 308, 374, 516; 
 meeting at, 10, 146, 230, 249, 389 J 
 results of convention at, 38; conven- 
 tion at, 43, 116, 117, 135, 244, 257, 
 271, 358, 389, 526; platform made at, 
 233 ; agreement made at, 246, 247 ; 
 conference at, 276; Kelly's army at, 
 339 ; corruption in, 417 
 
 St. Louis and San Francisco Railway, 
 128 
 
 St. Paul, convention at, 64, 242 ; meet- 
 ing at, 227 
 
 Salaries, 55, 59 
 
 Salem (Oregon), convention at, 62, 63 
 
 Saloon, 257 
 
 Salter, William, 332 
 
 San Francisco, 87, 145, 338 
 
 Sanders, Mr., 318 
 
 Sands, Mahlon, 12 
 
 Sanitation, 396 
 
 Sater, Thomas J., 326 
 
 Saturday Evening Post, The (Burling- 
 ton), 307, 309, 312, 334, 339, 347, 
 369 
 
 Savery Hotel, 461 
 
 Savings banks, 130 
 
 Schell, William P., 101 
 
 Schilling, Robert, 107, 109, 248. 249, 
 262, 272, 276 
 
 School books, bill for uniform, 316 
 
 School system, 120, 127, 129 
 
 Schoolhouse, meeting in, 368, 369 
 
 Schurz, Carl, 9, 12, 13, 17, 18, 30, 37, 
 41, 44, 83, 394; choice of, as chair- 
 man of convention, 14; speech by, 18, 
 19; letters by, 33-36, 38, 39, 42, 43; 
 campaign speeches by, 45 ; traveling 
 expenses of, 45; character of, 48, 489 
 
 Scott, Walter S., 316, 317, 322, 324, 326 
 
 Scott County, 27, 73, 363, 364, 375 
 
 Secret organizations, 163, 230, 231, 232, 
 314 
 
 Secretary of Interior, 142 
 
 Secretary of State, 167, 309, 324, 325, 
 351, 371 
 
 Sectional hatred, 139 
 
 Seelye,. Julius H., election of, 31 ; refer- 
 ence to, 487 
 
 Senate, United States, Independents in, 
 51, 56, 57, 64, 65 ; Greenbacker in, 
 119; election of Allen to, 272, 273; 
 
 Populists in, 274, 275, 281; predicted 
 election of Weaver to, 328, 329; La 
 Folletto in, 390-392; railroad regula- 
 tion bill in, 403, 404; Insurgent move- 
 ment in, 421, 422; activities of Pro- 
 gressives in, 423, 424 ; mention of 
 Larrabee as candidate for, 445 ; Cum- 
 mins and Dolliver in, 467, 468 
 
 Senators, United States, popular election 
 of, 61, 62, 126, 148, 182, 208, 217, 
 293, 309, 329, 348, 349, 392, 393, 
 416, 427, 463, 464, 465; reduction of 
 term of, 149; reference to, 237, 308; 
 contests in election of, 250-252, 447, 
 448, 449, 466, 467 
 
 Settlers, 47, 97, 214, 217 
 
 Sewall, Arthur, nomination of, 289 ; ca- 
 reer of, 290; reference to, 291; elec- 
 toral votes received by, 300 
 
 Seymour, vote for, in Iowa, 28, 29 
 
 Shambaugh, Benj. F., introduction by, v; 
 acknowledgment to, ix 
 
 Shane, John, 74 
 
 Shankland, E. R., 86 
 
 Shaw, Leslie 51., 450 
 
 Shay's Rebellion, 304 
 
 Sherman, Buren R., 188 
 
 Sherman, James S., death of, 433 
 
 Sherman, John, 105, 175 
 
 Sherman, L. A., 36 
 
 Sherman, Mr., 430 
 
 Sherman Act of 1890, 275 
 
 Sherman Anti-Trust Act, enforcement of, 
 300, 399, 528 
 
 Sherman silver law, 331, 332 
 
 Shops, child labor in, 126 
 
 Short ballot, 427 
 
 Sibley, Joseph S., 283, 289 
 
 Siebecker, Robert G., 394 
 
 Sigourney, 356 
 
 Silver, demonetization of, 121, 179, 223; 
 coinage of, 123, 124, 159, 160, 164, 
 214, 217, 329, 335; remonetization of, 
 demanded, 125; payment of bonds in, 
 170; need of free coinage of, 224; ref- 
 erence to, 228, 332, 347, 363; pro- 
 posal to stop purchase of, 330 (see 
 also Free silver) 
 
 Silver Bill, 124, 160 
 
 Silver certificates, 331 
 
 Silver-miners, 223 ; southern allies of, 
 225 
 
 Silver Purchase Act, repeal of, 275, 331, 
 332 
 
560 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Silverites, 365 
 
 Simpson, Jerry, 236, 254, 259, 318 
 
 Single Tax, 203, 244, 413, 476 
 
 Sinnett, Samuel, 155, 160, 161, 168, 169 
 
 Sioux City, meeting at, 372; reference 
 to, 340, 364, 461; railroad strike at, 
 344 
 
 Sioux City Independent, 184 
 
 Sioux City Journal, viii 
 
 Sioux County, 364 
 
 Sioux Falls (South Dakota), convention 
 at, 388 
 
 Skinner, Mr., 179 
 
 Slavery, 164 
 
 Sleeping-car companies, 404 
 
 Smith, Adam, 395 
 
 Smith, Henry, 212 
 
 Smith, Joseph W., 128, 133 
 
 Smith, Munroe, 350 
 
 Social democracy, 103 
 
 Social democrats, 103 
 
 Social discontent, expression of, 2 
 
 Social forces, 4, 5, 6, 321, 375, 419, 471, 
 472; operation of, 270, 276, 277 
 
 Social issues, 305 
 
 Social justice, 471 
 
 Social legislation, 396, 471, 472 
 
 Social politjcs, significance of campaign 
 of 1896 in history of, 300-303; refer- 
 ence to, 375, 419; meaning and de- 
 velopment of, 470-480 
 
 Socialism, 145, 171 
 
 Socialist Labor party, 136, 162, 302 
 
 Socialist party, 270, 299, 454, 459, 464 
 
 Socialists, 104, 126, 206 
 
 Soft money, support of, by Democrats, 
 105; reference to, 176 
 
 Soldiers, 246, 315 
 
 Solid South, 141, 266; break up of, 226 
 
 Sound money, 46 ; support of, by Demo- 
 crats, 363-365, 366 
 
 South, 16, 141, 146, 150, 174, 255, 288, 
 389; attitude of, toward Greeley, 20; 
 plan for campaign in, 34; policy of 
 Hayes toward, 41 ; cooperative enter- 
 prises of, 87; activities of Greenback- 
 ers in, 132 ; home rule in, 164 ; Union 
 Labor party in, 211, 212; origin of 
 Populist party in, 216; reasons for 
 rise of Populist party in, 221-226; 
 membership of farmers' organization in, 
 231, 234; campaign of 1890 in, 236, 
 237; campaign of 1892 in, 265, 266; 
 third party vote in, 269; Populist 
 
 party in, 269, 280; Industrial Legion 
 in, 271; attitude of, on free silver, 
 282, 285, 330; campaign of 1896 in! 
 294, 296; attitude toward currency in 
 310; anti-fusion Populists in, 388; 
 speeches of Roosevelt in, 399 
 
 South America, 234 
 
 South Carolina, 43, 144, 234, 244, 262, 
 323; Farmers' Alliance in, 238, 239; 
 Populist party in, 266, 280 
 
 South Dakota, 230, 235, 246, 262, 274, 
 276, 286, 300, 304, 310, 312, 323, 
 380, 421, 428, 434, 477; Farmers' 
 Alliance in, 241, 242; senatorial con- 
 test of 1891 in, 251, 252 
 
 Southern Alliance, 229, 231, 232, 254; 
 platforms of, 233 ; plan of action of, 
 244; formation of, in Iowa, 313; ac- 
 tivities of, in Iowa, 318 
 
 Southern Pacific Railroad, 281 
 
 Southerners, discriminations against, 9 
 
 Sovereign, James R., 195, 196, 313, 314, 
 325, 331, 344, 345, 353, 373; career 
 of, 334 
 
 Spanish War, 379, 380 
 
 Speaker of House, contest in election of, 
 73, 307, 308, 445; choice of, 132; 
 power of, 139, 384; decrease of power 
 of, 420, 421; reference to, 448 
 
 Special privileges, 47, 301, 302, 412, 
 418 
 
 Specie payments, resumption of, 11, 55, 
 
 ' 61, 62, 65, 91, 119, 123, 124, 126, 
 154 
 
 Speculation, 222, 238 
 
 Spooner, John C, 392 
 
 Springfield (Illinois), convention at, 54, 
 59; reference to, 389 
 
 Springfield Republican, 14 
 
 Stallo, John B., 14 
 
 Standard Oil Company, 147, 205 
 
 Standpatters, 419, 424, 457, 460, 461, 
 468; union of Democrats and, 462; 
 defeat of, 466 
 
 Stanford, Mr., 254 
 
 Steam-roller, 429 
 
 Steckel, Amos, 353 
 
 Steffens, Lincoln, 412, 418 
 
 Sterling, Thomas, 252 
 
 Sterne, Simon, 18 
 
 Stevens, John L., 469 
 
 Stevens, Thaddeus, 105, 139 
 
 Stevenson, Adlai E., 388 
 
 Stewart, William M., 272 
 
INDEX 
 
 561 
 
 Stokes, Anson Phelps, 12 
 
 Stone, William M., 77, 78 
 
 Stores, operation of, by grangers, 87, 88 
 
 Street railways, fares on, 409, 413 
 
 Streeter, Alson J., nomination of, 208; 
 
 reference to, 250, 507, 514 
 Strike Commission, 278 
 Strikers, 349 
 Strikes, facts concerning, in 1877, 102- 
 
 104; reference to, 121, 124, 128, 145, 
 
 157, 204, 256, 277; influence of, 162; 
 
 arbitration in, 217; effort to eliminate, 
 
 283 ; features of, in Iowa, 343-345 ; 
 
 settling of, by Roosevelt, 400-402; set- 
 tlement of, at Detroit, 410 
 Stuart, F. Q., 353 
 Stubbs, Daniel P., 136, 156, 157, 161, 
 
 172, 173, 177; campaign of, 158; 
 
 vote received by, 158, 159 
 Stubbs, W. E., 426 
 Sub-treasuries, 107, 233 
 Sub-treasury bill, 238 
 Subsidies, opposition to, 47 
 Suffrage (see universal suffrage and 
 
 woman suffrage) 
 Sumner, Charles, 13 
 Sumner, William G., 395, 487 
 Sun, The, 108 
 Superintendent of Public Instruction, 
 
 181, 193, 336 
 Supreme Court of United States, packing 
 
 of, 11, 47; attack on, 289; reference 
 
 to, 349, 409 
 Supreme Court Judge, 156, 167, 351 
 Supreme Court Reporter, 167, 351 
 Swain, Mrs. A. 51., 504 
 Swamp land, 166 
 
 Tabor, Mr., 148 
 
 Taft, William H., 384, 422, 423, 468, 
 469; popular vote for, 385, 387, 434; 
 conflict between Roosevelt and, 386, 
 427-430; attitude of, toward tariff bill, 
 421, 422 ; attack on, 424 ; electoral 
 vote for, 433, 434 
 
 Tammany, 115, 117 
 
 Tariff, 10, 11, 15, 46, 55, 59, 61, 94, 
 96, 97, 149, 164, 211, 222, 225, 233, 
 236, 237, 238, 241, 275, 279, 302, 
 381, 384, 391, 421, 422, 424, 455, 
 456, 457, 458, 459, 463, 464; Iowa 
 Idea on revision of, 452 
 
 Tariff Act of 1894, 279 
 
 Tariff Commission, 425 
 
 Taubencck, Herman E., 248, 251, 257, 
 
 261, 270, 271, 358, 512 
 Tax Reformers, 207 
 
 Taxation, 59, 106, 110, 204, 214, 257, 
 440, 457; exemptions from, 94, 128; 
 demand for equalization of, 96, 105; 
 assessment of railroads for, 816, 453 
 
 Taxes, reduction of, 61 
 
 Taxpayer, The Pictorial, 12 
 
 Taylor County, 156, 174, 315 
 
 Teachers, 230 
 
 Telegraph, government ownership of, 207, 
 210, 214; government control of, 233, 
 293 
 
 Teller, Henry M., 286, 288 
 
 Temperance forces, 158 
 
 Temperance party, 95 
 
 Temperance plank, 185 
 
 Temperance question, effects of, on pol- 
 itics, 187, 316 
 
 Ten-hour day, 95, 96, 98 
 
 Tennessee, 144, 234, 259, 300, 388, 389, 
 485 
 
 Terrill, Ben, 2S4, 257, 260, 263 
 
 Texas, 131, 133, 144, 211, 212, 229, 
 230, 231, 232, 234, 271, 336, 388, 
 389, 485; Greenback vote in, 141; 
 Populist party in, 280 
 
 Thayer, Edward H., viii, 67, 74, 78 
 
 Third parties, reasons for selection of, 
 vii; source for study of, viii, ix; usual 
 view of, 1; part played by, 1-6; par- 
 ticipation of, in national elections, 142 ; 
 discussion of formation of, 247, 248 ; 
 percentage of votes cast by, 268, 269; 
 members of, in Senate, 275; service of, 
 470-480; leaders in, 475-479 (see vari- 
 ous parties) 
 
 Three-cent wars, 53 
 
 Thurman, Allen G., 365, 475 
 
 Tibbies, Thomas H., 389 
 
 Tilden, Samuel J., 12, 33, 38, 39, 115, 
 118, 153, 154, 365, 487; vote for, in 
 Iowa, 28 ; effect of nomination of, 41 ; 
 defeat of, 119 
 
 Tillman, Benjamin R., 239, 244, 254, 
 266, 272, 280, 287, 365, 370, 393, 
 404 
 
 Tipton, J. W., 36 
 
 Toledo (Ohio), convention at, 122-124, 
 160, 204; reference to, 126, 127, 414; 
 career of Jones in, 410-412 
 
 Topeka (Kansas), convention at, 240; 
 reference to, 274 
 
562 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Tornadoes, comparison of Greenbackers 
 
 and, 184, 185 
 Towne, Charles A., nomination of, 388 
 Trades-unionism, 171 
 Trades unions, 146, 360 
 Tramps, 338, 340 
 
 Transportation, problems of, 46 ; im- 
 provement of means of, 61 ; reference 
 
 to, 199, 257, 302; control of, 203; 
 
 regulation of, 217; cost of, 222, 368, 
 
 439 
 Treasurer of State, 167, 177, 309 
 Treasury, gold reserve in, 289 
 Treaties, 228 
 
 Trenton (New Jersey), 113 
 Trevellick, Richard F., 107, 109, 112, 
 
 137 
 Trimble, H. H., 171 ; votes received by, 
 
 174 
 Troupe, Alexander, 107 
 Truck store system, 316 
 Trumbull, Lyman, 13, 17, 25. 283, 284, 
 
 487 
 Trust companies, 130 
 Trust legislation, 382, 383 
 Trusts, 208, 227, 302, 381, 392, 455, 
 
 457, 459; enforcement of law against, 
 
 399, 400 
 Tufts, John Q., 74 
 Two-cent fares, 316, 349, 466 
 
 Underground railroad, 84 
 Unemployed, march of army of, 338-343 
 Unemployment, proposals relative to ques- 
 tion of, 342, 343 
 Union County, 156, 174, 189, 197, 315 
 Union Greenback Club Organization, 173 
 Union Greenback Labor party, 136 
 Union Labor party, 198, 207, 216, 221, 
 243, 246, 256, 305, 317, 476; history 
 of, 206-216; convention of, 208; sup- 
 port of, 208, 209; campaigns of, 210- 
 216; votes cast by, 211; union of 
 Greenbackers and, 308; activities of, 
 in Iowa, 310 
 Union Labor convention, 195, 196 
 Union Labor Industrial party, platform 
 
 of, 308, 309. 
 Union Pacific Railroad, 23, 234, 273, 
 
 281; Kelly's army on, 238 
 Union party, 216, 217 
 Union Reform Association, 258 
 Unita (Utah), 338 
 United Labor party, 207; origin of, 209; 
 
 campaigns of, 209, 210; convention of, 
 
 210; platform of, 210 
 Universal suffrage, 93, 137,. 247 
 Unrest, 162, 205, 271, 276, 277, 278, 
 
 332, 335; center of, 304; period of| 
 
 in Iowa, 338-345 
 U'Ren, William S., career of, 414-416 
 Usury, 101, 208 
 Utah, 253, 286, 300, 331, 342, 363, 380, 
 
 433 
 
 Vale, Jacob G., nomination of, for Gov- 
 ernor, 70; career of, 71; reference to, 
 73 
 
 Vanderbilt, W. K., 500 
 
 Vandervoort, Paul, 271 
 
 Van Hise, Charles R., 394 
 
 Van Wyck, C. H., 259, 315, 519 
 
 Vermont, 132, 212, 262, 433, 500 
 
 Vest, George G., 361, 370 
 
 Vice President, candidate for, 16, 19, 
 20, 99, 100, 112, 135, 138, 149, 184, 
 208, 210, 262, 263, 289, 292, 294, 
 388, 389, 432; popular election of, 61, 
 62, 126, 182, 293, 465 
 
 Violence, 128 
 
 Virginia, 234, 259, 300 
 
 Von Hoist, Hermann, 6, 398 
 
 Voorhees, Daniel, 159 
 
 Wage-earners, universal suffrage for, 93 
 
 Wage standards, 433 
 
 Wages, regulation of, 104; reference to, 
 121 
 
 Wages system, opposition to, 98 
 
 Wagner, 395, 396 
 
 Waite, Davis H., 271 
 
 Wakefield, William A. T., 210 
 
 Walker, Francis A., 36 
 
 Wallace, Henry, 227 
 
 Wallace. William, 498 
 
 Wanamaker, John, 430 
 
 Wapello County, 170, 315 
 
 Warner, Adoniram J., 272, 283, 346 
 
 Warren, Fitz Henry, 24 
 
 Warren County, 73, 174, 189 
 
 Wars, raising of money for, 94, 97 
 
 Washburn, George F., 262, 271 
 
 Washington, 300, 380, 434 
 
 Washington, D. C, 52, 140, 231, 232, 
 245, 255, 338, 400, 401, 425; conven- 
 tion at, 134; meeting at, 247, 271, 
 272 
 
 Washington County, 73, 155 
 
INDEX 
 
 563 
 
 Water-power control, 406 
 
 Water-rates, improvement of, 61 
 
 Watson, Thomas E., nomination of^JlW;" 
 electoral votes received by, 300; popu- 
 lar vote for, 300; reference to, 3SS, 
 389, 527 
 
 Watt, Mr., 439 
 
 Watterson, Henry, 14 
 
 Waukon, 461 
 
 Wayne County, 174 
 
 Ways and Means, Committee on, 421 
 
 Wealth, struggle between democracy and, 
 68, 301 ; relation of labor to, 96, 98 ; 
 reference to, 284 
 
 Wealth against Commonwealth, 147 
 
 Weaver, James B., papers of, ix; state- 
 ment by, 3, 4; reference to, 131, 145, 
 146, 149, 155, 161, 168, 169, 170, 
 171, 176, 180, 181, 183, 184, 186, 
 191, 196, 198, 202, 248, 254, 256, 
 257, 258, 259, 262, 266, 274, 283, 
 291, 305, 307, 309, 313, 314, 322, 
 325, 331, 335, 336, 348, 349, 350, 
 353, 354, 355, 358, 365, 366, 374, 
 477; nomination of, 137, 138, 188, 
 262, 323; campaign of, 138-141, 164- 
 168, 178, 188, 189, 323-325; votes re- 
 ceived by, 141, 189, 268, 325; inter- 
 view with, 141 ; character of campaign 
 by, 143; character and career of, 164, 
 165; election of, to Congress, 167, 191, 
 195; predictions of, 173, 174; plans 
 for reception to, 180, 181; position of, 
 on prohibition question, 187; speech 
 by, 192, 193 ; service of, to Democrats, 
 193, 194; proposal of, for Senator, 
 197; mistake in nominating of, 264; 
 address issued by, 265; letter of, 270; 
 political views of, 304, 305; name ap- 
 plied to, 319, 375, 499; reception to, 
 323, 324; imaginary prayer ascribed 
 to, 327; results of election discussed 
 by, 327, 328; prediction concerning, 
 328, 329; defeat of, for Congress, 352; 
 plan for election of, as Senator, 355; 
 place of, in Populist party, 373; ser- 
 vice of, 476 
 
 Weaver, J. B„ Jr., 502 
 
 Webster County, 155, 168, 170, 174, 364 
 
 Weeks, A. W. C, 325,' 336, 348 
 
 Welch, J. B., 168 
 
 Welch, Mr., 161 
 
 Welch, Porte C, 155, 177 
 
 Weller, Luman H., papers of, ix; refer- 
 
 ence to, 161, 176, 177, 179, 180, 188, 
 190, 191, 192, 195, 196, 197, 198, 
 305, 318, 334, 352, 375; election of, 
 to Congress, 186, 187; name applied 
 to, 375 
 
 Welles, Gideon, 487 
 
 Wells, David A., 12, 14, IS, 487 
 
 Werner harvester patent, 85 
 
 West, A. M., 138; nomination of, 149 
 
 West, John P., 74 
 
 West, democratic tendencies in, 2 ; change 
 of sentiment in, 11; popularity of Da- 
 vis in, 26; reference to, 34, 36, 129, 
 146, 244, 246, 255, 288; attitude of, 
 toward Blaine, 43 ; economic unrest in, 
 46; character of Liberal Republican 
 movement in, 46, 47 ; third parties in, 
 from 1873 to 1876, 51-66; interests 
 of, 61; need of money in, 83, 84, 154; 
 cooperative enterprises in, 87 ; use of 
 greenbacks favored in, 91, 92, 105, 
 175; activities of G-reenbackers in, 117, 
 118, 141; conditions in, 122; strength 
 of Greenback party in, 125 ; unpopu- 
 larity of Hayes in, 160 ; Union Labor 
 party in, 211, 212, 213 ; origin of 
 Populist party in, 216; influence of 
 economic forces in, 221; reasons for 
 rise of Populist party in, 221-226; 
 financial relations of, with East, 222, 
 223, 224; plan of, to boycott East, 
 226; membership of Farmers' Alliance 
 in, 235; campaign of 1890 in, 236, 
 237; campaign of 1892 in, 265, 266; 
 third party vote in, 269 ; Populist 
 party in, 269 ; Industrial Legion in, 
 271 ; attitude of, on free silver, 282, 
 285, 330; career of Bryan in, 290; 
 campaign of 1896 in, 294, 296; atti- 
 tude toward currency in, 310; pro- 
 posal for irrigation in, 339, 405; de- 
 sire of unemployed to leave, 340 ; 
 speeches of Roosevelt in, 399; tour of, 
 by Roosevelt, 422; tour of La Follette 
 in, 425 ; third parties in, 470 
 
 West Union, 272 
 
 West Virginia, 103, 106, 140, 234, 259, 
 426, 487 
 
 Western Classification, 443 
 
 Westfall, A. J., 248, 318, 322, 335, 336, 
 351, 373; votes received by, 310, 320; 
 circular letter by, 314; nomination of, 
 for Governor, 316 
 
 Weston, Kelly's army at, 338 
 
564 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Wheat, Morris L., 262, 314, 315, 323, 
 348, 349, 351, 374; name applied to, 
 375 
 
 "Wheat, increase in production of, 199 ; 
 poor yield of, 200; price of, 221; ref- 
 erence to, 222 
 
 Wheat-producing States, 51 
 
 Wheeler, Hiram C, number of votes re- 
 ceived by, 320 
 
 White, Fred E., 353, 356; Boies nom- 
 inated by, 361, 362 
 
 White, Horace, 12, 14, 16, 17, 36, 490 
 
 White, William Allen, 418 
 
 White House, conference at, 405 
 
 Whitney, Mr., 439 
 
 Wilcox, H. S., 170, 179 
 
 Willard, Frances E., 256, 257, 259, 512 
 
 Willett, George E., 74 
 
 Williams, M. H., 181 
 
 Williams, Samuel W., 389 
 
 Williams College, 394, 487, 501 
 
 Willits, J. F., 260, 271, 314, 322, 344 
 
 Wilson, James F., 445, 447 
 
 Wilson, Woodrow, 6, 390, 479 ; nomina- 
 tion of, 386, 431; popular vote for, 
 387, 434; electoral vote for, 434 
 
 Winneshiek County, 74 
 
 Winona (Minnesota), 422 
 
 Winterset, 325, 336, 459 
 
 Wisconsin, 9, 43, 51, 64, 65, 67, 68, 74, 
 86, 87, 112, 125, 133, 211, 212, 213, 
 230, 248, 262, 368, 408, 415, 418, 
 421, 428, 454, 458, 487, 500; Reform 
 party in, 55, 56, 60; campaign of 
 1875 in, 63; Greenback vote in, 134; 
 comparison of conditions in Iowa and, 
 199, 210; career of La Follette in, 
 390-397; progressive movement in, 
 394-396; relation between Progressive 
 movement in Iowa and, 445, 446 
 
 Wisconsin, University of, relation of, to 
 
 State, 394-396 
 Wisconsin Idea, 394, 396, 397 
 Wiseman, John, 155 
 Witmer, W. W., 328, 366 
 Witt, Peter, 413 
 Woman, first nomination of, 504 
 Woman suffrage, 95, 135, 136, 208, 257, 
 
 258, 259 
 Woman Suffragists, 216 
 Woman's Christian Temperance Union, 
 
 256 
 Women, working hours of, 95, 96, 101; 
 
 wages of, 98 ; equal political rights for, 
 
 181; labor of, 433 
 Women's Alliance, 258 
 Women's National Suffrage Association, 
 
 135, 136 
 Wood, L. A., 107 
 Woodburn, James A., 209 
 Woodbury County, 315, 322, 364 
 Woodrow, Mrs. E. J., nomination of, 336 
 Wool bill, 423 
 Woolsey, Theodore, 35, 36 
 Workingmen, rights of, 95; political ac- 
 tivities of, 103, 104, 110, 111 
 Workingmen's Association, 109 
 Workingmen's party, 65 
 Works, John D., 423 
 Worth County, 315 
 Wright, George G., 159 
 Wright, Hendrick B., 132, 137 
 Wyoming, 268, 300, 323, 380, 415, 426 
 
 Yale University, 395, 487 
 
 Yankton College, 252 
 
 Young, Lafayette, 74 
 
 Young, Mr., number of votes cast for, 28 
 
 Zion, cooperative stores in, 253 
 
I.» I II « • VW«". , «'.» 
 
 iWAW, '• 
 
 $3ft¥; 
 
 
 
 
 
 y.v.v. 
 
 v,.v 
 
 
 -l-4_4 i » 
 
 I » I |V-' ' 
 .*.* • • I 
 
 •.«• v.*y.v* 
 
 .**>;•» 
 
 fflftmw 
 
 _4 4 
 
 •■44" 
 I.I I •*»'. 
 
 
 .«*£.•.•.*.*.•: 
 
 '•'•'•■■•■•••.V..:XS-. 
 
 
 !«!iy.y.V.'.w:« 
 
 • .v.v 
 
 .•...».• i •:• • 
 
 II 
 
 
 CO' 
 
 tftftt 
 
 . •*• •.NViViV.'.'. 
 
 
 ;SiSp:^ 
 
 
 
 ■WSW 
 
 .' ».• • I 
 
 1 44 I . .*« ,'.',* '< Ml I I I I I I , I I I I I I I. 
 • • 4 • » » i .W » , . , «* ■ • M I I I > I I I • I • 
 
 i , i'iVi'. , ?A i .«.».'> !•••.• '. . .' . 
 
 ri iVi'iVi'iVi'iYiYi'