| Show THE POPULISTS ALL HUSTLING Laying Great Claims as to Vhat They Will Do MANY AFTER THE PLUM TILLMAN hOWEVER SAID TO BE FAR IN THE LEAD Governor llolcomb Favorably Looked Look-ed Upon By the More Conservative Conserva-tive Element of Ills Party The Coming Convention in St Louis Promises to Be a Rcdhot Affair The Leading Candidates WASHINGTON March 13If the Populists I Popu-lists are to be believed a Populist president presi-dent will lives in tho White house 9fter March 4 of next year and the country I will be run on lines radically different from the existing ones Suih astute men as Dave Hill of New I York Mat Quay of Pennsylvania Tom Reed of Maine might be inclined to laugh at the claims of the Populists but I a couple of years ago any one would have been laughed at who asserted that the Populists would soon hold the balance bal-ance of power in the United States senate I sen-ate I A Populist president may not be elected next November but the Populists ar hustling and their convention at St Louis on July 22 next If not as large as the conventions of the Democratic or Republican Re-publican parties will be quite as exciting ex-citing Several Populists have the presidential presi-dential bees buzzing in their bonnets at a terrific rate and when anything like R1ItcNlz4 rfl fIf 1 5vl I r l I I f II Q 1 II 9r S MRRION BUTLER ONE OF THESE 3IAY UE PRESIDENT I that happens to a member of that party it means oceans of excitement I The people who live in the large cities cit-ies and the fairsized towns of the country I coun-try are unable to appreciate the fervor of I politics in a Populist centre A Populist is the hottest kind of a redhot politician all the time and he is always aggressive He is sever on the defensive but jumps into battle at the drop of the hat He II has little to lose and everything to gain so he is never timid VOTE IN 1892 The Populist vote in the last presidential presi-dential campaign when General James B Weaver of Iowa headed the ticket was 1041028 In that election Grover Cleveland got 5556918 votes and Benjamin Harrison Harri-son 5176108 votes Now tile Populists claim that they have a voting strength I throughout the nation of 40hOOD votes Of course this estimate can be taken I with several large grains of salt but if it were exaggerated only by many hundreds hun-dreds of thousands it would come close to being a winner The sober Populists however do not expect the millenium this year but they do say that when all the votes have been counted up the people who have been in the habit of poking fun at them will be deeply surprised at their strength In 1892 Weaver carried Colorado by nearly 13000 votes Idaho by 2000 votes Kansas by 6000 votes Nevada by 4500 votes and North Dakota by 181 votes I In the electoral college he had 22 votes This year in addition to the same states the Populists count upon carrying Nebraska Ne-braska with its eight electoral votes Oregon Ore-gon with its four electoral votes South Dakota with its four electoral votes and some put in a broad claim for many of I the southern and western states which I have a free silver tendency Moderate i members of the party place the voting I I strength at 2000000 this year while some it at Ito i not quite so conservative place 000 more and at least fifty votes in the electoral college AN ARMY OF DELEGATES The delegates who will go to St Louis to select a standard bearer for the party will be 1283 In number They are not chosen on the same plan followed by the Democratic and Republican parties but according to the Populist voting strength in the various states North Carolina for instance will have ninetyfive delegates while New York will have only forty foUr and Pennsylvania fortytwo Maine is given but nine delegates while Kansas has eightytwo hThe following table gives the number of delegates of each state ar lalso shows the strong and weak states as measured by the Populist leaders Alabama 54 Arizona J Arkansas < lic 39 California y 4a i Colorado Connecticut J v i I 3 Delaware p 8 Florida I Gl Georgia rde 7 Idaho 54 Illinois 30 Indiana 30 Iowa 82 Kansas Kentucky 2 1 Louisiana 9 Maine f Maryland I Massachusetts 21 Michigan 21 i 53 Minnesota Vv Mississippi 15 Misspuri jfj Montana 2 v MJj 1 1tt I Iscbraskj 5t Ieaua New uac1lsllrd 1 4 i New Jersey H Now York 41 North Carolina > 15 > North Dakota li Ohio iS Oregon < lt Pennsylvania 4J Rhode Island 4 South Carolina lj South Dakota J < ci Tennessee j Texas Ji Vermont 1 Virginia 5 ± Washington 17 AVIsconsin West Virginia i I 02 j Wyoming 7 New Mexico 4 Utah ° = THE LIGHTNING OF TILLMAN It is more difficult to gay who will be the Populist standard bearer than it is to predict the Republican or Democratic nominee and the latter are problems too hard for most people to solye Many say that the presidential lightning will surely hit Ben Tillman of South Carolina that he is tlvs man of the hour and that he will sweep the decks on the Iltst ballot TiUmans friends assert that his most formidable opponent for nomination honors hon-ors General Weaveris body and soul for the South Carolina statesman Till manites claim that their man will poll I the solid and united votes of the Populists Popu-lists and the free bliverites but the Populists Pop-ulists who favor other candidates are already preparing to down him by saying say-ing that he is a Democrat at heart and is only half a Populist at best Senator James H Kyle of South Dakota Da-kota has a strong following among the western Populists He is an Ohio man by birth and was a clergyman before he entered the political arena While it is generally admitted that Tillman has the strength of the southern and eastern I Populists at his back the fact that he r is not liked very much in the west will act Strongly against him What is known as the conservative element in the party regard Tillman as too much of a skyrocket and intend to pin their faith to a man with fewer revolutionary fads This element has already al-ready settled upon Governor Silas AV Hoicomb of Nebraska and are booming boom-ing him judiciously Holoomb they regard I re-gard as a safe man a man who will stick to thereligion of the party through I thick and thin but who will not allow personal ambitions or private antagonisms antagon-isms to carry him into unseemly ways |
