My election to Congress was due to my support of the Ocala Platform of
the Farmer’s Alliance, and when the Indianapolis Convention of 1891
instructed all Congressmen so elected to stand by the principles of the
Alliance regardless of the Caucus dictation of political parties, I
declined to enter the Democratic Congressional Caucus in Washington.
(1) I was immediately denounced in the bitterest terms by nearly every
Democratic paper in Georgia; yet I could not have done otherwise without
betraying the Alliance-men who had elected me.
I did not join the Alliance as so many time-servers did; I remained
on the outside, but they trusted me so implicitly that I received the
solid Alliance vote. How, then, could I walk into the Caucus trap, to be
silenced and tied by a majority vote which was dead against the Alliance
demands?
During the summer of 1891, I had held a series of great public
meetings throughout my District, and these Conventions of the voters
overwhelmingly and enthusiastically instructed me to stand by the
principles rather than the party, if the time came when it was necessary
to choose the one course or the other. Then came the organization of the
People’s Party, after it had become plain that neither of the old parties
meant to give the people relief.
I went with the People’s Party because my election had been due to those
principles, and because the same overwhelming majority of Democrats who
had elected me had gone into the People’s Party, and because I had no
hope whatever of getting the reforms inside the Democratic Party.
(2) Neither the Republican nor the Democratic party has ever advocated
“Government Ownership of Public Utilities.”
In Europe the principle is almost universally recognized and _practiced_.
Government ownership of Railroads is the rule on the Continent. In
England the Imperial Government owns the Telegraphs and Telephones. The
Government Parcels Post does the work of an Express Company. Municipal
railroads, telegraphs, telephones, lighting plants, water systems,
laundries, bathing establishments, bakeries, etc., etc., are in operation
all over Great Britain and all over Europe.
_We_ are the laggards, we smart folks of the United States. We are the
only nation of civilized cattle on earth which the Corporations find easy
prey.
* * * * *
MILLEDGEVILLE, GEORGIA, December 18, 1905.
_Hon. Thomas E. Watson, Thompson, Ga._
DEAR SIR: TOM WATSON’S MAGAZINE contains more sound principles
and good common horse sense, (just what the people need) than
any other paper published in the United States, and I wish you
would answer the following questions, to wit:
(1) Does it not look like the North, East and West are
determined to adhere to their hellish, reconstruction policy to
the end of time?
(2) What material difference does it make to Georgia, or the
Common people in her limits whether she has six or eleven
representatives in Congress?
(3) Is it not true that the only material benefit in being
represented at all in these times, accrues to the fellow who
draws the five or six thousand salary annually?
(4) Is it not true that the Northern, Eastern and Western
Democrats vote as a unit with the Republicans whenever any
question affects the South is the issue?
(5) Why is it that the Southern Democrats do not stand as a
unit and vote for whatever is best for the whole country,
regardless of party, and thereby hold the balance of power in
the Government?
(6) How can the North, East and West be convinced and made to
understand that the negro lives in the South, is part of the
South, and that the white people of the South are going to say
and dictate what the negro’s political and social status shall
be while he remains in the South?
(7) Are there not thousands of white people in every State of
the Union who are as incompetent to cast a vote intelligently
as the negro is, and why not reduce the representatives in
Congress from each State accordingly?