POPULIST PARTY 



1762 



PORCELAIN 



POP'ULIST PARTY, or PEOPLE'S PARTY, 

 one of the political parties in the United States 

 that took a prominent part in the Presidential 

 campaign of 1892. The official name was tin- 

 PEOPLE'S PARTY, but as its members were called 

 POPULISTS, this name was hit IT. in common use, 

 applied to the party. It result rd from the 

 union of the several organizations which had 

 od as the result of unrest among the peo- 

 ple. As a consequence of the unsettled state 

 in which many questions of national policy 

 were left after the close of the War of Seces- 

 sion and the natural reaction from the inflation 

 of war times, agricultural interests experienced 

 a prolonged season of depression. This led to 

 the formation of a number of farmer organiza- 

 tions, such as the Grange movement of 1867 

 and the Farmers Alliance of 1879, whose object 

 was to improve the condition of their members. 



As a large element in these various parties 

 believed that the ills from which they suffered 

 were the result of mistaken legislation, they 

 sought to remedy the trouble by taking an 

 active part in politics. Some labor organiza- 

 tions, notably the Knights of Labor, .were also 

 thus attracted to the farmers' movement. The 

 result was the organization of the People's 

 Party, that being the name adopted by a con- 

 vention of delegates from these different bodies 

 that met in Cincinnati in 1891. The following 

 year the party formally organized for partici- 

 pation in the national campaign, and state or- 

 ganizations were also perfected. James B. 

 Weaver of Iowa was the party's nominee for 

 President. 



The most important planks of the platform 

 adopted were those relating to finance. In gen- 

 eral terms, they favored the free coinage of 

 silver and a great increase in the issue of paper 

 money by the government and its distribution 

 directly to the people without the intervention 

 of national banks. This implied more direct 

 contact of the people with the government, in 

 which the government should accept real es- 

 tate and nonperishable farm products as se- 

 curity. In addition, they adopted a number 

 of planks, not peculiar to their party but fa- 

 vored by a large element in both the old par- 

 ties, such as postal savings banks, government 

 ownership and control of public utilities, and 

 the election of United States senators directly 

 by the people. 



The net results of the fall election showed 

 that the new party had won an important po- 

 sition in the United States. It polled over 

 1,000,000 votes, securing twenty-two Presiden- 



tial electors, five senators and ten representa- 

 tives in Congress, about fifty state officers, and 

 over 1,500 county officials and state legisla- 

 tors. But that was the hiirh watrrmark of its 

 achievement. In 1896 and 1900 it accepted as 

 its nominee the Democratic candidate for Presi- 

 dent, William J. Bryan, but nominated its own 

 candidate for Vice-President. In 1904 and 1908 

 Thomas E. Watson of Georgia was the party 

 nominee, but he received only a few thousand 

 votes. The party gradually disintegrated as 

 the issues on which it was based were pushed 

 aside. The question of free silver had ceased 

 to be an issue in American politics, and the 

 other planks in the platforms have been 

 adopted at various times by the Democrats 

 and the Republicans. The labor wing has 

 partly united with the socialists, while the agri- 

 cultural section has been absorbed by the two 

 great parties from which it was drawn. O.B. 



Consult Woodburn's Political Parties and Party 

 Problems in the United States; Peck's Twenty 

 Years of the Republic. 



Related Subjects. The reader is referred to 

 the following 1 articles in these volumes : 

 Bryan, William Political Parties (sub- 



Jennings title Political Parties 



Grange in the United States) 



Greenback Party Weaver, James B. 



PORCELAIN, pawr'selayn, or pawrs'layn, 

 the name applied to those varieties of pottery 

 that have a glasslike appearance. The word 

 comes from the Italian word porcelanna, mean- 

 ing cowrie shell; the latter is the name of a 

 shell bearing a close resemblance to the white, 

 glazed surface of this ware (see COWRIE). Por- 

 celain is made from a variety of clay called 

 kaolin (which see) and feldspar, or a clay con- 

 taining a small amount of silica. The processes 

 of manufacture are the same as those employed 

 in making other varieties of pottery (which 

 see). The Chinese inverited porcelain, and it 

 is from this fact that porcelain is called china, 

 or chinaware. They are known to have manu- 

 factured it as early as 1000 B. c., and they still 

 continue to make the most delicate and highly- 

 prized wares; they are able to produce color 

 effects which Western makers cannot equal. 



The manufacture of porcelain was intro- 

 duced into Europe in 1709, when a factory was 

 established at Dresden by royal decree and 

 placed under the direction of Johann Bottger, 

 chemist to the elector of Saxony. This was the 

 beginning of the manufacture of the famous 

 Dresden china which has become a favorite 

 ware throughout Europe and America (see 

 DRESDEN CHINA). 



