The Campaign of 1896 167 



the platform or platforms upon which Mr. Bryan is 

 standing. 



Mr. Watson, whose enemies now call him a 

 Georgia cracker, is in reality a far more suitable 

 companion for Mr. Bryan in such a contest. It 

 must be said, however, that if virtue always received 

 its reward Mr. Watson and not Mr. Bryan would 

 stand at the head of the ticket. In the language 

 of mathematicians Mr. Watson merely represents 

 Mr. Bryan raised several powers. The same is 

 true of the Populist as compared to the Democratic 

 platform. Mr. Bryan may affect to believe that free 

 silver does represent the ultimate goal, and that 

 his friends do not intend to go further in the direc- 

 tion of fiat money. Mr. Watson's friends, the mid- 

 dle-of-the-road Populists, are much more fearless 

 and much more logical. They are willing to accept 

 silver as a temporary makeshift, but they want a 

 currency based on corn and cotton next, and ulti- 

 mately a currency based on the desires of the people 

 who issue it. The statesmanlike utterance of that 

 great financier, Mr. Bryan's chief rival for the nom- 

 ination and at present his foremost supporter, Mr. 

 Bland, to the effect that he would "wipe out the 

 national debt as with a sponge," meets with their 

 cordial approval as far as it goes, but they object 

 to the qualification before the word "debt." In 

 wiping out debts they do not wish to halt merely at 

 the national debt. The Populists indorsed Bryan as 

 the best they could get; but they hated Sewall so 

 that they took the extraordinary step of nominating 



