READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



they fell to their natural places until this one stands out more 

 prominently than the rest. Replying to its contemporaries con- 

 cerning the action of the Populist national committee in allowing 

 silver to forge ahead of government railroads and related questions, 

 one of the Populist papers says in an editorial : 



Those who fear a one-plank platform would do well to look over the present 

 and immediate past. They would learn that the contest for the past two years 

 has been waged on the single plank of financial reform. . . . Whether wanted 

 or not, whether urged by special resolution or not, whether deprecated or not, 

 the single plank of financial reform, with free coinage of silver as its leading 

 feature, will be the overshadowing and dominant factor in the People's Party 

 contention until that proposition is satisfactorily settled. We believe in ac- 

 cepting the situation and shall continue to do battle for financial reform in 

 preference to all other demands of the party. 



From this and other utterances, one is led to believe that the 

 question of railroads is not at present so important to the People's 

 Party as the platform would lead one to believe. The currency 

 contest is likely to be long and bitter, and perhaps in the end 

 satisfactory to no one. The Populists have been forced to pay 

 more attention to one issue than another by the conditions pre- 

 vailing at Washington and throughout the country ; and they 

 have been by no means slow to use their balance of power to 

 force attention to their silver views. Silver being an issue unlike 

 the other features of the platform, they have concentrated their 

 forces on the one plank of financial reform and allowed the 

 others to remain in the background. 



VI 

 IS THE PEOPLE'S PARTY SOCIALISTIC? 



From reading the accounts of the various Populist conventions, 

 and the speeches of prominent men in the new party, it has been 

 very difficult to determine whether or not the party is socialistic. 

 The action of the conventions indicated one thing, the speeches 

 another. It is true that the Omaha platform was in existence ; 

 and yet the continued references to other issues than those raised 

 in that political manifesto gave the impression that the planks 



