152 THE AGRARIAN CRUSADE 



will push the work of organization and education 

 in every county in the Union. " There were those, 

 however, who believed that the new party had 

 made a great mistake in having anything to do 

 with either of the old parties, that fusion, particu- 

 larly of the sort which resulted in combination tick- 

 ets, was a compromise with the enemy, and that 

 more votes had been lost than won by the process. 

 This feeling found characteristic expression in an 

 editorial in a Minnesota paper: 



Take an audience of republican voters in a school- 

 house where a county fusion has taken place or the 

 press is full of the electoral deal and the audience 

 will applaud the sentiments of the speaker but they 

 wont vote a mongrel or democratic ticket! A wet 

 blanket has been thrown! 



"Oh," says someone, "but the democratic party is 

 a party of reform!" Well, my friend, you better go 

 down south and talk that to the peoples party where 

 they have been robbed of their franchises by fraud 

 and outrage! 



Ah, and there the peoples party fused the republi- 

 cans ! ! ! 



Oh whitewash ! Where is thy lime-kiln, that we may 

 swab off the dark blemishes of the hour ! ! Aye, and on the 

 whited wall, draw thee a picture of power and beauty 

 Cleveland, for instance, thanking the peoples party 

 for all the favors gratuitously granted by our mongrel 

 saints in speckled linen and green surtouts. 



