THE BATTLE OF THE STANDARDS 185 



concentrated its energies on preventing the nomi- 

 nation of Arthur Sewall of Maine, the choice of the 

 Democracy, for Vice-President. The convention 

 was persuaded, by a narrow margin, to take the 

 unusual step of selecting the candidate for Vice- 

 President before the head of the ticket was chosen. 

 On the first ballot Sewall received only 257 votes, 

 while 469 were cast for Thomas Watson of Georgia. 

 Watson, who was then nominated by acclamation, 

 was a country editor who had made himself a force 

 in the politics of his own State and had served the 

 Populist cause conspicuously in Congress. Two 

 motives influenced the convention in this proce- 

 dure. As a bank president, a railroad director, and 

 an employer of labor on a large scale, Sewall was 

 felt to be utterly unsuited to carry the standard 

 of the People's Party. More effective than this 

 feeling, however, was the desire to do something to 

 preserve the identity of the party, to show that it 

 had not wholly surrendered to the Democrats. It 

 was a compromise, moreover, which was probably 

 necessary to prevent a bolt of the "middle-of-the- 

 road" element and the nomination of an entirely 

 independent ticket. 



Even with this concession the Southern delegates 

 continued their opposition to fusion. Brvan was 



