and has more cause to be revenged against the old parties than I. There is danger of those patriotic enough to leave the old parties becoming prejudiced to such an extent as to be controlled by their feelings instead of their hearts and reasons. I believe that this convention is going to do what is wisest. I believe it is going to stand together. It is not going to split. How can it? We split both of the old parties and we split them on a principle. We cannot split, because we all stand for the same principles. And of course a party that has raised up a great principle and split the two old parties is not going to be foolish enough to allow itself to split on method and detail. We will stand together. We will go home from here a united band of brothers. We will strip our coats for the fray and see the millions of organized capital and gold monopoly stricken down in this country. We will do more than that. We will show you that this young giant, the People's party, comes out of that campaign stronger than it went into it. Mark you, the old parties will make mistakes in the future as they have in the past. This party is going to stand ready to hit them and take in their honest men at every mistake they make. We are willing to approve everything right they do, and we will condemn them when they blunder, or when they betray us as they have in the past. Remember that you are People's party men; that you have accomplishd more in four years than the old parties have accomplished in a hundred. Remember that if we do our duty at this hour, the time is not far distant when we will be the majority party in America.

The convention chose for its permanent chairman Hon. William V. Allen, of Nebraska, who obtained national prominence soon after his election to the Senate by a very able speech of fourteen and threequarters hours' duration in opposition to the unconstitutional repeal of the Sherman law. He addressed the convention at considerable length; his remarks are, in part, reproduced below:

Mr. Allen's Speech.

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention: I beg leave to return my thanks for this distinguished mark of confidence and esteem. I assure you that when I came here, and to within a few moments ago, I had no intention of doing more than performing my duty as a member of the delegation from Nebraska. I would greatly prefer to discharge the duties of a delegate from that splendid commonwealth, than to occupy this position, distinguished and honorable as it is. But it was thought proper, by a portion of the delegates present, that my name should be presented as your presiding officer and perhaps it was an evil moment when I consented that it might be used. If I shall be able, in the discharge of the duties incumbent on me as your permanent presiding officer, to satisfy you as well and discharge the duties of the position as impartially as your temporary chairman has, I shall be satisfied with myself, and I feel confident you will be satisfied with me.

On occasions like this it is supposed that the presiding officer will outline the views of the party he represents, respecting the principles and policy it should adopt, and then a speech of acceptance is prepared a week or more

in advance, and spoken as though impromptu. If you had notified me some time ago of your purpose to make me permanent chairman of the convention, I assure you I would have had a fair impromptu speech prepared for the occasion, but you were not kind enough to do that and I am compelled to rely on the promptings of the moment for what I may say.

Let it be understood that we are all Populists. If any delegate in this convention has a lingering suspicion in his mind that the delegates here are not Populists, let him, in a spirit of charity, and in vindication of the truth, abandon it.

I read in one of the local papers that the Populist convention is in this great metropolis of the Mississippi Valley, preparing to die. I have no doubt the expression was prompted by a desire on the part of the British gold power and its representatives on the Republican ticket that the party will perish from the face of the earth, but if the editor of that paper is in the convention tonight and has witnessed these extremes of enthusiasm, these soul-stirring scenes of patriotism, I beg him to modify his opinion respecting the destiny of this great political organization.

In the Populist party we know no section. We know no North, no South, no East, no West. The man who lives on the Gulf or in Florida is as sacred to us as those who live on the borders of the British possessions. The man who dwells on the Atlantic is loved by the Populists (if he be a true man and a true patriot) as much as the citizen who dwells on the shores of the Pacific Ocean.

I thank God it was a part of the mission of this great political party of the people to destroy sectionalism, and as a citizen of Northern birth and raising, I will say in this great presence that I have as profound a respect for the rights and citizenship of the man who dwells in the South as I have for my own or for my neighbors'.

The old political parties have been divided on Mason and Dixon's line. Our fellow citizens north have been told that all that was required for the destruction of the Union was to permit their brethren south of that line to come into possession of the Government, and the same thing, in substance, was asserted in the Southern sections of our country, and during this time, while we were following the banner of the Republican party on the one hand and that of Bourbon Democracy on the other, the gold power of the world, represented by its agents in the United States, was fastening the chains of an industrial slavery on the people so firmly that it will take a generation to strike them off. It was a part of the mission of the Populist party to free the people from the sectional prejudice with which they had become thoroughly imbued, and now we can meet in a great convention like this, representing forty-five States and the various Territories of the Union, struggling and contending among ourselves, in a friendly way, for the mastery, but when the majority shall have spoken, we will bow to its will with a determination to carry it into execution at the polls.

If any one has come here, or occupies these galleries, suspecting that there will be a bolt, let me say to him that he will be mistaken. When every representative and every State and Territory shall be heard, and the result be known and dispassionately considered, I am satisfied I can say for my friends from

Texas and Maine that they will bow to the will of the convention as expressed by the majority on this floor. I do not doubt that in Wall street at this moment there is strong hope that the convention will split and that the party will be disrupted and absorbed by the Republican party, because that is the party that will be supported by Wall street this fall.

Doubtless there are in this building at this moment the minions of Wall street. They have been in the hotels at night clothed in the badges of delegates, and with a lie upon their lips, saying they are delegates to this convention representing some State or Territory. They are not delegates. They were and are the purchased chattels of the British gold power; they are the minions and servile tools of that power that has enslaved the people for a quarter of a century, that would fasten the chains of industrial servitude on us so strongly that we could not force them from our limbs; they are not Populists. But we have been able to discover these creatures. The good sense, the patriotism, the good judgment and the honesty of delegates have induced them to discover and avoid all persons of this kind, and when this convention shall speak and put a ticket in the field, that is to achieve victory in November, these creatures, who prowl like jackals in a graveyard, will go back to their dens, without the fruits of victory, from their mission to St. Louis.

It has been a common expression of our enemies, that the Populist party is a party of anarchists. We have read it in the public press, in that part of the press which has a gold collar around its neck, with a chain attached to it held by the Rothschilds and their agents. We have heard it on the lips of ignorant partisans. We hear it among men who vote the Republican ticket for no other reason than that their fathers voted it a quarter of a century ago. When I first entered Congress it was quite a common thing for the opposition to speak of the Populist party as anarchists, but it is not so popular now. As I understand Populism and Populistic principles, they mean a just, intelligent and enlightened Government, where security is found for persons and property-a Government where every man, woman and child can stand beneath the folds of the American flag and know that their rights are fully protected in their entirety. If any man has come here who wants to destroy the Government property, or who is an enemy to social order, or who opposes wealth in the hands of those who have acquired it by honest means, he will not find a welcome. The Populist party has no place for him. It is not so common now as it used to be, to hear this talk of anarchists and revolutionists. The other political parties are beginning to recognize the inevitable. In the Senate, where we have the balance of power, these epithets are no longer heard, and in those States where we have the balance of power and can bring defeat or victory by our votes we are no longer assailed by opprobrious epithets, but are addressed in courteous language and are frequently asked: "What will our Populist friends have? What do they think of this or that question?"

As we have the balance of power in the Senate and have forced from that body respectful treatment, we may as well possess the balance of power between the Democratic and Republican party in the nation. This consummation lies within our reach. Now, what course shall we pursue, and what shall be done? I see here in the convention several banners on which are the words: "Keep in the middle of the road." I not only want to keep in the middle of

the road-I not only want the Populist party to keep in the middle of the road-but I want it to take all the road and force all other parties out. We must not get into that stupid attitude where we are willing to stand so closely in the middle of the road that others will pass us in the race for success.

No one has thus far defined the "middle of the road." We inscribe it on our banners and yet if you will ask a man for a definition no two will agree. As I understand "middle of the road," it means that the old party methods of corruption, fraud and ballot-box stuffing, which have been resorted to in securing elections, must be abandoned and a course that is pure, that is lofty, patriotic and just shall be adopted. That is "the middle of the road," as I understand it. We will require the exercise of much good sense in our deliberations. We must use common sense in the transaction of our political business, just as a successful business man must apply it in his daily affairs. If we fail to do so, we cannot succeed. Common sense, business judgment and business methods must be applied in politics, as in other successful undertakings.

We have presented to us an anomalous condition. The Republican party has declared, throughout its history, in favor of bimetallism. In 1888 it condemned the Democratic party for an attempt to demonetize silver. In 1892 it declared itself in favor of bimetallism and free coinage of gold and silver and primary money on terms of equality. In 1896 it surrendered its existence, its manhood and all the glory of its history, to the control and keeping of the British gold power and abandoned bimetallism; notwithstanding gold and silver are and have been money of the Constitution from the formation of the Government; notwithstanding the fathers recognized them as money metals; notwithstanding they had been coined for eighty-one years of our national existence before demonetization; notwithstanding the Republican party had declared in favor of bimetallism from the earliest period up to this year. The last convention of that party surrendered complete control of its organization to the British gold power, and now we are brazenly told that we must take the single gold standard, whether we will or not; that we must take it at its abnormal value of 200 per cent.; take it with all the evil consequences of falling prices, enforced idleness and misery among the people. We are told that we must take it because the holders of American securities require their pay in "honest money." Who is the chief representative of that great power on this continent? The man who declared in Congress in favor of bimetallism repeatedly; a modern Napoleon, whose sole resemblance to the real Napoleon we have read of and admired is in the hat he wears. This is the man who declares that silver shall no longer be money of the Constitution. True, he has declared that the demonetization of silver is unjust and that it brought want and misery to the people, and yet, because the Presidency was offered him at the hands of the money power, he has recently told us that the only sound money in this country is gold!

My friends, they tell us that McKinley's nomination was produced by spontaneous patriotism that showed itself in the convention that presented his name to the country. They want us to believe that the people arose en masse and demanded his nomination. Did the farmers and laboring men want his nomination? We have been told that the laboring men and the bankers agreed on that occasion. They tell us that McKinley's nomination was the result of

a spontaneous uprising throughout the continent. Does anybody doubt that the gold gamblers and brokers of Wall street and Lombard street and the high protectionists raised one million dollars or more to secure his nomination? The enthusiasm that was shown on that occasion was a purchased enthusiasm and not spontaneous. The great Napoleon of France; the brilliant son of Corsica, who dazzled the world with his military genius and threatened to change the map of Europe, made a fatal mistake. He made a mistake when he left the province of France and went south of the Pyrenees into the provinces of Spain and he made another mistake when he invaded Russia and was driven from Moscow, with his army broken, if not absolutely destroyed. What is to become of the simulated Napoleon; the Napoleon of Canton? He has made two mistakes that are greater and more fatal than the mistakes of the real Napoleon. When he declared that the only way prosperity can come to the people is by doubling taxation on the articles that they consume, it was a mistake. According to the logic of the modern Napoleon, when you are carrying a burden the way to lighten it is to increase it, and when you are paying an average tariff tax of $3.00 a head, the way to lighten it is to decrease the volume of money and double the volume of taxation. He made another mistake when he told the country that the real road to prosperity lies in a shrinking volume of money and the establishment of the single gold standard as a permanent policy-that was a mistake. The genuine Napoleon who challenges admiration, notwithstanding his mistakes, made one that cost him his life, It cost him the crown of France; it cost him all the crowns of Europe, I might say. That was the mistake made at Waterloo when he met Wellington and the allied forces. Wellington had fought but few battles up to that time. He was comparatively unknown. He had not dazzled the world with genius, but at Waterloo, the obscure man who subsequently became the "Iron Duke" of England, met and overthrew the genuine Napoleon, who was banished to St. Helena and there held a prisoner, losing his life in solitude.

Somewhere in this broad land today, either in the East or in the South, in the North, or on the great plains of the Northwest, will be found a Wellington that will overcome and overthrow the modern Napoleon in November next, and that will be an occasion of great rejoicing among the common people.

I realize that the party stands now at the most critical period of its history. Shall it live? Shall it continue to advocate the great principles of Populism that are as eternal as the rock-ribbed earth and as ancient as the sun? Shall the party continue to exist for the protection of the American home, not only the home found in the palace, but the home found in the hovel as well? Shall the great party that recognizes no distinction between men and women, under a just system of government survive? Shall it, in its second national convention be destroyed, or shall it continue to stand as a beacon light of the libertyloving people throughout the globe? My fellow citizens, it must live. It shall live! We will promulgate a platform and it will be a platform that will embody the best Populistic thought of the country. We have made mistakes before, but they will be corrected, and we will declare to the world that on that platform we must succeed. We will place on the platform as candidates for President and Vice-President, men who will accept its principles, and we will succeed.

There are those who desire us to promulgate a wild platform that will