34.
What It Means
Source:
Kansas Populist (Cherryvale, KS), February 9, 1894
The organizations represented by the ships in the background already were Populist. The Industrial Legion was founded by Populists. The Union Labor Party and Alliance were forerunners of the People's Party. Most Single Taxers in the South and West supported Populism (although their founder, Henry George, did not affiliate with the party).
In
order to promote a larger coalition of reform interests under the Populist banner for
the crucial 1896 election, the party's executive committee set the date for the
Populist's national nominating convention for late July, after those of the
Republican and Democratic parties. The
Republican Party, which was strongest in the nation's Northeast could be
expected to endorse the pro-Northeast gold standard. Populists hoped that this would cause a bolt of western
Republicans who they could welcome into their party. The Democratic Party, Populists believed, would also endorse
the gold standard. The incumbent
President was Grover Cleveland, a pro-gold Northeasterner, and the party had a
two-thirds rule for nominations that would give pro-gold forces enough strength
to force a compromise on the money issue that many southern and western
Democrats could not accept. They
also would be ripe for recruitment into the Populist fold after their
convention.
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