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2 Conservative.
The su (1 (1 o 11
GOVKKNOIl
death of the Hon
orable Roswell P.
Flower , formerly congressman , and also
a governor of the great state of New
York , removed from earthly activities
a typical American citizen.
The editor of Tin : COXSHUVATIVI : had
known Mr. Flower long and intimately.
As natives of Jefferson county , N. Y. ,
holding the same political views , and
cherishing many mutual friends they
had become fast and sincere friends.
As host , in his own home , assisted by
his faithful and devoted wife , Mr.
Flower appeared at his best. Genial
and generous , unpretentious and gen
uine , he attracted and charmed his
guests with the delightful simplicity
and naturalness of his engaging man
ners. He made every guest feel at
home , at ease and unrestrained by the
mere forms of social life.
His rise in the world of wealth was
phenomenally rapid oven for an Ameri
can. Under a social and political sys
tem which lets the best man win , Mr.
Flower began life as a farm laborer at
three dollars a week. Down at Flower's
Mill in Theresa , Jefferson county , he
did all sorts of honorable and hard man
ual labor. Thence ho went to Water-
town , the county seat , and clerked at
five hundred dollars a year in the post-
office and at the end of six years had
saved a thousand dollars which he with
care invested in business. From , that
date until the day of his death his life
has been politically , financially and
socially a complete success. Along his
pathway he has flung good and kind
acts without number. Pie has helped
all who were trying to help themselves.
He has built public roads and given
them to Watertowii. He has erected
churches and schools in commemora
tion of his worthy father and good
mother. Ho has been a public benefac
tor. His memory will dwell forever in
families whom he has helped and the
whole public will recall him as an honest ,
ff patriotic citizen who esteemed the wel
fare of his country above mere
partyism.
A recent number of The New York
Evening Post remarks :
"Tho sudden death of Roswell P.
Flower will bo lamented not only in this
state , of which he was once the governor -
nor , but by the better part of the dem
ocratic party throughout the Union. In
the last presidential campaign ho sur
prised his critics ( of whom The Even
ing Post was 0110) ) by the independent ,
manly , and very able speeches which ho
made against the nominee and platform
of his party and in favor of sound
money. Governor Flower's argumen
tative efforts had a tolling effect by
reason of their intrinsic merits and of
his prominence in the former councils
of his party. Very few such examples
are found. They betoken high moral
courage. Each one is a patriotic exam-
pie. Governor Flower's course in this
behalf was so bold and outspoken , so
free from cant and self-seeking , that
even the Bryanites were compelled to
respect him. Although Cleveland and
Carlisle , Palmer and Buckner , and even
David B. Hill ( who did not distinguish
himself in that campaign ) came in for
volleys of abuse , Governor Flower was
treated with courtesy , which was by no
means the silence of contempt , since all
the accounts received of his speechmaking -
making tour agreed that it was very
effective , especially among the farmers
of the "West. For those reasons we can
not allow the earth to close over Gov
ernor Flower's remains without a sin
cere tribute to his memory. "
At Kansas City
NATIONAL t ] 15fch d
POPULISTS.
o
there gathered the members of the Na
tional Reform Press association and
the national executive committee of
the populist party of the United
States. These two organizations
worked together as harmoniously and
patiently as a team , of well-broken
mules. The political mule is a
cross of the crank on either democratic
or republican partyism. of twenty years
ago , and is called a populist.
Mr. Frank Birkett of Okolona , Mis
sissippi , the president of the press asso
ciation made a red hot speech against
democracy and republicanism. He evi
dently has been a very perverse and mal
ignant member of one of the old parties
and obviously reasoned from introspec
tion when he , in the tones of a foghorn ,
remarked :
"Years ago the destructive policy of
the republican party and the deceit and
treachery of the democracy , who , pre
tending to oppose republicanism before
the election , always betrayed the trust
reposed in them afterwards , created the
necessity for a new political oreauizn-
tion , which should take the constitution
as its guide , 'equal rights to all and
special privileges to none' as its slogan
and devote its energies to the restoration
of the Union as it was and the people of
all the states to that prosperity which
their indefatigable industry and the
blessings of God on their labors merited
and received before the two old parties
had succumbed to the corrupt and cor
rupting influence of plutocracy. "
How is that for high art in oratory
and long breath in sentences ? Every
idea evolved by the brain dynamo of
Mr. Birkett is sentenced for twenty
minutes and manacled with a weight of
verbiage equal to chains of iron.
"Why did the old parties , right at a
time when the slogan of equal rights to
all and special privileges to none and
' 'indefatigable industry" and "tho bless
ings of God" were mixing together in a
paint of indissoluble prosperity with
which every domicile in the laud was
about to bo smeared , go and "succumb"
-to the corrupt and corrupting influ
ence of plutocracy ? "
Brother Birkett , why will you relate
the woes and disasters of the two old
parties as detrimental to the country
when out of them was evolved populism ?
What greater boon could hnvo been
given the republic than populism and its
prophets Donnelly , Bryan , Watson ,
Sowall , Jerry Simpson , Calamity Weller
and Marion Butler ?
Brother Birkett modestly proclaims
and admits himself one of them : "Many
of the purest and best men in the
old parties had noted the trend of politi
cal events for many years , but hoping to
be instrumental in purifying the party
of their fathers , spent their early man
hood in the work of reformation inside
the party , but finding all their efforts
futile , they were reluctantly impelled to
abandon old affiliations and lend their
energies and abilities to the organization
of a new party , which would honestly
contend for the true interests of the
"
masses.
Inside the parties to which they be
longed these great and good men were
as ineffectual for reform as a dose of
liver pills in the bowels of the earth.
With their fingers in their pockets , with
melancholy in their minds , and a vital
and well-defined hope of future offices
burning in their souls saith Brother
Birkett :
"Moved by the most unselfish and pat
riotic motives , believing implicitly in the
_ correctness of their
, , ,
„ „ . . .
The People's Party. . ,
principles , firmly
relying in the justice of their cause and
trusting in God for a favorable result ,
these men met at Omaha July 4 , 1892 ,
and organized the people's party. If the
necessity for organizing such a party
existed in 1892 , the necessity for its per
petuation exists now. If the principles
avowed at Omaha were correct in 1892 ,
they are correct today. If the evils of
which we complained in 1892 existed
then , they have been intensified since
that time.
"Sad experience has demonstrated
that fusion with the democracy in Kan
sas and Nebraska
Tearful Times and wjth the re.
in Ni-brahUa. . . . . . . . . . . .
publicans in North
Carolina means the speedy disintegration
and death of the people's party , if longer
continued , and it requires no seer to
comprehend that the time has arrived
when crimination and recrimination
among populists should cease. Let the
dead past bury its dead and let us re
form our lines , in the middle-of-the-road ,
for a united and harmonious effort in
1900. "
If the dead past can secure a disinfect
ant of sufficient strength to permit the
burial of the de-
Middle-of-the-Koad. . .
composing e 1 e -
mouts referred to by Mr. Birkett with
out general nauseation of the public
stomach THE CONSERVATIVE trusts that