I did not join the Alliance as so many time-servers did; I remained on the outside, but they trusted me so implicitly that I received the solid Alliance vote. How, then, could I walk into the Caucus trap, to be silenced and tied by a majority vote which was dead against the Alliance demands?
During the summer of 1891, I had held a series of great public meetings throughout my District, and these Conventions of the voters overwhelmingly and enthusiastically instructed me to stand by the principles rather than the party, if the time came when it was necessary to choose the one course or the other. Then came the organization of the People’s Party, after it had become plain that neither of the old parties meant to give the people relief.
I went with the People’s Party because my election had been due to those principles, and because the same overwhelming majority of Democrats who had elected me had gone into the People’s Party, and because I had no hope whatever of getting the reforms inside the Democratic Party.
(2) Neither the Republican nor the Democratic party has ever advocated “Government Ownership of Public Utilities.”
In Europe the principle is almost universally recognized and practiced.
Government ownership of Railroads is the rule on the Continent. In England the Imperial Government owns the Telegraphs and Telephones. The Government Parcels Post does the work of an Express Company. Municipal railroads, telegraphs, telephones, lighting plants, water systems, laundries, bathing establishments, bakeries, etc., etc., are in operation all over Great Britain and all over Europe.
We are the laggards, we smart folks of the United States. We are the only nation of civilized cattle on earth which the Corporations find easy prey.
Milledgeville, Georgia, December 18, 1905.
Hon. Thomas E. Watson, Thompson, Ga.