The Populists and the 'Single Tax' Movement in Disarray
An account of the Populist party's executive session, featuring internal finger-pointing and failing funds.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The Populist city central committee held an executive session at headquarters in the Hinckley block. There was a fair attendance, about thirty men all told, including John B. Hart, Richard Winsor, and Timothy D. Hinckley. Thomas G. Bevan, one of the manipulators of the Single Tax movement, created a diversion by making an humble apology for ever having left the 'middle of the road' to help organize the histogenetic single tax movement. The well-laid schemes had failed, and their last hope vanished when the Democrats ruthlessly nominated Durie instead of Jordan. He confessed his error and would go from that meeting to the meeting of the single tax men and induce them to withdraw the entire ticket from the field. The chairman brought them down to cold facts by announcing that there were no funds in the treasury and the committee was $50 in debt.
“The chairman brought them down to cold facts by announcing that there were no funds in the treasury and the committee was $50 in debt.”
The Populist and Single Tax movements were powerful populist forces in the 1890s, often struggling with the same organizational hurdles and factionalism that plague third-party attempts in modern politics. The 'Hinckley block' office space echoes the rented storefronts of later activist movements in Seattle.
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