HENRY DEMAREST LLOYD, like other advanced intellectual lead-
ers of his day, hoped for great things from the Populist move-
ment. He identified himself with it, fought for it passionately
and courageously, and suffered at its collapse a despair that was
more than the fret of disappointment. Aside from partisanship,
however, he viewed his party as analytically and intelligently
as he viewed the chaotic capitalism of his time. After a prelim-
inary autopsy upon the defunct Populism, he wrote:

The free silver movement is a fake. Free silver is the cowbird of
the reform movement. It waited until the nest had been built by the
sacrifices and labors of others and then it laid its eggs in it, pushing
out the others which lie smashed on the ground. ¹

Looking to Populism for genuine, fundamental reform along
the lines of extensive government ownership and control, Lloyd
deprecated the tendency of right-wing Populists to rely on "spin-
ning-wheel and ox-team remedies" in a dynamo age. He hoped
for the nomination of Eugene V. Debs in 1896. He knew that
the rank-and-file majority of genuine Populists believed free
silver was "only the most trifling installment of reform," or "no
reform at all." It was in them, not in the leaders, he placed his
faith. If there must be a split between free-silver right and anti-

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