The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1890-11-20
WASHINGTON LETTER.

s.-a.es--a...H,-. -.,ss.a....--~s
WASHINGTON LETTER.
If His Health Permits Jim Blaine
viii be the StandarG-BearevO OF
the Republican Hosts i'll 1892
-McKinieyism Alone He
SpOnSible for the Demo-
cratic CyciOne-TVill the
Party Managers Take
Warming?
Union Special Correspondence.
WASHINGTON, Nov. II, $780,
The election has shown that Jim
Blaine had more sense than any of
the Republican leaders, either in
or out Of congress. The Ameri-
can people generally credited
Blaine with being an able states
man, and for many years a large
ma jority of Republicans have
tIamored for his nomination and
election to the presidency. The
Republicans in 1888 falsely listened
to the clamor of certain Mug
wumps who had crept into the con-
vention, and did not dare to give
Jim Blaine an unanimous nomina-
ton for president. Defeated by
an accident in 1854, the country
was deprived of his services, and
so in 1883 he refused to become
leader unless assured that the
divisions in the party would not
compass his defeat. And yet to-
day he stands out solitary and
alone as the only man with whom
the Republicans can win, and the
only man who is left untarnished
in the political wreck Of November
4th.
When Jim Blaine went before
the ways and means committee of
the house of representatives in
February last, and urged the seven
Republicans on that committee to
embody into the tariff bill some
thing to redeem it from it's iniqui-
tious provisions, he was thrust
aside, and practically told that his
days of leadership we've at an end.
1t was believed that his scheme of
reciprocity was intended only to
make him personally popular with
the people, but in going before
this committee he offered to Nc
kinley an opportunity to embody
in the bill the only thing which has
been at all accepted by the Ameri-
can people. Blaine would not
have been known in the matter,
and Mckinley could have had the
credit of it. It was an entirely
selfish proposition for the secre-
tary Of state. Mckinley, who was
candidate for president, refused
to be convinced that the people
desired anything less than higher
protective duties. After the pro-
visions of the tariff bill became
known, and when the bill was
pending in congress- Jim Blaine
wrote a letter to senator Frye urg-
ing that some measure of reciproc-
ity be engrafted in the tariff bill.
e No proposition before congress ex-
cited such favorable comment as
this one made by Blaine, and the
universal demand of the people
and press Of the country compelled
the Republican senate to accept
reciprocity, and compelled the Re
publican house of representatives
to accept the amended bill.
It was the fault Of Reed, Nc
Kinley and other men connected
with the tariff bill that the reel
procity clause amounted to nothing
anyway. and it was put in as a
sop to the Blaine Republicans.
The blind followers of Mckinley
ism in the fifty-frst congress more
than once rose up and denounced
Jim Blaine, saying that he de.
sired to wreck the party. In point
of craftsmanship he was all along
a giant, where they were pigmies,
and the elections have left him the
lone survivor Of the Republican
leaders, and the only available can.
dictate for the presidency in 1892.
80" . -----., =" ~ t.s.
F.. It is, of course, question
whether Blaine's health will allow
him to make the race. Some peo.
pie believe that he is not in any
sense candidate for the nomina.
ton, but that he will devote the
next two years Of his official life as
secretary Of state to building up