Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-02-18
TALK WITH MORRISON.
Views of the Distinguished nlipci.ian Upsn
Various Matters cf interest,".
ssf3nfh~ an a. r..ul-.x


ones mind quickly settles upon Morrison Of
Illinois, who has been long in the public sight
and, more than any other western man. has
been the formulator OF a standard democratic
policy, uniting in himself something Of the
qualities Of Seward and Weed. having the
reasoning nature OF Seward and the personal
and power 20 keep In the rear.
which was perhaps too much attributed 40
Thurlow Weed.
The western nature OF Mr.. Morrison Give.
genueness 70 his positiveness; he hss q dem
ecrAae daily life and a Somewhat aristocrasie
mentality, BY which BE- cordially has you 70 un-
derstand that he is not with you on your prop
osition, but means you no harm. Sincerity ulti-
mately wins both respect and popularity. and the
young men. when out Of HE reach, sometime.
fondly refer 30 this now veteran public man a.
bill Morrison. He has had so much % DO
with the secret arrangements Of party and con-
grt-sional policy-those arrangement. which
go further back than even the csucus-thst il 10
seldom convenient for him 20 be reported.
thoagh have known trespassing in this respect
10 be passed over by him without other admoni-
ZION than not 90 do il the next time. In an En-
petimental way L set down parts OF late talk
had with him, rather 10 see how IL viii looa
when exposed 90 the air
q
AS q railroad commissioner for some time
past one would have Thought that the fnrnerp
IN the Illinois legislature would make you their
No; by kind Of general consen, Gen. Pal
mer has been our candidate. He IL seventy
five years old. but has many excellent traits
and he IA the present Representative Of the
party. You have seen a letter suppose from
me intimating that be ought not 20 emhsrrass
,he democratic party In the Legislature II some
one else could ne elected. I wrote that in an
swer TO letter. with no idea Of its being pub
hshed The newspaper men. however. are
adroit, and IL they hear of anything seldom
rest till II Is in their possession. Had de-
sgned that letter 10 influence events I would
nave phrased II more carefully. These dead
locks IN the Illinois legislature are no new
things. Several times in our history a small
combination. like the anti -Nebraska democrrts
have been able 20 elect q senator like Trum-
bull even over Logan and Lincoln. In tina,
way Judge Davis came 20 the Senate. \
was the caucus nominee Of the denecrst,c
party just after Cleveland's Inauguration, and
ought TO have had i02 votes; the republicans
also had 100. This Mr.. Streeter whom the
three alliance men are now voting for was then
IN the legislature. and the speaker was prob
sblya Fsrsell man at bottom. while others
had some OF the Chicago members who had
been picked M without much care. The conse-
quence was that / could never get the whole
democratic vote; streeter brought about 500
votes 20 several thousand democratic and had
come 20 the legislature, IL was supposed. ne a
democrat. bat he stood of. and 80 did one or
two OF those Chicago fellows. / wanted the
admin stration TO give me some help, and left
springfield TO come TO Washington. The
lntimation has been made 20 me that could
have tho mission TO Austria. but that did not
want; wanted post Office or two. something
which would help me in my contest out there.
While was gone one Of our democratic menu
bers died. and the republicans rushed in and
made a determining effort aud elected his sue
hat x-.t..a a
was elected. forgot TO say that Mayor HarrI-
son OF Chicago had been our candidate for
governor that year, and he rather expected
that the senatorial nomination ought to be his,
and had that TO contend with"
You were saying just now" said Mr.. Morri-
son, that my position on the interstate rail-
road commission might have advanced me with
the farmers am from among the farmers
and my sympathies are with them, but can
not persuade myself to adopt many Of their
temporary views for relief. 1t is not in me.
and am getting too old TO prevaricate 1
could not go with them on the greenback ques-
ton, and was almost the only democrat in the
west who did not take that course. Upon the
tariff question insisted upon a positive posi-
ton being adopted by us when il was thought
very foolish TO tamper with such great inter-
est, and this interest at last, as you NAV re-
member, caused my defeat for Congress.
Nevertheless, my views were made mp, and
am satisfied with what has happened Even
upon this silver question am not mp with
some democrats or TO their lengths. I am
not certain that we can raise silver ~ q man
raises himself by the straps Of HE boots,
hguratively, to q value il the world will not
allow it. II We were TO hold the election nov,
and go to the country on that question we
might carry the whole south and Indiana and
| think We might stop right there. In the rail-
road issue both sides demand too much; the
railroads, as / have said, disobey the law and
cheat each other, and vet they won't tell The
farmers, on the other hand, from the nature of
their experience, consider the railroad lust M
they themselves employ . farm hand. A man
will come along and want 20 hire, the farmer
will talk with him half a day as 10 whether he
shall have Si4 or Sls a month. In that way he
thinks he can hire q railroad. forgetting that
money has TO be advanced TO operate that con-
Germ IL is not an inexpensive quantity; be-
hind il are investors, themselves entitled 70
justice much the farmer. for many Of
them are plain people. The railroads, how
ever, are very unmindful Of there investors,
and in their boards Of directory do pretty much
as they please"
There seems TO be little doubt Of Cleveland's
nomination.
..oh, it looks so. You would be surprised to
find how strong Cleveland il among the demo
cratic people. The republicans have no candi-
date in sight, though they have many able men
who do stand out with the clearness Of Cleve-
land"
How did he come to be an anti-,ariff or
revenue tariff man.
well / do not know. Perhaps he studied it
for himself. For some time after he here
we could make no impression upon him On the
subject. suppose that, like the New Workers
in general, he did not care much about this
tariff. Ii is very hard TO make those people in
New York hold that this is much Of subject.
l believe that the President tried Randall on
that issue and Randall refused 20 60 with him.
He then went il alone. When he came out
there was nothing he left unsaid which We
is q man of hard head, hardly tractable, but he
crossed much, and therefore 1 have
thought that Carlisle might be put on
the ticket with him next time for the
vice presidency, for while Carlisle il q man Of
sublime courage he 10 not quArreisome, rather
acquiescent. His courage il upon the forensic
occasion, and he has the gift Of reasoning in
the highest degree. do not know whether
you know Rand Tucker or not; he was Que Of
those fellows who could not help putting his
arm around you. Carlisle, Tucker and myself
by some kind Of affinity drew together
and We went together. We had all made M
our minds on the subject of the tariff. IL was o
hard question 70 get 1t. The polite, wise men
of the party thought il was too hard Q QUESTION
10 sssail. Cleveland approached it IN . con-
scientious way, and, II they may call him
convert, he took the lead at last in deesr-
mined and efficient manner. IL threw hum, but
the issue remained, and spite Of IT, the way
seems still clear for his coming forward"
do you anticipate that the Mckinley bill
viii have some courSe before n n chanGed
"Yes, / think IL will have probably some
time 10 operate; We have the next House
- 80 e~~.1