Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-10-04
BLAINE FEARS THEM.
He Is Suspicious of the Canadian
Reciprocity Committee.
HENCE A SECOND POSTPONEMENT
In the Matter of Trade Conference With
the United States.
THE POLITICAL COURSE OF BLAINE

ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DIsPATCH.l
WASHINGTON, Oct. 3.-The action of
President Harrison in suggesting to the
Governor General of Canada that the con-
ference on the subject of trade relations of
the United States and Canada, which was
set. for October IL, be postponed, owing to
Mr.. Blaine's i'll health, has aroused much
comment in Washington. This is the Sec
ond postponement of the conference, the
first having followed the arrival of the Can
adian commissioners in Washington.
Mr.. Blaine's ill-health was one of the
reasons given for the first postponement
also, and the opponents of his nomination
to the Presidency now declare that he will
never be able to meet the Canadian repre-
sentatives or to return to Washington.
Blaine's friends. however, insist that he is
not too i'll to discuss reciprocity or to attend
to other public duties, but that he does not
wish to come back to Washington until
after the regular frost has set in and dlssi-
pated all danger of the malaria, SO prevalent
here at this time of the year.
MANY RUMoRs AFLoAT
But whateveris the real condition of Mr..
Blaine's health, this second postponement
of the Canadian conference has given rise to
rumors of all sorts of a political nature.
The State Department officials profess to
see no particular significance in the Presi-
dents action, but the politicians outside
the department are not so willing to believe
that Mr.. Blaine's illness is the sole reason
for deferring the meeting with the Cana
dians
1t is said that the Secretary has decided
that he will have no conference whatever
1uhi Ia ho q
power, and that the suggestion of postpone
ment really means that all negotiations are
off so far as the Harrison administration and
the existing Canadian administration on are
concerned. Mr.. Blaine, il is said, has often
expressed the belief that the Dominion
Government was not sincere last spring in
their professed desire to study the question
of commercial reciprocity between the two
countries with view to reaching basis
for harmonious and mutually beneficial
action.
USED FOR ELECTION SCHEMES.
He is further reported as saying that the
partial discussion of the subject which did
take place was used in an unfair manner by
the Conservatives in the recent Canadian
elections. In a word, it is said that Mr..
Blaine regards the present ministry with
grave suspicion, and he means to let them
severely alone.
The discussion of any subject with which
Mr.. Blaine's name is even remotely con-
nected, leads also to speculation and gossip
by the Washington politicians and Office
holders as to his future political intentions.
His friends take heart whenever they hear
that he has delayed his return to Washing
ton, for each day that he remains away adds,
they think, to the postponement of the time
when he must inform the public whether he
is to be candidate for President or not.
Blaine's friends, as we'll as his opponents,
are beginning to feel that the day when he
shall return to Washington must be the
day when he will show his hand. 1t is
generally believed that he cannot remain
member of the Cabinet during the coming
winter while the issues for next years
fight are being made up, and allow his
friends to remain at work in behalf of his
nomination.
MUST QUIT THE CABINET.
He must leave the Cabinet soon, it is
thought, or else inform the President and
his friends that he will under no
circumstances be a candidate, and
that he will frown upon the
efforts of his friends to create sentiment
favorable to his nomination. Therefore the
Blaine men fear that should Blaine resume
active duties at the State Department he
will first give President Harrison the
welcome assurance that the track is free as
far as ''the man from Maine" is concerned.
The feeling that Blaine must declare him
self before the meeting of Congress is plain
ly growing, and is reflected by the opinions
of the Congressman and other politicians
who have been in Washington in such large
numbers lately. An opinion that is a fair
sample of this kind is that of Representa-
tive McKenna, of California. who called on
the President to-day California is always
regarded as a Blaine State, and yet Nc
Kenna says that it is absurd to suppose that
Blaine can remain longer in the Cabinet
without giving the President the assurance
that he need not fear him as Presidential
nossihi1itv