Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-03-30
FIGHT OF THE SILVER MEN
Effort Being Directed to Capturing the
Next President.
Two Plans, One of Which VIII BE
Probably Adopted When the
Time Comes.

It is not probable that when the time
comes around for a presidential campaign
Mr.. Sibley. who has been named so far in
advance by the ''Bimetallic League" will
take the field as a candidate Of the silver
men,. The silver leaders desire. If possible,
to avoid the necessity of organizing silver
men into the third party, and much work
is being done to that end. The action OF
the Bimetallic League In starting an organ
izltion Is not antagonistic to the general
plan Of working as far as possible within
the old party, but Is expected to fit in ex-
actly with the general scheme. There is an
extraordinary activity among the silver men
at this time, and much more even than the
public conceive Of is being done in prepara-
tfon for the struggle OF '06.
Effort to Reach an Understanding.
An effort Is being made to in some way
reach an understanding between the lead
ing silver republicans and leading silver
democrats whereby they will unite In sup
port of the candidate of either Of the old
parties which shall select a free-coinage
man for candidate. or to bolt from both
parties II they both adhere to the gold
standard policy. They have become con-
vinced that the plan Of the anti-siiver men
Is to practically abandon all effort to con-
troll Congress in favor of sound money and
to devote themselves entirely to the pro-
curement OF President to succeed Mr..
Cleveland who will stand In the way of
silver legislation for the four years follow
ing '96. Unless the silver men have In the
Fffty-f1fth Congress a two-third majority
IN both houses, an antt-silver executive can
as enectually prevent silver legislation as
could majority Of sound money men in
Congress.
Fighting to Secure q President.
Recognizing this situation the silver
men propose to begin now the fight to se-
cure the next President. It is pretty gen.
orally understood among the leaders that
they are not to be Influenced by their party
associations to support any candidate
whose position on this question is not en-
tirely satisfactory to them. A great many
informal conferences which have been held
led to this determination, and the first
manifestation Of the firmness Of the repub-
Hcan silver men will be when 1t comes to
reorganize the committees of the Senate
If 1t were necessary in order to accomplish
what they want in this reorganization 1t
is believed that they would ignore entirely
the republican party and associate them
selves with silver men of any party to ef-
feet the reorganization. 1t is not believed,
however, that such course will be neces-
sary, since the anti-silver republicans will
probably be inclined to satisfy their de-
mandS.
Two Courses to Pursue.
II the silver leaders can accomplish an
effective understanding among their peo-
pie in both parties, they will probably de-
vote their efforts to the accomplishment of
what Is desired through the medium of the
old party conventions-one or the other.
If both Of the old parties fall to fully
recognize the silver sentiment. both In the
platform and nomination, there are two
&C curses which 1t Is proposed to pursue.
One Is to select as a silver candidate on an
Independent ticket some free coinage man
who Is both prominent and influential in
one Of the old parties, and who has not
heretofore gone of on any side issue, or
been suspected Of weakness of loyalty to
his party. The other proposition is to
name no candidate. but to vote for indie
pendent electors in each state pledged, on
assembling In the electoral college. to vote
for some man for President who can be re-
lied upon to loyalty support the cause of
the free coinage Of silver at a ration of 1G
to 1. In some states these Independent
electors might be chosen by republican
votes. and in others by democratic votes,
but when the electoral college met, all,
whether. democrats or republicans, would
unite on a free coinage man for the presi-
dency. regardless Of the old party nomina-
tions.
It is said that the silver men will not be
satisfied with the nomination of either
Reed, Mckinley, Harrison or Allison.