The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-18
CAMPAIGN IN INDIANA
A STEADILY INCREASING TIDE TO-
WARD SOUND MONEY.
Governor Matthews's Fall and Dis-
appoInfment-Farm and Work.
inSmen Becoming Enlightened.

| lie men have had their ups and downs this
| year, but for most Of them there is still
| future; for Matthews it is impossible tc
| see one. year ago he was regarded as
! one of the handful of ambitious Democrats
| who had a pretty fair chance of succeed
| ing Cleveland in the White House. His
apparent soundness on the money question
| while other prominent politicians of his
| own faith were falling away; his splendid,
| stand as Governor for the support of the
President during the railroad riots while
Altgeld in the neighbor State of Illinois
was ranting and foarning at the federal
usurpation which alone seemed capable
of stopping bloodshed and rapine; and his
acts and associations generally were so
eminently respectable that a great many
shrewd men in the West looked up to him
as one of the heirs-at-law of a national
administration conspicuous for it's intelli-
gence, its rare instinct of patriotism and
It's hrmness i'll right-doing against fearful
resentation.
But the story of Matthews was the story
OF Hin retold Trying to tread in foot
patience because the goal seemed stin so
very far off, and when the Populistic
folly at Chicago appeared to offer short
cut, he was tempted beyond his strength
and took it. The result which followed
was inevitable. In the path of rectitude
OF folly was crowded; and by many con
testants more skillful than himself. He
vas quickly worsted in the unequal strug-
gle, and to-day, soured and Disguised
dropped by his old friends and distrusted
py MS new associates, with a blot upon
his record which no lapse of time can eff
race, he is passing ingloriously off the
stage OF national affairs and preparing to
take his place permanently among the
Comment on Matthews at the recent con-
vention in this city indicated that if he
iG
and a lover of law and order, he would
nave been a formidable candidate for the
head of the third ticket; and a man of his
years as well as his career would have
stood in the lead among the candidates of
1900. when the National Democratic party
becomes the only Democratic party. and
the traitors and mountebanks who wrecked
the old organization at Chicago are or
dered to the rear once more. Perhaps, on
the whole, it is fortunate that Matthews
let the country into the secret of his cloven
hoof early as ne did. 1t is now possible
to regard his imputed virtues as a mere
veneer and his further elevation as a peril
happily escaped. man with SO large
of backbone can do less harm in private
life than in the federal executive chair
rid of him before he has had chance at ~f tn
do any serious mischief.
1t was Mr.. Matthews's bad luck to be a
1gureheao in politics and put to the test
at the very outset of the trouble Other
lama Demo rats; of less eminence, were
able to wait till the air n:.s somewhat
behind him and go over to the sound
money money side The OBJECTIONS reached into
the State committee, the county
committees, even into the electoral ticket
itself The whole Democratic organization
in Indiana. in short, has become honey
combed. Some of its most influential mem
berS have stepped bodily out; others re-
main in on the theory that the sane owe
something to the insane, and that the best
way of discharging the obligation is to stay
with them in their wanderings and try to
lead them back when the next lucid inter
val occurs.
WILL COME INTO LINE.
1t must not be assumed that the Demo-
Gratis are the only sufferers from the bat
tie of the standards this season. The Re-
publican farming districts have been in
fected to some extent, and here and there
are found Republican farmers who say
that they are going to change their al
legiance this year by way of an expert
ment. The largest element of these is in
the southern end of the State Expert
ence of former years of upheaval leads to
the belief that a good many of these men
viii relieve their minds with the talk they
are now doing and swing into line again
quiet, but have both eyes and ears open for
all they can read or hear on the money
Intelligent judgment of its merits than they
are now able to form.
In the cities and towns sound money is
more than holding its own. The working
men, at first caught by the glamor of the
idea of voting for a poor mans candi-
date" have. generally settled down to a
common-sense view of their own Interest,"
in a stable currency tremendous vote
for Mckinley or Palmer will come from
this source. AS straw may be cited the
case of one large factory in this city, at
which, before the present business depres-
steadily employed, but where work is now
kept going with five hundred. divided into
two shifts, alternating at half time, SO
that what labor and pay there are may be
made to go as far as possible. These poor
fellows would have a right, of any one has
to feel discouraged over existing conditions
and disposed to vote for a change with
out close discrimination as to the sort of
change involved. So far from yielding 10
selves a few days ago, which shows that
every one of them. Democrats as well as
Republicans. will vote against Bryan. The |
railroad men everywhere in this neighbor- |
hood are organizing meetings among them |
selves and inviting sound-money speakers |
to address them. So strong a set is there |
in the right direction hereab bouts, indeed |
that conservative estimates give Marion |
county to the Republicans by from 700 to |
5000 plurality, though it is nominalIy Der:~ |
ocratic by from 1000 to 1,500.
Two citizens of Indianapolis are in espe- |
cial demand as speakers at meetings out |
side. One of these is John Griffiths who is /
an orator in the rhetorical sense and whose |
work among the farmers in the northern |
part of the State has been so NOTABLE that |
he commands audiences of three and even
i've thousand people. Another, Lucius t.
Swift, more widely known throughout the
United States as editor of the CfVil-service
Chronicle, is a speaker of a very different
sort. He has no flights of fancy; he simply
-alks to his audiences, substantially in the
same tone and manner he would talk to
L gathering of friends in his own library
out he prepares himself with authorities
'or every statement he makes so that to
question his facts or figures is like inviting
L broadside from an old-fashioned three
iecker Mr.. Swift has more demands upon
aim that he can begin TO meet but he stiu
ndulges himself in the uncommon luxury
IF paying his own expenses, is the work he |
Toes is purely a labor of love and patriot
SIN, and he prefers to emphasize its entire
iivorcelnent from party Interest. 1t makes
10 difference to him under what party au-
spices he speaks; his speeches are wholly
lonpartiSan in the broader sense no candi- |
lates name being mentioned except Incl
lentally or where. for any reason he tells
lis audience which ticket he personally ex-
,ects to vote. The independent fashion in !
which he has for years been in the habit of
'oting and the frank way in which he
peaks his mind on all occasions when his
Jews of Individual duty are well defined
las given good deal of weight to anv |
statement he makes to the farmers and
to whom ne is sometimes in
reduced as "a man without a party'-a
uriosity in this politics-ridden State
THE GERMAN VOTE.
Indiana contains. in round numbers, be-