The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1896-01-22
Warming to the Fray.

the time for the assembling of their
nominating conventions. The state and
district conventions will soon be called
for the election of delegates. The note
of preparation for the great contest is
more distinctly heard, and the question,
Who shall the leaders be? is asked with
a deepening interest.
Whom do Vermont republicans pre-
fer? The man, first Of all, who is the
selection of the party's assembled wis
dom. But the Vermonters are not
without their individual preference.
Ask Vermont farmer who is his pref
erence, aud, mindful of the security he
enjoyed, under the act of 1890, against
the encroachment upon the home mar
ket Of the products of the soil from
above the northern frontier, he will
answer, William Mckinley. When he
counts up the net cash he has after
selling his potatoes at twenty. five cents
a bushel, his oats at about the same
figure, with other products of the soil
proportionally low, he naturally turns
to the name 80 intimately associated
with his prosperity before the disastrous
days of "tariff reform" militant in the
government. Mckinley has a strong
hold on the preference of the farmers
of Vermont, not only as the champion
of their special interests, but by reason
also OF his conspicuously manly and
honorable career. can honest man is
the noblest work of God" The story
of McKinley's private life, as we'll as
his public record, bears in clear, bold
lines this distinctive stamp of high
nobility. From the day when, a boy
of seventeen years, he enlisted as
private in the army of the Union,
standing by the flag till its supremacy
was INDICATED, to his recent retirement
from the chief executive office of the
great state of Ohio, after an admins
tration that recalls the best traditions
of the republic, his career is marked
by high ability, bright honor and true
patriotism.
Another "Man from Maine" has
undeniably, and with good reason, a
strong hold upon the political affections
of the republicans of Vermont. His
career has won for him admirers among
a people susceptible by inheritance to
the homage brave deeds inspire. A
somewhat superficial view of his ad-
ministration of the Office of speaker of
the house of re representatives. in the fifty
first congress would present him merely
as gladiator contending in the arena
for supremacy. The real significance
and high Importance of the battle royal
be fought and won, and the magnitude
of the victory, are sometimes lost to
view in the imperturbable humor and
magnificent poise and skill of the gladi-
ator in meeting and overthrowing his
antagonists. More important victories,
more brilliantly achieved, are very rare
in the legislative history of this or any
other government. The leader in the
contest was not merely powerful and
dexterous gladiator. Other qualities
were dominant. Mr.. Reed was great
as speaker of the fifty first congress.
He was greater as leader of the minority
in the debates in the subsequent con-
crosses. His speeches on the bill to
repeal the Sherman act, and in the long
tariff and financial debates, dispelled
the illusion that he was merely clever
in the employment of wit and sarcasm
and the tricks and resources of parlia-
mentary law and history. The states
man came to the front, and Mr.. Reeds
fame to-day is greater as man of
broad and comprehensive views and
sound judgment on the great questions
OF the times than as a party leader
without peer in the stormy scenes
in the national congress. He would
carry into the White House combine
ton OF qualities that has not been in
the executive mansion since the DAYS
of Lincoln; and they are qualities which
Vermonters would nightly like to see
there again.
Two candidates. could hardly present
wider contrast than those of Speaker
Reed and Governor Morton. McKin-
ley and Reed were comrades in the
great battles in the house of repre-.
sentatives between republication and
the forces arrayed under the banner of
, democracy. 1t is possible to regard
them as rivals but not as antagonists.
Each stands as the personifcation of an
an alert, vigorous, aggressive republi-
, canism, or, what is the same thing,
: Americanism. Each appeals power.
fully to the sympathy and enthusiasm
: of Vermonters. Governor Morton's