Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-06-16

sentiment was perceptibly concentrating
around Reed for . long and bitter fight,
carrying the convention over to next week.
With gold personiied in Reed and McKtn-
| ley forced into the attitude Of directly
antagonixing gold, it might even have en-
dangered McKinley's nomination as COM
pletaly as he holds the convention now.
Lodge has shown himself q great leSder
in direct and daring assault, and he sSIc-
ceeded In convincing Hanna that the fight
was going to be serious IL he continued to
| hold out against gold. Therefore, the Nc
kinley people decided that the most inn
portant thing was to hasten the conclu-
sion and get their man nominated while
| they had sure thing Of 1t.
The trouble in the Missouri delegation on
acc cunt of the dissatisfaction Of the friends
! OF Filley; the threatened assault Of the
| A. P. A. on Mckinley. and. above all. the
temptation to which the southern delegates
| were subjected in being lined up with the
| anti-Mckinley people on the gold question.
| all admonished Hanna not to unnecessarily
prolong the fight. The object Of all this
demonstration by Lodge was simply to get
| gold into the platform. He knew before he
came here that the time had passed when
| something might have been done to save
Reed. His object has been to make Mr..
Hanna understand that the Reed people arc
| not SO hopelessly crushed rot to be dam
| gerous. and he made a very successful
blum. An agreement has been reached, and
| 1t is generally conceded that the following
| financial plank will be adopted:
The republican party il unreservedly for
sound money. 1t caused the enactment Of
| the law providing for the resumption of
| specie payments in 1879; since then every
| dollar has been as good as gold. We are
unalterably opposed to every measure cal
| culated to debase our currency or impair
| the credit Of our country. We are, there
| fore, opposed to the free and unlimited
coinage OF silver except by International
| agreement. and until such an agreement
can be obtained we believe the existing
! gold standard should be preserved. We ia
| vor the use of silver as currency, but to
the extent only that its parity with gold
| can be maintained, and we favor all meas
| uIes designed to maintain inviolably the
| money of the United States. whether coin
! or paper. at the present standard, the
| standard OF the most enlightened nations
of the earth. J. p. II.
| DISTRICT AFFAIRS AT ST. LOUIS.
The Petition for Increased Repre-
scntntiOn Laid Aside.
/
| ST. LOUIS, June 1.-THE District OF CO.
| lumbia delegation occupied the attention
OF the national committee yesterday after
noon and occasioned some irritation. The
result of the deliberations was that the pc
tition for additional representation was laid
upon the table. thereby debarrins the peti-
TONERS from the right TO appear to the
| committee on credentials.
| The question came up by Chairman Car
| ter laying before the committee the petition
| for the admission Of the four additional
delegates. At the same time Mr.. Carter
submitted a printed pamphlet, which was
| in full as follows:
The attention Of the committee is re-
| specially invited to the following CORES
| pondence relating to the election Of dele
gates in the District of Columbia, and to
the recommendation and evident necessity
| for a change In the rule of the national
| convention governing such elections. These
letters are published. by permission Of the
| writer's for the Information of the COM
! mittee and the convention:
| March s. 1895.
Hon. Thomas H. Carter. chairman national
republican committee.
Dear Sir: have the honor to report that
the board Of elections authorized by the
I
| election Of delegates and alternates from
| the District Of Columbia to the national
| republican convention to be held in St
Louis. June Is, 1896. composed of Andrew
| Gleeson. Perry Carson and myself was or
| ganized by the election Of myself as presi-
\ dent and William Knox Brown as secre-
| tary.
The election took place on the 18th of
| January, 1896. and resulted in the election
| ION the face Of the returns) OF Andrew
| Gleason and Perry H. Carson as delegates,
| and VIM. F. Thomas and J. W. Bell as al
| ternates. Twenty-three voting precincts
| were established, with three judges and q
| clerk to each precinct. You are well aware
| that the right Of suffrage in the District of
Columbia is not exercised. and. therefore.
there are no laws regulating the ballot
| The board did not deem 1t wise to direct a
registration OF votes to prevent fraudulent
and oft-repeated voting. since no penalty
| could attach to repeating, and no arrests
by the police could be made therefor. The
board could make regulations such as To-
| eating the precincts, fixing the time ap-
pointing the judges. ETC.. but it was power
| less to prevent fraud. The election, there
| fore, amounted to little more than q farce,
| In several Of the districts, notably the
| tenth, more than one thousand irregular
| votes were cast. 1t is beyond question that
| several men voted over twenty times each:
how many did this will never be known.
| One man voted eight times at the same
| precinct before he was detected by the
Judges. He said he accomplished this by
changing hats each time. Men driving
along the street were stopped and inpor-
tuned to vote; even boys voted in many in
stances. For nearly a year prior to the
election Of delegates the coiored people
commenced to hold meetings. As the time
approached for holding the election, meet.
ings in various sections Of the city would
be held each night, the excitement develop.
ing into riotous proceedings requiring con.
slant attendance Of the police to proven,
bloodshed and murder. Not one meeting
was held by the white republicans, and
only a few dozen took part in the election
Under these conditions, 1 submit that q
|: q =