The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-04-06
WITHOUT PRECEDENT.
Penn" in Philadelphia Bulletin.

Penn in Philadelphia Bulletin.
There are some conditions OF the presi-
dental campaign this year which mark
an almost complete abandonment of pre-
cedents in both parties. The Republican
washouts Of the past three years have
indeed destroyed entirely some Of the
old political landmarks. For the first
time since the war the candidates have all
been brought into the field without any
regard to their states or to their avail
ability" in carrying this or that state.
Some OF the best men, among both the
Republicans and Democrats, were long
practically ruled out Of consideration be-
cause they were not satisfactory to one
or two localities. Hut this year, there
has been an entire letting down Of the
bars the country over to all candidates
who could show reasonable claim to
the nomination. through their personal
merit or their national popularity.
In every campaign in the past twenty
years, or since the White leagues In the
south compelled the Republican party to
put up its shutters in that section. New
York. New Jersey. Connecticut and lndi-
ana formed Il quartette which had to be
deferred to in conventions. and which had
to be carried" at elections. They were
the four states of the north In which
surely on q large majority, and in which
the fluctuations Of public opinion were
generally felt more markedly than else
where. This year they will stand on the
both the conventions and at the polls.
The disntegration Of the solid south. the
shifting conditions of the west and the
sweeping Republican advance since 1892
have lessened their importance and de-
prived them altogether of that dispro-
portionate preponderance which enabled
them to dominate conventions, and which
made them the chief battle grounds Of the
soap collectors and the fat fryers.
If the Democratic \! Il party y of New York
was such an essential that ever since the
time of Mcclellan We have had the singu-
lar spectacle of every one of its candi-
dates-Seymour, Greeley, Tilden, Han
cock and then Cleveland three times
taken from that state. Hancock is not
properly an exception, for he had lived
little in Pennsylvania. was practically
New Yorker when his nomination came
to him. and his afiinities to New York
were of far more consequence than any
year no special consideration is given to
1t by either side. Governor Morton, for
example, old as he Is, would be an i'm
mense formidable candidate If New York
were now doubtful as 1t used to be In
advance of presidential election. But no
as pivot" So far as the Democracy
are concerned the old combination of New
York and the solid south has ceased to
be winner and has passed away for
ever.
Moreover the horror over the idea of
putting southern man on a presidential
ticket has pretty nearly died out. The
mention of Carlisle is no longer an occa-
sion for pulling out the map and showing
that he lives on the lower side of the
Ohio river. The Mason and Dixon line
has been effaced as political boundary.
Six or seven of the states below it--cer-
tainly Maryland, West Virginia, North
Carolina, Kentucky, tennessee and Mis-
souri--are more or less doubtful, and the
most conspicuous and dangerous of all
the landmarks IN national politics In the
past quarter of a century is gradually
out Of sight.
vno old eastern T. ! n rl,l,os,o \ state, never
had much Of a show in Republican con-
ventions. The west, with its boundless
pride and ambition and aggressiveness,
has come to assume pretty much the
same relation to the Republicans that the
south in the slave days did to the DEM
publican candidates after Fremont, who
was a nomad-Lincoln twice, Grant twice,
Hayes, Garfield Harrison-have hailed
from beyond the Alleghenies. Blaine was
held the presidency good deal as the
south did when from Washington to
Pierce or in period of sixty-three years.
the two Adamses and Van Buren, with
the elder Harrison for thirty days, We're
the only northern meIn who were permit
no sign visible that the west will not con-
troll the St. Louis convention this year, if
not absolutely dominate the situation.
Again there are no "barrel' candidates
in the field. Such a spectacle as Alger Of
Michigan. presented In 1S92-a good-nat-
ured, commonplace man, who would never
have been thought of for the presidency
ordinarily, but whose checkbOok with its
retnue of agents.. buffers, subsidized
newspaper men, and all the maintenance
crowd who hover around conventions like
birds of prey scentng carrion, enabled
him to get more than 100 votes at Chicago
in 1SSS-is not likely to be repeated. TIL
den was liberal in this respect, but he was
the ablest millionaire that ever aspired to
the presidency, and he spent his money
with discretion and without serious per-
sonal scandal. No such candidates as
Flower, who in 1884 opened headquarters
at Chicago and obtained four votes after
the expenditure Of thousands Of dollars
on heelers and FOUNDERS with railroad
bills and rum bills have thus far been vis-
BILE. There has never been rich man
elected TO the presidency with the eXcep-
tion OF Washington; there has never been
a rich man even nominated In modern
times by any party with the exception Of
Tilden. and notwithstanding all the clat.
ter about "plutocracy." the chances that
a millionaire can get into the white house
are. after all. as remote as they ever
were.
Il II Il
Again, 1t is questionable whether the
country has not grown SO big and with
politics" taking so vital a hold on the
plain people that it is not becoming more
Vlifiicult for syndicates or combinations OF
managers to have their own way. For
years ago the smashing of the Quay
Platt- -Clarkson combination at Minne-
apolis and the Hill-Brice-Gorman alliance
at Chicago was unprecedented. Up to
that time no candidate who did not have
the good will and support of the party
managers in the chief states or in the
national organization had ever been able
to do what Cleveland did and Harrison
also. although In minor degree. against
their bitter strenuous opposition. The
which everywhere today give
five times as much attention to every de-
tail and ramification of politics. national,
state or local, as they did fifteen or twen-
ty years ago, have made II more difficult
to set up a machine that may control a
party throughout the country as the Vir-
ginia influence and the Albany regency
did in earlier days, or as the Conkl!ng-
Cameron-Logan cabal In our own times
They nominated Grant and suppressed
Liberalism in 1872 with the popular tide
running their direction. or. rather, they
running with II; In 1876 and 1890 they head
ed off Blaine with .he popular tide rum
ming dead against them. The impulse
which In 1892 arrested the progress Of Da-
vid d. Hill and cut him completely out
of a game which according to all the rule
of Hoyle IN politics, he was sure to win
when he had accomplished the feat of
securing sevcnty-two. delegates from New
York unanimous. was communicated 10
the Democratic party by the New York
World In n series OF editorial philippines
that were unanswerablc. The only big
syndicate in sight this year Is the ono
which has laid out for itself the contest
of preventing the nomination OF anybody
else ut st. Louis than William Mckinley,
and there is no longer much room for
doubt that It has turned out to be more
formidable undertaking than seemed pos.
sible when the word was passed around