The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-06-22
SENATOR QUAY'S CANDIDACY.
Ieustls, in Philadelphia Inquirer.

thority of Senator Quay that he would
permit his name to be used as candidate
for the presidential nomination. Only u
few days previous he had told me that
the presidency was the last thing desired
by him. He said that he could not take
the office If given him, for 1t would Kill
him. But he changed his mind. In mis-
library in Washington he told me how
that change had been brought about. He
had been importuned by several Of his
friends on the national committee to he
come candidate, and that he had finally
consented.
Then you are in earnest" | said.
II certainly am was the reply. Il
don't believe that l can be nomina ted,
but my friends say that l can be. and |
have told them to go ahead
II h i
"Of course, this means first of all
combination against Mckinley" l sus-
gested.
"Well, now do YOU know that I do not
understand this opposition to McKin-
ley. He and l have been the best OF
friends. l have never been against him,
but my friends tell me that can be nom-
mated. and after all. the presidency would
round out a public mans career. wouldn't
it?"
AS Ire spoke, the recollection came that
only the summer before, just as he was
plunging into that remarkable compa!gn
for the chairmanshio of the state COM
mittee, not because he desired the office,
he had declared that Mckinley was the
strongest candidate. And the recollec-
ton also came of a private conversation
held months before that. when he said
that in his opinion Mckinley would best
suit the Republicans of Pennsylvania.
IN ha nj
twinkled as he recalled the incident, ''the
people have got an idea that they want =
protective tariff. They connect McKin-
ley's name with the tariff. After the Har-
rison campaign, in 1888, there was con-
test for the speakership. Both Reed and
Mckinley wanted it, | went to Mckinley
myself and said to him that the combi-
nation was on Reed, but said, you Will
be chairman of the ways and means conf
mttee, and that committee will be charged
with the work of drafting a tariff bill.
You will give your name to 1t. Do you
know what that means? 1t will make yoI
president of the United States" and the
senator hesitatcd and laughed in his pleas
ant way as he added: "And | came
mighty near being a prophet without
knowing it. didn't I?' He might have
| said, too, that he had urged the same prop
osition upon Reed.
There was a time when Quay became
sanguine that he might be nominated.
| In the midst of the campaign he attend
| ed conference held in New York. There
was a collection of national leaders there,
a collection that in an ordinary year would
have proved invincible. Quay did not tell
me this story, but one of his close friends
who was in the conference did. He said
h,, 10 hnr tbat n,,n
| the most likely candidate to center upon
when the complimentary votes had been
| worked off for the field aspirants. 1t was
argued that If Mckinley was not nomi-
mated at once. the nomination was lost
| to him. After that it would be mere
| matter of the field combining. Had not
| the tariff played havoc with all calcua-
| tions it Is quite likely that Matthew Stan
| ley Quay would today be the Republican
| nominee of the convention instead of Will
| lam Mckinley. He had picked up a
| goodly number of delegates that few knew
anything about There were any number
of delegates ready to go to him upon
an early ballot. With nearly all Of the
| great leaders back of him, the field would
| have made a gallant attempt to center
upon him, and knowing these facts who
can blame him for making q fight for HIM
| self? But Quay, as the campaign prog
| ressed, saw that he had indeed been a
prophet without knowing it when he told
| Mckinley that the tariff bill would make
| him president. He was willing to be
candidate in good faith 50 long as his
prospects were good, but he did rot pro-
pose to make bitter fight after the SEN
timent of the people had been ascertained.
| The day previous to his now famous
visit to Mckinley at Canton he talked
with me very freely at the capitol in
| Washington. / asked him il ne had
| given up the fight.
| "Did you ever see an OK team run away?'
he asked by way of an answer. IF you
| have you know how they go. They get
| their heads down and their horns up. and
! they bolt over stones and logs ard bitches
| and you have got to get out of the way.
| There is no stopping them. Well Nc
| kinley is boiling just like an OK team; he
| has got his head down and his horns up,
and he Is running away with precedents
and everything. He has got away with
me and the rest He will be nominated,
and believe on the first ballot. You cam
| not stop him."
The senator had got his bearings and
he made up his mind that so far as he
was concerned the people should have
their way. 1t was the tariff that nomi-
mated Mckinley. Had he been speaker in
stead Of Reed, and had Reed been chair
man of the ways and means committee in
| stead of Mckinley and given his name to
the tariff bill in 1890. Reed would have
| been nominated instead of Mckinley.
| Sentiment has carried the day and noml-
mated the next president of the United
States. Thus do comparatively small
things lead to greater ones.
| I i Il
And yet there is political side which
| does net deal with sentiment, which had
1t been involved, might have defeated Nc
Knley in spite of everything. The true
test of strength came on Wednesday upon
| the seating of the delegates whose seats
| were disputed. There were 1863 of them in
| all, and fully l2J were seated purely upon
| the whim of the national committee. This
| figure | got from member of the -fia-
tional committee who sat during the dis
| cussion over all of the contests. The vote
in the convention on sustaining the ma
tional committee was 5i5iA out of total
of 9l6, of which 459 is a majority. Now,
suppose the national committee had de-
cided those contests the other way; l25
| from 545 leaves 420, n decided minority
It Is plain, therefore. that the Mckinley
majority was made up from the contested
seats. OF course, after this test there was
n run to cover and everybody who could
do so got in and when the nomination came
| the Mckinley majority ran away ZIP to
| 66lle. But the fact remains that had the
national committee been "stood up" as
the boys say, there might have been a
different story to tell That committee
could have been had very easily and these
contests could have been settled the
other way. In fact the committee natur-
ally was anti Mckinley. There were con-
ditions. SO far as Quay was concerned,
he refused TO enter into them. and whether
Mckinley knows II or not.-he probably
does-he owes his nomination in great
/ measure to Matthew Stanley Quay uf