Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1896-06-25
WASHINGTON LETTER.
rrom our reruIsr oorrespondent


For the eleventh time the repre-
.ontatiyes of the republican party
80 assembled in national conven-
~ formulated platform of princi-
nles and nominated presidential
ticket. There are no new departures
IN the platform, it is merely a reiter-
ation of doctrines which have given
NE country its longest and greatest
neriod of prosperity. While, of course,
- ticket could have been nominated
hat would not have disappointed
.ome good republicans, certainly no
hotter ticket could have been named
.han the one that was named.
Roth these gentlemen have records
(which the party has right to be
nroud, and of which it will be prouder
atter they have served out their
terms as president and vice-presi-
dent.
There was only one regretable feat
nre about the st. Louis convention.
That was the boiling of some of the
silver republicans, because the finan-
cial plank of the platform did not
meet their views. 1t is hoped
and believed that those gentlemen
and those they represented will, be-
fore the campaign has advanced far,
zee that they will gain nothing by
leaving the republican party, and
that in the end they will be found
supporting the ticket nominated at
st Louis. Political parties are neces-
sarily ruled by a majority, and those
gentlemen were overwhelmingly de-
feated in the convention. If the
minority in every convention bolted,
political parties would soon be moth
inc but factions. Stick to your party
and hope for better luck next time
is always the right thing to do.
4 counterpart of Comptroller Bow
Ier, in the person of Sixth Auditor
Howard, has been making so much
trouble by holding up postoffice ac-
counts that it is said Postmaster Gen.
eral Wilson has notified Mr.. Cleve-
land that if Howard isn't fired he
will himself resign. The clerks in
sixth auditors office, commonly
called Botany Bay are much in
terested in the outcome of this squab-
bic They hate Howard, who is
fussy, self-consequential sort Of
duck, but, of course, do not dare to
say so publicly. But Howard has
pull" somewhere. He was made
chief clerk of the postoffice depart
ment by Mr.. Bissell shortly after he
became postmaster general, and was
later promoted to be sixth auditor.
This position is under the treasury,
but it is said that Mr.. Cleveland APP
pointed Howard without consulting
Secretary Carlisle.
Mr.. Cleveland's announcement
that his only desire hereafter is to
be a private in the democratic party
Is regarded as a sort of last ditch ex-
pedient to prevent the adoption of
free coinage plank by the Chicago
convention. 1t may have that result,
but the best informed democrats in
Washington doubt it. Some time ago
senator Brice begged Mr.. Cleveland
to make plain announcement that
he would not be a candidate for the
democratic nomination, and it was
because of Mr. Cleveland's refusal to
DO SO that Brice abandoned the fight
he had intended making against the
silver democrats in Ohio, and told his
irends that he didn't care CONT
Mental what Ell her Cleveland or the
Chicago convention did. So far as
Mr. Cleveland's announcement re-
lates to third term nomination for
himself it is absolutely meaningless,
ana was entirely unnecessary. The
democrats had themselves already
made it SO plain that he who ran
could read that Mr.. Cleveland would
hereafter be only a private in the
party. In plain English he has sim
Ply declined something that he had
oeea convinced that he couldn't get,
Just as Jack did his supper in the
nursery book.