The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1896-03-28
NJ AJOR HAN b B S VIE VS.

MAJOR HANDy S VIEWS
ORION. the New Sfolssk Mail and Expressly
FoRsPREsIpENT. Waf. MCKINLEY, Of q
Ohio. 5 I. - -t7s' .. {
FOR VICE-PREs1DENT THIos s. REED,
! oI Maine
| a good many people whomaI meet think
THAT this will he, or should be, the win
| ming ticket at st. Louis, and consequently
! IN November.
l. OF course, neither MI. Reed nor any
body connected in a responsible way with
! his presidential canvass will now admit
| the possibility, or rather the practical
bility, o. such combination. That is all
right. Nc man of the real yice-presiden-
| iial calibre has been an avowed candi-
Gate for the rice presidency for many
years. There is an affectation Oh the
part of public mel that to avoW will
| ingneSs to make the second Office IN the
| gift of the people Of the United States Is
| to acknowledge untitness or unavilability
for the first. 1t is high time to knock
this fallacy, which is of comparatively re-
cent origin. on the head, and to stop the
practice, which has at times proved de-
structive of public interest, Of leaving the
vice presidential candidate to be an aft
er-thought, settled too often by the dele
! gates who may happen to be LETT In ma
tional convention after the work which
all consider of prime Importance has neen
done.
Why should Mr.. Reed, or Mr.. McKin-
ley, either, for that matter, hesitate to
take an Office not despised by John
Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Aaron Burr,
John C.. Calhoun, Martin Van Buren,, Mil
lard Fillmore, John Tyler, John c.
:Breckinridge, Hannibal Hamlin, schuy~
Ter Co,fax. Andrew Johnson, Thomas A.
Hendricks and Levi p. Morton, to say
nothing of William A. Wheeler, Chaster
A. Arthur and John A. Logan! several
of these great men found the vice presl-
dental Office stepping stone TO the pres
idency, and the idea that to accept II is
to be, side-tracked in craftsmanship is
nreposterous. do not believe either NC
Ktnley or Reed honestly shares any sucn
notion, and il either Of them declined a
nomination for vice president, he would
simply sink in the public estimation from
the level of his present estate III states
manship.
Apart from the question OF the success
sion of the highest Office, Mr.. Reed is the
best man in the United States for the
presidency of the senate. He is the mas
ter parliamentarian of the world. 1t is no
him that we owe the fact that the house
of representatives is a working body, ana
not a, debating society. He has the abll-
ity and the tact to bring like order out
Of the senatorial chaos which today has
earned the contempt of the whole coun-
try. and which, if not reformed, will,
sooner or later, result in the election OF
senators by the people instead OF by the
state legislatures.
Mckinley and Reed! That is the ticket
to do the work that this country requires
at both ends of Pennsylvania avenue.
Of the making of estimates there is no
end. All of the politicians and journal
lists, professional and amateur, seem to
be figuring just now as to the Distribution
OF votes between candidates for president
in the ST. Louis con vention. Some taples
presented are the result OF honest work
and observation without effort to bring
foreordained result. Others are mani
fest attempts either to boom Mckinley or
magnify the prospects of the field Others
again are such blind guesses Of ili-1n-
formed correspondents that one wonders
to see them pass editorial muster and ap-
pear in the columns of a great newspaper.
Nothing could be more preposterous, Tor
example, than the continual assignment
to this or that candidate Of the Whole
votes in block of great state, or even
sections. like New England, which noto-
riously and according to returns already
received, are divided in their preferences.
Until lately, while regarding Mckln-
leys nomination as assured, nave
thought his nomination would not take
place until the second ballot, But, going
over every state with care, comparing
claims, weighing probabilities, looking az
movements going on below the surface
and giving the ground swell for Mck1n-
lev its natural effect, I have come to the
conclusion that the first ballot will make
him the nominee Here is the way fig
ure it out: