The San Francisco call., 1896-03-16

know the interests of every State. They
know these candidates as well or better
than |. / can only say in broad
terms that hope the Republicans of Cali
fornia and of every other State will send
strong men to the st. Louis convention
unpledged and uninstructed. In Iowa we
never have instructed our delegates. We
did not on Wednesday last. when we
elected our twenty-six delegates to St.
Louis. We do not believe it wisdom for
any State to go to the convention pre-
judged and precommitted. A National
convention is National conference. The
Republicans from the certain States and
the Republicans from the hopeless Demo
cratic States should confer with the Re-
publicans from the doubtful but necessary
States before deciding who will be the
strongest candidate and command the
votes necessary to win. California, great
and splendid State, the Empire State of
the coast, can group about it the smaller
States and Territories around it and go
into the st. Louis convention with power
as great as that welded by any other
great section of the country, if
it shall go unrestricted TO act for
its own interests and for the
interests of the party. California, if
l were free to say it, has been too generous
with its power heretofore. 1t has generally
given 1T freely out of hand, committed
itself to someone, and bravely gone down
with him. and made no terms if it sue
ceeded. 1 am q thorough Westerner; have
enough interest in California and the West
ern and mountain States to wish to see
them bear their part in National politics.
There is no need of State which is
sovereign in the party as well as the Ma
ton giving away its power. California
and its sister States on the coast can go to
this convention, can sit down at the coun-
Gil table, help in selecting the candidate
and help in making the platform, and at
the same time make sure that its power
will be continuing, that it will have a
potential part in the conduct of the cam
paign, that it Will have a potential part
and its own representation in the
National administration if the ticket is
elected. The general Government is more
necessary and more helpful to the new
or Western States than to the Eastern. The
Eastern and Middle States are largely fin
ished communities, and the General Gov
ernment has little to do with them. In all
the Western States, with their resources
undeveloped. with their public works un-
completed, with their destiny as yet
merely hinted at. the General Government
IS more necessary. Take the great ques-
ton of irrigation, which has been sug-
gested to my mind by two or three days.
ride through the desert. Take the ques-
ton of the Nicaragua canal. the fate of
which will be decided for this generation
in the next four years of the incoming ad-
mlnistratloD. These and many other
questions are of vital concern to the West.
The Nicaragua canal means water route
for your people and for Oriental trade
10000 miles shorter to New York. A
Western man, such man as Senator
Allison. who lives on the banks of the
Mississippi River who has aided in the
improvement of that great river until the
sea can bring its ships now to Iowa
towns on the. river. can see that with
this canal and the improvement of the
Mississippi st. Louis for instance, can be
made as good seaport as New York, and
even Chicago, with the Hennepin canal
constructed, can be made as good seaport
as Boston. Eastern men or Presidents
with Eastern sympathies would not strive
to serve this canal and these other i'm
provements as Western men would. A
Western President, fully informed as to
Western needs and ambitions and in SYM
pathy with its people, it would seem to me.
would be far preferable to California and
all other Western States to any Eastern
man."
rs the popular cry for Mckinley not an
evidence OF his superiority as candi-
date?"
"The best answer to that is to cite re-
cent history in the party. | do not con-
cede, however, at the start that Mckinley
has al actual popularity with the masses
of thinking people over either Allison or
Reed. There is an excitement in his sup
port that may be taken for such popular
ity. We have had many proofs in America
that popular idol in a party is generally
the weakest candidate at the polls. A
popular idol always creates faction in
his party. Often it has 80 and even 80 per
cent of the members of the party in it,
but inevitably he always creates faction
of antagon ism, and the smaller this mi
nority faction is, inevitably the more bit