The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-05-12
Drawing the Line:

Drawing inc LiHe.
Mr.. Platts cndeayor to prejudice the
public against Major Mckinley by III
sinuating that he is in some dark and
hidden way opposed to sound cur
rency and that, if elected president, he
would use the influence of his oiilce TO
unsettle business stability and encour-
age apprehension, is a desperate last
card, the publication of which should
afford to Senator Quay and other form
er associates of Mr.. Platt just oppor-
tunity to part company from nm.
Their fight has not been personal
against Mckinley: it has been simply
political and strategic, without at any
moment including a wish to embarrass
the Republican campaign in the event
of McKinleys nomination. They can
not afford to stand in the light of in
dorsing such a mass of misreDresenta-
tions and such an output of bitterness
as that just fathered by the ex-senator
from New York; and, in fairness to
their friends, more than a small major
ity of whom are also Mckinley's
friends, they should let it be known that
they do not subscribe to any such vici
Gus tactics.
The conversation credited to Senator
Quay in which he is represented as
having recently counseled the with
drawal of opposition to Mckinley as
soon as it should become clear that a
majority of the national delegates ia
vOred his nomination is much more 10
the liking of decent Republicans than
this abusive personal onslaught of Mr..
.Platt. Up to the present, Senator Quay
has taken no step in connection with
the st. Louis convention not wholly
within his right as a recognized leader
of the Republican party. lie had Il
right to prefer Reed or Allison to Nc
Kinley and to work for the success of
that preference He had a right to be-
come a candidate himself and to solicit
the support Of fellow Republicans in
his home state He had a right to try,
by fair means, to defeat Mckinley in
ter's strength. All these things are
part and parcel of the game of politics,
and are duly recognized as such by oil
the candidates who resort to that game.
No objection can be made to Quay for
doing as a political strategist whatever
he could to turn the tide from the Ohio
candidate to some one else. While he
worked along his lines the Mckinley
strateSists We're not idle along theirs;
indeed, recent events conclusively
prove that they had, from the outset
decided advantage.
But there is one thing which no Re-
publican leader Is. justified in doing;
and that is in trying by misrepresenta-
tion and misleading innuendo to COM
promise his party or to jeapord its sue
cess 1t seems to us that it is the
height of impertnence for Thomas c.
Platt TO say that men like Senator
Sherman. General Grosvenor, Mark a.
Hanna and hundreds Of others who
have known William Mckinley inti-
mately all their lives and who of their
own free Will vouch for his integrity
and for his fidelity TO principle are
guilty of falsfication in their repre-
sentations that Mckinley is believer
in the maintenance of Il currency every
dollar of which shall be the purchasing
and debtpaying equal of every other
dollar. MIR. Platt's purpose is not to
save the party from a mistake. 1t does
not need his counsel to preserve it from
that. His purpose is plainly to try to
set the creditor interests on McKin-
ley's heels, in the hope of stirring up
sufficient strife between now and the
ASSEMBLING of the convention to enable
F<hm to manipulate the nomination of q
plant exponent Of the currency contrac-
tionists and bond-shavers of Wall
street who fear that if Mckinley were
elected their grip on the United States
treasury would not be acknowledged
and perpetuated.
1t is despicable purpose, and calls
for emphatic condemnation.