Evening star., 1896-07-02
MICHIGAN DEMOCRATS
Lively Time in Prospect When They
Go to Chicago
SILVER MEN HAVEBEEH HARD at WORK
Contests to Be Made in Several
Districts.
FEELING OF REPUBLICANS
Specia. Correspondence of The esEvening Star.

Specia. Correspondence Of The sEvening Star.
GRAND RAPIDS Mich, July l. 1898.
The Michigan democrats will have
| merry time in Chicago when the brethren
| assemble in national convention. and 1t is
not at all certain that Don M. Dickinson
and the federal Office holders will have it
| all their own way, they did at the state
| convention in Detroit two months ago.
The silver men carried the caucuses and
| county conventions by large majority,
preliminary to the state convention, and
| were confident that they would easily con-
| troll The state convention that would elect
delegates to the national convention. But
a few days before the convention a post
office inspector. with headquarters in De-
troit, made a hurried tour Of the state,
telegraphing ahead for the postmasters to
meet him at the depot as the train came in.
! He was working under instructions Of Don
| NJ. Dickinson. and the word he passed
around was that the postmasters must turn
| out to support the administration.
Ihey obediently turned out, and instead
| OF having majority in the convention the
silver men found the other fellows In pos
session. chiefly on proxies. The gold forces
elected the four delegates-at-large. and Of
| the tWenty-four district delegates elected
thirteen were for sound money. The conven-
ton, in addition to passing rigid sound
money resolutions, adopted the unit rule.
with the view Of making the state solid for
| SOUND money. The silver men had been
neatly and completely "hornswoggled, ;"
and now they are going to the national
| convention to get even. They will be on
| the ground early, and there will be no
| proxies.
| Since the state convention the silver men
have been gathering affldavits from the
| original delegates elected to the state con-
| ventton and especially from those who
| hot tIA
| nored instructions given by the county con-
| ventions. and instead Of voting for silver
as told to do. they had gone over to the
| other side The seats of the district dele-
| gates from the fourth, seventh and u.u1b
| districts, and perhaps from Others will be
contested on the ground that the proxies
did not obey orders, and with the national
convention in control of the silver men it
| Is confidently expected that the contests
| will stand.
II the contests stand the unit rule impos-
ed by the state convention will remain in
| force. and the gold men will be voted solid
| " with the others for silver
| III the contest does not stand then the
unit rule will be attacked to enable the
| conscience and inclination Whichever wav
| II goes 1t will make merry fight and still
further wreck Don M. Dickinson's Michi-
gan democracy. The Michigan delega ton,
the nomination of Boies. They admire
| Teller, but think he has not been a demo-
crat long enough to be honored with the
| nomination of the party
| Silver Sentiment in Michigan.
The adoption of the sound-money plank
| hy the ST. Louis convention is not unani-
| mous,y approved by the republicans In
| Michigan. There is a strong silver senti-
| ment in this state, engendered. 1erhaps
| py potatoes at 10 cents bushel, and there
IS widespread revolt against the sound
OIor
! openly bolts the platform, although ii has
many words of praise for the party nom
| lhee. and In its course has the warm sup
port OF large contingent throughout the
state.
rev. II any. of the republican papers in
the state approve the financial plank. but
1hey deprecate the course taken by the
Tribune and assure their readers that while
| the plank is not all that could be dcsirel.
yet the grand old party will do what is
right, regardless of the platform. If the
| election were to be held today. the state
would undo lttedly go for silver by an
overwhelming majority; but there Will be
an abundance of time for the educational
process between now and next November
ara republican party managers are hope
| full of pulling through.
Republican Gubcrnntorial Candida tes
The republican gubernatorial candidates
| are siding up on the financial question Col
| A. T. Bliss supports the platform and the
| candidate. Pingree supports the candidate,
but cannot swallow the plank. Aitken is
an ardent believer in silver, but will not
bolt the platform the candidate-at least
not until after the nominating convention,
O'Donnell is on the silver side of the fence,
| and Wheeler is not saying a word. The
candidates are industriously working their
respective bOOmS, getting ready for the
showdown In August.
Some Of their methods are unique Bliss
has literary bureau and a stereotype
foundry in connection with his boom and
he is industriously working both of them
If paper has fattering article for Bliss
it is Immediately put into "boiler-plate
form and sent to the various republican
papers in the state for republication
Pingree is freely making of the state
papers regardless of politics. He is adver-
tsing his make Of foot wear. and the demo-
crat papers are adorned with his portrait
and the merits Of his shoes freely as the
Iepublica an. The advertisements are in two
or three forms. one form having a border
of potatoes around the reading matter.
ODonnell is newspaper man himself
and almost every mail brings to the repub-
lican papers articles telling of his services
to the party and to his country. He frank
ly admits that his services have been re-
warded by eight years in Congress, but he
says that this reward was conferred by
single district, and what he wants is
state reward.
Wheeler is working his boom on the blot
ting pad plan. with an occasional piece of
music or song written by a Manistee singer
on the side. On the blotting pad is map
Of Michigan. with black dots showing
where the has BEEN governors lived,
squares showing where the would be-
governors reside, and big open star over
Manistee to Indicate where the "ought to
be- governor lives.
Harry Conant of Monroe is working his
boom the still-hunt basis, and has
neither literary bureau nor active work.
ers out in his behalf.
Aitken has an advantage over all the
other candidates in that he has Auditor
General Turner his political manager
Turner controls the printing of tax sales
In the country papers. and this gives him
a tremendous leverage with the editorial
minds of the state. The tax sales must be
printed In at least one paper in each coun-
ty and as the job Is worth from $500 to
$l.sOO, depending upon the county, Mr.. Tur-
ner can have pretty nearly anything he
wants. 1t was through Turner'S influence
with the editors that General Alger's eec-
tion as delegate -at-large to the St Louis
convention was made possible, and he is
working along the same lines for Aitken.
Electric Painting.
From the Philadelphia Record.
Electric painting Is the name given to