Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-01-02

POLITICAL MEETINGS
-s----------- s...,f,.-
Two Important Ones Booked fol. This
City This Month.
TIE DEMOCRATS And PlPULlSPS
National Committees of Both Par
ties to Assemble.
W 81 AT MAY RES ULT
W 81 At MAY RES ULT

Two important political meetings are
booked for this town this month. The
democratic national committees will fix the
time and place for holding the next ma
tonal convention Of that party, and the
pcpulist national committee will follow
with a like performance for that party.
The populists have decided to go last, in
the hope Of being able to adjust both their
platform and their ticket to the acceptance
of discontented members of the two old
parties. They are expecting recruits from
both.
POpulist Calculations.
The populist calculation was something
like this: Both the republicans and the
democrats will declare virtually for gold.
The deliverances will be adroitly worded,
but by reading between the lines the true
meaning can be gathered. The republican
job will be the better executed of the two.
That party has the confidence Of the bus
mess world, and straddle from 1t will be
accepted as a harmless bit Of buncombe.
The eest will take no alarm. 1t will con-
cede the necessity of coddling the west
little The performance will carry no
danger. 1t will be sufficient. however, to
keep many of the western silver men in
line. and SO the object of the straddle-the
only object-will be accomplished.
Democrats Can't Straddle Again.
The democrats. on the other hand, will
have very hard row to hoe. They have as
party practically no credit with the bust
ness world. Their divisions all stand plainly
revealed. They won in 1892 on a straddle.
The west and the south were soothed and
enthused with silver interpretations of the
financial platform, while the east was told
that With Mr.. Cleveland in the White House
the party would not be permitted to get gay
Silver in those circumstances could not win.
no matter how urgent and threatening the
south and the west in Congress might be-
come. That straddle won, but that history
cannot be repeated. The east has seen how
very much in earnest the south and the
west are on the silver question and 1t will
be afraid of another deliverance susceptible
IN any quarter Of free coinage interpreta-
ton. 1t will insist on a platform declaring
even more strongly for the gold policy than
the republican platform may do.
Possible Bolt.
VIII the democrats of the south stand
this? They supply two-thirds Of the votes
necessary to the election of a President.
But will they use this power at its full face
value In the national convention? They will
be In the minority there. The east will be
able to dictate both the platform and the
ticket, and the populists believe that this
power will be exercised. Southern demo-
Gratis, therefore,,y win be forced. to a choice
between accepting gold platform, to which
no meaning comforting to them can attach.
or walking out IF the convention. If they
accept the PLATFORM, they surrender the
silver cause; If they bolt the action of the
convention, they must set up for them
selves, or make an alliance with other sup
porters Of silver numerous enough to hold
out the nope of success at the polls
The Silver Democrats.
Assuming a bolt by the southern demo-
Gratis, the populists proceed then to exam
inc the outlook Of those men. What could
they hope to accomplish by simply putting
ticket of their own in the field on a plat
form of their Swn? 1t would be foredoom-
ed to defeat. Some Of the western repub-
hcans would support it, but not in numbers
sumc1ent to insure success. The republican
platform will be constructed so as to hold
the majority of the silver contingent of
That party; Divided action by the friends
pronounced winning for gold under
the banner Of the republicans. The
only hope for silver will be in a union
of all of its friends in support of a ticket
and platform made acceptable to them in
national convention held with that object
paramountly in view, ,.,. 800, :.
The Expected Offer.
At this point the populists. will offer
themselves and their organization to the
cause. A republican ticket will be in the
field on gold platform. The Cleveland
wing of the democracy will be in the field
with a ticket on gold platform The out
and-out silver man will have no snug place
to lay his head, unless he betake himself to
the populist camp. There he'll find hope
and shelter, and the company Of those who
are battling, like himself, for the triumph
OF silver. Why put a second ticket in the
field and label it democratic? What's in a
name, except to prevent confusion? VIC
tory for silver won under any name will be
SyI-n hn rVtCt y,i1NfI
plete in every state and territory, and this
utilized in support of silver ticket would
prevent any delay in the Inauguration of
the campaign. These considerations, and
others. lead the populists to claim that
their national convention next year will be
quite as interesting as that of either of the
two old parties.