The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1896-05-20
A BRIGHTER OUTLOOK
FOR THE DEMOCRACY IN THE CON-
ING PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN.

1
ING PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN.
The Columbia State Thinks it has Good
Chance of Winning on Silver Platform
with a Candidate to Match.
COLUMBIA. S. c., May 16.-The fol,
lowing editorial appeared in The State
Of Friday morning:
The States says that 1t tries to be
practical and it endeavors not to waste
time in arguing things assured or things
impossible Does The State mean to
say that it regards 16 to l silver vic
tory possible2 Does it dream that
Democratic candidates on a 1t to /
platform can be elected2 Does it for a
moment imagine that free silver senti-
ment will prevail in the two houses OF
congress or in the White House after
the fall elections? Is it practical or
possible to defeat the Republican
party by appealing to the sllverites2'
Charleston Evening Post.
We have been waiting for just these
questions, and we had the answers
ready in advance.
To begin with, our contemporary, by
some effort of the memory, will recol-
lect that this silver argument was lot
of our seeking; indeed, that it was
forced on US. Up to several weeks ago
The State had contented itself with oc-
casional comments on the progress OF
the monetary mpaign, maintaining,
as it had done for over year, that the
silver cause would win in the national
Democratic convention. This was on
the line of either current information
or prophecy, as you please to call it.
1t was not propagandism. We did not
care to argue a question which we
knew was settled, so far as this State
was concerned, and that we believed
was settled, so far as the national De-
mocrscy was concerned-frst, because
it was useless; second. because it might
have looked like rather cheap bid
for popularity. But Honest Dollar, "
and The Post and the Greenville News
and "Civis" and so forth rained ques-
tions on US which we felt constrained
to meet-and so we were forced into
argument.
Il amt so fond Nv bettin'; but new
er let a banter
Bluff me, while I've hoss, flesh that kin
walk or run or canter.
This disposes OF the charge of argu.
ing thing assured" !"
As to the thing impossible" The
Post asks us if we believe "a 16 to 1
silver victory possible.
Certainly There are few, if any,
impossibilities in politics. When the
people get an idea into their heads
that they are beng wronged they re-
verse their votes with great facility.
This newspaper has fairly success
full record as a prophet OF national po.
litlcal results. In 1892 it predicted
Cleveland's nomination on the first
ballot; likewise-at the time of the
conventicn-that he would carry Hi
nois, Wisconsin and other Western
States on tidal wave" and that the
Ohio vote would be very close. 1t
based that judgment on the popular
dissatisfaction with the Mckinley tar.
itf. In 1894 it predicted Republican
tidal wave. Cause. the panic, dissatis-
faction with Democratic bungling and
a reaction toward McKinleyism, as
policy too quickly condemned. A
year ago it predicted for this year a
Sharp silver and gold issue and a sill
yer victory in the national Democratic
convention, and a bolt; likewise a
straddle by the blican convention.
Opinion based on popular disgust at
the bond sales, the Presidents policy
of gold monometalism, and the furore
for Coins Financial School, and
other silver literature. We do not
assert positively that Democratic can
didates on IL to l platform will be
elected" but we emphatically assert
that this is year OF another reaction
and of an enormously increased oppo-
sition to gold monometalism.
The south. which is suffering less
than any other section, owing to the
increased self-reliance Of its farmers
and the large profits On the last cotton
crop, is for free silver anyhow. The
west is worse off. and is more than
ever for the white metal. Even in
States heretofore considered as doubt
full, the bad condition of business, the
tightness of money, the ABSENCE OF all
the blessings promised as a conse-
querce of the repeal of the Sherman
act, promote dissatisfaction with the
gold standard and warn us OF impor-
tant changes. The people generally
have lost their patience to such an ex-
tent in the last few years that their
disposition is to turn suddenly and
fercely upon the authors of any lesis-
lation which they believe to be mimi
cal to their interests Party ties are
looser than they have been since Mon,
roe's day
Whether silver will win the Presi-
dency depends upon several questions.
One is how Mckinley and his platform
ca a be made to fit each other. II the
Democratic convention, as we antici-
pate, shall declare for free silver and
nominate silver man, and if Mckin-
lev shall hold TO his financial straddle
and have straddle platform; then we
think that the fanatical gold men, Re
publicans and Democrats, will COM
bine on ticket of their own, and sill
yer will surely win. Otherwise, it is
impossible to predict the result with
assurance.
One thing is certain; the Democrat
ic party, with free silver as its issue,
will be in far better position than it
occupied few months ago, wnen it
had no issue. It's condition seemed
hopeless then. Nobody would have
bet ten cents on its success as it stood.
There could rot be safer time, from
a party standpoint, for trying an ex-
pertinent with it.
The Post asks US if we ''for mo-
ment imagine that free silver senti-
ment will prevail in the two houses of
congress after the fall elections 1t
rrsvoi1s in the senate now anC there