The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1896-11-04
BATTLE OF tine BALLOTS.
A Resume of the Conditions Dur
in the Contest.
Contrast Between Two Political Elements and
Candidates-Forecast Of the Future.
Peoples Press Bureau,
St Louis Mo Nov q

Peoples Press Bureau,
St. Louis. Mo-, Nov. 3.
When this letter reaches the reader
the election will be over, the die cast,
and the people of the United States will
know what to expect during the next
four years. All ante-election news will
be of but doubtful interest, and hence,
rather than offer our usual news letter,
we will look back over the last few
months and study and contrast the two
political elements that have made our
country bloodless field of battle.
That McKinley's candidacy was placed
in the hands of an organized syndicate
at the crisis of his financial embarrass-
ment, that this body paid his indebted
ness and took his notes, and that these
same notes were afterward bought up by
Mark Hanna is ancient history. We
have seen syndicates and trusts
organized for almost every other pur-
pose, but presidential syndicate"
was a novelty. The management of
this enterprise having fallen into the
hands of Mark Hanna, that gentleman
began his unique and iniquitOus work
in time. He had but one plan, his
motto was, Every man has his price
uy-buy-buy," and he bought. He
invaded, either in person or by means of
his trusted emissaries, every state. He
dominated almost every state conven-
tion. Instructions for Mckinley were
as openly purchased as if it had been
a stock or real estate transaction. That
there were stronger, better men in the
race, at the beginnin& no one denies.
but the little major, the ex-cook, the
man of one idea, the dstinctively local,
neighborhood man, pulled by Mark
hanna's golden cord, went up the
nominating pole, past all the rest, like
the jumping jack he, has shown himself
to be. This man who had spent all his
life talking tariff, hut whose every
utterance on finance had favored silver,
suddenly lost his tongue, and delegations
in the South and West that would never
have indorsed him rs a gold bug gave
him support on account OF those utter
ances. The Republican convention
at St. Louis was billed to be the greatest
convention in history, but as the masses
of the party saw that Mr.. Hanna's
little man" was sure to win, boosted
interest waned, and the convention
tended, most unenthusiastic, "cut and
dried" meeting of it's kind ever held by
the Republican party. Paid clappers, at
so much clap, and hired rooters that
mechanically yelled INC K--i-n-L-A-Y"
furnished a substitute for the hearty
cheers and eager crowds that had nomi-
mated such men as Lincoln, Grant, and
Garfield. The honest men were filed
with disgust at this un-American meet
ing. The bloated manufacturer, the
bond-clopper, the national banker, with
the fearful and wonderful Hanna at
their head, showed their hands. 1t was
THEIR convention, THE PEOPLE HAD
NOTHING TO DO WITH 1T. The crowd
was apathetic. They forgot to cheer
when their leaders like Foraker and
Depew and Sherman came on the
stage. They even forgot to cheer when
LincOln's name was mentioned. 1t was
a sorry sight.
The only thing that relieved the
monotony for the spectators was Senator
Teller's walk out. However much his
subsequent conduct may be criticized,
his leave taking of the party for which
he had done so much, and the rallying
around him of younger men whose future
was necessarily jeopardized by the act,
was indeed dramatic. He went out fol-
lowed by Kisses of rage. The delegates
were relieved when he was gone; they
showed it. 1t was in the air. The dyn-
amite had been removed, the slow fuse
was put out.
The rest was quickly done. The plat
form, with all it's un-Americanism, it's
falseness, it's daring espousal of a ruin
Gus financial policy, was adopted. The
paid clappers hurrahed. The delegates
sat silent almost to man. The farce
of nominating various "favorite sons"
was gone through, in a perfunctory
manner. Then Mckinley was noml-
mated (). The "rooters" howled and
marched, drank and caroused, then
piled into cheap coaches and were
hauled back. to the destinations that
their furnished transportations indicat-
ed. The one hundred and nineteen pri-
vate palace coaches that had stood in
the Union Depot shed, steamed away
with a silent ease that was but a lullaby
to their opulent owners: They were
content. They had fooled some of the
people some of thss time. They had
forgotten the rest Of 1incoln's maxim.
Lincoln's wisdom and Lincoln's ways
are nothing to the masters in the Re-
publican party of today.
All the world knows of the, gigantic
corruption fund that Hanna began at
once to gather in. Money poured in
upon him. Rockefeller gave $150,00O,
Sage 10000, Carnegiel $1O0, 900, Wander
bilt $12Q, 900, Pullman '$150,O0O. To give
less than $4,000 vas to become a
target for the wrath and ridicule of
Hanna. Thank God, mo honest dollars
went into this .charnel: house of liberty.
No poor, man sent Ills dollar with his
blessing. = 1t has been buy-buy-in-
timidating, scoercing.l But Hanna re-
ceived one shock. learned one lesson,
which was this: There are in America
today many men who cannot be bought,
and who cannot be intimidated or CO.
creed. Out Of every evil good can come,
and this campaign, however it termin-
ates, must teach the American people
that the policy that can build up such
gigantic fortunes, and trusts has Its
murderous hands on the throats Of Lib
erty. II the money power succeeds this
time it will but add to its insolence,
and give them a fancied security from
which they will surely be awakened four
years hence.
In striking contrast to all this was the