The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1896-05-16
PLATT ON MCKINLEY.

PLATT ON MCKINLEY.
From the New York sun of Monday.
Ex-senator Thomas c. Plat said last night
at the Fifth Avenue Hotel that it was very
easy matter TO demonstrate that the claims of
Mr.. McKinley's managers that the Ohio man
Is to be nominated right off quick at st. Louis
are all buncombe. Mr.. Plat said that in or
der to prove this it was only necessary TO refer
TO the figures put out by Mr.. McKinleys
friends. and then he made statement OF the
ground of his opposition TO Mckinley, and
the reasons why, in his judgment, another
canidate would win.
.sThe Convention" said Mr.. Plat, will
contain 9l8 delegates. 1t will require AGO to
nominate According to the figures printed
in the Tribune this morning which are not in
all respects in accord with the facts as I'M
derstand them, the delegates instructed tor
Mckinley number 80. This is $50 votes
short of a nomination, and only SO delegates
remain to be chosen. When the time comes
to vote in the Convention Mr.. Mckinley's
support will be little in excess of the number
who consider themselves bound by an instruc-
ton.
"My opposition to Gov. Mckinley proceeds
almost entirely from my belief that he will get
the Republican party into turmoil and trouble.
He is not a well-balanced man of affairs, as
Gov. Morton is. He is not great man, as
MIR. Reed is. He is not trained and edu-
Gated public man, as Senator Allison is. He
is not an astute political leader, as Senator
Quay is. He is simply a clever gentleman,
much too amable and much too impression
able to be safely intrusted with great excel
tive office, whose quest for honor happens to
have the accidental advantage of the assoeia-
ton of his name with the last Republican
protective tariff.
''Mr. Mckinley had really less TO do with
| that industrial law than had either Governor
| Dingley or Senator Aldridge, but simply be-
cause OF his position AS Chairman of the Ways
and Means Committee of the Fifty-hrst Con-
gress ii has borne his name, and there seem
| to be good many people who labor under
the impression that he wrote it line for line,
and that the theory that it embodies originated
in his colossal intellect.
''When National Conventions get down
soberly 10 the work of choosing candidate
they are not apt to overlook the fact that IN
the four months campaign that is TO follow
his personality and his record will be subjected
to the searchlight of hostile criticism. Nor
do they forget that there are two qualities
resolution and conservatism-which the peo-
pie always require in their Chief Magistrate.
! Now, if we Republicans are successful in the
next campaign, as seems so probable today,
there are two great questions, in which are
involved the earning capacity OF every citizen,
| that we shall have to settle. five are to set
tie them without unsettling ourselves we must
settle them for at least a generation to come,
and to so settled they must be settled wisely,
temperately, conservatively. They are the
tariff question and the currency question.
'The American people have shown that
| they don't want radical tariff in any direc-
| 49,, Whit thav do xyant iS a OrOtpctIVp
| if, so devised as to make up taxes on foreign
articles that compete with our own for the
difference between the price oflabor here and
| abroad Mr.. Mckinley represents the most
radical and extreme view of protection. We
must not only draw a bill that can be put
through a Republican Congress, but we must
draw one that will not be open to serious criti-
cism as class legislation. | foresee the great
est dangers to the Republican party rs the
result of extreme tariff legislation. In the
first place, long before the bill has become
law the country will be flooded with foreign
goods which must be sold and consumed be-
fore domestic producers will feel the effects of
the new law. Business will not revive on the
instant that Republican Presidents elected
and during all the period when the new bill is
under discussion, and until the immense flood
of foreign goods has disappeared into con-
sumption, we shall have to defend our meas
ure. 1t should be- therefore, safe, healthy,
and rational bill.
''Fully as important as the Tariff BILL yes,
more so, is that measure which must be de-
vised to render our currency system intelligi-
BILE. safe, and elastic If Major Mckinley
has any real convictions on the subject of the
currency, they are not revealed in his votes
or his speeches. He voted once for the free
and unlimited coinage of silver. He voted to
override the veto by President Hayes of the
Bland bill, and at different times he has voted
in direct conflict with these. He has de-
scribed himselfas 'bimetallist, as in favor
of the free coinage of both metals. His Ohio
platform proposes another experiment in sill
yer coinage such as the Bland Allison act or
the Sherman law, with the parity between the
metals enforced by legislation. This, in my
opinion, should and will remove Mr.. McKin-
les from the list of Presidential possibilities
By the time the Republican Convention meets.
The people of this country have had enough
Of the attempt to force fifty cents worth of
silver into circulation as a dollar They have
suffered incalcuable losses as the result of
twent, years of that policy. | am credibly
informed that the instruction for Mckinley
by the California Convention was obtained
by the promise on the part of his managers of
Cabinet office, and by the further promise
that he would sign any silver legislation that
could be got through the next Congress.
This pledge is safe enough, perhaps, since
the next Congress is not likely to pass any
silver legislation; but the sense of the promise
was an effort by the Mckinley managers to
show that their candidate was friendly
to silver. Every business man knows that
the line has got to be drawn sharply and dis
tinctly against every public man whose words
threaten the country and its business interests
with any further debasement of the currency
or with any more of those losses and sacri-
fees which have followed every effort to force
silver upon the country. The Republican
candidate for President must be man who,
instead of occupying an equivocal position on
this subject, stands out firmly as an advocate
of a sound aud thorough reform of the cur
rency, with gold as the standard of value.
''When the delegates to st. Louis come to
consider these matters their choice for Presi-
dent will not be William Mckinley of Ohio
They are not going to determine the destiny
of their party in any 'hurrah boys spirit. Mr..
Mckinley is still many votes short of a nomi-
nation, and when the delegates get together
and compare notes they viii realize that their
candidate should be a wise, temperate, con-
sentative, educated statesman, with definite
policies, fixed opinions, and safe record.