Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1896-07-02
WASHINGTON LETTER.
FROM OUR REGULAR CORRESPONDENT.
WASHINGTON, JUNE GOTH, 1896.


paign is going to be walk over tor
anybody is either bluffing. mlslnformed
or has short memory for election Zig
ures. Should the Chicago convention
make platform and nominate ticket
upon which the popullsts and silver
republicans can unite with the demo-
Gratis he would be wise prophet indeed
who could automatically say whether
silver or gold would get the most cleo
toral votes. OF course, if there are to
be two silver tickets the success OF the
cold ticket would seem to be we'll nigh
assured.
This is good time to recall some
political facts which show that it has
been hard fighting and the gaining of
comparatively few votes which have
settled each of our last three presld len
tial elections not to mention the contest
of 1876, when it was one electoral vote
and that in such a grave dispute that
it conld only be settled by a tribunal
made for the occasion-the memorable
electoral commission. In 1854 Mr..
Cleveland won by margin Of l2O0
votes in the State of New York, and in
1883 he lost to Mr.. Harrison by his
inability to carry the same State. The
contest of 1892 is frequently called the
democratic tidal wave, because Glove
land got 277 electoral votes, while Har.
rlson only got las, and Weaver %, but
a glance at the popular vote cast at the
election will show that it wasn't much
of tidal wave, but was in reality only
the change Of comparatively few votes,
probably largely caused by men who
stayed at home and didn't vote at all.
The total popular vote was l2,l lO,636.
Cleveland got 5.556,9lS, Harrison 5,l76,
lOS. Weaver l,04l,O28, and BidweIl
64,l33, Clevelands vote was only l3,
6S5 greater than it was four years before
when he was defeated, while Harrison's
vote was 264, 1873 less when he was cleo.
ted than it was in 1892. That shows
what small change is required, if they
are in close states, to make what the
people call tidal wave winning for
either side.
The headquarters Of the A. P. A. have
been moved to Washington and are now
open for business. Among other inno-
vations is the publication Of weekly
A. P. A. organ. Notwithstanding all
the recent talk about the part this
Association was to play in the coming
Presidential Campaign, supreme Presi-
dent Echols, who certainly ought to
know, assured your correspondent in
the most positive terms that the A. P.
A. as an organization, would take no
part whatever in the national campaign
and that its members are free to use
their own Judgment as to the best ticket
to vote. Mr.. Echols is gong on lee
ture tour, as far as Alaska, in a short
time.
The silver democrats who will con-
troll the Chicago convention by almost
if not quite two thirds will have to make
choice between conciliating the popu.
lists and silver republicans and the gold
democrats when they make their ticket.
1t is now admitted by everybody that
the platform will be for the free coin
age of silver. Therefore the real fight
will be over the head of the ticket
If they nominate a man satisfactory to
the gold democrats, it is certain that he
will not be endorsed by the Populists
and Silver conventions to be held at St.
Louis in July, and equally certain that
he will not be supported by the boiling
Silver Republicans, and ii they nomi-
nate man satisfactory to silver men,
Children CYv for