The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-10-25
MIXED IN MONTANA
rHE MOUNTAIN STATE APPEARS
INCLINED TO Go AGAINST
MKINLEY.
COMPLICATIONS NUMEROUS.
POPULISTS AND DEMOCRATS MORE
VOCIFEROUS IN CLAIMS OF
SUCCESS.
REPUBLICANS WORKING HARD
And Chairman Hershfeid Thinks
the Mckinley Electors May Have
Majority.
Sneclal to the Globe.

Will know this fall was held and the
fifth ticket was placed in the field The
Prohibitionists will not claim much
public attention this year, however, for
there are issues that far surpass
theirs in the public mind, and
issues over which the contest
has already been waged more than a
month. For this is the most exciting
campaign the people of Montana have
ever known. There are more conflict
ing issues within the parties, and more
men trying to harmonic them, and
more who are willing that they should
remain as they are and are striving to
add to the discord in the ranks of the
opposition, than ever before since Mon
tana was first named and made a terri
tory.
The tickets Of consequence in the field
In the state are the Democratic and
Populist, both containing the same
names, owing to an agreement for fu-
sion reached at the recent state con-
ventions; the Republican, and the "sil-
yer Republican" The latter is in name
boiling party from the recent Repub-
lican convention. Both the Republican
wings agreed on the state ticket. but
the silver men retired when the time
came to nominate congressman and
electors and to adopt the platform
Then tthey nominated the Bryan elect
ors already chosen and selected Charles
5. Hartman, who walked out of the ma
tional Republican convention, for con-
gresham, and rounded out their work
by the adoption of free coinage plank
In the platform. The remaining Re-
publicans adopted a sound money
plank, nominated electors for Maj Nc
Kinley and selected o. F. Goddard, of
Billings, for congress. That completed
the list Of tickets, and when the Nc
Kinley wing of the Republican party
of Montana adjourned the campaign
was fairly on.
BOTKIN'S QUEER STAND.
Seldom in the history of the country
has there beeHsWi messed a state ticket
In the position of this Republican
ticket. It's candidate for governor, I'M
like John Boyd Thatcher, of New York.
proposes to stay where he is, whether
he agrees with both the platforms or
not. The silver Republicans helped to
nominate Col. Botkin, and they in
dorsed him as a body when they met
as separate .conv entfon.- SO he is run
ming on, two platforms, one declaring
Tor free coinage at the ratio of 16 to
|, and the other reaffirming the ST.
Louis platform. The plan was one de-
vised month before the convention,
known as the Butte conference plan.
1t was Intended to obYiate the necessi-
tyafor q split IN the party that would
be5ta8aE to Its chances to elect the
stats low twas successful
will be- told after the election in No
vember. 1t is hard to reconcile two ele-
ments so utterly unlike each other. and
the evidence of their lack of harmony
with each other was made to appear
more plainly at the last meeting of the
state central committee Of the regular
party, at which there was present a
representative of the silver wing. its
chairman, United States Senator Lee
Mantle, who sought to have it stipu-
lated that in the conduct of the cam
paign hereafter there should be an ut
ter enforcement of the state and ma
tional campaigns, and that neither
should the efforts of the officers of the
committees. nor any of the funds be
used to further the interests Of any but
the candidates for the state offices. He
did not say where he expected the
money to come from that would be nee
essary for the routine expenses of a
candidate for president Of the impor-
lance of Mr.. Mckinley, either. The
agreement was made that for the pres
ent that condition would prevail. and
there will be future conference. But
1t Will strike the citizen who has seen
some of politics as being a little Pc
culiar that stipulation should ever
be made within the committee of
great party that none of the efforts it
puts forth shall be in any sense direct
ed toward the election of the head of
the ticket in the nation. who gives the
party its national existence.
SENATOR MANTLES TERM
in the United States senate exniras IN.
two years more United States Senator
Thomas H. Carter has four years of
official life before him. That is in
teresting when it is compared with the
relative positions of the men in this
campaign. Senator Mantle was a NOV
Ing spirit In the silver end of the late
convention. He read a letter in which
he advised the Endorsement of the
Bryan electors already named. He
read 1T himself, while letter written
by Senator Carter and forwarded TO
the convention by trusty messenger.
was suppressed because it advised that
the delegates stand by Maj. Mckinley.
1t is to be concluded that Mr.. Mantle
has what he considers a pressing cues
ton before him, while Mr.. Carter is of
the opinion that ere a whole four wears
have come and gone 1t will be better
to have been on the other side in the
long run. There are other differences
between the leaders of the party. too.
Ex-United States Senator Thomas G.
Power was elected treasurer of the
state committee by the convention. but
as soon as he heard of it he resigned.
There is no love lost between Mr..
Hershfield, the chairman of the com
mittee, and Senator Power, and the
personal enmity between them has
gone to the extent of Senator Powers
refusal to touch anything with which
Mr.. Hershfield Is connected, although
he is thoroughly in sympathy with the
national ticket and would like to see
the Republicans come out victorious In
the state.
Still, it is conceded that there have
been great changes in the political SEN
tinlent Of the state since the national
conventions were held. The day after
the nomination of Mr.. Bryan one could
not have found credence for a predic-
ton that the Mckinley electors would
receive more than 1900 votes. There
are some men in the eastern part of the
state, who were then In favor of hold
ing a convention to nominate electors
for the national nominee, but they were
not then very numerous or very talk
at.ve. Now 1t is different The Me-
Kinley men showed up wonderfully
well in the state convention, consider