Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1896-06-18
WASHINGTON LETTER.
FROM OUR REGULAR CORRESPONDENT.
WASHINGTON, JUNE 18TH 1896.

All eyes are turned to St Louis.
Most of the eyes familiar in the political
haunts of Washington are at st. Louis.
But the p-edominance of convention
talk has caused no great dearth of Cos.
zip among the stay-at-homes at the
Capital. The political and news pot is
now kept boiling all the year round in
Washington. The Capital City is al
ways ready to serve tea to guests from
the national populsce. And the pot
merrily boils whether or not Congress
has said au revoir, and even if there is
a great rival function in the shape of a
national political convention. The whirr
and buzz of the nomination machine at
St. Louis has directed the thoughts OF
the thoughtful again to the fact that
Mr.. Cleveland has not yet said anything
of what he is expected to say apropos
of his relation to another nominating
machine at Chicago. He has up to this
time maintained a majestic and tran
ouil silence under the most persistent
efforts to make him speak on the subject
of third term. He has withstood the
siren sweetness of the Pennsylvania
statesman, Hon. VIM. F. Harrity; he
has been dumb in the alluring presence
of Hon. Wash. Hessing's whiskers; he
has borne with stoicsm the daily up
braidings of important portions of the
democratic press. Just at this time
pretty much everyone would like to
know what the President himself thinks
about this matter.
"The enormous waste Of money" in
cidential to our quadrer NAL political
campaigns is once more the subject of
solemn discourse among the amateurs.
According to these authorities, millions
upon millions OF dollars will be wasted
by the people Of the United Slater in
deciding who shall be the next president
and what party shall control the 55th
Congress. The WASTE" they say, has
already begun at st. Louis. Other ma
tional conventions will continue the
waste until all the tickets are nominated
And then will begin the grand carnival
of waste on every hand and i'll every
State. If it wese true that the money
which changes hands by reason Of
campaigning was wasted, and that the
time DEVOTED to politics was thrown
away, there would be good reason FOR
crying out against such folly. But is
it true? None Of the money expended
is destroyed. 1t is simply circulated.
Most Of it is contributed by those who
have much, and goes where 1T is needed.
The renting of halls for meetings, the
hiring of "spell-binders," the printing
of campaign literature, travel, the en-
ployment of brass bands, the getting up
of parades and other demonstrations all
cost money but they keep the currency
in motion. There are some influences
Of campaigng that are not good, but in
a country whose government rests on
the ballot, and where suffrage is almost
universal, political excitement is neces.
sary, is wholesome. Indifference on the
part of the masses would be infinitely
more dangerous than any degree of ex.
citement that has ever been witnessed
In any of our Presidential years.
Comptroller Eckels has gone to Chi
cago to confer, it is said, with the Off
Gals CT a prominent financial institution
with view to accepting leading po-
sition at the close Of the present admin
istration. This gossip leaks out through
the officers of the institution and does
not come from Mr.. Eckes himself. 1t
is certainly highly improbable that so
faithful friend and 30 DEVOTED an ad-
mirer will desert the President for any