The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1896-09-25
SHELTON. MASON COUNTY, WASHING
W ashingtOn Letter.
From our regular Correspondent

IudG Is just HOW eAC quOSeiou vi quCe-
tions at every secret conclave held at
popocratic headquarters. Watson is
as autocratic in all his dealings with
the members of the populist National
Committee as Bryan is with the mem
bers of the democratic committee, and
his demand that Sewall be taken off
the Bryan ticket to make. room for
him has reached stage where it can
no longer be ignored The popocratic
managers have got to do something
very soon, and they are at loss to
choose. Their original intention was
to bunco Watson, and there is no reason
to believe that Senator Butler, Chair
man of the Populist National Com
mittee, was a party to that intention J;
but Watson has succeeded in stirring
up the populists in portions of the
South and West to such an extent that
the popocrats have lost their nerve
and are now in doubt about what to
do, and bets have been made that they
will wind up by throwing Sewell over
board. They would probably have
done SO before now, if they did not
hope for lot of Sewall's money, and
if they had not been afraid of its
effect in the East. After the New
York Convention meets, this week, the
last fear will not count. They know
that they haven't ghost of a chance
to carry an Eastern state, but they
want the moral effect in other states
OF declaration in favor of Bryan and
Sewall, by the New York Democratic
Convention.
Good news continues to be about the
only kind received and the Republi-
can headquarters. 1t comes from
every section and indicates that the
reaction against the free indepen dent
coinage of silver at a ratio of 16 to by
this Government is steadily becoming
stronger, even in states into which the
republican managers have sent neither
literature nor speakers because they
believed them hopelessly given up to
free silver sentiment. This is, of
course, pleasing, but no rainbow chas-
ing is being done by republicans; their
efforts are being confined to states
which they have a reasonable right to
believe can be carried by Mckinley
and Hobart.
The calm, dispassionate, legal-ike
open letter which Atty Gen. Harmon
made public several days ago is by far
the most important utterance that
has come from the administration,
against Bryan's anarchistic tendencies,
not excepting the letter from Mr..
Cleveland. Mr.. Harmon's letter deals
exclusively with that clause of the
Chicago platform declaring against
what it termed Federal interference in
local affairs, which everybody knows
to have been aimed at Mr. Cleyeiand's
prompt SUPPRESSION of the interference
with the U. S. mail by the railroad
rioters at Chicago, the most creditable
thing in his administration, and with
Mr. Bryan's pledge not to do likewise
should he become President, and a
! similar state of affairs be brought
about again. The following words of
Attorney General Harmon are worthy
of the careful study of citizen, regard
less of party: "This in my judgment,
is a far more serious matter than the
money question Or any other question
now before the people, grave as they
as they all are. Our form Of govern
ment may survive wrong decision OF
those questions, and the people may
! endure for time the evils which re-
suit from false svstems of finance and
taxation, but if the President has de-
liberately disregarded the instrument
upon which the Union is founded, by
supplanting the authority of a sover-
.eign state by armed force, a precedent
| has been made which threatens our
form of government, while if candi-
date may properly pledge himself In
advance, as Mr.. Bryan has done, to do
nothing to protect the property, main
tain the authority and enforce the laws
of the United States, unless and until
the officers of another government re-
quest or consent, then we really have
no Federal government, for a Govern
ment which is not entirely free to use
force to protect and maintain itself IN
the discharge of its own proper
functions, is no government at all. :
Mr.. Harmon also quotes the resolution
offered in the Senate by Senator Dan
| iels, of Va, who presided over the
Chicago Convention, voted for that
platform and who is now on the stump
for Bryan, indorsing in the strongest
language the Presidents action in
suppessing the railroad riots.
The subsidising Of the official organ
Il 1. -