Evening star., 1896-07-04
FEW FIRST CHOICES.
All the Pledged Delegates Hardly
Make Majority.
Snecisl III, na tch 70 The Eyonin1 Star

All the Pledged Delegates Hardly
Make a Majority.
Special Dispatch to The Evening Star.
CHICAGO. ILL.,, July About all has
now been done toward putting up plans
for candidates that can be accomplished
before the mass of delegates arrive. AS
they come in Sunday and Monday the
work OF lining them up will be begun in
earnest. The attitude Of the leaders, who
are the first on the ground. Is pretty we'll
understood. Most of them are convinced
that Teller is the strongest man to NOM
mate. and many working earnestly
but quietly to bring the nomination about
At first this was not realized fully by
the friends of the various candidates. but
they have all come to comprehend the
situation and have become alarmed about
1t. The Bland people are disposed to dis
play bad temper and to refer to the Teller
movement as conspiracy put up in ad-
varce. They contend that the leaders
do not represent the rank and file of the
dele gates, and complain that what they
call the senatorial syndicate Is trying
to run things.
Small Support for Candidates.
A peculiar feature Of the situation is
the very small support that any one of
satisfaction with the whole list Of candi-
dates presented. The Importance Of the
Telle- movement arises not SO much from
a desire on the part of any set Of demo-
Gratis to bestow the honor upon him. but
from the circumstance that no democrat
has yet been proposed for the nomination
who seems to fulfill the requirements Of
the case. There is Q scarcity Of suitable
democratic material. Two sets of men
of the character Of which to make Presi-
dents are barred. The large number of
very able men in the party from the south
still regarded as unavailable because 1t
is not thought that the time has come
when the country will 80 far forget the re-
bellon to place any of its participants
in supreme power. The flower Of the
party Is thus thrown.
The other class upon whom there rests
an embargo are those of the east who
are opposed to silver. This excludes from
consideration q very large number of dts
tingu1shed men, from among whom other
wise splendid candidate might be Sc
lected. Whitney, Olney. Hill. Flower.
Russell. Pattison and many others are
thus blacklisted. With the men of both
these classes eliminated there remained
conservative few who might have been
Gus among these are Morrison, Vice Presi-
dent Stevenson. Matthews and Campbell.
The desperate earnestness Of the contest
has, however. carried the silver forces in
their triumph at the primaries beyond the
point where they can consider any con-
servative man. The feeling has become
30 intense and the lines have been so
sharply drawn that they look with sus-
picion upon any man whose elbow has
not been constantly touching theirs in the
fight
The Three BIS.
Conservatives are classed, without dis
tinction, among the "gold bugs" and the
man who reserved his declaration Of faith
until the battle was won 10 looked upon
as one not to be trusted. The calendar
is referred to in considering such a decla-
ration of faith, and II 1t does not date
far enough back It Is discarded. This
has greatly narrowed the field Of choice.
At the present minute the only avowed
candidates in the field that the mass of
silver delegates are very seriously taking
into consideration are Bland, Boies and
Blackburn-the three BIS" John r. Nc
Lean is not mentioned in this class be-
cause he has not yet appeared here as an
avowed. His possible candidacy Is held
In reserve. 1t Is possible that he may de-
eide on an active canvass and develop into
strong candidate.
In spite Of the fact that the Indiana
delegation are instructed for Matthews and
that they have headquarters opened here
and are working hard for him under the
leadership Of Senator Turpie no one out
eide that delegation appears to regard the
Indianian as among the possibilities. His
pictures hang upon the walls tn the cor