The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-05-13
PLATTs MIsGIvINGs.
The Ex-Senator's Reasons for Oppos
ing McKinley's Candidacy.

interview IN New York Tribune.
My opposition to Governor Mckinley pro-
ceedS almost entirely from my belief that
he viii get the Republican party into tur-
mol and trouble. He is not well-balanced
man OF affairs, as Governor Morton is. He
is not a great man. as Mr.. Reed is. He is
not a trained and educated public man, as
Senator Allison Is. He is not an astute po-
htical leader, as Senator Quay Is. He Is
able and much too impressionabis to be
safely intruSted with great executive Office.
whose quest for honor happens TO have the
advantage of the association of his name
with the last Republican protective tariff.
Mr.. Mckinley, as think the Tribune re-
Gently remarked, had really less TO do with
that industrial law than had either Governor
Dingley or Senator Aldrich. but simply be-
cause of his position chairman OF the
ways and means committee of the Fifty
first Congress 1t has borne his name, and
there seems TO be a good many people VINO
labor under the impression that he wrote
1t line for line, and that the theory that IT
embodies originated in his colossal intellect:
lwouid not deny him one jot or little OF
the credit that really belongs to him. but
it is most unhandsome to defraud others
OF the credit that belongs to them.
When national conventions get down So
berry to the work of choosing a candidate.
they are not apt to overlook the fact that
in the four months campaign that Is TO
follow, his personality and his record will
be subjected to the searcllight of hostile
criticism. Nor do they forget that there are
two qualities-resolution and conservatism
which the people always require in their
chief magistrate Now, If we Republicans
are successful in the next campaign, as
seems so probable to-day, there are two
great questions, in which are involved the
earning capacity OF every citizen that We
shall have to settle. If we are to settle
them without unsetting ourselves We must
settle them for at least u generation to
come, and to be so settled they must be
settled wisely. temperately conservatively.
They are the tarif question and the cur
rency question.
don't want radical tariff in any direction.
What they do want is a protective tariff,
so devised as to make up taxes on foreign
articles that compete with our own for the
difference between the price of labor here
and abroad. Mr.. Mckinley represents the
most radical and extreme view Of protection.
be put through a Republican Congress.
but we must draw one that will not be open
TO serious criticism as class legislation. l
foresee the greatest dangers to the Repub-
lican party the result OF extreme tariff
legislation. In the first place. long before
the bill has become law the country will
be flooded with foreign goods which must
be sold and consumed before domestic pro-
ducers will feel the effects OF the law.
Business will not revive on the instant that
a Republican President Is elected and dur
ing all the period when the new bill is under
discussion and until the immense flood OF
foreign goods has disappeared into consump-
ton, we shall have to defend our measure.
1t should be, therefore, a safe. healthy and
rational bill.
Fully as important rs the tariff BILL yes,
more so, is that measure which must be de-
gible, safe and elastic. If Major Mckinley
has any real convictions on the subject OF
votes or his speeches. He voted once for
the free and unlimited coinage Of silver. He
voted TO override the veto by President
Hayes OF the Bland bill. and at different
times he has voted in direct conflict with
these votes. He has described himself as a
''bimetaiist," as in favor Of the free coinage
AL e.
another experiment in silver coinage. such
as the Bland-Allison act. or the Sherman
law, with the parity between the metals en-
This, in my opinion should and will re.
move Mr. Mckinley from the list Of presi.
dental possibilities by the time the Repub-
country have had enough of the attempt
to force 80 cents worth of silver into circula
ton as dollar. They have suffered meal
culable losses as the result Of twenty years
1 am credibly informed that the instruc.
ton for Mckinley by the California conven
part of his managers of Cabinet office
and by the further promise that he would
sign any silver legislation that could be go
through the next Congress. This pledge /:
safe enough, perhaps, since the next Con
gress is not likely to pass any silver legisla
ticn, but the sense of the promise was al
effort by the Mckinley managers to show
| that their candidate was friendly to silver
Every business man knows that the linz
| has got to be drawn sharply and distinctl!
| against every public man whose word!
| threaten the country and its business inter
| ests with any further debasement of th'
| currency, or with any more Of those losse.
| and sacrifices which have followed every
| effort to force silver upon the country. The
Republican candidate for President must b'
| a man who, instead of occupying an equiv
| ocal position on the subject. stands on
| firmly as an advocate OF sound and thor
| ough reform of the currency, with gold a!
| the standard of value, and such a man IL
| our candidate Governor Morton.
When the delegates at st. Louis come Il
| consider these matters their choice for Pres
| ident will not be William Mckinley, of Ohio
| They are not going to determine the destin,
| of their party in any "hurrah. boys" spirit
| Mr. Mckinley is still many votes short o
| a nomination, and when the delegates ge
| together and compare notes they will realize
| that their candidate should be wise, tenn
| perate conservative, educated statesman
| with definite policies. fixed opinions and {
l safe record.