The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-07-20

placed in nomination in days gone by,
sundry great generals, but these, by
commanding armies in the field, by
carrying on great opera tlonS and. by
conducting important negotiations of
various sorts had shown at least
some kind CT fitness to deal with large
questions.
But the only qualification Of this
candidate-'The Boy OratOr''-is that
during his brief career in congress he
made one or two speeches which
amused the house and pleased its gal
leries, and that during the recent con-
veuti0n he took the fancy OF the MOB
by a single exhibition of haring rhet-
Oric. The most telling phrase of this
rhetOric-the phrase which threw the
galleries into ecstasy-was as inane as
it was FepulsiVe, and nothing beyond
his speeches is needed to show that
both in temper and intellect he is ut
terly unfit to deal with the great ques-
lions which now confront the country
or, indeed, with any large questions
what ever.
THE scenes at the convention itself
indicate a state of things against which
all thoughtful men of both parties
throughout the country, and you, espe-
cially, as conservative leaders, should
solidly and vigorously array yourselves
We have circumstantia1 reports of
speeches and scenes, which, allowing
for journalistic exaggeration and en-
terprise,' would have brought ridicule
upon the Jacobin club at Paris in the
Well has one of our Democratic organs
remarked that 'lunacy having dictated
the platform, it was fitting that hys-
terra should evolve the candidate
7 confess that the Republican party
has had much folly to answer for in
providing enormous galleries IN It's IA
ter nominating conventions, and in al
lowing an irresponsible crowd to med
die with, and almost dictate to and
run away with, the convention; and as
a member of such. a convention I have
more than once protested openly
against this dangerous practice But
this last Chicago convention has LETT
its predecessors far behind. Nothing
has hitherto been depicted to US like its
lady representatives from Utah., or
like its gushing men and hysterical wo-
men, ''waltzing toward the platform,
waving flags" and shrielIing for the
candidate they happened to fancy. 1t
was a substitution of pandemonium for
calm, Weighty discussion.
In this seething mass of folly the
honored representatives of the old De
mOcracy We're as you too well know,
utterly lost. Instead of the Democrats
heretofore known and hOnOred in the
country, the control was assumed. eth
er directly or indirectly, from without
or within, by the AltgeldS, the Till
mans, the Blands, the PETERS, the
Stewards, the Simpsons, and their like;
men who had OutliVed their usefulness,
if they ever had any, both in the Dem
Ocrat1c and Republican parties, ana as
If to show the hollOwneSs of its preten-
sions and the hypocrisy of its claims,
its permanent presiding officer was
senator who owed his seat in the SEN
ate, and therefore in the convention,
to the railway corporations of which
he was the paid attorney; and one of
the controlling spirits stirring the mass
from beneath was another senator who
owed his presence in the senate, and
therefore in the convention, to the fact
that he is a millionaire mining mOnOp-
olist.
Democracy has heretofore stood as
a conservative force in the country, but
at this convention we see in control a
heterogeneous mass of anarchists, SO
cialists, POpuliSts, spectators and sec
tiOnalists-the strength of neither of
the great parties, and the pest of
hOfh''