The Red Cloud chief., 1896-07-10
FIELD AGAINST BLAND.
lie Is Most Feared Ivy the other Cnndi
dates-His Friends Confident.

lie " MOST FParc1 ny tnc ptner ennut
dates-His Friends Confident.
CHICAGO, July 3.-Bland, TO a GER.
tain extent, is the Mckinley of the
present situation. At st. Louis 10
was Mckinley against the field. At
Chicago to-day it is the field against
Bland. The other candidates recog-
nizc that Bland is the man most to be
feared, that with Bland defeated the
tight is "a more even one for all the
Others. The first effort Of the oppo,i-
ton, therefore, will be to divide the
Bland vote and prevent him from
reaching the nomination. knowing
that it is difficult to make combina-
tons Of this kind that will be efec-
tive, the Bland managers are conf
dent They point out that Bland is
the only candidate who has very much
of a backing. They claim for him 200
votes, distributed in the South and
Middle West. Like Mckinley, he has
been quietly hunting delegates while
his rivals were preparing To load their
guns.
BESIDES all this, according to tho
Bland shoutcrs, there are several good
reasons why Bland, Of ali men, should
be selected as the candidate to stand
on a silver platform. There Is no
Democrat before the country to-day,
they say, who so thoroughly stands
for the silver idea as does he. For
years he has talked and laborcd for
silver. He was the author Of the law
which gave the country the Bland
silver dollar and he fought to the very
last to save silver from its enemies
and prevent 1t from being dropped as
one of the money metals. In addition
to all this, he is of the people. lie Is
a son OF the soil. lie owns and works
q farm.
BANDS most formidable rival as
things look to-day is Boics Of Iowa.
Against him is the fact that only quite
recently has he become a convert to
free silver. IL was not SO very long
ago that he wa regarded as a staunch
sound money man and he gave no
c~ountenancc to the silver talk. lie
Will 90 into the convention with the
backing of his " State and some
other votes which cannot yet be very
definitely placed. Unless the tide sets
so overwhelmingly in favor of Bland
that "A contest is only a waste of time,
he will be able to make things inter-
esting for the Missouri farmer. In
fact, it is predicted that the fight be-.
tween these two candidates NAV be.
come so warm that it will prevent
either from winning the prize and
leave the road clear to some other
man who Will start in the race heay-
lily handicapped.
Both men are playing for the sup
port and influence Of Governor Ait
geld, the mar who will probably be
the most interesting parsonage OF this
convention. and who threatens to be
its Warwick playing the role of the
president maker. Altgeld is said to
be for Bland and opposed to Boies,
but no n here can learn that he has
pledged himself or that he has ex-
pressed IAN open preference. The
probabilities are that his ~inclinations
lean toward Bland and he would be
glad to see Boies' ambitions thwarted
for purely personal reasons During
the great railroad strikes in Illinois
Altgeid's course occasioned consider
able adverse criticism. to put il
mildly, and Governor Boies did not
hesitate to freely and publicly express
his opinion of his fellow governor.
Altgeld remembers that little incident.
The candidacy CT Senator Blackburn
of kentucky, ex-governor Pennoyer
CT Oregon and Governor Matthews OF
Indiana are all as vet immature.
Blackburn has the Kentucky delcga-
ton behind him; Pennoyer can doubt
less command the Oregon Delegation
and the Indiana men will come here
prepared to work for Matthews IL they
think they see a chance for his sue.
cess. One OF these men mentioned
might, in certain contingencies, be
the nominee of the convention, but
those conditions are not likely to
arise.