Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1896-03-21
4 Unique Campaign Report.

There is not the slightest doubt tina
presidential politics, especially at Wash
ington, are nearing the boiling pitch
Some mental reservation must, according
ly, be exercised in forming judgments
upon reports emanating just now from the
national capital respecting this candidacy
or that, but the following report, taken
from the Washington correspondence OF
the Boston Transcript, especially as it is
in line with threats that free silver men
made openly in the Senate during the de-
bate Of the revenue bill, is entitled to
some credence, Just how much 1t is now
impossible to determine.
1t is so contrary to the views of the
great mass of Republicans. however, and
does such violence to the firmly established
opinions of probably NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
of them. that it certainly needs the best
confederation to lend it even the air OF
probability. This report is to the effect
that:
A committee Of ten persons said to
represent two hundred and twenty five
manufacturers and eight hundred million
dollars of Investment, and having for
some of its more important members
Thomas Dolan James Dobson and Hamil-
ton Disston of Philadelphia, are in Wash
ington today to consult with the silver
Republicans of the Senate with reference
to programme Of combined action for
revol utionzing the Republican party by
uniting the issues of free coinage and
protection The manufacturers claim
that their business is rs seriously affected
by the maintenance of the gold standard
in this country as by the lack of adequate
protection They claim that the countries
now most dreaded In competition with
American industries are those which have
the silver standard, and that our only
hope of successful rivalry with them lies
in purchasing raw material and paying
labor on the same basis with them.
The movement represented by the
visiting committee is said to be spreading
throughout the manufacturing industries
everywhere in this country which de-
mand high protection. 1t is understood
to be hinged upon the Mckinley boom for
the presidency, the Mckinley managers
understanding that they are not to allow
any of the local conventions to make de
cisive utterances on the silver question, so
as to have all the business of the national
convention well in hand when the time
comes for etfecting the final combination,
II it is deemed prudent to make it.
1.-THE engineers of the new movement
calculate that in view of the tariff heresies
which have opened their way into the
Democratic party, great many Demo
Gratis can be bought by the free silver
idea, even at the expense of swallowing
the protection coupled with it. An effort
is now making to take a census of the
probable losses of Republican support and
the probable gain OF Democratic and
agrarian support and to cast up the bal
ance between them -
When Is remembered the unyielding
stand taken by practically all of the Re
pubilcans in Congress, in opposition to
the efforts of these same free silver men,
one feels assured that any such movement
rs outlined above would be short lived if
inaugurated and during its brief existence
would be a thing calculated to excite
ridicule rather than apprehension.