The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1897-12-07
THE FIGHT
AGAINST MARTIN
1t is Attracting Attention throughout
the State.
MUGWUMPS ARE ALL AT SEA !
Swallow Wants to Run, But Wharton Bar
ker and wayne Macveagh Are His
only sponsors-one is a Free
Silver Man and the other
a Free Trader.
Special HERALD correspondence.

Special HERALD correspondence.
Philadelphia, Dec. s.-The local polit-
ical situation in Philadelphia is growing
in intensity and interest. The fight is
nominally upon the question of who
shall be the next receiver of taxes, but
the result will mean more than this,
because it will determine which element
of the party is to name the next mayor
of the municipality, and the termina-
ton Of the contest viii also make it
clear who will control the Philadelphia
delegates to the next gubernatorial con-
vention and also the members Of the
legislature from the Quaker City. The
fight is a battle against the power OF
David Martin in city politics, and those
who are in it propose to continue their
efforts until they have succeeded in
overthrowing the odious machine that
Martin has commanded for the last
eight years. The particular object at
the present time is to defeat William ].
Roney for the denomination for re-
ceiVer of taxes, but the contest has in
it nothing personal against Mr.. Ro-
ney, who unfortunately happens to be
a brother-in-law of Mr.. Martin, and
who is regarded in a special manner as
being the personal choice of the COM
bine boss. The fight is against Mar
tinism in all its phases, and Mr.. Roney
is a mere incident in the contest.
Those who imagined that the meet
ing between Senator Quay and Mr.
Martin would deter Quay's former
friends from conducting the fight
against Martin now find that they were
sadly mistaken. The anti-combine ele-
ment in Philadelphia believe in Quay
consider him a sagacious national lead
er, and consider that he has made a
valuable United States senator, but
they do not regard his judgment as in
fallible when he condescends to dip into
division, ward and city politics. Hence
they propose to go ahead on their own
lines without consulting any person
or persons outside of the city limits
United States Senator Boies Penrose
who has won all of his political laurels
by reason of the fact that he has kept
in touch with the plain people, has not
belied his record in this instance. As
soon as it became known that there
was to be a serious fight between the
Martin and anti Martin elements in
Philadelphia he promptly and courage
ously and in the most public manner
allied himself with the anti-Martin
forces. He has indorsed the candidacy
of Harvey K. hewitt, the anti Martin
candidate for receiver of taxes, and
has signlhed his willingness to take
the stump in Mr.. Newitt's behalf.
The people of Philadelphia are thor
oughly aroused upon this issue, and If
the 5000 municipal employees, including
the police and firemen, are compelled
to keep their hands off there cannot be
a shadow of a doubt concerning the
result. Mr.. Martin will simply be swept
out of political existence. He obtained
his hold in local affairs through the as
sistance OF the ofhceholders, and he has
continued his grip upon the party ma
chine solely because of the immense
patronage that has been placed at his
disposal by a subservient mayor and by
weak and vacillating heads Of city de-
partments. PenrOse, who always has
been strong in the city of his birth, has
strengthened himself immeasurably by
his decisive stand in this controversy.
The mugwump element and the con-
stitutional lSickers in the Republican
party seem to be all at sea concerning
their intentions In the coming guberna-
torial contest. There has been much
backing and filing during the last three
or four weeks, and no one can tell just
what they propose to do in the mat
ter. The friends Of DR.. Swallow are
anxious to have him nominated as the
candidate for governor, but the most
sanguine of them admit that as a pure
ly Prohibition candidate he could not
hope to poll more than half the num-
Der of votes next year for governor that
he polled this year as a candidate for
state treasurer. State Chairman Gar
man, of the Democratic state commit
tee, who was expected to give comfort
to an Independent movement has come
out in a public interview in which he
dashes the hopes of the mugwumps to
the ground. He says that he is against
coalition in any shape or form, and that
no one but a straight simon pure Dem
ocratic candidate can expect the sup
port Of his organization next year.
In addition to this there is a division
IN the Democratic party. That portion
represented by Mr.. Garman and his
free silver friends are in favor of the
nomination of some candidate like ex-
Congressman Joe Sibley or James NJ
Guffey, the millionaire Pittsburg oil
operator. on the other hand, the gold
Harrity and ex-State Chairman Wright,
favor the selection Of some man in the
class of Robert e. Pattison or ex-At-
torney General William u. Hensel. The
only persons who are with Swallow on
the coalition idea are Wharton Barker
and Wayne MacVeagh. the one a free
silver man and the other an avowed
free trader. Here we have confusion
worse confused.
The distinctly anti-Quay Republicans
have been making a frantic and un-
successful endeavor to rally around At
torney General Mccormick. Mccormick
wants to run, but he has not the cour-
age to come out and boldly declare
himself a candidate. He is living in
the vain hope that some deal may be
made by which he can obtain the sup
port of Senator Quay. Without that
his case seems hopeless. He is not per-
sonally popular in the state, and out
side of his own county and in a few
anti-Quay spots in the state he has no
political strength worth talking about.
Moreover, IL is out of the question for
him to go into the field as a reform can
didate, because he is mainly held re-
sponsible for the Hastings regime,
which has been anything but a reform
a fHtla