The Topeka state journal., 1897-03-08
DANGEROUS
MOOD.
John j. ingalls, Says the People
Won't Be Trif1ed With.
The Uses of Adversely May Be
Sweet
But They Have Had Enough of
Such Confectionery.
ARE GONE
Party Names Have Lost Their
Power to COnjure.
Phrases Will Not Satisfy Those
Who Ask Bread.

lJohn j. Ingalls, in New York Journal.
washington, D. c., March S.-The
presidential contest of 1896 opened with
Justlnable anticipations of complete
ana easy Republican victory. The great
leaders whose irreconcilabIe passions
mad districted their followers with in
testine quarrels and internecine feuds
were all dead. The party was united.
conndent and aggressive. It's constit-
uentS long before the convention had
WITH substantial unanimity, selected
Mck1nIey as their candidate and ac-
cepted the abolition of hard times and
the restoration of prosperity as the is
sue of the campaign.
It's adVersaries virtually conceded it's
triumph. They had been tried and
round wanting. The degraded coali-
ton that defeated Harrison in 1892 had
neither organization nor leaders Pop
uhSm was a synonym for moonstruck
haIluelnat1on. Democracy had ceased
TO be political definition and become
a disparaging and contemptuous epi-
thet- So fallen were the fortunes of
the party and so certain the presage of
deteat that there was no avowed can
dtdate for the nomination at Chicago.
Under these conditions the Republi-
can party met in convention in June
at st. Louis. Predictions after the
event are safe because they cannot be
verified, and harmless because thew
cannot be refuted. Prophecies of what
would have happened had the financial
declaration been in accord with the
platform of 1888 and 1892 are interest
unexpectedly when accompanied by the
assurance that the disasters of repudi-
alton, anarchy and the final failure of
self government were averted by dis
interested efforts of a geographical mi
nority against the combined Judgment
of the leaders of Republicanism, in
Guiding Mckinley, Hanna, the veteran
Sherman and the rank and file of the
ct f1f 70 nd
the Union.
But those who are to formulate the
policy, direct the forces and rough-hew
the destiny of this administration
what actually did occur than about
what might have taken place had some
other financial declaration been adopt
ed.
At least $50 of the delegates in the
st. Louis convention were bimetalIists.
OF the remainder perhaps go were for
the free and unlimited coinage of silver
and the rest for the single gold stand
ard.
The $50 bimetallists represented com
munitieS that were unreservedly for
sound money. They wanted the parity
between gold, silver and paper preserv-
ed. They realized that the country
had been on a gold basis since the re
sumption of specie payments in 1879.
They were neither straddlers nor ad-
vocates of repudiation, fiat. or imitation.
currency. They wanted the existing
system the status in quo maintain
ed. They were Republicans of the
straightest sect, many of them of an
cient lineage, veterans of the Union
armies, patriotic and sincere, who had
fought upon the skirmish line of ad-
vancing civilization, which, since Lin
coin fell, has abolished the frontier and
subjugated the desert.
Whether they were right or wrong is
a question of political economy. 1t is
not important for President Mckinley
and Secretary Gage and their col
necessary to recall the methods and ar
guments employed to persuade the del
egates from states where ninety in
every hundred were bimetalliSts, and
which upon the Indiana or Ohio declar-
alton would have been as reliably Re-
publican as Massachusetts, Vermont and
New York to change front and concur
in the gold standard programme.
Some probably believed Republican
success so certain that anything would
go. Others, exasperated at McKinley's
strength, determined to load him with
embarrassing complications, and, fail
ing to coerce, were willing TO destroy
Reinforcing these was the academic
contingent, the monometalliSt pedants
and pedagogueS, Indifferent which
party prevailed SO long as their own
views were recognized and their selfish
interests guarded and secure.
Republican revolt in the country was
instantaneous and profound. Protests
were violent, discomfort intensified, es-
pecially west of the Alleghenies. and
undoubtedly affected powerfully the ac-
ton of the opposition in the selection
of their candidate and the definition of
their platform soon after at Chicago.
1t is no imputation upon their cour-
age to affirm that there was an interval
after the Chicago convention when the
most intrepid of the Republican man
ayers held their breath for awhile The
preliminary confidence. so jocund,
blithe and gay, gave way to alarming
sinking spells.
They began to realize with some con-
sternation that instead of having a pic
mic and walkaway they were in a hand
to hand struggle for life. Most dis
quieting reports came from all parts
of that region from which Republican
majoritieS and Republican presidents
have come. 1t was apparent that the
west and south were debatable ground
and finance the issue. The tariff was
secondary and subordinate in all the
contested states.
With Napoleonic genius Mr.. Hanna
perceived and accepted the situation.
He shifted his batta1ions, but the cam
paign was defensive from the start
The Chicago convention had adroitly