The record-union., 1897-11-15
He Scores the Republicans Who
Put Low Forward.
Says They Stopped at No Act of Treachery
To Promote 0iSSenSiun.
He Claims That the Citizens I'm
ion Refused to Participate in
the Conference, Assigning as
Its Reason That 1t Was Conn
mitted to the "Go-It-AIone"
Policy by the Platform Adopt
ed When 1t Organized.

NEW YORK, Nov. 14-Senator
Thomas Platt tonight gave out the fol-
lowing statement:
1T is the plain purpose of those Re
publican factionists who, failing in
every effort reAeatedly made 10 con-
troll the Republican organization, pro-
Jected Seth Low into the municipal
campaign, thereby dividing the anti
Tammany vote, TO force into the pub
| lie mind the impression that the re-
sponsibility for this division attached
not to them, but to the Republican or
sanization. And, just as during the
campaign, they stopped at no act or
treachery in order to create dissen-
sion, so now they are hesitating at no
| falsehood or calumny in order TO pro-
mote it and keep it alive.
The malicious misrepresentation of
these incurabl factionists must not go
unchallenged. No fair-mnded Repub-
| lican who will look back over the events
of the last six months can fail to re-
member that the attitude of the Re-
| publican organization up to the very
last moment at which the law permitted
a nominating certificate to be filed, was
much more than favorable to a union
With the citizens organization Eair-
| minded men will remember that when
| Mr.. Quigg assumed the Presidency of
the County Committee he made the Of
| fer of union distinctly and on terms.
They will remember that his offer was
as distinctly refused by those to wh0m
| it was addressed. They will remember,
| indeed, that when the Citizens 4Asso-
citation organized it adopted a platform
which was intended to commit its men,
bers to the go it alone policy.
This platofrm denies the relation of
national political party to municipal
affairs. 1t challenged the right of the
Republican party to make a Republicans
| nomination 1t placed upon the doc
trlre t.e -partisanship' new inter-
pretation, and one which forbade the
| possibility of cooperation between the
Republican party and the Citizens
| Union.
This was done. We must remember.
away back in the spring and before the
| average citizen had begun to consider
what his political course should be.
Nobody paid any attention at the time,
for nobody supposed that it would mean
| that the citizens We're going deliber-
ately to work to defeat themselves, or
| that they could obtain a candidate who
would stand with them in such a sui
cidal policy.
| THE Republican leaders, however.
who. had long experience, perceived it's
significance and the perilous situation
| to which it was bound to lead. 1t an
ticipated everything which the Repub-
lican party would do to secure a union,
and repudiated all in advance. 1t de-
manded the unconditional surrender of
the Republican party, not simply to
objectionable candidates, but to i'm
possible platforms. 1t demanded that
the Republican party must say that in
municipal affairs it would not allow it
self to be the Republican party, and
would assert no right to make nomina-
tions or define policies.
THE Republican leaders met an fnso-
lent charge without bitterness and re-
sentiment. They found no fault with
the candidate whom the Citizens Union
picked out as the expression of its pur-
pose and ideas. They do not now deny
that they regard him as practically the
sort of a man he has turned out to be
a vain-glorious self-seeker, masquerade
ing as Republican, but willing al any
time to wreck the Republican snip on
a ledge of his own ambitions.
The Republican leaders do not deny
that they were then opposed to the
candidacy of Seth Low But they al
lowed their opposition to take no def
mite or irritating shape. They simply
insisted that the Republican party did
have just and inevitable relation to
municipal affairs; that it did have the
rio oir,of fa
that right; that the views and wishes of
it's adherents We're entitled to consd-
Grafton. and that there ought to be
union between the citizens organiZ:l-
ton and the Republican party, but that
it ought to be an honorable. friendly
and equitable union, under the terms of
which both should have a voice in
choosing candidates and in defining
policies.
This was the exact state of things
up to the time when the Republican
County Committee adopted Commits
sioner Coils resolution inviting all an
ti-Tammany organizations into a con-
ference in order that date might ne
fixed when they should hold their NOM
mating conventions, so that ready con-
ference and harmonious action might be
assured.
'.The Citizens Union refused to parti-
cipate in the conference, frankly as
signing as its reason the fact that it
was committed to the go it alone pol
icy Can any honest man, in the face
of that fact, charge the responsibility
for disunionupon the Republican party?
Does not every honest man know that il
the Citizens Union had gone into the
proposed conference united action
would have been inevitable? Is it not
plain enough that the Republicans could
not have possibly broken up, or have
allowed themselves to be broken in a
conference which they themselves orig
mated?
.The Republican organization in New
York. in the city of New York, no less
than in the country districts, Is still
powerful. earnest and devoted. In the
menace of another Bryanite campaign
factional controversies will soon be
forgotten and the Republicans will be
Republicans again"