The herald., 1897-06-29
A sK1RM1sH WITH THE PICKETs

Democrats OIL ONO Will aSSeIHDle III Gull
vention to name a state ticket. The
legislature to be elected will select
United States senator to succeed Sen
ator Hanna, who is filing out the un-
expired term of Senator Sherman, he
having resigned to go into the Mckin-
ley cabinet. The preliminary prepara-
tions for the convention are both in
spring and significant. The Ohio elec-
tion of this fall may be regarded as the
first gun in the campaign of 1900, being
an attack on the picket line of the en-
emy where the road leads to the main
camp. The congressional election of
1898 may be looked upon as storming
the redoubts and the main battle with
the main body will be in 1900.
The driving in of the picket line is en-
trusted to the ranks Of Ohio's veteran
Democracy. They are arming for the
fray and marching to the point Of at
tack in perfect order and with splendid
courage.
To drop metaphor and speak directly,
the fact that the candidates who will
appear on Wednesday of this week,
number enough people to make up
convention of themselves is note of
great significance. The note is all the
more pronounced as we read the names
of some of the aspirants for the honor
of being on the ticket of this pivotal
state. The most distinguished. men of
the party in that state are disputing
with each other for the honor of car
rying the party's standard. They are
full of enthusiasm and, they are all of
one mind as to the reiterating without
hesitation or equivocation of the prin-
ciples of the party. There is to be no
halting between two opinions, and no
trimming in the expression of the doc
trines of true Democracy.
Ohio is the center of the enemy's po-
sition. Hanna, the Warwick of the last
campaign, the power behind the Nc
Kinley throne, the grand keeper of the
presidential conscience, and the en-
bodied soul of the trust-begotten and
trust-supported Republican party of
this day, is in the field for a broad en-
dorsement of himself and his policy at
the hands of the electors of his state.
To give his kind their due, Hanna is
willy politician and not over-ecrupulous
about the methods he uses. His wealth
is very great and is supplemented by the
wealth of many of the same ilk in the
Buckeye state. This will be the effort of
his life, to get the endorsement of the
people put upon him and his policy. This
effort will be backed up by that of the
party in all parts of the United States.
to save the picket line in front of their
entertainments. Hanna ie an un-sugar-
coated pill, and his composition is bit
ter to large part of his own party To
hold all the cohorts of the enemy in
apparent loyalty to this'coarse and DOM
ineering leader is taxing the ingenuity
and ability of all Republican Ohio. In
ternally the party is all torn up, and
only a mere semblance of harmony is
maintained.
Under the circumstances the course
of the Ohio convention will be watched
with much interest, and this feeling will
follow the campaign until the votes are
counted. If the veterans of Democ-
racy in the state of Ohio succeed in
driving the enemy one inch from its
ground it will be victory. IT, as is very
likely they carry the state, the battle
of the following year will be half won,
and that of 1900 pretty well assured.