The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-03-22
THE FIGHT ON HACKNEY
IN 1T THE ssSTALWARTs' AND "HALF
BREEDS" WILL TEST STRENGTH.
The Supreme Judge Stands for the
Latter Type of Free-Sil-
yer Democrats.

Ordinarily but little interest attaches to
the nomination of candidates for Supreme
Court judges by state conventions, but in
the Democratic state convention this year
about the most important question to be
determined is whether or not Judge l.. j.
Hackney shall be renominated. The inter-
est attaching to this nomination is that it
will be q test of the relative strength of the
"stalwarts' and the ''half-breeds." ''Stal-
warts is the name by which those radical
16-to-1 silver men, commonly known as the
push" designate themselves, the men who
swallowed the Chicago platform, Bryan and
all, with gusto. and gloried in the oppor-
tunity. The term half breed has been
coined by the "stalwarts'' to show their dis
like and distrust, not to say positive hatred,
for the Indianapolis Sentinel, and men like
Thomas Taggart, James A. Murdoch, Hugh
Dougherty, John w. Kern, AlonZo Green
Smith and other shining lights of the DEM
ocratic party who have no faith in the
financial heresies of the platform or its ex-
ploiters. but Who swallowed them and the
boy Orator for the sake of 'regu-
larity'' and harmony" They are men who
did little In 1896 for the candidate and falla-
cious theories of that year, but who claim
to have voted the ticket and kept still about
them, like Kern and Smith, pretended to
lash themselves into a fury about "coer-
cion" and other little side issues, without
talking on the money question at all.
Hackney stands as the purest type of the
''half-breeds," and the fact that the "stal-
warts of his own county have made an
open fight on him has brought him to the
front as the representative of the half
breeds and they will look on his nomina-
ton or defeat as determining the question
of whether they are wanted in the folds of
the party. This faction contains all the
old leaders of the party who did not go
over entirely to the gold Democrats in
1896. With the single exception of John G.
Shanklin, all the Democrats having any
pretenses to a State reputation that stayed
with the party in 1896 were in this class
now contemptuously styled half breeds.
They did not place any faith in the silver
isms of that day and did not seriously pc
lieve that they would ever become laws
if the party were successful, but looked
upon those strange doctrines as good catch
words to throw out to ignorant voters.
the stalwarts insist on reviving the dam
gerous policy of 1896 and on the Democrats
OF the Hackney character again swallowing
their conscience and reason for the sake of
regularity, there would be an even wider
breach than now, and the chance Tor DEM
ocratic success might be put In the eye OF
a needle, not the needle mentioned in Scrip
ture either, that was large enough for a
camel to crawl through. 49,
What do we care if they do leave us?''
asked a stalwart Il reckon they're not
such-a-much. What if they do join. the
gold-bug boltercrats? Won't we get all the
Populists and the free-silver Republicans?
They might as we'll understand that 80 per
cent. of the Democrats are for free silver
lust as strong as ever and what we lose
from men like Judge Hackney leaving us and
Topping over to the Klondike-Keach crowd
won't hurt us when you think of the Popu-
lists and silver Republicans we will gel"