The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-01-21
A Set OF Political Lunatics.

The rule-or-ruin policy Of the faction
which threatens to "hold up" the Repub-
lican party in New York was thus boast
fully proclaimed on Wednesday evening by
one S. L. WHITAKER, whom the Netp York
Press describes as "official spokesman Of
the conferees," and whom the Brooklyn
Standard Union describes as ga lieuten.
ant of WHITELAw REID"
"If our candidates are not elected. there will not
DO q single Republican candidate elected in the
state next fall. II we fail ourselves. We will ruin tho
Plat machine"
The candidates whom this man calls
Sour candidates are to be nominated, &C.
cording to the plan of the faction, by an
irregular and unauthorized convention,
and are to be run against the regular Re-
publican ticket. II they are put up, it will
not be with any expectation of electing
them, for obviously they could not be
elected. They would be nominated simply
for the purpose Of drawing off enough Of
the Republican vote to defeat the party in
the momentous election of next November
and turn over the State to the Organized
Democracy. At the same election a full
Congress delegation is to be chosen, and
LncSe UTdiUOTb W uuc Cdubc VI uOuCbJy duu
business security are plotting to give that
also to the party of Reputation.
What is the object? 1t is to "ruin the
Platt machine" by which this treacherous
faction means the Republican party organ
ization of the State. This organization, as
everybody, Republican or Democrat, knows,
exists in accordance with the time-honored
All essential system of party representa-
tion and IL in any respect 1t is unsatisfac-
tory to the party, 1t can be changed and
Temodelled under rules and according to
methods already provided n effectual
for the purpose. Actually, there is no
such thing as the "Platt machine )" there
A. only the Republican machine, or me-
thodical organization of the party, which
exists In every State and Is essential to
Republican solidi1cation.
The Republican party in the State Of
New York and everywhere else in the
Union gets its vitality from a distinctive
body OF political principles 1t is neither a
"Platt machine" nor a WHITAKER ma
chine" Was 1t Hanna machine" in the
campaign Of 1895, or was it a party, in
which were centred the hopes and the con.
victions of the majority of the people Of
this republic as their only refuge against
the policy of the Chicago platform. threat
ening destruction to business and ruin to
the national credit
II 1t had not been for that consolidation,
under the direction of what might have
been called as justly the "Hanna machine"
N the New York Republican organization
can be described as the "Platt machine"
the year through which we have just passed
would have been marked by a business and
commercial cataclysm, and everywhere
ruin would now be staring us in the face.
Nor, as every reasonable man recognizes, is
there less reason at this very moment for
the qualification Of the Republican party
In New York and every other State If the ca
lamity then threatened is moi to be brought
upon the republic two years hence. The
course of the Democratic party in both
houses OF Congress, supported by the deliv-
erances Of Democratic conventions through
out the Union generally, INT by the argu-
ments and appeals Of the great body of Dem
ocratic newspapers, proves that the same
issue which terrified the country in 1896 Is
TO be the issue In 1900. Again the Demo-
cratic party will be the advocate of repudia.
tion, and the people will have only the Re-
publican party on which to rely for the
preservation Of the national credit and to
save their business from threatened disas-
ter. Organism is holding together its forces
exultingly, preparing everywhere to battle
for its life at the State and Congress cleo
tions next November and in 1900. 1t has a
thoroughly organized "machinc" in his
State and in all the States.
It Is at such a time, with interests so
vital to New York at stake, that this
maniacal faction sets itself to work to
asteat the Republican party and give to tho