The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-09-26
DRIFT OF THE CAMPAIGN
DEMOCRATS WILL COMPLETE THEIR
TICKET THIS WEEK.
Free-SiIver Element a Disturbing
One to Them-AssessmentO of
City Employees.


After this week the political campaign
will be on in earnest. The Democrats of
Marion county have not yet nominated all
their candidates. On Friday they will nom
mate the legislative ard township tickets.
They have not many candidates for the
various offices, and the conventions on Fri
day promise to be perfunctory and I'M
interesting. When the work of the conven-
tons is finished, however, the preliminary
work of the campaign will be done and the
politicians will be ready for the struggle.
The Democrats are not preparing to put up
a very warm fight. 1t is very generally
believed by the candidates on the county
ticket that they will be defeated, and they
are not very liberal in their contributions
to campaign funds Saturday City Hall
employees who owe their positions to the
Taggart ring declared that they had not
been assessed so far at all and that their
assessments would be light.
Whats the use of asking us to put up for
a losing gamer" one of them asked. 1t may
be that later on they will be surprised at
the draft on them.
There is one element that seems likely
to have a large influence in local affairs.
That is the free-silver element. While John
w. Kern and Frank B. Burke were ranting
about free silver, the other night, and Rep
resentative Bailey, of Texas, was predict
ing that the keynote" of 1896 would be
the keynote of 1900, that free silver would
be the sole issue, and that the standard
bearer of 1896 would again be intrusted with
carrying the banner there was grim hu-
NOR in the situation duly appreciated by
the real silver men. 1t was that both the
county and state tickets are made up almost
exclusively of gold-standard men who are
running on free-silver platforms for the
purpose Of drawing silver votes. When the
county and state conventions reaffirmed the
principles of the Chicago platform and then
nominated gold-standard men the silver
men were not deceived. They have a regu-
lar underground-railway system through
which is disseminated information concern
ing the monetary records of the candidates,
and if they carry out their expressed in
tentions they will scratch the gold-standard
men hard and heavy. BY word of mouth
information concerning the real monetary
convictions of the candidates is being
passed by the free-silver propaganda's UNI
foreground. They show that the whole Tag
CART administration is tinctured with gold,
beginning with Tom Montgomery of the
the Board of Health and the city controller,
present candidate for county auditor. Mr..
Johnson's declaration in the Journal the
other day that his interview showing him
to be a gold man did not embarrass him in
any way has not increased the liking of
silver men for him. Joseph Bauer. Charles
Mcguire and Joseph +. Bell, as we'll as
other candidates and party managers. are
being held up as brilliant examples of the
gold-stfjndard dogma by the under
grouuE" Johnsons latest interview is
looked upon as an additional insult by the
silver men. 1t is an open admission, they
say, that the ticket is in reality gold at
heart. While the majority of people believe
that 16 to l is a dead and past issue, meet
ings like that of last Friday night at Tom
linson Hall show that large portion of the
so-called Democratic party still adheres to
Organism. What little was said L. favor
OF Organism was applauded. The leaders OF
this class say that they intend TO admins
ter singing rebuke to men who pose as
free-silver men, run on free-silver platforms
and then talk about interviews showing
them to be gold men as mot compromis-
This feeling is not confined to the county
alone. 1t crops out in other parts of the
those who pose party leaders are bow
ing the knee to the golden calf in hopes
of reuniting the party and getting back the
support of the men who have always paid
campaign assessments. They point to the
state ticket as an illustration, containing,
among others, the name of Judge Leonard
j. Hackney, who last spring declared in
an interview that he had been, was now
and always would be opposed to free sill
yer.
In this city some of the most influential
are pointing to one fact: 1t is that the
speakers who opened the countys cam
paign last Friday night undertook to Gre
ate Democratic enthusiasm by criticisng
the war rather than by discussing the sill
yer question: They say that this clearly
leaders to ignore this question, take up
the war and harp upon 1t, in the hopes of
deceiving. both gold and silver men into
the belief that silver has no place in the
present campaign and that it is not an
issue. Gold men may be deceived, they
say. by the. fact that gold men are the
candidates. but, on the other hand, they
ask, how can they be thus deceived when
the declaration intended to catch silver men
standard-bearer. Taken all round, the sill
yer and gold men of the Democratic party
are in a deplorabe state of mind. They
don't know where they ARE at" A gold
and the speakers are talking more about
the mismanagement of the war than free
On the other hand. the silver men say
without much enthusasm-"they-ve got
the nominees. but we've. got the platform,
Bryan is TO be the man two years hence"
There is one significant fact. 1t Is that
many of the gold men are. saying: we
are all voting the same ticket this year. =
when they are talking for publication. The
silver men are saying: I'VE are letting
them come back. When it gets down to
the rub 1t seems not unlikely that both
factions will vote for the regular Demo-
cratic county and state candidates in many
instances, but that when it comes to de-
Gliding betweeeen the congressional and
legislative candidates the gold men viii
stick in vote for Republican candidates,
Rell = not fap nah
ton of congressman and senator's of the
United States depends the character of
especially when one of the keynote ora
tors like Burke expresses himself on the
proposition that ii is not so much In the
names OF the representatives as the prin-
cipleS they represent that the people are
interested. Mr. Burke very boldly asserted
that the Republican party Is the sponsor
for the monetary law suggested by the
monetary commission, and gold Democrats
are very likely 10 accept his idea.