Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1899-08-15
SELLS SEEMS 70 LEAD
Sentiment In Favor of the Benton
County Candidate Becoming
More Pronounced.
The State Central Committee Said
To Be Throwing Influence
To Cato.
Speech Of Bryan Tonight May Affect
the Nominations Judge Wade
Ineligible.
Special to Times-Republican.

in favor of Cato Sells and the conserv-
ative element of the party. The Sells
men were the first on the ground Mon
lday and they proceeded at once to
make hay while the sun shone. The en-
tire state central committee has been
favorable to Mr.. Sells from the start
and has been urging him as the nomi-
nee Of the party for governor. This
powerful influence had its effect on the
delegates who had arrived in the city
and as a result a stampede was started
| for the Vinton man which threatens to
down the ultra free silver crowd in the
lconvention tomorrow.
| Cato Sells still insists that he is in no
sense candidate for the nomination.
When asked whether or not he would
accept should it be rendered him he
answers by saying that the conditions
are impossible and that he has spent no
time thinking about impossibilities.
Nevertheless his friends Were busy all
day yesterday urging his nomination
and declaring that he alone is the can
didate upon whom all elements of the
Iparty can unite.
The effect of this work Monday was
pronounced. Many of the delegations
which one week ago We're decidedly
hostile to Mr.. Sells were won over to his
support yesterday and delegations
which had been instructed for Bashor
have pledged their votes to MIN, should
| a break come in the convention. There
are number of causes which have led
Ito this revulsinn of feeling. Foremost
| among these is a letter written by MIR.
! Sells to Col. L. NJ. Martin in 1885, In
| which the writer declines to be party
Ito the organization of the gold democ-
4 racy in Iowa. In this letter Mr.. Sells
Estates that although he had opposed the
/ silver movement in both the state and
national convention he was willing to
] accent his defeat and that he was toe
good a democrat to bolt his party and
aid the opposition. He announced
Isauarely that he should vote for Bryan
and Sewall and that he should aid in
Their election by all means at his COM
mand Coupled with this letter came a
lstatement by the state central commits
tee denying that Mr.. Sells had failed to
contribute to the campaign fund of
1896, but asserting that he had made,
unsolicited the largest contribution of
/ that year in Iowa.
| In addition to the industrious circu-
lation of this information, the state
Icentral committee pacified the populist
lelement of the party by securing Gen.
James B. Weaver as speaker before a
large meeting to be held this evening
IGen Weaver Is asked to share the
honors with Bryan and to repeat his
now famous Colfax argument against
expansion. Gen Weaver and the entire
populist contingent have been flattered
| by this action of the committee and
have been made to feel more kindly
howard the state central committee and
Its candidate for the nomination.
1 But the committee has had even a
deeper motive than this in getting Gen.
Weaver to deliver his anti-expansion
speech. 1t is hoped by the party man
a-ement that the delegates can be so
enthused on the anti-expanson issue
that they will overlook the question of
| 16 to / in the convention and be WILL
| in~ to give prominence to it instead Of
to the money question. That is all that
the gold element of the party in Iowa
have demanded and If they succeed in
the artifice they will be able to name
control of the party machinery for the
coming campaign. OF Mr.. Seils' position
on the question there has never been
any doubt. From the first he has de-
nounced the administration for its con-
duct Of the war in the Philippines. He
| is as sound as Gen. Weaver himself on
that score and if the silver question
can be forgotten for the time in the
1 or o11c will ha
mated and the state central committee
will have accomplished all they hoped
at the time of the democratic confer
ence last winter,
| On the money question the conserv-
atives will be content If they can pre-
vent the convention from going further
than giving simple Endorsement to the
Chicago platform. If there Is no re-
iteration of the words 16 to they will
be satisfied But this is Just what the
silver enthusiasts want to insert in
the money plank, and they declare that
unless the platform is full as strong as
that adopted at Marshalltown one year
ago the party will have been delivered
| into the hands of the hated money
power.
| S. H. Bashor and his friends did not
/ TeGCn Lies NlOiuGS uulil ldSl evening.
When they came they found little of
consolation in the situation. The Sells
men had been on the field all day and
had apparently pre-empted the claim.
A few Bashor delegations arrived late
| in the evening and served to stay the
tide, so that hope was not utterly lost.
The first thing attempted by the
Bashor men was to puncture the Sells
boom by the statement that the CEN
trail committee was behind the whole
movement and was but carrying out a
Ipreconcerted plan to deliver the conven-
tion over to the gold bugs. This had
some effect, but was not sufficient to
accomplish the desired effect in mo-
ment.
1t is generally accepted that either
Bashor or Sells will be the nominee. OF
Bashor's candidacy there is no question
He says that he is candidate and is
not ashamed to admit 1t. Neither does
there seem to be any doubt as to Sells
Willingness to accept should hs bs able