The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-03-26

candldate before the people of Butte,
he was handsomely elected to the office
of city treasurer Mr. Kirk has been a
candidate; defeat was his lot. These
are among the considerations which
warrant the Standard in the expression
of the opinion that no citizen will pre-
fer Mr. Kirk to Mr.. Mccarthy on the
proposition that there is real benefit
for Butte therein, or economy in expen-
ditures, or superior tact in administra-
ton, or better assurance of local gov
eminent on a higher plane either as to
moral aspects or business interests.
This is the true measure of the local
| issues" involved in the Butte campaign;
the newspaper howl raised by Mr.. Nc
Carthys enemies whereby they seek to
make it appear that they are better
men and more honest or more compe-
tent, alters no fact and influences the
judgment of no citizen who carries his
five senses with him when he goes to
the polls. AS has been said both of the
city conventions that put candidates in
the field framed other than local issues
INTO their platforms. The republicans
praised the Mckinley administration
they expressed their "admiration and
approval of the embalmed- beef ex-
plot conducted last year by President
Mckinley and Secretary Alger They
also declared that expansion and the
kindred evils that are the sequel of the
administrations policy are things
which the Butte goldbugs like. These
republicans were mindful of Santiago,
but they conveniently forgot Helena. It
was policy for them to be silent re-
specting Montana's senatorial crime:
the republican-convention managers
We're counting on Clark campaign mon
ey which they mournfully realize now
they're not going to get. These Butte
republicans worked on the theory that
the job-lot sale of republican legislators
to w. A. Clark was a little thing that
cuts no figure in their kind of politics.
On the contrary, the democratic con-
Vention in Butte went on record with a
singing denunciation of the Clark
crime. 1t warmly commended the Butte
democrats in the legislature who are
known to have refused Clarks brides;
it rebuked the briber and the bribed.
And this was democratic city conven-
ton respecting the integrity of whose
makeup even the Clark organs had
nothing to say in criticism. 1t was rep
resentative of Butte democracy; its de-
nunciations are the faithful record of
local democratic opinion. Butte is the
alleged home of w. A. Clark. Butte is
the major part of the county that casts
twenty-five per cent of all the demo-
cratic votes polled in Montana. In
view of the fact that Clark bribery has
brought Montana into contempt up and
down the nation, it was fitting that, at
the earliest opportunity, the democratic
organization in Butte should furnish to
the people who live there an opportu-
nifty to say to the American people
whether, for their part, they approve
or deplore the villainy with which this
state has been unfairly branded.
BY the way, another political element
in Butte is to be taken into account. 1t
is the remnant of what used to be
L he sill
it is the present-day Butte Inter Noun |
tain party. 1t took the measure of its |
strength at last autumn's election,
when it polled less than seven per cent
of the vote of Silver Bow county. The
Inter Mountains party held a city con-
vention the other day. It nominated no
and this platform is political curios-
ity. In print, it is nineteen lines long.
Eight of these, in form of preamble, re-
mark that the Butte election is purely
OF local significance. yet the remaining
eleven lines-the only declaratory part
of the platform-deal exclusively with
a matter of national import; they are a
rhetorical attack on the so-called silver
republicans in the Legislature who. be-
cause of circumstances which Mr.. Man
tie wasn't rich enough to control, failed
to vote for him for senator. The Inter
Mountain party's convention placed on
file no protests against Clark bribery.
The Inter Mountain ITSELF during the
senatorial contest, did what it could to
abet Clark in the purchase of the legis-
lature. 1t is now the evangel of the
gold-republican ticket in Butte; it has
crowded the Miner out and taken first
place as the organ of the Clark-repub-
iiCan city ticket. This, then, is the
anomaly-the Inter Mountain party de-
nounced the so-called silver-republicans
who sold to Clark whereuDOn tho linton