Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-10-13
WORKING UP SGARES
Ohio Politicians Have Made Records
in This Industry.
FEATURE OF PRESENT CAMPAIGN
Some Of the Party Feuds Which
Have Become Historic
DOUBT AS TO THE RESULT
DOUBT AS TO THE RESULT
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.

Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
COLUMBUS, Ohio October u, 1899
Factions and scares are the chief feature
| OF the Ohio campaign this year. Just at
| present 1 am not going to give an opinion
| on the prospects A little later will be a
| better time to judge. But it is worth noting
that there is nothing new in the existence
| of these factions and in the scares. There
| has been a republican party in Ohio for
, something more than forty years, and 1t
| has been a rare season that did not pro-
| duce crop of fractional differences. The
| democrats have had a party under some
| name or another for century and the
| most interesting chapter in its political his
| tory is the Quarrels and rivalries of the
chiefs Of the party. The wings in their
| time had the same troubles. 1t would be
| unusual to come into the buckeye state
| and not hear the old stagers give their
| "reminiscences of the way parties were
| split in the past. Much of 1t is instruc-
| tive.
| The fractional struggles are inheritances
| from one generation to another like the
| Kentucky feuds or the Italian vendettas.
| The bittereSt division among the republic
| cans was just after the civil war, when
John Sherman beat Robert C. Schenck for
| the United States Senate. Sherman held
| his supremacy as a party leader for thirty
years, yet he never had united party in
| his own state. General Schenck disap-
peared from the field of active politics, but
| an anti-Sherman following survived. 1t
was strong enough and virulent enough to
| defeat Senator Sherman's presidential pros
poets either by splitting the Ohio delega-
ton to the national conventions or by
showing the country that the support of
| his own state was not united and sin
cere. Senator Sherman suffered more than
he q trna wit H.
| In his own political household. This is all
political history.
Character of the Opposition.
Sometimes the opposition was simply from
ambitious and younger rivals in whose
pathway he stood, and sometimes from the
resentment of disappointed office seekers.
He always had the best element of the
republicans in the state with him, but the
popular enthusiasm was never on his side.
This was the lever with which his enemies
We're able to work.
1t has passed out of mind that Senator
Mark Hanna was for many years an active
lieutenant of Senator Sherman's at ma
tional conventions, and in trying to inf1u-
ence state delegations. He never achieved
national prominence in this work. 1t was
only when the Mckinley tidal wave came
along and he found himself in the pilots
boat on the crest of the wave that he be-
came leading figure. The transition was
natural enough because in the internal tur-
MOL in Ohio the Sherman following had to
some extent coalesced with the growing
Mckinley following. The anti-Sherman in
fluence had gone to Governor Foraker,
whose first effort to displace Mr.. Sherman
in the Senate had failed Just similar
effort OF Gov. Charles Foster had failed
fifteen years earlier. For time the fac
lions remained as the Foraker and McKin-
ley wings of the party. The ST. Louis con-
vention in 1896 wiped out these distinctions
and there was something of a fractional for
m line IIGrt EllIf h1 tot
Now the rivalries are generally described
as Hanna and anti-Hanna factions, though
sometimes the dissatisfied element is called
the kurtZ-BuShnell crowd. Senator For
aker is rather fortunate than otherwise in
not having his name identified with d dis
tinctive faction.
The democrats have likewise had their
factions, though this year there is less of
this spirit apparent on the surface than
formerly. In national way democratic
leaders who dreamed of the presidency
were just unlucky Senator Sherman.
George Fl. Pendleton, at the height of his
brilliant career as a champion. of unlimited
greenbacks never got supper; from his
own state which made him real preSiden-
tial candidate. Allen G.. Thurmans disap-
pointments are better known because he
held stronger position in the party and
with the country, and the defeat of his
ambition through the treachery of his Ohio
enemies was historic. | remember at the
Chicago convention which nominated Mr.
Cleveland the old Romans magnificent de-
spair Candidate John r. Mclean is sup
posed to have had hand in that defeat
and the Ohio democracy was for years
divided on this account. Nevertheless any
observer is bound to admit that Mr. Nc
Lean seems to have been pretty successful
in keeping the inheritance of those old
fights from becoming a disturbing element
in his present canvass.
Rivalries Among Democrats
Usually the Ohio democrats have been as
sharply divided on the issues as on the
rivalries of their leaders. Back in the cam
pagn of 1879. when Governor William AL
len made soft money the leading issue and
had impregnated the Ohio democracy with
it. Senator Thurman, who was his nephew.
took the stump for the ticket on party
grounds. He did not then exactly recant
| the principles of the old hard money
democracy to which he had held all his
life. but he analysed the language of the
platform and undertook to show that it
means something else than words said 1t
was during that campaign an interesting
sight to watch the old Roman addressing
meeting of dyed-in-t he-yToo democrats,
putting his own construction on the plat
form and winding up by abusing the re-
pubiicans on general principles.
Another democrat of the Thurman type
was General Durbn Ward. He was even
more old-fashioned than the old Roman
in his democracy He would make argu-
ments in favor of the gold standard, using
his cane to duplicate Garfield's yardstick
illustration, would derde the soft money
arguments at every point. and then would
exhort his hearers to vote the democratic
| ticket. General Ward was sturdy figure
in the national conventions. where he
usually occupied the same position toward
his party that he did on the stump. The
last time he was delegate was at Chi
cago. when he filled the corridors of the
Palmer House with his announced purpose
| of going into the convention and raising
| h over the treachery which was rampant
| in the Ohio delegation. If he were alive
| today he would probably be on the stump
| denouncing the free silver heresy in the