The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1899-07-15
No Chance to Win With a Radical
Candidate
AND AN EXTREME PLATFORM
An Alliance With the West Would
Prove Disastrous.
ONLY HOPE IS IN THE EAST
And the Business Men of That Section
Have No Sympathy With the
Free Coinage Cause
Wages Have Increased

Anniston, July 14-(special)-J. ]. Willett
returned yesterday from New York. where
he went to deliver the "long TALK before
the Tammany Hall Society on July 4.
Upon being requested to give his views
upon the political outlook, he said that,
speaking as a pronounced bimetallist the
democratic party had no chance whatever
to win in 1900 with q radical candidate upon
an extreme platform that practically there
was no silver sentiment in the north and
the east, and that the business men in that
portion of the country had no sympathy
with the free silver idea.
Mr.. Willett further said that it was in
the large cities where Mckinley received his
crushing majorities in 1895; that since that
time hundreds of thousands of men who
were then out of employment have received
employment and their wages have been ad-
vanced two or three times within the last
twelve months; that it would be folly under
these circumstances to make free silver the
leading issue in 1900 and appeal to these
working men to support it. If so, the ma
jorlties against it would be even more
crushing than in 1896
Western Alliance Disastrous
He also said that the alliance of the south
with the west had been disastrous to the
democratic party and that all of the coun-
try west of the Mississippi river, not in
cludng the southern states, had gone back
into the republican party by large majori-
ties, leaving only three small states with
combined electoral vote of twelve in num-
ber which could be depended upon in free
silver campaign. He also stated that while
in New York an authorized interview with
Senator Jones of Nevada appeared in the
New York World, stating that free silver
would not and could not be the leading is
sus in the next campaign, inasmuch as the
senats w",l7 he Overwhelmingly republican
for tne next six years, and there were other
issues oyershadowing it. Mr.. Willett also
noticed it as a curious coincidence that
while the west was turning to the republi-
can party, the east was turning back to the
democratic party; that in Greater New
York, with 5,50O0OO population. for the first
time in its history there was not a single
republican congressman from this district
that Baltimore, which had been held by the
republicans, had lately been carried by the
democrats by sweeping majorities. These
democratic victories in the east, however,
were not due to its friendliness to silver
anxious for Antitrust Platform
lie said he found the democrats of the
north and east very anxious to line up with
the democrats of the south on the tariff
reform, antitrust and other old-fashioned
doctrines but that it wouA be simply i'm
possible for them to unite a free silver
campaign. He further said that If the
party desired to win, it must first secure
harmony. and that it was noticeable
fact that every republican paper in the
north was advising the democrats to nomi-
nate Mr. Bryan and adopt free silver as
the campaign issue, when they knew that
the campaign would practically be at an
end as soon as the convention adjourned.
He also said that the democrats of the
east admitted the inadequate banking IA
cilities in the south, and expressed a de-
she and wish that these should be ina
proved, especially in the agricultural COM
munities.
Hc commended Senator Morgan's inter
view statesmanlike, and said that Sem
ator Morgan was always in advance of his
party in mental acumen, and SO it would
prove in this campaign.
Party Should Retreat
AS to the advisabilty of the democratic
party retreating from its position in 1896,
he said prudent man, as well as a party,
will retreat from any position he or 1t
cannot successfully maintain; that the re-
publican party retreated from the force
bill after making ii party issue and nearly
enacting it into law, because ii saw it
would ruin that party, if persisted in, and
nothing has been heard of the force bill
since; that this retreat from the force bill
by the republican party, instead of injur-
ing that party, strengthened and saved It,
He said the democracy of New York would
pfoba bly, present the name of Judge Van
Wyck TO the nation as a man upon whom
all could unite: that Judge Van Wycks
phenomenal race against a military hero
like Roosevelt had attrac ted the attention
of the whole country; and, besides being
a southern man, it was thought he could
carry New York against Mckinley.