The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1899-06-11
THE TALK AT WASHINGTON.
lnv q al EnWARDsl

(BY Q. A. EDWAhDS.J
Washington, June 7--(Stan Special.)-l
note that Mr.. s. B. Archer, secretary and
treasurer of the tariff commission league
writes to the New York Tribune from
Newark. n j., proposing as the National
republican ticket for next year William
Mckinley and Fitzhugh Lee, and predict
ing success in the South In the event OF
its nomination.
Mr.. Archer has been travelling In the
South recently and says he found there
among business men a strong sentiment
in favor Of the policies OF the republican
party. He says he believes that II inc
proper appeal were made to this sentiment
by placing some popular Southern man on
the next republican presidential ticket IL
would win out.
am sorry to dlspel the delusion under
which Mr.. Archer is laboring. He Is talk
ing through his hat" He has evidently
been up against lot Of Southern goldbugs
and they have stuffed him full OF east
wind
There are lot OF gold men and also
a lot of protection sentiment in the SOUTH
but It is confined to the class who con-
troll large business interests and who are
gold men and protectionlsts for the same
reason that their Northern brethren area
purely selfish one Those men would no
doubt like to see AN attempt made 10
stampede the South 10 the republican
party by whoopla campaign around some
man like Fitzhugh Lee, where sentiment
could get In its work. but they will never
see it.
The bone and sinew Of the South, che
man behind the plow, the wool hat boys
from the forks of the creek and the level
headed business man who does not own
the earth and does not aspire to do so, are
| still true to the democratic party and Its
principles and can not be stampeded by
foolish sentiment into selling their birth
right for a mess OF civil war popularity.
This is aside from the fact that 1t is ex-
tremely doubtful that Fitzhugh Lee would
allow his name to be placed on repub-
lican ticket
Mr.. Archer has another guess coming to
him. There is not now any Southern man
who can make the Southern voters forget
Algerian, Hannaism, McKinleyism, rotten
beef and an absolute sell out to the trusts
and combinations OF the country. The
Southern people don't go back on principle
for a sentiment.
~
1 believe have remarked before
that this administration would find itself
up against hard game over in the Philip
pines before It got through with that little
muss. l wonder what 1t thinks about it
now.
Mckinley is playing dastardly game
can call 1t nothing else. He is willfully,
knowingly allowing hundreds of our SOL
dlers to be killed and die from diseases
over in those Islands simply to try to
prove to the people of this country that he
was right in asking for standing army
OF one hundred thousand men. He stub
bornly refuses to call out the thirty-Ays
thousand men authorized by law, in order
to prove that he was correct.
II it Is his intention to crush those reo-
pie, why does he not call for those men
and send sufficient force over there TO
do it? BY refusing to do so he is only
prolonging the lighting and killing our
men. II he tries to recruit the army Of
General Otis by taking all the regulars
from this country and sending them over
there he will make bid for a whole bunch
OF bother with the Indians. Aside from
that fact, the way things look in Cuba
Just now We may need few more thous.
and men down there to kill Insurgents.
The trouble with Mckinley is, as have
frequently remarked, that he is backbone
less and the victim of an overweening am
bition to do something almost miraculous
in the way OF military feat In that case
what are the lives of few thousands Of
our young fellow citizens to the ambitions
of this modern Napoleon? VIII the reople
forget this?
There are loud, deep and broad curses
going up over the way in which Mr.. Nc
Kinley has let down the bars of civil SER
Vice and let in the spoilsmen. after all his
professions of devotion to the cau,e n,
civil service reform, It is a thing for
which his friends will be making anoIo-
9'es next year and they will be made in
vain.
1t is a step backward to the mean. prao-
teal politics OF twenty years ago. and
about as logical as would be the abandon
ment in big cities, OF electric lighting for
sa7 lighting or OF electric cars for ons-
horse oobtails, 1t is bad politics, too. for
the people at large arc not in favor =,
the spells doctrine. The only peonIs !,
taVor OF 1t are lot of professional pettv
politicians who will be seduced from Low.
atty to Mckinley the moment they thin,
his star is waning.
The action is direct insult 10 the mil.
lion or more Independents who voted IA,
him on principles OF government OF which
the merit system is part. His recently
promulgated order is sheer at decanov
ana intelligence, an invitation to lust t,s
sort of lneompetency which caused all tho
scandal in the war department during tbo
early days of the Spanish war. These 5ooo