The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1900-10-18
WASHINGTON.
r..., our Rernlar Correspondent.
Washington, Oct. Id, 1900.


Washington, Oct. Id, 1900.
Those whose votes cannot be
houCht must be coerced into voting
nr Mckinley. That is the motto
under which the republican managers
are working now. How it works in
some cases may be judged by what a
nrominent drummer said to Wash
no,on friend: "Nineiy-fve per cent.
of The commercial travellers in the U.
6 and about 100 per cent of those
Who we're commercial travellers until
the on rush of trusts drove them from
the road, will vote tor Bryan and
Stevenson. This is in confidence, so
far as my name is concerned. | have
10 appear as a Mckinley man. | am
one of the few of the once large army
Of travelling statesmen whose services
were considered valuable enough to
be retained by the assimilating com
bipe that wiped out our old firm. And
I've got wife and babies to support.
want to hold my job. So / say
Mckinley and appear to like it be-
fore the trust spies. But wait until /
get into the voting booth. Wait un.
III the thousands of 'has been com.
mercial travellers and the hundreds of
those who still are get behind the cur
tain in the voting places. Won't we
swat EN- at the polls" The secret
ballot makes it possible for the coei-
cion scheme to prove boomerang to
the republican managers, and 1t may
do so. There are probably many who
are like this drummer.
Mr.. Mckinley has given himself up
almost entirely to politics since his re-
turn to Washington, just as he has
been doing in Canton, although the
newspaper men who so to the White
House have been told that he and the
members of the Cabinet have been
very busy studying the French pro-
posals as to China and preparing a re-
ply thereto. That is all moonshine.
There was nothing in the French pro-
posals that required half hours con-
sideration as to what the reply of this
country should be. Mr. Mckinley
and his advisers are and have been
studying up schemes to save him from
the defeat which he breads, and fears
because of his knowledge that he has
done things to deserve it.
The McKinleyites are hndlng It
necessary to uncover their imperial
programme to the extent of preparing
the country for the establishment of
mitarlsm through legislation by the
republican Congress for a large in
crease In the standing army. The
War Department made public this
week the annual report of Major Gen
eral John X. Brooke, Commander of
the Department Of the East, which
urges the increase of the regular army
to "enable this nation to maintain the
position in which it now finds itself
placed" The idea is to inform the
people that the proposed increase in
the army is to meet the demands of
the general officers of the
army. 1t is perfectly natural that
army officers should favor an increase
OF the army-it means to them speed
Ter promotion and more opportunities
to win glory; but the fact remains that
the real reason for increasing the army
Is to maintain the imperialism into
which the country is being carried by
the plans of the Mckinley admins
naton.
Our army and navy, according to
official estimates for Congressional ap-
preparations, is going to cost $2oo,-
100000 for the next fiscal year. What
would the voters of the era of Jeffer-
sonlan simplicity have thought of
spending that much money in time of
peace on the war-making branches of
our government?
The coercion republican tactics of
1896 are being repeated upon an
even more extensive scale this year.
In addition to the big trusts, banks
and corporations, the officers o! saw
Ing banks, life insurance companies
and building and loan associations are
having pressure put upon them not
only to use their personal influence to
make votes for Mckinley but to use
.he influence of their patrons to vote
for him.
The Dr ediction that no case involv.