The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-09-04
Want 20 Know the Strength OF Their
Respective Forces sixty Days Be-
fore the November Election.
MUCH DEPENDS ON RESULT
DATA COLLECTED WILL BE INPOR-
TANT TO THE MANAGERS.
Chicago's Greatest Business Mems Or
SANITATION Almost Unani-
nous for Mckinley.
Special to the indianapolis Journal.

Special 20 the Indianapolis Journal.
CHICAGO. Sept. s.-Both PARTIES are be-
ginning on their sixty-day poll. This poll
Will be made unusually comprehensive. by
the Republicans particularly. AS a rule.
first polls taken in presidential years are
not especially valuable. but the Republican
managers now have reasons for wanting to
make the one just embarked upon complete
If there be weak spots in their armor Il il
their purpose to locate them and ascer-
tain their extent. There is one marked
difference between Democratic and Re-
publican information; in the one case there
is stern effort to get at the facts. whether
they be favorable or unfavorable.- and then
to adopt measures TO best remedy weak
nesses which may be uncovered. On the
other hand, IL seems TO be the underlying
wish and purpose OF the Democrats to 10
cate favorable features and ignore the
unfavorable 1t is the almost unvarying
experience OF those who haye-to report
national politics from the organization
point OF view that advices from Republican
sources are more reliable than those OBJ
tainable from the opposition
The sixty-day polls are OF especial value
as forming a basis for the closer thirty
day poll. upon which managers reach their
final conclusions as to what the vote will
be. Experience has taught that it is al
most impossible TO reach accurate results
in detail on the first trial. but the data coll
lected is of infinite value TO those intrust-
ed with the revision. What the Repub-
l.can managers want to know particularly
and explicitly is what the party has suf-
cred is likely to suffer in actual loss or
votes from alleged dissatisfaction among
negroes, so-called anti-imperialism, alleged
defections due TO collection OF the stamp
tax. antitrust agitation. labor troubles,
the anti-canteen agitation and return OF
Mckinley Gold Democrats 10 their old af-
filiations. There other and minor mat
ters the canvassers will be required TO look
into and report on, but the main points
are included in the foregoing enumeration.
Exact information will also be sought as TO
the extent of the return to Republican al
legiance of Republican farmers who voted
for Bryan four years ago on the free-silver
issue. 1t Is the confident expectation OF
the Republican executive committee that
reinforcement from that single source Will
more than offset assertions, IL any, and
more than make up all losses. They believe
this, but do not absolutely know IL 10 be a
fact When the returns are in from the
poll just started knowledge Will take the
place OF theory. That will be the last week
in this month Another feature on which
exact information is desired far may
be possible is the extent 10 which Populists
in the Western States will vote for Bryan.
This feature of the inquiry will, in de-
gree, lay over and be a part Of the in
yestigation as TO the intentions OF Re
publican farmers who voted for free silver
in 1896. II is a very essential feature OF
the investigation, however, more particu-
larly in States where there are middle-0f-
the-road Populist candidates for local Of
fees. 1t is asserted by Democrats that a
great many druggists who are classed as
Republicans and who are Republicans this
year in local affairs will vote against the
national ticket because Of the stamp tax.
If there be any detection from this source
the poll is expected TO show IT,
A matter which is giving concern is the
endless-chain protest against Mckinley or
ganized by the temperance people, who OBJ
ject TO Mckinley becaufe he has not taken
sides with them actively in their hight
against the canteen in the army This
endless-chain business IS a novelty in poll
tics, and ii has caused some speculation,
because ii is not known where IL viii end
and how much damage IL Will do. The Re-
pubiicans criticise the course taken by
the temperance men in this respect and
characterize them as unreasonable In max
ing target or a man whose personal life
IS as near Dlameless as II Is possible for
mans TO be.
The Chicago Board OF Trade which. up
to four years ago, was very much split up
on politics, is almost as unanimous for Nc
kinley this year as IL was In 1896. The
Board OF Trade is the strongest and richest
business organization outside OF the New
York Stock Exchange. 1t has member
ship of nearly 1900 and is I'm close touch
with tens of thousands and l might almost
say hundreds OF thousands OF grain grow
ers and merchants throughout the vast
wheat and corn area of the West. In the
course of a recent paper Mr.. George r.
Stone, secretary OF the board. had para
graph which fittingly illustrates the spir's
prevailing in that body. The ey~re.r. yoi
was enthusiastically Endorsed by " ouestior
and is worth reproduction: There -, -.
placed upon US, said Mr.. Stone,s' -
dreamed OF responsibilities which came on
be avoided, however much we may theos 4
upon gOvernment-its powers, its function
its limitations and precedents I'm it's g.
ministrative experience No nation is e&s
cused, when thrust into the worlds arena,
from active participation in the unfolding
of a worldwide civilization. Commerce has II
its well nigh supreme importance in such
an unfolding. The history of commerce is
the history Of civilization. An hermit ma
ton is now an impossibility. The duties
that confront the nation, even as those
that confront the individual. must not be
shirked. No sagacious merchant can leave
out of his reckoning these incontestable
truths; no historian omit them: no political
economist gainsay them; no American
shut his eyes to their tremendous import.
Commerce follows the flag"
Mr.. Stone, by the way, Is the author OF
the phrase Commerce follows the flag"
He was asked 10 frame a motto for the
Board of Trade on the occasion OF the
peace jubilee two years ago and hit upon
the words quoted. President Mckinley took
them up in speech In Iowa the next day
and gave them national currency.
Among the members of the Chicago
Board OF Trade are twenty or thirty men
from the South who UP 10 four years ago
formed a small but industrious faction on
the board. They were intensely partisan
and always Democratic. They are now
Just as partisan the other way. IL was
amusing to watch one of the number.
George Essex, an ex-Confederate veteran,
roasting a couple OF Grand Army men
from Michigan. who came on the floor dur
ing the encampment with Bryan badges
on their coats. He told them that the
G. A. r. went South forty years ago to give
the people OF that section a lesson in
patriotism but that IL was now his turn
to give them instructions on the same line
and he hoped the sermon which he delfv-
cred would be as effective as the gospel
they carried through the South.