Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1903-08-27
IRONTON. MO-. THURSDAY, AUGUST 27, 1903.
Washington Correspondence.

weeks visit to the. State of New
Jersey. l visited many points in
the State and talked with a num-
ber of the leading Democrats.
talked with men who were true to
the ticket in the years 1896 and
1900 and with Democrats of the old
Cleveland regime. In this way
came very near getting a correct
consensus of opinion and a clear
estimate of political conditions in
that State. | found out some
things not generally known to the
public, and some things that the
Democrats of the country ought to
know. In the first place ascer-
tanned beyond all cavil, beyond
preadventure of doubt, that there
is a Grover Cleveland propaganda
actively at work all over the East.
| learned it from the lips of man
high up in the councils of that
propaganda, man who declares
that Cleveland is the only man who
can carry the East, that he is a
candidate and that this game is
being played for the purpose of
again placing the name of Cleve-
land at the head of the Democratic
ticket. This man, my informant,
formerly was in the United States
Senate. He does otprefer Cleye-
land personally. He does not like
him. He prefers another man, but
he says that Cleveland is the only
man who can carry the States of the
East that we must have in order to
win. He says that Cleveland has
built up a certain class of voters in
the East, an independent class, the
"commuter" class who live in the
small towns of Jersey and all of
whom have money and are the
pharisees, the holier-than-thou of
politics, and who will not vote for
any man who is identified with any
political organization, and that
those are the men who are clamor-
ing for the denomination of Mr..
Cleveland, and that we will see the
entire East on fire for Mr.. Cleve-
land before the next convention
meets. All this may be SO and it
may not. I found very little of
this sentiment among some of the
other so-called "reorganizers" to
whom l talked during my trip in
the State of Jersey. Those mon
were divided among several whose
names have been mentioned as the
most available man for the Demo-
cratic leader in the campaign of
| 1904, all of them acceptable to the
element which left the party in
those years when the party needed
them so badly, but hardly a man
acceptable to the men who re-
mained staunch and true to the
Iparty, the great bulk of the Demo-
cratic voters in those States. Ibid
find, however, when | visited the
lefty of New York, that the state
ment made to me by the distingu-
ished gentleman concerning the
, i, Cleveland propaganda and it's
activity was absolutely correct. |
found that William G. Whitney
was one of the men actively en-
gagged in fostering the thing, that
the Civic Federation, with Mark
Hama at it's head and Ralph Easley
as Secretary, was another of the
forces that was pushing this ''good
thing" along. They are now at
work employing men to boom and
boost the Cleveland game. One of
those men is my personal friend
and saw and talked to him, and
he admitted the whole thing. Now
then, whether this is con the level"
and they are really in earnest con-
cerning Cleveland and so blinded
by the glamor Of money that they
cannot see the utter futility Of
again trying to place his name on
a Democratic ticket, or whether,
as suggested some time ago, this
is simply an attempt to conjure
with the name of Cleveland until
the rank and file of the party, the
true Democrats of the country, in
disgust and desperation cry out to
the gilded leaders OF the East,
"Give us anybody but Clev eland," "
and they then present to them the
real choice of this element, cannot
definitely be decided at this time.
My own opinion, from all | have
seen, inclines strongly to belief in
the latter proposition, for | can
not understand how sane Demo-
Gratis or men calling themselves
Democrats can believe that the
name of Grover Cleveland can
again sway a Democratic National
Convention.
CHARLES A. EDWARDS.