The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1910-05-12
GOLD PLANK OF 1896
Senator Redfield Proctor s
Part in Important Poll
teal Episode
A CONTROVERSY REVIVED
Claims of Senator's Lodge and Platt
Not Substantlated by Facts-Stren-
nous Republican Convention.

The recent death of Ex-senator
Thomas c. Plat of New York, has re-
vived the controversy over the author
ship of the gold plank of the Repub-
1ican national platform of 1896 In
the New York Evening Post of last
Saturday appears an article on the
subject which tells of the part taken
by Senator Redfield Proctor, of this
State, and in letter to the editor of
this paper. EX-Gov. Fletcher ID.
Proctor declares that it corroborates
exactly his fathers account of the
episode. The full text of the article
follows:
Friends of the late Senator Tom
Plat, who are seeking to extol him
as the instigator and author of the
famous gold standard" plank in the
Republican party platform of 1896, APP
parently are laboring under a mistak-
en- idea of the actual facts in connec-
ton with the drafting of this partic-
ular clause in the platform.
The gold" plank was the product
of the Middle West, with one Eastern
voice in the conference, and that voice
was not the voice of Tom Plat, nor
yet of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of
Massachusetts. Many of the men who
participated in that conference are
still living. and their recollections re-
garding it are as clear as though it
had been an event of yesterday, in
stead of fourteen years ago. They re-
member the hours of troubled discus
sion, and of labored arguments that
lasted over four days before the
wording of this plank was finally
agreed upon, but none of them re-
members that the voice of Senator
Plat or Senator Lodge was heard in
the conference chamber They were
not there; they were not even in st.
Louis until it was all over.
The gold" plank, as it finally APP
peared in the Republican platform,
was finished on Friday night, the 18th
of June, 1896; it was telegraphed
TO William Mckinley at his home In
Canton, O., On the following day, and
on the same day was approved by
him. The men who were concerned
in the drafting of this plank were
Mark Hanna and Myron 4. Herrick
of Ohio, Henry C. Payne of Wiscon-
sin, William r. Merriam of Minnesota,
II G.Il
Charles G.. Dawes and Herman H..
Kohlsaat of Chicago There are doc
uments extant to prove this, and to
disprove the claims made by Senator
Platts friends and by Senator Lodge,
that they were the chief proponents
of gold plank.
According to their own published
statements, neither Senator Lodge nor
Senator Plat arrived in st. Louis un-
til Sunday, June IA. and it was not
until the following day that Senator
Lodge had his first glimpse of the
plank. When he did see it, and was
given a copy. at his earnest solicita-
rtion, it was under the pledge of Sc
crecy, for the sponsors of this I'M
equivocal endorsement of the gold
standard were fearful lest it's prema-
ture publication would stampede the
advocates of the free coinage of sill
Ner, of whom there were many, partic-
ularly in the Western delegations. Yet
despite this pledge given, the Boston
newspapers of Tuesday morning print
ed the plank in it's exact wording
and the leak" was charged to Sena-
tor Lodge
ii. ii. KOhlsaat's Story.
Concerning this historic event, II
II. Kohlsaat, publisher of the Chica-
go Record-Herald, had this to say
when he was told OF the claims which
were being made by the Eastern men;
"On Monday, at 10 o'clock, Senator
Lodge went to Mr.. Hanna's room il
The Lindell Hotel. and, without any
preliminaries, he stated in rather posi-
tive terms to Mr.. Hanna that the Eas