The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1910-05-12

public, which was very undesirable
at that time, as many of the Mckinley
men from the West were for free sill
yer, and Mr.. Mckinley and his friends
did not want to take any chances with
the Western delegates.
81 found Senator Lodge in the
rooms of the Massachusetts delega-
ton, and calling his aside, | showed
him one of the original drafts of the
plank, with all the alterations on the
copy, under pledge that there should
be no publicity. Senator Lodge said
to me, That plank is all right, there
is only one change that | would sug-
gest and that is to eliminate the
have preserved, you will see the
words and unlimited after the word
free and before the words coinage
of silver scratched out, and the pen
ciled notation, out, suggestion of
Senator Lodge
Complaint OF Lodge.
Senator Lodge asked me if he
could have copy of the plank to
show to some of the members of the
Massachusetts delegation, who were
disturbed by the reports that the word
gold had not gone into the platform,
and on the explicit promise that there
would be no publicity, a stenograph-
er in the rooms of the delegation, was
allowed to make a copy of the plank,
which was given to Senator Lodge.
THAT evening, Senator Lodge call
ed in the correspondents of the Bos-
ton papers, and gave them copy of
the gold plank which | had given
him, and he said to them, This is the
plank that | am going to advocate in
the convention giving the correspon-
dents to understand that he had writ
ten the declaration himself
Next morning (Tuesday) the Bos-
ton papers published the gold plank,
giving Senator Lodge full credit for its
authorship, and a few days later, he
was introduced to an audience at
Harvard University as the author OF
the gold plank, and he made no de-
NAL
1t was Senator Lodge who showed
copy of the plank to Senator Plat
which was the first time the New
York Senator had seen it or knew
that the word gold was included. Sen
ator Plat declared himself satisfied
with the wording of the plank, which
was as near as he came to participant
ing in its composition so far as his
tory and the existing documents show
An original draft of the plank is
still preserved, showing all the pen
ciled Examinations and alterations
made during the conferences. Time
has dimmed the typewriter parts, but
the penciled emendations still stand
out as clear as when originally writ
| ten. 1t reads as follows:
I'VE are unalterably opposed to ev-
cry measure calculated to debase our
| currency, or impair the credit of our
country We are therefore. opposed
to the free (and unlimited-these last
two words are scratched out and a
penciled notation says, out. sugges-
ton Senator Lodge) coinage of sill
yer except by international agreement
and until such agreement can be OBJ
tanned, we believe the existing (gold
this word is written in penciD stan
dard should be preserved-the type
written word maintained is scratched
out and the word preserved is writ
ten in pencil above it, We favor the
use of silver as currency, but to the
extent only as it's parity with GOLD
can be maintained-(this last sen
tence is written in pencil)
THE Republican party caused the
enactment of the law providing for the
presumption of specie payment in 1879
since then, every dollar has been gooC
as gold. We favor all measures de
signed to maintain inviolably tn,
money of the United States, whethe
coin or paper, at the present standard
the standard OF the most enlightened
nations on earth"
The World "GOld."
1t was the word gold" inserted be
tween the words existing and standar,
that caused the greatest dissension il
the conference on the Friday the planl
was adopted. From the statements o
those who were there, and from tn
documents which have been preserved
1t is clearly shown that to Mr. Kohl
saat belongs the credit for gettin
that word into the plank On Thurs
day night the words existing stand
ard" had been agreed upon, but tn
word gold was not there, and Mr.. Nc
Kinley had given his approval to tn
plank as it then stood.
1t was Alexander Revell of Chicag,
who, knowing how strongly M
Kohlsaat was committed to a positiy
endorsement of the gold standar,
telegraphed to him Thursday after
noon, telling him that If he wante
to see the word gold 20 in. he had be
| ter hurry to St Louis. Mr. Kohlsai
} arrived there on Friday, An eye-wi
} ness tells the story of what happene
then;