Democratic Sentinel, Volume 21, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 February 1897 — POLITICS OF THE DAY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

POLITICS OF THE DAY

M’KINLEY’S TRIBULATIONS, Considering that the change of Just 20,250 votes in lmlf a dozen States last November would have made William J. Bryan, instead of McKinley, President of the United States, the friends of the latter are acting in a decidedly reckless fashion even before their man, who came so dangerously near defeat, is inaugurated. The cabinet, as far as it has been selected, suits nobody—not even the great Hanna, who finds himself in the most remarkably unexpected quandary of not knowing "where lie is at” in the curious deal that has been going on. John Sherman, who is to be the Secretary of Stale, resigned his seat in the Senate at the suggestion of McKinley and Hanna, beyond a doubt, the expectation being that Governor Buslinell would appoint the latter to the vacancy without asking any questions, and now that it is definitely announced that lie will not do so unless certain .stipulations as to the future management of the Republican party in Ohio are entered into, the President-elect and the man who elected him do not know what to do, and while they are hesitating as to what course to adopt, the political cauldron, stirred by Foraker, threatens to boil over and make the success of the Democrats in the State once again certain. Then the giving of the second place of importance in the Cabinet to Gage, the Chicago mugwump national hanker, has angered the Republican workers, not only in the great State of Illinois, but in the entire West and Northwest. He has. since his selection, too, committed the serious error of talking foo much, and the discovery that he was not always a conservative financier has made some of the leaders blurt right out that McKinley was buncoed into giving him the Secretaryship of the Treasury. Then the picking out of that chronic millionaire office-seeker, Russell A. Alger, for the head of the War Department, has not satisfied either the formidable Republican opposition to him in his own State of Michigan, or the MeKinleyites in the neighboring States of Wisconsin, Indiana and Minnesota, where Cabinet timber abounds.

Coming further East the Cabinet selections that are understood to have been made, and to he beyond the likelihood of recall, are scarcely more satisfactory than the Western ones to the party leaders and workers. Ex-Gover-nor Long of Massachusetts, who is supposed to be slated for the naval .portfolio, or possibly for the Postmaster Generalship, has been out of politics forquitea long time, and he is not credited with that whole-souled sympathy for those who run party primaries and caucuses “for their health,” which the situation is supposed to require. As for New York, it is putting itself in shape, under Thomas C. Platt’s persuasive manipulation, to he the sharpest thorn, next to Ohio, in the flesh of the. Republican President-elect. McKinley would like to take somebody from this State into his cabinet, hut those whom the Easy Boss is willing to indorse are distasteful to the Stroug-Brookfleld-Warner - Miller - Milholland crowd, which actually lias some influence at Canton, and whoever is satisfactory to the latter is, of course, objectionable to the gentleman who will do business In Senator David B. Hill’s seat after the fourth of next month in the Capitol at Washington. A Southern man and a Pacific coast man are also wanted for the cabinet, hut the task of finding them is a hard one. The hunt is still going on and it is evident that no really first-class man will he obtained from either section and the McKinley administration will begin its existence with little strength at its head and with all the conditions favorable for an early internecine party row.—New York News.

The Presidential Result. By the official count McKinley is conceded and declared to have received 271 electoral votes and Bryan 176. Acquiescence In the popular will is the corner stone of our Government, and, much as Democrats may deplore the temporary delusion or panic of last November, they submit as good citi> zens, though they will try conclusions again in the year 1900. The beginning of the nineteenth century brought good fortune to the Democracy, when Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr, outparty leaders, overcame in 1800 the Federal party led by Adams and Hamilton, and it may be that the twentieth century will be ushered in by a similar triumph, won by the intelligence and progressive spirit of our people. The election of McKinley, in spite of all the agencies that worked for him—the banking power, the newspaper syndicates, the coercion of the poor by the rich, the defection of many of our chiefs, the hostility of the administration—is by a very narrow majority. It is true, it would have required a change of forty-eight electoral votes to have elected Bryan. But most of these fortyeight were given to McKinley by narrow pluralities. Kentucky would have given Bryan thirteen electoral votes had 150 more Democrats there voted for him. One thousand more ballots would have given Bryan nine electors In California. Another thousand would have given him Oregon’s four electoral votes. Two thousand more Bryan Democrats would have carried Delaware’s three electors. And other States were nearly as close. In fact, a change of 20,000 votes would have defeated McKinley and elected William J. Bryan, of Nebraska. About I.yman P. Gave. The attitude announced by the president of the First National Bank of Chicago, Mr. Lyman J. Gage, as to the redemption of the greenbacks, by putting out a great national loan of from two hundred to six hundred millions of dollars, payable, with interest, in gold, has startled some of those people who voted for “McKinley and Prosperity” in November. It Is fixed and settled that thi? national bank president Gage is to bb the Secretary of the Treasury,. and

much curiosity is felt to know exactly how far he will insist as a member of McKinley's Cabinet on this particular policy. Some of the McKinley organs, such as the New York Sun. think it very unwise, but others applaud the idea, or are discreetly silent. There lias, however, been sufficient attention directed to this particular bank president by the discussion to bring forward an objection to his appointment as Secretary of the Treasury, which is giving some discomfort to the coterie who have been busied at Canton in putting together McKinley’s •Cabinet. It is in this same vexatious Federal statute of 1780, which declares that “no person appointed to the office of Secretary of the Treasury shall directly or indirectly be concerned in the purchase of any public securities of the United States.” Now, Gage, being a bank president, of course is and has been concerned in the purchase of Government bonds, on which the paper money issued by his bank is based. Has he a right to act in the office of Secretary of the Treasury, or has McKinley a right to appoint him? Cost of a Campaign, That it costs money to run a red-hot political campaign everyone knows, but it is possible that not one in 10,000 ever stops to think of the great expense attending an exciting election. Michigan lias a law which forbids candidates to spend money for the refreshment or entertainment of the people, to hire carriages to bring voters to the polls, or to offer voters money, either to vote or to stay away from the polls. The law also requires all candidates to file sworn statements of the amount of money actually expended in a campaign. The law has a penalty attached of SI,OOO line or two years’ imprisonment, or both, but it is so crudely framed in many respects that the law does not worry the average Candidate or political committee, as its provisions can easily be evaded, and the danger of prosecution in the event of not observing it is not great. The law does not seek to limit the amount of money to be expended, it does not require an itemized statement of money expended, nor does it ask for a statement of the amount expended to secure the nomination. The law, however, has been very generally observed, and it may be that its influence is salutary. Soiye one who has made a careful review of the figures, estimates that the November election cost Michigan in the neighborhood of a half million dollars. The tabulated expenditures of the State committees are placed at $84,481, those of the candidates in the seven Congressional districts were $19,022.44, while the Legislature and county tickets are placed at over $50,000. The cost to the State for printing ballots and manning the 250 voting precincts is figured at $150,000. These figures do not include the expense of conventions, nor the big sums paid out by the National Committee for speakers, or for the floods of literature which swept through the State, so that the estimate of a half million dollars does not seem exorbitant for the political fun of last year. But if Michigan reached a half million, what must have been expended in States that have no restriction laws?

Now Let Confidence Come. James Wilson, of lowa, professor of agriculture in a college of that State, lias accepted the portfolio of the Agricultural Bureau. With this anuouncement should come a return of prosperity. lowa is a fertile State, and the new Premier of the Crops ought to be fertile in resources. Under liis able administration, we can expect larger ears of corn, bigger grains of wheat, fatter pigs, sweeter apples, oleomargarine which even science cannot detect from genuine butter, and persimmons that will pucker up bad times and make this a great and glorious country. With a prospect that the barns and granaries shall groan beneath the weight of bounteous harvests, how the treasury will he run will be of small importance. We may raise big crops that will delight the fanner—but, unless the people have more money to buy, he is apt to find abundant harvests do not mean bounteous returns—Philadelphia Item.