Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 June 1908 — WHAT A CONTRAST. [ARTICLE]

WHAT A CONTRAST.

The contrast between the republican convention that will assemble in Chicago to-day, and the democratic national convention that will assemble at Denver on July 7th, is very striking in more ways than one. Out of a total of 980 delegates 'to the republican convention there were contests filed in 229 cases; 10 of these were abandoned, and out of the remaining 291, 216 were decided for "my candidate” Taft and three for J. B. Poraker of Ohio. There are 1,008 delegates to the m Denver convention and out of the whole number there are so far but 17 contests, and there are fewer than 100 delegates yet to select at this time. Personal animosities and jealousies are cropping out at every turn at the Chicago convention, and it looks now as though it will be impossible to placate the various warring factions. But there is no one of these factions so ignorant that it does not know that if they do not hang together they will T hang separately, and it behooves them to spare no effort to harmonise their seemingly incompatible differences. And that, in the event of their patching up a truce, the same interests that have always controlled the party In the past will compel a compliance with their request, is not to be doubted, and no one knows better than these fellows that It will be an absolute waste of time for them to attempt to get anything from the Denver convention. This covey of cormorants are the quarry that the Denver convention is going to pursue, and with an excellent prospect of capturing the entire bunch.

THE REPUBLICAN WINNINGS.

The New York Sun has the "queer” editorial which is copied in this article. It is shrewd, and'*tor many people a commanding error as to the campaign of 1896. The Sun says:

"It must not be forgotten that to the prescient initiative of Republicans of the Empire State 12 years ago was due that movement within the party which enlisted it squarely and unalterably for the gold standard. Because of New York’s timely action the real issue became the only issue, the campaign of 1896 took thd" unexpected and triumphant course, and the victory of McKinley and Hobart preserved the nation’s financial honor and insured for a long time the material prosperity of our people. We are impelled to this reminiscence by the impressive demand es Nicholas Murray Butler, Joseph H. Choate and other distinguished and patriotic Republicans of this state for such a declaration by the Chicago Convention next week as will pledge the party to the maintenance of what is even more Important than the gold standard, more vitally essential to the preservation of our institutions than an honest measure of values.” A long study of the campaign of 1896 has stimulated publicity of a prevailing conviction that the Democrats were cheated out of the Presidential election in that year. It was not a gold -triumph. Time has softenel asperities enough, and removed so much of fearsome sentiment that it is frequently heard now that the election was turned from the Democratic ticket by frauds that were known of at the time, but the record of which could not be put in proof. It is amazing to reflect on the parts that have been played in the national elections of this republic. Ouly a few in the lives of present old men now living have been absolutely fair. The monumental fraud was that of 1 876, and the close call on the integrity of our Government in general gave the electors a shock, and placed them in a condition of nervousness from which they have not 0 recovered. Had it not been for the great scandal of 1876, so close behind, James G. Blaine might have been declared elected in 1884. It has long been well understood that high and mighty business men and financiers, especially in New York, undertook to remove all doubt more or less arbitrarily, and award the election to Grover Cleveland. They did not want another Presidential malfeasance. The best judgment of students was that a repetition of anything like the performance of 1876-7 was to throw the country into bloodshed, and possibly dissolution. That there have been taints on Presidential elections since then, there la no reasonable doubt. The assertion that the election of the Republican ticket in 1896 “preserved the nation’s financial honor and assured for a long time the material prosperity” is merely brag. Congress met, but did nothing to promote a gold standard. It declared for one, in the abstract, like a party convention might have done, but had it not been for the digging out unknown stores of gold the Republicans would have put the country on a silver basis many years ago. They would have been obliged to do so. Their leaders used to boast that if the country had to go to silver the Democrats

should not be the rescuers, but they (the Republicans) would give the people silver, and plenty of It. This, however, did not have to come to pass. The great question of financial and coinage took care of Itself, as doubtless It would had Bryan and a Democratic Congress been elected. The talk about the impressive demand of Nicholas Murray Butler, Joseph H. Choate and others Is mere stump speaking. They thought and talked, but what did any of them ever do toward the results?

What can the country expect from Mr. Taft and such Republican Congresses as the country has elected in late years? What has there been in the preliminary campaign—the preface to the ugly and taorally unpromising combat that is to take place next fall? So far the proceedings seem to have been a mere

commercial scramble for convention votes, and a management of the organization that elicits the severe criticism of old-line Repuhiicana as well as Democrats. Who knows the best way to get the delegates, and who will take the chances on it? That has been the whole question so far. Talk about another retributive year in the affairs of the Union! There has not been real, honest retribution for these many years.—Cincinnati Enquirer.