Part 37 (1/2)
”Hotel Ponce de Leon, ”St. Augustine, Fla., ”_March 13, 1888_.
”Hon. S. M. Cullom,
”My dear Sir:--
”I have just received your favor of 9 inst. and confess that I am taken a little by surprise. I had got the impression from various quarters that you did not desire to secure the Illinois delegation, and did not want to be considered a candidate. Acting on this idea _The Tribune_ has been leaning towards Gresham as an available candidate, as you have noticed. However, you have lost no ground by standing in the shade. If I was managing your boom I would keep your name in the background and out of the newspapers as a candidate seeking the nomination until the last. A few strong judicious friends among the Illinois delegation is all you want to watch events and move quickly at the opportune moment, if it arrives.
I should say that on general principles you would be the second choice of any set of Illinois delegates and the chances are all in the direction of some second-choice candidate. Harrison is likely to have a pledged delegation from Indiana, but what good will it do him? Logan had a pledged delegation from Illinois; Sherman, from Ohio; Windom, from Minn.; and Hawley, from Conn. The convention will be largely chiefly actuated and governed by the stability idea. Personal friends.h.i.+p won't count for much in that search for the most available candidate. This you see as clearly as I do.
Whatever Western man the New York delegates (or a majority of them) favor will stand a good chance of getting it. It is almost impossible to figure out a victory without the electoral vote of New York.
Indiana and Connecticut would be absolutely indispensable in the absence of New York. But even then we have doubtful States that voted for Blaine. Michigan, for instance, and the three Pacific Coast States, in case any such man as Sherman, Harrison, or Hawley, who voted against restricting Chinese immigration, should be nominated. And then it remains to be seen what sort of action will be had in Congress on tariff reduction. If we are obliged to go before the people defending the present tariff, that is breeding trust monopolies all over the country, a nomination will not be worth having. High protection is a nice thing for those who pocket it, but not so fascinating to the unprotected cla.s.ses who have to pay the big bounties out of their pockets sold at free trade prices.
All those things must be taken into consideration. I am about leaving Florida for home, either via Atlantic or Was.h.i.+ngton. If the latter, I shall see you when I get there, when we can talk over the whole matter more fully than on paper. All I can really say is, I am peering about in the dark for the strongest candidate, the most available man on an available platform, and even then we shall have desperate hard work to win in the face of the immense losses our party is suffering from the ravages in the rank and file, committed by the prohibitionists. We shall have to face a loss of fifty thousand in New York. How is that to be made good?
and twenty-five to thirty thousand in Illinois and five to seven thousand in Indiana, and thirty thousand in Michigan. How can we stand this loss of blood and men?
”(Signed) J. Medill.”
”Niagara Falls, N. Y., ”_Aug. 5, 1888_.
”My dear Sir:--
”Searching for a cool place I found it here, where I shall remain a few days and then proceed to Kaeters.h.i.+ll Mountain top, which is the best hot-weather place I found last year.
”I take it for granted that none of your friends keep you posted about the secret negotiations going on between Palmer and the Socialistic Labor element for a fusion. You have seen by _The Tribune_ that all the labor element is not disposed to support Palmer, in consideration of his pardoning the imprisoned anarchists.
You may rely on _The Tribune_ ventilating this unholy alliance.
At the same time there are ten thousand to twelve thousand of these socialists who will vote for Palmer and the Democratic ticket in Cook County; and this fusion may with the aid of the prohibitionists cost the Republicans second seats in the Legislature, which is the phase of the matter in which you are specially interested. There is considerable coldness among the Irish Catholics toward Cleveland, but whether it will continue until election night remains to be seen. They think he is too pro-English, but they dislike Harrison.
Blaine was their ideal.
”I have spent a good deal of spare time to point out flaws and tricks in the sugar and whiskey sections of the Mills bill. The latter really opens and invites universal evasion of taxes and the multiplication of small moons.h.i.+ne distilleries; and the former perpetuates the sugar trust profits and affords the public no relief.
”The Republican members of the House did not expose these defects enough. Cannon did well on sugar, but n.o.body dissected the whiskey section which bored gimlet holes into the bottom of every barrel of high wine to let it out without paying a cent of tax. The Democrats are therefore the real free whiskeyites. This ought to be shown up thoroughly in the Senate. Our miserable platform places us on the defensive. The Mills bill places the Democrats on the defensive if it is rightly handled. I do not mean attacking the free wool part of it, for that portion if enacted would do your const.i.tuents certainly ten or twenty times more good than harm, nor the free lumber or free salt or free soap, etc., etc., which would benefit all Illinois; but I mean fraud free sugar, and fraud free whiskey, and a hundred per cent tax on rice--these are the things to hit. On these the Democrats are placed with their noses on the grindstone.
”I have been reading the discussion in the Senate over your resolution in regard to the compet.i.tion of the Canadian railways with our transcontinental railway freight charges. It is well enough perhaps to inquire into the matter, but I have a notion that the sharp compet.i.tion is of great benefit to the ma.s.ses. I know that I am a little heterodox in looking at the interest of the consumers instead of railroad plutocrats, of the millions instead of the millionaires, but I can't help it. Senator Gorman had much to say in his speech about the undue advantage the Canadian roads had over ours by reason of Government subsidies received in constructing the Canadian railways, and to a line of steamers from Victoria to j.a.pan and Hongkong. But his memory failed in the most astonis.h.i.+ng manner to recall and perceive the fact that all the American roads west of the Mississippi to the Pacific have been enormously subsidized by our Government. In fact the subsidies amount to a good deal more than the actual total cost of the construction of the whole of them. For twenty years some of these roads have been plundering the American people by the most outrageous charges, and Congress, the people's representatives, have not lifted a finger to stop the rapacious robbery. And now, when the Canadian road, built by Government subsidies, begins to compete with the American roads built with Government subsidies, the latter who have pocketed hundreds of millions of subsidy spoils and overcharge plunder, appeal to the Senate to protect the scoundrels against a little healthy compet.i.tion, and Senator Gorman pleads for the robbers on the floor of the Senate with tears in his eyes! So whatever extent the competing Canadian roads cause our contiguous roads to lower their freights so much the better for the public. They act just the same as competing waterways. The Grand Trunk, beginning at Chicago and running through Michigan to Sarma; crossing at Niagara Falls and feeding the Lackawanna and Erie to New York; running to Boston through Vermont, etc., and also to Montreal; and the Alden line of steamers carrying cattle to England, as a healthy compet.i.tion with our pooling trunk lines east from Chicago, is of enormous value to Chicago and all the s.h.i.+ppers, cattle-dealers, grain-raises, farmers, and merchants of half a dozen States in the Northwest.
Any interference with its compet.i.tive activity will harm millions of Western people, tending as it will to increase cost of transportation and re-establish trunk line pooling monopoly.
”So the compet.i.tion of the Canadian transcontinental at the Red River and at the '500' ensures cheaper freights for all Minnesota and Dakota, and the effect extends clear down into Nebraska and Iowa. So, too, the Canadian road's rates at its Pacific terminal --Victoria--are exercising a most beneficent and ameliorating influence on the charges of the enormously subsidized Northern Pacific, forcing down to a reasonable rate Pacific Coast; and as it climbs down from its extortionate schedule of charges the Union and Central and Southern and Santa Fe Pacifics will be forced to do likewise. I'd give something handsome to have had the opportunity to reply for thirty minutes to Senator Gorman, to present the other side of the question from the American standpoint. On one point I am in agreement with you, viz.: that the British flag should be removed from this continent. This territory along our northern border should be incorporated into the American Union. It is ridiculous that Uncle Sam should allow a foreign power to hold it.
We have as much need for it and right to it as England has for Scotland. If we had a respectable navy and a supply of fortification guns the problem would be easy of solution, and won't be until then.
”Each day convinces me more and stronger that if we lose this election McKinley--will be the cause. They make the party say in its platform 'Rather than surrender any part of our protective system, the whiskey, tobacco, and oleomargarine excises shall be repealed.' The Democrats are making much capital out of this.
The tax on lumber and on salt are parts of our 'protective system.'
Now the Mc. plank discloses that rather than reduce the tax on lumber, the Rep. party will repeal the tax on oleo b.u.t.ter. How many farmers' votes will that give us? Rather than allow any lowering of the high taxes on clothes, or salt, or lumber or crockery, etc., the tax on whiskey must be repealed, and the old evil era of cheap rotgut and still-houses everywhere shall be restored! Do you really think that position will make votes for us this fall among the farmers? The final outcome will probably turn on the character of the Senate bill, of which I am not sanguine.
About two thousand millionaires run the policies of the Rep. party and make its tariffs. What modifications will they permit the Rep.
Senators to support? We other thirty million of Republicans will have precious little voice in the matter. Turn this over in your mind, and you will see that I am right. Whatever duties protect the two thousand plutocrats is protection to American industries.
Whatever don't is free trade.
”(Signed) J. Medill.”
”The Windsor, N. Y., ”_Nov. 25, 1890_.