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With portraits of Hon. M. A. Hanna, Hon. Warner Mil-
ler, Hon. Garret A. Hobart, Mrs. Garret A. Hobart,
Senators Dubois, Pettigrew, Teller and Cannon,
Vice-President Stevenson, President Cleveland, Hon.
William C. Whitney, Ex-Gov. Boies, Hon. Joshua
Levering, the Metropolitan of Kieff, the Czarina in
robes worn at the coronation, the Czar in his coro-
nation robes, and the late Jules Simon, and other
illustrations.

Record of Current Events.....

With portraits of Maj. J. W. Thomas, Hon. Timothy E.

Byrnes, the late Austin Corbin, the late Gen. Lucius

Fairchild, Bishop-elect McCabe, Bishop-elect Crans-

ton, Lord Kelvin, the Emperor of Germany and his

sons, Hon. S. D. McEnery, the late Prof. Cernuschi,

the late Leon Say, the late Madame Schumann, the

late Col. North, the late M. Tricoupis, and the late

Baron Hirsch.

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From a copyright photograph by the Baker Art Gallery, Columbus, Ohio, for the Arkell Weekly Co.

THE REVIEW OF REVIEWS.

VOL. XIV.

NEW YORK, JULY, 1896.

THE PROGRESS OF THE WORLD.

The Republican Convention at St. According to the Louis is already ancient history, and Programme. the attention of the country is fixed upon the marshaling of the Democratic clans for the tremendous struggle that seems destined to occur at Chicago in the second week of July. Thus far the expected has happened at every step in the unfolding of the season's political developments. For several months it has been clear that this year's campaign was to be fought upon well-defined questions of monetary and fiscal policy, and that ambiguous positions would not be tolerated. It was apparent to discerning men that the Republican party at St. Louis would nominate Major McKinley for the presidency, and would adopt a resolution de claring in the most unmistakable terms for the maintenance of the existing gold standard and against the free coinage of silver. Furthermore, it was equally well-understood that a group of Western silver advocates, led by Mr. Teller, of Colorado, and his fellow members of the Senatorial free-silver group, would present a minority resolution in favor of free silver, and upon its rejection at the hands of the majority would withdraw from the gathering and immediately sever their relations with the Republican party. It was perfectly well known that these free-silver bolters would immediately issue an appeal to the country and enter into communication with the Populists, the free-silver Democrats, and the other organized bodies of free-silver advocates, with a view to forming the largest possible combination against the Republicans and gold-standard men. No cut-and-dried political programme ever moved to its consummation with greater smoothness than the one we have thus summed up.

The Gold Plank

at

The Republican convention was unanimous to a man upon every plank in St. Louis. the elaborate and strenuous platform that was offered by the resolutions committee, except the plank declaring for the gold standard. Our readers will remember that last month we expressed the opinion that not more than one-tenth of the delegates to the St. Louis convention would represent the free-silver doctrine. Our estimate was not seriously amiss; for when the roll of the convention was called it was found that about one-ninth of the delegates were against the gold plank, so called, and in favor of Mr. Teller's resolution demanding free

No. 1.

coinage of silver at the ratio of 16 to 1. The vote which rejected Mr. Teller's substitute was 8181⁄2 to 105, while the vote which indorsed the majority proposition was 812% to 110%. The money plank as actually adopted reads as follows:

We are,

The Republican party is unreservedly for sound money. It caused the enactment of the law providing for the resumption of specie payment in 1879; since then every dollar has been as good as gold. We are unalterably opposed to every measure calculated to debase our currency or impair the credit of our country. therefore, opposed to the free coinage of silver, except by international agreement with the leading commercial nations of the world, which we pledge ourselves to promote, and until such agreement can be obtained the existing gold standard must be preserved. All our silver and paper currency must be maintained at parity with gold, and we favor all measures designed to maintain inviolable the obligations of the United States and all our money, whether coin or paper, at the present standard, the standard of the most enlightened nations of the earth.

This utterance has been accepted by the conservative business and financial interests of the country as entirely satisfactory to them. It is free from ambiguity, and it gives clear assertion to the idea that the United States ought to continue to measure values, and to interpret contracts which call for the payment of money, by standards that shall not be different froin those recognized and employed throughout the great world of commerce and exchange. It accepts the judgment of a business world which has its universal laws and methods, and which denies that money standards can properly be made a local or a national affair.

Harmony in

the Convention.

So fully predetermined was the course of the convention that the crowds of men who had assembled to share in what might prove to be the exciting scenes of a great occasion found little to reward their journey. The attempt on the part of Mr. Platt as leader of the New York delegation to make it appear that the adoption of a definite money plank was at first very doubtful, and that the outcome was due to his valiant efforts at St. Louis as a champion of the existing standard, was a bit of by play intended to impress some of Mr. Platt's followers in his own state. The Republican party had made up its mind on the currency question weeks in advance of the convention; and the story widely published that the

doughty Mr. Platt compelled the reluctant Mr. Hanna to abandon a proposed monetary straddle, was purely apocryphal. So far as we have been able to ascertain, no other of the presidential candidates had made his desire for a strong sound-money plank so positively known to his supporters as had Mr.

of the New York delegates, led by Ex Senator Warner Miller, had stoutly resented the tactics employed by Mr. Platt; and doubtless the majority of intelligent Republican voters in the State of New York were in sympathy with Mr. Miller and the so-called "Better Element" of the party as against Mr. Platt and his machine organization. No Republican nomination has ever been more kindly received by the party as a whole than has that of Mr. McKinley.

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Selecting a "Running Mate" for McKinley.

The question of a vice-presidential nomination involved enough of uncertainty to keep the delegates on the qui vive for a few hours; but there was nothing disputatious or controversial in the friendly rivalry for that honor excepting Mr. Platt's offensive at tempt to force Governor Morton upon the convention for the second place, contrary to the Governor's own instructions, and to the obvious embarrassment of those who were still pretending that their mission at St. Louis was to secure first place for Mr. Morton. Mr. Chauncey M. Depew, who made the nominating speech in behalf of Governor Morton, was able to checkmate Mr. Platt's humiliating scheme, and to convince the convention and the country that Gov. ernor Morton was not a yearning aspirant for two great offices at the same time. As a harmony maker,

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HON. MARCUS A. HANNA, OF OHIO, Chairman National Republican Campaign Committee. McKinley. It was entirely proper, even if somewhat stupidly perfunctory, that the other candidates should be presented to the convention and that their supporters should pay them the honor of a vote, although the result was a foregone conclusion. At the end of the roll call, Senator Thurston, of Nebraska, -who was permanent chairman of the convention, and whose eloquence and efficiency were rewarded with much praise,-announced that 661 votes had been cast for William McKinley, 84% for Thomas B. Reed, 61% for Matthew S. Quay, 58 for Levi P Morton, 351⁄2 for William B. Allison, and 1 for Don Cameron. Excepting that which had been led by Mr. Platt of New York, none of the opposition to Mr. McKinley had been of a disagreeable or personally malicious character; and it was therefore entirely easy for the great convention to proceed at once to make the selection of the Ohio candidate heartily unanimous. A very influential minority

HON. WARNER MILLER, OF NEW YORK, Anti-Platt Candidate for Governor.

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Mr. Depew was as felicitous as usual; and doubtless the convention would have been very glad to nominate him for the vice-presidency if his approval could have been obtained. The desire of Mr. McKinley's supporters was to secure the consent of Speaker Reed to allow his name to be used for second place on the ticket; but Mr. Reed cannot be blamed for preferring to keep his position of immense power and influence in the House of Representatives, rather than to enter upon the dignified but not directly authoritative office of the vice president. Mr. Reed and Mr. Depew, therefore, not being available, the choice of the convention finally lay between the Hon. Garret A. Hobart, of New Jersey, and the Hon. Henry Clay Evans, of Tennessee. Either of these candidates would have been acceptable to the Republican party as a whole; but it was

deemed wise to select an Eastern man, and Mr. Hobart was accordingly chosen upon the first ballot. It is true that the name of this gentleman is not a household word throughout the country, but he is very well known to the active Republican politicians by reason of his membership for some years in the National Committee, and by reason also of his prominent participation in national conventions and party conclaves. He has been the favorite of New Jersey Republicans for the United States senatorship on perhaps more than one occasion; but New Jersey is usually a Democratic state, and that accounts for the fact that Mr. Garret A. Hobart has not hitherto been one of the conspicuous public men at Washington. The esteem in which his fellow-citizens of New Jersey hold him was shown by remarkable ovations, joined in by men of all parties, when he returned.

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