company. Mr. Hobart's appointment to be one of three arbitrators for the Joint Traffic Association involved duties so delicate concerning rival railroad companies-duties to which rectitude and impartiality are so indispensable-that it will be deemed a high honor.

At the age of thirty he was elected to the state legislature, and was speaker of the house. Three years afterward he was sent to the state senate; and during two terms he was its president. He has always been a thorough republican, but has been noted for magnanimity to his political rivals. For several years he has been one of the efficient members of the re

publican national committee. He is one of the most universally trusted men in the state. His response in acceptance of the nomination to the vice-presidency has won admiration for its expression of fitting thought in direct and concise yet graceful utterance.

The Democratic Convention.-The national convention of the democratic party was held July 7-11 in Chicago, Ill.—the fourth instance of that city being chosen as the place of meetingand resulted in the nomination of William Jennings Bryan of Nebraska for president, and Arthur Sewall of Maine for vice-president, on a platform favoring the adoption by

ARTHUR SEWALL OF MAINE, DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR VICE-PRESIDENT.

the United States, independently of other nations, of free and unlimited silver coinage at the ratio of 16 to 1. Five ballots were necessary in each case.

If the choice of the republican party for president had been practically settled in advance of the St. Louis convention, while its currency plank remained to be settled there by the delegates, the exact reverse of this may be said of the gathering at Chicago. A large number of candidates were supported by as many factions among the delegates, while no overwhelming enthusiasm of popular sentiment in the party had manifested itself in favor of any single candidate; and, on the other hand, the great question of

the attitude of the party on the silver issue had been substantially settled for some time before the convention met. Before the end of June, in thirty-three of the fifty states and territories (Alaska not included), the democratic party in its state platforms had declared specifically for free coinage; in two (Florida and the District of Columbia) it had taken neither side in the controversy; and in only fifteen it had spoken in terms more or less positive against free silver. The following table shows the ranging of the states and territories on this issue, as indicated by the democratic platforms adopted in each, and also the number of votes assigned to each in full national convention:

DEMOCRATIC PLATFORMS ON SILVER QUESTION.

In fact, so effectively had the forces of silver been spreading the leaven of free coinage, especially in the West and South, that the heretofore recognized leaders of the democracy were moved, before the convention met, to sound a bugle-call of alarm at the threatened committal of the party to a reversal of our present gold-standard system of national finance and the establishment of free coinage

as the law of the land. From the White House itself, President Cleveland, June 16, issued an appeal to his party to avoid a course which would "inflict a very great injury upon every interest of our country which it has been the mission of democracy to advance." This warning was echoed later in a public letter from Hon. W. C. Whitney of New York, expressing apprehension that disruption would follow the adoption of a free-coinage plank at Chicago. When the convention met, a group of goldstandard democrats, headed by the New York delegation under the leadership of W. C. Whitney and ex-Governor D. B. Hill, and including W. F. Harrity of Pennsylvania, chairman of the National Committee, ex-Governor W. E. Russell of Massachusetts, Hon. Don. M. Dickinson of Michigan, and others, fought long and ably to stem the silver tide. Their efforts, however, were ineffectual. The day had come when, at least for a period-how long none can tell the control of the democratic party organization was to pass from the hands of its traditional Eastern leaders who had dictated its policy and appropriated the largest share of its honors for more than a generation and was to be vested in the hands of the new and untried radicalism which had come to dominate the party councils throughout the West and South, and which had also rallied to its standard a following of unknown strength in the Middle West and the East. The party divisions, in their extent and in the depth of feeling aroused, are not unlike those which preceded the great crisis in the early sixties.

The first trial of strength between the contending elements occurred at the outset of the convention, July 7, over selection of a temporary chairman. As a usual thing this officer is chosen by the National Committee, and the choice is ratified unanimously in full convention. In this instance, however, on the presentation by Mr. Harrity of the name of ex-Governor Hill of New York-the choice of the gold-standard majority of the National CommitteeMr. Clayton of Alabama at once submitted a minority report, substituting the name of Senator John W. Daniel of Virginia for that of Mr. Hill. The ballot, taken after a lively debate, participated in by T. M. Waller (Conn.), A. L. McDermott (N. J.), C. S. Thomas (Colo.), J. R. Fellows (N. Y.), B. W. Marsden, (La.), and others, gave Daniel a vote of 556, against 349 for Hill. Senator Stephen M. White of California was, the following day, made permanent chairman of the convention, and Thomas J. Cogan of Ohio permanent secretary.

The vote for temporary chairman showed the silver men to lack about forty-eight votes of the two-thirds majority requisite for choice of platform and presidential candidates. At the evening session of July 8, this deficiency was made up by the ratification of the report of the Committee on Credentials. The representation allotted to the territories was increased from two delegates each to

six; the Bryan delegation from Nebraska, excluded from the temporary roll by the National Committee, was admitted; and the seats of the Dickinson delegation of four from Michigan were given to the contesting delegates, a sufficient number to throw the entire vote of the state into the silver scale under the unit rule. The debate over the unseating of the gold delegates from Michigan was prolonged and bitter, and accompanied with scenes of great disorder. The vote stood 558 to 368.

The Democratic

DEMOCRATIC SOUND-MONEY LEADER. Platform.-On July 9 occurred the adoption of the platform and the nomination of presidential candidates. At the morning session the platform was read by Senator Jones of Arkansas, chairman of the Committee on Resolutions. As finally adopted it is summarized as follows, the most important declarations being given verbatim:

DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM.

The opening paragraph is a declaration against "the tendency of selfish interests to the centralization of governmental power," and in favor of the principle of local self-government in "maintenance of the rights of the states" and in "confining the general government to the exercise of powers granted by the constitution of the United States."

On the vital topic of money, the following are the declarations in full. They are said to have been drafted mainly by Colonel Charles

H. Jones, editor of the St. Louis (Mo.) Post-Dispatch, after consultation with Senators Cockrell and Vest and other democratic leaders.

"Recognizing that the money question is paramount to all others at this time, we invite attention to the fact that the constitution names silver and gold together as the money metals of the United States, and that the first coinage law passed by congress under the constitution made the silver dollar the money unit of value and admitted gold to free coinage at a ratio based upon the silver-dollar unit. We declare that the act of 1873, demonetizing silver without the knowledge or approval of the American people, has resulted in the appreciation of gold and a corresponding fall in the prices of commodities produced by the people, a heavy in