The Campaign of 1896 159 



butes of civilization; but they have overcome their 

 reluctance, feeling that on the whole it is more im- 

 portant that the money of the nation should be un- 

 sound than that its laws should be obeyed. People 

 who feel this way are just as much opposed to Mr. 

 Hobart as to Mr. McKinley. They object to the 

 platform upon which the two men stand, and they 

 object as much to the character of one man as to 

 the character of the other. They are repelled by 

 McKinley's allegiance to the cause of sound money, 

 and find nothing to propitiate them in Hobart's 

 uncompromisingly honest attitude on the same ques- 

 tion. There is no reason whatever why any voter 

 who would wish to vote against the one should 

 favor the other or vice versa. 



When we cross the political line all this is 

 changed. On the leading issue of the campaign 

 the entire triangle of candidates are a unit. Mr. 

 Bryan, the nominee for the Presidency, and Messrs. 

 Sewall and Watson, the nominees for the Vice- 

 Presidency, are almost equally devoted adherents 

 of the light-weight dollar and of a currency which 

 shall not force a man to repay what he has bor- 

 rowed, and shall punish the wrong-headed laborer, 

 who expects to be paid his wages in money worth 

 something, as heavily as the business man or farmer 

 who is so immoral as to wish to pay his debts. All 

 three are believers in that Old- World school of 

 finance which appears under such protean changes 

 of policy, always desiring the increase of the circu- 

 lating medium, but differing as to the means, which 



