Campaign Trail Results: Game #1249116
Play The Campaign Trail
This Game:
- Year: 1896
- Player Candidate: William McKinley
- Running Mate: Matthew Quay
- Difficulty Level: Normal
- Winner Take All Mode?: No
- Game Played:
View overall results, or a specific state:
| Candidate | Electoral Votes | Popular Votes | Pop. Vote % |
|---|---|---|---|
| ---- William Jennings Bryan | 235 | 6,781,499 | 48.81 |
| ---- William McKinley | 212 | 6,963,472 | 50.12 |
| ---- John Palmer | 0 | 148,530 | 1.07 |
Answers:
- Which of the following will be your primary campaign message?My administration will bring back the era of the budget surplus, and will work towards the professionalization of the federal government. We will continue to phase out the 'spoils system' in accordance with the Pendleton Act.
- What points do you wish to touch upon as you accept the Republican nomination? A written transcript will be transmitted to voters across the country.Labor agitators and agrarian radicals are threatening to overthrow our system of government. They have put forward a preposterous array of Constitutional Amendments and confiscatory welfare programs.
- Bryan's nomination has electrified the western voter, and he is now planning to campaign on the rails, six days a week. Will you break precedent as well and make a speaking tour of the nation?Bryan's naked ambition knows no bounds. It is unbecoming of a candidate to make campaign appearances on his own behalf.
- You have the support of the important newspapers, and they are willing to accept your guidance on the proper campaign message. What do you want them to print?The big newspapers should remind the voters that I represent a return to prosperity after the Democratic disaster of the previous four years. They should be paying as little attention to Bryan as possible.
- Bryan's reputation amongst industrial workers is actually suspect (he is often perceived as being too pro-farmer and too evangelical). Do you have any plans to win this traditionally Democratic block of voters?Business owners should threaten the workers with further unemployment if Bryan wins.
- The West Coast is a very competitive region. Can you make the case for Republican policies there, particularly in those places such as San Francisco which rely on foreign trade?Much of California's livelihood comes from gold mining. I reject any call to undermine gold through the free coinage of silver.
- An industry in tin has flourished in Ohio since your Tariff Act took hold in 1890. Some have suggested playing on this success in your campaign. What do you say?I like the idea of plastering the entire Midwest with tin signs that say McKinley on them. The message will be unmistakable.
- Some of the border states (Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky) are very close this year. Do you have a strategy to make these states jump to the Republican side?There is a burgeoning textile industry in the Upper South. Their success depends on cheap cotton, protection, and an absence of destabilizing labor issues.
- Will you send campaigners to Nebraska, in an attempt to deliver an embarrassing defeat to Bryan, or should those resources be focused on South Dakota, Wyoming, and Iowa?We are running a 45-state strategy. I want our victory and repudiation of the silver Democrats to be as large as possible.
- Word has it that at one of Bryan's nighttime revivals, the torches were arranged to cast a halo around his head. Do you think this kind of religious imagery is appropriate for a presidential candidate?How unbecoming of a presidential candidate to be campaigning in the middle of the night by torchlight!
- There is one week left until election day. Every state is important, but where will you give an extra push with what is left of your financial resources to educate the American voters?I want us to put all of our spare resources into Iowa and Minnesota.
- Can you state your definitive position on the American monetary system?I support a strict adherence to the gold standard, which is fundamental to American prosperity.
- What is your definitive position on the tariff issue?We need high tariffs on a variety of products and commodities to stimulate American manufacturing.
- The United States is in the midst of a financial calamity, with masses of unemployed men on the streets. What will you do to revive business in this country?I can't stress this enough. The most important thing we can do right now is increase our tariffs to protect American business.
- Grover Cleveland sent federal troops to Illinois to end the Pullman Strike without the request of Governor Altgeld. Was this an overreach on his part?It's not the job of government to regulate labor disputes, but the fact of the matter is that these strikers were allowing no rail traffic to pass through Chicago whatsoever. Something needed to be done.
- What is your opinion on measures that would aim to restrict the sale or production of alcohol?It is my dream to see a Prohibition Amendment passed before I die.
- The Wilson-Gorman Tariff Act of 1894 lowered the rates on many goods, while still falling well short of Cleveland's ideal levels. What do you think about this act as a whole?My first action as President will be to reinstate higher tariffs. This is an American policy that supports American factories and American workers.
- Does the success of the tin-plate industry within the U.S. prove that protectionism stimulates industry?There is nothing I'm more proud of from my time in Congress than creating the conditions that allowed for a booming tin industry to flourish within our borders.
- What do you say to the notion that high tariffs hurt farmers?High tariffs protect American industry and increase the purchasing power of the consumer. Free silver would throw this system into chaos and even hurt the farmer in the long-term.
- What is your interpretation of the antitrust statutes? Do large American business profit from monopolistic practices?I favor a hands-off approach to the economy. The federal government has no business stepping in and breaking a company into pieces.
- Some labor leaders have called for regulation standardizing a ten or even an eight hour workday. Do you support these calls?I do not see the authority for regulating this under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. This is something that individual states would need to investigate.
- What are your views on the Darwinian theory of Evolution?I'm not convinced of the veracity of this theory. It contravenes accepted Christian teaching in a large number of ways.
- Are you pleased with the recent defeat in Congress of the Pacific Railroad Funding Bill, which would have provided federal support to the Southern and Central Pacific railroads.I was opposed to this bill. We might have provided land grants and funding for railroads in the past, but that practice will end under my Administration.
- Should the federal government make an effort to build a canal through Nicaragua to more efficiently link trade in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans?Am I understand that we will be sending thousands of men to dig through the hills of Nicaragua on this pipe dream of a project? Allow me to predict that there will never be a canal in that country.
- Is it generally appropriate for federal courts to issue injunctions against striking unions?The Pullman Strike of 1894 disrupted half of the nation's rail traffic and threatened to throw our society into complete turmoil. A small group of radicals should never have the power to disrupt the lives of millions.