Campaign Trail Results: Game #707309

This Game:

  • Year: 1896
  • Player Candidate: William McKinley
  • Running Mate: Lyman Gage
  • Difficulty Level: Hard
  • Winner Take All Mode?: Yes
  • Game Played:
  • willstone1776
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View overall results, or a specific state:
CandidateElectoral VotesPopular VotesPop. Vote %
---- William McKinley2777,210,24251.82
---- William Jennings Bryan1706,563,11047.17
---- John Palmer0140,8521.01

Answers:

  • Which of the following will be your primary campaign message?
    I am the candidate who brings the reasonable, tested ideas of sound money, protection, and prosperity. Bryan on the other hand will usher in radicalism and instability.
  • 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.
    Democrats who believe in the gold standard are welcome in our party. We will increase tariffs, to be sure, but in a moderate way that addresses their concerns.
  • 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?
    There's no way I can compete with Bryan's oratorical talents. Instead, I will receive groups of visitors at my home in Canton, Ohio. We have the financing to pay for these visits, and anyone who shows up will receive a free sandwich while I deliver a speech.
  • You have received checks for $250,000 from J.P. Morgan and from Standard Oil, not to mention innumerable contributions from other concerned businessmen. How will you exploit this immense advantage in funding that you have?
    We will print and mail campaign material in massive quantities. We will hire speakers to blanket the four corners of the nation. We will print ads every day in every major paper. Bryan cannot compete with us on money.
  • 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?
    I can't attack Bryan like the papers can without losing some of my luster. Let them publish the defamatory cartoons and opinion pieces.
  • What do you have to say about your own Christian faith? And how does it inform your political views?
    I am a proud Methodist. We all pray to the same Christian God and there is no need to use divisive, radical religious rhetoric.
  • As a Congressman, you voted for the Sherman Silver Purchase Act in 1890. Can you reassure your supporters that you are now 100% in favor of the gold standard.
    I am all in favor of the gold standard. If it would help defuse the currency issue a little, then I might be in favor of a limited silver purchase program.
  • What arguments will your campaign make to counterbalance the appeal of Democrats in the Plains?
    We Republicans have learned from our misguided embrace of temperance in the 1880s. Bryan, however, is just the type who will attempt to ban the production of alcohol.
  • 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?
    Bryan would drive the important railroads of this region, such as Union Pacific, into bankruptcy by reneging on agreed-upon financing arrangements.
  • 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.
  • You will be making another speech today from the front porch of your home in Canton, Ohio. What will you discuss?
    Let's talk about the importance of reviving American business. Our tariff act will give them the protections they need to succeed.
  • 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?
    Let's take the fight to Bryan. I want us to be campaigning the hardest in Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, and Iowa. Our extra cash will ensure a landslide on election night.
  • 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?
    Bargaining for wages is the business of a man and his employer. Collective bargaining has no place in American society, and I commend Grover Cleveland for having the courage to act decisively.
  • What is your opinion on measures that would aim to restrict the sale or production of alcohol?
    Perhaps if our goal is to prevent drinking on Sunday, or public drunkenness, I am all for those measures. But a blanket temperance law is a different story.
  • Do you think coinage of silver would have a positive effect on industrial workers? Or conversely, how would they benefit from the continuance of the gold standard?
    The gold standard will support a business recovery, and it will enhance the value of wages. At the end of the day, it is business that creates the jobs, and we must be sure that business is healthy again in America.
  • Should there be greater regulation or even price controls on railroad shipping rates?
    I doubt that it is even Constitutional for the federal government to control railroad rates. This will never happen in my Administration.
  • What is your position on Rural Free Delivery of the mail, signed into law earlier this year by Grover Cleveland? Is this an acceptable strain to place on the finances of the Post Office?
    We should monitor this program very carefully to determine if it can be done in a cost-effective manner.
  • What are your views on the Darwinian theory of Evolution?
    I agree with the concept of 'survival of the fittest'. It is the destiny of the strong to expand at the expense of the weak.
  • Do you agree with the Supreme Court's ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson that separate accommodations for the races can be legally required by certain states?
    I will repeat my firmly held conviction that we should not politicize the decisions of the Supreme Court.
  • Would you support federal "Blue Laws" to protect the sanctity of Sunday?
    This debate has no place in our system of federalism. The individual states have every right to decide how they wish to handle the issue of commerce and drinking on Sunday.
  • Will you work towards international agreements to create a monetary system based on "bimetallism", i.e. a combination of gold and silver?
    The international system we have in place is the gold standard. Not only is this highly advisable from a business standpoint, but it is driven by the power of Great Britain. We are better off working within this system.