The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1890-09-19
rng COMING ELECTIONS.


Their Probable ERset On the Passage 81
the Lodge BiIl.
The Federal elections bill has been
postponed until the next session of Com
g-ess. and the Republican Senators have
all signed an agreement that it shall be
the first measure acted upon at the short
session and that 1t shall be voted on De-
cember 90. even If change in the rules
has to be adopted to bring 1t about
This -.esns that IL the Republican ma
jority desire to pass the bill at that time
they can and viii do it.
We observe that some of our Demo
cratic contem poraries affect to look
upon the bill as killed. They say that
the next House, that this will be taken
10 mean that the country has con-
demned the bill. and that the Repub-
licans of this House will not dare TO
pass it
The proposition that the Democrats
will carry the next House is not, how
ever, agreed to by all Democrats. Colonel
Oates. of Alabama, a member of the
present House, who is said by the New
York Sun to have given more careful at
tention than any other man in Congress
10 the movements Of the Farmers Alli-
ance in the South, says:
Until quite recently have felt most sanguine
that the next House would be Democratic, but
the outlook is that it viii be either swsyed by
the Farmers Alliance men or again controlled
by the Republicans. In many instances the
Democrats have nominated candidate In op-
position to the Farmersi Alliance.
The Farmers Alliance movement
may result in the election of two or
three Democrats in Republican dis
tricts in the West, but even that would
have no important or permanent effect
on the Republican party. But in the
South. twenty TO thirty candidates of
the Alliance will be elected, or cause
the election of Republicans in Demo
cratic districts This revolution in
certain Southern States is morally
certain to prevent the Democrats from
controlling the next House even in the
improbable contingency of the Re-
publicans failing to secure majority.
1t will do more than that 1t will de-
yelop the situation with respect to the
Federal elections bill. The fight be-
tween the Democratic party and the
Alliance in the South Is certain to in
volve a struggle in regard to the
suffrage. One side or the other in each
of these States will bid for the coiored
vote and endeavor to have its colored
votes counted. 1t would be flying in
the face Of all experience to maintain
or suppose that this effort for free
vote and a fair count will be successful
without bitter contest and perhaps
bloodshed. The result of this will be
renewed demands for Federal elections
law on the part Of Republicans in the
South and a greater degree of acquies-
cence on the part of some Southern
Democrats than has hitherto been OBJ
served.
1t has always been predicted. and
with reason, that split in the white
vote Of the South would precipitste
crisis on the suffrage question and
mark the beginning of the end of rule
by violence and fraud That split has
come, but the dominant factions in South
Carolina, Mississippi, Arkansas and
other Southern States will not surren-
der without at least one more fight The
elections in these States this fall are
very likely to furnish some powerful
bill reasons why the Federal elections
should be passed on December 20, the
time set for vote on 1t. These cleo !
tons will be jealously watched. and un-
less they show 8 reasonably free vote |
and fair count the Federal elections |
bill will be passed in short order. II |
there is free vote and an honest count, |
the last chance of the Democrats to con-
troll the next House will have vanished. |
The Democratic assumption that the |
Federal elections bill is dead and that |
the Democrats will control the next |
House is altogether premature. A good
deal depends on how the Southern
Democrats act in November. II they be-
have themselves the Democratic party
can not win. If they do not behave,
Federal elections will be taken out OF
their control, and then they know they
IAN not win.-Cleveland Leader.