Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-09-11
Changes That May Result from the
Coming Elections.
EFFORTS OF The REPUBLICANS
They Will Seek to Get Majority
of States.
THE POPULISTS' POSITION

SOi. Inc Tic NctcIdH dil0 picturesque
assistant sergeant-at-arms Of the House o,
Representatives. has gone to Ohio to plunge
elbow-deep in the state campaign. Col
Hill is always a hard fighter. and. better
than that, shrewd guesser. He can esti.
mate. as can no other man. the probabilities
for and against a quorum. His capacity fol
statistics is amazing. He is said to have a
long-range political eye. and hence his
most recent forecast of the situation in
Ohio is regarded as peculiarly valuable. The
democrats. he estimates. will carry probably
six congressional districts in that state this
fall.
There are twenty-one districts in Ohio, OF
which the republicans now hold ten and the
democrats eleven. 1t will thus be seen that
according to Col. Hills belief, the party
now in control in the House will, in the
next Congress- have lost at least five dis
tricts, thus losing the control Of the state
delegation.
A Majority of States.
The republican managers Of the present
campaign will not only seek to secure an
actual majority for their party in the
House. but have also quietly determined to
bend their efforts to securing a majority of
the states for use in case the presidential
election should be throw n into the House of
Representatives. They have realized that
the presence of the President. in the person
or Mr.. Cleveland, for two more years will
nullify any attempts at party legislation
that might be undertaken, even though
both houses of Congress might be carried
by the republicans. 1t would. therefore, be
an entirely empty honor for Them to secure
control of the House. except So far as the
distribution of offices may so. Then, too,
the control of the Senate is, IL anything,
further away from them than the control
of the House. for the flop cf Senator Jones
to the populists the other day has reduced
the already slim chances of reversing the
conditions of the upper house.
They have, therefore, 1t is well under
stood, determined to lay their wires so that
the present democratic majority Of the
states In the House may be reversed. On
this point there are some interesting figures
at hand, made doubly so by Col. HilPs
confession that his party cannot hope to
secure majority of the congressional dis
tricts in Ohio. There ar forty-four states
represented IN the House at present. The
Constitution requires that an actual ma
1ority OF the states shall vote, in order to
elect the President, in case that question
should be thrown into the House With
Utah counted, this state being admitted to
representation In the Fifty-fourth Congress
which will be the one to count the vote of
the electors, there will be forty-fve states,
and the present majority of twenty three
Will remain the same. Thus the admission
OF Utah will not make the task of the re-
publicans in this regard any harder. as II
will not increase the limits they will have
to reach and 1t may prove a benefit by the
election Of a republican delegation. ...
The Present Status.
The democrats now have control Of the
delegations from twenty-six states, as fol-
lows: Alabama. o to o: Arkansas, @ to o;
California, democrats, 2 republicans, 1
populist; Connecticut, to 1: Delaware. 1 to
o; Florida, to o; Georgia, IL to O; Illinois.
IL 4 20 o..
Louisiana, g to o; Maryland, to o; Missis-
sippi, to o; Missouri, IA to 1; New Jersey.
. to z; New York, 10 to Is; North Carolina
. to 1; Ohio. IL to 10; Rhode Island, to O.:
south Carolina, Q to 1; Tennessee, 8 to 9:
Texas. 13 to O; Virginia. 10 to o: West Vir,
ginia. to o; Wisconsin. @ to 4; Wyoming,
1 to o.
The republicans have now majorities I'm
fourteen or the state delegations Thus.
Idaho, l to o; Iowa, 10 to I; Maine. TO q.
massachusetts,, to 4; Michigan 7 to 3:
Minnesota, republicans, democrats. /
populst: Montana, l to O.; New Hampshire.
Pennsylvania. 20 to 10; South Dakota. ? to
o; Vermont, 2 to o; Washington, 2 to o.
IL may not be well known that the popu-
lists now have majorities in three of the
state delega tions. and hold the balance of
power in fourth. The populist states at
present are, according to their congression
al delegations: Colorado, populists to none
Udr,,', OF the other party; Kansas. popuists. 2
a.
list, Mr.. Newlands. who must be now
credited populist In the light of the action
or the two Senators. The Nebraska delega-
tion Is so divided among the three parties
that none has majority. There are three
republicans, two populists and one demo-
crat, giving the populists practically the
balance of power
What Must BE Done.
1t will thus be seen that the republica MS
Will have to gain control of nine moro
states, besides holding their present four
teen. in order to secure the coveted twen.
ty-three to control the electoral vote in
case 1t will be needed. On the other hand
the democrats. losing control of four states
Will fall below the actual majority. The
republicans are Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin
wyoming, Rhode Island and Connecticut
six in all. Should the ratio of loss to the
democrats which Col. Hill expects in Ohio
prevail In all of the northern and eastern
states, especially in the districts known to
be favorable to the protective policy, New
YORK is nearly certain to go to the republi-
can column and there are strong chances
to that end in West Virginia .and New
Jersey. In fact. New Jersey is by some
or the managers counted as surely republi-
can In the next House. 1t is thought that
there may be also fighting chance in Cal
norma. Delaware and Indiana, where, how
ever, the present delegation Is overwhelm-
ingly democratic.
1t will thus appear that the republicans
nave considerable material TO work upon in
this campaign in the matter Of securing
state delegations but the fact must not be
forgotten that several of the west ern states
are republican by but slight majorities
and that these will have to be held by the
republicans against the populist movement,
which has certainly gained strength from
the detection of Senator Jones. For ex-
ample. there are very narrow divisions
between republican control and defeat in
Idaho Montana, North Dakota, South
Dakota and Washington. The election in
Oregon has already been held and has
re-established republican supremacy
1t Is quite possible that the populists
will not only succeed in holding the bal
ance of power among the electors, by Sc
curing the electoral vote OF two or three
of the western states, but may further
hold the balance Of power by securing con-
troll of the delegations from three or four
of the states In case the representatives of
the two great parties should be almost
equal. This is by no means a distant coli
tingency and the complications which may
result from it are far too numerous to be
recited at this distance of time from the
oil