The Portland daily press., 1894-09-29
BLEEDING KANSAS.
National Effect of the Forthcoming
Election in the State.
Disaster Foreshadowed for the Party of
PETER and Lewelling.

Disaster Foreshadowed for the Party of
PETER and Lewelling.
Especial Corr. Washington Star.)
Topeka, Kan, Sept. 81, 1894. The
political contest now being waged in
Kansas is something more than strug-
gle for supremacy between two parties.
1t is a battle of national Importance, in
that one of the. parties asking for the
suffrages of the'people will be affected
throughout the nation by the result
the polls in November. The eontending
forces are the Republican and Populist
parties. Kansas is the corner stone of
the Populist party. The leaders in the
new movement throughout the country
are deeply concerned over the result in
this State. They realize, as do the Lead
ers here, that defeat in November will
cause disintegration ali along the lines
and practically take the peoples party
out of the presidential contest in 1896;
at least as dangerous factor. 1t is not
strange, then, that the contest in Kan
sas is being prosecuted with such vigor
and energy by the two parties. Republic
cans as well as Populists realize the con-
ditions and the significance that will be
attached TO the result, and are, therefore,
bringing to the State the best cam
palgners of the natioG. Republicans say
that the contest in Kansas this year is
the preliminary battle of 1896, and that
if the State drops back into the sRepub-
Hcan column, it will practically end the
4 R0lIliIgt arrro no.
tion. This is the argument the leaders
are making to their eastern brethren for
financial and other aid that will assist
in defeating Governor LeWelling.
POPULISTs CRYING FOR HELP.
On the other hand the Populist State
central committee is appealing to the
membership in all of the States where
they have foothold for help in this
critical period in the life of the Peoples
party. They say that the cause of the
people must win in Kansas in November,
and that,to overcome the work and in.
fuence of the Republican party of the
nation, which is conferred here, Populists
everywhere must contribute money to
save this State. Then toe committee is
bringing into Kansas the leaders of the
time till the 9th day of November the
conflict will be waged as it never was
before in this or any other State.
The Democratic party is hardly fae-
tor in this campaign, and yet it may de-
eide the election. No one knows just
how many Democrats there are in Kan
sas. If only those who stand by Presi-
dent Cleveland on the financial question
are to be called Democrats then a very
correct estimate could be made by SIM
ply determining the mum Der of postmaS-
tiers and federal office holders there are
in the State. But this would not be
fair computation. Four-fifths of the
mem bership favor the free coinage of
American silver at the ratio of l6 to /,
and the plat .orm of the patry is I'M
equiyocal on that question. The Demo-
cratic masses in kanSas-the farmers
who formerly constituted the rank and
Tile of the party, were stampeded into
the Farmers Alliance movement in 1889,
then into the Populist party, and the
leaders have never been able to get them
back into the Democratic corral.
WHAT THE STATISTICS SHOW.
: This is best illustrated by the returns
in several elections from 1888 to 1892. In
1888 Grover Cleveland received 1o5, 1000,
votes in Kansas. The same year the
Union Labor and Green hackers, which
later became the Peoples party. polled
IS, 900 votes. That was the year when
Kansas surprised the nation and gave
Benjamin Harrison SO, 600 majority over
Grover Cleveland. Then, two Years later,
the straight Democratic vote was only
$1,000. the other $4,000 having been
swallowed up by the IS, GOO hackers,
through the instrumentality of the
n \
by Col. Polk of North Carolina and
Congressman Livingston of Georgia,
with the consent, and, it is claimed
under the national Democratic commit
tee, the object being to wipe out the Re-
publican party in its stronghold. Polk
and Livingston did their work well-so
we'll, in fact, that the Democratic party,
in it's desire to defeat the old enemy,
abandoned its organization in 1892, quit
business and voted the Peoples party
State and national ticket. This year
they are trying to gather their scattered
forces. They have ticket in the field,
and they may poll 10000, or they may
poll 40, 600 votes on the 9th of Novem Der.
The desire in the average Democratic
enemy is so strong that many Of them
will decline to take chances, and will
again vote the Populist ticket.
There is no doubt but that the senti-,
ment ard enthusiasm of this campaign
is with the Repu blicans. Up to the
present time their meetings have been
great outpouripgs of the people,. many of
whom travel twenty miles to hear Sena-
ter Ingalls, and the leaders discuss the
issues. The policy of former campaigns,
which have been devoted to abuse of the
agricultural masses because they went
off after Polk and Livingston, and
"other false gods" has been abandoned,
and this year the speakers appeal to the
farmers to come back to the old party
and be reinstated into full Fellowship.
without the usual SIX months probation.
Elk SENATOR INGALLS'S IRRIDES-
CENCE.
These appeals are telling upon the
masses, and none of the campaigners are
making them with so much force as ex-
Senator ingalls,. The bitterness and vim
dictiveness that once characterized this
statesman have disappeared, and he
comes before the people an earnest, logi-
i