Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-10-16
FREE SILVER AND THE DEMOCRACY
How Mr.. Thurman Has Embarrassed
Some Of His Party.
MR.. OUTHWAITE'S CHANCES

been called into the Ohio campaign have
been assigned for at least one speech in
Gen. Grosvenors district. and some OF them
have given all the time they had to spend
| In this state to work there. Congressman
Boulette of Maine who comes here this
week to make five speeches, will make four
of them in the eleventh district. Ex-Gov-
| ernor Ira ]. Chase Of Indiana and Judge A.
l.. Morrison of New Mexico. who are here
making speeches in the Ohio campaign. will
also go to Grosvenor's district. This dis
trict was cat cut in the republican gerry
mandeI to be reliably republican one. and
| even I'm the great republican defeat two
! years ago was carried by the republicans
by 2.651 votes. Last fall Governor McKin-
ley carried 1t by 1857 votes, so that il would
seem that Grosvenor is safe enough this
year. The district, however, embraces the
heart of the great Hooking valley coal min
ing region, and has, ii is estimated, about
5000 miners who are voters. However these
miners have voted in the past, 1t is pretty
certain now that they will vote the straight
populist ticket this year. If the democrats
in the district had been shrewd enough to
indorse the populist nominee-James A.
Crawford Grosvenor's defeat would have
been a fo-egone conclusion. AS 1t stands
Crawford, the populist nominee. has a
much better chance of being elected than E.
r. Lash, the democratic candidate.
With the normal republican plurality of
at least $500 in his favor the general dis
sension that exists among the democrats
everywhere and the opposition divided be-
tween the populists and democrats, there
does not seem to be on the face of the
situation any reason why General Gros-
venor should be uneasy about the election
In his district And yet he evidently is
He is probably now realizing the fact that
by his very radical republcanism through
all his political life he has made 1t very
easy for himself to make enemies and hard
TO win friends in the democratic
Mr.. Outhwafte's Chances.
The situation in the capital district seems
to have turned against Mr.. Cultivate in
the last week. He has always been able
to draw to his support large element of
the republican party here that belongs to
the business classes. His conservative
course in Congress made It possible for
these persons to support him, and business
relations made it desirable for them to do
SO. movement is now on foot in this
city, however, to Secure the support of this
element for ID. X. Watson, MIR. Outhwaite's
opponent. A similar movement on two &C
caslons, has resulted in the election of
DaVlu Il. PuSh to the common pleas bench
in this county on the republican ticket
though the democrats carried everything
else. If Watson can carry this county nv
800 votes he Will be elected to Congress- for
Fairfield, the other county of the district
cannot possibly give more than 100 demo-
cratic plurality.
The whole situation considered II novx,
looks as though the congressional election
mere would De very close, with the chances
| Slightly against Mr.. Cultivate 1t is an
hounced, with apparent reliability, that the
republican national congressional commit
tee has agreed to come TO Mr. Watson's aid
very literally in this district. If this is so.
tfen one disadvantage under which Watson
would otherwise labor Will be removed, for
compared with Mr.. Outhwaite, he is a poor
| man. The republicans of Ohio generally
take an interest in the congressional cam
paiSn in the capital district not only he
cause Mr. Cultivate, the democratic can
didate, is prominent in the councils of his
party. but because this is, for the time at
least, the home of Governor Mckinley
Hampcred by Silver.
Chairman Allen w. Thurman's free silver
proclamation has put many of the demo-
cratic candidates for Congress in a very
embarrassing position. Tom johnson and
Nj. Cultivate, after voting for the bill re-
pealing the silver purchasing act and put
ting themselves on record repeatedly as
being opposed to the free coinage of silver,
find themselves placed abruptly, and with
| no opportunity for protest, upon free
silver platform. Anti-free silver democrats
ana the a1ti-free silver press are swallow
ing their indignation for the most part dur
ing the campaign.
After the campaign is over there will be-
ho very general ana very Tree eN-
preston of opinion by the democrats and
democratic press opposed to free silver The
German democratic press in the state is not
refrainiEg now from expressing its dssats-
faction with Chairman Thurmans course
and the Westbote, the local German news
paper, is specially severe in it's criticism of
the free silver address issued by the demo-
cratic state executive committee
Chairman Thurman has had an enormous
number of copies Of his free silver circular
printed and forwarded them to the county
committee chairmen for distribution as
campaign literature. They have not found
in every instance a warm welcome. Chair
man Byron Stilwell of the Holmes county
committee returned the whole shipment to
Chairman Thurman, with the curt note
that while the Holmes county democrats
We're mostly in favor of free silver, when
the time came to advocate 1t, they thought
the main issue was still the tariff question,
and they proposed to fight that matter to a
| finish before taking up any other question.
Mr.. Thurman's View of II.
In a talk before the Thurman Club last
evening Chairman Thurman expressed him
self more fully upon the political outlook in
| Ohio than he had done since he was placed
| in charge of the democratic campaign. The
| general apathy that was noted on the part
| of the democrats at the time the state con-
| vention was held, he said to the club, was
| disappearing.
| Almost before his committee vas organ
| lied and prepared to receive them, the demo
Gratis in the counties were sending in polls
| of their counties, which they had mace Oh
! their own accord. These polls which have
| row been received from large number CT
| the counties, were to him very encouraging.
He was reliably advised that the demo-
cratic farmers of the state who had gone
| off to the populists had generally returned
| to the old party since the state convention
had put the free silver plank In the plat
form; so that if the democrats could hold
| their voters in line in the cities, and secure
a full registration, there would be no rea-
son to fear a detection from the old voting
strength of the Ohio democracy. AS to the
congressional situation In the state he said
| there was no democratic candidate in any
district supposed to be democratic normally
| that was in any danger of defeat, except
Mr.. johnson, in the twenty-frst. This dis
trict, he explained, was in bad shape. The
Cleveland Plain Dealer was opposing him.
and q large element of the labor vote that
went to him two years ago would not do
| so this time. He very much doubted Mr.
Johnson's election. Mr.. Cultivate he said
| would be returned to Congress with little
trouble.
Chairman Thurman said the only speakers
| who would be brought to this district dur
| ing the campaign, SO far as he then knew
| were ex-Gov, Campbell and ]. W. Thomas
| democratic candidate for governor of Colo
| RADIO. This contradicts a story that has been
| current here for the last two weeks to the
II