The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-10-17
The Political Storm Center.

The struggle for the electoral vote of
Illinois is an extraordinary one. The re-
suit of it no one can foretel with any de-
gree of accuracy. Both the democrats
and the republicans appear hopeful, even
confident, judging from the statements
which are given out from their respective
headquarters.
The belief has been entertained by some
of the leaders on each side, and may still
be, that as goes Illinois so goes the union.
There is no doubt that Illinois is the CEN
ter Of the political storm. In every ward
in the cities and every township in the
country districts. the workers Of each
party are doing their utmost for the sue
cess of their respective tickets.
The republicans are freer in Offering es-
Inmates OF the votes they expect to get
than the democrats. They claim to have
made a house to house canvass of Chi
cage, and canvass of the other parts Of
the state by school districts. from which
they conclude that Mckinley will have
5000 majority in Cook county-the coun-
ty in which Chicago is situated-and 49,
600 majority in other counties of the state,
making McKinley's majority 10000. They
certainly are not modest
The registration in Chicago will be ex-
traordinarily large, judging from the
number already registered. Chairman
Hanna thinks it will reach $4,000, and
that 100000 votes will be cast. In that
event he predicts that McKinleys major
ity in the city will be 100000. If he has
confidence in his estimates he ought to
be in a very happy frame of mind.
There is another side to the picture,
however. All of those who are put down
in the house to house canvass as being for
Mckinley may not intend to vote for him.
The Chicago correspondent of the Wash
ington Star, an Independent and conser-
vative paper, calls attention to a very
significant incident as showing which way
the labor vote is going. The incident oc-
Cured at the Illinois Steel Works In
South Chicago. The correspondent says:
"A test ballot was taken among the men.
Three ballot boxes and three set of ball
lots were provided for the three national
candidates. Every ballot was placed in
the Mckinley box, but when it came to
the count it was found that Bryan had re-
ceived over 1000 to about 300 for McKIn-
ley"
It is worthy of notice that every ballot
was placed in the Mckinley box, but all
the ballots were not for Mckinley. He re-
ceived only a small percentage of them.
The putting of all the ballots in one box
was to prevent the preferences of the men
from being known. Doubtless the purpose
of the three boxes was to discover who
were for Bryan and who for Mckinley.
The fact that the men at the steel works
defeated that purpose. may justify the
suspicion that very little reliance is to be
placed on the house to house canvass
which the republicans have made.
The correspondent who furnished the
steel works incident, says that his own
observation is that at least 70 per cent.
of the labor vote of Chicago Is for Bryan
and that conservative politicians on both
sides think that even if Bryan should lose
the state, Altgeld will be reelected gov
ernor, believing that whichever way the
state goes the majority will not be large.