Evening star., 1896-08-04
Democratic and Populistic Views on
the Probable Result.
4 BAD BLOW AGAINST POPULISM
Claim That Popu|ists Are Coming
Back as Democrats.
S o U T II S T L L S OIL D

news which comes from their home of q
probable sweeping democratic victory in
the election held yesterday. The populists
are correspondingly depressed, and have
nothing to say until they hear the full
| news.
The claims Of the Alabama democrats
here have been that the action of the Chi
| cago convention would turn thousands of
populists back into the democratic ranks,
and they say today that the result yester
Cay fully carries out their predictions. J.
A. c. Martin of the law firm of Shelley,
Butler & Martin said this morning: 1.-The
result In no wise surprises me- The demo-
| cratic ticket has been elected by a big ma
jority. and there has been no fraud. All
this talk about fraud is stuff. 1t is invar-
iably sprung in advance of the election by
the populists SO as to discount their defeat
but 1t won't work this time. The apparent
ly increased majority for the democratic
ticket is due to the fact that thousands Of
populists have rejoined the democratic par
ty. Now as to the talk of fraud. The re-
turns indicate that several white counties
which have been populist have gone demo-
cratic. This shows which way the wind is
blowing. Those counties had populist
county officers. Under the new election
laws the county officers select the man.
ayers Of election at the different precincts.
Urder this, two of the three managers of
every election precinct were populists. Ii
there was any fraud, 1t was committed by
| the populists. The return of these counties
to the democratic fold is ample evidence
that the populist party in the south is dis
iEtegrating, and that the men are going
back 10 the party they went out of. Anoth-
er thing: Jefferson county in which the
city of Birmingham is located looks like
| 1t has been carried by small majority for
the democrats. Now, the majority of the
managers in that county are democrats If
they wanted to cheat, as is charged, why
couldn't the democrats make out a safe
majority in that county? Seven members
OF the legislature are involved from Jeffer-
son county. This all goes to show that
there is more talk of fraud than there is
fraud in the state
The Black Counties.
How about the large democratic ma
Jorit!eS il the black belt counties?'
III tell you. The negro voters in those
counties have learned who are their friends
and they vote with the democrats. Just
after the war no amount of money, no
threat. or anything else could induce a
negro to vote the democratic ticket, but it
is different now. Many of them would not
vote the democratic national ticket hut
thousands of them vote the state ticket
They live on the farms of democrats, and
they are kindly treated by the land owners
They vote with their friends. and do it
without coercion"
Mr. Martin said he believed the election
settled forever the question of the su-
premacy OF the democratic party in Ala
| bama, and that it meant the death of the
| populist party. The state, he said, would
give Bryan an overwhelming majority in
November. Mr.. Martin thought the effect
| on the national election would be good 1t
would show that there was no chance to
disrupt the solid south.
The POpulist View.
The populists in the city, as stated de-
clined to talk until they had more accurate
| news. Secretary Turner of the populist
national committee sad however. the
news was just what he expected. He had
believed there would be fraud, but he would
not say there was until he received ac-
| curate returns. When he was reminded of
the 1act that the democrats had probably
carried number of populist countless he
did not know how to figure that out unless
II was that many populists had voted the
was not much chance of democratic fraud
in counties which were controlled by popu-
lists
The worst feature of the election. from a
populist view, is that it means the election
OF Governor Oates to the United States
Senate. He is a gold man; but the popu-
lists charge that Capt Johnston made a
doker with Governor Oates by which the
latter is to get the Johnston influence for
the Senate. In democratic circles this is
rot thought to be probable, as Johnston
could hardly antagonize the influence of
Senator Pugh and other strong silver men
who are running for the Senate. Governor
Oates, it is said, is simply standing by the
party and taking his chances with all the
others.
Blow at the Populistx.
On all sides democrats look upon yester-
days election with great favor. Many of
them think it a bad blow at popuism They
also think it will pull Tom Watson down a
peg or two. If. as is claimed, SO many
| populists have gone back to the democratic
|
gia and North Carolina. The populists, it
is thought, may not be SO extravagant in
their claims in the future, and will be
little more ready for democratic PROPOSE
tions for fusion. On the other hand, 1t is
alleged that the effect among western pop
| ulists may be to make them little more
stiff. If their southern brethren declare
that they were cheated out of Alabama
and play on that in the west it may lose
the democrats votes out there.