Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-09-03

finance committee asks for contributions
they are met with the assertion that they
are already rolling in wealth.
The middle of the road popuiists have
adopted a course that still further COM
plicates matters i'm Illinois. A call has
been issued by them to members of the
peoples party Of the state asking them to
rally around ticket of their own, as set
ting forth a sort Of declaration of princf-
pies in which it Is declared that the Tau
beneck-Taylcr crowd have gone over to
the enemy. What effect this movement
will have cannot be predicted until Sep
TENDER 10. when a state convention will be
held and ticket in opposition to the one
named by the fusion forces at Springfield
will be put up. Democrats and populists
say that they are not afraid of the kickers
and declare that they are simply instru-
ments Of Mark Hanna and will be consid-
cred as such by the party throughout the
state.
The Result.
A democratic statistician figures out the
situation in Illinois this way: AT the last
presidential election S73,646 votes were
cast In the state of Illinois. OF these Mr.
Cleveland received 426,2o1 and Mr.. Harri-
son 99,2SS. while the combined vote of The
popuifst and prohibition candidates was
4S.od7, leaving Cleveland about 10000 short
OF an actual majority over all competitors.
"A few minutes study of the returns of
lS''2 can but benefit those who take an in
anything, they show that with the popu-
list and democratic forces allied it will take
tremendous reversal to transfer the state
to the republican column.
while Cleveland's plurality was only
26,H3 four years ago. it would have been
close on to 5000 had Weaver's vote Of -
2O7 been thrown to the successful candi-
date. Again. MIR. Bryan will draw heavily
on the prohibition vote. Not that he is a
prohibitionist, but because of bis free sill
yer views. AS far back as 1880 the rrohi-
billion party was committed TO an eXpan-
sion of the currency. and while its central
IDEA Is the inhibition Of liquor selling, its
members, In the nature of things, will be
more or less influenced by the general cam
paign of education that is now in progress
from one end of the country to the ether
There is no question about the growth
or populfSt sentiment in Illinois. The
party's candidate for treasurer two years
ago polled 59133 votes, an increase Of
nearly 300 per cent in two years There Is
good reason to believe that 5000 Gvowed
believers in the Omaha platform will vote
in this state next November.
From these figures IL is a conserya tive
statement to say that 5000 voters must
have changed their minds since 1892 in Or
der to give the eiectora. vote of Illinois to
Mckinley. This is an average of about
JOo to county.
Another View.
But republican authorities declare that il
is unfair to base calculations this year Cd
the foregoing figures. They confess that
the popuiist vote for Randolph for treas
urer in 1894 was considerably more than
twice the vote polled for Weaver but en-
the other hand they point 10 the fact that
Hulf, the republican candidate, had a clear
majority over all other candidates for state
reasurer-democratic, popuiist and prohibi-
Iona clear majority of 44.059. very
full vote Tor an of year was polled in 1Sg3
the aggregate being only 24.3So less than
the presidential vote of 1Sl2