The Portland daily press., 1898-03-07
Portland, Deering and Westbrook
Will Have Elections Today.
THE CAMPAIGN HAS BEEN ONE OF
THE QUlETEsT KNOWN.

Promptly Denied How Things Are
Looking in Deering and Westbrook.
Today the voters of the city OF
Portland will be called upon to select
| their municipal officers for the ensuing
year. The municipal campaign which
will end only when the polls close to.
day afternoon has bsen an unusually
quiet one. The reason for this may be
found in the fact that it is generally con.
coded that the Republicans will be sue.
cessful in the election of their candidate
for mayor and will once more have con.
troll Of the city governments. The citizens
of Portland have learned by experience
that it is safe to trust the Republican
party to guide the municipal bark safely
through the perils which may heset it
and they are too wise to trust other
hands in the control of the city's affairs.
Once. several years ago. the voters of
Portland elected Democrat to the execu-
tive chair. No sooner was their chosen
candidate safely installed in the mayor
seat than they began to repent of their
choice. For one year thu affairs of the
city were in such shape that it thorough
| ly sickened the tax payers Of Democratic
control and as soon as the next municipal
| election came around they removed the
Democratic mayor and once more placed
the municipal affairs in the hands Of
| those who could be relied upon to guard
the tax payers interests and give them an
economical, judicious ands business like
administration.
The Democrats have as their candidate
for. mayor this year Hon. Darius FL. Ingra
ham, who was the executive head of the
Democratic administration which will
not soon be forgotten by the voters of
Portland. Mr.. Ingraham as an organizer
has few equals in his party. As soon as
be secured the nomination, which was
only won by him after bitter fight, he
went to work to whip the Democratic
workers into line, 1t was no easy task,
but Mr.. Ingraham succeeded in perfect.
ing some kind of an organization and
for the past ten days the Democratic
machine has been working early and
late, but in very quiet manner. Every
string which could be pulled to help
their rause has been manipulated. On
Ingraham and his supporters are at sea
and are not very hopeful of success.
They have not been accorded the hearty
support from the Democratic press which
they had right to expect nor have the
prominent Democrats in the city dis
played very much interest in the fight.
All manner Of stories have been started
to injure the Republican chances. Moth
ing of which political capital could be
made has been neglected by them. One
of the silliest of these stories was the one
SO widely circulated on Saturday among
the church goers in Ward l. The story
was something to this effect. One of the
young Republicans on Munjoy hill who
was actively engaged in pushing the can
didacy Of another young Republican who
was anxious to go into the common coun
Gil, had formerly worked for Mr.. McKen-
ney and was very friendly with him, al
though not inclined to help him secure
the nomination for the council. In con-
versation with Mr. McKenney this young
man said in joking way that Mr.. Nc
Kenney stood no chance of securing the
support of the young Republicans on the
hill, because he was member of the
church. Mr.. McKenney must have known
that there was no truth in the statement
because the young Republicans relied
upon the church members on Munjoy hill
to help them nominate their candidates
and three out of four of these candidates
who had been endorsed by the young Re-
publicans were church members. The |
young Republicans who got wind of the |
story which was being SO widely circulat- |
ed went to Mr.. McKenney and to some of |
his friends and stated that they were not |
running their campaign on any such |
principles as this and did not counte- |
nance any such statements as those which |
had been made. Furthermore they took |
pains to deny the story that they were
waging campaign against the church
members on Munjoy hill, and on Satur-
lay NJ less than dozen of the most
prominent young Republicans in the
ward requested that the PRESS should
leny the story for them.
One of the most interesting questions
10 be decided today is whether or
lot Portland and Deering will vote to
lnnex the latter city to Portland. In
Portland decisive vote in favor is ex-
,ected. In Deering the annexationists
lave waged an active campaign and have
net with active opposition. In this con.
lection it is interesting to know what
he result of the vote on annexation of
1eering to Portland has been in years
,ast, for this is not the first time the
question has been before the voters. On
April Q, 1890, Deering voted on the ques-
ion of annexation to Portland under the
onditions of an enabling act passed by
he legislature The vote stood as fol-
ows; For annexation, 307; against an
lexation, 1894. On May 20, 1891, Deering
'oted on the question again. The result
n Deering at this time was as follows:
yes, 1856; no, 596.