The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1898-10-20
Swallow Not IN 1t.

) legeS, there IS manlteStly a con-
spiracy Of "open and covert" Re-
publican Machine organs to deceive
the voters as to the probable out
come of the political campaign in
this state. DIR. Swallow himself
says he will have 375, 900 votes.
The chairman of the Prohibitionist
committee declares that the Doctor
will be elected. The Quay organs,
avowed and surreptitious, by magni-
flying everything Swallow does, and
either ignoring, misquoting or be-
lifting the great speeches Of Mr..
jerks and his colleagues on the
ticket, are clearly striving to make
their readers believe the arrant
falsehood that the fight for the Gov
ernorship is between Stone and
Swallow, and that If the former is
not successful, the latter is sure to be.
No man single remove above
the level of all idiot can make study
of the figures and agree to any such
conclusion. Last year there was
sort of Swallow craze. He had
made himself conspicuous in con-
nection with the expose ofthe Grace
church and other Machine scandals.
He had been taken into court and
tried for libel. 1t was an off year.
The Democrats were hopeless, the
Republicans more or less disgruntled
and disorganized. Everything that
could go Swallows way went that
way. He and his hackers were as
sure of election as they are now,
yet in the poll he had less than half
as many votes as Brown, his Dem
ocratic opponent, though Browns
vote was the lowest vote cast for
any Democratic candidate in the
state for many years past, and the
vote for Mr.. Ritter, the Democratic
candidate for Auditor General, was
26S, 34I, as against Swallows 49,
969, or $50, 900 greater. Not since
1860 has the Democracy polled less
than twice Swallows vote of last
year; often it has been three times
as large, and in 1896 was 433, 22S,
or 3I5, 900 above it.
AS Chairman Garmar said, in
recent interview, he would have to
add 200, 900 Democrats and as many
more Republicans, or one out of
every two Democrats and one out
of every three Republicans to win.
No man with head on his shoul-
ders believes that he can come with
in hailing distance of doing that.
His claims are absurd. The be-
hind-the-fence Machine organs that
seek to bolster them are deliberate
ly deceiving their readers and know
it. Wherever Swallow got large
vote last year the craze is spent. In
every such locality he will certainly
lose all his Democratic supporters.
He carried Lycoming county. At
Swallow meeting in Williamsport,
Lycoming's county seat, last week,
less than 100 voters attended.
Swallow will not poll half of the
365, 900 votes he claims and which
he says will elect him. Yet Dele
mater was defeated in 1892 with
447 ,655 votes when both the nor
NAL Republican and the normal
Democratic vote were smaller than
they are now.
Mr.. jerks vote, on the other
hand, is not likely to be much less
than 100000. He will get the
Bryan vote Of 1896, the Palmer and
. Buckner vote of the same year, the
Democrats who voted for Mckinley
, and all the independent Republi-
cans who are really sincere in their
, professed desire to rid the party OF
!, their incubus and disgrace of the
Quay Machine. When a score OF
/ men like George Baer, of Berks
> A. B. Farquhar, of York Simon
P. Wolverton, Of Northumberland
and Senator Cochran, of Lycoming,
sit down with another score like
9 James M. Gufey, of Allegheny,
9 and Joseph c. Sibley, of Crawford,
as they did in Philadelphia last
, week, to devise ways and means to
= elect Mr.. jerks, it means that Mr..
+ jerks and his colleagues and the
= platform satisfy every section of the
= party, that the two wings of the
o party are Hopping together, that
? there will be no defections to Swal-
q low or anybody else, and that
Democratic victory is in the air.
And when the newspapers that
It profess to be against Machineism
Il and yet are doing all they can tc
d give it aid and comfort, are compell
y ed to abandon their policy of sup
IS preston or distortion of the facts,
L IL 1 a IL