The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-12-14
OHIO and The OTHERS
This Classification of the
States Politically
HAS BEEN WI1TILY MADE
Why So Many of the Nations
Great Men Hail Thence.
HAS BEEN W.T. TILY MADE

Cleveland, Ohio, Dec. 13.-A foreign OBJ
server of our politics might well imagine
this country to be divided into two parts.
Ohio and the rest of the States, says the
Washington correspondent of the Boston
transcript. To the newspaper discussion
Oh the campaign just closed it is safe to
say that Ohio affairs have contributed
one-half. and the eleven other States in
which elections were held the other half
instead Of seeing the official count,
winch has recently been announced, put
an end to all this discussion of Ohio poll
tics, it has only opened it anew. For
The next eleven months we shall hear
Ohio talked over and over again; argu-
ments tending to show that Bryan will
be successful or that Mckinley will be
successful in the coming Presidential con-
test will ali start out with the Ohio re-
turns as the basis of fact upon which the
various theories will be built
1t seems that Jones received 105 coo
votes. Nash's plurality was about 40 600
Where would the Jones vote have gone
mad there been no Jones, and would it
nave gone to the Democrats in sufficient
proportions to wipe out this $1,000 plural
ity, or anything like it? These are the
main questions. Such discussion is, how
ever, essentially profttless, because of the
great difference between State cam
paigns and national campaigns. The re-
ally significant of all this tedious dis
cuSSiOn which ic bTrO Of
sideration is the persistent prominence
OF Ohio in American politics. 1t is the
one State whose internal affairs and
whose party factions are known in every
other State. It's elections are a concern
Of the whole nation in a sense that is
true of no other State It used to be more
nearly true Of New York than any other
but even New York is now far behind
Ohio as barometer of politics.
The reason for Ohios pre-eminence can
doubtless be found in its geographical
situation and in its historical develop
ment. If the old slave-holding section OF
the country, which had a development
all its own, be covered over on the map,
the rest of the nation will resemble an
hourglass, of which Ohio will be the
neck. The United States without the old
South is one State wide at that point
East of Ohio it broadens out, with an
coast line extending from Cape
May to Eastport, and west of Ohio the
broadening out Increases to the Pacific
Had the Southern Confederacy succeeded
and taken all the slave States along as
1t would undoubtedly have done if sue
cessful the United States would have
looked like the hourglass here described.
Now, this peculiar geographical situation
of Ohio is not merely of interest in con-
nection with historical "might-have-
beens." AS this country has been built
up by tides of moving people, and these
have followed lines of lati-
tude wherever possible, the result has
been that Ohio became the great clearing
house Of the moving throng. The Amer
lean continental railroad lines have all
passed through Ohio: those from New
York State Pennsylvania and Maryland
all converge into Ohio and the lines
from Southern points that reach the
West through Kentucky also make their
way TO Chicago through that State The
same cause that made the railroads con-
verge in Ohio made the State an immi-
grafton clearing house. Most of the set
tiers of the farther West and of the ex-
treme West stayed over a decade or a
in Ohio. and not few Obi
oans have turned back in the second or
third generation to New York and the
East; just as the tide of population at
one time moved from Massachusetts into !
Maine, seeking new lands and in the /
i
again, seeking the more active employ /
ment of the factory cities of Massachu- /
sets. There is always a reaction in any /
tendency, and Ohio has not /.
been without it. 1t thus happens that /
Ohioans can be found in every part of /
the coutry. and people in turn of all /
parts of the country can be found in that (
State.
This fact lies at the basis of.the jokes
about Ohio men as of1ceholders. When /
ever new Congressional directory
comes out some enterprising statistician ,
goes to work to find out how many Sena-
tors and Representatives in Congress j
we're born in each Of the States Of the /
Union. In such tabulation. Ohio always /
comes out ahead. This starts the joke.
Il will always be found that in Ohio were .
porn not only nearly all her own Rep
-esentatives and Senators. but goodly
Of the Senators and ReDres-
entatives of other States. Take. for eE-
ample, the last Senate; Foreaker and :
Hanna were both born in Ohio. But this
distinction was also shared by Fairbanks
II Indiana: Allison of Iowa; Baker Of
Kansas: Carter, Of Montana; Allen. Of
Nebraska; and Kyle. Of South Dakota (
IN the lower house The list is proportion
ately as long and includes such men as
Hit. Of Illinois: Steel and Lands. Of In
LANA: Hull and Hepburn. Of Iowa; and
Barlow. Of California, Il IS a notable
.act that while Massac huse:.s Is a