Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1899-11-03
THE oaIo BATTLE.


a close the stumpers give place to the
prophets, who will do the rest until
the voter takes hand and finally set
ties the business at the polls.
There is absolutely nothing like
certainty in the Ohio situation as it
stands to-day, in the view of impartial
observers. OF course, nothing is to be
learned from the stereotyped claims of
the chairmen and leaders of the two
parties. Both sides at this stage of the
game pursue the good old policy of
claim everything" The chairman
who didn't pursue this policy would
speedily be hustled to the rear
nAs the situation stands, there is room
surprises in the result, for the fac
and factions entering into the cam
p5ign are varied and peculiar.
One thing is certain, that if it lies
within the power of the administra-
tion at Washington to swing" Ohio,
Ohio will be Swung" The entire
power of the Republican national ma
chine, with all the vast machinery of
the national government to back it up,
has been concentrated in Ohio. Civil
service reform, for the time being, has
been locked up in the garnet and all
the voluntary cash contributions
that could be gouged out of the federal
Office holders, under implied threat of
dismissal, from Maine to California,
has been dumped in mass into Ohio,
together with what the party treasury
before contained and what could be
wheedled or forced out of the trusts,
who fully understand that they stand
or fall, with Hanna and Mckinley.
Those who appreciate the power of
money in politics and how it has come
to be regarded as the only thing that
counts" in securing majorities these
days. will be inclined to throw up their
hands and concede the State to Hanna
and his satellites. But these take too
hasty and superficial a view and they
leave the American voter altogether
out Of the calculation or view him only
in the light of a commodity to- be
bought up by the side with the long
purse A large portion of the floating
vote may be caught in this way; but
taere are times when the independent
voter or, the sensible voter who
wishes to discipline his party, is abroad
in the land with his ak in regiments
and in such cases party fences disap-
pear as if by magic.
Instances are easily within the men,
cry OF all when the confident predic-
lions of the politicians and boodlers
were knocked into a cooked hat by the
banots of the voters. Conditions are
ripe for just such a revolution in Ohio.
Il may be the imperial issue, on which
the people have yet to express them
selves, or it may be the increased ac-
tjyity and menace of the trusts, for
which the Republican leaders stand 10
a man, that may cause a revolution in
Ohio. Even the shrewdest political OBJ
servers can not tell what cause may
start general landslide all along the
political line. 1t cannot always be fore
seen, nor always explained even after
tie smoke of conflict has cleared away,
as the best political prophets must &C
knowledge in the light Of past political
revolutions that have "stumped" the
entire political fraternity.
Moreover, John R. Mclean is not a
poor man, and it is not likely that the
Democratic organization will fail for
lack of the sinews of war.
Were Ohio normally little less one
sided in its vote there would be small
doubt of the result. As it is the Democ-
racy are fiAhting an entrenched foe who
ian afford 70 lose much and still win.
To the IMPARTIAL observer however.
there is no cause for Democrats to an
ticlpate defeat; ION the contrary, as We
have said, the pdisi9us are ripe fer