Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-09-14
ON THE EASTERN SHORE
POLITICAL SITUATION IN THE FIRST
MARYLAND DISTRICT.
Republicans Hope to Split Even With
Their Opponents - Outlook
for National Ticket.
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
GREENSBOROCGH Md

GREENSBORODGH, Mo,
September Ii. 1900.
The campaign on the eastern shore Is
fairly open. and within the next six weeks
the first Maryland district will be the the
alter of a hot contest. Both parties expect
to be well supplied with funds, John p
Moore of Worcester who is running on the
democratic ticket for the Fifty-seventh
Congress. and William II. Jackson of Wi
COmico. his republican opponent, being
among the weathiest men in the district
The other candidates are not rich, but they
are good speakers, and upon them, 1t Is
said, will devolve the spellbnding end OF
the campaign. The democrats have put UP
for the unexpired term of Gov. John Walter
Smith in the Fifty-sixth Congress Edwin
III. Brown of Queen Anne, and the republi-
can candidate is Josiah Leeds Kerr of Dor
set. Mr.. Brown is leading lawyer of this
section and a brother of the late John B.
Brown a noted Cleveland democrat, who.
a few years ago, filed out an unexpired
term in the House. He has been state
treasurer. Mr.. Kerr is a new man In poll
tics but an able speaker and known
throughout the district for his opposition
to the bribery. said to have prevailed at
elections on the eastern shore for CEN
fury.
Prospects at the Outset.
the bulge in the fight, but the republicans
profess confidence, and they have undoubt-
eddy nominated candidates possessing as
much strength as any at their call in the
district. Since the civil war they have
carried the district but once in a congress
sional fight-in 1896, when DR.. Isaac A.
Barber of Talbot defeated Joshua w. Miles
OF Somerset for reelection. Governor
Smiths mapority in 1898 was about 500, and
he lost upward of a hundred populist votes
which this year are with the democrats.
But Smith made gains in republican strong
holds. For instance, in Somerset which is
normally republican by good majority.
owing to the Colored and oyster vote, he
got 300 more votes than a drawing of party
lines would have given him. This year the
republicans hope to poll their full vote In
Somerset, and also To keep up their end
in Dorchester, where they have been con-
siderably behind for number of years.
Kerr is expected to get 400 ma jority in his
own county: The strongest democratic
county the shore is Queen Anne, and
Browns followers claim he will carry it
by from 500 to loo votes.
The state republican managers are pre-
pairing to make a strenuous effort to keep
the state on the Mckinley side To this
end they will aid to the fullest extent of
their power the congressional candidates.
over in the fifth. southern Maryland.
district Representative Mudd has a walk
over. and would be reelected perhaps were
he not to turn his hand. The managers in
sist upon Mudd making the same fight he
would if his election were in serious jeop-
ardy. in order to swell McKinley's vote.
If the republicans can carry the first dis
trict or SPLIT anywhere near even 1t will
he a great aid to them in the presidential
result. There are eight counties In this
district, all the eastern shore ex-
cept Cecil. OF these counties Worcester
and Queen Annes are surely democratic.
Kent and Caroline may go republican by
from fifty to a hundred each. Talbot is de-
batabe and Dorchester and Somerset are
normally republican. Wicomico used to be
good for thousand democratic majority,
hut this has been gradually cut down until
they have hard pull to carry it.
In Jackson's County.
1t is hoped by the republicans that Jack
son can win in his own county, owing to the
dissatisfaction among the followers of his
brother ex-Gov. Emory Jackson, who was
a tentative candidate for Congress. Last
year, after a warm fight, Bill" Jackson
was defeated for the state senate Queen
Anne's and Worcester are expected to off
set Kent. Caroline. Dorchester and Somer-
set and the election may be decided by
Talbot and WicomiCo.
third Jackson brother. Col. Wilbur F..
a Baltimore bank president and summer
resident of Dorset, was the republican can
didate in lS9S against John Walter Smith.
He also ran for the state senate and was
defeated, and the democrats jocularly insist
that the doctrine of the fitness of things in
sures the overthrow of William H.
The first district is altogether an agri-
cultural community, and its people are con-
sentative and intelligent a rule. In late
years this section has made rapid strides
but politically the long continued use of
money and debauchery at elections has Gre
ated large class of doubtful voters who
refuse to go to the polls unless paid for "a
days work. and paid high rates at that.
In some campaigns the democrats have
made inroads on the negro vote in certain
parts of the district, but generally these
stand together. The white republicans fair
" represent the wealth and intelligence of
the district, but the mass of white voters,
descendants of wings and democrats, have
been held to the democrats since the war
by the cry of negro domination.