Daily new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1897-1906, 1900-03-17

! D0He vi uTedteSt OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
tor Elklns and His Candidaeys
WASHINGTON, d. c., March IT,
The little State of West Virginia with
Its six electoral votes, is likely to see
some of the sharpest fighting of the
coming presidential campaign. An
active canvas is now making by the
! two Republican candidates for the GU
/ bernatorial nomination, and upon its
outcome much of the strength of the
Republican electoral ticket is likely
to depend. A. B. White, a federal
ofiiceholder is the machine candidate
| for the nomination and the Elkins-
Scott dynasty is trying hard to force
his nomination upon the party: they
have the federal Office holders of the
State diligently at work in his behalf.
Representative Romeo H. Freer of
the Fourth district, seems to be the
peoples choice, if the Republicans of
the State could express their prefer
ences. The convention will meet at
Charleston in NAV, and the feeling is
already bitter on the two sides.
1t is possible that by having SO early
convention this opposition on the
/ part Of whichleither wing is oyerborne
/ may have chance to subSide before
the November balloting but at pres
ent it looks as If factional fight in
| the Republican ranks were liable to
injure seriously the Republican chance
of success, particularly If Mr.. White
should be nominated. He represents
the extreme Republicanism which is
often found in the border State region.
He was great advocate of the force
/ bill several years ago and Of cores
pondingly drastic measures at other
times. This puts him out of favor
with that element of the border State
population which likes the North and
Republican ideas at large, but dislikes
the negro. 1T is that element which
has made West Virginia generally
/ Democratic, even though on the is
sues of the civil war it broke away
from the mother State and allied it.
self with the North.
Politically, West Virginia is not
wholly unlike Pennsylvania which it
resembles industrially in SO many
ways The State is rapidly filling up
with rich operators of the Elkins
| stamp, who are coming the natural
resources, the mines, forces, forest,
oil wells, and natural gas into gold;
and with these operators go the army
Of hardy laborers many of whom are
foreigners and little acquainted with
American traditions. Into the hands
| n To hai
ployes the control of the State seems
to be falling. There are enough of
the older inhabitants, however, to
contend with them for supremacy, SO
that the State cannot be regarded as
the exclusive property Of either polit-
ical party. In 1898 of the four Rep
1 resentatives ia Congress, the Repu Bill
cans elected three and the Democrats
one, but of the three districts the
largest Republican plurality was only
1900 votes out Of total of 10000.
1t therefore appears that it would be
a comparatively easy matter to dis
lodge the Republicans from their hold
which dates from 1894.
Senator Elkins' boom for the vice
presidency is somewhat related to
these conditions. Geographically, it
would be out of order to pick the two
candidates from adjoining States like
Ohio and West Virginia, but Elkius
has good reasons to fear that he can
not be re- rejected to the Senate, on &C
count Of the factional disturbance in
his party, and the bad precedent which
the Scott case has created. He would
accordingly, be will ing to take the
vice presidency If he could get it.
To elect Scott the Republicans had to
suspend from membership in the Leg
islature Just enough Democrats to
give them a majority. The United
States Senate, in looking over the case
decided that it must adhere to its
. time honored practice not to inquire
into the validity of the election of the
members of the Legislature, and so
MIR. Scott as has been generally pre-
dicted will be undisturbed in his seat
Only one man (Pettus of Alabama),
4 favored further hearing. The real
bearing of the case will come with the
Legislature that has Elkin successor
to elect. The Democrats almost in
variably control the lower house and
as that is larger body than the Sem
ate they can outplay the Republicans
In suspendlng members of the opposi-
tion party concerning whose election
they profess to be in doubt. The
United States Senate will be compell-
ed to refuse to go into the matter OF
the primary elections and SO it looks
as II Mr. Elkins, unless there is a
tidal wave of Republication, will
have some difficulty in getting back
TO the Senate. His term Of office ex-
'pires on March 4th. This would be
just the time when the vice presi-
dency would ''come in handy" but
unfortunately the Elkins boom has
failed to attract popular support.
HAVE you tried the new French
n CA