The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1900-07-13
Control of the House.
FIGURING UPON IT'S COM.
POSITION AFTER MARCH
NEXT.
Democratic Claims Strong to
Hold Disputed Districts,
and Make a Majority.

the hopes of Democracy during
the coming campaign rests al.
most solely on electing a Demo
cratic House of Representatives,
it may be interesting to glance
over the situation as shown by
the majorities received by mem
bers of the present House.
1t Is, of course, too early to
take cognizance of the local CON
ditions, which will, doubtless. in
some cases, be strong enough to
upset large malorities, and what
ever speculation there is at this
stage of the campaign must be
confined entirely to figures. The
personality of the nominee, local
dcfectionS and other potent causes
cannot he considered so early in
the campaign. At present it
must he supposed that the easiest
method for the Democrats to cap.
ture the House would he to con
ccntrajc their energies in defeat
ING tine Republicans with the mar.
roWeSt majoritirS. OF the Re.
publican members in the present
House, II were elected by a ma
iority of less than 900. The
total membership Of the House is
3II, divided at present as fol
lows: Republicans. $50; Demo
Gratis. 100; all others. s: vacancies,
f. The Republicans thus have Il
majority of II as the House is
constituted. OF the four Vacan-
cieS, two are districts surely Dem
ocratic-the First Maryland and
the Fourth Vir2inia-and two in
Republican districtS--the Fifth
Pennsylvania and the Twenty
fourth New York-So that with
the House full the Republican
majority would still be IL.
Two of the present Republican
members of the House are seated
as the result of conteStS-Ald-
rich, of Alabama. and Wise, Of
Virginia. Should the Democrats
have members enough to control
the organization of the next
House these districts would
return to the Democratic column.
A DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY OF IL.
Assuming the ability of the
Democrats to capture the II dis
trlctS and hold the > in contest
there would he Isl Democrats and
1l5 Republicans. This looks
comparatively easy. but the same
process shows that Is Democrats
were elected to The present House
by maJorilies Of less than 200.
and should the Democrats win
the II districts where the Re
publlCanS have a narrow majority.
and the Republicans capture the /
10 districts where the Democrats
have a small majority, the Re
PuhlicanS would have lSS mem
herS III the next House and the |
Democrats only 1863, the Republi- /
can majority being 10. an in
crease of >. Furthermore. should .
the Republicans hold what they
have, including the two contest.
ed districts, and gain the 10 |
doubtful Democratic districts.
they would have 200 members of |
the coming House to 157 for the
Democrats.
The Republicans who entered |
the House by small majoriteS are
as follows: Needham, of Califor-
MIA, 113 majority, in a district |
to be normally Demo.
cratic; Marsh, Illinois, plurality,
242. In Marsh's district there
were All votes cast for the Prohi
bition candidate, and had they |!
gone to the Democratic candi. !
date Mr.. Marsh would have been !
defeated. Although Mr.. Marsh's
was small, he will prob |
able be elected, as he is now
serving his fourth consecutive
term.
Rodenberg, Illinois, is serving
his first term, elected by a ma
jority of sos, with 1899 votes |
scattering, plenty to defeat him. |
Faris, Indiana, had a majority |
of 252 votes, with S42 scattering. |
He stands a good chance to lose |
next time.
Pugh, Kentucky, was elected |
by a majority of 10 votes over
Mordecai Williams. lie has, |
however, been elected to three
successive terms in Congress, but /
it would seem that he should be |
succeeded in the next House by a
Democrat.
CHANCES IN MARYLAND.
Baker, of Maryland, had a ma.
jority of 40. He will not be
candidate again and his successor
probably will be a Democrat.
Wachter, of Maryland got it
by the bare majority of 122, with
ia for Hicks, Prohibitlonist,
and "a scattering He will also
be succeeded by a Democrat.
Morris, of Minnesota. had AGA