New-York tribune., 1900-05-06
FIGURING ON THE HOUSE.
FLIMSY HOPES OF THE DEMOCRATIC
RAINBOW CHASERS.
CALCULATION AS TO CLOSE DISTRICTS
THAT WILL WORK BOTH WAYS

| THAT WILL WORK BOTH WAYS.
| Washington May ; (SpeciaD.-The Presi-
| dency almost invariably decides the political
| complexion of the House of Representatives
! chosen at the same election. There has been
| only one exception to the rule since the Repub-
! lcan party came into existence. nearly fifty
| years ago IT occurred in 1876 dubious con-
test controlled by unusual conditions, when
! Rutherford B. Hayes, Republican. chosen
| President, while the Democrats carried the
| House by 13 majority. No such mixed re-
suit is possible this year, when every portent in
| dicates clean Republican sweep.
| When. as now, the majority either way in the
| preceding House has been narrow, the Republi
| cans. a rule have increased their House
| strength at the ensuing Presidential election.
| That of 1896 doesn't count, because their great
| majority of IA in 1894 practically precluded
| further increase. For instance, the House elect
| ed in 1856 Democratic by II, but in the
| Presidential election of 1888 the Republicans
| turned the tables and secured it by 1, when
/ Thomas B. Reed first became Speaker. This sue
| cess. however followed by the Democratic
hard times and anti-tariff landslide of 1890
when they unexpectedly carried the off-year
House by the unparalleled majority of 14S. Only
IS Republicans held their seats.
AT the Presidential election in 1892 this huge
Democratic majority was sufficiently reduced to
prove that a reflex had in. 1t paved
the way for the overwhelming Republican vic
tory in 1891, in punishment of Mr.. Clevelands
administrative vagares, the Democratic tariff
straddle, etc The Democratic majority of 81
which came in with the Cleveland tidal in
1892 reversed by a Republican ma jority of
IA. In the Presidential canvass of 1896 they
carried the House again by -. just half their
previous majority, but still far above the av-
far Eut in
, the off year 1898 the Democrats failed to dupli
cate the Republican victory of 1894. in the
midst of Mr.. Clevelands administration, the
House remaining Republican by 10 to Is.
PRETENCE OF HOPE.
Yet in the face of these inauspicious statistics
there is pretence that the Democrats are hope
ful'-not confident, only hopeful-Of overcoming
the present Republican majority and carrying
| the House fall, and Furthermore, that this
Democratic hopefuness has made the Republi-
| cans somewhat uneasy" During the last six
| years the Democrats have fed principally upon
| hope deferred Their hopefulness just now In re-
| gard to the next House and suspicion of Re-
| publican "uneasiness' to be founded
chiefly upon the unimportant fact that in about
dozen Congress districts in various quarters
OF the country the Republicans their seats
in 1898 by narrow pluralities. The full list,
published, shows these pluralites to range from
barely 10 in the IXth Kentucky District up to
S13 in the WITH West Virginia. If the Oppo-
stion should capture all these close districts
less the Republicans made compensatory gains
elsewhere they would secure a majority of the
House. Their faith is evidently pinned upon
such result, and it is therefore worth while
to reprint the list which has been going the
rounds of Democratic journals under the head
ing of "A Dozen Close Districts" Here they
are:
Name and District. Majority
j. C. Needham With California .113
b. F.. Marsh, XVth Illinois
w. A. Rodenberg, .X<Ist Illinois
{, W Far Ind