, 1900-09-15
WRESTLING FOR COURAGE.

The democrats are having an i'm
mense amount of fun figuring on the
Maine vote. Because the republican
vote in that state was less this year
than in 1896 they reason hat it is in
dicative of a general falling off in the
republican vote throughout the nation.
When applied to such states as Maine,
New York or other far eastern states,
their argument is good.
There was no silver sentiment there
in 1896 and the Bryan heresies were
condemned by all honest democrats.
Not a.single prominent democratic pa
per of the east supported him. Con.
%sequently the result was a general
slump in the democratic vote.
In the middle states their argument
does not apply. In Ohio, Illinois, Mich
igan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Kan
sas and the Dakotas there has always
beer a strong fiat money sentiment.
1t was the home of the g~reenbacker
and of the populist. Bryan was there
fore able in 1896 to hold his party in
those states pretty well together. The
agriculturists were misled by the
wheat-silver fallacy and were catch
ing at straws in the hope of extricat-
ing themselves from the slough of de-
spond into which the Cleveland admin
istration had plunged them.
In the silver states four years ago
Bryan had it all his own way and
swept the board. Mckinley republi-
cans were routed bag and baggage.
This year an entirely different con-
dition prevails. In the far east the
democrats are given to understand
that nothing is lean by the silver
plank in the democratic platform, that
it is a covardly make-shift to catch
voters in western states. They also
reason tina Bryan would be powerless
to do his country much harm with his
financial heresies and are in some
cases returning to their party for the
sake of regularity. In the middle We
the farmers have had it proved to
their entire satisfaction that it was
not the money question which caused
their trouble, but the Wilson tariff law
and the general bad management of
the democratic administration. They
will swing the other way and Bryan
will not poll the full democratic vote.
This means thai he will not carry a
single one of the great middle states
and that he will lose the Dakotas,
Kansas, and probably Nebraska. Wyo-
ming is just as safely in the republi-
can column as Massachusetts and
there is a strong probability that the
republicans will carry Utah, Idaho,
dominated largely by the great demo-
cratic copper kings, Clark and DAILY
and they will in all probability carry
that state for Bryan. Washington,
Oregon and California are conceded to
the republicans by overwhelming ma
jorities, the people of those states be-
ing almost a unit in favor of expan-
sion.
The Maine vote gave the republi-
cans about 5000 above the average for
the past twenty years. II this is TAX
en- for the basis of democratic figures,
that party will discover that it would
elect the republican ticket by a ma
iority simply overwhelming. On the
basis of the Maine vote the democrats
admit that New York is in the repub-
lican column by 1876 900 voters.
But why take the Maine vote? Why
is not Oregon just as good a criterion?
II Oregon is a political weather-vane,
Mckinley and Roosevelt will have a
popular majority of more than mil
lion votes and will carry every north
ern state.