The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1902-11-14
TARIFF is CERTAIN TO BE THE
ISSUE.
Of 1904 CAMPAIGN
Figures That Emphasize the Repub.
Iican Victory in the West
ern States.

Washington, Nov. 12.-No high tar
.iff speaker can be elected without
handicapping the republican party for
the presidential campaign.
This fact is now generally recog-
nized for it is plainly eel that the
tariff, with the trusts, as a concrete
statement of the case, will be the
chief democratic campaign issue in
1904. The democrats claim that this
is the way the situation willedevelop,
and the republicans do not deny it.
The first skirmish will be seen in the
| election of a speaker of the fifth
eighth congress-,
Mr.. Dazell's election would be TAX
en- to, mean, and the democrats would
give it wide publicity Inc strong en-
phasis, that the republicans were not
sincere when, in every close district
last month, they promised that the
republican party would bring revision
on at the earliest possible moment.
The majority of the republicans of
the ~fifty-eighth congress come from
states where the revision is rampant.
New England, New York, Pennsyl-
vania, Maryland, New Jersey and Cal
ifornia, which embraces the whole of
the anti revision territory, will have
| 80 republican votes in the tifty-eighth
congress. The rest of the country.
the states of the north which lie be-
tween the Allegheny and the Rocky
mountains, including Oregon and
| Washington, will have 118 votes, or a
majority Of %. These revisionists
will elect as speaker some man or
their own type, and it will not be Dali
zell of Pennsylvania, who is probably
| closer to the protected interests OF
the country than any other member
| of the lower house. That man will
probably be Cannon of Illinois, al
though Babcock of Wisconsin will
come in if he can find that he has as
many as six chances out of ten OF
winning. Should Babcock be a candi-
| date and divide the western republi-
can vote with Cannon, Dalzell will not
profit anything, for in the event OF a
deadlock either Babcock would go to
| Cannon. or Cannon to Babcock; Meth
err would GO to Dalzell. Littletield OF
Maine, is also in the race, but he
| stands on precisely the ground occu-
pied by Dalzell. and in a break he
would go to Dalzell, or Dalzell to him.
The fight is very likely to lie between
| Dalzell and Cannon, and the chances
strongly favor the latter, for reasons
! stated above. The revisionists will
control the fifty-eighth congress, n
would be foolish to elect as speaker a
ma unalterably opposed to their
| views. That is the view of the situa-
ton taken by public men in this city.
The Victory Emphasized.
The complete election returns en-
phasize the statement that was made
in the dispatches last week regard
ing the turning of the great west to
the republican column. In he "off
year. election in 1898, this great Sec
ton, comprising Is states, was about
evenly divided. Eight of the states
gave republican majorities and seven
| democratic majorities. This year the
democrats carried but one OF the Is.
Carrying eight of these states in
| 1898, the republicans had a majority
Of 74,SO0. Carrying ii of them this
year, that majority has increased to
273 900. In other words, the republi-
can majority in the "of year. 1902, is
nearly double what it was in the o
year. 1893, with which comparison is
made, wh.le the democratic majority
has almost sunk out Of sight.
Four years ago the republican pa1-
ty elected 40 members of congress
in the western field, this year it elects
40. The democrats four years ago
| elected IL members of congress; this
year the number falls to nine, in spite
of the increased representation of
that section under the new appor-
tionment.
1t is poilited out in the east that the
| election result in the west demon
| strates the impossibility of a political
union between the west and the
south. In 1896, when a number of
western states voted for Bryan, it was
fondly hoped by democratic leaders
that that long desired union was about
to be consummated; but since 1898
the west has drifted away from the
south, and today is as solidly repub-
lican as the south is solidly demo-
cratic.