Evening star., 1905-11-06
MONTGOMERY POLITICS.
Result of Tomorrow's Election Said te
Be in Doubt
Special Correspondence Of The Star.

ROCKVILLE, Md, November @. 1908.
The eve of the election finds the result
In MONTGOMERY county very much In doubt
Conditions were never more mixed, ana
whatever happens Will not be much OF a
surprise to any one who has been endeaVor-
ing to fathom the situation. Chairman
Willis B. Burdette. chairman of the repuo-
lican county committee. says his party STANDS
an excellent chance of carrying the county.
while Mr.. Robert G. Hilton. chairman OF
the democratic state central committee, ex-
presses himself as confident that the ma
lority OF not one Of the democratic candi-
dates will be below 400 AS matter OF
fact both gentlemen are completely at sea
rega riding to the true situation. and pri-
vately admit 1t.
Tha, many democrats In all sections OF
the county will scratch their tickets Is
generally conceded. Some Will go after
one portion and others after another, ana
the whole ticket Is bound to suffer. 1t Is
equally true that the republican party WAS
never more nearly united than at present.
and will support the ticket almost To a man.
Were 1t not for the fact that the latter
party is almost certain to be much the
greatest loser because of improperly marked
ballots there would be a strong Likelihood
that the hopes of the members or that
party would be fully realized.
OF the -, 900 colored registered viters in the
country, probablyG0 are iliterate, while the
number of white republicans who are dnapie
democratic illterate vote IS believed 10 be
in the neighborhood of 800. Many of these
by learning to pick out their party desig-
nation are able to mark their ballots as
well as those who can read and Write, put
probably ma iority of the tickets attempt
ed to be voted by this class will be thrown
out because of improper marking. Ever
since the present ballot law has been IN
effect the republicans have lost much more
heavily from this cause than have the
democrats. and there is believed to he no
good reason why the same Will not be true
this time. The colored iiliterates. however.
realizing that the result of the election this
time may mean their determination from
politics. have applied themselves much more
assiduously than usual in an effort to learn
to mark their tickets, and as a result, 1t
Is claimed that the republican loss from
spoiled ballots will not be as great as
formerly. However, there is believed to be
little doubt that the republicans will lose
from this cause at least 2G0 more than the
democrats, and Ii may exceed that 1sure
considerably.
The normal democratic majority in the
county is about 400. Add to this the 200 or
more votes that the republicans will lose
by thrown-out tickets and it makes Geo
votes that the republicans will have to
overcome by democratic help whether
there are enough dissatisfied democrats In
the county to overcome this handicap no one
knows. The republicans believe they have
chance to do 1t; the democrats think
otherwise. and that is about the true situa-
ton. so far as the tickets are concerned.
The fate of the amendment Is also PROD
lena teal. There is doubt that many
democrats all over the county viii vote
against the proposition, and many of them
are outspoken in their opposition. While
there may be q few republicans who will
not vote with their party in opposition to
the measure, the vote of that party is GER
tain to be cast almost solIQly against the
scheme, so the fate of the amendment like
that of the county tickets, depends almost
entirely uDOn democratic detection.
When everything is considered the
chances seem to favor the democrats, both
in regard to their county ticket and the
amendment. II the contrary should hap
pen, however, 1t would be surprising to
very few. In any event, the majority is
almost sure to be small.
The campaign in this county will be
brought to close tomorrow evening with
two big rallies The republicans will hold
forth at Kensington, where former Senator
Marion c. Butler of North Carolina, j.
Frank Supplee of Baltimore and others will
be the speakers, while the democrats ex-
pect to have one Of their biggest meetings
of the campaign at Glen Echo, to be ad-
dressed by Messrs. Blair Lee, Edward c.
Peter. Walter A. Johnson and others.
Mr.. Edward Dawson, who for several
months has been engaged with an engineer
ing corps In Pennsylvania, has returned to
his home at this place.
While returning to their homes near Der
wood, two miles west of here, from Church
at Rockville today. Mr.. Edwin Gloyd, his
mother and daughter. Miss Harriet Robert
son, and orphan boy, were all seriously
injured in a runaway accident. In crossing
an overhead railway bridge the horse they
were driving took fright at a passing train
and away. The carriage over
turned and all the occupants thrown out.
Mr.. Gloyd sustained a fracture of one arm
and two fingers, Miss Robertson broken
arm and the others were painfully bruised
and cut. They were assisted to their homes.