Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-10-20
MARYLA AND POLITICS
Rayner's Letter the All-Ab-
sorbing Topic Of the Hour.
GORMAN MEN HOSTILE
HOW LEADERS ARE LINING UP
ON POE AMENDMENT.
Baltimore Proving a Troublesome Bat.
tleRTOund f0r RofiAooks.-.
G0RMAN MEN HOSTILE
Baltimore Proving a Troublesome Bat.
tleground for Ratification of tha
Hsfranchisement Proposition.
Special From a StafY Corresnonde,.

| BALTIMORE. October 20.-The remarks
| that the German democrats are making
| ABOUT Senator Isidor Rayner would not lao.
Wen In cold type. The democratic machine
| VI maryiaho may have had very clear idea
that Mr.. Rayner was apt to take an inde-
penueh' course on almost any subject and
| they knew well enough that he was NOT in
| sympathy with the movement to ratffv tho
roe amendment. but they were hoping that
| ne might remain silent during the campa,sn
mat Is pending. They did not have much
oohiioehce that he would do so, but they
| cherished such a hope
| Senator Rayner's omen letter ooo,,nv,
| seven columns on the first page of several
| newspapers of this city as ADVERTISING ,,,o.
| ter had worse effect the second day than
| II mad on the first day of publication. Dem
ocrats rear the third day will bring forth
| sun worse results. 1t is expected 1t will be
| iollowed by other letters from prominent
uenocrats who are known to be against the
| amendment, but who up to this time bave
not made public announcements
| just as II was known by every one that Mr.
| 'asher was against the amendment IL was
n nio"h that Gov Warfield is opposed to It.
| But democrats say the effect of Gov y-or
| neid silently opposed to the amendment apd
| GOV. Warheld out In a statement denouncine
IL IL are quite different conditions They claim
| tnat statement from the governor in on
| position will do them additional harm hut
| they fear that such a statement will ha
| forthcoming. Then, tco former Gov wil
nam Finkney Whyte is known to be in op-
| position. but he has not made a public dec
| Iaration to that effect. There is a host of
| men of prominence in the business life of
| maryland, and who have been within the
| democratic fold. who are also known to dis
| approve the amendment
| Many or these men have been announced
as IN opposition to the disfrancf1isement
proposition. bit they have not seen AT to 60
4 Il f,~a - 81
! names without public denial.---The -tferno-
Gratis are hoping that they will let the mat
| yer rest there. but their talk Indicates that
| they feel that they are living over a noun
| tain from which dozen volcanoes may
| spring at any moment Each statement In
| opposition to the ratification of the amend
| ment. they say, indicates that the men who
| make 1t, feel not only that the amendment
| should be defeated. but that the drift OF
| opinion is in that direction.
Busy With Denunciations.
These public statements against the rat
lhcation of the amendment are In the
nature of landslide The democrats no
sooner begin to recoverer from the ef
fects of one denunciation by some man In
their party than they have another forced
on them.
But In spite of the opposition to the
amendment that is being made by the in
dependent democrats the German men do
not acknowledge that they have been de.
feated An unusually large number of
voters have been registered. The demo-
Gratis claim that the large registration viii
| give them ten per cent more voters than
they had two years ago. OF course this
statement, so far as 1t applies to the coun-
| ties outside of Baltimore, is based solely
on democratic information No declara-
| tion of party allegiance having been made
/ in these outside counties the only knowl-
| edge that could be obtained in that respect
| is based reports from democrats at the
| nIaiy
however, to have accurate information and
state with great Particularly that in Mont
gomery county there were recently regis
tered 112 democratic voters than
were registered in that county two years
ago. These the voters whom they
are relying to ratify the amendment.
This city Is giving more trouble for the
men who are working for the ratification
| of the Poe amendment than all the rest
of the state combined. Not much was ex-
pected from the northern tier of counties,
and southern Maryland was relied upon
to furnish sufficient number of votes TO
ratify the amendment If conditions in Bal
timore could be maintained In a normal
way. But in this city one society after
another, representing the naturalized cit
izens of the state, has come out in strong
opposition to ratification
The German Democrats.
The German democrats say they were
convinced that the amendment would re-
ceive the support of exactly the class or
voters that has gone against it, Senator
Rayner in his statement declared that the
amendment would disqualify 10000 nat
uralized citizens in the city of Baltimore
alone while there but $4,000 coiored
voters here. The democrats claim that as
the amendment does not operate in Vir-
gina against white voters they should be
trusted to make 1t operate in the same way
in this state. Some time ago the natural
ized citizens were lined up against the
amendment because of the representation
that it would disfranchise them and their
descendants. It was then supposed that
further discussion would remove such op-
position but German and other societies
have declared themselves in way to show
that the objection has taken deep root
with t.lem.
The Importance of the trend of opinion in
Baltimore is seen from the fact that this
city contains about one-half of the voters
in the state. In 1904 there were registered
in Maryland 2SS,041 voters, of which num-
ber 235 01S were white and 53,029 We're col
ored In the same year there were regis
tered 1924 voters in Baltimore. of which
1o1 394 were white and IL $50 were coiored
The registration of 1904 the year of the
presidential election. exceeds that or 13o',
but it is expected from the reports tnat
have been received that the recent resis-
tratton will be nearer the larger hgufes
The present indications are that fhe
northern tier of counties of the state VIII
give normal republican majority. 1hat
should prove to be true 1t would De iinpos-
sibse to secure the ratification OF the
amendment from votes In the southern
counties. from which has come the cfhei
de,naId for law to disfranchise the col
ore,l = oters, If the vote of Baltimore should
be la gely against the amendment The
reaist alton in southern Maryland Is re-
noIrtef TO be large, and the coiored yoio
thsre has been registered and 1t win prob
ably be voted.
In other words, Mr.. German cannot get
along without making good showing IN
Raltimore. In fact il there should be an
overwhelming vote in Baltimore against the
amendment, and normal republican vote
against II In the northern counties, IL could
not be ratified even though the vote IN tho
southern counties should be practically
unanimous in its favor 1t is this condition
that the democratic leaders are facing. SO
that every event in this city that tends to
Increase the size of the independent. or
anti German. vote Il viewed with especial
alarm. G. Z. K