Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-10-26
HOW ARE PLUMS
GOING TO DROP
FOR THE BOYS
Republicans and Possibilities of
a Grand, Sweet Song.
WHO IS WHO IN CONGRESS
Majority May Be Cut Down When the
Votes Are In.
THEY MAY LOSE 40 DISTRICTS
Majority is Such Now That the
Change May Alter Things Very
Greatly in the House.
Majority May Be Cut Down When the
Votes Are In.
THEY MAY LOSE 40 DISTRICTS

w HNtiiNi tiiS ~ PubiiNoiio III ehN
congressional campaign are going to
have one grand, sweet chorus again
of victory is a very open question,
according to a staff correspondent.
There are some conditions that lead
to anything but certainty on that
score, and the ostensible indifference
on the>part of the rank and file of the
G. O. P. is a cause for no little
comment There are a number of
states where the situation is fraught
with much danger to the party.
Special From a STAFF Correspondent
NEW YORK. October 26.-Ever since
reaching New York last Monday night 1
have been digging for some facts about
the congressional situation at large. Re-
ports dropping In every once In while
from the country districts indicate that
perhaps the campaign Is not one grand
sweet song for the republicans, as claimed
by some eminent statesmen recently visit
Ing Washington. 1 have been trying to
find out what's what and who's who in
congressional politics. Now in dealing
with campaign managers In researches of
this kind you have to be on your guard
lest they try to throw scare into Won.
1t Is customary at certain stages of the
campaign for the managers to get prodiei
y. ously frightened and set all good partisans
In cold sweat over the alleged prospect Of
defeat.
That used to be Brother Babcock's long
suit when he was republican chairman.
have seen him with tears running down bis
cheeks, almost, as he called in the boys and
described the lamentable conditions of the
republican campaign. Then. next day. he
would prance down into the financial dis
trict' smiling as basket of chips, as he
passed around the hat for collections.
Brother Jim Griggs, the democratic chair
man. is the same way. He comes over to
New York and tells Ryan and Belmont and
the others most moving tales of how every
thing is going to pot. The republicans are
likely to break into the solid south and all
that sort of thin. They are all alike. and
Brothers Jim Sherman and Loudenslager
can put up most heartrending stories of
impending disaster when there is something
In IT.
Must Allow for It.
So you have to make a certain amount
of allowance for that recognized disposi
uon, and l have been trying to do SO from
many sources; have been getting together
the facts about the conversational oa,,,.,
here a little. there a little: some from
democrats, some from republicans. ont Of
town and In town. The result? Well. IT is
not halcyon prospect from the confident
republican viewpoint, and the outlook will
De viewed from that point because the
party IN power Is supposed to have the
sIedter STAKE. Inc roseate hue OF the
republican horizon is not quite deep enough
10 DE mistaken Tor an aurora borealis. Nv
cold judgment is that the republicans will
not lose the house, but that the majority
Will pe cut below the figure that some self
satisfied politicians are now banking on
III the majority should be cut down TO
very close margin 1t would be exceedingly
embarrassing to the present organization or
the house, which is ultra conservative and
stand-pat. With the injection of n largo
Independent and new democratic element
into the next house this organization NAV
find difficulty In continuing existing legisla
tive policies. The present republican ma jor-
! tty is 1l2. The republicans stand to lose
forty districts, in the natural order of ex-
listing conditions. That makes a change of
eighty votes and reduces the republican
majority 10 thirty-two. But there are ten
more districts that are not absolutely safe
for the republicans making a possible
change OF twenty votes and reducing the
republican prospective majority to twelve
\, hen they get that far in conjecture cold
chills run down the republican spine: Tor
they find a state of uncertainty in the coun-
try that renders disaster at least possible.
The Menace of It.
What is this menacing state of affairs:
still reasoning from the republican view
point easily told?
. First, apathy and a cold-blooded indif-
ference the part of certain class of
republican voters, who. content with the
opulent prosperity of the times, refuse to
admit the possibility of a turn in the tide
Second, restlessness on the part of
another class that is being stirred with
the charge that IL is not getting its share
of the general prosperity: and that desire
for a change which brought disaster to the
republicans in 1892.
Third. factionaiism in the republican
party in more states than the managers
like to contemplate
AFourth. the natural and reasonable slump
from the Roosevelt vote of two years ago,
which carried into the republican column
districts that normally are democratic.