Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-10-27
APATHY IN ILLINOIS
Republican Leaders Fear Rank
and File Are ListIeSs.
WARNING FROM CHAIRMAN
Looks as if Stay.at- Home Vote Will Be
Enormous.
DEMOCRATS ARE OPTIMISTIC
Reports at Headquarters Are Of the
Rosiest Kind-Claims Of Seven
Districts and Probably More.
DEMOCRATS ARE OPTIMISTIC

| Special Correspondents Of The Star.
CHICAGO, October "a, 1904
| The grim old warrior that has wrought
disaster on many q political battlefield. old
| General Apathy" Is stalking through the
| republican camp in this state, causing no
| end Of alarm and worry among the party
| chieftans. Chairman Roy o. West of the
| state central committee and other leaders
are issuing solemn warnings to the party
workers that they must stir up enthusiasm
among the rank and file OF the voters or
the city and county and possibly the state
| tickets will be buried in a democratic ava
lanche.
According to Mr.. West. indications at
present point to an enormous stay-at-home
vote in the republican ranks. which is dan
gerous in the extreme. He plans to send
out 800 900 stirring letters to party leaders
and workers all over the state in the effort
to impress them the vital necessity of
Straining every nerve to get out the full re-
publican vote on election day.
And now comes Speaker Joseph G. Can
non and supplements Mr.. Vests gloomy
notes with an earnest warning against over
confidence. After conference with MEM
bers of the state committee here. Mr.. Can
| non, who has just returned from a tour In
| the east. said that too much prosperity
| is the thing to be feared in this campaign"
| He takes the same view of the matter that
Vive President Fairbanks recently enunci-
ated that the great prosperity in the country
| in the campaign manifested everywhere in
the country by the republicans. From now
| ON Mr.. Cannon will devote the most of his
| time during the campaign to his own dis
trict.
| Democrats Optimistic.
Democrats are taking very optimistic
| view of the situation on the other hand.
! They declare that the republicans are apa-
thetic. while the followers OF their banner
are manifestins the liveliest interest Re-
ports at the democratic state headquarters
are of the roseate kind with regard to con-
ditions in the city and all close COMPRESSION
| al districts in the state.
| D. ]. Hogan. secretary of the state demo-
| cratic central committee. declares that his
party win certainly capture seven con-
gressional districts in the state now repre-
sented by republicans. while they have ex-
| cellept chances Of carrying two or three
more.
Moreover. he declares that II the apathy
| now existing among the republicans Is not
! dissipated before election day there will be
| such a slump In the republican vote that
| the democrats Will carry majority Of the
twenty-fi congressional districts. He and
J the other democratic leaders now assert the
| democrats will carry the second. fourth.
fifth and eighth districts in this city and
4 the stwenty-frst. twenty-second twenty
| third and twenty-fourth down state. be-
sides the twentieth. now represented by
Representative Rainey. OF these districts
| the fourth. fifth and eighth in this city are
normally democratic by large majorities.
The second. represented by Representative
| Martin B. Madden, who was elected In the
! republican landslide Of two years ago., Is
| a close district. with the odds favoring the
democratic candidate, eX-RepreSentative
| Martin Emerich.
| Normally the seventh district Is repub-
| lican by 5000 votes. Two years ago it was
| carried by Representative Phillip Knopf by
| q nlura of II a g
| again renominated, while against him the
| democrats have nominated Frank Buch-
anan. former president of the Bridge and
| Structural Iron Workers. who contributed
| to the downfall of the notorious Sam Parks,
the New York labor leader. who was sent
| to the penitentiary for Matchmaking en-
ployerS Buchanan has been Endorsed by
| the Independence League, the Progressive
Alliance and the labor unions and is making
| a hard fight against knopf. who has been
placed on labor's unfair list
A House-to-House Campaign.
Buchanan is making a house-to- house
| campaign and as there is a large labor vote
in the district the republicans have become
alarmed over the reported success the DEM
ocratic candidate Is having in his canvass.
| Knopfs plurality is certain to suffer a
| deep cut but he will undoubtedly be re-
, elected, unless the workingmen in the dis
| trict should go over In body to Buch-
anan or too many republicans should stay
| at home
| Until two years ago the republicans failed
| to make a nomination In the eighth district
| because of the heavy democratic vote there.
| A split among the democrats two years ago,
there being regular and an Independent
| democratic candidate, and the Roosevelt tt
| dal wave, resulted in the election of Charles
| McGavin. republican little known even in
| the district one of the accidents of the
| campaign, by a plurality of 1900 In 1902
| the democratic candidate carried the dis
| trict by plurality of $4,000.
| McGavin has a chance to win again-a
| fighting chance-as the strife among the
! democrats in the district has by no means
| been ended. Stanley H. Kunz, former al
| derman and at present state senator, has
| been nominated by the democrats. He is a
| machine politician Of the worst kind For
! years he has been counted among the gray
| wolves" of the council and in the legisla-
1 ture his vote has always been in favor OF
! scandalous or questionable bills.
| Kunz is popular however. among the vot-
| ers of his district, which contains a large
| foreign population. He is a Pole and Is ex-
pected to get the solid Polish vote. There
+! may contribute to the defeat Of Kunz and
| the election of Wharton. These are Abra-
! ham Press. a Jew. the Independence
League nominee. who will probably poll the
| heavy Jewish VOTE and the socialist candi-
| date James B. Smiley. The socialists are
| strong in this district.
| In Boutelps District.
Another republican district Is the ninth,
where Representative Henry s. Boutell has
been renominated. The republican plurality
| there is usally about 5000. Two years ago
| Mr. Boutell defeated Quin OBrien. the dem.
ocratic candidate. by $500 votes. Four
years ago Boutell won over Lockwood Ho-
more, Mrs. Potter Palmer's brother. by
| only a few votes. This year the American
Federation of Labor and the local unions
are fighting Boutell. He failed to answer
the Gompers bill Of grievances that was
| mailed to him and voted to annul-&he eight
hour law in the Panama canal zone, ac-
cording to the labor leaders.
! Had the democrats the unions and the
Independence League united on some one
good candidate they might have had a
chance Of defeating the representative. In
stead, the league and the democrats have
named separate candidates, and the unions
| have Endorsed the democratic candidate, al
| though the league nominee is also union
| workman.
John M. Vail, paperhanger and prom
inent figure in the American Federation of