Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-09-13
| CHEAP FARE ISSUE
MAY BEAT BURTON
Cleveland MayoraIty Contest
Very Practical Thing.
TOUCHES COMMON PEOPLE
Presidents Candidate Is Clean and
Scholarly, But
TOM JOHNSON HAS POPULAR SIDE
Republican Efforts to Prove That
Burton Is Not an Admins
tration Candidate.
TOM JOHNSON HAS POPULAR SIDE
Special From STAFF Correspondent.

| Special From STAFF Correspondent.
CLEVELAND, Ohio, September ID
When Mr.. Burton has divested his candi-
| dacy of the halo of administration support
| which first surrounded 1t, and has denied
| that he is doing business under the firm
| name of Roosevelt. Taft, Burton Il Co., the
| mayoralty campaign is expected to settle
| down to a straight-out fight to the finish
| between Mr. Burton and Mr.. johnson. 1t
| Will be a whirlwind campaign when it gets
well under way and will stir the city OF
| Cleveland to its center.
| 1t is big stake that is being played for
| and worth the efforts that will be put forth.
| Politics and business in this rich and thriv-
! ing city of 600 900 population are very close-
| ly entwined. The control of politics carries
| with it many advantages of a material ma
| ture for which men and parties are striv-
| ing.
| If the johnson organization should be
| crushed, another organization will have to
| take its place. Cleveland has been accus-
| toned for many years to machine rule.
| sometimes democratic, sometimes republi-
| can. Mr.. johnson was brought into the
| arena originally to smash republican ma
| chine. and enabled to do 1t with the
votes of dissatisfied republicans After
| three terms of his administration the re-
| publicans are tired and would fain get con-
| troll In their own hands again. Mr.. john
son won his last mayoralty election with q
| plurality of 1900 out Of a total vote OF
about u, 600 or $1,000. The registration this
! time is expected to run between eighty
and ninety thousand. Mr.. Burton realizes
| that he has very difficult task before
| him in this undertaking to overturn plu-
| rality of 1900.
Burton Seems Issueless.
You will naturally ask what reason he
will assign when requesting the voters to
bring about this expected revolution. I
have studied the republican platform
adopted by the convention which nomi-
mated Mr.. Burton and have inquired dill
gently during the three days in which I
worked on this assignment, and l cannot
find that he has any salient, telling reason
to advance beyond the proposition that
there should be a republican administra-
ton instead Of democratic one. There are
apparently no crying evils to be reformed.
There are the usual charges of extrava-
gance in expenditures which are made in
every city every year by the side which
happens to be out of power. There are
no grave scandals in the city admnistra.
ton. Tom l.. Johnson Is regarded as an
honest man and an honest mayor
1t Is true that the charge is made that
Mr.. Johnson's administration is a political
despotism, which he strengthens from time
to time by the methods familiar and usual
in such cases. 1t is charged that he uses
his political power to bring pressure upon
property holders and business men to
strengthen his organization, but the charges
occur in individual cases and cannot be
summed up in campaign cry that would
attract general attention.
What has Mr.. Johnson to present to the
people in his behalf? Something very at
tractive and that is easily comprehended
by the voter OF the most ordinary intelli-
gence, viz: Cheap car fares. He points
out that street railway company which
he has aided and encouraged now carries
people for 3 cents and wants to carry more
at that rate. fIe calls attention to the fact
that his campaign for lower fares has
forced the old company to propose to give
seven tickets for % cents, showing thereby
that heretofore they have been charging
too much.
Rank and File Powerful.
The street car question is bound to be the
main issue in this campaign. AS stated in
a previous dispatch, that question entered
into the nomination Of Mr.. Burton. and 1t
will run throughout the whole campaign.
Mr.. Johnson has the popular side Of the
issue Mr. Burton has the conservative
side, appealing to the thoughtful business
men who are afraid that property interests
would be harmed by the establishment of q
general three-cent fare. But in what pro-
portion are these thoughtful conservative
business men to the rank and file of the
voters who constitute that 1900 plurality
Of Mayor Johnson?
In this connection an object lesson was
presented to me this afternoon. Three OF
us took to go on the West Side
of town. The fare was Is cents That was
on a car of the Cleveland Electric Railway
Company. Coming back we caught a car
of the opposing line, and, when Is cents
was rendered. cents In change was re-
stored The trip was taken over the ident-
cal route and the difference in payment
due to the car used. Now that object
lesson is being presented every day to thou
sands of citizens of Cleveland 1t might
appear to the ordinary man that in such an
object lesson Mr.. Tom l.. Johnson has
campaign argument that iS working for
him every hour in the day and appealing to
great many people. To some Of those
to whom it appeals 1t might prove more ef-
fective than whole hours talk Of dignified
sentences and wellrounded periods. The
people of Cleveland are well aware that
there is no in trying to conceal the fact
that the real issue in this mayoralty cam
paign is the question of lower fares on
street cars. They talk il among them
selves. Speaking jocularly, they refer to
the Cleveland Company as the ''Con-con'
and to the other line as the ''rom-con."
Some of them think that they stand to ba
"conned' in the end anyhow.
johnson Knows His Strength.
The more you look into the political sit
ua ton in this city the more convinced you
become that Mr.. Tom l.. Johnson is In.
trenched in a very advantageous position.
He knows it and appreciates it, He Ia