The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1908-09-20

democrtic column two years ago, and the
democrats are now counting on holding
all those and gaining some more, under
the influence of Bryan's popularity and
the republican apathy that is general
throughout the north and west.
There are now in the House 223 repub-
licans and 166 democrats, with two vacan-
cies caused by DEATH one in a republican
district. the Thirteenth Indiana, and one
IN a democratic district the First Louisl-
ana. The filling of these vacancies will
not alter the republican majority of 81.
To control the next House the democrats
must change 20 districts from republican
to democratic. That would give them a
majority of only one, and present stu
alton where legislation would be impos-
sible except under the most stringent ap-
plication of the Reed-Cannon rules and
the constant enforced attendance of the
entire majority membership.
To have effective control of the House,
therefore, the democrats must win from
"a to IS districts from the republicans.
If they should hold their own in the dis
trfcts they now represent and carry every
one of the close republican districts they
would have a majority of only IL. A con-
troll as narrow as that would tax the In
genuity of their leaders to the utmost to
obtain effective legislative results. 1t 10
the height of improbability, however, that
they will carry all those close dis
tricts.
Moreover, they have almost as many
close districts themselves as the repub-
licans, there being 80 In. which change of
1000 votes would elect republicans. In II
of these a change of less than 500 would
lose them the seats. The democrats have
this advantage, however. in regard to the
close districts. Most of them are in
states like Missouri, Tennessee, North
Carolina and Virginia, which normally are
so heavily democratic that the proba-
bility of loss is much less than in the
doubtful states of Indiana, Ohio and the
I, middle west where most of the close
republican districts are.
Where the democrats have the best
chance to score heavily and obtain the
majority needed to give them effective
control of the House is In the possibility
of Bryan landslide. Twenty-three Of
the republican close districts are in IL
linois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Mis-
souri,. Almost every one of these would
be practically certain to go democratic
If Bryan carries the state, or even If he
runs close to Taft there. With this help
in the close districts a Bryan landslide
that would carry the states would elect
their members of the House at large, or
by the vote of the whole state might cas-
lily result in giving the democrats control
VI ll6 I1OuSS.
In 1881 the suicide rate in this country
was IL for every 100000 of population,
the total number of suicides in the whole
country being Co., Last year the total
number was 1912, and the average was
126 per 100000 of population. Since 1890
there have been 10000 suicides. After Civ
Ing these figures, a writer in the Lancet,
London, goes into the question of the con-
nection between suicide and weather, de-
claring that the majority of persons do
away with themselves on sunshiny days.
He continues:
"On the authority of DR.. Czech, of Stras
burg, DR.. Durhheim, of Paris, and DR..
Gubshi, of ST. Petersburg, who have be-
tween them examined very extensive sui
eide statistics for the whole of Europe,
it is made apparent that the summer
murder than are the winter months, the
maximum rate for all countries occurring
in June and the minimum in December.
This certainly appears to abolish the old
theory connecting dark and depressing
days with suicide. On the other hand,
the solar effect of the dog days can
not be invoked as the cause of the sum-
mer increase, for the suicide-rate is al
ways higher in the temperate than in
the torrid zone. The maximum OF l72
suicides annually to each 100000 OF in
habitants occurs between the parallels
of latitude so and IS in the north tenn
perate zone-that is, just where climate
is most salubrious and least annoying.