The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-10-18
POLITICAL SIDELlGHTS
Thinks ohio Is Gone.

Thinks Ohio Is Gone.
 Walter Wellman in Chicago Record
 Herald.
 Columbus.-If Ohio were to vote next Tuesday the probabilities are that Bryan would carry the state. This Is not my opinion alone, but that of well-informed republican leaders with whom l have talked. What the coming fortnight of earnest campaign effort may do toward changing the present situation for the better of course remains to be seen. The republicans believe that they can yet save the state. They will try with all their the thing Is "set' against them, and that they will not be able to turn it over in the short time now remaining.
 Ohio is leaning toward Bryan this year because so many factors work against Taft and so few for him. That Ohio is a republican state under normal condi- tions every one knows. The trouble is that this year the conditions are abnor- nal. When Judge Taft said the other day "Ohio has never gone democratic in a presidential year and never will,' the first of his phrase was the premise for the conclusion in the second one. All the really well informed men with whom l have talked, of both parties, perceive that present conditions are driving the state hard toward Bryan, but the fact that Ohio has never yet completely de- serted the republican party in presi- dential year stares them all in the face, gives the almost despairing republicans hope, and deters the democrats from feel ing that degree of confidence which the conditions actually warrant. If we could push out of our minds the historical rec ollection that Ohio has always chosen re- publican presidential electors. and con- slider the conditions of today purely upon their merits, we would all have to con- cede that the state is probably for Bryan. and the best we could conclude is that by hard work and good luck 1t is still just possible for the republicans to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
 Now that we have Bryan to deal with again, it is worth while to point atten- tion to the fact that he has always been a great vote-getter in this state. One of the most remarkable coincidences in the history of elections is the fact that when Bryan first ran for President in 1896 the vote for the democratic electors in Ohio was 474SS2, and when he ran again in 1900 his vote, strangely enough, was ex- actly the same-474SS2. It is true that in the former year 2615 votes were cast for Bryan electors named on the popullst ticket, and these 26l5 are usually carried in the records added to the straight dem- ocratic vote. But the actual Bryan-dem- ocratic vote did not change in the four years to the extent of a single ballot. Of course the repetition of the number was more a coincidence than persistency since 1t is manlfestly impossible all of the same men could have voted for him both times. Some of them were dead the sec- ond year.
 And yet these repeated figures have a significance worth our attention at this moment They speak of the perseverance 1 and vitality of Bryan's popularity and of the Bryan democracy in Ohio, so much so 4hat even the republicans make all their calculations upon the basis that Bryan will again have those 4750O0. as a nest-egg, so to speak. The repeated fig ures tell also of Bryans peculiar success as a vote-getter in this state; no other democrat before or since has boiled as many ballots as he did twice running.