Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1910-03-09
FEAR THEY WILL WIN NEXT
HOUSE AND PARTY WILL GO
TO RUIN.
DEMOCRATS ARE AT PRESENT
HoPELEssLY DIVIDED
Many Believe That Success in Con-
sressionaI Campaign Would Mean
Decisive Defeat in Next Presidential
observation-disclosures for Their Pessi-
nistic Views.
Especial Correspondence

w washington, Mdrch S.-One OF the
remarkable features of the coming
congressional campaign will be that a
lot of democrats will hope and pray
that their party is not put in control
of the next house.
About the capitol, among democratic
members of the house, strange as it
may seem, there is well-defined feel
ing that it will be dangerous to the
democrats to capture the next house
away from the republicans. On the 9TH
er hand. there are some evidences that
part of the republicans would be Sc
cretly delighted if the house went
democratic
Several reasons exist for the panicky
feeling among the democrats about
gaining the next house. Not all of them,
of course, are frightened at the pros
poets of being in the saddle But some
ARE and do not hesitate to say So
Those democrats who entertain the
view that the democratic party ought
to go ahead and enact legislation along
progressive lines say that if the DEM
ocrats get the house they will remain
in power just long enough for the
country to be convinced the democrats
are split, hopelessly divided and I'M
Bile to agree on a vigorous and con-
structive program. The result will be-
they fear, loss of the presidency in
1912.
Democrats Badly Split.
AS matter of fact, the democrats
in congress are as badly split as the
republicans. One wing is conservative
in the extreme. The other wing is rad
ical and wants to go ahead. The rad
ical wing sympathizes with many of
the things the progressive or insursert
republicans advocate. The conservative
democrats are in many instances found
lining up with the conservative or reg
ular republicans.
The split in the democratic ranks
in congress is largely concealed with
the party in the minority. Once it was
in control of the house. there would
be a row between the old-line demo-
Gratis of the conservative sort and the
fnsurgent democrats that would be as
bitter, or more so, as the fight between
the warning wings of the house repub-
licans. Victor Murdoch and Uncle
Joe" Cannon are no farther apart in
their views than are some OF the DEM
OCIdllC lneHlOSTS Oh Inc mouse.
Clark Would Be Speaker.
What would happen If the democrats
controlled the house? Champ Clark
would undoubtedly be speaker Mr..
Clark's sympathies are not with the
conservative democrats. But when it
came to making up the committees, it
would be difficult for him to avoid Civ
ing the chairrnanships to the democrats
entitled to them on the basis of senior
ity This would throw into the most
of the important chairmanships the
conservative democrats. The result
would be, as some of the radical DEM
ocrats perceive and say, that they
would not be able to control legislation,
that the conservatives Of their party
would control it, and that the things
done in the house in the democratic
regime would be disappointing to the
voters. The result, they hold, would be
defeat of the democrats in 1912 and
long long Punishment from the flesh
pots of office.
Success Might Mean Ruin.
SO keenly do some of the house DEM
ocrats feel the difficulties that they be-
!ieve lie in the path of control of the
next house by the democrats that they
fear such control might end in the ir-
revocable splitting up of their party
and the ruin of democracy.
To add to the embarrassment Of the
situation from a democratic viewpoint
plenty Of testimony is coming in from
the country, especially from the middle
west, that many democratic voters are
bordering over the question whether to
support democrat nominees in the con-
gressional campaign or go to the sup
port of progressive or insurgent repub-
licans.
That many democrats will support
progressive republican candidates for
the house is indicated by the statement
here day or two ago of prominent
democrat from leading middle west
ern state that $4,000 democrats would
go over to the insurgent republican
cause in that state this fall.