The Washington herald., 1914-05-29
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4.
Away back n 1see vbsn James Edwin
campbeli vas the psmocrstic governor
Of ohio and enjoyed the approval cf .
Democratic Jerisiature, there wAs .
spIendid nxing up Of -congrsssionAi dis
trictr from . real Democratic standpolnt.
AIso Z few personal friends we're not
overlooked. Brice was senator-eiecf. .
Democrat OF youth and lavish expense
account methods. Who wns looking ahead
to . second term before he began the
nrsf. Under such satisfying conditions
the Democrats. quite giddy with q re-
turn Of power. began business with tne
keeping 1t home Of disturbing and am
bffious Republicans. They were especially
anxious TO halt the career of Whham
Mckinley and 90 fxed up diltrict that
the Lord would have had trouble 10
carrying. and while Mckinley made
hard fight. aided by Republican, In every
State. he lost. and the chief result was
his election as governor. tusts as the
Democrats might have expected
The latest legislature In Ohio repeated
the folly of 1850. not % much to defeat
Republicans an to aid Democrats and
incidentally chastise few; SO the old
Mckinley district was torn asunder and
three Democratic counties added to Stark
to help John ]. Whitacre who had twice
carried the strong old Republican dis
trict Then came Whitacre's break with
Cox and the machine that handed him
such a gift. and the Republicans are now
picking up. hoping to carry even such
Democratic bulwark as that so kindly
provided by the wise ones at Columbus
All through the State there is shaky
feeling among Democrats that the change
Of districts will result mainly in sending
a delegation evenly divided instead of
nineteen Democrats and three Repubi-
cans as at present In 1880. however bad
the year. and despite Democratic designs
In making up the map. the Republicans
had seven out OF twenty-one members.
Two years later. with bad conditions
prevailing end Cleveland chosen Presi-
dent. Ohio had ten Republican members
in Congress. and in 1884 only two Demo-
Gratis were chosen, Sorg. of Middleton.
and Layton. of wapakoneta.
Somehow there is a feeling among Re
pubIIcans and fear among Democrats
that the 1894 result may be duplicated
this year. thanks in part to the Juggling
with districts to help a few personal
friends and destroy a few foes There
is hardly a Democrat In the delegation
that Is not nervous each time he re-
turns from a visit home. and inclined to
think the old districts were good enough.
Even Claypool. down in the old Chilli
cothe district. who was handed few
extra Democratic counties without any
expense or worry or his part, sis now
indicating some agitation over reports
from home which promise him activity
enough both for nomination anc election.
not TO mention the suggestion by hungry
ones that they ought to have reward
for services rendered
ssss
Out in Ohio they can hardly believe
hat he Ia n
really let 60 There was a general
shock among both Republicans and Dem
ocrats IN the State when a short dis
patch from Washington announced that
Laylin had resigned as Assistant Sec
retary of the Interior. That word RE
signed gave the greatest shock. as no
one familiar with the Laylin biography
could imagine him actually resigning
from high up job paying 5000 year.
The wonder has been that Layln. Re
publican and at times an obtrusive one,
should be kept on the Federal pay roll
fourteen months after a Democratic
President took hold of things at Wash
ington No one felt called upon to ex-
plain It Laylin. least of all. SO he kept
quietly on the job not venturing talk
on Ohio's pending political problems even
with his good and true friend. Charles
William Frederick Dick. to whom Lay
lin owes much for over a dozen years
Of close connection with the pay roll
Away back before Dick himself was
much more than a general county au-
ditor. he discovered Laylin. then a
member Of the legislature and later the
speaker As Dick kept going up In Ohio
politics. Laylin kept tagging along,
reaching the secretary OF states office
three times. and after serving on a COM
mission come with Taft to Washington
in the Interior Department
Something like 100000 in salaries has
come to the Laylin exchequer in his long
stretch OF ONCE holding and he is not
making complaint He can return to
Norwalk. and may be a candidate for
Congress. thanks to a strong Republican
district fixed up by the Cox organization
at Columbus solely to defeat William G.
Sharp. Democrat. who had become
dangerously prominent. Laylin has long
yearned for Congressional honors and
his going out from the Interior office
may have been to have free hand for
the Congressional game. He has even
hooked Up with the old McKinley-Hanna
organization, and may have to argue a
BIT with the Foraker following, just now
vary cOcky and nouerfuI