New-York tribune., 1918-02-24
Murphy Lines
UpFarmers to
Beat Whitman
Fusion Drive Under Way,
With Dean Bailey as
Head Of Ticket
[Staf Correspondence1

STAFF Correspondence
ALBANY, Feb. ga fusion of DEM
ocrats and farmers in this state next
fall is planned by Charles F. Murphy
leader of Tammany Hall, and some of
his upstate regents. Liberty Hyde
Bailey, of Ithaca, former dean of the
State Agricultural College at Cornell
University, is reported to have been
selected to head the ticket. Bailey is
Democrat. Others who have figured
prominently in agricultural affairs in
the state, irrespective of party affila-
tlons, will be offered places on the
state ticket, and farmers who want to
run in the Democratic primaries for
nomination on the Senate and Assem-
bly, tickets can have the backing of the
Democratic organization if they prom
lse to play fair with Fourteenth Street.
The plan has been under discussion
tor some weeks, it was learned to-
night. Ex-senator T. Harvey Ferris,
of Utica, and other Democratic lead
ers of rural districts conceived the idea
and submitted the plan in detail to
Murphy III New York City. Murphy in
0orsed it. Since then there have been
frequent conferences here between rep
resentatives of farmers organizations
and Robert +. Wagner, Democratic
leader of the Senate.
Wagner Favors Plan.
Senator Wagner believes that the
time is ripe for fusion with the farm
ers. He and other Democratic legis-
lators here have been watching the
fight waged by the Brown Barnes fac
ton on Governor Whitman with grim
satlsfaction.- Ihis~+ight resolved itself
into directing the unrest that is gen
eral among farmers against the Gov
ernor.
The anti-Whitman forces have met
with some success in having resolutions
adopted by the State Grange and other
agrarlan bodies censuring the Gov
ernor's appointments to the Farms and
Markets Council, and demanding that
none but farmers have places in this
council. These resolutions also asked
for the ousting of Charles II. Belts,
Republican leader of Wayne County.
from the secretaryship OF the council
and the placing in his stead of
farmer with degree from some recog-
nlzed agricultural college,
to their advantage, and Democratic
pow-wow to which farmers will be in
vlted has been planned for some time
early in the spring. The meeting will
be held probably at Syracuse. At the
meeting the details of the Democratic
farmer fusion will be worked out, and
committee consisting of representa-
tives Of every county in the state, pat
termed on the lines Of the New York
City Democratic Fusion Committee of
last fall, will be created.
Hearst Opposed Upstate
How to dispose Of William Randolph
Hearst, who is bent on running at the
head of the Democratic ticket, without
giving offence, is the promlem which
gives Tammany the greatest concern
just now.
Hearst is not fancied by the upstate
Democrats, and at conferences of rural
Democratic leaders, held recently in
this city, Utica and Syracuse, it was
decided almost unanimously that
Hearst would not be acceptable In
fact, no man from New York City
would be acceptable to the upstate
leaders,
John J. Dillon, Of New York City,
former head of the State Foods and
Markets Commission, will be employed
by the Democrats as an advance agent
in their plan to get the farmers to fuse.
Dillon is very popular with the dairy
farmers. While Commissioner of Foods
and Markets ne aided them materially
in their strike against the big milk
companies.
A place for him on the state ticket
is also part of the programme. Poll
ticians who were in Syracuse last
Wednes day, when the farmers launched
the New York State Agricultural Fed
GRAFTON. are authority for the state
ment that. subtle work on the part of
Liberty Hyde Bailey prevented the
farmers from following the lead Of the
Farmers Non-Partisan Leagues of the
Dakotas and other Western states and
launching an agrarian political party
in this state. Had this plan of the farm
ers been carried out there could not be
any fusion of Democrats and farmers
this fall.
(Republican leaders disturbed by
Farmers Ledgate--0n last 1,noo