Republican farmer., 1919-12-26
DEMOCRATS TAKE H0EY'S ELECTION
 AS GOOD SIGN
Republicans Failed to Make Good Their Boast of
 Victory.

Washington, D. C., Dec. 22.---Un- usual significance is attached in Washington to the election just held in the ninth district of North Carolina where Clyde Hoey, Democrat, has been elected to Congress over John M. Morehead, Republican. MT. More head is Republican National commit teeman from the State and was re-
 garded as the strongest candidate available to the G. o. P.
 The North Carolina election might have created little national interest
 but for the boast made by Republican leaders several weeks ago that they would wrest the district from the Democrats and break into the solid South.' This put Democrats on guard,
 it becoming evident that the RepubH- cans were sincere in their plans to caPture the district.
 Prior to the nomination of MT.
 MOrehead by Tar Heel Republicans, Represen tatiye Fess, chairman of the
 Republican Congressional Committee,
 asserted in an interview that the Re
 publicans would win in the ninth dis
 trict and that some good man. would be nominated to carry the c. O. P. standard to victory. When MT. More
 head obtained the nomination, Chair man Fess was pleased and became even more confident that the ninth
 would go Republican.
 MT. Morehead is one of the wealthy men of North Carolina. A number of years ago hex came to the House of Represen tatiYes from that State. 4 state-wide acquaintance and his posi-
 ton as national committeeman made
 him the most formidable candidate
 the Republicans might put forward.
 The NIoreheai organization already
 IL,
 the race only last year for the Senate,
 being defeated by Senator F. NJ Sim
 mons
 Both parties thoroughly combed the
 ninth district and Republican orators,
 with the aid of literature from Wash ingtOn, made the Leage of Nations
 one of the national issues of the cam paign. The challenge was accepted by
 the Democrats and the contest took
 on national significance.
 A special investigator representing
 the Republican Congressional Cam
 paign Committee was sent into the
 district some days before the election. He made a favorable report to party chiefs in Washington and gave ad vice concerning ways in which the Washington G. O. P. headquarters might be of assistance. For fear the presence of outside speakers from oILiit-El SIdIf2'' TfllgNt De resented, the Republicans decided not to send
 ou: orators from Washington which was done when the partr attempted to invade Ala banla- ir the Burnett dis trict election. Instead the committee in Washington bombarded the voters Of the Ninth with literature attacking the Democratic administration, the League of Nations and she President. ! Chairman Fess' predictions of Re ,1,7f C1i came on the heels of Q more general statement by Chairman Will Hays, of the Republican National Committee, outlining the plans of his party for a general movement to enter the South and break it's solidarity.
 The Ninth district in North Caro- lima was regarded as debata ble l grounds because of the personal fol- ] lowing of NIorehead in Mecklenburg county and also because MeckIenburg Democrats were alleged to be dis ! pleased over the result Of the Demo- i cratic primary, which went against 1 that county's candidate. Republican n | appeals were made to the Democrats l to knife the ticket, but Meclhlenburg | again went in the Democratic column i and gave Hoey handsome ma 1 jority.
 ! Another claim was that the cleo 1 tiOn heretofore Of Representative E. l '. Webb, Democrat, who is now on l the Federal bench, was due largely |, to his popularity and that the dis ! trict would go Republican with Webb
 out of the way. The result, however, 1 was just the opposite. Despite the unprecendent efforts of the Re- i publicans to win the district, the
 Democratic nominee was elected by 8
 substantial majority over the strong
 est Republican candidate that party 1 could find.