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If those dissensions had continued as they were a year ago, Cook County (Chicago) would have been lost by a large majority. That would have meant the loss of the Legislature, and perhaps of the State ticket. Last winter, a number of Republican leaders set out to find some means of improvement. A committee of ten was appointed for the Hyde Park wards of Chicago (the great Republican wards of the south side). It made a very careful and detailed study of the causes of dissatisfaction, and after much consideration, recommended a plan for the complete reorganization of the party in that territory. This plan involved the opening of the ward and precinct clubs to all Republican voters, definiteness of time and place for all caucuses and party elections, and provisions for publicity and fairness in the conduct of party matters. These recommendations, amounting to a complete revolution in party organization (in my ward, the Seventh, the Republican ward club formerly had about 700 members,-there are now nearly 6,000), were adopted with practical unanimity by all the different factions concerned, and had considerable influence in modifying similar evils in other parts of the county. The result was the practical union of the party, the nomination of a county ticket in the spring convention which was in every respect unexceptionable, and which won the respect of the independent newspapers and of all independent voters, and a considerable improvement in the quality of nominees for the State Legislature. In our part of the city, at least, these nominees were in every case beyond criticism, and in some cases were peculiarly strong.

At the election the Hyde Park wards gave a Republican majority of about ten thousand, instead of the scanty two or three thousand which we apprehended. I think that the work in the interest of Republican harmony was at least an important factor in the success this fall.

After all, however, the main cause of the general victory in this State was in the personality of President Roosevelt. From the first, those of us who were interested in the policy of the party this year made that a prominent issue, and insisted that the election should be a vote of confidence or of want of confidence in his administration. We held that as Roosevelt was not elected to the Presidency, but came to it under very distressing circumstances, and as this was the first general election since his accession, the question was whether the voters of Illinois should be counted among those who were satisfied with his administration. The result shows very plainly just what the people of Illinois think on the subject.

Tom Johnson's

One of the most picturesque and Ohio Cam- striking features of last month's campaign. paign, which in many other States was decidedly commonplace and apathetic, was the part taken by Mr. Tom L. Johnson,-mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, author of the Democratic State platform, and an acknowledged candidate for the next Presidential nomination. son's Democratic canvass in Ohio resembled, in some respects, Mr. LaFollette's Republican canvass in Wisconsin. Mr. Johnson carried his own city of Cleveland, but the Republicans rolled up tremendous majorities at Cincinnati, in the

Mr. John

opposite corner of the State. This was due chiefly to the fact that John R. McLean,-owner of the Cincinnati Enquirer, and Johnson's rival for Democratic control and political honors in Ohio,-used his powerful influence and his great machine against the platform and the State ticket that Mr. Johnson had put in the field. Ohio went Republican by an average plurality of more than eighty thousand, this being a gain of 50 or 60 per cent. over the plurality of the last Presidential election. It must not be too readily as

come.

ed, however, that Mr. Johnson's powerful als for the the taxation of the securities of ra ys and other corporations have not sown seed badcast that will bear fruit in years to An intelligent and sincere private correspondent takes the ground, (1) that in the city of Cleveland, where Mr. Johnson had stated his case very fully and completely, the Democratic vote showed a great increase over that of a year ago; (2) that but for the Cincinnati defection, Mr. Bigelow, who headed the Democratic ticket as can didate for secretary of state, would have shown gains everywhere over Kilbourne, who was last year the Democratic candidate for governor; ; (3) that in most counties visited by Johnson there were gains over the Kilbourne vote; and (4) that it takes time to educate the people on such subjects as taxation, but that Mr. Johnson has been encouraged to work more vigorously than ever for such reforms, and particularly for better city government in Cleveland. It would appear also that Mr. Johnson would, in any case. prefer to come before the people as a Presidential candidate in 1908 rather than in 1904, believing that the ideas he represents will have gained far wider adherence in the next few years.

Pennsylvania

Strike.

It had been expected that the great and the coal strike, directly affecting several hundred thousand voters in Pennsylvania, might have some marked bearing upon the election in that State, but it did not so turn out. There was a large Republican majority. aided materially by President Roosevelt's success in ending the strike. If it had not been ended, or if there had been a serious collision with the militia, results might possibly have been different. It happens that Judge Pennypacker was elected governor by a majority independent of that which the State's two large cities supplied. A trusted correspondent remarks that this was a fortunate circumstance, inasmuch as the irregularities in Philadelphia were never before so gross. We make no charges, because we have no knowledge of the facts. Yet it is commonly alleged that Philadelphia election returns ordinarily do not represent an honest

vote and an honest count, by scores of thousands. The estimates privately given by well-informed men point to wholesale corruption in Philadelphia last month so appalling as to be almost beyond the belief of people elsewhere.

in New York.

If Philadelphia's vast Republican The Election majority represents venality, repeating, and ballot-box stuffing, nothing of that kind has been alleged with respect to the huge Democratic majority in the city of New York. This reached about 122,000. In the early evening of election. day it seemed impossible that the State outside of New York City could roll up a Republican majority that would overcome Coler's enormous vote in the metropolis. It happened, however, that the State at large was as emphatically Republican as New York City was Democratic, and Governor

HON. FRANK W. HIGGINS. (Elected lieutenant-governor of New York.)

Odell was reëlected by a plurality of more than 10,000 votes. The political philosophers do not agree upon the reasons for the weakness of the Republican ticket among the voters of the great city; and although many have tried to charge it against the administration of Mayor Low, to our minds it is rather an indication,-as was the election of Mayor Low and the fusion ticket last year, of the growing independence of the average New York voter. Mr. Coler, the Dem

ocratic candidate, was popular in his home city. and he was supported with particular fervor by newspapers like the New York Journal (which, by the way, is now renamed the American), that have the widest circulation among workingmen. The coal strike, which had produced great scarcity of fuel in the tenements of the metropolis, undoubtedly had far more political effect there than in the coal-fields of Pennsylvania. One of the lessons for the local Republican managers is to be learned from what our correspondent already quoted has said about party reorganization in Chicago. Except in a few districts, Republican organization in New York City is a farce. As for the Low administration, its worst fault seems to be that it does not provide sensations enough for a community that likes startling headlines. In most respects, New York City is well governed, prosperous, and fortunate.

A Broad

Outlook.

The great factor eDemocratic Democratic campaign in Nork was ex-Senator David 1. A New York correspondent of indent Democratic views writes to us as follows upon the Democratic outlook in New York and the country at large :

I feel confident that the result in New York State means the final elimination of Mr. Hill from any real importance in either State or national councils hereafter. The people of short memories have, curiously enough, considered him as a conservative since the Bryan 1900 episode, and incidentally that of Chicago in 1896; but, fortunately for good morals as well as better politics, his utterly useless and senseless acceptance, and even more absurd defense, of the coal plank has opened the eyes of very many.

I consider the Republican majority in Maryland to indicate that Mr. Gorman, who has never had any moral strength, cannot be considered a factor of great influence hereafter in the councils of the party, although, being Senator, I fancy he will be more of a factor than Mr. Hill. The return of the Populists so largely to the Republican camp in the far West will, I think, completely disrupt the alliance with the Southern Democrats, which has given Mr. Bryan his real strength heretofore.

I consider that the elimination of these three men and the influence that they represent, to some extent, means great good to the country at large in opening the way to a return of the Southern Democratic leaders to their former alliance with the Middle and Eastern States. This, I believe, would be very certain to follow any general recognition of one important man as standing for true democratic policy, which is essentially conservative, and for the rights of the people, which are rarely gained by radical action.

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Mr. Edward M. Shepard, last year E. M. Shep- the Democratic candidate for the

ard's Views. mayoralty of New York, and recog

nized as one or the ablest thinkers and foremost personalities in the party, summed up the election last month as showing three things, as follows:

First,-The tendency in the Northeastern States and in States of the Central West to return to the traditional doctrines of the Democratic party.

Second,-The dislike of the American people for anything which they deem reckless or revolutionary; and Third, The powerful and even decisive influence of the independent sentiment not closely allied to either party.

Mr. Shepard finds intelligence, wisdom, and vigor now prevailing among New England Democrats, and believes that, "if they adhere to their present programme, that section of the Union will become Democratic." Mr. Shepard accounts for the situation in New York on the ground that "the metropolis shows much sooner than the country districts the trend of public opinion." Sympathizing with Tom L. Johnson's campaign, Mr. Shepard thinks, nevertheless, that his programme was theoretically in advance of public opinion; and he also thinks the coal plank in New York similarly harmful to the Democratic party. Mr. Shepard puts tariff reform first in his programme, and he believes that if the Democratic party "be wise, if it avoid every suggestion of demagogy or attempt to gain some immediate and merely factitious advantage, there is a large probability of success in 1904."

Situation.

The political situation in the South The Southern is interesting chiefly as it relates to three things: (1) the changing atti tude of the Democratic party; (2) the elimination of the negro vote, and (3) the attempt to form a white Republican party. A correspondent from Virginia says:

Undoubtedly the Democrats of Virginia are more closely united than they have been since 1896. This is due to the practical admission that the silver issue is dead, and the reappearance in the fold of men like Cleveland, Olney, and so on. The disfranchisement of the negro in Virginia will tend gradually to divide the State, which will be for the betterment of the whites and for the great advantage of the negro.

A well-informed North Carolina correspondent, noting the fact that "the negroes did not vote to any great extent," remarks of those who did: " Many voted the Democratic ticket for the first time in their lives." He goes on as follows: "The independent sentiment is growing; there was more scratching than has ever been done in a State election here before. As a result, the machine will be afraid to put up any but good

men hereafter." Our correspondent believes

that the business interests of North Carolina are demanding a higher order of ability and character in politics, and he adds that "the situation, on the whole, is better than it has been for years, and the prospect of honest and decent politics in the future is good."

Alabama and the Negro Suffrage.

The South itself is taking great interest in the effect in various States of the constitutional amendments and new statutes intended to eliminate, or largely diminish, the negro vote. In answer to our inquiries on this point, a correspondent in Alabama sends the following notes, which seem to us too interesting to be paraphrased or abridged :

As to the working of the suffrage provisions of the new constitution, we have had no chance to test anything except what is called the temporary plan. Under this plan all applicants who could satisfy the temporary registrars as to their fitness have been registered. Practically no white men have been barred out, and only about three thousand negroes have been registered in the State. The Republicans have gone the Democrats one better (or one worse), and have cut out of the convention of the party all negroes of any kind, so that the Republicans are in the position of refusing to give political recognition to even those negroes who have met the test of the most rigorous Democratic scrutiny. The Republican party had a great opportunity to stand for a principle, but they have now left the State in the position of having no party of protest.

The permanent-suffrage plan contemplated in the constitution, which goes into effect next year, puts the suffrage test evenly and squarely upon both races. The present probabilities are that, as there is no party of protest, the Legislature will put the registration of voters again into the hands of arbitrary boards, who will defeat the intention of the constitution by the way in which discretion is exercised.

But perhaps I am not altogether the right one to interpret the provisions of the new constitution, as I openly opposed the laxity of its attitude toward the vagrant, venal, and illiterate elements in our white population. We will have no strong and constructive political leadership so long as our leadership is bound, as to a body of death, by the ignorant and venal white vote. So long as these men constitute so large a fraction of our voters they will hold the balance of power, and while they hold the balance there is no hope for a campaign of vital ideas and constructive policies.

This is well illustrated by the latest vote for governor. Jelks, the Democratic nominee, received a vote of 65,000. His plurality was 42,000, the Republican vote being 22,500. You will thus see that the total vote cast in the State was approximately 88,000. Yet the total registered vote of the State was about 190,000.

The vote, even in the primaries, where Governor Jelks had the vigorous opposition of ex-Governor Johnston, was but 90,000. The large unvoting mass is the real burden and terror of our Democratic leadership. When constructive proposals are suggested, there is always the fear that these illiterate voters will desert the party again, as they did under Kolb in the great Populistic movement of ten years ago.

Amendment.

The Democratic candidate for the

The Texas governorship of Texas was, as usual, elected by a large majority. The chief interest in the Texas election, however, centered in the vote upon an amendment to the State constitution. This amendment was carried, and is self-enacting. It makes the payment of a poll tax by February 1 of each year a condition for voting. A very intelligent correspondent from Dallas, Texas, informs us that this amendment will disfranchise nine-tenths of the negroes, as it will also cut out the floating and vagrant white vote. The poll tax amounts only to $1.50,-one dollar of which goes to the public free-school fund, and fifty cents to the general-revenue fund. It was generally supported by the newspapers and the best elements in Texas. The Republican convention of the State, dominated by white men, disregarded the demand of the negroes that this poll tax should be opposed, and the Republican platform made no mention of the subject. Leading white Republicans, as a rule, voted for the amendment. Any State, North or South, would probably be all the better for the exclusion from the polls of elements so floating, heedless, or irresponsible as to be unwilling to register their names some months in advance; while in States which have found the vote of certain ignorant or improvident classes positively harmful, it would not seem an oppressive thing to exact the payment of a poll tax of $1.50. So long as such provisions are made to work impartially as between races, the negro leaders ought to favor them, in order that they might use these moderate conditions as an additional lever by which to advance thrift and forethought among the people of their race.

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ation is that presented by the action of white Republicans in various Southern States in setting up race exclusiveness in the party organization. The valued Texas correspondent to whom we have alluded writes on this subject as follows:

As you are aware, the various executive committees of the Democratic party, in the different Southern States, generally provide in the qualifications for their party primary elections that the voter shall be a white Democrat. After an opinion from the attorney-general of the State, that "a white man's primary" would not be in violation of the law, the Democratic party of Texas adopted this test about six years ago, and I believe that it is now in pretty general use by the Democratic party throughout the South. For the past six or eight years there has been a tendency, quite noticeable to observant people living here among the business or non-profes

sional element of the Republican party in the South, to gradually eliminate the negro from that party. In the South you will constantly hear Republican business men say that the only chance for a good wholesome growth for their party, so that it may at the least become a vigorous opposition party, is to eliminate the

negro.

This sentiment among the Southern Republicans has grown tremendously since the adoption by the different States of the poll tax and the educational qualification for voters, which have had the effect of eliminating the negro as a political factor in the States where adopted. Thus it frequently happens that the negro, on account of his superior numbers, is able to dominate the conventions and control the party's action, yet in the general election, on account of being unable to read, or not having paid his poll tax, he casts only a fractional part of the vote which his party receives.

This tendency to refuse to allow the negro to participate in the councils of the party was manifest in the last State conventions of the Republicans in nearly all of the Southern States. The chairman of the last Republican State convention of North Carolina, in his speech congratulating his party upon the fact that the negro as a political factor had been eliminated from their State, and in speaking of his baneful influence in the past upon the growth of their party, used this significant language: "He (the negro) has been a dead weight around the neck of the Republican party."

The Republicans of Alabama drew the color line in their last State convention as tight as the Democrats of that State had ever done. In other Southern States, while the sentiment was not so outspoken as in North Carolina and in Alabama, it strongly manifested itself. In the Republican State convention of Texas the negro was so completely relegated to the rear that it became a standing joke. As one of the newspaper reporters facetiously expressed it, "The colored brother was allowed to do nothing except the praying."

men.

In this State (Texas) the negroes demanded that their race be given representation on the State ticket by having a negro placed in nomination for some minor State office. This the white Republicans refused to do, but finally compromised the matter. By this compromise they agreed to make nominations for but two State offices, though an entire set of State officers was to be elected. The nominations were made for the offices of governor and treasurer, and both nominees were white Then there was a demand, on the part of the negroes, that a strong plank be put in the platform opposing the poll-tax amendment to the State constitution which was to be voted on at this election. This the white Republicans refused to allow to go into their platform. While the platform was silent as to the amendment, there is no concealment of the fact that the white Republicans, in large number, supported it. Of my acquaintances among the Republican business men of this city, I did not hear one express himself on the amendment without saying he intended to vote for it.

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the South to a solid alliance with the Democratic party of the North. Such a situation has been bad for both races, and bad for both parties. The Northern Republican party has looked on at the recent disfranchisement of Southern negroes without any proffer of practical help. From a certain narrow point of view, the situation looks gloomy indeed for the colored race. From the broader and better-informed standpoint, on the other hand, the situation has now begun to change from a dreadful and impossible one to something that has a fairly hopeful promise. The Southern States are not doing less than before for the education of the negro, and there is much to indicate that more is going to be done for the negro's real development, as a self-supporting and intelligent citizen, than ever before. As a race, his possession of the ballot during the past thirty years has not proved itself a valuable asset. To many negroes worthy to exercise the full privileges of citizenship, the present tendencies are both painful and shocking; but let us hope that the shock will forever rid them of the delusion that the Republican party, as such, either North or South, is one whit more friendly to the negro race than is the Democratic party.

From the

Everybody knows that there are hisPresident's toric reasons why the negroes should Standpoint. have called themselves Republicans. We are not discussing history, but present facts and conditions. As for the Republican party in the further South, it has accomplished very little for a long time past except to figure discreditably in Republican national conventions, and to hold out greedy hands for federal office. It will never amount to anything valuable until it has its fair share of the ablest, the most intelligent, and the most upright men in the various States and communities. The transitional condition of parties in the South naturally presents difficulties to President Roosevelt when it comes to making necessary federal appointments. He proposes to appoint only good men and fit men to public office, and he desires, in so far as possible, whether appointing men in Northern or Southern States, to do that which is acceptable to the communities where such men have to perform their functions. We carry on government in this country under the party system, and all practical Democrats understand that, as a Republican, Mr. Roosevelt cannot ignore the members of his own party in any section of the land. Nor can he properly be quick to give the prestige of his support to a movement within the party which would exclude faithful Republicans merely on account

of their color. He may accept situations after they have been established that he could not suitably or honorably promote at the outset. Doubtless he will continue to appoint some white Republicans, some black Republicans, and some Democrats to office in the Southern States, and it will require much calmness and courage in many instances to take his own course. correspondent from Tennessee sends a strong plea for the white Southern men of good business or professional standing who are not officeseeking politicians, and who find themselves at heart Republicans on national questions. He greatly fears that President Roosevelt does not appreciate the situation, and he counts it very unfortunate that the President should be regarded as opposed to the exclusive white Republican movement in Alabama and elsewhere. His argument seems unanswerable from the point of view of those men in the South who would like to build up a Republican party of permanent strength and character. But he does not quite understand the position of the President, who must deal with facts, not projects.

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