OCR Text |
Show HOW WILL CONGRESS GO? The election prophets are at a loss this year, for party lines are so broken up and there is such political chaos generally that no one can work up much confidence about the results. There is not a single sin-gle important contest which is not complicated this year with side I issues of some sort. In a number of the states which should be solidly Republican that party has thrown away its advantage and courted defeat, and in other states which would naturally go Democratic if the Democrats Demo-crats did not have such a genius for playing into the hand3 of the enemy, the outcome is equally uncertain. One of the most ridiculous situations is in Massachusetts, where the Democrats in convention had a rough and tumble fight and adjourned ad-journed without being able to agree on a candidate for governor. They managed to adopt a platform demanding free trade, but they split badly on the labor Issue and some other differences, so that now they have several rump tickets in the field to divide the voto. Various newspapers have been taking straw votes, etc., to see what they can make of the congressional prospect, but the conclusions conclu-sions agree only in disagreeing. In the present house there are 174 DemocraTs and 217 Republicans. The New York Herald estimates 161 seats in thej next congress as Democratic, 140 as Republican, and 90 as doubtful. ,Even the strongly Republbican Philadelphia Press counts only 162 seats as surely Republican, allows 172 to the Democrats, Dem-ocrats, and classes 57 as still doubtful. The chances, according to the prevailing sentiment, are in favor fa-vor of a Democratic-Insurgent house in the Sixty-second congress. Two months ago the outlook for a Republican house was good, but Roosevelt's entry into the lists has increased factional differences, and all that can be said now is that the situation is full of doubt, with the doubt in favor of Democratic-Insurgent victories. |