Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 October 1887 — OHIO. [ARTICLE]

OHIO.

The Campaign in the Buckeye State— Foraker’s Defeat Foreshadowed. Senator Sherman’s Friends Say Powell Will Sweep the State with a Democratic Majority. • Columbut (Ohio) special to Chicago Daily News, Independent Republican.] Some very peculiar tactics have developed on the part of the Republicans in the Ohio campaign during the last few days. The situation is suca that no Republican of prominence can be induced to express himself, for fear that he may engage lasting political enemies within his own party. The leaders are prepared for any result which may occur at the election on Nov. 8, and yet, through force of habit and in accordance with campaign custom, many of them confidently express their belief in a substantial victory. The information, however, to be gathered from the select circle of workers for Senator Sherman who have been over the State put an entirely different phase on the subject. The active friends of Senator Sherman are composed of the more substantial and experienced Republican workers in the State, and, while they are not talking for publication, they have expressed the belief to-day, from what they can see and hear from different parts of the State, that Gov. Foraker will be defeated by an overwhelming majority by Powell, the Democratic candidate. A LITTLE HISTORY. In order to properly understand the situation, the reader should be informed that there was a bitter tight at the Toledo Convention which nominated Foraker, the Sherman indorsement resolution being the subject of difference. The friends of Sherman, aided by the presence of the Senator himself, succeeded in carrying their point on the resolution, but they failed in everything else. They hoped to capture the State Central Committee and campaign organization, so as to be in gcodform to do advance work for 1888. In this they were disappointed, and Gov. Foraker succeeded in getting nearly every member of the State Committee, and constituted nn executive committee of his personal friends, the majprity of them being his appointees in substantial positions. More than this, they were recognized enemies of Sherman in the sense of his candidacy for the Presidency. The committee commenced operations at ence, ignoring all former custom, which has been to invite those of experience to subordinate positions and profit by their knowledge. Captain J. C. Donaldson, who had been the secretary of the executive committee for twelve or fifteen years, and who knew the workers in every county in the State, although present and idle in Columbus, was snubbed and scarcely allowed to come about the committee rooms. He holds a position at Washington through the kindness of Sherman, and the fear that he might be an embarrassing quantity about the rooms was the occasion for refusing to ■employ him. Governor Foraker informed him before the campaign was open that he understood he was here to represent Sherman in the campaign and that he ought not to expect anything, for the reason that he did not propose that Sherman should gain any prominence for himself in the campaign this year. It was bad blood from the first, and has been growing until the disaffection has assumed formidable proportions in the ■campaign. THE WEAKNESS OF FORAKER. After a great deal of hesitation Senator Sherman accepted appointments by the ■committee to make speeches in the campaign, but he did not do so without dictating the places where he would speak, and it has now developed that he chose the doubtful legislative counties in the State as the proper places to make himself heard. It did not dawn upon the committee till within the last two or three days that the Senator was looking after his own interests in the campaign. Sherman has heard since he started out and is hearing every day that Governor Foraker is posing for the Presidency and has practically abandoned the discussion of State issues •to talk national politics and vilify the President. He has also learned that the Governor is conducting a campaign for notoriety rather than from principle, and that he is strangely unpopular with the masses of the people. On all hands he has learned that Republicans are going to vote against the Governor, and this dissaffection is so heavy that no unprejudiced man who has made a study of politics can reasonably think otherwise than that Foraker has already placed himself firmly on the road to defeat at the forthcoming election. THE OPPOSITION JOLLIFIES. The unusual situation in the Republican ranks is readily recognized by the Democratic committee and speakers, and they are taking advantage of the situation in good form. They look upon the attitude of Foraker toward Sherman as the greatest aid they have in the campaign, and in convention to-day the chairman and secretary •of the committee said that they would not give a se.cond thought for better chances than they have of electing their entire State ticket. They count upon this as certain, and say it will only be a question •of the size of the majority. The Democratic committee claim#that Sherman can not afford, under the circumstances, to allow Foraker to be elected by a large majority, and that his point will be gained if he succeeds in defeating him altogether, which he is doing in a reasonably rapid manner. The Democratic committee says that, should Foraker be elected by an overwhelming majority, Sherman would be practically laid upon the shelf in ■Ohio for 1888, and that he recognizes the fact and is engaged in counteracting the possibility of such a condition. THE LEGISLATIVE TICKET. Senator Sherman is accomplishing his work by giving direct attention to the legislative ticket, and it is observed that all of bis appointments, at his own request, are made in the doubtful counties. The point to be gained in this is that he does not want to be met with the objection at the next National Republican Convention that his nomination for the Presidency would be a great loss to the Senate, and that a Democrat would be elected to his place should he be nominated and elected to the Presidency. For this reason alone he is bending tiis energies to the Legislature, and he has made such a success of it so far that the Democratic committee has given up all reasonable hope of carrying the Legislature on joint ballot. Having accomplished his work, he will see to it that Foraker is not a beneficiary of his labors. In the same

speech at Bellefontaine the other day, he said: “Bat even more important than the State ticket is the election of a General Assembly.” And then he repeated: “I repeat, the most important duty of this canvass is the election of a Legislature. ” The situation from reliable Democratic figures would indicate that Powell will be elected, as well as the entire Democratic ticket, and that Sherman will succeed in carrying the Legislature, and Gov. Foraker be laid on the shelf, all on aeconnt of his tendency to celebrate himself in print and before men.