The News & Observer

MR. RAY THINKS FUSION IS DEAD.

He Says there Will be Three Tickets, Democrats Winning.

J. Frank Ray, Esq., member of the House from Macon county, the "Lion of the Democracy" in the fusion Legislature, is in the city.

Mr. Ray's noble fight for his cause and his sharp attacks on the Pops and Reps in the last Legislature will not soon be forgotten.

Mr. Ray thinks the prospects for the Democracy are very bright. He believes his party will carry the State. He is of the opinion that things have come to such a pass that fusion between the Populists and Republicans can no longer obtain. Fusion has lost its cohesiveness. The Republicans cannot carry the State alone, as they claim. The Populists cannot do so.

There will be three electoral tickets in the field, and the Democrats will sweep the State. There can be no fusion, electoral, State or county—except it be in spasmodic, isolated cases, here and there.

There is no discounting, Mr. Ray thinks, Butler's power with the Populist party. He takes no stock in the report that the rank and file are not with Butler. The latter can do whatever he wills with them.

Mr. Ray thinks Butler would be willing to trade with the Democratic party, if he could get a chance. He believes in the authenticity of the propositions for Democratic-Populistic fusion, the fame of which has so recently filled the public ear.

The gentleman from Macon further said in effect that the people of North Carolina will never rest satisfied until they have tasted and tested free silver. The recent meeting at Morganton was a straw which shows which way the wind blows. It was an indication of the popular feeling throughout the State. If free silver is not a good thing, it can be easily and quickly repudiated, after a trial.

Such a thing as bolting the National Convention is not countenanced by the young leader from the west. He did not seem to take seriously the talk of those who proposed such a thing and does not believe it amounts to much.

Charlotte Observer.