AMERICAN ELECTIONS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1019, 7 January 1911, Page 12

AMERICAN ELECTIONS.

'AN ANALYSIS OF THE VOTE, THE DEMOCRATIC VICTORY, . On the face of the returns, say 6 thß New' York correspondent of the. "Sydney, Morning Herald," the elections-show a great Democratic victory;- But the huz. zas of the victors are feeble and forced, and an analysis of the vote plainly discloses tho reason' why. In nearly all districts the .winning party has polled even fewer votes than its normal strength; it has triumphed by great majorities simply because "the Republican so-called "stay-at-home" - vota was unpreccdentjxlly large. Alike in th« party: conventions which name candidates tor the State offices, and in the primary elections which name local candidates, the pactional fight between the "progres. siye 'Roosevelt" and the "regular" machine (Republicans had raged with sav, age bitterness, and after tho fight" ths defeated partisans went homo and sulked; "The other fellow had got liis nomination; now let him win out by. himself alone"—this was the .sentiment in-both camps. On the whole,' the "progressive" candidates have fared better s than the ""regulars," for they got the help , prob* ably of a few Democratic votes, but Republicans of both sides suffered grea£ losses. In Mr. Taft's State of Ohio hia candidate was defeated by 70,000, and in. Mr. Roosevelt's State of New York, with 1,800,000 possible - votes, only, a few more than 1,000,000 ballots were cast, and the Roosevelt man lost by 75,000: But why,-it may be asked, should men thus stay at .home instead of coming out and voting, directly against candidates whom they wish to see-defeated? Simply, because if they did they : would lose the right to have a voice in the next prim- : aries of their own party, for. the law requires that only such voters as last voted for a majority of its candidates at a preceding' general election shall have a ballot at the party primary. The men ; who stayed at home still distrust and dislike tho Democratic party, and at a Presidential election will probably vote against, it; but .in this "off-year,. . when all .at stake is a temporary ascendancy in .the Lower. Hohse, with a secure,Re«> tfatllc^ So&ify'-'W thjG?/ backg^traa f '' , tb i cliot!K, r ' atfd -' a Republican President 7t<> vote'; unpleasing legislation, even ; well» ; pronounced' expressions of party tent can safely be indulged... in. .- vr From''the point of view of'the Dennw era tic leaders the failure to 'dislodge at least a substantial part of this adverse vote and convert it into a-positive support is distinctly* discouraging; and that feeling will run. through all Ihe work of the new Confess, which .will meet some time after March 4 next—probably. in December, 1911. Between now and then, of course, there is yet another' thres months' session of tho old Congress, composed of 40 per cent, of men just rejeoted by the voters, and the antics these' men may indulge in at what for most of them is a last possible performance upon the political stage may be food for, much future comment. "VVhile the President, even if his chauccs for a renomination are now desperate,- has too much regard for his personal reputation to "sign bad bills, yet even in seemingly innocent;'hills there may lurk in the rank, verbal foliage of the law very venomous ''snakes," some of which mayslip through'undetected.

STATE OF PARTIES. In plain figures, there' will be in- tho House. about 230 Democrats to 160 Republicans, and one poor, lone • Socialist—• Victor Berger—-the first Socialist to win a seat in the National Legislature, and, . fortunately, arable man, who .can-in-* sist upon, being recognised, because' I .he' has already a national reputation as a thinker. ' { ' Anions the Democrats, too, is also . Henry George's sou; and he is regarded by. many of his party colleagues as merely a Socialist masquerading as a Democrat. Perhaps two score of tho Demo-" crats . are "progressives"—certainly, not : niore than that. The rest are practical 'politicians, who have carried preferment by party service—first as district-workers, then- as district-leaders, and then 'as "ljosses" -of wards or counties—or the "dummies" of such politicians who have gained favour by large party coutribu- ~ tions or devoted personal service. In the Senate, the Republican majority has Wen cut down to 11, or perhaps 9, or even 7; and. 11 of the Republicans are ; "progressives." But some of the new democratic senators will be even more positively in favour of the "trusts" ana the "interests" than the men whom they have displaced, for the "party of privilege," as has often'been shown;, is niada up of men labelled in many ways. ■ Not unseldom, tho fiercest of demagogues onthe stump is the most hungry among the "bone-hunters"—which is- the ■ technical name for tho legislative bribe-taker. : In the last session of the present Congress tho Republican sheep have been separated from the goats by votes on crucial measures; but it was very hotic'eablo that for every Republican who voted against a corrupt measure of his party' / some venal democrat came over to help out the - imperilled Republican machine. ' In the next Congress the Democratic machine will bo so absolutely potent that it will be solely responsible tor what is done, and the vote by name for or against Bills favoured or opposed by the "special interests" will serve to separate that • party also in . its goats and sheep. TARIFF REFORM.' ' Among test issues for disclosing reform, sincerely or otherwise, conies first,. of course, the tariff; and in order to evade positive and immediate redress the main body of the party are, already loudly denouncing "partial" reform—that is, the correcting of the tariff, schedule by , schedule, one "at a time—and insist u;;on making an entirely new tariff Bill, taking it as a whole, which is absurdly impracticable. ■As General Grant .said, Democrats can always be relied upon to do tho wrong thing at the right time; and no_ onfe, even a born .and bred Democrat, in the, party itself, is very sanguine as to its permanent prospccts. Most probably the party, like the Republicans, will disintegrate into irreconcilable, factions; and at the Presidential elcctibn of 1912 there' may thus como a general rearrangement of'both parties-all the more probable because, during tho past campaign, tho most significant feature in . the speechoa by. all leaders was a studied avoidance of the old "war-issues." •' By a sort of tacit general consent, there was no waving of the battlo flags, whether by or Confederate, and no talk - about either 1 "rebels" or "Yankees." There is thus at last good ground -to believe . that tho war. lias' finally pushed into history as a' closed'.; episode of thu nation's life; and voters' are set free to re-group themselves upon ' living questions of 'tv new era, " -n\