UNITED STATES PRESIDENCY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9123, 24 June 1908, Page 5

UNITED STATES PRESIDENCY.

MR BRYAN ASKED TO STAND DOWN. Received June 23, 8.2 a.m. NEW *ORK, June 22. Mr T. W. Lawson, author of "Frenzied Finance," urges Mr W. J. Bryan to allow Governor Johnson to be nominated for the Presidency, Mr Bryan contenting himself with the Vice-Presidency. Mr Lawson offers to personally subscribe £IOO,OOO to the Democratic Campaign Fund, and to raise a similar amount if Mr Bryan consents to do as he suggests. The Democrats will hold their convention next, month, when Mr Wm. Jennings Bryan, humorously described as the continuous 1 lemocratic candidate, will be nominated and will therefore be Mr Taft's opponent when the election takes place on Tuesday, November 3rd. The President and Vice-President are chosen by officials termed electors in each State, chosen by the voters by ballot a yi'ar before the election. The number of electors equals that of congressmen, but no Senator or representative may be an elector, the constitution requiring that all electors must be chosen on the same day. The manner of election is provided by erticle XII. of the constitution. "The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-Presi-dent, one of whom at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same state as themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President; they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President and Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall transmit to the President of the Senate." The same article describes the mode of counting, it being provided that it one candidate has a majority of votes, he shall be declared elected, but if no candidate has a majority, then from the first three the Hou3e of Representatives shall proceed to choose by ballot, the President, each State representative having one vote. If no person has a majority for Vice President, then the Senate shall choose from the first ten. Only natural-born citizens of the United States, who have attained the age of 35 years, are qualified for President or Vice-President. The electoral vote of the States totals 483, so that 242 votes are necessary to a choice. Mr Tuft should have no difficulty in securing a far larger vote than this, and his election is a foregone ccnclus\,n. Mr Taft represents practically the same programme as Mr Roosevelt, in perhaps a slightly less radical form. By some he has been call id Roosevelt's rubber stamp' Mr Bryan stood for the Presidency in J 8116, and in ISGO, 011 encih occasion securing over six million votes. He has been identified with extreme views, including bi-rr.etallism and nationalisation of the railways.