The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-11-16
THE sTAY-AT-HoME VOTE.

WASHINGTON. Nov. 15-Ths latest ex-
PLANTATION of the result OF the election is
given by Fred C. Waite, the special expert
of the census bureau in charge of the sta
tistics of true wealth. He says the election
went the way It did because 1000, 900 Re-
publican farmers staid at home last Tues
day. In paper prepared for delivery be-
fore Johns Hopkins university. be says:
''The decrease in the per cent of our pop
ulation engaged in farming from 1850 to
1880 was exceedingly small. You may ask
how, then, could the per cent of our pOPu-
lation in cities have increased from II. 8 to
o. per cent. Because the percentage Of
our population in villages decreased from
80 to 25 per cent. During the SOS there
was change in this uniformity of decrease
in population and w~alth engaged in the
various industries. In COO miles of coun-
ties on both sides of the Mississippi river
south of st. Paul every county has, for
stretch of twenty miles, shown an absolute
decrease during the s0s in the farming
population. 1t is not only so in almost
every county east of the Mississippi, but
also in the counties containing he major
part Of the population westward TO the
Pacific.
with this exodus of young people from
the farms, the money and the wealth have
been piled up in the cities. In the north
central states, which contain One-third of
the wealth of this continent, the increase
OF the value OF urban real estate has been
six times as great as that of the farms,
which have actually failed to increase as
fast as the mortgage indebtedness upon
them. Is it any wonder that this election
means more than the defeat of one party?
There is nothing surprising TO the stetis-
ticians in the Cleveland vote except that il
has been cut down by the new met hods OF
bslloting The Republican farmers have
not become Democrats. In the northwest
they voted largely as populists. but in the
central and eastern States they voted
against all three parties. The fact that
million Republican farmers staId at home
and took care OF their own business, to-
gether with the magnitude of the populist
vote, was the one warning feature of the
election. The stay-at-home voters, who
decide nearly all doubtful elections, seem
to be almost as numerous as In 1852 or in
1872
From 1876 down to the present, as we'll
"a during the corresponding period from
1886, the Democrats carried every other
presidential election, and yet never failed
of being beaten at the intervening cleo
tion. And they carried every off election
except the one during the Mexican war,
which was close
Although there was no third party in
1852 strong enough to get an elec; oral
vote, yet because of the dissatisfaction
with the Wing party. as shown by the un-
usually large stay-at-home vote, the Peo-
ple's or Republican party was the natural
result. The populists have already elected
tweuty-six electors, and the tremendous
stay-aJ-home vote in every state shows
that things are ripe for a reorganization of
parties. The only question is whether
great minds will step to the front and lead
the reorganization, or whether it will be
left to the political klckers and men with
SocialiStic iuclinatiOusN