Huntsville gazette., 1892-11-19
THEY STAlD AT HOME.

Special Expert Waite, OF the Census Bu-
reau, Explains the Result of the Election
A Million Republican Farmers staid
ut Home-InterestIng Deductions Made
from a Statistician's Standpoint.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 15.-The latest
explanation of the election is given by
Mr.. Fred. c. Waite. the special expert
of the census bureau, in charge of the
statistics of true wealth. He SAYS the
election went the way it did because al
million republican farmers staid at
home last Tuesday. All the other sur
prises of the election seem to him to
have been but the following out Of nat
ural laws well established by statistics.
In paper prepared for delivery be-
fore Johns Hopkins university he says:
''The decrease in the per cent. of our
population engaged in farming from
1880 to 1880 was exceedingly small.
You may ask how, then, could the per
cent. of our population in cities have
increased from 1873 to 22e per cent.
Because the per centage of our popula-
tion in villages decreased from 33 to %
per cent During the eighties there was
n change in this uniformity of decrease
In popula tion and wealth engaged in
the various industries. In 1900 miles
Of counties on both sides Of the Missis-
sippi south of st. Paul every county
has, for a stretch of twenty miles,
shown an absolute decrease during the
eighties in the farming population. 1t
is not only so in almost every county
east of the Mississippi but also in the
counties containing the major part OF
the population westward to the Pacific
with this exodus of young people
from the farms, the money and the
wealth has been piled up in the cities
In the north central states which con-
tain one-third of the'wealth of this con-
tinent, the increase in the value Of
urban real estate has been six times
as great as that of the farms, which
has actually failed to increase as fast
as the mortgage Indebtedness upon
them. Is it any wonder that this cleo
ton means more than the defeat Of one
party? There is nothing surprising TO
the statistician in the Cleveland vote
except that it has been cut
down by the new methods of ballot
ing. 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
stayed home and took care of their
| own business together with the mag
nitude 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 al
most as numerous as in 1852 or in 1872.
Although there was no third party
in 1852 strong enough to get an cleo
toral vote, yet because of the dissatis
faction with the whig party as shown
by the unusually large stay-at-home
vote the peoples or republican party
was the natural result. The populists
have already elected twenty-six cleo
tors and the tremendous stay-at-home
vote in every state shows that things
are ripe for a reorganization of par
ties. The only question is whether
great minds will step to the front and
lead the reorganiza tion or whether it
will be left to the political kicl1ers and
men with socialistic inclinations."