Daily Kennebec journal., 1894-12-28
PRESS COM M ENTS.
Truly Without Precedent.
Boston Journal

Nearly two months after the eventful
November elections the official figures
of the vote in all states are not yet re
ceived, and it has not been possible to
measure with completeness and exactness
the overwhelming Republican victory.
But with commendable enterprise the
Philadelphia. Press has gathered the
official returns from all states where they
have been made up, has procured reliable
unofficial returns from all except two of
the other states, and has compiled record
of the relative strength polled by the
several parties throughout the country.
This shows that in all II, $685. 377 ballots
were cast and counted. The figures for
the two missing states, Nevada and Flori-
da, would easily bring this up to II, $50,
600. This is an enormous aggregate vote.
1t explodes the claim that the verdict of
the country was the result of Indifference,
for never before has vote approximatlng
that of Nov. 6, been cast in an off-year
election The total vote in the hOtly con-
tested presidential election of 1892 was
l2O34, S5S, so that this years record falls
not far short of it.
OF the II, 263, 377 ballots accounted for,
55SS, 1926 were cast by Republicans, 4, 4S,
456 by Democrats, 1916 1852 by Populists
and PIG, S43 by Prohibitionists. 1t is a fact
of the utmost significance that the Repub-
lican strength shows an absolute increase
from 5,175, 2O2 in 1892 to ), 5SS, 1876 this
year--a gain of 413, 214. That is not only
the largest vote which the Republican
party ever polled, but it is the largest
vote which was ever polled by any politi-
cal party in the history of this country.
In the Democratic Landslide" year of
1892, the Democratic vote which made
Mr.. Cleveland President was 5,554, 226.
The Democratic plurality that year over
the Republicans was 379, 025. The total
Republican vote this year is 81, 100 higher
than the high-water Democratic vote OF
1892, and the Republican plurality is
/, ,439, S70, or ,060, S45 greater than the
Democratic plurality in the year when the
Democrats captured the presidency and
Congress.
The Republican boast that the Repub
lican victory of last month is absolutely
unparalleled in it's magnitude is amply
borne out by the statistics. In 1892 the
Democrats, in spite of their sweeping
Triumph, were in minority of 969, ,205
ON the popular vote. This year the Re.
publcans lack only 26, 726 vote of having
a clear popular majority, and if Republi
can votes We're cast as freely and counted as
honestly in the South as Democratic votes
are in the North, there would have been
a Republican majority of at least half q
million. In 1892 the Democrats cast &C
per cent. of the total vote, and claimed
it as an unanswerable Endorsement OF
their principles and policies. This year,
with the dice in one section of the coun-
try loaded against them the Republicans
cast within fraction of 80 per cent.
SO far as political significance goes, the
earthquake of last November blots out the
presidential election of two years earlier
as utterly. as if it never had been. II
does not Immediately overthrow the
Democratic administration or unseat the
Democratic Congress, but it does deprive
them at once and forever of all the moral
force which can be conveyed by great
mandate of the people.