Omaha daily bee., 1895-12-10
SrrtL LOST STRtyrp OR STOLEN


SrtLL LOST sTRArED OR STOLEN
Commenting on the returns of the
election for state officers held year
ago. lust after the tabulation of the vote
had been made public. The Zee under
| the caption lost, Strayed or Stolen"
called attention to tile remarkable dis
crepancy in the number Of ballots cast
for democratic candidates. This dis.
ercpancy. II showed, was not to be cN-
planned on the theory Of the stay-at-
home vote. because the total vote polled
in the state had Increased from 1871 ,ITi
In 1893 to 2o3,S5S In 1891. and that in
thc face of n notorious decrease In popu-
lation 1t showed that the whereabouts
of the missing 10000 democrats could
be located only on the assumption that
they had voted either for the republican
candidates or the populist candidates.
The question was asked at that time,
VIII these 10000 lost democrats again
be found? And the suggestion was fur
thcr vGnturcd that only the returns of
the next general election would provide
Inc COinUlctc answer.
The returns of the state election of
1875 are now at hand and present the
material for pursuing this interesting
investigation. These returns show that
900 Of the 10000 missing democrats
are still lost, straycd Or stolen. Ac-
ccpting something over 10000 as the
supposed strength of the combined fac
tiOns of the Nebraska democracy, the
most scrupulous search of the ballots
just canvnsscd will disclose less than
$4,000. When J. Sterling Morton ran
for governor in 1892 he received n, 195
votes. With Il lighter vote in 1893 than
in 1895 Frank Irvine. as democratic
candidate for judge of the supreme
court. polled 3T,545 votes. In 1894. com
bining the vote of the democrats and
the straight democrats on the two
offices on which there was no fusion
showed up less than 10000. On secre
tary of state it was 29,O6S, and on state
treasurer 29.SJ6, an average for the
two of 2o462.
According to the official returns for
1898, Mahoney, administration demo
cratic candidate for Judge of the sr-
preme court, received 1896 votes, and
Phelps free silver democratic candidate
10,214. total for the two of 2S,S50.
The vote on the four democratic candi-
dates for university regents was: Ames.
21,124,; Ashby, 1882; Blackburn, 1O,-
6S2; Kittlc, 14S05, giving an average
for the combined strength of all the
democratic factions, 32.2T1. The stay
at-home democrats could not have eX-
ceeded a few hundred. so that some
1900 democrats must have mysteriOusly
disappeared out of the normal 10000
ut which the Nebraska democracy has
been boastfully placing it's members.
But these missing democratic votes
have not gone out Of Nebraska. The
fulncss of the vote polled throughout
the state proves conclusively that they
are all included in the totals. The total
vote polled in 1895. when the democrats
showed up only 2S,S50 votes for their
two candidates for supreme judge, is as
Il matter of fact larger by nearly 400
than that of 1893, when the democratic
candidate for the same office polled 81
545 votes, or 5000 votes more. 1t may
perhaps be urged that some of the 1900
democrats who have gone over to the
republicans and populists will reappear
among the democratic forces when the
alignment is clearly on national issues.
But it must be remembered that they
have deserted the democracy for two
and three successive years. If they re-
turn next year in any considerable num-
bers, present indications are being sadly
misinterpreted.