Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1897-02-09
TUESDAY EVENING. FEB. ., 1897.
THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE.

THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE.
The counting Of the electoral vote
in the rouse at Washington, d. @.
tomorrow, adds additional interest t.
the construction Of the college.
The total number Of prssidentia
electors chosen last year was AL thu
admission of Utah added three to thu
number of electors who voted in 1892
Influence in the electoral college Ii
not proportioned to the number Or arei
OF states. Thus, six New England
states, with an area less than that OF
Washington, and only a little over one
third of that OF California, cast thirty
nine electoral votes, only one vote less
than that of California, Oregon, Wash
ington, Nevada, Idaho, Montana,
Wyoming, Colorado, North and South
Dakota together. The vote OF the
three middle states-New York, New
Jersey and Pennsylvania-is seventy
eight, nearly twice that Of ten states
west of the Missouri. Adding the vote
of the middle states to that of the New
England states, the product would be
more than one-fourth Of the total vote.
To win the day the successful candi-
date had TO poll 224 votes. II the
sou b were solid, as it used to be, Its
149 votes added to the votes Of the
middle states would just answered the
purpose with three over; If, "the
west" by which term the river states
are meant, voted solidiy, 1t would have
required to get lightweight votes from
somewhere to carry the day. If it had
got the forty votes from ten states west
OF the rivers, it would still need forty
eight votes either from the south or
middle states tic win.
These calculations possess an interest
which is not wholly speculative. The
center Of political power is passing into
the region which is watered by the
Mississippi and Ohio. AS in the early
decades of the century Virglnia was
the mother of presidents, and Virgin
ian opinion shaped the policy of the
nation, so now our presidents usually,
and the opinion which prevails in those
who come from Ohio, or Indiana, or
Illinois, states, is generally the opinion
of the nation. New England opinion
is still potent, as 1T always was, but is
expressed by the descendants Of New
Englanders who have peopled the
northern valleys of the great rivers,
and not by the inhabitants Of the orig
inal six states. Southern opinion, |
which used to be dominant, lost its in
huence through tho war, and it looks
as though several generations might
pass before it regained it. Parties 10
the south will probably be formed on
new issues, and may unite with north
ern parties on new lines of policy.
But the division of the southern people
into two races will always create a dis.
tinction between them and the northern
people, and will cause them to look at
public questions with different eyes. The
emancipation of the negro has not re-
novel him from the soil, and so long
as he is there the gravest of the prob
lens which abolition was designed to
cure will still embarrass the statesman.
Ia most countries, people divide &C.
cording to their occupations and their
means of living. They are either agri
culturalists or industrials. Thus, in
the Enlted States the nominal line of
cleavage between Americans would
follow the line of the Mississippi to the
mouth of the Ohio and from thence q
line ap~proximat,ng to the ola Mason {
& Dixon's line to the Atlantic. The !
people west and south of these lines /,
would have one set of interests to se. /,
,ure; those who lived east and north !
set. 1t would be the old split !
between city and country, which |
igures so constantly in European his I
DRY. As a general rule, where such a
onf eta have arisen, the city has b
dominated the country through its 9
uperior concentration Of numbers, in :
diligence and wealth. Thus, Paris has a
dominated France, London II
Rome Italy. But the rule is
lot invariable. II population should :
rift west of the Ohio, political power Il
vould follow. II
AN exchange at hand takes the :
round that drug stores have 70 bust Il
selling liquor except for medicinal ri
urposes. They are not licensed to