Iron County register., 1898-06-02
NEW ENGLAND SOCIALISTS.
Their Increase Shown In ElectiOnA
in Rhode Island, Connecticut
and MnSsnchuEetts.

The last OF the New England states
to hold 4 general election was Rhode
| Island, and in it the vote was divided
among the several parties as follows:
Republicans, "a, ,746; democrats, IS, ,1O5;
socialists, 2.S64, and prohibitionists.
2,035. The socialist vote was more
than 90 per cent. of the democratic
vote, and more than 10 per cent. Of the
republican vote Of the state, and when
il is remembered that it was cast for
nominees not having the remotest pros
pect of election, and by party not sup
ported by any Of the moral forces tha:
| have given the prohibition party ell
duraHce, if not victory, ii is certainly q
considerable total. The socialist party
is without financial resources, and the
Germanborn population, upon which
il chiefly relies for support at the polls,
amounts to very little in Rhode Island,
BY the census of 1890 there were only
5000 German-born inhabitants of that
state, and as the relation which voters
bear to the whole population is about
one to every seven, this would represent
total vote of less than 500 for the
German-born socialists of Rhode Island.
=
land state in which the socialist party
has of late years been making some
headway. 1t was to Massachusetts,
that the socialists went for their can
didate for the presidency in 1892. One
reason for the growth of the socialist
party in New England is to be found
probably in the fact that, unlike their
practice in New York, its leaders go
among English-speaking instead of
among German-speaking voters for
their chief recruits and choose from
among them their candidates for prom
inent offices. The socialist nominee for
governor of Rhode Island at the recent
election was James P. Reid. Last year
the socialists ran for governor of Massa-
chusetts T. c. Brophy, of whom il may
be said that whatever his relation is to
American politics, they were not &C
quired, they were not made in Ger
many" Brophy's vote was 6,301, a con-
siderable total in a state in which John
Quincy Adams, running on a straight
out democratic ticket for governor some
years ago, and backed by enormous
social, political and personal influences,
polled only 10000 votes. The socialists
OF New England largely outnumbered
the prohibitionists in last years cleo
ton, as they Gid in the election of the
year before, and the disparity between
the two is on the increase. In the
state Of Connecticut, in the election OF
1896, the socialists polled 1854 votes for
their candidate, Morton. for governor,
and what is sometimes described as the
socialist propaganda is making some
headway through New England, though
not, Of course, enough to be formidable
or menacing. The New England states
are prone to favor new ideas and TO
give, temporarily at least, their sup
port to new parties. The socialists ap-
peal Just now to this well-known New
England propensity, and, moreover,
they enjoy what may be called the
rights of political succession to the va
rious labor parties which have always
fourished in the industrial centers of
the chief New England states. There
being 10 longer any labor parties in
these. the socialists have absorbed their
former followers, and until a labor
party is started il is probable that the
socialists viii continue to grow, even
in this region inhospitable to their
plans and views-N. y. Sun.