Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1902-10-28
SPLIT TICKET MBN.

sized majority. This coupled with the
presence of Prince Cupid on this ISL
and where he will keep busy up to the
day the votes are counted gives the
Republican workers an opportunity to
centralize on the legislative ticket.
The scratched ticket is practically
the only cause for apprehension on this
island. The success that has attended
the canvass OF Prince Cupid appears
to have led some voters to a belief that
the result is so certain, they can af-
ford to satisfy some personal dislike
by refusing to vote for individual can
didates on the Republican ticket. If
these voters will stop to consider they
must realize the absolute fallacy of
their reasoning, and that any diverg-
ence from the straight party ticket will
threaten the Republican party's con-
troll in the House and the Senate.
For effective legislative work the Re-
publican party must have a majority
of men elected as Republicans in both
branches. It is not sufficient that an
opposition candidate is a conservative
man and will probably vote with the
Republicans on matters of moment"
This expression is so often heard as to
indicate that a good many of our vot-
ers need to give closer study to the
practical side of practical politics. The
Republican candidates can be depend
ed upon. They are held by ties Of par
ty discipline; II differences arise these
will be threshed out in the caucus
thus enabling Republican members to
act as a unit in carrying through party
measures. The conservative, good fell
low may or may not vote with the Re-
! publicans. He is an uncertain quantity
at best and would be more than human
II he failed to play his political game in
a way to gain prestige for himself and
his party. 1t is not impossible for this
conservative opponent to place himself
in such position as to lead the Re-
publican forces by the nose, provided,
as sometimes happens. that his vote
will furnish the balancing weight for
the success or defeat Of a Republican
measure.
Furthermore. the split ticket man
clothes himself with an entirely unwar-
ranted assumption when he tries to
make himself believe that the "conser-
vative, good fellow" in whose behalf a
Republican candidate is robbed OF a
vote, will be elected. Experience has
shown that in nine cases out of ten,
the candidate who profits by the split
ticket is a third person whom the
voter had no idea OF assisting. When
the ballots are counted the split ticket
voter finds he has been means of
defeating his own party's candidate
and the vote given the friendly oppo-
nent has not secured his election, but
created the opening for the third OPP
ponent to slip in at the tail end of the
successful candidates. The damage is
done, however, and the so-called indie
pendent voter who refused to be held
strictly to party lines has the pleasant
privilege of kicking himself for an
other two years. The probabilities are
he will have good reason to curse his
folly during the legislative session
when he will be forced TO watch the
gyrations of the man he helped elect
in the halls of the Legislature.
An example of what the split ticket
will do is furnished in the election re-
turns of two years ago when two Home
Rule candidates for the Senate went
into Office through the failure of Re-
publican candidates to poll the normal
Republican vote. The history of the
last Legislature ought TO be sufficient
~ horrible example to prevent person
atty interfering with strict party loyal
ty. The opportunity now offers for the
republicans to score a splendid party
victory. Throughout the Home Rule
ranks there is dissension and a general
vote-for-the- best-man sentiment. Solid
ity in the Republican vote will give the
party this year the advantage which
went to its opponents in the last cleo
ton. OF all places on earth, the voting
booth is no place TO grind personal
axes.
Governor 0dell of New York went the
Democratic advocates OF government
IcnptrnI 80 tha ooaI t,rs, ,,a hot,or