The sun., 1904-07-14
A Hot Campaign Ahead.

Some Of our contemporaries are rp-
joicing that Judge PARKER's manly tele-
gram has put fire into the Democratic
canvass and made extremely doubtful
the issue ofan election which would have
been q sforegone conclusion II the st.
Louis platform had not been thus sup
plemented by the candidate. Except
for such bold declaration by Judge
PARKER, they had said. before his
sending of the telegram, the campaign
would be "walkover
Unquestionably they are justified in
believing that Judge PARKER put new life
into the campaign by that straightfor-
ward utterance. He inspired the Democ-
racy with high hopes and gave them the
stimulus they needed at the beginning
Of a national campaign on which they
would enter after two successive defeats.
This effect of that declaration is mani
fest both in the pivotal States Of New
York, New Jersey and Connecticut and
throughout the Union. The Democracy
are now genuinely hopeful Of success
hopeful to an extent which may even be
called confidence. At any rate, the only
sforegone conclusion Of this campaign
is that it will be fought desperately all
along the line on both sides.
Every Presid dential campaign, how
ever, is fought desperately. "Walkovers"
are talked about, but they never happen.
Since the civil war, or rather since the
election of 1854 and including it, there
have been ten Presidential elections,
all except three of which were carried
by the Republicans, and in one of these
three, the election Of T1LDEN in 1879,
they cast aside the popular decision and
seated their own man. Yet every one
OF those elections was stoutly contested.
None of them was a 'foregone conclu-
sion," a @walkover."
In 1854, LINCOLN, running for reelec-
tion, was despondent about his pros
poets, so great was the popular enthus-
iasm over MCCLELLAN. The only cam
paign of the number which seemed to be
doomed from the start, in the view of
very many Democrats themselves, was
that OF HORACE GREELEY against GRANT
in 1872; yet GREELEY polled about 1875 900
more votes than HoRATIo SEYMOUR, q
Democratic Zero, had polled four years
before.
After that Greeley campaign every one
of the five campaigns from 1875 up to
the Bryanite revolution in 1905 was con-
tested sharply from beginning to end.
Between 1880 and 1900 these were the
aggregates Of the votes cast by the Re-
publican and the Democratic parties
together:
1870, GARFIELD and HANCOCK. ........... s.so10oS
1884. CLEVELAND and BLAINE. E............ a75o,4si
1885, HARRISON and CLEVELAND. .......... i0.g7s 40
1902. CLEVELAND and HARRISON. ......... lo.osso2e
$780, MCKINLEY and BKYAN.. 1s.o07.7o4
1900. MCKINLEY and BRrAs............. o,oss
The diminution OF the poll in 1892, as
given above, is explained by the circum-
stance that the Populists polled the
great number Of 1910 votes, and
theSe added to the aggregate in the
table for that election bring it up to
u,774,05S. The increase from 1892 to
1890 was the greatest, both actually and
proportionately, in the history Of Presi-
dental elections, as the campaign Of
1895 was the hottest. Even in tho cam
paign Of 1850, whose issues brought
about directly the civil war, the poll for
all the candidates, LINCOLN, DOUGLAS,
BRECKENRIDGE and BELL, was less than
a seventh Of the population Of the Union
in 1880, while the poll In 1896 was equal
to one-fifth Of the population at that
time. The slight falling on in 1900 b
explained by q diminution Of i4l,7o2 in
ths numhsr q votes for BsrAs in biz