Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1905-11-14
Last Weeks Elections.

Elections were held last Tuesday in
several states of the Union, and the re-
suits show rather mixed condition of
things, as is apt to be the case in an "off
year." though things are perhaps more
mixed than usual this year, and the re-
suits may be regarded as having special
significance.
In the New York city election perhaps
the greatest interest conferred. The
candidates for mayor were George b.
Mcclellan, the present mayor, candidate
of Tammany; William K. Hearst, candi-
date of the Municipal Ownership party
and William NJ. WINS, Republican. The
result as declared is plurality for
Mcclellan over Hearst of 3,4S5, Wins
having a much smaller vote than either
of the other two candidates. This is
the closest vote ever given in the city,
and Hearst claims much fraudulent
voting, and has appealed to the courts.
Ii is likely to take some time to straight
en- out the snarl.
The most significant thing about the
New York election is the reelection of
William Travers Jerome as district
attorney. Mr.. Jerome as district attor-
fearless and vigorous action done more
for the cause of civic righteousness than
was ever accomplished by any other in
cumbent of the office. His name went
on the ballot as an independent candi-
date, and he received the nomination of
NO party, except sort of secondhand
nomination from the Republicans after
their candidate had withdrawn, and the
courts then decided that his name could
not be printed on the official ballot
in the Republican column. Therefore
every man who voted for Jerome was
obliged to split his ballot, thing which
it is extremely troublesome to do with
the cumbersome form of ballot used in
New York state. In spite of all this,
Jerome was reelected by plurality of
about 5000. The result is to be regarded
as distinct triumph for clean politics.
In Massachusetts, the Republican state
ticket was elected, in spite of strong
campaign made by the Democrats, as
the result of which they expressed
great confidence of electing their candi-
date for Acknowledgements directly on
the issue of tariff revision.
In Philadelphia Mayor Weaver, the
reform mayor of the city, was reelected
BY a large plurality, and the reform
movement carried with it the defeat of
the Republican candidate for state
treasurer. Philadelphia has for years
been in the control of a political organ
ization which, under the name of Re-
publican, has been as strongly intrenched
and as corrupt as Tammany in New
York. The upsetting of this carried
with it the defeat of the Republican
state ticket.
In Ohio also the large Republican
plurality of last year disappeared, and
the Democratic candidate for governor
was elected. This result also may be
interpreted as revolt against a 'ring"
and .bad boss"
Maryland, although Democratic by
few thousand, has done herself credit by
defeating the proposed amendment to
the state constitution, designed to pre-
vent Negroes from voting, the plurality
against 1t being between $4,000 and
$4,000.
In the other states the election went
about as usual and as expected. and
there is little of special interest in the
results. Two other city elections are OF
interest, that in San Francisco, town
already dominated by the labor unions,
where the Union Labor candidate for
mayor was elected, and that in Salt Lake
City, where an anti-Mormon candidate
was elected after lively fight.
In general the results show that the
ga OF the independent voter is here.
The presence Of che independent voter In
large nnmUSrs throughout the country
was demonstrated q year ago by the
enormous popular majority received by
President Roosevelt, combined with GER
tain other results which from q party
standpoint seemed incompatible with
the presidential vote. In last weeks
elections the independent voter manifest
cd himself as never before, and showed
that 1t was becoming almost fashionable
to split the ticket. A further fact
demonstrated by the results is that
whenever q political organization has
intrenched itself in power and become
corrupt, or the people believe that such
is the condition, whatever the fact, the
voters are in mood to take that organ |
ization out of power. This is evident |
not only from the result in New York
city, where the Hearst vote in opposition
to Tammany has come largely from
those quarters of the city whore that |
has heretofore had its
greatest strength, but in Pennsylvania |
and Ohio, whore the dominant political
power has borne tho name Of Republic |
can. II Ia . bad year for b0sses and
rinwn