Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-05-03
Some Interesting Comment on
the Results OF the Voting
Tuesday
sHAw's PREDICTION REFuTED
idea That the People Would Vote Only
for Men Best Known to the Public
lis shattered--somc of the Figures
Given--Ths Railroad Fight for Pal
mer.
Special to Times Republican.


ed the idea oft expressed by the stand
patters during the last session Of the
legislature that the people did not
know the public men of the state and
thus at the primaries would vote for
only those whom they knew. No less
parsonage than Secretary Leslie M.
Shaw, of the treasury department In a
speech at Des Moines under the aus
pfces Of the Polk county republican
club, expressed that idea In substance.
For instance DR. Porterfield, of ATTAIN
tic, was candidate for railroad cons
missioner at the last campaign and
might be expected to be known some-
what by the people of Polk county and
he received Il popular vote of 1893 from
forty -four of the flfty-one precincts Of
Polk county Eugene Buttles, OF Bur-
lington, who has been before the pub
lie but li1tle and Is unknown over the
state except to the retail grocers OF
whose association he was once presi-
dent secured popular vote Of
2935. In this connection too 1t must
be understood that there was little
work done by Buttles in this campaign,
He didn't even put an advertisement
in any of the local papers. The people
have read Of him in the newspaper
news reports as being one OF the men
who is fighting Blythe in Burlington
and they understood that fact and that
probably accounts for his large vote.
N1,arn es1,tr nj V 1A sod Nsitla
this the vote of Col. d. j. Palmer
which for the same forty-four pre-
cincts amounted to 3,672. There was
a desperate effort made to land Pal
mer in the office Of railroad commits
sioner. He Is recognized rs being in
most perfect accord with the railroads.
The newspapers were used literally
for advertising and workers were out
over the city. The word of Blythe
went out that: everything that could
be- done should .be done for Palmer
The old soldiers were appealed to and
the last thing on Monday night. the
last night before the primaries the
Capital OF this city put Palmer's pic
ture on the front page and ran the
picture of Perkins, the head Of the
standpat ticket, only In q paid adver-
tfsement on alback page. There was
not Sa stone lett uncovered to get the
Polk county elegation FOR Palmer for
railroad commissioners and he received
from the fort,t-four precincts 3,672
votes to Buttlesi 2,935, and Col. Palmer
from spending his time here during the
last eight years is supposed to be. quite
we'll acquainted and Buttles is an UNI
In nj o,,{Al
to Palmers of the popular vote OF the
"A precincts
II the results OF Tuesdays primaries
show anything they show that the peo-
pie of Iowa are wide awake and read
the newspapers and know what is GO
ing on. The primaries show too that
the people know which newspapers to
believe for they seem to be able as
shown from Tuesdays primaries to
pick out men who stand for certain
principles.
The fact that the people do know
public men and know how to vote on
them is further shown by the vote on
other state officers. For instance the
total vote for Cummins and Perkins
together was 1854 and the total for
Garst and Raymond for lieutenant
governor 9,2S5 for all but few Of the
precincts in each case, thus showing
that people made their selections for
other than the head OF the ticket.
Furthermore Cummins vote of 6,173 is
but slightly greater than Garst's of g.
9SS, and Perkins popular vote Of 81
381 is about the same as Raymond's
vote Of 3,347 showing that the public
caught the idea that Garst and Cum
Minis stood for one and the same idea
| in politics and that Raymond and Per-
kins were in the same category.
Following on down the ticket 1t will
be discovered by a study of the figures
from the Tuesdays primaries that the
people did not slight officers below the
head of the ticket. This was one OF
the claims of those who opposed the
primary that the people would vote for
the head eff the ticket and not being
acquainted with the rest Of the state
officers would fail to vote on them.
A state official who is opposed to the
primary idea expressed the belief the
day before the primary that this would
be the case, but the figures show the
urer are another matter in point Kret-
schmer, of Dubuque, Is comparatively
little known over the state. He was
candidate before, but has never been
before the public to the extent that
Morrow of Alton has. thru being a di-
rector of the state fair and candidate
for the office before. Furthermore
Kretschmer made very limited cam
paign in Polk county, but he got g.
400 votes to 1870 for Morrow
1t should be stated here that the
figures given are not the correct fig
ures for the entire county in any case
but are practically complete.
A feature Of the primary that will
be given a great deal of study is the
delegate system as provided in the
Polk county primaries The law is
that IL a candidate fails to receive a
majority of the delegates. those dele
gates who are instructed for him from
the various precincts are to he consid-
cred uninstructed and may vote for
whomsoever they please While Fred
Kretschmer received but 2,490 votes, he
was given but seven delegates in the
convention, Morrow having carried
every precinct but one Thus it could
happen that one candidate might re-
oaiya q majority of the pop,Ilar vote of