Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-10-13
TROLLEY CAMPAIGNING
Advantages of the Scheme and
 How It Originated.
VALUABLE AS A POLITICAL FACTOR

Electric Car Trips Considered by Politicians as Necessary In Future Campaigns as Literature and Ora. tors, Says c. K. Schimansky-Clain
 Only Airshfb Campaign VIII Dis place Trolley.
 Ohio's last political campaign brought
 the trolley into prominence as factor
 in politics. The working politicians
 consider the discovery a blessing, but
 mayhap the resident of the extra city
 district looks upon it as he does the
 humps, smallpox and other plaques.
 Hon. Myron T. Herrick while govern
 or of Ohio was to blame for the innO-
 walton, and it was during his cam
 paign for reelection that his scheme
 was most successfully inaugurated.
 Not so many years ago the end gate
 of a big wagon was the favorite
 stump" says 0. K. Schimansky in
 the Ohio Magazine, from which to talk
 Issues" to the rural voter. Later a
 party of three or four spellbinders
 would drive from city to village and
 -four corners" and in the town hall, schoolhouse or church from 25 to I5O
 persons would be told of the burning
 questions that absorbed the minds of politicians and candidates if not Of the populace. Seldom if ever did as big a
 man as governor get into a small
 bown, and thousands of people of the
 state did not even know whether a
 real live governor looked like an ordi-
 nary man. They feasted their eyes
 upon poor reproductions printed in the home paper and had to be content.
 When the rear platform of a Pull man train became the vogue in presi- dential campaigns the big men were just little better known to the voter. his wife and children. In the swings around the circle" the Pullman would be halted few minutes at the county seat town and at few of the larger stations if the swift schedule permit ted. This gave to very small per centage of the voters the privilege of getting first hand partisan discussions of momentous propositions. But the Pullman trains are too expensive an item for a state. committee, and. be- sides. that plan of campaigning would he no more effective in a state than sending noted and prominent speak CTS from town to town via regularly scheduled trains.
 The automobile finds some favor as a campaign conveyance, but the horse less vehicle can accommodate only . few persons. In rainy weather it is little uncertain as means of locomo- ton. although Mayor Tom L. Johnson of Cleveland, O.. when candidate for governor. used his red devll' to good advantage. The auto. however, is not the best vehicle to use in the country districts. particularly by candidate, for the farmer folk have not become reconciled to It's use, and the possessor of kittenish equine is sure to vote against auto and occupant alike. And then the automobile in 100 mile run, with twenty stops, is not likely to get through on schedule time.
 "what the people want in this cam paign." said the astute United States Senator Charles Dick. chairman of the Republican state committee of Ohio, "is chance to see and hear the gov ernor"
 There are elghty-eight counties in Ohio. and in the late campaign the Re publican state committee deemed it necessary to have the head of the tick ct get into almost every one of them in order to reach the people directly. Perhaps because Governor Herrick has large railway interests. he struck upon the trolley campaign idea. He made the suggestion, but 1t was not we'll re- ceived. A trolley campaign meant speeches from In the morning until late hour at night. Ii meant ten min ute stops at crossroads and longer stops at towns and cities. The state did not think the morning would be successful. and they did not place much faith in the after noon gatherings. because the speeches were to be short and pointed. Incle- ment weather. 1t was feared. would the party. Afternoon and night meetings are successful enough when we'll known speakers are billed for talks of an hour or two, but 1t was thought that an all day stunt with short. chopped off speeches would not he a winner. Governor Herrlck crys- talllzed his sentiments into the ex- pressed statement that he believed "affer breakfast talks would take just as we'll as after dinner speeches.
 And they did. The trial trip of two days was so highly succeSsful that half n dozen more runs were at once ar for. Governor Herrick's cam paicn was not a success from his point | of view. but the wisest politicians ad- nit the success of the electric car trips and prophecy that the trolley will be as necessary in campaigns pf the future as literature and orators. A few spellbinders on a we'll scheduled electric car can reach as many people in one day as the same party can In q week when steam trains and horses gre relied upon. The trolley has not this great advantage over the automo- bile. although with the former a longer may be covered in shorter lime and more people reached.
 During his campaign Governor Her lick made f4s spseches of from five to nine minutes eack. JThe longer ones were in halls and shorter ones from inc car platform. or if doorstep.