Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-01
GIVE IDAHO TO TAFT
Republicans Are SanguIne
State is Republican.
OLD CONDITIONS CHANGED
Recapitulation of the Vote of 1895
and 1900.
ROOSEVELT'S BIG PLURALITY
Senator Hepburn Certain of Re-elec-
tion-Borah's Campaign Work
Highly Appreciated.
OLD CONDITIONS CHANGED
ROOSEvELT'S BIG PLURALITY
Special Correspondence of The star.

Special Correspondence or Inc star
BOISE. idaho. October -. 1905.
Addison T Smith, secretary of the re-
publican committee Of Idaho and well
known in this city, predicts an over
whelming victory for Judge Taft in that
state.
Idaho republicans who have been told by
certain eastern papers that Bryan is GO
ing to he elected are no longer alarmed
since these papers have published the
figures by which they arrived at their
conclusions. for Idaho is classed in their
tables as Bryan state. This is simply
absurd. Idaho is as safely for Taft this
year as any state in the Union, and
Idaho people naturally place no conf
dence in election forecasts which place
the state in the Bryan column.
1t is true that Bryan electors were sue
cessful i'll 1896 and again in 1eo0-in the
latter instance by a greatly reduced ma
1or1tE-but conditions then and now are
altogether different. Idaho is a silver
producing state. and il was but natural
that il should be strongly Influenced by
! the free silver craze of Bryan's FIRST cam
paign. The disaffection among republ
cans on account of 1t was in fact so
great that the vote cast for the Mckinley
electors was only about two-thirds of that
cast by the boiling silver republicans,
led by former Senator Dubois, who were
supporting Bryan, but running a state
ticket of their own, the democrats and
popuists having refused to allow the Du-
boisites to come into their combination
that year
AS result the democratic-popui's
state ticket received over double the vote
cast for the republican state ticket and
the Mckinley electors, while the vote for
the Bryan electors, who received the sill
Yer republican vote in addition to that
of the democrats and populists, was near
ly four times great the vote cast
for the Mckinley electors
Silver Issue Out of It.
In 1900, with the silver issue dead the
great majority of the silver republicans
| returned to the fold, and, while the flu
sionists managed to carry the state for
Bryan, his plurality was only little
over eco. BY 1902 the republicans had
made such gains that they elected their
entire state ticket by pluralities rang
ing In the neighborhood of 1000, and the
state has since remained overwhelmingly
republican. 1t gave Roosevelt plurality
of over $4,000 in 19O4-an enormous plu-
rality in proportion to the size of the vote
of the state-and this year there is every
reason to believe ii will do as well by
Taft.
In the first place the state is strong
ly republican as ever this year. and in
he second. Taft is absolutely certain to
receive the full party strength. He was
Idaho's choice for the presidential nomi
nation from the time the matter of choos
ing a successor to Roosevelt was first dis
cussed. and so strongly was he intrench-
ed in the popular favor that no other
name was mentioned or thought of when
Idaho republicans met to select their
delegates to the Chicago convention, and
as result the delegates were instructed
for the Ohio man by unanimous voice.
Twenty thousand majority for Taft is the
mark set by State Chairman O'Nell, and
it is generally believed that this figure is
| conservative.
State Tickets Chances.
| The state ticket will hold well up to
this mark. \ strong and popular man
| has been nominated for governor in the
person of James III. Brady, former state
chairman, and the ticket is we'll balanced
| throughout
! Senator w. B. Hepburn will be a candi-
| date for reelection before the next seS-
| sion of the legislature. and that body
| is certain to be republican there is no
question that he will be successful. He
/ has no opposition within the party and in
| fact, can have none, as the state nominal
ing convention by a unanimous vote de-
clared him to be the party choice for the
| senatorship. and since that time many
county conventions have specifically in
structed their legislative candidates for
him. while the republican legislative can
didate of every county in the state, If
elected, can be depended upon to cast
their ballots for his reelection.
| The senator has enjoyed excellent health
during the entire campaign and is doing
| great service for the state and national
| tickets He is in demand in every sec
| ton of the state and is speaking nightly
/ to enthusiastic audiences, His work for
Taft is proving especially effective, as he
is handling national issues in way that
appeals directly to his Idaho audiences.
Senator w. +. Borah Idaho's Junior
member of the upper house. has been
kept in the east during portion of the
campaign. speaking under the auspices Of
the national committee. and has made a
record of which Idaho people are just
ly proud. Highly complimentary reports
of his work have been received from the
regions he has visited. and the national
speakers bureau recently telegraphed the
] Idaho committee that there were de-
mands for him in twenty states. He be-
gan speaking in New Hampshire and
Maine, addressed an immense gathering
at the Point of Pines barbecue at Bos-
| ton, and later did effective work in the
middle west. He has returned to Ida
no and is making speeches where he can
do the most good before election day.
French Accepts Defeat.
The defeat of Representative Burton
L. French for denomination came as a
great surprise, but never has a man
taken defeat more gracefully or worked
more unselfishIy for the interests of his
party than has he during the present
campaign. He has a strong following and
will undoubtedly continue to be force
i'm Idaho politics, despite the action of
the state convention. which cannot be
construed as a reputation of his official
acts, as it was simply the result of d
combination formed by the supporters of
his successful opponent, Col. Thomas R.
Hamer, and the friends of candidates for
other Offices, who desired 10 have the
honors passed around more 20 their
Hiking.
Col. Hamer. who will undoubtedly be
detected to succeed Representative French.
is an able lawyer and a forceful man in
whatever he undertakes. He has eXcep-
tional ability as a speaker and will I'M
ldoubtedly make a reputation in time as
one of the able debaters of the House, as
a vein of sparkling satire and humor runs
through his public addresses. while he is
at the same time logical and convincing.
lCol Hamer comes by his title justly, as
The enlisted with the Idaho volunteers for
the Spanish-American war and rose to
the rank Of lieutenant colonel of his regi-
Imept, having been promoted the last time
for gallantry in an engagement with the
EriIininos in which he was severely