Arizona republican., 1908-05-13

| Washington. D. C., May S.-(Special
 Correspondence of The Republican)- Since Justus l.. Johnston, president of
 the Swedish American Republican League of Illinois, gave his startling ] interview here to the effect that the ] Scandinavian vote of the country to- day forms a balance of power suffi- i-ciently strong if diverted from custom ary channels to elect a democratic
 nominee for the presidency, party lead
 CTS have been overhauling their fore casts. They have been taking account l of this element in national politics, ] which may play an important part in i the election next fall. They have in
 Vestigated these figures and are trying
 to gauge the extent to which party | lines would be broken down next fall l if the 5,OOO,O0O voters of foreign birth
 or parentage in the country are for ! the first time given an opportunity to
 vote for a presidential candidate of the 1 first American generation from non
 English speaking stock. As a result
 of this and the rapidly growing senti- ment in favor of Governor John Albert i Johnson of Minnesota as the standard 1 bearer of the democratic party this l year, there has been a radical read i Justment of political calculations in ] some quarters.
 What would be the result of his can
 didacy in drawing votes from old party affiliations? This is the question that 1 is perpleXing politicians. In other
 words they want to know whether i blood will be thicker than party ties and whether the old political maps, with their solid south and all the other familiar divisions, will have to 1 be remade to suit new conditions that have their rise in the country's enor-
 nous. growth during the past twenty years.
 In doing this they have no guide
 from the past, but so far as the Scan l dinavian vote is concerned they are l able to draw some interesting conclu- sions This is a force that has never | been tested in national politics, be- cause the the Scandnavians have nev- ] CT had a candidate of their own. It has been tried out in state politics, i however, with results that make the problem of unique interest if develop
 ments prove favorable for its testing 1 out next fall.
 l There are 21S1.166 persons of Scan ! dinavian origin Census of 19OW in the ! United States. That is to say, 274 out | of every 10000 persons living in this country are of Scandinavian birth or i parentage. Of this number 14S are | Swedes, SS Norweeians, and 3S are Danes. In some states this proportion is decidedly higher. In Minnesota, for example. it is 3371 and in North Da-
 kota 333S The figures for some of the
 other states are South Dakota, 200S; Utah, 1452; Washington, 1263; Illinois, 752; Kansas, 333; Wisconsin, 125S; Wy
 oming, S1O; Iowa. S15; Oregon, 543; Con-
 necticut, 527; California, 43S; New York,
 22O. $ Just how many of these Scandi- navian Americans vote the republican and how many the democratic ticket is
 impossible to determine but roughly speaking practically % per cent of the Swedes are republicans. The Nor
 wegians own a more divided allegiance
 and many of those in the large cities are democratic in local politics. In
 national politics, however, they are
 usually found on the same side as the
 Swedes and in the past few presiden-
 tial elections fully 70 per cent of them have voted the republican ticket. Ma