Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1909-12-17

The great contest has now come to
a question of hours, and from to-
night only "a of them remain The
great good-natured battle of votes
which has wrought up more interest
than any other contest in mercan
tile or journalistic fields ever inaug.
urated in the Northwest. Thousands
and thousands of people are interest.
that the outcome, and from the fact
that votes and subscriptions have
come in from thousands of miles
around is evidence that the contest
. is not confined only to the immediate
, vicinity of Oregon.
The contest has, indeed, been an
exciting one, and the real tug-of-war
is yet to come. This will be enact
ed tomorrow evening, and every man,
woman and child in Salem and the
surrounding country will wait ex-
pectantly for the result.
No More Votes Returned.
From now on no more votes will
be returned to the contestants out
side of the city, but will be deposited
in the ballot box at once. This Is
done for the reason that delays very
often occur in transmitting the mail,
and a delay at this time would mean
the loss of thousands of votes. Con-
testants earnest assured they will be
given proper credit and votes for all
subscriptions sent to this oceffi be-
tween now and Saturday will be de-
posted in the ballot box as soon as
received.
Those who depend on the mail to
h,-fra in ofv nd
tions should mail them not later than
Friday, so as to be sure that every
vote will be in the ballot box on
time If they are mailed on Satur-
| day, they should bear a special de
| livery stamp, and must bear such Gis
tinguishing mark that will prove they
were mailed before II o'clock Satur-
day. No votes will eb accepted ii
mailed after IL o'clock Saturday
night. Candidates who have sub
scriptions should bring them in as
early as possible, to avoid the rush
Cf the last few days.
Every facility will be afforded the
contestants for getting their votes in
/ to The Capital Journal office. EXpe-
rience lca"ats that there will he a
crowd about the office whoa the close
of the polls approaches. In spite of
all the waraiags that have been Siv-
en- it is sure that some nf the candi-
dates will put off getting their votes
in until the last possiSia moment. but
the contest manager W0Ild again
warn them III that the last puss nle
minute ousnr to mean = tin" which
permits some leeway for accidents.
Votes viii ;e rec s,I in the cir
culatiou drT;H tmcnt until the hOTr o.
| II O'Clock $oLTr,i.y nlghC and no
longer, unless they come by mail
and bear the proper postocffis mark
ings There will be no difficulty III
receiving votes that are brought in
at any reasonable time, bur it must
be borne in mind that there will be
crowd about The Capital Journal
lobby, and it will not be easy to get
through the crowd at the last mo-
ment.
And now everything is set for the
finish Every effort will be made to
have all the votes verified, the
count altogether disposed of and
the prizes awarded, and the an
Mondays paper
The finish is in the hands of the
candidates and their friends. Per-
sons who have been watching the
campaign with interest-who have
friends in nomination, and who
would like to vote for them-must do
it today.
This is the last word: The con
test closes at II o'clock tomorrow
night.