Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1910-04-20
Republican Stronghold in
New York Swept by
Democrat.
HAvENS TO CONGRESS
Single Handed He Fights Ma
chine 0pposition-SuCCeed
J. B. Perkins.

Rochester, N Y, April 20.-In the
first flush of victory, friends of James
S. Havens, democrat, who was elected
to congress yesterday by a large plu-
rality in one OF the strongest republi-
can districts in the country, are al
ready talking of Havens for governor
; this fall.
Not Wholly Partisan.
This is not wholly a partisan vic
tory" said Havens today. 1T is a vic
tory over the things for which Cannon
stood and for ideals which Governor
Hughes typifies."
According to Havens, the high cost
of living was mainly responsible for
yesterdays political revolution.
Democrats In GIee.
Washington, April 20.-Democratic
members of congress were jubilant to-
day over the result of the New York
election. Republican leaders. decline
to attach any particular significance
to the defeat
Norris. the NebraSska 'insurgent,"
said: 'It is an uprising of the people
against machine rule and means the
people will stand for it no longer"
Harrison, a democrat of New York,
believes it marked the overthrow of
the regime nation wide.
Calls 1t Mere Skirmish.
Boutell of Illinois said: cit is just
skirmish and does not mean anything"
His statement was typical of the re-
publican expression.
Dealt Death Blow.
Rochester, n. Y, April 20-In the
congressional election here yesterday
republican standpatism was dealt a
blow as terrific in it's effect as that
which it sustained few weeks ago
in the Fourteenth Massachusetts dis
trict, where Eugene N. Foss, running
as a democrat, reversed the tradi-
tiona1 majority in district supposed
to be rpckribbed republican.
James S. Havens, a democrat, has
been elected to fill the vacancy in
congress caused by the death OF James
Breck Perkins over George NJ. Aid
ridge, the republican boss Of Monroe
county, by the unprecedented plurality
of $500. The district, the Thirty
second. had not gone democratic since
1900.
Defeat is Overwhelming.
The defeat was overwhelming. 1t
seals the fate of Aldridge forever as
an elective candidate and it marks
the beginning of the end of his su-
premacy in republican, councils. Mr..
Perkins, republican, carried the dis
trict in 1908 by 10,167. Fighting sim
gle-handed against the whole Aldridge
machine, Mr.. Havens succeeded in al
most reversing this plurality in a cam
paign that lasted but II days.
While the so-called moral issue"
was undoubtedly paramount in the
campaign, there seems also to be no
doubt that the Payne-Aldrich tariff
result Aldridge had come out fat
footed as indorsing the tariff law as
it stands. Havens was avowedly a
tariff reformer.
Insurance Scandal Enters.
The moral issue was built up around
the circumstance that an investigation
of recent fire insurance scandals had
brought out the fact that Aldridge had |
received $1,000 from Elijah Kennedy, |
an agent of the fire insurance com |
panies, to be used to facilitate legis- |
1ation" at Albany. The Havens people /
claimed that this money was used for |
corrupt purposes Aldridge admitted |
receiving the check, but declared that |
he had turned the money into the
treasury Of the republican organiza-
ton.
The matter of the check and Aid !
ridges record as a political boss were !
taken up by his opponents as the most
effective weapons against him and /
every effort was exerted to arouse the
moral sense of the community against
him.
Ministers Enter Fight.
In this they we're so successful that
men who had been republicans all
their lives and whose fathers had been
republicans before them forsook their
party to rebuke Aldridge. Twenty
clergymen declared themselves against
him, and the battle was carried on
from the pulpit and into the homes.
Rochester is city of homes and
actories-factories which, according
to standpat argument, have been fos-
tered by the tariff wall. Mems cloth
ing, shoes, Photographic supplies, but
tons and other small wares are made
here IN enormous quantities Yet
Havens rode 10 victory on a platform
calling for reduction OF The tariff.