Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1910-09-18
THE MAINE ELECTION.

THE MAINE ELECTION.
The Maine election of September
1910, repeats the story of September
1880. Frederick w. Plaisted, demo
crat, carried that state for governor
yesterday, just as his father, Harris
M. Plaisted, also democrat, carried
it thirty years ago. In each case the
Plaisteds found the republicans weak
ened by fractional feuds, and in each
instance they were impeded by the
prohibition issue. Thirty years ago a
fusion with the Greenbackers gave
the democrats the victory, but Govern
or Fernald, the republican candidate
of 1910, was much weaker than was
Governor Davis, who was renominated
in 1880. Moreover, personally the
younger Plaisted was more popular
than the elder. In his successive
terms as mayor of Augusta he made a
good record. In race against weak
candidate, Gardner, in 1908, in year
in which he was aided by the presi-
dental campaign, Fernald won the
governorship by lead of only little
over 1000. And, as against any dem
ocratic candidate, he would have been
weaker now than he was then. His
defeat, therefore, will not cause any
surprise in the country at large.
But does the Maine reverse por-
tend a republican defeat for congress
in November? 1t did not have this
meaning in 1880, and perhaps will
not in 1910. The republican setback
thirty years ago in the state election
put new vigor into the republican ma
tional campaign, and the party car
ried the country, including Maine.
The Pine Tree state in November re-
versed it's action of two months ear
ier, and chose republican presiden-
tial electors.
But after making all allowances for
the circumstance that local and not
national issues decided the result in
the election, the St. Louis Globe
Democrat thinks the outcome sounds
. new note of warning to the repub-
1iuan congressional campaign mana
gers. Weakened by factional quarrels
in many states, the republican party
is losing some of it's easy ascendancy
throughout the country. In the early
months of the year the tide was
against the party. This was shown in
the special election in the Fourteenth
Massachusetts congressional district
in March and in that in the Thirty
second district of New York in April.
These districts, which had been re-
publican for years, we're carried by
the democrats. 1t is true that in
each district the republicans selected
q weak candidate, and the democrats
put in the field men who would at
tract many republican votes. The
loss of those districts, however was
a blow at republican prestige In
the following two or three months the
republican congress made good rec
ord, and this strengthened the party's
chances. But the backward swing
which always takes place in the con-
gressional election in the middle of
presidential term DEGREES that the par
ty in power must lose some seats in
congress in those years. Sometimes
that party loses enough to give the
control of the house to the opposing
organization, and thus the president
has that chamber against him in the
last two years of his service. This is
what took place in 1874, in the middle
of Grants second term. It occurred
in 1882, when Arthur was president,
and again in 1890 and 1894. On the
former occasion Harrison was in the
middle of his service, and on the lat
ter Cleveland was in his second term.
Will 1910 be added to this roll Of con-
gressfonal elections In which the peo-
pie cast vote of mo confidence" in
the national administration? Perhaps
not. Yet the Maine setback yesterday
gives an imperative summons to the
republican campaign managers to put