The Washington times., 1910-02-14
Western Editors Poll Places
Him in Lead for
Presidency.
TAFT FAIR SECOND;
OTHERS FAR BEHIND.
Former Executive Endorsed In Ma
jority of StateS-Pinchot
Gets Ballots.

CHICAGO. Feb. 1.-THE Chicago TrI-
.blne this morning printed the following;
Following are the Presidential prefer
ences Of the Republican newspapers
west Of the AIleEhenies:
Roosevelt. 1.S60; Taft. 1.Os3: Ia Fol
lette, 1915 Hughes, 122; Cummins. o.
Pinchot. 90; Cannon. Il; Bryan, -; scat
tering, I16-
When the Tribune asked the neWspa-
pers west Of the AIIeghenies 10 express
their opinion as 10 whether OF not Can
non should be Speaker OF the next Con-
STess, and whether they iudOrsed the
AldTich tariff law. If also asked them
10 give their Presidential preferences
Form Of Question.
The question was asked iu this form:
II you could vote for President today.
Tor whom would you cast your ballot?
No names Of candidates were suggest
ed but the editor was forced to write
the name OF his preference and also the
name Of the party with which he is az
dIia1ed-
About three-hfths OF the editors took
advantage OF the opportunity. and the
result OF the straw vote Is presented by
the Tribune. only those editors record
ing themselves as Republicans being
INCLUDED
Z shows that Theodore Roosevelt is
the present choice OF the Republican
editors for the Presidency. and that he
and President Taft are the only two
candidates who are strongly favored.
La Toilette leads both Roosevelt and
Taft in Wisconsin, and has scattering
votes nearly everywhere Hughes has
supporters IN every State and Territory
pOlled except Tennessee and Arizona
SEnlmlnS and BlnChCr are mentioned by
many while Deliver and Cannon each
have a. few supporters
The scattering votes are split among
the various favOrIte sons, but not one
o. these men is mentioned by more than
one State besides his own
Roosevelt not only has \ majority Of
the votes, but his strength runs 50 uni
.fornly that he is indorsed by majority
OF the States. He IS strongly in the lead
in the Lake group. where he has $50
votes TO Taft's 81 He leads in the
prairie States BY 61T 10 40 and on the
Pacific coast by IEl 70 % I'm the only
group where Taft leads the Presidents
margin Is narrow. Il being 6G to g. in
the mountain States The South Is even
y divided % 20 s.
Roosevelt leads in fifteen Of the TWEEN
ry-Uvo StaJes-MiChigan. Indiana, Him
olS- Iowa Kansas Nebraska, Oklahoma,
Minnesota, North Dakota. Montana,
Washington. Oregon, California. Ken
lucky and Nevada These States have
z popular vote Of $50 $50 and viii poll
20 votes In the Republican National
Convention
Taft leads in Ohio Missouri. Idaho.
Colorado. Wyoming Tennessee, and Ari-
IONA These States. together. have a
popular vote OF ?. 49S-I5l, and a total Of
10 votes IN the Republican National
Convention or less than half that of the
Roosevelt States
la Toilette leads in Wisconsin. while
Roosevelt and Taft DIVIDE the vote even
y in South Dakota, Utah, and New
Mexico
The vote in Ohio is Of interest There
Taft has 10 votes which IS only 19
more than Roosevelt
The only state where the lead Of TAFT
Is strong IS Nebraska where ne musters
Sc editors TO the former Presidents -
Ballots for Pinchot-
Two interesting features Of the straw
vote are the ballots cast for Bryan and
PinchOt- In many cases the editors give
their reasons for these ballots Most Of
the forty who vote for Bryan say that
they do so because the do not approve
Of the present policies Of the Republican
party. although they voted for Taft at
The last Presidential election The Pin
chot vote. which appears in all but six
OF the states, IL generally coupled with
doubt % the Administration forestry
policy and disapprOvaI Of its attitude
toward BallinEer-
No compilation was made OF second
choices but q great many ballots gave
them, usually saying they were for Taft
as the situation stood at present but
their second choice was Roosevelt or tia Q
They were for Roosevelt II he viii run,
or some eAher qualification The com
pilation - the ballots was strictly i'm
Partial, but in the oUtcroppInz between
the lines OF MANY ballots NAV be- read
that Roosevelt is even stronger with
the editors than would appear from the
figures as printed herewith.