El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-11-09
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y n ANY thousand American citi
EN zens had a deep interest in
the returns from yesterdays
ba1lOting. The average person is in
terested only in the congressional and
gubnernatoriaI races in the various
states. But there were thousands of
candidates for other Offices-cOunty
treasurers, county clerks, supervisors
road commissioners, Overseers of the
poor, magistrates, cOnsta bleS, and to
each of them his own race was of
more heart interest than the race be-
tween Dix and Stimson, or the fight
for control of the house in the 62nd
congress. No one has undertaken 70
count how many candidates there ara
for office in the off year in Amer
lean politics, but they have counted
them in a presidential year, and it is
upward of 100000, leaving out the ap
proximately 100000 school officials
who are directly or indirectly elected
on that day In other words, nearly
million candidates high and low have
their political fate decided in the great
quadrennial reckoning in which the
people are for once the actual rulers
Of the nation. Possibly a fourth as
many were up for election yesterday.
Interest and Progress.
While the eliminating event OF
American politics is election night in
presidential years, a growing interest
has been manifested in the mid-term
congressional fights. The unusual
crowds which gathered last night
around the places where election re-
turns were given out, testify to the
fact that the election returns this year
have deeper meaning to the people
than formerly. The promptness with
which the returns came in is but an
other illustration of how the world is
moving forward. Only Is years ago it
required a full day in some counties
to know who was elected in a county
ticket. In those same counties the re-
turns are now complete two hours aft
err the polls close. The telephone and
shorter ballots are responsible, but
most of the credit belongs to the tele-
phone.
Returns by Wireless.
Every telegraph and telephone COM
pany in the country lent itself to the
public last night for the transmission
of the returns. No one has attempted
to estimate the amount of business
these institutions carry over their wires
on election nights Even the wireless
companies made special efforts to keep
the ships Informed as to the progress
of the count. Many voyager. far out
at sea, kept in close touch with the
drift of the returns last night.
New York surpasses every other city
in the country in the size of its cleo
ton night crowds, and also in the vol
ume of noise the crowds make when
the results are known. When prest-
dent Taft was elected one Gotham re-
porter, in depair OF conveying an idea
of the amount of noise to his out-oI-
town readers, finally wrote: IF &c"
I,,- 10 had fTIrnod loose their
entire list of inmates, and the biggest
band of Comanches and Apaches that
ever gathered had been commissioned
to help them make weird and uncanny
noises. it still Would have ben as but
the soft sigh of a lovesick maiden as
compared with the noise that started
below Newspaper Row and swept on
up town and across the Harlem"
Get News Quicker Now.
So rapid has been the growth of the
facilities of communication that the
nation now is able to know election
results in fewer hours than it REQUIRED
DAYS two generations ago. We have
got things down to such a fine point
that the California, Oregon and Wash
ington citizen can know before he
quits voting how New York or Massa-
chusetts went. The eastern population,
however, is at a disadvantage in this
respect. Because of the difference in
time 1t has to wait three hours longer
to hear returns from the west
New York is able to announce the
returns to more people than any other
city on the map. Through giant
searchIights placed on skyScrapers ii
is able to flash the news to the entire
population within a radius OF many
miles If the flash is intermittent in
one direction it indicates to the popu-
lace that the returns are favOring the
Democrats. If 1t is intermittent in the
other direction. it indicates a leaning
toward the Republicans. A steady
light in either direction indicates the
result In this way one can sit by
his own window and know in general
what is happening just as well as if
he were in front of the brightest bulle-
tin board and the loudest megaphone
in town.
There are two things which promise
further to hasten the receipt of cleo
ton returns One of these is the
proposition to anchor vast screen
in the sky with captive balloons and
throw the returns upon it. This IS
probably somewhat chimerical. But
not so with the proposition to install
voting machines automatically to reg
lister the vote and give the summary
when the last vote has been cast
like the modern adding machine gives
the result of a column of figures.
New Orleans Paper First.
Newspaperdom must look in the di-
rection of the New Orleans Picayune
when it wishes to bestow credit for tie
idea of giving out the returns as they
come in In 1S4S Gen. Zachary Taylor
was running for president. and his
friends were much wrought up over
the race and wanted to know the result
as quickly as possible So the Plea
yune decided to give its readers the
benefit of immediate bulletin announce
ments The telegraph was then but
four years old, and did not embrace
every railroad station in the country
as it does today. Even at that, the
bulletin board experiment worked so
well that it was generally adopted.
Few people have stopped to analyze
the vast results that hinge on last
nights political returns. There are
many state legislatures whose political
complexion depends on what the re-
turns show To these legislatures will
fall the task of redistricting the states
which they represent. Where a state
was redistricted by the Republicans
upon the apportionment of the 1900