The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-11-09

from the Democrats.
 George w. King, ''20-year-water-
 contract King, defeated William Ro-
 gan, Democrat in the Twelfth by a few votes. and this; defeat was made
 possible by Frederick CederhoIn, So- cialist, who polled 251 votes to 3S2 for l the Democrat and 412 for King. In l this district, which is usually Republi- can, the Socialists are claiming that
 they will soon divide the district with the old parties
 Thomas H. Macdonald and Howard
 s. Challenger were reelected to the Board of Education, as were John F. Brady and Richard H. Murphy, Dem ocrats. The Socialist candidates StearnsNSod Fitzgerald. boiled 1917 and 1876. indice>ting the Socialist strength on the straigSt ballot. They ran be- hind Hunter sol,ae 496 votes.
 At Socialist heA quarters this morn State were still being received. It ap- peared that the strength of the move | ment was not confined to Bridgeport, although Bridgeport was Hunters ban ner city. Hunters total vote in Con necticut was announced as about 12.- There can be no doubt but that this was substantially 12,0O0 votes lost to the Democratic party. to all its candi- dates and especially to Judge Baldwin This is the belief entertained by po- litical leaders of all parties, the theory being that a man who votes the So- cialist ticket is naturally a radical and would naturally vote for the most rad ical of the old parties, which is the Democratic party. The vote for Hun ter Is generally held to mean that many workers, especially those con- nected with the labor unions, have taken this means of serving notice up- on the old parties that they must take a progressive position and adopt much legislation in favor of the people or that otherwise there will grow up in Connecticut and throughout the coun- try a third party of the nature of the Labor party in England. or of the So- cialist party in Germany and France, which are already largely represented in the national legislatures of those countries.
 As to why the Socialist vote should be so much larger in Bridgeport than in other Connecticut cities a number of reasons are offered. Mir. Hunter made no greater effort here than elsewhere, The Socialist organization is somewhat stronger here than in other cities but not strong enough to account for the enormous change in public sentiment represented when 2,000 workmen cast their ballots in favor of the most radical social, economic and legislative program in the world. Undoubtedly a large portion of the workmen as is the Machinists' union voted for Hunter and the entire So- cialist ticket. Some of these were Re publicanS and some of them were Democrats but ordinarily they would have voted for tfle Democratic ticket in such a year as this was and in that case the Democratic plurality would have been in the neighborhood of 5000 in Bridgeport
 A contributing factor to this result was undoubtedly the shock received by the community when it came in contact with the violent political methods used by Goodwin's political friends in Bridgeport to get control of the Republican town and city con- vention. Many things that happened in this city before election brought home to the thoughtful class of work ingmen the idea that the Government was being corrupted by the grossest knowledge of similar happenings in other communities SO revolted many voters and especially Republican vot-, ters that a ballot for Hunter was the result.
 It is deemed likely that the meth ods pursued by the Goodwin adherents in Bridgeport gave to Hunter almost enough Republican votes to account for the largest support he received in this city. There is little doubt but that many of these votes will be lost to the Republican party forever.
 One of the few Republicans saved from the wreck was Alderman Eugene I. Meyer of the Eleventh district who defeated Isaac Moorey. Democrat, by II votes. George H. Spash, Socialist had 122 votes composed about equally of Republicans and Democrats.