Arizona republican., 1911-11-14
Democrat Shows up Fallacy
of Popular Presidential
Election as Advocated by
the Party in This Terri
tory.
SIMPLY PIECE OF
HARMLESS BUNCOMBE
If the Proposed Law Were
Put Into Effect the Fig
ures Show the Democrats
Would be Completely
Swamped.

| This demand in the democratic
platform for the popular election oi
presidents of the United States" said
prominent member of that party yes
terday. reminds me of the Louisiana
darkey who offered to sell a brindle
pup to a plantation owner" The pup
story follows:
How much do you want for that
pup. Mose?" asked the white man.
Il want jes' sebenty- five dollars fer
hit" Nose replied.
What" exclaimed the other in as
ItOnishment Seventy five dollars for
a pup like that. Run along now; |
haven't got time to listen to any such
foolishness."
But hOr on a minnit, boss" protest
ed the darkey "Jes wait a minnit.
can't yer? l wants sebenty- five dollars
fer the dawg. all right. but / tended
sayin' that if you wouldn't give that |
would take fifty cents an throw in the
chain"
Now. resumed the democrat above
referred to. that's about the way with
the party here in Arizona. They are
going the limit in their demands, but
they will be satisfied with a mighty
small part of what they are asking for.
Its all right for them to demand popu
lar election of presidents. but they will
likely compromise on state primaries
and they will be mighty lucky if all
are in favor of that year hence"
And it must be said i'm all serious
ness that indications are not lacking to
demonstrate the truth of this assertion.
There is plenty of dissatisfaction with
the workings of the primary law and it
will take a good big political pruning
knife to get il trimmed down to work
ing order. And when the defects are
all whitfield off just how much will re
main nobody is prepared shape to say
But another point was made by the
Republicans informant. and it was
made in this language:
Suppose the Arizona democracy
does get the popular vote in National
elections. what possible good will il
do the party? There is not a single
election they would have carried since
1888 that that they didn't carry any
way-in fact they have carried just
one election since that time. In the
early days such a law might have
helped. but now. if party advantage is
to be considered, the republicans are
the people who should be demanding
legislation of that character. Just look
it up for yourself and see if am not
right
The Republican man did look it up
with the following result:
He found that in 1876 Samuel J. Til
den. democratic candidate. had a pop
ular majority of 251.000. and that
Grover Cleveland had a popular ma
jority of $4,000 in 1898. In those two
years. therefore. the popular vote plan
party.
1t was further found that in 1880
Gen. Garfield had a popular majority
Of 1000: Mckinley had 100000 in 1896
and $4,000 in 1900: Roosevelt had 3
500. 600 in 1904 and TAFT had 1.270.00c
in 1908. In that year William Howard
Taft was given the largest popular
vote ever cast for a candidate for pres
ident Of the United States.
Here is another fact. Since 1876 the
democrats hae had four popular ma
jorities and the republicans five. The
majOrities aggregate 790,-
OO0 and republican majorities S.
200, 900
In the face Of these figures it would
be interesting to know how the demo
Gratis expect to get anywhere with
their popular election plank.