The Washington herald., 1911-12-31

ley committee, suggested government reg
ulation even to the point of price nNlnE.
Attorney General Wickersham In ms
speech at Duluth, July IS, urged frankly
the reasonableness of letting the peopIe
have a say about the prices. Finally
Taft, IN his Syracuse address September
10. said that the country must choose be-
! tween the restoration of industrial COM
petition and state socialism.
In all these and other similar express
! SONS there IurlIed the fear concerning so,
| Clalism as new force to be encountered
! IN America as well as IL Europe. AS II
10 confirm these fears, the various local
elections of this off year" disclosed an
almost startling tide of votes toward the
Socialist party. April city elections turned
over Berkeley. Cal, TO Socialist mayor:
| the Rev. SUIT Wilson, on platform OF
constructive municipal socialism, and
gave Socialist mayors to Butte, Mon.
Girdrd, KAN; Beatrice, Neb.; Granite
| City, Ill, and half a dozen Michigan
towns. And this was only a starter. IN
the November 7 elections the Socialist
vote increased by leaps and bounds, De-
| ing doubled and tripled in several states
Socialist candidates were swept INTO OF
flee, notably in Schenectady, n. Y; New
Castle, Pa; Lima and nine minor cities
OF Ohio; others in Minnesota and Titan.
Tine Los Angeles primary placed har-
rlman, Socialist candidate for may OF, III
| the van. He was beaten in the election
of December ), coming right on the heels
of the Mcnamara confession, though ms
vote ran above 5O,0OO Mayor Alexander
was elected on the Good Government
ticket with the help of women, who voted
for the first time. The woman vote eN-
Ceeded that of the men.
For the first time Socialist representa-
tive was sent to the New York leglSlat ure
and one to the Rhode Island legislature
while one in Massachusetts was reelected
Other Election Results
Except possibly in Massachusetts. where
tariff revision was the main issue, the
November elections turned chiefly on
local issues. and reform fusions made eX-
looslng the grip of Tammany. in Phila-
delphid, carrying Blankenburg into the
mayors chair, despite the Penrose ma
chine. In Cleveland. Columbus, Cincln-
came into power. The Democrats re-
elected Foss in Massachusetts, though
with reduced majority. and regained CON
troll in Kentucky. Republicans retained
Rhode Island. recaptured the New YORK
and New Jersey legislatures and elected
Goldsboro over German in Maryland. The
new state of New Mexico went Democrat
ic i'll its first election. The labor admin;
istration of San Francisco was beaten and
the LOrmer-Sullivan combine in chicago
suffered a defeat. But in April the Demo
Gratis had elected Harrison mayor OF chi
cdgo over the reform candidate, Professor
Merriam.
The first state election in the new state
of Arizona, December ), resulted in a
I
in d public statement Chairman Birdno,
of the state committee, declared that this
meant that the people of the state re-
fused to lndOrSe TaftS dlctation as to
what kind of constitution Arizona ought
to have" The Legislature is about three
fOurths Democratic and this insureS two
Democrats for the national senate, Ash
hurst and Smith, the nominees by direct
primary Carl Hayden was elected as a
Democratic member of the house and
George w. p. Hunt elected governor as
a Democrat
Names special election September L on
the proposal to repeal the liquor law was
so close as to require an official count
and corrections to make it finally certain
that the drys had won by $50 majority.
Record of Radical Measures
When. on July Il, New York had joined
the states whose legislatures had ratified
the income tax amendment it brought the
total number of states favoring that radl-
cal reform up to thirty, which is five short
of the necessary three-fOurthS,I Since that
dale no more states have ratified and sew
cral have refused. In many states the
proposal of the initiative and referendum
and recall legislation has stirred up sharp
controversy. The most important extern
sion of this plan was its adoption by Cali
fornia in the special election of October
10 by large majorities, and the largest
majority of all for the judicial recall, which
had been so bitterly fought in the Arizona
constitution by the Taft administration
In Seattle, with women voting, the opera
ton of the recall was seen when Mayor