Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1912-11-18
ANALYZING THE RETURNS.

The figure fiends of the various
newspapers throughout the country
are still busy telling how it happened,
and are also beginning to study the
returns with view to finding the
underlying causes of the various pc
culiar phases of the vote.
The republican papers find much
encouragement in the result because
of the fact that the popular vote for
Wilson was much less than that for
Bryan in 1908. The st. Louis Globe
Democrat says:
'On the face of the figures as thus
far tabulated Wilson runs far behind
Bryan's total of 1908. He is behind
Bryan to the extent of approximately
$4,000 votes in New York, 5000 in
New Jersey, 1900 in Rhode Island,
10000 in Pennsylvania, $4,000 in
Ohio, 1000 in Indiana, 47,000 in
Illinois, and 10000 in Missouri. In
those states the popular vote is abso-
lutely or substantially complete.
Some states give Wilson more votes
than Bryan obtained four years ago,
but in the aggregate poll of the
states whose votes are at hand at
present Wilson's total falls short of
Bryan's. Many states, most of them
west of the Mississippi, are still to
report, but they are not likely to
change the situation materially in
favor of Wilson as compared with his
predecessor of 1908"
The republicans also find much
reason to believe, or at least to claim,
that the result has eliminated Theo-
dore Roosevelt from American poll
tics, desire in which they are heart
lily joined by the democrats. How
ever, Roosevelt, like Bryan, seems
to be a man who will not stay down,
and it is dollars to doughnuts that
either the republican party will be
in absolute control of the progress
sives or they will be in the field with
party much stronger than today
The move already on to rehabiritate
the republican party by putting men
of the Borah, Hadley and Cummins
| type in the lead will have to stand
or fall, not upon the claims of the
J party leaders to have seen light, but
upon the actual attitude of the mem.
bers of the party toward the reforms
advocated by the progressives and
promised by the democrats. If the
republicans attempt to serve the par
ty or the interests and to embarrass
the coming administration in at
tempts to give the people the legisla
tion they demand there can be ne
future for the party; it will remain
the third party until it fades into
nothingness.
Had the progressive movemen
been launched as a separate party si7
months before it was the republican
membership in the national house O
representative would have been pro
portionally no larger than is tn,
republican vote in the electoral col
lege, and even as it is there are 4;
number of those elected as republi
cans who were elected solely because
they were in sympathy with the
Roosevelt movement and could be de
pended upon to carry out these poll
cies no matter on what ticket they
were elected. Many of them know
| that they can never again be elected
if they stand for stand-patism.
The democratic papers, of course
see nothing but roseate hues in the
political sky and look forward to q
domination of the country by them
I as long as that enjoyed by the re.
publican party. But they, like the
republicans, must make good. The
American people are not bound as in
the past by party ties. The number
of republicans who went to Wilson
was by no means inconsiderable, yet
they were more than offset by the
democratic losses to the socialists
progressives and others, of the vote
received by Bryan in 1908. If the
democrats are to remain in power
they must not only hold their new re-
cruits but must regain their old con-
stituency if they are to win against
an opponent who has anything like
the combined backing of the present
republican and progressive parties in
1916.