The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1912-11-28
THE CHIEF LESSON OF THE ELECTION

The latest records on the popular vote for President
have significance that would be nightly interesting
to Mr. Wilson we're he still writing history At Prince
ton instead Of preparing to make It at Washington.
We ignore altogether in this connection the vote
for Bryan four years ago compared with the vote
for his successor. That consideration is now OF in
terest chiefly to the men who still tied to the old
conception Of the citizen in politics as a package
tabled" for partisan delivery at the polling places.
What we are after is the Laboratory" value Of
the total vote as an index Of public thought, and
when it is regarded in that way, the vote is prophetic
Of an inevitable change in the manner Of electng
our Presidents and convincing in its support OF the
views Of the men who believe that the mind Of the
people is dwelling more and more upon the attain.
ment Of social and economic justice through the ma.
chinery Of National Government
According to these latest figures the total vote for
Wilson was 6,l56,7S9.
The vote for all the other candidates-there were
four others-was S,l39,207.
Divorced from all ideas Of party symbolism those
figures justify the inference that substantial ma.
jorv of the people who voted on November were
out Of sympathy with the general political concep-
tons of Mr.. wilson, Also, it gives more than a
mere color Of reason to the view-had the people
voted as American citizens, and not as the residents
Of separate States-and had the people been given
some kind Of preferential" choice, or some kind
Of second CHOICE" for President-that Mr. VIII
son would have been defeated
Leaving that assertion for those who care to con-
trovert it by the nconclusive mathematics Of politics.
we invite a moments attention to the peculiar sig
nicance Of the Socialist vote, and in doing that we
will regard the actual candidacy of Debs as neg
ligible.
1t is the vote of the Socialists in certain States
that shines like the beams from lighthouse through
the ignorance Of the "old" parties.
In FIVE States the vote cast by the Socialists was
actually greater than the vote cast by the regular
(Taft) Republicans. In two other States the votes
cast by the Socialists came within less ;han three
hundred Of being equal the votes cast by the regu.
lar (Taft) Republicans. In four other States-and
we are not instancing any one State twice in these
comparisons vote Of the Socialists was large
enough to have defeated the successful candidate had
they been cast originally for his closest opponent
cast as second" choice for his closest opponent
And these facts are too big with meaning to be
discarded as the flotsam of political storm.
To impartial thought the importance Of these
| records is insistent.
1t means not only that in administrative politics.
we must sooner or later permit the people to vote
directly for President.
1t means not only that we must give the people
some way Of indicating their second choice when
there are more than two candidates.
1t means, above all those things, that colleges
and high schools and independent newspapers and
all the increasing literature Of thought, inspiring
the people with the value Of the larger occasions Of
life, and that that inspiration has made them too
sturdy to be shackled any longer in the crumbling
harness of either of the "old" parties.
The claimant truth of the thing is that the cave.
man politicians of the "old parties" have been EN-.
balmed and put away on the shelf with the other
political mummies and they haven't got the sense to
know it, And il any reader Of this newspaper doubts
the general wisdom of these observations let him
watch the course Of the Wilson Administration and
see what happens on November 5, 1915, unless that
Administration veraciously and, in the terms Of hare
fact, delivers the goods"
A POLITICAL HANGOVER.