The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1912-11-14
WAS NOT A LANDSLIDE.

will examine the returns will seat a
glance that there vas no Democratic
landslide, and furthermore, they will
see that Mr.. Wilson failed to poll
even the normal Democratic vote,
notwithstanding that he received the
votes of tens, IL not hundreds OF thou
sands. of Taft Republicans, who, see
ing that there was no chance for
Taft, were determined to beat Colonel
Roosevelt, and considered a vote for
Wilson the most effective way to &C
complish that end. We have heard,
and from what we have learned, we
believe it to be true that word went
from Taft headquarters that such
course on the part of Taft Republl-
cans would be agreeable, and, in fact,
was advised. But, even with all
these Republican votes for Wilson, he
still fell short of the normal Demo
cratic vote In fact, Mr.. Wilson re-
ceiyed fewer votes than Mr.. Bryan did
either time that he ran for President.
This is because a very large number
of real progressive Democrats voted
for Colonel Roosevelt. And it will be
noted from the returns that Colonel
Roosevelt not only. ran second IN
nearly every State in the Union, but
with only a small part of the Taft
vote in several States added to his
vote Colonel Roosevelt would have
been elected President. AS an illus
tration, the State of Iowa, where Gov
ernor Wilson received vote in round
numbers of 10000; where Colonel
Roosevelt received a vote of 116, 900,
only 10000 less than the vote re-
ceived by Governor Wilson, and yet
President Taft got $4,000 votes in
that State. The same was true in the
State of Illinois with it's tremendous
vote. If Mr.. Taft had not been in
the race, Colonel Roosevelt would
have carried Iowa by $4,000 to TO-
600 majority, either as the Republl-
can nominee or as the Progressive
nominee, or as an independent candi-
date, for practically that is the way
he ran this time, and would have
carried Illinois by even larger ma
iority. There was no time for him
to organize a party, and he had no
party behind him. He simply had
the people behind him, with no organ
ization and no machinery to speak
of.
Of course, this means that the Re-
publican party as a party will go to
pieces, and that the Progressive party
or the Republican Progressive party,
or whatever name it will take in the
next campaign, will be the only party
in the field against the Democratic
party at the next election, and will
sweep the country by one of the lar
gest majorities ever given to any par
ty. Suppose the election was to take
place again in Iowa to-day There
are certainly half of the Republicans
who voted for Taft who would not
vote for him now. Therefore, if the
sense of that State was taken to-day
Roosevelt would carry it by $4,000
majority, even with Taft as a candi-
date in the race.
It will be seen that Mr.. Wilson be-
comes President, not by the will of a
majority of the people but by distinct
minority vote, and therefore the pol
icies for which he stands have not
been approved by the people of the
country, and whatever president"
Wilson attempts to do, even if he
lives up to his platform pledges, will
not be backed by the sentiment Of a
majority of the people of the United
States. Besides, Mr.. Wilson will be-
gin his administration with party
worse divided on important issues
than was the Republican party at the
beginning of Mr.. Taft's administra-
ton, and the party will, of course,
become more and more divided, not
only into two or three factions, but
into dozen, or perhaps two dozen,
factions, before the next election.
This means that Governor Wilson g
party will begin to disintegrate on
the fourth day of next March, If not
before, and Colonel Roosevelt will be