Evening star., 1912-11-06

Perhaps never In the history or the
world We're 50 many people bent upon
hearing, as soon as possible, the outcome
of a great political battle as last night
More than 100000 people live in the
cities and towns of the country having a
population of $500 and upward. Add to
these the millions living in towns and vii
lagos where there are telegraph offices,
and it will be seen that more than half
Of the population of the country is with
in the zone of telegraphic news of the
election and a census OF election night
might show that two-t thirds of the homes
within this zone We're represented by
some one who stood before q bulletin
board. sat in a theater or spent the even
ing at his club watching the returns come
in.
Add to these the millions Of rural tele-
phones which are used to call up the
nearest newspaper offices. and 1t is proba-
BILE that more than two-thirds of all the
people of the country learned something
of how the election went before going to
sleep last night Even in the little
towns of four and five hundred population
the moving picture theater was able to
capitalize upon the universal interest in
the result by getting the bulletins and
throwing them on their screens.
X X
It is certain that never before In the
history of the country were there SO
many candidates di-
ManY Names rectly interested In
the returns. 1t takes
VI oo1AotS' fingers on both hands
to count the candidates for President
and Vice President. and in the majority
ho6
Supposing there were an average Of
six tickets In the field in each OF the
states, that would represent 3.1s6 cleo
tors on the presidential tickets. Then,
suppose there is an average Of three can
didates for Congress in each congress
sional district, that would represent
total of thirteen hundred men with am
bitions to go to the House Of Representa-
tives. Then there are thirty-three states
which elect governors and other state
officials. members of the legislature. etc.
There are thousands of counties which
select their local officers: thousands OF
schools and road districts which choose
school and road officials, magistrates. su-
peryisors and the like; and thousands of
cities and towns which join in the gen
eral oficial-choosing program OF the
Tuesday after the first Monday of every
quadrennial year. Some one has figured
that more than million jobs are filled
as a direct or indirect result Of the elec-
tions of the presidential year. When it
is considered that this Is only one place
to every ninety people, it is probable that
the figures are conservative.
The democrats felt that they were en-
titled to some enthusiastic speculation
last night. No democrat under forty-one
wears of age has had the privilege Of
seeing his candidate win since he became
q voter in presidential elections. and
more than forty millions Of the country's
population cannot remember the day
when the returns showed democratic
presidential victory. OF the nearly 23.OOO.-
600 men in the United States Of voting
age, only 100000 were old enough to
vote when the democrats last secured the
country's verdict. If We except the con-
gressional election Of two years ago. In
the twenty years that have elapsed since
Cleveland's second election there have
been ten presidential and congressional
elections, and in all, before the congress