Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1912-10-30
THE next PRESIDENT
Three COrnered Fight May ResuIi i'm
No Election.
CHAMP CLARK ON SITUATION.
Speaker of the National House Tells
Editor What Will Happen if
No One Gets Majority.

No One Gets Majority.
We had the pleasure the other
evening of eating supper with Speaker
Champ Clark, of the national House
or Representatives who came so near
/ being the democratic nominee for
president at the Baltimore conven-
tion. Mr.. Clark is very aimable
gentleman, and we enjoyed immense
ly chat of an hour or so with him.
In the course of the conversation he
ventured he assertion that 1t was
extremely probable that neither of
the candidates for president would
get majority of the electoral col
! lege, and we asked him what would
| happen then? His answer outlined
a situation of such general interest
this last week of the campaign, that
! we have no doubt it will be read
with much pleasure. In substance
he said that possibly neither Taft,
Wilson or Roosevelt will be the next
president; it may be Sherman or
Marshall or Johnson, and maybe
neither of these six.
Never in the history of the Ameri-
can republic have so many strange
possibilities and constingencies pre-
sented themselves during presiden-
tial campaign. 1t is easy to estimate
that Taft and Roosevelt will split
the Republican vote and elect Will
son, or that Taft will draw enough
from the democrats and Roosevelt
enough from the same source to
divide the electoral vote so that
neither of them will get majority,
and there must be majority to
elect in the electoral college, which
meets on the second Monday in Janu-
ary, 1913, the votes being counted
by congress on the second Wednes-
day in February.
In this case the three leading can
didates for president would be voted
upon by the House, the congressmen'
voting not individually but by states.
each state having one vote. Now
here comes another tangle. The pres
ent House is democratic, but voting
by states it is tie, % republican
states, % democratic, and four di-
vided equally, as follows:
California, Connecti-
cut, Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa,
Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan,
Minnesota. Montana, Nevada, New
Hampshire, North Dakota, Oregon,
Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Utah,
Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin and
Wyoming.
Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia,
Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mary
land, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jer-
sey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennes-
see, Texas. Virginia, West Virginia.
Delegations divided evenly Maine,
Nebraska, New Mexico, Rhode Island.
1t requires the votes of twenty-five
states to give majority, whlcn
means that with the republican states
divided neither Taft or Roosevelt
could obtain a majority, and Wilson
would have to get the votes of three
states given above as republican
or divided" which seems an inn
possibility. Therefore, there is little
chance OF an election in the House.
On the same date, meanwhile, the
Senate is trying to elect Vice
President. Here the constitution
limits the number voted upon TO the
two candidates for Vice-President
receiving the highest number of
votes in the electoral college. Now,
if the House fails to elect Presi-
dent and the Senate elects a Vice
President, he will become president
for the next four years. But wait;
the person elected must receive AZ
votes in the Senate. There are fifty
republican senators and forty-four