The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-10-08
NEW YORK |S NOT PIVOTAL THIS TIME But Her 45 Electoral Votes
 Will Help DEMOCRATS STRONG Nomination of Sulzer Has Und0ubted- ly Taken Away Much of the
 Bull Moose Thunder
 for Straus
By c. E. STEWART

Washington, October 7.-(Special. )-Or- dinarily New York Is counted pivotal state; in fact the pivotal state in presl- dential years. 'As goes New York, so goes the nation,'' is an old political say ing that in most cases in the past seems to have held good. Still 1t is claimed that this is an exceptional year, and that ex- ceptional conditions make 1t so, and while the democrats declare that Governor Wilson will carry New York. they also say emphatically that it is not necessary for him to do so in order to win. It has been claimed by those who are credited with being the wise ones in poli- tics that Roosevelt was not very heavy in New York and that Taft was. Ad- ministration republicans have taken great comfort in the reports that upstate in New York Taft has apparently been de- cided favorite among the republicans, and they have wasted many reams of paper figuring how those 45 electoral votes could be corraled by the President, and how
 far they would go toward landing him back in the White House. Necessarily they had to figure very little for Roose- welt, for if the bull moose candidate boiled even as much as 15 per cent of the total vote the margin for Taft, taking the most optimistic view of past elec- tions, would show up as deficit. Plans Upset by Straus All their dope was more or less up- set when the progressiyes got together and nominated Oscar Straus for governor. Whether that astute politician, Roose- welt, himself was any way responsible for this nomination is not known, but 1t .l.1 41.,k cfr Cr card the progressives played. and that they are to be reckoned with in New York, not only for the governorship but the national ticket as well, fnasmuch as Straus will greatly strengthen Roose- welt.
 The republicans of the honest to good ness school nominated Job Hedges. He Is counted as strong candidate. but it is not believed here that he will be the tower of strength to Taft that Straus will prove to be to Roosevelt.
 Of course both the republicans and the progressives and incidentally everybody
 else thought that Murphy would be pow
 erful enough and also bullheaded enough
 to secure the democratic nomination for
 Governor Dix, and they cut their cloth accordingly. Dix could not have held the
 full democratic strength together, and
 he would have been, not only no help to Wilson, but would have been decid-
 ed handicap to the democratic nominee
 for the presidency, and therefore New
 York promised to be the real Armageddon
 with the results in the gravest kind of doubt.
 Murphy Not Aggressive But the democrats didn't nominate
 Dix. Murphy wanted him nominated, but
 did not make his usual aggressive fight
 for his choice. but on the contrary re-
 leased his delegates and let them vote for a nominee of their own choosing. The
 nomination of Representative William
 Sulzer by the democrats of New York
 has been great disappointment to the
 republicans and progressiyes here and
 naturally in New York, for without doubt
 Sulzer is a powerful candidate and a
 very popular one, and he will not only
 be a great factor in carrying the dem
 ocrats in the state over the goal, but he
 will contribute much to the national tick
 ct in New York.
 A prominent New Yorker in Washing
 ton declares that "Sulzer is one of the most progressive democrats in the state, the friend of the people, and out of tune with no element of the New York democracy. He was the only candi- date before the convention outside of Dix that was acceptable to Tammany.
 The fact that Sulzer once opposed Tammany will make no difference in that organizations attitude toward him. Sulzer showed his strength when sew eral years ago he ran independent of Tammany and won his election as repre- sentative to Congress, and while he has never opposed Tammany, he has never been bossed by the organization or it's leaders.
 'I believe" he continued. that he will be elected by close to 100000 plurality. His popularity in Brooklyn will carry hot ,1Uh fd ha pet n tremendous vote l confidently believe that he will poll as many Jewish votes as Oscar Straus for MT. Straus himself said on one occasion that although re- publican, he would vote for Sulzer for governor"