The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1916-12-07
PROPHETS FAILED TO JUDGE.
Wilson's Reelection Triumph for
Populace.


shall not have vision; and 1t shall
be dark unto you, that ye shall not
divine: and the sun shall go down
over the prophets and the day shall be
dark over them" He would almost
certainly say something like this to
the Prophet of Peacham who has been
reckoned the most exact of the pro-
fession. 1t was by this self same
authority that the States Of the Amer
lean union were divided into five
specific classes:
l. Sure Hughes States.
2. Sure Wilson States.
8. Unexpected Hughes States.
4. Believed Hughes States.
5. Doubtful States.
II The fulfllment of these predlc-
tions may be summed up briefly as
follows:
1. Guessed right as to 13 sure Will
son States.
2. Guessed wrong as to nine sure
Hughes States, so votes.
3. Guessed right as to two expect
ed Hughes States, % votes.
4. Guessed wrong as to two be-
lieved Hughes States, 32 votes.
5. Guessed right as to seven doubt
full States.
Gave Hughes 332 electoral votes;
gave Wilson 149 electoral votes, and
set down so electoral votes as doubt
full.
Missed fire on Hughes by II votes
and missed fire on Wilson by 127
votes.
Others Also Slipped.
Of course, the Prophet of Peacham
was not the only prophet who failed
to see what would happen-he came
nearer hitting the mark really than
Vance Mccormick, the chief prognos-
ticator of the triumphant Democracy
and all the lesser prophets who va
riously interpreted the shifting cur
rents of American sentiment from
day to day as the grand struggle
moved on to it's most surprising fin
ish. Nothing like it ever happen
ed before; probably nothing like it
will ever happen again, and a great
majority of American voters think
in their hearts that it happened ex-
actly right. The prophets are dead
and the soothsayers are no more.
They may come back-probably will
as the warning reads-not precisely
in this connection, but it will do for
the purpose of illustrating the perils
to which the people are ever exposed
there "shall be false teachers
among you, who privily shall bring
in damnable heresies." But for the
present at least they are out of the
way and there is enough in the elec-
tion returns to make the people re-
joice with Daniel, going back to the
real prophets, who beheld "a he
goat coming from the West, on the
face of the whole earth; and touch
ing not the ground
What does it all mean? Well, it
means a good many things, and
among them these perfectly clear
things:
A Majority -sident.
l. 1t can never be said again that
Woodrow Wilson is a minority presi-
dent, as he received the largest popu-
lar vote ever cast for a president of
the United States; over 100000
more votes than were cast for his
Republican opponent; 2,267,0O0
more votes than he received four
years ago, and nearly million more
votes than were cast for a presiden-
tial candidate in any previous elec-
tion.
2. 1t can never be said again that
Woodrow Wilson is a sectional presi-
dent. The votes cast for him in the
South were 1,124, 900; the votes cast
for him in the North and West num-
bered 7,334,000 or nearly six times
the entire vote polled for him in the
South. Less than $4,000 votes would
have given him the whole of New
England. With the East and the
West and the South working togeth-
er, the war of the sections is over.
3. 1t can never be said again that
the president must be a partisan to
be effective in the administration OF
his Office. Tens Of thousands of vot-
ers, without regard to party or race
or residence or sex or calling f1ocked
to Woodrow Wilson's standard to the
number, in fact, of over 2,25O,0OO
not because he is the titular and &C
cepted leader OF the Democratic par.