The record. [volume] (St. Maries, Idaho) 1913-1918, 1916-11-24


seaboard to the trans-Mississippi
region. The returns most anX-
iously awaited in the tense hours
of the days following the cleo
ton were those Of Minnesota,
California, North Dakota and
New Mexico. The Solid South
was for Wilson, the Almost Sol
id East for Hughes. The battle
ground where the issue hung i'm
the balance lay between the west
ern bank of the Mississippi and
the Pacific Ocean. 1t was the
West that held and cast the de-
Gliding vote.
How is this to be accounted
for? The center of population
is still east of the Mississippi by
about $50 miles, and the forces
that make for political control
come to greatest fruition, other
things being equal, i'm old and
highly organized societies. The
explanation lies in the history of
the past so years.
This country was settled from
the East. The population of the
Atlantic seaboard consists Of the
descendants of men who came to
America from Europe, touched
the margin of the Continent and
settled there. They found them
selves on a narrow strip of com
paratively level land between the
sea and the Appalachian Noun
easy travel into the interior, even
the Hudson running almost par
allel with the coast.
The average Fastener has
never been West. He does not
realize the superiority of the in
terror Of the Continent to his
coastal strip in bigness and rich
ness, in scenery and natural re
sources, in the things that nour-
ish and the things that inspire.
The Feast is fenced off-provin-
cial. 1t regards the interior as
something placed "out West" for
Its private benefit and behoof.
SO the political leadership of
the East has been narrow. selfish
sectional. 1t has exploited the
whole nation for the personal
profit of the wooden manufacture
ers of Rhode Island, the cotton
spinners of New England. the
steel barons of Pennsylvania. the
powder makers OF Delaware. the
glove makers and clothing max
ers of New York, the fnanciers of
Wall street. Its policies have
been regiOnal-nOt national. And
the West has weighed them in the
balance and bided its time.
The West has been growing up
to full stature, The Westerner is |
not provincial. He has been
East; many of him were born
there; he has sent his sons to the |
Eastern schools; he likes to /
battle in the salt waves of the At |
lantic; he reads Eastern books |
and newspapers; he spends vaca-
tlons in the great Eastern pop- /
ulatiOn centers. His Thought |
sweeps the Continent. To him /
the United States is a Continent
al Power-not a narrow strip of /
thin soil lying between Bar Har- /
Dor and Altoona.
The great constructive laws of /
the past four years-the Federal |
Reserve act, the agricultural laws
the conservation acts, the new
system of taxation, the Under
wood tariff=have come i'm re-
Spouse to Western demand and
by means of Western counten-
ance and support. The first tar
If in so years made for the bene-
fit Of the whole people was
fought through the House by I'm
derwood and through the Senate
by Stone-both trans-Allegheny
men. The House minority way
organized for constructive legijS
lation, away back in 1907, \
Champ Clark, from beyond th6$
Mississippi.
In Hughes the Republican par Z
ty found a candidate after its
own heart, the representative of
the narrow sectionalism Of the
East, man Of one issue, asking ,
a nation in one of the crisises of
the history Of the world TO rally
its farces and unleash its enthu-
siasms to support a tariff policy
conceived and brought forth for ]
the exploitation of the nation by
a few groups Of manufactures in J: